Life of Wry

It was a good day for the boy today, as days go for seventeen year seniors in high school. For starters, he actually joined us for breakfast this morning which was a thrill, since it’s been a few years since he’s acquiesced to our decades-old weekly brunch ritual (it’s still a Sunday morning ritual, but hasn’t included Peter for a very long time). But today, he came along.

We had an agenda: to help him brainstorm what he might say on his 200-word essay about why he wants to go to UC San Diego–part of the requirement for kids who landed on the waiting list, but who really (really) want to attend that particular school. So we did that. The discussion was a bit challenging, but by the end, we got there with everybody’s good mood intact, and some reasonable talking points that Peter can work from. Productive!

Final college application task. Check!

He watched a little of the Masters Golf Tournament; played some online chess; dug up the backyard with some chips and approach shots; went out to the driving range and did some of this:

(A picture from the way back, but I figure it’s fair game… its statute of limitations long expired.)

Then, around 4:00 he decides he’s going to go 1) get a hair cut, and 2) buy a new bike. And, as he’s getting ready to walk out the door, he says, “where do you get used bikes in town?”  

I had little faith in either effort, but he came back about an hour later, mission accomplished.

New old bike. Check!  Haircut. Check!

Again, to mark the occasion, a photo from the way back of a particularly cute haircut, again, statute of limitations long expired.

(He’s feeding a parrot, I believe, at a wildlife center somewhere outside of Palm Springs on a long ago trip… I believe the weekend celebration of my Uncle Bud’s 80th birthday, which would have been eleven+ years ago, and Peter would have been about six and a half.)

He declined Jim’s dinner offering (a whole buffet of leftovers), so is making his own mac and cheese as we speak (I’m actually (quietly) proud of him for this; his kitchen skills are at a low, but steadily improving, level). We are then all gonna watch a couple episodes of Seinfeld (we’re working our way through the entire show and are on season II at the moment.. though Peter’s already powered through all nine (is it?) seasons and is enjoying his second pass with us… a first pass for us).

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On a related note: Following Peter’s and Ray’s first effort at writing an entire Seinfeld episode for an English assignment–which was something they had to pitch because it was not the project originally assigned, but which ultimately earned them each 100%–they are writing a second episode. After the first, their teacher told them they could do whatever they wanted with this current assignment, having so enjoyed their work the first time around. Peter shared the outline with us a couple nights ago. It’s hilarious.

One of those days you wish for when you’re feeling jammed and burdened and ready for a break…. a showery Saturday with little to do but have breakfast with friends and watch the Masters Golf tournament with your son. He dozed through the last 5 holes or so, but I still enjoyed watching golf for the first time in about two decades. And boy that hip replacement cannot come soon enough so I can actually walk 18 holes and play again. That’s what I’m thinking today!

Here’s a shot:

Otherwise, I’ll just post some photos of our garden (photos I took yesterday), which runneth over with 1) some unwanted but expected spring growth (bed straw,  most of which we pulled out this week), and 2) a whole bunch of FLOWERS!

In the front…

Our irises are coming up and a few other somethings:

The poppies, too, calendula, arugula, the new pluot, our uber-productive, blooming Meyer lemon, and that other thing that I love (occupying most of the lower left) :

These little pincushions, calendula, alyssum, daffs (done), cat-something, and other things:

And some chard finding a hole in there…

The whole reason I wanted a split rail fence.. so the abutilon could tumble gracefully over its edge:

And in the back…

The mound’s a-grassing… and a clump of Snow in Summer that I love with all my heart…

Another patch of S in S thriving in the back by compost mountain (out of view off to the right). And here we’re also looking between a couple of happy successes… white flowers (forget what) to the left and pink roses (forget the variety) to the right. The California fushsia will bloom later as will that other thing whose name escapes me at the moment.. both under the pink roses. And there are others, but just too many to point out:

This corner of the creek bed is working well:

As is this corner (I really like those orange ones):

And you can see we’ll need to hack back some of these flowers because they’re overstepping their bounds… but I’m liking it for now:

These help me remember what blooms when.. thanks for the indulgence.

And pointing out, with a huge degree of satisfaction: most, if not all, of our flowers and plants, at least the more recent acquisitions, come from UC Davis’ Arboretum All-Stars list, many of which–again, if not all–are available at the arboretum’s sales throughout the year. Drought tolerant, perfect for our region, and PLENTY of color and variety. Yay. (Not a commercial, just a happy, impressed customer.)

The funny little aspect of Grad Night planning that I will come to remember, for no particularly relevant reason, other than the fact it just always comes up, is the sea crates. (I’d say is the sea crate, but there are three of them.)

From my first Grad Night committee meeting back in January, and every meeting hence, to countless emails, all roads lead to the sea crates: When are the sea crates going to be opened? Has Casino found the poker chips yet in the sea crates? Who has the spare keys to the sea crates? Will the sea crates be open on Grad Night? Have you told your people about the next opening of the sea crates?

I had no idea what a sea crate was (other than one of those giant metal containers you see getting loaded onto transoceanic barges by towering cranes down at major sea ports and harbors).

Which is exactly what they are, except the three in question live permanently on terra firma behind Emerson Junior High and they are never going to get loaded onto a sea-bound vessel. These crates do contain an enormous volume of stuff–every set piece, every piece of furniture, all supplies from boxer shorts to the aforementioned poker chips, to fake potted plants, to mini-golf courses, to pillars, to columns, to giant stars broken down into segments carry-able by Grad Night parent volunteers on the decorating committee.

Anyway, as the chair of a committee of committees, each with its own chair and large volunteer crew, I’m supposed to show up at every opening to assist my people with whatever they need. Tonight was such an opening.

I don’t want to comment on the thick layers of sometimes-redundant bureaucracy that is the annual Grad Night extravaganza, and why I have to be present at each opening (and end up doing very little of anything when I’m there), I really just wanted to post a photo of what a sea crate looks like.

What do you think–eyeballing here–about 8′ x 8′ x 20′ maybe? They hold a jaw dropping amount of stuff.

And these openings are quite the events, I have to say.

I found myself today in a corner of downtown I rarely go to—way up on the north side (4th Street, a whole two blocks from my usual 2nd Street haunts). I had about 20 minutes to kill before meeting Jim for lunch so strolled a bit.

Wandered into Kim’s to look around…

The guys above bought a bunch of freshly made sushi, which I’ve had before, liked, then forgot about. It’d definitely been awhile since I’d been to Kim’s, though I don’t know why, there’s some great looking stuff in there.  Lots of products that look interesting, and definitely some hard to get produce..

I was curious about these..

… so looked it up when I got home. Found this fascinating little blurb about soju on adventurousappetite (blogspot):

Soju: A distilled beverage native to Korea, often compared to a weaker, slightly sweeter vodka. It was originally made from rice, but most brands now supplement or replace the rice with other starches such as wheat, barley, sweet potato or tapioca. The first bottle was supposedly distilled in the 1300’s.

To say Koreans love this stuff is a huge understatement. According to the world’s leading soju manufacturer, Jinro, Koreans consume nearly one billion bottles of Jinro Soju every month. Wikipedia reports that the average Korean adult (older than 20) consumes 90 bottles a year.

I found out that Chum Churum is a popular brand and I’m tempted to try it one day. A little more from the above blog about Korea’s drinking culture:

It’s considered rude to decline a drink. You’re not supposed to pour for yourself. You hold your glass with both hands when receiving, and place your hand under your right elbow when pouring. You turn away from the eldest when he or she takes their shot.

I couldn’t wait to experience all of it for myself.

My first week here, roaming the streets of my neighborhood, I noticed a bar on every block. People were drinking outside convenience stores. Empty green bottles littered the tables in the restaurants. Businessmen were puking in alleys.

“This is insane,” I said to my co-teacher, who was showing me around.

“What can I say,” he replied. “These people love their soju.”

The aisles in the store are narrow, the shelves are jam-packed and the place was crowded around noon. And a guy was delivering more great stuff:

It was fun for me to look at labels in Koren, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese… because I’ve been proofreading those languages for the last six months. (Am I going to miss this job??)

Moving a door or two down, I wandered into Farmer’s Kitchen..

… and wondered why I don’t go THERE more often! Some great looking baked goods, a bazillion vitamins and healthy-looking things I should probably be consuming, and a very inviting dining room..

I also noticed some progress on the space formerly occupied (for about a hundred years) by Silver Dragon. I detect a theme along this block of 4th:

Thinking it’s time to expand my dining (and maybe drinking) repertoire.

Look who wandered into the press box during yesterday afternoon’s game: Tobin and his Rhodesian Ridgeback Rey, who’s not as much a puppy as she was last time I took her picture, earlier in the season:

That is one good looking dog.

Mostly though, I wanted to share that the baseball boys have extended their phenomenal winning streak to an official 12 (and an unofficial 16), beating Bear Creek (of Stockton) in a 9-8 squeaker.

Two previously-on-the-injured-list players made short appearances in this game, which was nice! Peter had a reasonable 2-inning outing (relieved starter Bell; in fact, came in with bases loaded and no outs and got out of that situation with 2 K, 1 hit and a fly out) after THREE weeks off, and says today that his arm is just normal sore, not injured sore (hmm). The outing was busier than you like to see: 2 hits, 2 strike outs, 3 walks and 2 earned runs (which busted that nice 0.0 ERA), but he threw confidently and seemed content. Daniel threw himself full-body at a ground ball that snuck through the 3-4 hole  during his one inning at first, which seemed not to bother his back at all. Hopefully BOTH are back for the rest of the season. Fingers crossed. Regular league games begin Monday!

It was also nearly 90 degrees out there with lots of sunshine! Feeling a lot more like baseball season is settling in.

Bernie won Wisconsin tonight. That’s very nice.

Cruz also won Wisconsin tonight, which–repugnant as he is–is also kind of…. satisfying. Not satisfying in a positive way, but satisfying in a twisted sort of hopeful way. Anything that puts a sock in the huge, boorish mouth of the guy who brags about other huge things (delusional ideas, appendages of all sorts), is gratifying. Choices for republican voters have narrowed down to Trump, whose objectionable candidacy has spawned a group whose sole purpose is to aggressively destroy his chances of ever becoming president, and Cruz, who just does not play well with others and is equally despised, but, for now, preferable. And I guess Cruz is only preferable as a foil. If he’s able to keep Trump from the requisite number of delegates, alternatives for the republican ticket could emerge come convention time. Frankly, that gives everyone hope. So… yay Cruz. The reasonable republicans hate you, but hate you less than the other guy, and your winning now will ensure chaos down the road which may be the republican’s only chance to salvage this train wreck.

Well, whatever. You boys have fun with that.

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I came upon these Bernie folks tabling today in downtown Davis… warm late afternoon sun streaming through the new spring growth along E Street:

Even with his impressive string of primary victories, with more on the way, Bernie’s still a long shot.

But I’ll tell you one thing: integrity and a genuine regard for humanity rank high on my list. I’m glad there is somebody I absolutely trust in this race. I trust Bernie to speak the truth, I trust that he cares deeply, and I trust that he is looking out for our collective best interest. Period. With pure intentions, a clear conscience and a happy heart, I get to cast my vote for Bernie and feel totally, unconditionally good about it.

Take that, conniving, desperate, ethically-challenged, backroom-dealing, dirty-monied republicans.

Feeling inspired by leadership is refreshing. Going to enjoy this as long as it lasts.

A bunch of unrelated Monday kinds of things.

I’ve taken to pouring my smoothies into a bowl and eating them like ice cream, mostly because they’ve gotten so thick it’s easier that way. I was so hungry when I got home from a long, lunchless work day, I made a supersized smoothie **… and filled three large bowls…and ate all of them.

I was so cold by the time I finished the third bowl, and my mouth so numb and frozen, I decided to take a hot bath. And had a very hard time warming up.. in fact I was still on the edge of my thaw when the dinner bell rang (so to speak).. had to abandon the effort.

It was worth it…

Here’s something else I’ve been loving lately… Jim’s roasted cauliflower:

I know it looks weird, but it is so good it’ll make you cry. Sweet, too, if you can believe it. The best pieces are the ones crispied and slightly burnt. They crunch and ooze a little bit from the olive oil. I’m telling you…heaven.

I had no room for a baked potato, weird for me as it’s the ultimate comfort food…

…so just watched Jim eat.  I’m still waiting for all that smoothie to go down a couple of hours later…

** 1 banana, about 2/3 cup of Strassburg’s organic nonfat vanilla yogurt, about 1/2 cup of milk, about 1/2 cup of OJ, about 2 cups of ice, 2 meyer lemon cubes, a couple TB of frozen cranberry juice concentrate, about 1/3 cup of frozen blueberries, about 1/2 cup of frozen mixed berries/cherries, about 1/2 cup of frozen mangos and, the best part: 1 TB of frozen dark chocolate chips, which mince down to little bits that find their way into every spoonful and provide the most satisfying chocolaty crunch. Killer.

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Speaking of asterisks, looking at the above two reminds me that for the last couple of weeks, I’ve been very buried in a project at work… work you will see if you’re registered to vote in the state of California (well, if English is not your preferred language, that is)! Been proofreading election materials for the Secretary of State’s office…those materials the company I’ve been working for has translated into nine languages: the Voter Guide, the lists of candidates and their designations, and a couple other related items. Perfection is required for this particular client on this particular job, so we precision-minded proofreaders (3 of us) have had to step up our already laser-sharp game.

Back to the asterisks… among a billion things one carefully scans for, if one is a [glutton for punishment, or a] professional proofreader, is the type of asterisk used. I see that my WordPress font above uses the 6-sided star. The SOS favors a 5-sided star. I’m sure I’ll be seeing asterisks dancing across the skies of my nightmares for some time to come, at least until the election season is over.

So that bath did double duty… I needed something following six straight hours hunched over some incredibly tedious work (I did candidate designations in Thai, Korean, Tagalog and Khmer today)… a hot bath seemed like the perfect antidote.

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In other extremely disturbing news, Peter’s bike was stolen sometime over the weekend–the new (and fairly pricy) one we got him for his birthday last summer, after the one before that was stolen a year before! I’m going to forgo the story and its pathetic details, but I’m just overwhelmed with a sour range of emotions from anger and frustration over the carelessness, senselessness and waste, to a sense of violation. And feel incredibly inconvenienced, and supremely annoyed… UGH!

Perhaps a[nuther] hot bath…

.. of course. And a sure sign of spring.

This is Janet’s dining room table last night:

And this is the iPhone showing off:

Not possible to whine. The DHS Blue Devils have extended their streak to 11-0 (15-0 if you count preseason games, which I do) with a win over Maria Carrillo, a Santa Rosa team that’s traditionally very strong and very competitive.

It took a lot of talent, cool heads and a smidge of luck to prevail (like that Mario Carrillo center fielder dropping a routine fly ball to allow loaded bases to completely clear… that kind of luck).  But hey, win’s a win. (6-4, whew!)

Peter’s still on the injured list, as are Danny and Gabe. Mort and Pierce are back, as is Solly from a brief absence. I’m anxious to see Peter get an inning soon. It must be hard to miss all this streaky fun.

No baseball pictures (you’re welcome), but I must subject you to a few more heavily filtered road shots taken while wending our way through the wine country.

Yes, I must.

Sonoma Valley is lovely anytime of year, but especially when the poppies, mustard and roses are blooming…

Even in the fog…

Love vine rows disappearing and reappearing over hills.. (and loving the nostalgia filter, though see it’s one you can overdo)…

This suited my groggy, post win, dream state…

I’m always a fan of the grunge filter..

Nice when the hills are green, too…

All shot from moving vehicle, sadly through a dirty windshield (don’t ask about the argument Jim and I had last week about overusing wiper fluid (my former tendency)).

I missed throw back Thursday, so I thought I’d modify the meme, call it throw up Friday, and post some pictures from the airplane I took earlier this week.

Maybe I need to work on the name a little.

But it’s late, I’m tired, and it’s all I’ve got, so here are a few of my favorite photos from the air:

Here are two taken as we left LAX:

The ocean was turbulent. I really like the wavy lines in the froth (wavy, get it?):

A little higher, looking back into the basin; the clouds were cooperative!

Here are a few as we landed in Sac.. how green is our valley!

The fields are well saturated:

This one just appealed to me.. I love the geometry of farmland:

This one was sort of blurry and low-res, so I went with it, playing with the colors and textures a bit:

I got the very last window seat available, in the last row, which meant I was the last off the plane, but sitting at a window is so worth it to me.