Stan’s Obligatory Blog

Today they are filming a scene for a new “Nancy Drew” movie down the street from our house. It’s a simple scene, but as seems to be usual for these sorts of things, it takes all day. They have a big crowd of people setting up lights and such, but aside from that, there’s not a lot of action. The paper that they dropped off at our house said:

It will be a short scene which our actress knocks on the door looking for a certain individual who doesn’t live at that particular house. The home owner says “sorry”, and closes the door.

Still, this is only the second time in ten years that they’ve filmed at a house on our block, so it’s kind of novel.

On Sunday afternoon, I took Lucinda down to Redondo Beach to see the last stage of the Tour of California bicycle race. It was a perfect winter beach day, warm and sunny.

This was actually the first time I’ve ever been to an actual professional bicycle race. It was nice. The crowd it drew and the riders in the race were all impressive. The race itself was pretty exciting, with an early breakaway that lasted nearly the whole distance before being caught on the last lap. Lucinda liked watching it, and I got to tell her stories about my bike racing days while we were watching. We also got to see a BMX stunt show, and wander around near the beach. It was a very fun afternoon.

And on a related note, I had found out recently that my old bike racing friend Ray is the founder and manager of the Navigators Insurance Pro Cycling Team and that he was going to be at the race. Lucinda and I had spent a good bit of the afternoon looking for the team camps without luck, but at the end of the race, we saw the Navigators team car go by and we just followed it to their camp. After the prizes were awarded, we found Ray. It was fun to visit with him and reminisce about the days when we were young, strong, and fearless. And Lucinda got an official Navigators cycling cap. So this was a special treat to top off a very nice afternoon.

cycling

Route map and photo locations

Today’s ride was one that I came up with earlier this week. There was an article in the Los Angeles Times about how oil had come oozing up out the middle of Olive St in downtown L.A. My immediate thought was to make a bike ride to go and see it. So that’s what we did today.

We started out from Victory Park in Pasadena and headed down Sierra Madre Blvd in to San Marino. Then we turned on Huntington Drive and took that all the way to Mission Blvd on the edge of downtown L.A. There we took a right and rode a bit to Main St, which took us into downtown.

A quick right turn on Ord St brought us into Chinatown, and then a left on New High St sent us south, past City Hall. We rode south all the way past Pico Blvd. Then we took a right on 14th Pl and took that over to Broadway. That brought us to our first sightseeing stop, which was the St. James Oil Company site at 1325 S. Broadway. This is the set of oil wells that is most likely the cause of the seepage. I took a couple of pictures and then we moved on.

At Olive St, we turned north and quickly came to the 1200 block, which was closed to traffic. We hopped up on the sidewalk and went in to see. There were some cleanup tanker trucks parked there, and there was a backhoe digging up oil-soaked dirt from the middle of the street. I took some more pictures.

From there, we continued north on Olive St, up Bunker Hill, where we saw the sign for General Thaddeus Kosciuszko Way. I’d hate to have to give directions involving that street.

At 1st St, we took a left and headed out of downtown. We passed the Department of Water and Power building with the solar-powered parking lot. We also passed the entrance to the old Pacific Electric Subway at 1st and Glendale Blvd.

Continuing on Beverly, we passed the original Tommy’s hamburger stand, and then took a right on Benton Way. This is a small street that goes through Silver Lake and is a nice quiet alternative to riding on Silver Lake Blvd. The downside, so to speak, is that it goes up and over a steep hill. But that’s all right. I like riding up hills. At the top, we stopped to regroup, and that’s where I saw the ‘Ask Me About My Vow of Silence‘ bumper sticker.

From the top of the hill, we went down the other side, coming out on Silver Lake Blvd right by the reservoir and dog park. Then we continued on down the hill to Glendale Blvd. At Fletcher, we took a right and went across the river. We took Eagle Rock Blvd north to Yosemite, which took us across Eagle Rock. Then it was up the Colorado St hill and back into Pasadena.

On this ride, Spencer and I were racing up every hill. This was fun, but something seemed to be not quite right. On the way back into Pasadena I realized what it was. We passed Michael going the other way and I realized that that was what was missing. If Michael had come on the ride today, he would have been the King of the Hill, and Spencer and I would have been left in the dust. Still, we had some fun.

34 miles.
cycling

Today Lucinda had a friend from the neighborhood over to play, and we took them to see “MatheMagic!” at Caltech. This is one of their “Saturdays at 2:00” programs for kids.

Today’s show featured Bradley Fields, the “Mathemagician”. His show was a magic show combined with math tricks and history of mathematics. And it was very funny and entertaining. Lucinda and her friend liked it a lot.

Today we went to the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana. They were having a special exhibit about dogs, including a dog stunt show, so Lucinda wanted to go see it.

The parking was full when we got there, and there was a long line to get in. I suppose I should consider it a good sign that that many people want to go to a science museum. But on the other hand, I think it may have more to do with the fact that it’s actually a pretty small museum, and the parking lot is also small. Anyway, after parking the car at the nearby mall (there’s no shortage of those in Orange County) we got our tickets and went in.

We saw a presentation on therapy dogs at the local Children’s Hospital, and we got to meet and pet one of the dogs.

The main event of the day was the dog stunt show. The dogs did tricks, including catching, jumping, and running obstacle courses. They were all very good at what they did, and it was very entertaining.

The last thing we did was to ride in the earthquake simulator. It’s one of the better museum earthquake simulators, and it’s more realistic than most. They also have a whole section of the earthquake exhibit devoted to Lucy Jones, which is funny to me, since I work with her. I don’t think of her as being famous, but she’s about as famous as a scientist can be. (Have I mentioned lately that I really like my job?)

After the museum, we stopped off at the mall where we’d parked the car so that Cathy could look for some red hair color. The red she’d gotten just wasn’t red enough. While she discussed hair color minutiae with the beauty supply people, Lucinda and I went and got ice cream.

It was a fun day.

We’ve been having a cold spell here in L.A. At least it’s cold by our standards. And this morning, there was even frost on our garage roof. In 10 years in this house, this is only the second time I’ve seen that.

brrr

Today started out cold and rainy, and it rained out the regular Sunday club ride. But then, almost miraculously, it stopped raining and cleared up. But 10:00, the sky was blue and the streets were (almost) dry. So I went for a little ride by myself.

I headed east through Sierra Madre to Arcadia, then east some more into Monrovia. When I got there, I went up Norumbega Drive, which goes up a nice hill and makes a loop back down to where it started. It was a nice gratuitous hill.

Then I went down Mountain Ave, and it was there that I spotted a thong in the street. When I used to live in Hollywood, I rode every weekend on Mulholland Drive, up in the hills. And every Sunday morning, I would see lots of women’s clothing, particularly shoes and underwear on the side of the road. That was just a normal thing in the hills above Hollywood, but this is the first time I’ve seen anything like that here in the suburbs.

I rode through a little bit of Bradbury and then into Duarte. I took the bike path along Royal Oaks to its end, and then went up Melcanyon just to add another gratuitous hill. I made a loop up there and came out on Encanto by the park there, and then headed back towards home.

I took Santa Clara St back into Arcadia just so I could stop for a photo at the Young Dong Restaurant. Its name probably means something like “Mom’s” in Korean, but the sign looks funny to American eyes. And it’s right around the corner from the Turf Analist, so there is an ongoing tradition of Engrish in that area.

Next, I headed back up 1st St to get to Highland Oaks and Sierra Madre for the trip home. I stopped for one more photo of the “Reclamation Center” sign, right by the cemetery. I guess it makes sense in some way.

From there, it was downhill all the way home. It was a pleasant ride, even if it was chilly and kind of windy.

27 miles.
cycling

Today we had to go over to the costume shop in Arcadia to pick up some of the supplies we ordered for Lucinda’s birthday party. While we were there, we noticed a little display on the counter. It was a little plastic squeeze bottle sitting on a wooden base. The label said, “Liquid Ass“. So, of course, we smelled it. And it was easily the most horrible odor any of us had ever smelled. (Between growing up in New Jersey, and my father being a chemist, that means something.) So in the true spirit of the Internet, I just wanted to spread the word about Liquid Ass. This is one gag gift that will truly make people gag.

So I’ve been living here in L.A. for many years now, and I like sightseeing around the city. So I decided to put together a list of things I’ve seen that I think are amusing. Just to have it all in one place for future reference.

www.1134.org/photomap.php?xmlfile=sightseeing.xml

I’ll add new things to the map as I find them. And needless to say, Disneyland and the other usual ‘tourist’ things are not on my map.

There’s an article in Salon today about the big permanent bases in Iraq and how this story is pretty much being ignored. But they made a big deal about how big these bases are, so I thought that maybe I could find them on Google Maps. And it wasn’t all that hard. Here’s Balad Air Base:

maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=baghdad,+iraq&ll=33.940939,44.369659&spn=0.086587,0.172005&t=h

Here’s the article where a reporter visited the base:

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/03/AR2006020302994_pf.html

And here’s a bit of background about it. Apparently it used to be an Iraqi Air Force base. You can still see the airplane shelters mentioned near the ends of the long runway.

www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/balad-ab.htm

This evening we went to see Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. This is a an all-male comic ballet company. They perform classic ballet en trasvesty. The ‘ballerinas’ have faux-Russian stage names like Ludmila Beaulemova and Tatiana Youbetyabootskya and such. The actual dancers are all trained in traditional serious ballet, but they do this as a form of ‘ballet outreach’. A lot of the humor is based on sending up the traditions of classic ballet. Since we’re not that familiar with the conventions of ballet, we probably missed a lot of the jokes. Still, it was very funny and very entertaining. The ‘dying swan’ was particularly hilarious, with feathers falling out of her tutu all over the stage, followed by two very serious-looking janitors coming out to sweep up afterward.

I had seen the Trockadero ballet on PBS’ “Egg” several years ago. At the time, I made a note that we should see them if they ever came to Los Angeles. And we were not disappointed. It was a very fun evening. And Lucinda has a story to tell now that probably no other kid in her class will be able to match.

Today’s ride was down to Whittier and then up Turnbull Canyon. We were supposed to continue on down the other side, but several of us had to get home early, so we turned around there and cut the ride short.

I started out meeting Gene at Victory Park for the ride down to Live Oak Park, which was the official start of the ride. It was a nice morning, bright and sunny, but on the way down there, we rode into a fog bank. It got cold. By the time we got to the park we were chilled.

From the park, we went east a bit and then south to Lower Azusa Road, then east again to Santa Anita, where we turned south again. After a bit, Santa Anita turned into Workman Mill Road, which took us down to Beverly Blvd in Whittier.

While we were on Beverly Blvd, we had the first flat of the day. It was Bob, who had picked up a big piece of glass in his tire. Sandy stopped to help him change the tube, and I stopped to get a picture for the Flat Tire Gallery.

From there, we continued on up Beverly Blvd until it turned into Turnbull Canyon Rd. The climb up the canyon was nice except for two things:

• It was cold in the shade;
• The road was wet with dew in the shade, and we all found our back wheels slipping.

On the way up, I got another picture for the Flat Tire Gallery. This time it was Carl, who had taken a shortcut to get ahead of the group, but then got a flat.

At the top, we regrouped. Then Gene, Philippe, Rick, Maria, and I all headed back down. We all needed to get home relatively early for one reason or another, so we all headed back together. At the bottom of the canyon, we took Beverly Blvd west into Pico Rivera. This was for a short side trip to see Dork St. We’ve been there before, but every other time it’s been cloudy, so I never got a good picture of the sign. So today was the day.

After the photo op at Dork St., we headed north on the San Gabriel River bike path. We went over Whittier Narrows Dam and then went west a bit to get on the Rio Hondo bike path. We took that bike path all the way back to Lower Azusa Road.

From there, we got on El Monte Ave, which has the biggest bike lane in the world. That brought us up into Arcadia. Then we took Fairview back to Sunset and then back into Pasadena.

45 miles.
cycling

Everyone knows that the real estate market is insane here in Los Angeles. And so far, we’ve been absurdly fortunate in it through sheer dumb luck. While reading Curbed L.A. recently, I discovered Zillow.com, which has all sorts of information about real estate. I looked up our house and marveled at what they said it is worth now. More than triple what we paid for it back in ‘95. Yow.

Then I looked up our old place in Hollywood. This was our first little condo that we bought when we were married. And it was seriously little. 954 square feet. We had a hard time fitting all our furniture in it. But it was ours, and we were happy to have it. This was during the late ’80s real estate frenzy here, and we bought it when everyone was going nuts and prices were skyrocketing. We sold it about three years later, and although we didn’t know it at the time, we sold right at the peak of the boom. After we left, prices fell for four years.

So Zillow shows the sale history of our old place, and it says that it was sold in 1999 for $169,500. This is less than what we sold it for in ‘91. So that means that the guy we sold it to most likely ended up taking a bath on the deal. Oh well. If you’re reading, sorry about that…

It’s officially winter here in Pasadena. The egret is back hanging around the ponds at Caltech. I see this bird every year here. The ponds are stocked with mosquito fish and frogs, so the bird likes to eat the tasty little fish and tadpoles.

Yum.

I just noticed this link on the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program site today:

New USGS Website and Earthquake Notification Service Simplify Ways to Get Information You Need

“The new Earthquake Notification Service will replace the old system. Now with a user-friendly interface, users will be able to define their own multiple regions of interest, enter various notification addresses, set magnitude thresholds for day and night, and opt for “Aftershock Exclusion,” among many other options. The system can be found on the “Earthquake Center” section of the site.”

So it’s official now. It’s been public for a little over a week. About 1,000 people have signed up for accounts on it so far. We moved about 5,000 more over from the old ‘Bigquake’ mailing list. So far it’s been working like a champ. And today I found and squashed one little bug that’s been bothering me for months. So I’m pretty happy with it, even as I’ve been so obsessed with it that I’ve actually had dreams about PHP and Perl this week.

So check it out.

This was on the obituary page of the Los Angeles Times today:

Rebecca Webb Carranza, 98; Pioneered Creation, Manufacture of Tortilla Chip

“It was 1950, and the El Zarape Tortilla Factory, among the first to automate the production of tortillas, had used a tortilla-making machine for three years.

Corn and flour disks poured off the conveyor belt more than 12 times faster than they could be made by hand. At first many came out “bent” or misshapen, as company President Rebecca Webb Carranza recalled decades later, and were thrown away.

For a family party in the late 1940s, Carranza cut some of the discarded tortillas into triangles and fried them.”

And the world changed.

Sadly, she apparently never realized the full financial success that ought to come as a result of changing the world:

” After Carranza and her husband divorced in 1951, she signed the business over to him.

He soon opened a tortilla chip factory in Long Beach but closed it in 1967, partly because of competition from national companies that had discovered the sales potential of the salty chip.

Rebecca Carranza returned to East Los Angeles and worked into her 80s, first as a meat wrapper at grocery stores and then as a U.S. Census taker.”

Still, it’s a great story.

Around our house, Superbowl Sunday usually involves completely ignoring the Big Game. Cathy and I have a long-running contest to see who can go the longest knowing absolutely nothing about it. This year I accidentally found out who one of the teams playing was, so I was behind from the start. But aside from that, we managed to ignore it pretty well. Lucinda had a sleepover at her friend’s house on Saturday, and she was playing over there all day. Cathy went to the gym and then went out to do some errands. And I went and got tattooed. So we all managed to have no contact with The Game.

It was good.

Today’s ride was yet another tour of Hollywood and the Sunset Strip, and then a little jaunt up into the hills.

I met Gene at the park at 8:00 and we set out. We took Orange Grove west and then went down through the arroyo, past the stables in South Pasadena. The road there is kind of rough, and I always seem to end up losing my water bottle on the bumps there. But after I went back and picked it up, we went up the little hill and got on York Ave for the trip across Highland Park.

Heading south on Eagle Rock Blvd, we took a right on Fletcher and took that across the L.A. River and into Silver Lake. Then we crossed the Shakespeare Bridge and then turned south to Prospect Ave, which merges into Hollywood Blvd. Riding down Hollywood Blvd in the morning is always a somewhat surreal experience. The street crazies are all still asleep in the doorways, so it’s quite a bit different from how it is later in the day.

A bit west of La Brea, we turned south and took Hawthorn Ave to where it ended, and then went down to Sunset Blvd for the last bit out to the Strip. We passed a car lot that specialized in old Cadillacs. We also passed the Laugh Factory. Back in 1990, I took a class at UCLA Extension called “How to perform stand-up comedy”, and we had our ‘mid-term exam’ at the Laugh Factory. That was an interesting experience.

Continuing on, we got to the famous Sunset Strip. We rode for just a bit there and then decided to try an experiment on one of the side streets. We took a right on Miller Drive. But it was not ‘Miller Time’. It was 15% grade time. Yikes. We took that up for a while until it wound down to Queens Road, where we took a left. Then the road got steep. I had to say ‘uncle’ and shift there. It felt like close to 20%. But it brought us up to Hollywood Blvd, where we took a left.

Continuing on up Hollywood Blvd, we passed a house that had a waterfall over the driveway. Then we merged into Sunset Plaza and took that the rest of the way to the top of the hill. We stopped for a bit to take in the view, but there wasn’t much of a view today, since it was still kind of foggy. Then we went over the crest and down the other side into Laurel Canyon.

At Wonderland, we took a left and then headed up Laurel Pass Road and then Allenwood. On the way up I picked up a real-estate flyer for a ‘Dramatic private gated mini-estate’. $1,995,000. Yow. The house was pretty, though.

We came out on Mulholland Drive at the top of Fryman Canyon at the little park. We stopped for water and then headed back east down the spine of the Hollywood Hills. At the bottom in Cahuenga Pass we took some little side streets to come out on Barham Blvd. A right turn there took us down the hill to Burbank.

At the bottom of the hill, we headed east into Griffith Park. We rode all the way through the park and out the other side, passing the Mulholland Fountain at Los Feliz. Then we kept going back to Fletcher.

Turning left on Fletcher, we headed back across the river and into Atwater Village. Then on up into Highland Park. We took a little side trip to ride along the Gold Line tracks where they go down the middle of the street. Then we took Ave 60 across the arroyo and got on Monterey Road for the trip across South Pasadena and San Marino.

The last part of the ride was up Sierra Madre Blvd back into Pasadena and back to the park where we had started.

It was a nice ride, even with the 20% grade part.

53 miles.
cycling

I saw this in the L.A. Weekly today, and it’s just too good to not mention:

The Mr. Fish cartoon about the State of the Union Address