Stan’s Obligatory Blog

Today I saw that Vons had a special on fresh blueberries, and I was suddenly seized with the desire to make a blueberry pie. From scratch, of course. So at lunchtime I walked over and got some berries. Then when I got home, I looked up a recipe and got busy.

I made a basic pie crust from the Joy of Cooking. Then I made the filling and put it all together. It was actually pretty easy. Easier than the apple pies I’ve made before. And it smelled nice when it was baking.

Now it’s sitting in the laundry room cooling. I put it there because that’s the coolest room in the house tonight. I hope it will be cool enough to cut before bedtime.

On Sunday evening, I had dinner with a friend in Marina Del Rey. We were up on the roof, where they have barbecues and tables. I’d never been on the roof of one of the high-rises there, and the view was pretty impressive. And dinner was good, too.

Today’s bike ride was my route that goes up to the Hollywood sign and then down the other side into Burbank. It was a nice day for riding. Cool and overcast, with the sun promising to come out later.

Heading down Eagle Rock Blvd, Scott got a flat. He decided that he didn’t trust his spare tire for the rest of the ride, so he turned back then. Ben and I soldiered on, crossing the L.A. River into Silver Lake, and then across the Shakespeare Bridge into Hollywood.

Turning up Beachwood, the climbing started. Then we turned left and the hill got much steeper. By the time we got to the stop, we were seeing stars. We stopped for a few minutes below the sign to take in the view. Then we rode down the other side to Lake Hollywood. The reservoir level looked pretty low, so I guess that’s why the Department of Water and Power is saying there’s a water shortage.

To get to the road down into Burbank, we had to climb up from Lake Hollywood. This is the hill that I always forget about, until it’s time to ride up it. And then I remember. It’s actually harder than the climb up to the sign.

We stopped for a bagel at Priscilla’s in Toluca Lake before heading back by way of Glendale, Montrose, and Hospital Hill. Then it was (mostly) downhill all the way home. We stopped to look at the house that has the plastic cows on the front lawn. They’ve added a second calf to the herd.

It was a very nice ride.

44 miles.
cycling

Today I went down to Long Beach to the Queen Mary for the Ink ‘n’ Iron show. This just keeps getting bigger and bigger every year.

I got there earlier than I have the last few years, which made parking easier. I went inside and commenced wandering around. I saw a lot of familiar faces, and got to visit with old friends. And I even got a new mailbox. There was one booth that was selling mailboxes hand-painted with hot-rod flames. And he had a box-type one, so I just had to get it.

It was a very fun afternoon, even though I had to leave early to go home to pick up Lucinda. And nothing beats a new hot-rod mailbox.

Back in April, the reverse shift cable in my car broke. It turns out that my car is so old that the part is discontinued and is apparently impossible to find. Even the junkyards in Sun Valley didn’t have one. So it appeared to be time for a new car, for the first time since 1990.

Not wanting to spend a lot of money, I went used this time. Not wanting to deal with typical car salesmen, I went to Carmax. Very easy and simple. The only non-simple part of it was that the car I decided on was at their store in Buena Park, and couldn’t be transferred. So in the end, I had to figure out how to get myself down there to pick it up.

It turned out that Metrolink has a station in Buena Park, not far from the car place. So after work, I took the Gold Line downtown and got on the first Metrolink train going out that way. The Metrolink automated ticket machine was displaying a BSOD. So I had to buy my ticket at the regular window. It was an easy ride. Not very scenic, but pleasant. And when I got there, it was about a half-hour walk. And I bagged my car.

I’m turning 50 this fall. And I know that the stereotypical thing for men my age is to buy a sports car. But I’m embracing middle age. And what could be more middle-aged than a Chevrolet Impala? My mom had a ‘62 Impala when I was a kid. Somehow, when I was very young, I figured out that an impala was an animal, but I always envisioned it as something like a hippopotamus. A great blubbery wallowing beast. Because that was my mom’s car. The new models now are not quite such great lumbering beasts, but they still retain the ‘comfy living room on wheels’ feeling. And I think that’s just fine for my middle age.

Sunday’s bike ride was another classic with no hills to speak of. We rode out to San Dimas to get a bagel at the Bagelry.

Along the way, we saw this abandoned couch.

It was cool and overcast the whole way, and it never really warmed up. The jacaranda trees are in bloom now, and the purple flowers made a nice contrast with the gray day. Still, it was a nice ride.

46 miles.
cycling

Today I took Lucinda and her friend Alisha hiking. We went up Echo Mountain above Altadena. This is a very nice local hike, about 2.7 miles each way, with nice views and some interesting ruins at the top. We’d last done this hike two years ago.

We started out from the top of Lake Ave and headed on up the trail. After a while, the girls started to complain about being tired, but I convinced them to soldier on. We stopped for lunch at the two-mile marker. When we got close to the top, Lucinda started running. And when we reached the top, they were both very happy to have made it.

We poked around the ruins of the Echo Mountain House, and the girls tried out the Echo Phone. They were very entertained by the echoes coming back across the canyon.

It was a fun afternoon adventure.

Today’s ride was the “No Tuna For Me” route. The last time we’d done this route, I noticed another hot-rod mailbox along the way, but I wasn’t able to get a picture of it that day. So today’s mission was to find the mailbox and add it to my collection.

It was a small group today. Just Silvio and me. But this worked out all right, since we’re pretty evenly matched, and so we didn’t have to wait for any slower riders. We just cruised through the route at a nice, brisk pace.

We rode across Eagle Rock, where we saw a large oak tree that had apparently fallen over. Then it was on, across Glendale and into Burbank. We briefly met up with a large group of riders there, but then they turned off to go up La Tuna Canyon. We went straight, into Sun Valley and the auto-wrecking ghetto there, and then past the dump and on into horse country. That was where we saw the chicken mailbox, which was pretty funny.

Coming out on Sunland Blvd, I spotted my quarry. I bagged that mailbox, and now I have nine in my collection. So the day was a success.

We rode across Tujunga and then down into Montrose. Up Hospital Hill, where we stopped at Goldstein’s Bagels for a snack. Then it was (almost) all downhill back into Pasadena and home. It was a nice ride.

43 miles.
cycling

Due to her mom’s new job, I had to take off work this afternoon to take Lucinda to the last day of horseback riding. This is only the second time I’ve taken her there, and the other time was the first time.

I was hoping they’d be riding in the ring, but they did a trail ride instead. So I just took a few pictures as they mounted up to leave, and a few when they got back. In between I read a book I’d brought along. Still, it was nice to see Lucinda enjoying the horse experience. And oddly enough, she rode the same horse today that she’d ridden on the first day.

Pictures are in her photo album.

The earthquake last Sunday evening brought in about 1,500 new subscribers for the Earthquake Notification Service (aka: My Pet Project). The subscriber list now stands at just over 148,000. I’m still planning on having a party when it reaches 150,000, which will likely be sometime around mid to late June.