Fitness Room at CMC

Pretty soon now, the Ducey Gym at CMC will be torn down to make way for the new Roberts Pavilion. Here is the sign with the artist's rendering of what's in store. It looks pretty nice.

Before Christmas vacation, we saw this sign on the door to the Fitness Room. 

We were told that the cardio and weights would be moved to a room across from the Ath and the Hub and would be open sometime in early January. That day has finally come, and we are back in business! In the meantime, we have been walking the track behind Ducey and adding interval training. When we get to the stadium side, we run up and down the stairs, and then on the other side of the track, we jog for one length. While that has been great cardio and still an option for some days, I have missed the weight machines.

Her

We have decided that we don't really need to see the middle movie of The Hobbit series. At least not in the theaters. So last week when we saw Joaquin Phoenix on The Daily Show talking about his new movie, Her, we were intrigued, so we took in a weekend matinee.

Despite the fact that it was 2 hours long (and I think the story could have been tighter in 95 minutes), it was a pretty good commentary on our relationship with technology. The main character falls in love with his computer's operating system which is set up to become personalized to him. I loved the irony that he works for a company called BeautifulHandwrittenLetters.com.

I have held out for owning a smartphone now. (I held out on owning a cell phone for as long a possible.) I know I would love one. At home I am often tied to my desktop, laptop or iPad, (tv, too) but when I leave the house, I do not have a gadget to distract me from seeing the world around me. I watch as people are deeply absorbed in their devices, but not with other people. I know that some day I will get a smart phone, and I hope to not change my involvement in real life because of it.

Public Art

On our way to the Laemmle yesterday, we saw these tree covers next to the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. I knew to look for them because I had seen a photo on Facebook. I was not sure who was behind these colorful tree-warmers, 

but then today on Instagram I saw this photo. The Clarewood Knitters are "Warming the Village One tree at a time). Now we know them name of these guerilla artists, but not their identity!

Afternoon Project

My project this afternoon was to assemble sets of flashcards for my beginning string students. My friend and cohort made the templates, then I photocopied them onto card stock, then cut them up, grouped them, punched holes in the corners and put each group on its own ring.

This year, this was more of a deal than last because I have 18 beginners - 12 violins, 4 violas, 2 cellos. I told them that when they pass their Twinkle test next week, they will get a set of flashcards. They seemed very excited about that.

Take One Candle Light a Room

Our book club will be discussing Susan Straight's Take One Candle Light a Room this month. It was selected as this year's Claremont On the Same Page read. We are a little slow on the uptake since the events for the selection were in the fall.

Anyway, this book has been lauded by a variety of reviewers who, I think, have a great deal more patience than I do when it comes to this style of writing. I found the choppy style (not quite stream of consciousness, but close in some places), the plethora of characters and the amount of details which do not add either to the plot nor the tone of the story too confusing.

I think the story itself bears telling, once I sort of figured out what it was, but I felt as though I waded through so much extraneous stuff. For example, there was attention paid to the fact that the narrator was bitten by fire ants, and how that stung her legs like crazy, and then they applied some home remedies to her bites which helped some but not a lot. I have no idea how that illuminated either the plot nor the characters.

This is the second book by Straight that I have read, but I don't think I'll choose another one unless it's for a book club.

Burn Remedy

The other day I foolishly picked up a lid that had been in the oven. Although the pain was not too bad, I immediately grabbed a piece of tin foil to cover my fingertips. Instant cooling and no pain! I kept it on for about 10 minutes, and when I removed it, I continued to feel no pain. I heard from my friend about this tip when she asked me to see if my scientist husband knew why this worked. He didn't know, but I don't really care since it just does.

Why It's So Cold

What's wrong with this photo? My friends and family in the rest of the country might first say that the frigid temps are what's wrong.

But I say that an apostrophe has gone missing. Really, people, let's learn to use apostrophes correctly!!!

Why It's So Cold. If you don't know the difference between its and it's, then take some time to learn it and and then use it correctly.

This rant brought to you on the "most depressing day of the year."

Daylight Creeping

Some of my lessons end at 5:00, and the last week of December, the lessons end in dark. I tell my students that when I see them in January, it won't be quite as dark at 5:00. As I look outside now at 5:05, it IS a little lighter. Hooray!

"The shortest day has passed, and whatever nastiness of weather that we may look forward to in January and February, at least we notice that the days are getting longer. Minute by minute they lengthen out. It takes some weeks before we become aware of the change."

- Vita Sackville-West

Daughter Date

Today was a shopping date with daughter C. Once in awhile we look at each other and say, "we need to go shopping!" For us, that means Ontario Mills. Today we realized that we are getting this down to a science. First we head to Coffee Klatch in Ontario which opens up before the mall. Then we know the secret route to the mall from there and can find the entrance closest to the Gap. After I'm done with the Gap and C needs to continue, I head off to the Banana Republic factory store and we meet up when we are finished.

Next we have to decide whether we want to go to Victoria Gardens, but whether or not we go there, we must stop for lunch. Usually it's Gandolfo's, but today I had a hankering for a hamburger, and I had not yet been to Five Guys, so that's where we ended up. I have to say, it was a delicious burger, and I was glad I took the advice to get the small one (regular-person-sized) with everything. Also, a small fries is good for two people.

A plus was that there was a Target in the same center, so we didn't have to maneuver through the parking lot to get to the Target at the Colonies in Upland to pick up just a few small necessities.

New Year's Revolution

You might be enjoying the commercials where the guy is talking to four kids who say the darndest things. In the most recent ad (seen here) the kid says that his new year's revolution [sic] is to eat more jelly beans.

I'm not big into resolutions anymore. Maybe I never was, but on my walk this morning I was thinking that I am so over taking pictures of food. The food is going to have to be awfully special for me to take photos of it. I think I will now go back through my 2012 photos and remove all those food pictures.