The Girl Who Fell From the Sky

Another first novel with high acclaim. In fact, Heidi Durrow's book won the Bellwether Prize for Fiction given for a novel that addresses social justice issues.

When I started reading the book, I was immediately engaged with the main character, a biracial girl whose father was an African-American serviceman and mother was Danish. I usually like characters who are smart, and Rachel certainly is.

However, when it comes to plotting, I ended up not quite being sure about the novel's main idea. Was it about the issues of being biracial? Was it about a family tragedy? Was it about addiction?  The part of the story that was supposed to be, perhaps, suspenseful was not particularly so. And then the end of the book came, wham, at a sudden stop.

With a good editor, this book could have been much better, and hopefully, the author's next book will learn from the problems of this one.

LYFE Kitchen

During our day trip to LACMA on Saturday, we took a little lunch break and drove to Culver City to try LYFE Kitchen. H had read about this place in the NY Times Magazine in April and wanted to try it out. Although it's the kind of place where you order at the counter and they bring out the food, it feels like a nice place and has these herbs growing right in the indoor seating part.

I enjoyed the fish tacos, H had thai curry soup with his grilled asparagus flatbread, and we both tried the chia water with strawberries, mint, ginger and lime. I have been eating chia seeds on my morning yogurt because of their omega 3s and 6s. The chia water was pretty good. This restaurant also has a vegan menu as well as gluten-free, but serves sustainable and local meat, as well. Each entree is less than 600 calories, and if there was a location closer, I would go more often. The other location is in Palo Alto, a little far for lunch.

Generations at Vista

On Friday we celebrated the retirement of one of Vista's longest-serving teachers - Teri Tondee. Teri was already a leading teacher when my daughter arrived as a kindergartener in 1990, and she has been an integral part of the Vista Family.

As I thought about those years past when I started out as a Vista parent, then the Vista Librarian (officially the Library Media Aide), and now the music teacher, it occurred to me that in the fall only one person will have more seniority than me, and that is our custodian.

At the party, many of the Vista people who I've known for the past 23 years arrived, and it revived many good memories, reminding me of Ley Yeager's saying, "Looks like a school, feels like a family."

We wish Teri all the best in her new endeavors.

Birthday at LACMA

Yay for a birthday that falls on a weekend! On my Kansas trip I read a few articles about the James Turrell Retrospective at LACMA and knew that's how I wanted to celebrate my birthday. I had also been wanting to see the Levitated Mass, so that was a bonus.

I have no photos of the Turrell exhibit since they are not allowed, but let me say that I am glad we saw it. I think if I was not familiar with his Skyspace at Pomona College, I may not have enjoyed the show as much, mostly because his work is very subtle and takes time to enjoy. 

When we arrived at the museum just before it opened, the skies were still holding on to June gloom, so the light was soft, but the skies uninteresting. If I lived closer to the museum, I would watch the skies and take opportunities to photograph this rock. The bolder is actually smaller than I had envisioned, but, nonetheless fun to see.

Of course I enjoyed much of the art that we saw (mostly modern), I was particularly enamored of Metropolis II - a model city with trains and cars that zip around like crazy. The kids watching the cars were clearly thrilled with the excitement, as evidenced by their chatter and occasional shrieks.

We capped the evening off with a trip to the Pomona Skyspace.

Star Spangled Banner

At the CUSD board meeting last night, no one could remember a time, ever, when a group of students played for such a meeting. So, we think this is a first - the Chamber Strings (mostly 6th graders) playing the National Anthem at the start of the meeting. They played very well and received hearty applause from the standing-room only crowd.

The space was a little tight, so the set-up was slightly unorthodox, but I don't think anyone was stabbed by a bow.

Klatch Coffee

Ever since I found out about Klatch Coffee I have wanted to try it out. Needing to catch up with my friend, Susan, she suggested we try the San Dimas shop, and I was ready to go! Here is a photo of my chile caramel cappuccino (I think that's what it was called) which was mighty delicious with just the right amount of kick. If you like Mexican hot chocolate, this one will fill the bill.

I know that if it was closer I would go more often, so I bought a pound of sleeping goat blend to bring home. This is the decaf version of the wild goat (maybe that's the right name, maybe not) blend.

Sometimes the Claremont Craft Ales makes a batch of beer with beans from Klatch, and back in February I enjoyed a pint of Coffee Mawes.

Remember back in the day when you just drank coffee and/or just had a beer? Now it's a whole ordeal and a social event!

Adventures in Major Appliances

Our washing machine broke this weekend. It wouldn't spin, and the problem was not the belt. After tipping it over and pulling it apart, H decided that it was the clutch and the part alone would cost $300. We bought the machine in 1998, so I guess it had a good life.

Poor old machine can't be revived

I asked my friends on Facebook what machine they have that they like, and it seemed that half the people hated front-loaders and half loved them. That wasn't helpful. I looked online. That was equally confusing. Then I found out that there are these new hybrid machines that are high efficiency, but are also top-loaders. Again, these kind of machines got either very high or very low reviews.

I finally decided that we should look at the Whirlpool Cabrio, and we looked at Lowe's and Howard's. The guy at Lowe's was fairly helpful, but when we walked into Howard's, it didn't appear that anyone wanted to sell us anything. They pointed us towards the hybrid washers and left us alone. We went away for a bit and then decided that the price at Lowe's and the particular model were the best bet, so that's where we went.

Here is where Lowe's failed at this point (even though we ended up buying the washer there):

• No one came to help us for 20 minutes. As we walked out, someone finally came by.
• They did not tell us that we could get rebates from the Electric and Gas companies (we saw a little sign on the washers at Howard's). This amounts to $135. Major fail.
• They said they would call that night to schedule the next-day delivery. They did not.
• They did not call the next morning. I called them and got quite a runaround on the phone.
• They finally said, "Oh, they'll deliver between 6-8 p.m." But they might be early.



New machine ready to be installed

• They delivered at 3:00. Good thing I was home.

So, I've read the novel that came with it and seem to have successfully washed two loads of laundry. It requires special detergent (HE - High Efficiency) and a college degree to load the clothes and push the right buttons, but I think I've got it.

Time will tell if I will be in the love it or hate it camp, but I do like the idea that it uses less than half of the water than my last washer, and it spins pretty fast so the clothes take less time to dry. This little video demonstrates the strange sounds it makes in the wash cycle.

Mauricio's

I do not usually think about eating out in Glendora (the Donut Man doesn't really count as eating out). But I saw a photo on my daughter's Instagram feed of Mauricio's Mexican Food and Pizza and decided to give it a try. Although it's in Glendora, it is very close to San Dimas, so it doesn't take too long to drive there.

Apparently the schtick here is that Mauricio greets people with "Where have you been?" and then when you leave, "See you tomorrow!" We didn't hear these words (saw the sign, though), but that's okay. The food was great. I had a veggie burrito covered in green sauce which was big enough to last me for lunch and dinner. H had his usual chile relleno burrito (also big enough for two meals). Although we are big fans of Los Jarritos, I think know we are going to add Mauricio's to our list.

dA Center for the Arts

It's always a challenge to find a venue for our spring string recital. Last year three string teachers pooled together and had our recital at Pilgrim Place which was a delightful location. This year we had 15 students (6 violins, 1 viola and 8 cellos!). One of the violinist's moms is the director of the dA Center for the Arts in Pomona and she offered up the space there for our recital. It was a perfect place with a little stage, room for 50 chairs and a space for a small reception.

I had heard of the dA Center, but had not been before. I learned yesterday that the name dA came from the first building that the original studio used. It had been an Arthur Murray Dance Studio, but the letters NCE in dance had fallen off of the sign, so the founders decided to use the dA (no idea about the capital A) as their name.

Now that I know more about this place, I am thinking of ways in which to collaborate with them in future endeavors. I also want to go there to check out their exhibits which are free.

Slideshow on Youtube

I made a little slideshow video of last Sunday's service at Bergthal Mennonite Church. You can view it here. Please note that when I was recording the singing, I did not realize how loud my voice would be, and I was shocked ;-) that sometimes my singing was not *ahem* pristine. However, I decided that with all the flaws, the remembrance of the service outweighed the perfection of the music.