San Francisco

Had a great 4-day visit with Scott and Tammy last weekend.

Early Summer 2014

Not much writing on here lately from me.  Got a sunburn yesterday at Black's Beach.  Ouch.  Trying to use some moisturizer (topical) and ibuprofen (anti-inflammatory).  Probably should use more sunscreen.

Might be teaching a few courses at Palomar this summer.  Definitely will teach one Chem 100L lab.  Waiting to hear from the physics dept on whether or not I'll be teaching their Physical Science (PHSC 100) lecture and lab courses.  The PHSC course covers physics, chemistry, geology, and astronomy.  I don't remember much physics, so I've been reviewing a bit, probably not enough!  Summer courses start on the 16th of June.  My life of leisure is taking a turn toward more work; my aim is to keep the stress in check.  New courses can be daunting.  Who'dathunk I'd be teaching physics someday!

I got a course at Palomar for the fall too: Chem 100 lecture class T/Th mornings.  Will be nice to do the lecture part again.  Wish I could do both lecture and lab.  That would make more sense for everyone, I'd think.

Del Mar Fair starts on Saturday.  Might go a couple of times so I can see some good concerts, e.g., Huey Lewis and the News, the Spinners, and others.   Some good Humphrey's concerts coming up soon too.  Time to get out the kayaks.

Been walking a lot more lately.  Goal is 10,000 or more steps per day.  I've met the goal every day since May 15.  Turns out my iPhone can log steps.  That's fortunate because I put my FitBit One in the wash a few too many times.  It's sitting in some rice in an attempted resurrection, but I'm not holding my breath, nor do I care, because my iPhone counts the steps anyways.

Finnish Music

I've been looking to purchase the CD, Memento Mori by Mariska.  She's one of my favorite Finnish singers and I have two of her other CDs through http://www.recordshopx.com/finnish/, but this one appears to be very scarce on the Net.  Mariska is into her second decade of making music, but I just discovered her, and Finnish music in general, last year.  What spurred me to look into it, I don't remember, but I ended up watching Finnish music videos on YouTube and am now a fan of several artists, including Jenni Vartiainen, Chisu, Laura Närhi, Cheek, Samuli Edelmann, and several others.  Mariska's Toisen Sanoen CD has stayed in my car's CD player for months and I start it up whenever the radio gets annoying with too many commercials, repetitive news, or bad songs.  That's quite often, unfortunately.  Mariska is a singer-songwriter whose albums could be classified as rap or hip-hop, although more recently she has switched genres to music that she calls punk jazz.  Based on the reviews, people like her lyrics, but I don't understand Finnish yet, so I just enjoy the music.

So anyway, after failing in my search for the Memento Mori CD, came upon the whole album on Rdio.com (pronounced "ar'-dee-o).  Unfortunately, the songs were unavailable in the US, so I tried using TunnelBear to change my IP address to a different country and found that it's available in Australia.  After all that, I'm enjoying Memento Mori  on my iMac.  Evidently, Rdio.com works on mobile devices, so maybe I'll try that later on.  Meanwhile, I give this album a thumbs up.

Here are a few Finnish songs on YouTube that I've enjoyed.  Maybe you will too.

Laura Närhi's Hetken Tie on Kevyt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZVIjrxDhO0

Mariska & Pahat Sudet's Liekki https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6RBNnIseDE

Chisu's Sabotage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOsW6BHzrD8

Mariska's Murha https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYjZX5AH-ZU

Breakfast

McDonald's has blueberries. 

Two-mile morning walk with Bailey around the neighborhood.

#walktheearth

Watching the French open finals between Sharapova and Errani at 6 am this morning. I don't get to see much in the way of sports without expanded cable. It's okay. I catch up occasionally online and actually listened to the NBA Eastern Conference finals on iTunes. I always like watching tennis at Roland Garros, and I always love watching, and hearing, Maria play. Errani is likable and tough, but seems overmatched. If Sharapova doesn't choke, which she's been prone to do in situations like this, she'll join some of the greats with a career grand slam. Later today: Belmont Stakes, Stanley Cup finals, and the Celtics. It will be a good day for sports.

Reading with Matt at Shelter Island.

St. Peter's Del Mar

Susan and I have been going here for around 3 months now and we still like it a lot.

Another Del Mar sunset.

This time with Susan. 

Pizza night.

We made three pizzas tonight. First, a standard cheese and pepperoni. Second, pear and gorgonzola. Third, veggie, including mushrooms, sliced tomatoes, sliced onions, and black olives. Our friend Stephen came over to play music with Scott on the guitar, banjo, etc.

New Couch and TV Mount

Here it is, the new couch (on the left, east side of our family room). We also put the TV up onto the wall. It's a little higher than we're used to seeing, but I think we'll get used to it. We also decided to keep the old couch for a while, to allow for more seating. It's going to be a good place to read, but not for watching TV. I'm hoping we'll be able to test the new arrangement with the five of us watching a movie sometime in the next few days. We'll have 8 people here for Thanksgiving.

Couch shopping

Day 1 of our trips to the furniture stores. We do already have some couches, but they are falling apart for various reasons (cats, general wear and tear, general cheapness), so Susan would like to replace one of them. I suppose if we had gone to an expensive store last time (or the time before), we'd probably have the original one, but with cats in the house, those might not have lasted long either. And we do like our cats.

It seems that we should be able to repair our old couches somehow, but upholstery is quite expensive, and we'd likely have a difficult time with the sewing. Even the couch covers from LL Beans are rather pricey, and it seems they'd not fit very well, or be comfortable enough.

This blue couch is the leading candidate from our first day of shopping. Susan has always wanted an L-shaped couch. She claims that there's enough room in the corner to sit comfortably and is proving it in this photo. This couch is cheap, as couches go, but we really can't afford much more and we have three cats at home who will surely make their marks soon after we would bring this home. I'm a bit worried about the fabric. It's so smooth that it would show the slightest scratch or stain. We'll go look at a few more stores tomorrow.

Kale Chips

This is a lot cheaper than what I can get from the store. They're $7 or more per bag of just a few ounces of the stuff.

So, this is my first attempt at seasoned, baked kale chips. The oven was set to 375 F. I used half a bag of kale with a tablespoon of olive oil. (Yes, it was extra virgin, the good stuff, but I'm not going to use that abbreviation.) In a large mixing bowl, I added a little pepper, some onion powder, a sprinkle of ground cumin, and some Mrs Dash (I don't remember which one). Finally, I grated some mizithra cheese on top, mixed it up, spread it over a cookie sheet, then stuck it in the oven for 15 minutes. After taking it out of the oven, I sprinkled some celery salt on top. It turned out pretty well. Nice and crispy. One recipe I saw said that if you add salt before you bake it, then it comes out more chewy than crispy.

Sunset Park

Sunset Park
Originally uploaded by pipilo

Scott and I finally played a few rounds of disc golf today. Morley Field being too crowded except during early morning hours, we went north first to Montiel Park for 36 holes up and down the hill in 85-degree weather, then a bit east to check out two relatively new courses.

The first new course is at Cal State University San Marcos, one of the newest additions to our state's educational system. We drove onto the campus to find the course (and were successful in finding it), but we didn't play the course, mainly because we weren't sure about the parking situation. Although the campus seemed to be deserted, we feared that parking fees and penalties were still being enforced and we didn't feel like paying the fees (or the penalties).

The second new course is this one, Sunset Park, also in San Marcos. This is an extremely active city park featuring arena soccer, beach volleyball, swing sets, basketball, and barbecues galore. We ended up playing only the first four holes of the 6-hole course that winds down the hill and through the east side of the park. People were barbecuing and playing with their kids much to close to the 5th and 6th holes, so we decided to avoid possible disc-strike injuries and skipped those two holes. It seems like they have room for a few more holes if they choose to add them. The areas around the park are being filled in with homes, schools, and shopping areas. Maybe it'll always be a third of a full course. That's okay, because it's quite a beautiful and interesting spot.

True Grit

I can't get over how much I liked this movie. We rented it from Red Box last night. The kid, Hailie Steinfeld, stole the show. She's ten years younger than Matt! Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, and the rest of the cast were great too. Wonderful scenes of Texas and Arkansas, seemingly authentic fashion styles and patterns of speech, and excellent acting all around made me quickly forget John Wayne, Glen Campbell, Kim Darby, et al., from the 1969 version. Of course, I enjoyed the old one just fine, even though I'm usually not all that crazy about Westerns. I didn't think I'd like this one very much, but it's one of the best movies I've seen this year.

Evening Beach

Evening Beach
Originally uploaded by pipilo

Scott and I brought our chairs and water bottles to the beach yesterday evening an hour or two before sunset. It's so much easier to read where distractions (i.e., Internet) are limited. The beach was clearing by the time we arrived, and was almost empty by sunset when we headed back home. We must do this more often.

Snickers

Snickers
Originally uploaded by pipilo

This is the brighter and gaudier of our two new bean bag chairs. Snickers likes sitting in places where he can sink in and relax, so these chairs are perfect.

Regarding the color, we had ordered one in black and one in gray. Then this one arrived. We thought about returning it, but then ended up keeping it because it's so comfortable. Perhaps it adds a touch of class to our family room, in a tasteless sort of way.

UCSD

Matt and I walked around UCSD yesterday. He'll be going to graduate school there starting in the fall. We used the Stuart Collection as our guide, attempting to find each work of art marked on the map. We didn't find all of them, which is one of many good reasons to take future walks around the campus. 25 years ago, I was working at UCSD as a post-doc with CD Keeling at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Later, I would sometimes bring Matt to the office to sit or play while I was working. I never thought much about the possibility that he'd be a student here someday.

Matt will be a master's candidate in the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS). It's a 2-year program, so we'll get to know the campus quite well again.Matt will be a master's candidate in the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS). It's a 2-year program, so I'm looking forward to visiting Matt on campus often while he's there.

Pictured:

Upper Right - Geisel Library (also served as the Mother Ship in "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes")

Middle Right - "Bear" by Tim Hawkinson, at the Jacobs School of Engineering

Lower Right - "Sun God" by Niki de Saint Phalle, near the Faculty Club at Muir College

Lower Left - Matt walking past the "La Jolla Project" by Richard Fleischner, near the Theatre District at Revelle College

Western Metal

Matt and I sat on top of the Western Metal building at the Padres game earlier this month. The seats are quite expensive and come with an all-you-can-eat buffet of salad, hot dogs, hamburgers, and drinks. Fortunately, it was an event sponsored by my employer, so we didn't have to shell out the big bucks for the fancy accommodations.

The Western Metal building is one of the signature features of Petco Park, the new downtown home of the San Diego Padres. For years, we enjoyed watching them play in Jack Murphy Stadium (later called Qualcomm Stadium), which was conveniently located in Mission Valley with plenty of parking and easy access. The new stadium is right in the middle of the city, near the waterfront just north of the rail yards. Some of the historic buildings that existed long before the stadium was built have been preserved; they add "atmosphere" to the place and make it unique. The Western Metal building has been incorporated into the new stadium as part of the left field wall. The gift shop downstairs has a place where shoppers can walk right out onto the field and watch the game, or batting practice through a fence in left field. There are a few seats on the second and third floors of the building, and bleachers up on top, where you see us here.

Ever since the new stadium was built, I had thought it would be nice to sit atop the Western Metal Building. Now that I've been up there, I realize that it's the view of the Western Metal building that makes Petco Park unique. Sitting on top of the building, you can't SEE it! The stadium, therefore, becomes rather ordinary. They're great seats, giving you a bird's eye view of the field from a unique vantage point, but there are some drawbacks in addition to the absence of the ambiance created by the view of a building right there in the outfield. First, it's windy and cold up there! Granted, it's early April, but the breeze off the bay hits these seats first and it was chilly. Second, it's difficult to see anything in deep left field. On this evening, that's where all the interesting plays occurred. Third, it's a little hard to see the scoreboard. Yes, it's right next to us, but at this angle, it's difficult to read the lineup and other details. Aside from those complaints, which, after all, aren't that important, it was great to be at the game with Matt and the seats were fine. Scott was at the game too, but he sat with some other people out in the right field bleachers.

The day ended with the Padres losing to the Dodgers twice. They completed the 9th, 10th, and 11th innings of the previous night's game (which had ended in a tie after almost nine innings of play), and the full regularly-scheduled game. We (and Scott) were among the few Padres fans who stayed until the bitter end. Matt and I left before the fireworks, which, Scott reported, were pretty good. We would have preferred to have seen more "fireworks" on the field from the Padres.

Panera

Sitting at Panera for office hours without my glasses. They're out in the car, but I parked pretty far away and I don't want to pack in my computer and drag my backpack out and back again, with my dinner sitting here on the table. So I'm managing without glasses. Seems I had pretty good eyesight until 5-10 years ago. Now I need to squint to read anything at all when I'm not in direct sunlight. I can read fine in sunlight, but that's about it.

Tried working on my photo-a-day site and updating Flickr, but something seems to be wrong with Flickr.com today. Maybe it's time to find another photo blog site. Recommendations? Maybe Picasa is the way to go. It's pretty cheap.

Well, I had a productive day, preparing for my three classes and two labs, finishing the grading for a course that ended a few weeks ago (finally), and going to a senior recital performed by one of my chemistry students. She's a wonderful singer and her recital was one of the best I've attended.

Sometimes I wonder why students so rarely come to these office hours that I hold at Panera. I'm here every Sunday night for two hours. Last week one student showed up. The week before, zero. The week before that there were three or four of them. Maybe that was the week of the exam. Their next exam is in a few weeks. One student showed up today. She said that she was taking time off work and losing a lot of money to be here with me. She asked one question, then left. I hope it was worth it. She could have asked that one by email. I just pointed her to a page in the lab manual that she hadn't read yet. It took less than 15 seconds.

Without my glasses, this has been a rather unproductive couple of hours. I had a nice meal here for a change. Usually, I just get coffee and a bagel, or maybe bowl of french onion soup. Today I splurged for a cuban chicken panini with black bean soup. Pretty good. The food is always pretty good here, but it seems too pricey and the portions are small. They play nice jazz music and don't mind me sitting here surfing the web or talking with students for two hours on a Sunday night, so I'll keep coming back.