Memorial Day in DC

We went to Washington DC for Memorial Day weekend.
The weather was just about perfect, sunny and mid 80s each day. We were a bit scared, imagining the horribly hot and humid weather DC is known for.
We saw lots of monuments and museums. Went to a Nationals and an Orioles game (we drove to Baltimore for the day). Baltimore has a pretty good Aquarium, close to the Camden Yards, fyi.

We learned a couple things:

• There are lots of lines in DC. You gotta get used to lining up & standing for a bit.
  
• The Metro works pretty well there, we went all over on it. It appears to be the same infrastructure (train cars, gates, etc) as San Francisco's BART.
  
• Memorial Day weekend is when the annual biker rally takes place in DC. There are thousands of bikers and Harleys everywhere around the mall. It is not quiet since "loud pipes save lives".

Here I am in front of the Washington Monument.


And here we are at the brand new "Nationals Stadium" to see the Brewers vs the Nationals. They are called the "Nats" for short, which really just sounds wrong.

the decision is final

we bit the bullet and got a new couch last weekend. It was delivered this week. We finally decided on a dark brown one - thanks everyone for the input.

We went with Plummers as the store. They have pretty good stuff, generally in a style that we like, and their prices are pretty good. We did see some nice pieces of furniture from other places for the same price as a nice used car, some day maybe.

It's pretty nice having the room to stretch out, we were kinda cramped on the loveseat before.


the old couch is on craigslist as we speak, act fast if you need one.

a workout toy & weekly ride around Griffith Park

I got a new toy recently, REI was having one of their annual sales and i got a Garmin Forerunner 305. This is a GPS enabled workout computer, used for runners and cyclists. It tracks your route, speed, gps coordinates, heart rate and all sorts of other stuff. Its got all kinds of features and toys. The part i find most interesting i the mapping feature, so you can see where you have been.

Basically since we have lived in LA, I have gone on a weekly ride around Griffith Park with the 'East Side Posse". These are riders loosely affiliated with with the AIDS LifeCycle ride and use this as a weekly training ride for the annual 7 day, 545 mile ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles. I come along for entertainment, one day I will do the big ride, for now I donate to a few of them, it's a great cause, contribute to someone, it will make you feel good. They start the ride on June 1st.

This new workout thing tracks all sorts of stuff, and when you are done you sync with the computer & you can upload & share your rides. Here is the route I take from home through the park, 23 miles round trip with 1800 feet elevation gain.

View Larger Map

Some stats about the trip. The overall time is a little distorted, we stop to make sure we don't lose anyone, and i ride over to meet up with everyone,and we drink coffee afterward... its a social ride, not a race.

Total Time (h:m:s)	3:01:24	8:11 pace
Moving Time (h:m:s)	1:37:29	4:23 pace
Distance (mi )	22.16
Moving Speed (mph)	13.6 avg.	39.4 max.
Elevation Gain (ft)	+1,932 / -1,897
Avg. Heart Rate	143 bpm	Zone 3.8
Temperature (°F)	57.2°F avg.	57.2°F high

which is the couch to beat?

we finally decided that our loveseat couch is too small. we need a couch for grownups.

picking out furniture always seems to be a torturous process, deciding on style, size, shape, pattern, color, cost. and the couch issue is kind of like when i was looking at getting a new bike; what i like and what i would like to spend seem to be 2 very different things. I wish i just had cheap taste, we could pick up a new couch at the Living Spaces monster store and be done with it. But that is not the case.

So we gotta decide. we like leather, we've got an idea of size & style, sorta. Now color and price seem to be the biggest stumbling blocks. Maybe technology will come to our rescue. I took some photos and did a cheap & dirty job of superimposing different colored couches into the room. Comment on the options below:

"pick all new other furniture" is not a valid suggestion, we're only getting a couch right now.

Dark Brown


Light Brown


Beige / White


Black

paris part II

A follow up to the original post about our Paris vacation. We got all the photos sorted through, here is a selection.

At the Arc de Triumphe, surrounded by the largest traffic circle in the world. Crazy drivers, but it looks pretty good in the light of the sun setting.


Here we are in the Musee D'Orsay, with out iPod headphones on, listening to a little commentary on the place. The building was a train station before becoming a museum 20 years ago. The collection is overwhelming, the building impressive.


Sarah in front of the massive Monet Waterlily paintings which surround two separate rooms in the Musée de l’Orangerie in the Tuilleries garden.


And all the rest of the photos on Flickr

Little Armenia

I went to go pick up my car for service today at Hollywood Ford, which is basically in Little Armenia in Los Angeles. There are many Armenian immigrants in LA, Glendale has I believe the largest Armenian population of anywhere other than Armenia. What I failed to realize was that today is the commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, and the official march was in Little Armenia.


On the commemoration day, people decorate their cars with Armenian flags. Sadly, the first time I saw this I had not idea which country's flag this was and figured some big soccer match or something must have been won and people were celebrating. Now I know.

The Armenians have done well in Los Angeles, here was a big Rolls Royce Phantom decked out in Armenian flags... probably a $300,000 car. I hope those flags don't scratch the paint.

road bikin'

After having an old road bike in a non-working state for months, I finally bit the bullet and got a new (to me) road bike. The old Cannondale had done me well for a long time, but pretty much everything was starting to wear out, and the minor eccentricities of it had started to grate on me.

You can spend as much as you feel like it on a bike these days, and being of a frugal mindset, i wanted a good deal. I monitored craigslist and ebay... and eventually got this Scattante (performance bike's in house brand) with nice 10 speed ultegra components and everything. All I had to to was battle rush hour LA traffic to get there.

So that's the new ride. I will probably take it out for a good distance jaunt this weekend.

paris part I

Our trip to Paris was great!

we tried to see all the main sites, and do a good job of following the "must see while in paris" lists. We walked ourselves tired each day, got to know the Metro system fairly well and shivered in the non-Socal weather. There will be a Paris part II posting later, when Sarah gets back from the germany/work part of the trip.

some of the highlights were going to the palace and gardens of Versailles, the Eiffel Tower (of course), the Louvre, the Musee D'Orsey (probably our favorite museum of the trip), Sacre Couer Basilica, the Arc de Triumphe, the Pompidou Centre, Cathedral of Notre Dame, St. Sulpice chapel and too many more to keep track of.

The collections of the museums in Paris are just stunning. For example; in most museums, of they even have a Van Gogh painting it is a star of their collection and is called out in all materials. At the Musee D'Orsey, there is an entire gallery of Van Goghs, 4 of which would be considered some of his key works, included in about every article written on him. Kinda blows your mind.

I had collected and downloaded a bunch of audio walking tours and audio guides of things in Paris for our iPods before we left. I had done this before for some walking tours in Sydney, and I thought it might work well for Paris. It really is a nice way to be a tourist.

1. It's cheaper & faster than getting audio tours everywhere you go.


2. You look less like a tourist, but you do look like some sort of aloof american who wants to listen to their iPod more than see the sites.


3. The walking tours bring you to places you may not have visited.


4. It gives you some additional flexibility when touring: you can go in whatever order you want, people can navigate at their own pace... all good stuff.

Some of the tours we enjoyed were:

• Rick Steves audio tours - free! for both France & Italy


• Tourcaster - the Rick Steves guides were a bit more polished, but there is a far larger selection of the tours on Tourcaster... and they are worldwide. These are what I had picked up for Sydney.

and fyi - the Paris Playlist worked well... Sarah was less excited about the Jimmy Buffett inclusions, but overall it was good.

paris playlist

We leave for Paris tomorrow. For the trip i decided to make a playlist for our iPods. I tried to find typically "frenchy" music. It was kind of fun, hunting around. I bought a few songs off Amazon, now that they offer DRM free mp3 songs. Some of the songs we already had, and Les gave helping hand. I also drew from a couple of similar playlists I found;
* Postcards from the Trail
* The Best Trip Ever

I've got a whole pile of stuff in here, I tried to be a bit eclectic, but still include music which was familiar. So here we are, the playlist for Paris.

#	Artist	Title	Album
1	Madeleine Peyroux	You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go	Careless Love
2	Edith Piaf	La Vie En Rose	La Vie En Rose
3	Shawn Colvin	You And The Mona Lisa	A Few Small Repairs
4	Pink Martini	Veronique	Hang on Little Tomato
5	Eartha Kitt	Under the Bridges of Paris	That Bad Eartha
6	baguette quartette	en douce	Putumayo Presents French Cafe
7	Diana Krall	Let's Fall in Love	Live in Paris
8	Paris Combo	Touriste d'une Vie	Motifs
9	Nat King Cole	Mona Lisa (2003 Digital Remaster)	The World Of Nat King Cole - His Very Best
10	Pink Martini	Sympathique	Sympathique
11	Toots Thielemans	Sous Le Ciel De Paris (Live)	Chez Toots
12	Paris Combo	Reflet	Motifs
13	Feist	1234	The Reminder
14	Toots Thielemans	Ne Me Quitte Pas	Chez Toots
15	Edith Piaf	L'Etranger	La Vie En Rose
16	georges brassens	je m'suis fait tout petit	Putumayo Presents French Cafe
17	Lee Phillips	Mona Lisa - Grant	KFOG Live from the Archives 11 (Disc 1)
18	Diana Krall	Maybe You'll Be There	Live in Paris
19	Camille	Le Festin	Ratatouille
20	Jimmy Buffett	Last Mango In Paris	Meet Me In Margaritaville (Disc 1)
21	Toots Thielemans	La Vie En Rose	Chez Toots
22	Eartha Kitt	Je Cherche Un Homme	Something's Gotta Give
23	Toots Thielemans	Moulin Rouge (Live)	Chez Toots
24	Count Basie	April In Paris	Verve's Grammy Winners
25	jane birkin	elaeudanla téïtéïa	Putumayo Presents French Cafe
26	Louis Armstrong	La Vie En Rose	The Essence Of Louis Armstrong
27	Madeleine Peyroux	J'Ai Deux Amours	Careless Love
28	Diana Krall	I've Got You Under My Skin	Live in Paris
29	Ella Fitzgerald	I Love Paris	The Complete Songbooks: The Cole Porter Songbook- Disc 2
30	Paris Combo	High, Low, In	Motifs
31	Jimmy Buffett	He Went To Paris	Meet Me In Margaritaville (Disc 2)
32	polo	la fée clochette	Putumayo Presents French Cafe
33	Toots Thielemans	For My Lady	Chez Toots
34	Paris Combo	Etoile Pâle	Motifs
35	Grateful Dead	France	Shakedown Street
36	sanseverino	mal ô mains	Putumayo Presents French Cafe
37	Nat King Cole	Darling, Je Vous Aime Beaucoup (2003 Digital Remaster)	The World Of Nat King Cole - His Very Best
38	Madeleine Peyroux	Don't Wait Too Long	KFOG Live from the Archives 12
39	Etta James	There Is No Greater Love	Blue Gardenia
40	Diana Krall	Devil May Care	Live in Paris
41	mathieu boogaerts	ondulé	Putumayo Presents French Cafe
42	Edith Piaf	J'Ai Dansè Avec L'Amour	La Vie En Rose
43	Pink Martini	Dansez-vous	Hang on Little Tomato
44	Madeleine Peyroux	Dance Me to the End of Love	Careless Love
45	Eartha Kitt	C'est Si Bon (It's So Good)	That Bad Eartha
46	Madeleine Peyroux	Careless Love	Careless Love
47	Geno Delafose and French Rockin Boogie	Bye Bye Mon Neg	Putumayo Presents: Zydeco
48	Pink Martini	Autrefois	Hang on Little Tomato
49	Paris Combo	Aquarium	Motifs
50	Charlie Parker	April In Paris	Bird: The Original Recordings of Charlie Parker
51	barbara	si la photo est bonne	Putumayo Presents French Cafe

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

We got rhubarb and strawberries, among other things, in our CSA box this week. I had been wanting to make a strawberry-rhubarb crisp for a while, and this was the perfect opportunity. Sarah had claimed to be no fan of rhubarb, but strawberry-rhubarb anything is a whole different thing - the tartness is gone from the rhubarb with the included strawberries.

My mom used to make lots of peach, and blackberry, as well as strawberry-rhubarb cobblers and crisps, especially in the summer. I think I prefer a crisp to a cobbler these days, the crunch is nice. Some time ago I made a fig-raspberry crisp which was great, i made a cranberry-cherry crumble also, which was not so hot.

I used a combination of my grandmother's recipe from the "Minnaert family cookbook" and a recipe from Emeril.

Easter in Boulder Creek

We visited sarah's dad while up in Santa Cruz for Easter. We all went to lunch in Boulder Creek. They have a quaint downtown area, somewhat typical of the mountain towns around the area, the place has a bit of charm. The weather was gorgeous in the bay area, which we kind of find a surprise now. Especially when we visit Santa Cruz, we expect to freeze.

Alan had a couple of his old business cards laying around. I thought they were pretty cool, a little sketch he did of himself along with his calligraphic name.

Fon, Fonera, Fonero

I've become more and more interested in this idea of free wifi access in cities and communities. The large city efforts to provide free wifi (San Francisco, etc.) have all stalled, but a couple startup companies have begun wireless efforts in a bottom-up fashion. The idea being that you share your internet connection where you live, and then when you go somewhere, others return the favor. Thinking of the internet a community asset, then everyone should have access wherever they roam.

I looked around a bit, and ended up signing up with Fon, and getting a "Fonera+" wireless router. Fon is a Spanish company that is growing in Europe ("we are HUGE in Europe!!"). They also have started an effort also to provide wireless access to the Castro District in San Francisco. The router sets up 2 wireless access points to your internet connection: a private one which is password secured, just like your normal wireless router, and then a public access point, which does not have a password and anyone can use.

The access points are completely separate, and you can decide how much bandwidth you wanna give to the general public, in case someone tries downloading entire movies and brings your network to a grinding halt. Most people are not using all their available bandwidth anyway, so if you share a little here and there, it doesn't impact your daily life.

So this is my little project lately. If anyone is interested, as a "Fonero" (the term for people signed up with Fon), I can give out gift certificate things so you can get a Fonera router for cheap. Lemme know and I will forward the invite.

a couple of pics of the fon equipment:

Fon La Fonera+ router and La Fontenna. You don't have to get the big antenna (La Fontenna) pictured here, but it improves range.

Fon La Fonera+ router and La Fontenna

Runyan Canyon, LACMA + gary's parents

Gary's parents visited for a couple days from Palm Springs a week ago. They wanted to check out the new Broad Contemporary Art Museum building at LACMA. They sent out some photos... I figured I would share some.

Mom and Dad did a hike in Runyan Canyon Park. You can walk here from our condo, it's maybe a mile away.

The park is pretty close to the Hollywood Sign. It is also the local dog park. Mom + Dad were surprised to see so many young people in the park during the middle of the day. We informed them, "those are actors."

At Runyan Canyon park they got some good views & photos of downtown Los Angeles, with a little smog.

We all met up for lunch at LACMA, then checked out the new building & entry. This is street light sculpture out front of LACMA

The fire truck outside the entry pavilion.

The Tulips sculpture by jeff koons in the entry pavilion.

The canals of Venice

We went to Venice this weekend. I'm not sure if people what Venice has other than the beach walk, Muscle Beach, etc. There are actual canals in Venice... about 6 blocks of them. Sidewalks run along them, making it a great place to walk when the sun is shining.

The houses along the canals are quite cool, an amazing neighborhood. Everyone was has a little dock for their rowboat. A couple places were for sale in the neighborhood, places 1 block from the canal start around $1.7 million. I think we will have to save more aggressively to move in.

We got a book of walks in LA recently. We referred to it to find out way around Venice. We had been there before, but getting a little more guidance on walking around the trendy shops on Abbot Kinney Blvd and other areas was helpful. Afterward we went up to Santa Monica... between there and the boardwalk in Venice, I think we have seen enough street performers to keep us satisfied for some time.

A cautionary tale about coffee

About a month ago I hit the handle on our coffee pot carafe, sending it into the air and having glass explode all over the kitchen. The cost of a replacement carafe & a new coffee maker was roughly the same... so off we went looking for coffee makers. And this brings us to our tale.

moral of the story: don't scrimp when you have a hint that it might not be a good idea. I had a suspicion that I should buy a good name coffeemaker... but we were near a sears... and looked around at other places... and all we found were over-priced things. So we brought home this Kenmore coffee maker.


BIG mistake. Piece of junk coffee maker. Even turning the thing on was bad (you needed to push the "On" button twice. What machine makes you do this??? It's like they decided to fly in the face of the conventions of manufacturing or something).

Anyway, the thing was trash, we knew we had made a huge mistake. We were in Macy's the other day and they had a "morning sale" going on, prices only good until 12 noon. Coffee makers were on sale, and we got ourselves this fancy Cuisinart for 1/2 off, such a deal!. Macy's is amazing, they have about 12 sales a week. If you pay full price for anything there, you know you are getting screwed.

Sunset at Idyllwild

Sunset at Idyllwild
Originally uploaded by Minnaert.

We went to Idyllwild (a mountain town east of LA, near Palm Springs) with our friends Nate & Ryan over the presidents day weekend.

we did a little hiking, a little lounging & relaxing. The sunsets there were pretty amazing.

Valentine theater

For Valentines Day we went out to dinner & then a play.

We saw Dickie & Babe at the Blank Theater. It's about Leopold & Loeb, who were young, affluent killers in Chicago in the 1920s. Their trial was one of the first "trials of the century." Maybe not the most romantic choice.


The play was quite good, it was in a little theater on Santa Monica Boulevard, close by in Hollywood. That stretch is known as "Theater Row" and has a bunch of small, independent theaters.

Last year for Valentines Day we went to a play also, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?" in downtown LA. This also was anything but a romantic play; the majority of the play having a long married couple say incredibly cruel things to one another. I'm not sure what we will get up to next year, but the pattern appears to be set.

Phone headsets

We got bluetooth headsets for our phones recently. California has a law, effective in 2008, that you cannot talk on a cell phone while driving. You need some sort of hands-free device or capability in order to use your phone. So we bit the bullet and got some headsets.

Those things always cause me to double-take when I see someone talking on them. They are either looking like they are crazy and talking to people which are not there, or it looks like they are speaking to the ceiling.

Hopefully we won't have some sort of misunderstanding like this when we start talking on them.

The CSA has begun

Oranges & Lemons in bowl
Originally uploaded by Minnaert.

We just started getting fruits and vegetables, every other week, from the local Community Support Agriculture (CSA). We did this before in San Jose and found the prices to be competitive with organic produce (everything from the CSA is organic & grown on the same farm). So far it has been good, we pick up the veggies in Glendale. You never completely know what is going to be in the box, so it makes you eat things you would never imagine getting. We got Daikon radishes the other week, they were good in a stir fry, but i honestly had not idea what they were initially.


Tierra Miguel Farm CSA

A Tour of Hollywood

We did an architectural driving tour around Hollywood the other weekend. It was very interesting, since Hollywood and Los Angeles both have lots of notable buildings and interesting backstories. It was a couple hours well spent.

We drove all over the place, the guide book was really good about winding you in & around. We decided our next house should be in the Hollywoodland area of town (the Hollywood sign was originally an advertisement for the "Hollywoodland" development). Very cool area, winding canyon, great architecture, average home price probably $2 million or so.

The photo was taken from one of the Frank Lloyd Wright houses in LA, the Hollyhock House. From here you can see (marked with yellow arrows, left to right) the Hollywood sign, Griffith Observatory & another Frank Lloyd Wright house; the Ennis Brown House.

The Ennis Brown house has been going through a major restoration, and will probably reopen to the public this year, but it is amazing. A huge house that looks like some sort of Mayan temple, on a hill with a near 360 degree view of LA. Stunning.