Literally on the beach, in Pacifica, California.
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Monday, December 23, 2013
Pacifica!
Our hotel is the sort of mustard yellow building in the bottom third of the screen, just off of the ocean:
With an ocean view. Pretty nice.
We had pretty good Burmese food in Daly City last night, but as I told E in an email, it was no Burma Superstar. More like Burma Young Upstart.
Today = hiking, and dinner at Millennium. Yum!
With an ocean view. Pretty nice.
We had pretty good Burmese food in Daly City last night, but as I told E in an email, it was no Burma Superstar. More like Burma Young Upstart.
Today = hiking, and dinner at Millennium. Yum!
Sunday, December 22, 2013
Winter gardening!
Most things survived unseasonably cold weather for Sacramento. I doubt the brussels sprouts will produce, but the radishes are showing fruit!
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Empty slopes
At Kirkwood. Been so long since we had snow that the runs are getting pretty bare, but empty slopes, doing laps: hard to complain!
Monday, December 16, 2013
Monday, December 09, 2013
Three burner drive
Veggie stock, tofu, and the start of vegan cream of mushroom soup. Yummy winter night cooking!
Sunday, December 08, 2013
Thursday, December 05, 2013
Tuesday, December 03, 2013
As mentioned before: it's FINALLY SNOWING in Tahoe!
Hopefully the skiing will improve at Heavenly soon!
Brussels sprouts: some good old fashioned food porn, for the loud audience (all four of you) that I know have missed it.
Cabbage + salt +
lemons =
sauerkraut and preserved lemons.
And to round it out, a totally gratuitous ONION shot. Oh, and some garlic.
Hopefully the skiing will improve at Heavenly soon!
sauerkraut and preserved lemons.
And to round it out, a totally gratuitous ONION shot. Oh, and some garlic.
It's snowing bananas!
Not really. But I do have bananas that are crying out to be made into banana bread, and snow outside the window. If you can't really see the snow, just imagine it. It's here!
More food porn to follow soon!
More food porn to follow soon!
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Winter garden in Sacramento
The lettuce and broccoli are kicking ass, as are the radish and fava beans in the back yard.
Thursday, November 14, 2013
Vegan sandwich food porn!
Damn, that's a good looking sandwich!
From the bottom up:
Toasted fancypants San Francisco sourdough
veganaise
peppered Tofurky
avocado
spring mix greens
sauerkraut
tomato
dijon mustard
sourdough
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
View from here
From the South Lake Tahoe branch of the El Dorado County Public Library, where I'm using the wifi while mine gets straightened up.
Friday, November 01, 2013
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Wraps for dinner!
We'll see how many i go through before my redeye (ugh) to JFK.
Puerto Rico this week!
Monday, October 21, 2013
Friday, October 18, 2013
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Friday, October 11, 2013
Sunday, October 06, 2013
Friday, October 04, 2013
Wednesday, October 02, 2013
Somewhat Tough Mudder
For an event that bills itself prominently as "Probably The Toughest Event On The Planet", ummmm... it wasn't. And this despite being at Northstar Ski Resort in lake Tahoe, with a starting elevation of around 6300, and going up near the top elevation of 8600. And despite the fact that neither me nor my sister in law actually really trained. (She trained more than I did. I decided to just suffer through it.)
I mean, it wasn't EASY, for sure. Jumping into a 20 foot long dumpster filled with icewater (the so-called Arctic Enema) and swimming through pitch darkness to go under the bar while getting kicked in the face isn't easy. Crawling under dangling electrical wires which are shocking you repeatedly isn't easy. Doing all this, in addition to 18 other obstacles over 10.5 miles, is surely not easy.
But toughest event on the planet? Not so much.
There were several irritations which I fully expect the company who runs this ultra successful, massive money making event to continue, and to fully ignore their survey results.
1) Tough Mudder soaks you for money at EVERY goddamn turn.
Okay, I knew it was going to be expensive. Fine -- it's not cheap to rent a ski resort, even off season, and construct a bunch of silly obstacles (most of which are staffed by volunteers.)
But after the $110 registration fee (we registered semi-early -- it went up to $200 cash only on the day of the event) we still had to pay a mandatory $10 "insurance" fee. Perhaps you've heard the phrase "Cadillac Health Insurance"? Well, due to J's job, I have Ferrari Health Insurance. Nothing in their sillyass one off excess coverage policy is going to do anything to help me.
Then you have to pay $20 for close-in parking (for which you still have to walk, and then take a gondola, or walk further, to the start line. Only want to pay $10 for parking? No problem: you can take a 45 minute shuttle bus each way.
Then you have to pay $5 for bag drop. WTF?!? Oh, but this is okay, because it is supposedly donated entirely to charity. Tough Mudder makes a big deal, throughout the day, about their support for the Wounded Warrior Project. How much do they actually donate to Wounded Warrior you ask? ZERO. They give reduced registration fees for people to raise money themselves for Tough Mudder, and the volunteer staffed bag drop area gives money to Tough Mudder. This has supposedly amounted to $6.5 million dollars and counting to date (they have a ticker on the front page of their website.) By their own figures, at a VERY low end estimate, Tough Mudder has taken in around $64 million in registration fees since 2010. And not given a single dollar directly to charity.
And this isn't counting gas, housing, etc., but that's what you get for doing events that are 100 miles away from where you live.
2) It was ridiculously organized in several ways.
Despite the challenging elevation, Northstar was, logistically, a horrific venue for this. Parking was absurd, and no, there is no other way to get there. You have to take a ~10 minute gondola to get to the base of the event. They stopped running the gondolas which took spectators up the hill (my brother had to walk back down.) There was ZERO signage indicating where the shuttle buses back to the parking at Boreal was (which was not in the same place as my brother was dropped off) so we wasted about 30 minutes taking the gondola down, asking of the kind but mystified 16 year old working the parking lot, and going back up. And we weren't the only ones.
Their volunteers on the Off Road Vehicles need to quit driving like coke addled former teenage pop stars. The assholes in the gigantic Northstar SUV (an Excursion, IIRC) need to have their fakie siren taken away from them. Neither need to be blasting by us on the dirt trails we're competing on.
They need more volunteers who actually monitor the speed at which people go in to the various obstacles, so people don't get bunched up in potentially dangerous obstacles like the Arctic Enema.
3) The One Banana policy.
At the three or so food stops along the entire 10.5 mile course, there were signs indicating the One Banana Per Person policy. Which was actually a single banana that had already been cut in to thirds. $110 AND I ONLY GET ONE THIRD OF A BANANA?!?! And plain water. No sports drinks, no additional electrolytes. (I'll confess I did skip the single gel-candy-energy option since the last time I ate one, it pulled a crown off of my tooth.)
Not to mention the finish chute, with the self-important rentacops at the end, where it was a One Cup Of Water Policy, a One Clif Bar Policy, and One Beer Policy. I Don't Always Drink Shitty Beer, But When I Do, I'm Limited To One.
And after you're out of the chute, don't you DARE dream of asking to go back inside to pick up your finisher T-shirt that you didn't see. You'll probably be bodily blocked by a rentacop, who literally yelled at me "YOU AREN'T GOING BACK IN THERE!" Fortunately a nice volunteer kindly went and got my shirt for me. Confidential to Rentacop: you suck, and take your job way too seriously.
Outside of the chute, everything costs money. Everything. I've run locally organized 5k fun runs with far better during- and after- event snacks and drinks. In fact, pretty much every single athletic event I've done in my adult life has had better and more snacks and drinks.
4) Repeat obstacles suck.
Dear Somewhat Tough Mudder: you have 40 or so obstacles to choose 20 from, and you repeat the Kiss of Mud? Why?
Okay. [/rant]
In summary, I'll do other mud run type events, but Tough Mudder is lame.
I mean, it wasn't EASY, for sure. Jumping into a 20 foot long dumpster filled with icewater (the so-called Arctic Enema) and swimming through pitch darkness to go under the bar while getting kicked in the face isn't easy. Crawling under dangling electrical wires which are shocking you repeatedly isn't easy. Doing all this, in addition to 18 other obstacles over 10.5 miles, is surely not easy.
But toughest event on the planet? Not so much.
There were several irritations which I fully expect the company who runs this ultra successful, massive money making event to continue, and to fully ignore their survey results.
1) Tough Mudder soaks you for money at EVERY goddamn turn.
Okay, I knew it was going to be expensive. Fine -- it's not cheap to rent a ski resort, even off season, and construct a bunch of silly obstacles (most of which are staffed by volunteers.)
But after the $110 registration fee (we registered semi-early -- it went up to $200 cash only on the day of the event) we still had to pay a mandatory $10 "insurance" fee. Perhaps you've heard the phrase "Cadillac Health Insurance"? Well, due to J's job, I have Ferrari Health Insurance. Nothing in their sillyass one off excess coverage policy is going to do anything to help me.
Then you have to pay $20 for close-in parking (for which you still have to walk, and then take a gondola, or walk further, to the start line. Only want to pay $10 for parking? No problem: you can take a 45 minute shuttle bus each way.
Then you have to pay $5 for bag drop. WTF?!? Oh, but this is okay, because it is supposedly donated entirely to charity. Tough Mudder makes a big deal, throughout the day, about their support for the Wounded Warrior Project. How much do they actually donate to Wounded Warrior you ask? ZERO. They give reduced registration fees for people to raise money themselves for Tough Mudder, and the volunteer staffed bag drop area gives money to Tough Mudder. This has supposedly amounted to $6.5 million dollars and counting to date (they have a ticker on the front page of their website.) By their own figures, at a VERY low end estimate, Tough Mudder has taken in around $64 million in registration fees since 2010. And not given a single dollar directly to charity.
And this isn't counting gas, housing, etc., but that's what you get for doing events that are 100 miles away from where you live.
2) It was ridiculously organized in several ways.
Despite the challenging elevation, Northstar was, logistically, a horrific venue for this. Parking was absurd, and no, there is no other way to get there. You have to take a ~10 minute gondola to get to the base of the event. They stopped running the gondolas which took spectators up the hill (my brother had to walk back down.) There was ZERO signage indicating where the shuttle buses back to the parking at Boreal was (which was not in the same place as my brother was dropped off) so we wasted about 30 minutes taking the gondola down, asking of the kind but mystified 16 year old working the parking lot, and going back up. And we weren't the only ones.
Their volunteers on the Off Road Vehicles need to quit driving like coke addled former teenage pop stars. The assholes in the gigantic Northstar SUV (an Excursion, IIRC) need to have their fakie siren taken away from them. Neither need to be blasting by us on the dirt trails we're competing on.
They need more volunteers who actually monitor the speed at which people go in to the various obstacles, so people don't get bunched up in potentially dangerous obstacles like the Arctic Enema.
3) The One Banana policy.
At the three or so food stops along the entire 10.5 mile course, there were signs indicating the One Banana Per Person policy. Which was actually a single banana that had already been cut in to thirds. $110 AND I ONLY GET ONE THIRD OF A BANANA?!?! And plain water. No sports drinks, no additional electrolytes. (I'll confess I did skip the single gel-candy-energy option since the last time I ate one, it pulled a crown off of my tooth.)
Not to mention the finish chute, with the self-important rentacops at the end, where it was a One Cup Of Water Policy, a One Clif Bar Policy, and One Beer Policy. I Don't Always Drink Shitty Beer, But When I Do, I'm Limited To One.
And after you're out of the chute, don't you DARE dream of asking to go back inside to pick up your finisher T-shirt that you didn't see. You'll probably be bodily blocked by a rentacop, who literally yelled at me "YOU AREN'T GOING BACK IN THERE!" Fortunately a nice volunteer kindly went and got my shirt for me. Confidential to Rentacop: you suck, and take your job way too seriously.
Outside of the chute, everything costs money. Everything. I've run locally organized 5k fun runs with far better during- and after- event snacks and drinks. In fact, pretty much every single athletic event I've done in my adult life has had better and more snacks and drinks.
4) Repeat obstacles suck.
Dear Somewhat Tough Mudder: you have 40 or so obstacles to choose 20 from, and you repeat the Kiss of Mud? Why?
Okay. [/rant]
In summary, I'll do other mud run type events, but Tough Mudder is lame.
Oh, shit! Trash Day!
Once again I was sitting here at my desk when I heard the garbage truck on the block. SHIT! I forgot AGAIN to take out the trash! Since both J and I are gone this weekend, I didn't want to leave yucky trash in the can. So I ran to the hall, jammed some shoes on, and ran out to the back yard to take out the trash can. Which is empty.
And then felt pretty good about the fact that in a week we've generated close to zero trash (there was a half bag in the kitchen which I decided to take out just because we're going to be away.) And last week the can was only about 1/3 full, after emptying every trash can in the house.
Notably, the recycling bin fills up much more quickly, so we're surely not perfect on the reduce, then reuse/repurpose, then recycle, then discard spectrum. But we're doing pretty good!
And then felt pretty good about the fact that in a week we've generated close to zero trash (there was a half bag in the kitchen which I decided to take out just because we're going to be away.) And last week the can was only about 1/3 full, after emptying every trash can in the house.
Notably, the recycling bin fills up much more quickly, so we're surely not perfect on the reduce, then reuse/repurpose, then recycle, then discard spectrum. But we're doing pretty good!
Monday, September 30, 2013
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Refinished bar!
At mom's house. More photos to follow, but here is the finished product (with re-centered print, and newly hung light.)
Not bad for a $10 garage sale table, and about 10 hours of work.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
No, that is NOT poo!
It's red curry paste.
p.s. if your poo looks like that, you should probably consult a medical professional.
Crown of thorns
Or, what happens when you decide to ride your high pressure, singlespeed tires off road along the Sacramento River. I have thorn resistant tubes and didn't suffer any flats, J's bike had both tires flat (and i didn't save the approximately 35 or 40 thorns i pulled out of her tires.)
Work
Cleaned both toilets and both bathroom countertops.
Fixed the height of the bike hanging rack in the garage, repaired the other one.
Repaired both flat tires on Bert, J's fixie/singlespeed flipflop.
Trimmed the hedges.
Fixed the neighbor's sliding closet door.
Did laundry.
Swept the garage.
Organized tool pegboard.
Did travel planning.
Headed over to mom's house soon to work on my to-do list there.
Phew.
Fixed the height of the bike hanging rack in the garage, repaired the other one.
Repaired both flat tires on Bert, J's fixie/singlespeed flipflop.
Trimmed the hedges.
Fixed the neighbor's sliding closet door.
Did laundry.
Swept the garage.
Organized tool pegboard.
Did travel planning.
Headed over to mom's house soon to work on my to-do list there.
Phew.
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Monday, September 16, 2013
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Vegan Indian bike ride food porn!
Certainly not the best Indian food I've ever had, but very tasty in the middle of a 60 mile bike ride in Folsom, California.
Saturday, September 14, 2013
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