The Descendants

On tap for Tuesday Date Night at the Laemmle - The Descendants.  It's been awhile since we've been out to the show, and I have been wanting to see the new George Clooney movie, so off we went.  It's a movie where the characters slowly grow on you, the scenery is lovely, and it moves along at a comfortable pace - neither fast nor plodding.  Most interesting to me was the way in which Clooney's character reconnects with his daughters, which is not through any decided effort of his own, nor overplaying; it just seems to happen.

My favorite line: You should give your children enough money to do something, but not enough to do nothing.

Study Break

Time once again for the annual HMC Chemistry Dept. study break during finals.  (Where does the time go?)  Here are some of last night's entries in the cookie decorating contest.  Faculty judge the cookies in four categories: Best Holiday Theme, Best Illustration of Chemistry, Most Creative, and the Grand Prize.  Winners receive gift cards - this year from Starbucks or In 'n Out.

Brrr....

It's a good thing that those cellists were busking on Saturday and not today in the rain (if you look closely at this picture, you can see raindrops).  

Cello Carols

Here are some sweet cello players busking in front of Barbara Cheatley's on Saturday.  The sun was shining and it was warm enough to play in shorts, apparently.

Dark Chocolate Peppermint Joe-Joe's

Okay, folks. This is getting serious.  A few weeks ago I saw the sleeves of Dark Chocolate-Covered Peppermint Joe-Joe's at Trader Joe's.  I knew that if I bought a box or eight, it would be difficult not to eat them, so I put it off for a bit.  Then I read somewhere where the stores are already running out of them!  And it's only December 10!  Other people have blogged about the deliciousness of these cookies (if you like the Girl Scout Thin Mints, you will be ecstatic about these puppies).

When I was a Michael's in Upland yesterday, I thought I ought to pop into the TJs next door to see if they had any of these cookies left.  Amazingly they still had 8 boxes, so I showed some restraint and only bought 4.  Later in the day when I went to the Claremont store, they were all sold out.  One of the checkers told me that if I was really serious about them, I could find some on eBay.  Seriously?  

Here are some of the items I found.

Here is an expired listing showing that someone did actually buy two boxes for $15 (plus shipping).  These boxes retail for $3.99 in the store.

So, if you missed out on this year's gold rush, you can always wait until next year. OR, you can buy this larger box - Trader Joe's and the Astounding Multi-Flavor Joe-Joe's - which contains some of the dark chocolate-covered variety (with the crushed peppermint sprinkles) along with double chocolate, in dark chocolate with milk chocolate drizzles, peanut butter, in milk chocolate with dark chocolate drizzle, and ginger, in white chocolate with ginger snap sprinkles.

Enjoy, my friends!

Nobel Excitement

I am following my friend's blog which just sprung up recently highlighting her current whirlwind trip to Stockholm, Sweden.  Stormy's husband, a physicist, worked in a lab in grad school with Saul Perlmutter. Saul teaches astrophysics at Cal and just won the Nobel Prize in Physics.  Each Nobel laureate is allowed to invite 14 people to the ceremonies in Stockholm, and Saul invited Shane and Stormy to join him, and they are, right now, enjoying the festivities.

Awesome Sushi

Blue Moon brew

Awesome Roll

I don't think I've posted about our favorite Sushi place, which is not in Claremont.  A few summers ago on our way out of Long Beach airport, daughter C yelped us a place for dinner and came up with Awesome Sushi which is at the south end of the airport.  The awesomeness resides in this non-descript building which sits next to some kind of car repair place (smogging, tires? I don't remember).  Certainly I would not stop in based on the curb appeal.  However, the name is apt - the sushi delicious, the staff friendly.  We like to sit at the bar and chat with the sushi chef and watch sports on the tv.                                 After Thanksgiving we took the opportunity for another visit here when taking L and C to the Long Beach airport for their return trip.

Red Spider Roll

Miss Peregrine

Because this book came into the library for me, I have taken a short break from Murakami's 1Q84 for the moment (I am 2/3 of the way through - only about 300 pages left).

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, a YA novel (young adult), reminds me of an assignment that Carol Schowalter used to give to her El Roble students.  She would hand out unusual black and white photographs and have the kids write stories based on the photos.

Odd black-and-white photos inspired Riggs for his first novel of odd children with peculiar "gifts" and a little time travel.  I can see where I would have enjoyed this book in jr. high, and I might recommend it to some students, but I would not tell my friends in my book clubs to rush out to get it.

I see that they are planning on making a movie of this book to come out in 2013.

Appetizers

It's that time of year for parties, and if you are looking to make a tasty, easy, and relatively healthy appetizer, try this recipe - Spicy Black Beans and Avocado Canapes.  I used the Trader Joe's Cuban Black Beans which already have some kind of flavor, and then I added some diced tomatoes, as well.  I took them to a party last week, and they were a big hit.

Alternative Christmas

Various organizations are set up with
information about their work.

Now that we've had Alternative Christmas at church, my Christmas shopping is nearly complete.  This is an opportunity for one-stop-shopping to donate to national and local charities and designate that as a gift to someone on your gift list.  So many groups are represented here, from Heifer, International and Habitat for Humanity, to the CUCC Early Childhood Center, the House of Ruth, and CLASP.