A new wee one

Meet Clara Lynn LaForge - my friend Heather and Drew's new baby girl. The reason for my post is you have to notice the hat... ;) I am very touched she wore it home from the hospital.

Politics, a moment, if you will

For those you who have not read/seen Barack Obama's speech from yesterday must take a bit of time to read this - here is the full transcript on the NY Times website.

He has eloquently put into words what is pushing me to write my dissertation - we DO have a problem with race in America. We DO need to fix our broken system. Recognizing it is part of the process - but finding out what we can do to CHANGE it is what is called for now - what we must do.

I know this campaign is not supposed to be about race - but it is. I know this campaign is not supposed to be about gender - but it is. Because America is so obsessed with these constructions. This man and his administration is the right person to lead our country - now, at this particular moment, to encourage America to face race head-on, to recognize that race is a construction, that race has been created by those in power with deep-seated anxieties about what the "Other" might be, who project their own fears onto the "Other" instead of finding out who s/he really is about. Because until we recognize that race is a problem in this country, still is a problem, we will never get beyond it. Obama seems to be the only one who is uniquely positioned to guide America into the next phase - he genuinely wants to see America change. And god knows we need a little of that right now.

Okay. End of my public service announcement. But don't just read this post, read the text of his speech.

Adventures in Desert Hiking

So once again, we took the desert, this time, back to an old haunt - Anza Borrego State Park, the closest swath of state park desert to us. Steve and I day tripped out with our friend and hiking compadre Michael (who is almost finished his dissertation, the lucky bastard).
We had planned on camping for the night, but weather reports of rainstorms made us decide on a day hike (and it was a darn good thing, because there were flood warnings on the radio all evening, and we got hit with hail and thunderstorms all night here at home. As we sipped on wine and ate the steak we were supposed to have cooked on our little stove, we were all happy we made the decision to just do a day hike!)
So here are shots from the hike up Coyote Canyon through - wait for it - Alcoholic Pass. No joke. Kinda perfect for us three. The wildflowers were SPECTACULAR - all the rain we've had this year has really made the desert bloom. Kinda awesome to see this little burst of color in an otherwise harsh, dry, scree covered environment.

Michael and Steve coordinated in their "matching" hiking gear.

Big clouds from the impeding storm

one of my favorite kinds of flowers - some have the red dot, some do not. Kinda like Queen Anne's lace?

Woohoo! Excited to be out of town. In the background, you can see the Ocotillo - very cool spiky cactus like things, with little red bursts of flowers at the end of their spiky tips. They can get up to 10 feet tall.

Steve is happy to be hiking as well - see the little red blooms on the ocotillo? Kinda neat.

Steve's awesome close-up of a cactus flower.

Purple fields of flowers at the mouth of the canyon.

Michael devours beef jerky on the way home, two-fisted style. ;)

the Birds and the Bees are great!

No - get your head out of the gutter. I mean it - literally! These ensuing pics are of the sunflowers that are popping up in our front garden because the birdies above decided that they didn't want to the sunflowers in the bird feeder. How great is that? All of sudden, about two months ago, we had all these shoots coming up under the bird feeder, and it took me about another month to realize what type of plant they were. Sunflowers. How great.
The bees, which are declining in population in the US so treat your honey bees well!! - are happily pollinating our sad little backyard orange tree - and here are two shots of the blossoms, as well as the ripening fruit. Well, we hope it ripens. It's been green for quite a long time - and no, they aren't limes. I checked. I wish I could bottle up the scent of the blooming orange blossoms for you. It's divine.
You know, if I didn't get so excited about the simplest things, you wouldn't have so much stuff to read on this blog. Ah well. Guess it could be worse.

Steve races at the Big Time Track

So those of you who have seen the first post on this blog might remember that we went to the World Track something somethings at the LA Velodrome - a wooden racing track that's got 45 degree banks/turns and you have to be going at least 15 mph around those corners so you don't fall over.

So of course Steve couldn't wait to race on it himself. And this past weekend, he did! His biking buddies Mark and Dave went with him for moral support (and to relentlessly pick on him) and I unfortunately stayed home with an intestinal issue. Ah well. The pictures Mark took aren't bad - although some of them were blurry because the riders were whipping by him so fast. Steve downloaded his stats from his bike computer when he got home and get this - his top speed was:

drum roll please

46 mph!!! now, this probably was going down one of those banks, but seriously folks, 46 mph on a single geared bike? Do you know how fast his legs were turning at that point??

Amazing. Needless to say, I'm definitely proud. While he just was shy of placing in the races that he participated, he learned a bunch about race tactics, (i.e. that he had better get some better ones), riding on this insane track, and that he can hang with the big boys when he puts his mind to it.

I'm sure there will be many more exciting posts about this racing season... but for now, enjoy the photos! He's the one in the black and red skinsuit. Oohh wee!

Steve warming up in the entrance to the track with our friend Dave

Coming down one of the banks... do you see how freaking high that is??

In the pack- the blue arrow is pointing to Steve

Eyeballing the rest of the pack.

That's Steve - way ahead of the pack!

Ah well - now the pack has caught back up.

I know I'm partial, but doesn't he look good?? I mean, the man turns 39 this summer. I hope to look that good on a bike going 30mph at 39.

Reasons why we love Julia Child

So Henry's had asparagus on sale this week, so I was able to buy 2lbs for $2.50! But it was sitting in the fridge, and we weren't sure what to do with it.

Steve says - how about cream of asparagus soup? So last night, while he was working on the new bike (see post below), I thought, mmmm... guess i'll do an internet search for soup. But wait, I wonder, does JULIA have a recipe?

Of course she does.

and this was the best darn cream of WHATEVER soup we have ever had. Mmmm...

Reasons why we love the thrift store #325

It's no secret that we love thrift store shopping. And we are lucky to have a great "Am-Vets" thrift store about 15 minutes away that we LOVE going poking around on the weekends. It's not open Sunday, so we have to sacrifice our post-biking nap to go, but some days, it's totally worth it. Steve and I both have found great clothes for really cheap, random knick-knacks, knitting needles, and my favorite - a "warming tray." (Side story: we had an Xmas party and my aunt suggested that if I wanted to keep the hot appetizers warm, i would need this weird thing called a warming tray that is basically a tray with a plug that, duh, keeps things warm. I asked where i could find one these elusive species, and she suggested garage sales. Ask and ye shall receive. I said, hmmm. i wonder if AmVets has it. And there it was - for $2.95. Same thing happened a few weeks later when i needed a mini-muffin pan. There it was - for $1.)

Anyway - so YESTERDAY, they had all bike 50% off. Now, Steve has never found anything in the bike pile before, but behold - the bike that was $2.98. Yup. $3.
But here's the real reason he bought a bike with no seat that was all rusted. A pretty cool find.
So the plan is to load the bike with all the parts that Steve has sitting around in the garage that he needs to sell ANYWAY, and sell it on craigslist for about $100.

Pretty darn cool. and yes, currently, that brings our bike total to 11.

Yes. We go to 11.