Have fun, be careful with those Black Cats and other explosives!

I've been spending a lot of my nights staying up late, watching old teen movies and thinking about old times. I don't know why. Tonight was Clueless. Just like old songs, I can remember where I was in my life when I watched these films. Who they remind me of, what kind of person I used to be. It's actually kind of nice. Perhaps it's because this summer feels almost like high school and college again. Staying up late. Having various adventures. Lots of music. Pretty soon it will be time to get serious again.

I had a very good job interview today. I won't hear anything for a couple weeks, but I sincerely hope this is the one. This routine can't stay healthy forever.

And in the midst of it, the cycle of life continues. We have had births and deaths. A good friend of mine lost their young child. My roommate's grandma just died suddenly. My own grandparents aren't doing so well, but they still seem to be hanging in there and I am thankful for this. My best friend's mom was diagnosed with leukemia awhile back but she's responding well to treatment and we are hoping for the best. I guess it just shows that tomorrow really is uncertain so we might as well make the most of today.

I guess I only have sentimental thoughts on my mind lately. I haven't really been in the blogging frame of mind for awhile. But this place can never die, nor should it. I just wish I had more to say. I don't really have the desire to write about movies I've seen. I've been way into music lately. My wrestling fixation is still going strong for some odd reason. What's new with all of you guys?

Hi everyone, I'm back!

You can view the rest of my photos from my vacation on Facebook. I had a good time hanging out with Erika and Justin and all of their pets.

Sunday Erika and I hit up the Vancouver Farmers Market, then went to the Portland Art Museum, where we saw exhibitions of MC Escher (more interesting than I expected because there were several drafts and displays of technique), Beth Van Hoesen (some simple, some cute, some colorful), and great displays of tattoos. From there we headed to Hawthorne for some shopping and then to Target to get our fix, and then back home where Justin made us an awesome meal.

Monday we went down to the riverfront to take a walk. The trees are dropping little white puffs, which made it look like it was snowing all day. We drove to a condo complex off the river and took a walk down the little strip of land that goes out into the water and admired the view, then came back and picked up Justin for a long walk along Lacamas Lake. We went out for pizza and then chilled back at home that night.

Tuesday we went to Washington Park to visit the International Test Rose Garden and the Japanese gardens, which were lovely. After an awesome French patisserie lunch and a visit to a co-op grocery store, we went shopping at Nob Hill where we found the little bakery of Two Tarts and enjoyed our cookies and creams. Then we headed downtown to the Pearl District for more shopping. We drove to the Kennedy School for dinner, which is an elementary school that's been converted into a lodge, movie theater, bars, and restaurant. It's kind of surreal to look out a school window and see people in a jacuzzi. The art was crazy there too, big on the creepy factor.

Wednesday we drove to Justin's parents' property in Oregon City, which is 10 acres of awesomeness. Trees, horses, ponds, you name it. I got to ride Rocky, with careful instruction by Mary, Justin's mom. We hung out at their lovely home for a while. I feel like we did more on this day but can't seem to remember what! Mostly hanging at home watching tv, I think.

Thursday we took a two hour drive to Cannon Beach, which is where they filmed some of Goonies. That was a bonus! We walked along the beach and then shopped along the street in town. One of the highlights was Bruce's Candy Kitchen, although I was too cheap to buy anything there! The smell of pizza from Pizza a Fetta sucked us in (wow, good stuff!) for dinner, and then we drove back another two hours while listening to Michael Jackson tributes. We stopped to shop at the mall in Tualatin for a while, then went to Sheridan's for some yummy custard on the way home.

Friday we busted ourselves all around Vancouver and Portland buying things for Justin's sister's shower. We started off our day at Nob Hill again and had a massive breakfast at Stepping Stone Cafe. We hit up grocery stores, Costco, downtown, and Target. Erika prepped a lot of food while I caught up on a lot of emails from work and family, and then we decorated them.

Saturday was the shower day, so we loaded up the car and headed out to the bride's new sister-in-law's house to set up, eat, enjoy, and take down. I tried to relax a little and then started packing. Erika and I headed in to downtown one more time for dinner at Henry's, which I'm telling you you must visit if you go to Portland and are in the Pearl District area. I love their food, including the sesame seared scallops with lime, mango, and chili sauce. I also enjoyed a local-brewed Stout. :) We also stopped by the new drive-thru Black Rock Coffee Bar near Erika's house for some buy one get one action, and it was tasty.

It was a good week for time spent together and visiting new places, but a hard week emotionally with all the trouble with family and friends. I think I'm glad, though, that I had ample time to reflect, and the Ireland-like Northwest was the perfect place for that. Many thanks to Erika and Justin for hosting me for a whole week!

This month I've resumed reading Everett Fox's translation of The Five Books Of Moses. I chose to read this because it preserves the Hebrewness of the scriptures by by trying to retain key phrases and linguistic stylings in English. I know some translators frown on this, claiming that a faithful translation should simply be done in idiomatic English, but I think it's interesting to see some of the original Hebrew phrases reflected in new English constructions, and I think it helps more of the poetry to show through.

Anyway, I've been reading this off and on for a while now: I read Genesis, put it away for a long time, then read Exodus, put it away again, and now I'm on Leviticus. A lot of it is not much more exciting than most bible translations, and most of the insights I've been having are due more to the commentary than the new translation, but tonight I came across a passage that really surprised me.

It's from Leviticus 19 and is written in a very rigid pattern that makes it feel very poetic. Fox's translation has a lot of energy to it, and each time the phrase, "I am YHWH!" is repeated the passage grown in intensity.

Here it is (I left out one section for the sake of rhythm--I hope that's not blasphemous):

YHWH spoke to Moshe, saying:
Speak to the entire community of the Children of Israel, and say to them:
Holy are you to be,
for holy am I, YHWH your God!

Each-man--his mother and his father you are to hold-in-awe,
and my Sabbaths you are to keep:
I am YHWH your God!

Do not turn-your-faces to no-gods,
and molten gods you are not to make yourselves,
I am YHWH your God!

...

Now when you harvest the harvest of your land,
you are not to finish (to the) edge of your field in harvesting,
the full-gathering of your harvest you are not to gather;
your vineyard you are not to glean,
the break-off of your vineyard you are not to gather--
rather, for the afflicted and for the sojourner you are to leave them,
I am YHWH your God!

You are not to steal,
you are not to lie,
you are not to deal-falsely, each-man with his fellow!
You are not to swear by my name falsely,
thus profaning the name of your God--
I am YHWH!

You are not to withhold (property from) your neighbor,
you are not to commit-robbery.
You are not to keep-overnight the working-wages of a hired-hand with you until morning.
You are not to insult the deaf,
before the blind your are not to place a stumbling-block:
rather, you are to hold your God in awe;
I am YHWH!

You are not to commit corruption in justice;
you are not to lift-up-in-favor the face of the poor,
you are not to overly-honor the face of the great;
with equity you are to judge your fellow!
You are not to traffic in slander among your kinspeople.
You are not to stand by the blood of your neighbor,
I am YHWH!

You are not to hate your brother in your heart;
rebuke, yes, rebuke your fellow,
that you not bear sin because of him!
You are not to take-vengeance, your not to retain-anger against the sons of your kinspeople--
but be-loving to your neighbor (as one) like yourself,
I am YHWH!

Who knew Leviticus contains such powerful poetry?

Also, I forget how much of the Old Testament law is about justice, compassion, caring for foreigners (sojourners) and the poor, and loving your neighbor as yourself. These are things I typically associate more with the teaching of Jesus than with Leviticus.

Ghostbusters game. Catching up on TV shows: Madmen, Weeds, and Dexter. Not to mention that pesky job hunt thing.

My pal Jesse and I saw Black Dynamite on Thursday at the L.A. Film Festival. The screening was at the outdoor Ford Theatre, which turned out to be quite amazing. The movie was a blast. I haven't laughed that much in a long time and it's one of the most quotable movies I've seen in ages. My apologies to Michael Jai White for any bad things I said about him after watching Spawn. He's definitely redeemed in my eyes.

Hope you all are having a good weekend. If you're looking for something else to check out, how about the music of The New Limb? They're playing their final show of a month long residency at Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa on Monday and man, they are just amazing to watch. Phil said it best that it reminds me of seeing Cold War Kids up there just a few years ago. Very similar energy and quite the huge crowd. You can find out more by checking out their interview with Brax.

Hope you guys are having a good weekend.

The Flaming Lips have given out a free EP of three tracks from their upcoming album to people who have ordered tickets to their upcoming tour. The Internet being what it is, those songs are now available to the rest of us through *ahem* other means (via a discussion thread on the band's new official site's message board, no less).

Anyway, I gave the tracks a listen and thought I'd write down my initial impressions.

Convinced of the Hex opens up with some chaotic bleeps and feedback, gradually settling into a steady rhythm of heavy drums and distorted instruments. I like it. I'm not sure I like Wayne's flat speech-singing or his repetition of "That's the difference between us" over and over again. Everything else about the track is very good. It's easily the best of these three songs.

The Impulse is much more low-key, with slow synth-sounds and a vocal track that is distorted to the point that it's barely recognizable as a human voice, much less comprehensible.

Silver Trembling Hands is the most recognizable as a Flaming Lips song. It's more pop-oriented and sounds a bit like "Up Above the Daily Hum or one of their other Yoshimi-era B-sides. The vocals are not nearly as distorted here, but they're still pushed to the background.

Taken together, these songs sound less pop-oriented and more spacey and atmospheric than the band's usual album material. It's not a completely different direction for the band, but it's definitely more like the stuff that they've left off albums in the past, which is to say that they take more risks. That's a good thing. One complaint fans had about their last album was that some of the B-sides were better than any of the album tracks.

My Firsts!

I got tagged on facebook with this, but I'm think I'm phasing out my facebook activity, and I can't find my notes on there, so I put it here.

1. Who was your FIRST prom date?
Lisa Shea

2. Do you still talk to your FIRST love?
I can't even remember her name. Little cutie from kindergarten.

3. Who was your FIRST love?
see above

4. Who was your FIRST kiss?
Lisa Shea?

5. What was your FIRST car?
'67 Oldsmobile Delta 88 - wish I still had that baby

6. Who was the FIRST person to text you today?
No one

7. Who is the FIRST person you thought of this morning?
MaryEllen

8. Who was your FIRST grade teacher?
Mrs. Boliger

9. Where did you go on your FIRST ride on an airplane?
New Orleans?

10. Who was your FIRST best friend & do you still talk?
Mark Morris & no, not much

11. Where was your FIRST sleep over?
Mark's? How can an old man remember all this stuff?

12. Who woke up and thought of you FIRST today?
MaryEllen? Mom?

13. Whose wedding were you in the FIRST time?
Mine, I think

14. What was the FIRST thing you did this morning?
did some reading in a small room

15. What was the FIRST concert you ever went to?
Steve, Bob and Rich - The Rainmakers

16. FIRST tattoo?
made it through the above New Orleans trip w/o a tattoo. If I get one now it should just read "Mid-life Crisis" and of course have a skull, snake, bikini woman and ace of spades.

17. FIRST piercing?
dart in my thumb

18. FIRST foreign country you've went to?
Mexico

19. FIRST movie you remember seeing?
Song of the South - Uncle Remus - the only Disney film they are keeping in the vault

20. When was your FIRST detention?
1st grade after school for talking, for like 3 minutes, I was mortified

22. Who was your FIRST roommate?
my brother counts?

23. If you had one wish. What would it be?
world peace

24. What is something you would learn if you had the chance?
To speak a foreign language fluently

25. Did you marry the FIRST person to ask for your hand in marriage?
No one has asked me yet

26. What was the first sport that you were involved in?
t-ball

27. What were the first lessons you ever took?
swimming?

28. What is the first thing you do when you get home?
talk to my kids, or do the dishes

I'm on vacation in Oregon and Washington this week. Sorry for the lack of posts. In the past few days, I've learned of David's daughter's death, Grandpa Price's stroke, Grandma Price's terminal brain tumor, and been weighed down by lots of other people's struggles in life.

I've been listening to Johnny Cash's My Mother's Hymn Book. It's a lot of music I haven't heard in years, and it's rather encouraging. Here's one (last verse especially) I was glad to listen to last night:

WHERE WE'LL NEVER GROW OLD

I have heard of a land on the faraway strand,
’Tis a beautiful home of the soul;
Built by Jesus on high, where we never shall die,
’Tis a land where we never grow old.

Never grow old, never grow old,
In a land where we’ll never grow old;
Never grow old, never grow old,
In a land where we’ll never grow old.

In that beautiful home where we’ll never more roam,
We shall be in the sweet by and by;
Happy praise to the King through eternity sing,
’Tis a land where we never shall die.

When our work here is done and the life-crown is won,
And our troubles and trials are o’er;
All our sorrow will end, and our voices will blend,
With the loved ones who’ve gone on before.

Is it wrong that I'm more shocked that TMZ scooped all the major news outlets? Perhaps.

I'll always remember him as Captain EO.

Details about the new Flaming Lips album have been gradually trickling out. We now know it is definitely a double album, it will be titled Embryonic, and the cover will be this:

Interestingly, this has me more exited than anything I've read about it up to now. Wayne Coyne takes a very hands-on approach to the band's album artwork (along with George Salisbury), which I think telegraphs his attitude about the album, including its overall mood and style, and how similar or different it is from what the band has done previously.

To illustrate, here we have the covers for Transmissions From The Satellite Heart and Clouds Taste Metallic:

These two were released during the Ronald Jones and Steven Drozd phase of the band, and are characterized by dense noise-rock built around Jones' frenetic guitar effects and Drozd's heavy drumming. The artwork for these albums is appropriately rough and homemade-looking.

After Ronald Jones left the band, The Flaming Lips began their period of multi-channel musical experimentation, culminating in the infamous four-CD-simultaenous-play album Zaireeka.

With Steven Drozd now playing the part of multi-instrumentalist, the music was now much less traditionally rock-oriented and more of an in-studio orchestration of diverse elements. The band took this approach to a more consumer-friendly format in The Soft Bulletin. The common elements to both albums are reflected in the smoother presentation of the covers, the bold color separations, and the circular bursts, hinting at the layers of orchestrated sound:

In many ways the band's next two albums continue in a similar vein (the lineup in the studio remained unchanged during this time), but I think there are some small differences. The sound on Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots and At War With The Mystics is brighter, more pop-oriented, and a little more bombastic. For the covers for the albums and all of the singles, Wayne used his original paintings:

So what does the artwork for Embryonic tell me?

Well, for one thing, it's something different. Wayne has mentioned in interviews that this new album is going to have a different sound to it, but he always says that. His album artwork, though, telegraphs a major change in direction. I hope this is true. The image also tells me the album is going to be more psychedelic than their recent work, and more boldly experimental. Given that it's a double album (and given Wayne's own comments about that decision), I also think it's going to be all over the place.

I can't wait.

Popmatters features what is, at first glance, a ridiculously long list of the 60 [plus 2] most memorable films of 1999.

My first reaction was, "62? Isn't that a bit of overkill?"

But as I read through the list, I realized these really are some great movies. Some of them I would probably put on my all-time top movies list. It's hard to believe they all came out in a single year.

Here are some notables:

The Thin Red Line
Office Space
The Matrix
Election
Run Lola Run
The Iron Giant
The Sixth Sense
American Beauty
The Straight Story
Being John Malkovich
Princess Mononoke
Sweet and Lowdown
Magnolia
Man on the Moon
Fight Club

How is it that a single year could spawn so many beloved films? I'm sure that for me at least, part of it is the timing. I was 19 years old, and had just recently awakened to the range of great film art around me. Naturally, the movies I saw at that age shaped my critical taste more than movies released today possibly could.

But that doesn't explain it all. Several of those movies, including Sweet and Lowdown, The Straight Story, The Iron Giant, and The Thin Red Line, I didn't see until years later, but they still had a bit impact on me.

What do you think? Was there really something extraordinarily great about 1999, or is it nostalgia?

Robots can climb walls now. Sorry to be the one to tell you this.

Plain View #102 - part 2 - March 1, 2009

New cat

Hair cut couth

Communion med

Grad speech

Park and Rec

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Henry Reed Imler born at 5:55pm today. 7 lbs 13.5 oz, 20.5 inches.

I guess this makes him the first Junior Member of the LOD.

Crazy Hair by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean

On Wednesday Anthony and I went to a book signing for David Malki's new Wondermark book, Clever Tricks to Stave Off Death. It was held at a swanky hotel in Beverly Hills and they had a photographer by the name of Noe Montes taking pictures using beards and other old timey props. Noe was very friendly and is an excellent photographer. Here's me:

And here's Anthony:

It was a very fun and classy evening. David Malki is always very nice and friendly and he even did a sketch in my book! If you're going to Comic-Con I highly recommend you seek him out in the webcomic area and if you're not you should still check out his comic and the new book, which I give my highest recommendation to.

In summer school today I played for one of my students this story from NPR on the Dictionary of American Regional English, which inspired us to look for some examples of regional slang in Missouri. In the process I came across a regional definition for Hoosier, which enlightened me to the cause of an old argument between me and Erika.

It was in the early years of our relationship, and I don't remember the exact context now. It could have been a car up on blocks in someone's front yard or a nasty couch sitting out on their front porch, to which Erika commented, "That's so hoosier."

I was surprised and a little bit offended to hear her use the term this way. Growing up in Nebraska I had learned from the movie Hoosiers and from Kurt Vonnegut that "hoosier" is a term proudly self-applied by residents of Indiana, and I thought that to use it as a pejorative is insulting.

Erika was surprised at my offendedness and that as far as she knew "hoosier" is just another word for "redneck." I asked her not to use it that way for my sake, and she agreed, even though she seemed to think it an odd request.

Anyway, when I started reading about Missouri variations of "hoosier," I found out that in St. Louis (Erika's hometown) it has a very specific meaning that is different from just about ever other region in America:

Thomas E. Murray carefully analyzed the use of "hoosier" in St. Louis, Missouri, where it is the favorite epithet of abuse. "When asked what a Hoosier is," Murray writes, "St. Louisans readily list a number of defining characteristics, among which are 'lazy,' 'slow-moving,' 'derelict,' and 'irresponsible.'" He continues, "Few epithets in St. Louis carry the pejorative connotations or the potential for eliciting negative responses that hoosier does." He conducted tests and interviews across lines of age and race and tabulated the results. He found the term ecumenically applied. He also noted the word was often used with a modifier, almost redundantly, as in "some damn Hoosier."

I've read a couple of different explanations for the pejorative use in St. Louis. From Wikipedia:

One need only look to the St. Louis suburb of Fenton, which, in the mid-1950s, was at the then-rural southwest rim of the county. At the time, Chrysler Corporation built a large automobile assembly plant in the city of Fenton and closed a plant it had been operating in Indiana. Many former employees of the closed Indiana plant moved to Fenton for employment; so many, in fact, that entire subdivisions of new homes (with streets named after Chrysler models such as "Fury" and "Belvidere") sprang up south of the plant, near what was then US Route 66.

It became something of a local joke to refer to the new arrivals from Indiana as "hoosiers", and before long, anyone from the rural edges of St. Louis County was considered such.

The Urban dictionary has a different (and to me, more compelling) explanation:

Dates back to a strike that occurred in St. Louis in the 30's. During this strike, scab workers from Indiana were brought in to fill in for strikers. The perjorative (sic) hoosier stems from the St. Louis workers' lack of appreciation for this.

There isn't a source cited for either one, so there's no way to know which is true.

It's a cool bit of trivia and it helps me to understand where Erika was coming from. Her use of hoosier really is a well-documented regional variation of the term.

Happy Birthday Brendan!!

Brendan got me started blogging. Not sure if that (the blogging) is a good thing or a bad thing at this point, but it sure changed the way I viewed the world.

So happy birthday to a good man who helped change my world.

Happiest of birthdays to our friend Honzo. I was just going through my stuff and found an old Gumby's cup and it reminded me of all the good times I had with Henry, Smiles, Eric, Gringo, and many others there. If there was ever an official lair of the LOD, it was Gumby's. I propose that one of these days we have a reunion there. Sorry I hijacked your birthday post with memories of pizza and beer, Henry, but those were good times.

I just found out that Dave McKean's collection of short comics work, Pictures That Tick, is to be released by Dark Horse Comics.

This is great news because before now it was only available in its first edition hardcover edition, of which only 4000 copies were made.

It's not easy reading: many of these are experimental comics, with greater emphasis on interesting visuals than on story clarity. If you're willing to invest a little effort, though, there are some big rewards, like (eye), which tells its story using only illustrations and pictorial icons, or the story about his father, entitled simply "His Story," which Neil Gaiman has mentioned as his favorite of McKean's short comics work.

Right now you can get it for $13.57 at Amazon, which is a steal, but you better buy it soon. McKean's short film collection, which was one of my favorite releases last year, is already an out-of-print rarity.

Since this is almost unable to be found online, let me tell you: there's a wilderness preserve right next to Whittier Area Community Church off of Colima. Who knew, right? Sorry, we didn't take our camera, so I don't have good photos for you like the last post.

The Arroyo Pescadero Park is located at 7531 South Colima Road in Whittier. From our area, we drove up Colima past Mar Vista and turned left in a little left-hand turn lane opposite the baseball diamonds at Murphy Ranch. There are a couple of trails there. Parking is free, but limited. There is a map when you get there, but you can also download it here.

The Arroyo Pescadero trail is two miles and goes in a loop. It has an optional extra loop called Deer Loop that adds about a mile onto the hike. We took this trail last weekend and it was a good walk. It's easy enough for first timers, I think, but not just a flat trail. It's got plenty of ups and downs, but they are proportionate to each other so that it's easy to continue without having to stop. The road is mostly an asphalt trail, although I think there might have been some parts that were only dirt. There are tons of plants and trees too keep a person entertained while walking through it. We did hear a little bit of water trickling, so I'm assuming that in rainier weather, there might be a little creek. The signs were pretty easy to follow once we got onto the main trail (from the parking lot, it was a little confusing). On a Saturday morning, we probably walked past about two other parties. We couldn't even hear the nearby traffic at some points, although a helicopter did come hover for a while, which Ric found annoying. Overall, it was a nice walk, and at the top of it all right near our parking, there was a nice view of the city. I'd rate the trail as easy and give it a 7 or 8 for what it is.

The Arroyo San Miguel trail is about 1.4-1.8 miles (it depends on which map you use) from end to end and a hike on it gives you 3 to almost 4 miles when you double back on it. Ric and I took this trail on Saturday. It takes a steep downhill from the parking lot and goes under Colima. This time of year there were tons and tons of mustard bushes in bloom, which meant the bees were all around. We didn't get stung, but if you're deathly afraid of bees, you might not want to go past the halfway point on this trail. We did see several rabbits as well as evidence (berry-filled poo) of other animals. The trail goes up and down easily for a good while, and then the last leg is all uphill. That last leg is also pretty deserted. It looks like no one has gone through to clear the road (which was all dirt) for hikers in quite some time. The mustard plants grow in the middle of the trail and we had to step around a few of the bushes here and there. That put the bees in close proximity, which made Ric a little nervous because he seemed to be a bee magnet. By the time we got to the end of the uphill, we were pretty relieved. It was nice to turn around and have a long period of downhill to cool down. When we came back under the bridge, there was a steep uphill which gave me a good kick since my back was tired. I liked how deserted the Arroyo San Miguel was and how deep it went into the land, but the narrower and unkempt trails were less inviting. I'll probably return to it many more times, though, because I liked its distance and variety. I would probably rate as an easy-to-medium difficulty trail, and I'd give it a 7.

Welcome to the beginning of my new series of posts about trails! I hope I'll be regularly posting about the new places we find.

On Friday afternoon, my friends and I drove down to the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park. According to what I've found online, it's located at 18751 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach, CA 92651. We took the 5 South to the 133 South, and about 5-6 miles down (right before the 73) on the right side, we parked at the James and Rosemary Nix Nature Center parking lot. Parking costs $3 in quarters. There are lots of trails in the area, and ultimately we decided on this location because a) we found it, and b) we wanted to see a lake. I'll have to go back to check out the other trails in the area some other time, and probably when I've grown stronger.

We decided on the Little Sycamore Canyon trail, which took us under the 133, which sounds pretty cool, by the way!

After getting turned around a couple times due to a confusing map and bad signage, we eventually found ourselves on the trail:

And we quickly found ourselves arriving at Barbara's Lake:

The trail continued easily for the duration, only going in a light uphill a few times. The sights are nice for the most part, except for the nearby power lines. Once at the top of the ridge, we were able to see our parking lot and how far we had climbed:

We took a break up top to bird watch, sing like fools, and to feed the baby in our party. When we started moving again, we grew unsure of whether we would be able to get back by continuing forward on the trail. The map made it look as if all of the trails connected with each other, but not all of them did. We had a scout run out to the top of a higher hill to see whether the trail would lead us back and we questioned some locals to find out that we would have been heading in the wrong direction by continuing on, so we doubled back a little way and took a different road down the hillside.

Little Sycamore was a fun time for us. It was easy on the two of us who have bad backs, it had wide and even trails (some clay dirt, some gravel), there weren't too many people there, and it accommodates visitors with dogs as well as cyclists. If a person is looking for a challenge, I'd probably look up the nearby trails (we saw a much steeper five-mile trail from our parking lot). It was fun to walk under the bridge, see the lake, and get a nice view from up top. The close proximity to power lines and neighborhoods made it feel a little more citified than I would like, and the maps were confusing, but I think when we were headed back to the car, we decided it ranked about a 6 on a scale of 10.

Friday morning I woke up thinking I was going to go to some boring sexual harassment training at work in the morning and then I'd try to find something to do for the afternoon by myself. I did go to the boring training, but it was actually more fun because most of our office sat together and cracked jokes the whole time - appropriate jokes, of course! And after our yummy free lunch at the cafe, I got invited to join a group of work friends to go hiking in Laguna. We drove down to Laguna Coast Wilderness Park and took a trail into Little Sycamore Canyon. It was a pretty easy hike, but there was a lake and some nice views and a cool bird (hawk or falcon), and good friends too. Here's one picture, but more can be found at Ruth's Picasa:

We spent the afternoon there and then headed to Michael and Abby's parents-away-from-home's house in Fountain Valley, where they fed us well, we played piano together, and had plenty of conversation.

Saturday morning I had promised Ric I would go on a hike with him, so we went back to the preserve in Whittier. I think we're going to start making this part of the routine, so I'm planning to start posting information about the trails we visit for any of you who might not know about all the resources we have in this area. In the afternoon, I went to see Sunshine Cleaning with my sister at the cheap theater (it's there this week - two bucks for an indie movie!). I came home and relaxed and then headed right back out with Ric for some Flame Broiler and to see Up. Afterward, we drove to Fullerton, bought some cloves for Ric, and went out to the train station to watch some trains.

Sunday we went to church and finally got to see Liz for the first time in a long time, and we all went out to eat at Ruby's for lunch. We spent the afternoon relaxing and then I went to work entering finances on Quicken. We had to do over a lot of stuff because Washington Mutual changed to Chase, which meant we needed to create new usernames, and Quicken wouldn't allow for that, and when all was said and done, we had to re-enter all of our expenses from March to June. Yay. We ended the night on a higher note with The Soup and Rotten Tomatoes (two of shows that inform me while making me laugh a lot). We tried watching the Mental pilot and gave up about 15 minutes in - it feels so dated! Then I watched Kings and the last episode of Pushing Daisies (talk about a packed last 30 seconds), both of which the networks, thankfully, decided to finish airing for those of us who actually followed them.

Oh yeah. Updates on things at home: the new kitten's name is Ellie. She has a black patch over her eye, and Darryl Hannah plays the chick with an eye patch in Kill Bill named Elle. We also love Elliott from Scrubs, so we thought the name could refer to both of them - more Elliott than Elle, probably. Also, I got my results from my neck and shoulder MRI, which showed nothing special. I get to keep working on physical therapy, and when I'm done with that if the pain is still bad, they'll try cortisone. Same old story, unfortunately!

Up this week: Sound of Music musical on Wednesday (for me), Brendan's birthday on Thursday, a possible trip to Disneyland with Liz, and on Saturday I take off for a week in the Pacific Northwest with Erika. Wohoo! Summer is in full swing.

A couple of months ago I posted a video of Eva's unusual way of crawling.

For a long time this was Eva's only way to get around and she became very fast at it. So fast, in fact, that it seemed like she didn't feel any need to learn how to walk. By her first birthday, she could raise herself from sitting to standing without pulling up on anything, but she still wasn't taking any steps. If she needed to go somewhere she would just lower herself back to the ground and hobble-crawl over to where she wanted to be.

I thought she might need a little bit of encouragement to figure out the whole walking thing, so one day I spent maybe five or ten minutes standing her up, putting a single finger on her back, and nudging her forward. Immediately she began taking several steps before falling down. By the next day she was walking to get to places.

Since then she has been a regular power-walker. She toddles around back and forth from room to room, all day long.

We're only two days away from the release of Ghostbusters: The Video Game. I earned a $25 Gamestop card from E-Rewards and I'm really hoping it comes in the mail before then, otherwise I'll have to wait to buy the game I've been looking forward to pretty much my whole life. While some might think that sounds a tad dramatic, anyone who has played the original Ghostbusters game knows exactly what I'm talking about.

On the job front, a friend of mine got me a phone interview at his company for a tech support position and now I'm just waiting to hear back about an in-person interview. People keep asking me what I want for my birthday and the only thing I can really respond with (besides the aforementioned video game) is a job. I'm hoping that wish will come true very soon.