Stan’s Obligatory Blog

Yesterday was the Great Southern California Shakeout. This caused great excitement around my office. But the thing I found most amusing was Conan Nolan from KNBC wearing his San Andreas Fault tie for the occasion. Usually, when he gets sent out to do earthquake coverage, it’s on short notice. So there’s not usually time to dress for the occasion.

Tonight I went to do another night hike in Griffith Park. Since I finished painting the living room, I have more free time, so I went looking for a Wednesday night hiking group to join. We went up Mt. Hollywood, but by a different route than I’d done before. It was a pretty good time. The pace was brisk, but not punishing, so it was pleasant.

The views of the city lights are nice from the top, and we even saw a very bright green-tinged meteor while we were up there.

Overall, it was a good time, and a good excuse to get out of the house.

This week finds me with a lot more free time than usual, owing to the holiday yesterday and various other things. So over the weekend and yesterday I made the final push to the summit in my project to repaint the living room. This was the last room in the house that hasn’t been painted since we bought it in 1995.

I started this project back in April, and I’ve been slowing grinding along through it. And Saturday I decided to go for it. I painted the entire dining room, including moving the giant china cabinet. That was a big project.

Last night I finished touching up the yellow along the border where it meets the red and installed a molding along the transition. Then Lucinda and I hung the pictures back up on the walls.

And here is the result.

Last night Susan and I went to watch the election returns with some of my friends from the office. To say that we were pleased with the outcome is perhaps understating it a bit…

Today is my birthday, and I’m 49 years old. Seems impossible, but I did the math and it all checks out.

Susan and I went to the Autry Museum today to see the new art exhibit there. Bank of America is having a promotion offering free admission to certain museums on the first Sunday of the month. So we went to see “Bold Caballeros y Noble Bandidas”.

After the museum we had a nice dinner at Maison Akira.

Overall, it was a very nice birthday.

This afternoon we got some rain. The first rain of the season here in L.A. So Lucinda put on her coat and went outside to stand in it. Rain is a novelty around here.

It was gray and dreary all day, so it seemed like a good day to be cooking. I made short ribs with lentils and rice for dinner, and I also made an apple pie. It was an experiment, since I used Granny Smith apples this time, instead of the Fujis that I’ve used before. I think I like the texture of the Fuji apples better. I also tried making the crust in the food processor, instead of by hand with the pastry cutter. That was a whole lot easier. I also experimented with decorating the top of the pie with shapes cut from crust dough scraps. It was a good pie.

Today’s bike ride was the Triple Crown route. This is a tour of central Los Angeles, with several nice hills to climb. Normally, the Saturday rides break up into faster and slower groups. But today, the faster group was just me. Oh well.

The route went down through Eagle Rock and Glassell Park to climb Mt. Washington by a different route than usual. I got to ride on Future St. There were some nice views on the way up the hill. And I saw some of the iconic houses on stilts that Los Angeles is known for.

Coming down the other side, I passed the Southwest Museum, and also the artwork at the Gold Line station there.

On the way to Montecito Heights, I passed the giant dragonfly. On the way up the hill, I saw a car parked in front of a “No Parking” sign. I wanted to put a big “FAIL” caption on the picture.

Next, I rode down into Chinatown and then up the hill to Elysian Park. Along the way I crossed over the Pasadena Freeway and got a nice view down between the tunnels. Then it was up and over the hill by Dodger Stadium.

The route then went back up into Eagle Rock, where it went up and over another steep hill on Ave 51. Then down the other side and around the same hill to get back to South Pasadena. Then I rode back across the Colorado St bridge and home.

It was a solitary ride, but not bad in other ways.

41 miles.
cycling

Tonight, I went to Griffith Park for another short night hike. The plan was to hike for a bit and then ride the “Ghost Train” at the Los Angeles Live Steamers. I was doing the night hikes there a lot last spring, but I haven’t been to one since May.

The hike itself was pretty pleasant and not too strenuous. But when we got back, the line for the train was very long. So I gave up on that portion of the evening and came home. Still, it was a fun time.

Today’s bike club ride was the “Molly’s Souper” route. This goes from Arcadia out to Upland for lunch at Molly’s Souper restaurant.

On the way to the start in Arcadia, I saw a couple on a recumbent tandem. They were going pretty fast, so I drafted off them for several miles.

When we started out from the park in Arcadia, we were passed by another group ride. Several people said that they saw Susan in that group. I missed her, since last night she’d said that she was still feeling sick and would not be riding in the morning. But it turned out that Friday night was the turning point, and she woke up feeling better on Saturday and decided to go riding after all.

Right after the start, the group broke up into smaller groups going different paces. Gene led the charge in the front group, and I followed along with a few others. We rode out to Claremont before picking up a new bike path that runs along an old railroad right-of-way out to Upland. It was pretty nice, aside from a few of the major street crossings. But we were wondering what was up with the big rocks they put in front of every pole along the way. Were they supposed to be cushioning to keep us from hitting the poles?

When we got to Upland we decided not to sit down for a long lunch at Molly’s. Instead, we went to a little bakery and had a snack there. That was where we saw the poster for “Menopause: The Musical”, as well as the sign for Skull Daddy, which was offering 50% off skulls. Yum.

The ride back was pleasant, since a lot of it was on long, straight roads with a slight downhill grade. Even though it was a fairly long ride, I was home by 1:00.

65 miles.
cycling

Today’s bike ride was the “Noodling-7″ route. We did this one last summer. Today’s route was modified slightly to make it a little bit longer, and it was a fun one.

As with all the “Noodling” series rides, we didn’t go anywhere in particular. The route had lots of turns, and it involved going up and down a lot of hills. But I think that kind of thing is fun.

We saw a cow mailbox in La Cañada, which I thought was funny. Then we rode up to the school at the top of St. Katherine, which was interesting in that we usually do that road the other way. Any familiar road will look different when we ride the other way on it. At the top, Silvio took my picture as I panted after beating everyone to the top.

Overall, it was a fun ride.

41 miles.
cycling