Stan’s Obligatory Blog

Today’s ride was the classic Toluca Lake ride.

We rode through San Marino and South Pasadena, and then across Highland Park. That was where we were chased for a couple of blocks by a tiny little chihuahua. Then up the L.A. River bike path to Griffith Park. Along the way, we saw the island in the river where we saw the elaborate homeless camp a couple of years ago. We also saw that the burned hillsides from last year’s fire were turning green again. When we got to the end of the bike path, we rode west past Forest Lawn and Warner Bros to get to Priscilla’s in Toluca Lake. We had bagels and such there today. Sadly, they ran out of orange juice. Their orange juice is fresh-squeezed and quite good.

From there, we took Riverside back into Burbank. That was where we passed the General Motors Training Center. As we were going by, I noticed a couple of fuel-cell cars parked behind the building, so I stopped to have a look and get a picture. Then we rode across Glendale with a short detour just to see the new bakery that we’re going to try next week.

Finally, we headed up Hospital Hill and then home through La Cañada. It was a very nice day, and a very nice ride.

45 miles.
cycling

This afternoon, I got out a bit. I went to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Little Tokyo to see the Murakami exhibit. It was fun.

When I got home, I got down to nesting some more. It’s Saturday, so Cathy is going out dancing, and I’ve got my date with Lucinda. I made another pizza. This time with pepperoni, portobello mushrooms, sliced roma tomatoes, and goat cheese. And I cooked it on my new pizza stone. It was good.

After dinner, we made chocolate soufflés. I used the recipe I got in the soufflé class I did last Tuesday, and I used the new ramekins I bought on Friday. The recipe said it made two, so I doubled it. It ended up making six, and they were pretty full. I cooked two of them for me and Lucinda, and I put the other four in the refrigerator for later. They were pretty good. I liked how they puffed up, but we thought that the depth of the chocolate flavor wasn’t as good as the recipe from The Joy of Cooking. Still, it was fun, and we sat down to eat them while we were watching this week’s “L.A. Ink” that I’d taped on Tuesday.

I’m actually enjoying my time with Lucinda, and we’re both well-fed.

Today’s ride was the “Mid-valley trainer“. This is another of those rambling rides that just goes all around to get to nowhere in particular. But that was just fine for today. I needed to get home a little early anyway.

A small group of us started off faster than the rest, and we just did the whole route without stopping. And when we got back to the park in Arcadia, it was still pretty early. I didn’t need to be home until noon, so Doug and I rode around some more just for fun. And it was a perfect day for riding. So overall, it was a pretty good experience.

48 miles.
cycling

This evening, I took Lucinda to the Carpenter Performing Arts Center at Cal State Long Beach to see Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. My cousin Irene bought us tickets so that Lucinda and I could have a night out together. We saw them two years ago at Caltech, and it was a fun time.

The show was a lot of fun. As always, the ‘dying swan’ was hilarious. I still think we’d enjoy it even more if we knew more about ’serious ballet’, but it’s still fun.

This is me these days:

moar funny pictures

In my continuing effort to find things to do so I can get out of the house, I signed up for a cooking class on soufflé making. I’ve made chocolate soufflés before, using the instructions in The Joy of Cooking, but I was never sure if I was doing it right, since I’d never seen anyone else do it. So I thought it might be interesting to see how the pros do it. Turns out I was not far off the mark. But I was apparently making it harder than it needed to be. And also, the ramekins I was using were not quite the right shape, and apparently that and their weight do have an effect.

The class itself was a combination of demonstration and actual practice. They gave us a sheet with recipes for four or five kinds of soufflés. They demonstrated making and then fed us a Gorgonzola and walnut soufflé and salad to start. The main meal was salmon and asparagus in a Gruyère soufflé and a Roulade, which was basically a sheet of Gruyère soufflé rolled up with mushrooms and caramelized onions inside. For the hands-on part, we made chocolate and raspberry soufflés. It was a pretty fun time.

Lucinda is out on a sleepover tonight, so I don’t have a date. I’m still nesting, though. I did the grocery shopping and decided to make a pizza from scratch for dinner.

I found a recipe for the crust. I made it and let it rise for about 90 minutes. Then I flattened it out and put the sauce, pepperoni, mushrooms, fresh mozzarella and sliced roma tomatoes on it. I baked it for about 19 minutes. I started at 400 degrees and ended up at 475. I should have gone with the higher temperature from the start. Still the crust had a nice crunch on the outside.

On the side, I made a little salad with avocado and vinaigrette dressing. It was pretty good.

Today’s ride was out to Claremont for a bagel at 42nd St Bagels in the Claremont Village.

We had a good-sized group starting out, but it quickly split into a fast group and not-quite-as-fast group. We headed straight east, with a short jog north on the Santa Fe Dam bike path.

In Glendora, I noticed the historical marker for the Chance Building, so I had a quick look.

When we got to Claremont, we stopped at the bagel place and sat down. It was chilly sitting there, so we didn’t stay for too long. That was where we noticed the Verbal Building, so I figured that was worth a picture.

On the way back, we took Gladstone St most of the way. We had a headwind on the way back, but the 1% downgrade on Gladstone made up for it, and we still went very fast. Just before the street ended back at Santa Fe Dam was where I saw the odd bit of guerilla artwork on a street light box.

It was a pretty nice ride overall.

60 miles.
cycling

There are times when one has to take stock and just try and remember that Things Aren’t All That Bad.

“I’m dead, but if you’re reading this, you’re not, so take a moment to enjoy that happy fact.“

Yes. I’m not dead yet. And that’s a Good Thing. But that’s about the best thing I can say at the moment.