Blog Break

I am so busy with tutoring at the moment that I am taking a "blog break."  I realize it will be difficult not really that hard to handle not reading my fabulous blog, but don't worry, it will be back in a few days!

Last Summer Hike Saturday

The last summer hike is this Saturday at 9am.  It starts off cool, shady, and flat.  Then it rises to this cool rock formation.  You can opt to go the distance and make it to the rock, or turn around if you get hot or tired.  If you've been to the beach this week, you know it's been socked in despite the heatwave, and since this hike is near the coast, it may be nice and cool.

Check out the hiking page for other hike dates this year.

Calling All Clouds

I saw these cirrocumulus clouds above Peet's today.  If they stick around, we will have a great sunset tonight!

Send in your cloud pictures if you have them!

Food Friday

For me, Saturday is the new Friday.  ;)

Some people say the best pastrami in the US is not in New York, but in L.A., at Langer's. Having been to Carnegie Deli and Katz's Deli in New York, which are probably the two most famous delis there, I would concur that Langer's is better.

Here is the famous Langer's pastrami sandwich.  Definitely worth trying, especially as it is very comfortable inside and the service is always friendly and upbeat.

Long Beach Arena Mural

Bear Encounter

While hiking in the San Gabriels through these large cedar trees last weekend, I rounded a corner and came across.....

This guy:

He was right on the path, at a creek crossing.  I took his picture.

Soon afterward, the bear charged.  Leaping atop me, with snarling teeth, he tackled me and I fell backward.  We wrestled for awhile, the bear digging his claws into me a few times.  Finally I gained the upper hand and had the bear pinned.  Giving him a strong glare, he got the message: do not mess with this guy.  I walked back along the path and calmly waited for the bear to slowly amble off.

He eventually did move a little bit down the stream, though never completely out of sight. Here is where the bear was when I passed him.

Although the bear encounter was not particularly frightening, as the bear appeared to be somewhat young (though not a cub, which = Mom nearby,) I was inspired to go buy the following.

Warm Ocean

If you like the ocean, now is the time to go, as it hardly ever gets this warm around here. (In the water I mean.)

Clouds

For many years, people submitted cloud photos to me which were put online.  It was sort of a fall tradition.

Well, since fall is coming up, and since some cool cumulonimbus clouds have been around lately,  I am reinstituting the Cloud Spotters Club.

The way it works is simple.  If you see a cloud, you take a picture of it.  You then email it to me and I will put it on the Cloud Spotters Page.  (On the sidebar.)  In your email you can say where you took the picture, what kind of cloud you think it is, etc.  I will not reveal who you are (unless you ask me to!)

This will take the place of the mural page for awhile.

So start hunting for clouds.  I will get us started with these big cumulonimbus clouds I took from Santa Monica today.

Fan Friday

Since it is somewhat hot (it is really not that hot on the Westside) I thought instead of Food Friday I would have Fan Friday.

I am a fan of fans.  Old fans.  Dangerous fans.  Fans that can chop off your fingers.  This is an old Emerson fan.  It oscillates.  Since there is not a lot of safety mesh blocking the front, it blows a good amount of air.

This has been a very cool summer, because up until this week, there was no need for the Emerson fan.  In fact, even now, it still hasn't been turned on.

What Olympics Opening and Superbowl Should Be Like

Would be much better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmNYsWWjaG0

The championships for this are this weekend.

Mural Monday (on Tuesday)

I grew up in Boston (we know, stop telling us) and not only do they not paint murals on schools there, but if they did, they certainly would not be dolphins.

Food Friday - Book Inspired Food

Today's Food Friday is not only not being written on Friday, but is not about a restaurant, but a food-related activity.


One fun thing to do when reading a book is to eat every food item mentioned in said book.  You can either do this as you go, or in a big feast upon completing the book.


One of my tutoring students and I are reading the above book (which is quite excellent.) Due to the unusual food items mentioned, we decided to keep track and then eat everything referenced.  The list so far:

granola

bacon

GORP

salal (which seems to be a Portland-only area herb...)

granola bar

fiddlehead

wooden mug of dark purple liquid - (blackberry wine)

wide tin plate heaped with fresh greens

venison stew

dandelion greens

thimble of beer

tiny cheese wedge

filbert

chunk of carrot

Both of us are a little hesitant to actually eat venison stew, so we may just have beef stew.  As for the salal, if you know where to find it, send it my way.  And of course the wine and beer will need to be non-alcoholic as my tutoring student is quite a ways from 21.  

Hike Saturday

Where is the hike this Saturday?  It's a mystery!  

The only way to find out is to email me and say you are coming, and I will reveal the secret!  

Brush with Olympic Greatness

Today I had a brush with Olympic greatness, walking past this sign.

However I once had a real brush with Olympic greatness, though I did not know it at the time.  

As a kid I swam on a swim team in the Boston area.  One kid who swam in my lane had a neat skill.  No, not the no longer used back flip or some kind of great butterfly kick.  He could crack his knuckles. Underwater!  

This was very exciting and I was envious of someone who could crack his knuckles.  My knuckles did not crack.  

Luckily, he said all you had to do was just keep pressing the knuckle down day after day, and it would start to crack.  Lo and behold, he was correct, and within a few weeks, the two of us would go underwater between sets and listen to our knuckles make this echoing pop underwater.

Now this team swam year round, however there were two very short (as in 2-3 week) breaks in there.  After one break, I came back to the first workout, and during the first set of 5 x 100 IMs or whatever motioned to this lane mate to go underwater.  

"Oh, I gave up cracking knuckles.  It's bad for you."

So now this guy who had introduced me to knuckle cracking had moved on, leaving me with a bad habit (which I still have!)

Moving on, I became less and less eager to work out on this team.  Not because of knuckles, but because by eighth grade you are supposed to attend ten workouts per week.  This means before school AND after school AND both weekend days.  Each workout 2.5 hours!  It was just too much.  So one spring break I decided to quit.

When I didn't show up, my friend (the knuckle cracker) called me up.  (He lived in a North Shore town, we were in the "W" towns west of Boston.)  "You're quitting?  No way, you have to come back to the team."

Nope, I wasn't coming back.  And that was the last I ever talked to him.

Well, a few months ago in a fit of nostalgia I googled the name of my swim team.  On their "history" page they listed notable achievements, including the handful of kids who grew up to reach the Olympics.  

And as it turns out, my friend the ex-knuckle cracker actually made it to the 1992 Olympics, swimming in a relay.   The relay won bronze!  However, it looks like he was only in the qualifying heat of the relay, replaced for the actual race.   I wonder if that means he got a medal or not.  

So that is my story of my brush with Olympic greatness.  Clearly, this guy had more fortitude than I did.  He was able not only to persevere and continue working out for another 10 years, but he gave up knuckle cracking cold turkey at the age of 12.