sorry it's been so long...

Before we hit the road i wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas, and share our photo for this year.

Leftover candy...

...here to stay, is the new bird...

We got a new bird last weekend. Its a moluccan cockatoo. He's 15, and gently used. (he had some feather picking problems, and his legs are bare) Meg has wanted one since she was a little girl and her family's moluccan died very prematurely. he's a big bird, twice as large as charlie, our amazon. This will be the last bird we get for a while.

The birds' (new) name is Sherman, meg pronounces it "charmin". his age and previous owners mean that there will be an adjustment period. he is hand shy around his face, but is okay with scratching and petting. he leans in and touches his beak to your mouth, "cockatoo kisses" this is an unusual and pretty common behavior among certain species of cockatoo. getting him on your arm was tricky for a few days. and clipping his nails was a bloody and messy endeavor that took 2 different days. but we are settling in, and he is a very calm and quiet bird if a bit nervous of the new surroundings. (he isn't aggressive toward the dog, which is good cause they're about the same size)

Tea Blogging

i owe this to lena, my tea connection at peet's. its time to catch up. and my father requested pictures, so i'm trying this out.

Ti Kwan Yin is an oolong tea. it is light and tastes of green leaves with a dark undertow. it is a good afternoon tea, but it finishes almost bitterly.

i get the teas in large batches and i am at my friend's mercy as to which teas i get. i wouldn't have selected these next two because they are blends, but i was pleasantly surprised. they are interestingly related to each other, to describe them separately would be pointless. Russian Caravan and Scottish Breakfast are both black teas, Russian Caravan is a china black, and Scottish Breakfast is an indian/china blend. I like assamica teas, or indian black, i prefer them to most of the chinese blacks for its malty and rich taste. I also like lapsang souchong, the first tea i tried on this little adventure, the one that tasted like burning christmas trees. Scottish Breakfast is an assam with lapsang mixed in it is bold and malty with a smokey finish. the lapsang is specifically pine-y. The Russian Caravan uses a base of yunnan which is syrupy and honey flavored and adds keemum which is smokey but not as overpowering or pine flavored as lapsang.

which amounts to a shootout between two blends that are both black tea bases with smokey aftertaste. i prefer the Russian Caravan for its milder smoke. Smokey teas are fine, i would once in a while enjoy a lapsang, but you have to be prepared and committed to it, its just so potent that it overwhelms the other flavors. not to say that Scottish Breakfast is undrinkable, just a milder form of actual lapsang souchong, like burning christmas trees with training wheels on.

i also recieved some interesting darjeelings, one of which is relatively pricey and only produced in limited quantities. as you no doubt recall, i was not crazy about darjeelings in my last review, but these two really changed my perception. Darjeeling extra fancy Kalimpong is the better quality version of what i had last time, much less peanutty, a decent evening tea, somewhat lighter than i prefer, but nice as a change. First Flush Darjeeling Namring Estate, is the expensive fancy one, in fact, it is unavailable. first flush refers to the first leaves that grow in the spring, they are often plucked early to allow a fuller flush the second time around which is usually larger in output. Kalimpong is a second flush tea. the first thing i noticed was the green leaves of the dry tea, they are processed like regular darjeeling teas but they have a bright green color that indicates their early season. it is a great afternoon tea. namring is what i had hoped ti kwan yin would be, light enough to drink during the day, but not so curt an aftertaste. and there is almost no peanut flavor to be found.

The final tea of the group is Snow Leopard. this is a big leaf white tea, with white fuzz on the leaves. in fact i couldn't steep it in my usual fashion with a ball infuser. the large leaves would have gotten all broken and crumbly, so i opted for my french press. i even made some extra for meg to try, she usually stays out of this unless i really think she needs to try something. this tea is great, it lacks the crisp acridity of green teas, and if steeped long enough likens more closely to an incredibly mild black tea. there is also a hint of white grapes in it. meg requests it most nights now. in fact, it was the last i recieved and it will be the first to run out.

so good you need to see it twice...

this is me and that long-suffering soul in the background is my grandma. my mom took the photo, and i stole it from their blog. its my new favorite grandma photo ever. (it helps that i'm in it) i should clarify, she does NOT wear a hat unless i put one on her, so if you see her in the streets she might not look the same.

you may have noticed i come from funny hat wearing stock. its a genetic condition, look it up.

grandma lois, you're awesome, i love you.

weekend with the bee

went to hanford town over the weekend to see my niece (and her parents) just before her 1st birthday. she's adorable. and fun to play with. the next time i see her she'll be awesome! walking on her own, talking, borrowing my car and bumming smokes off of the 3 year-olds at the mall or trying dairy for the first time, just running wild.

they grow up so fast.

misc cellphone pictures from various adventures

at the angels game with nancy (thanks Archie)



Meg smuggling a parrot out of her parents' house


Meg on the side of a bus (look under the pointing man's nose)


drawn on the inside of the door in a bathroom stall at the grand canyon


artwork from one of my mother's former sixth grade students

Nate vs. The mechanical bull

i have always wondered how hard bullriding could be. I know on a practical basis that if the gold standard is 8 seconds that it has to be pretty difficult. but i can't imagine that it could be that hard to hold on (with one hand) to an animal.

let me say now that i have learned a lesson.

i finally found a mechanical bull to ride, apparently the ones in bars are only for girls in tube tops and skirts (who knew). but there were two bulls, one for kids and one for adults. i saw 2 kids go before me and thought, just kick it up to full and let me ride until i get tired. i got on and wrapped my gloved hand around the rope handle, and assumed the position.

it started up slowly enough, back and forth, and a little spinning. after a minute of that it got harder. i was struggling to manage the bucks and was holding my own until the guy operating it threw in a spin that rolled me off the back and landed on my head. it will be sore in the morning. my inner thigh muscles and right arm are already feeling the effects.

it was a lot of fun. i want to have an afternoon with one of those things to practice. that would be awesome. but for now i can cross off "ride mechanical bull" from my bucket list. hope you had a great saturday too.

New Place: Later

well, its been 3 weeks of new apartment bliss. i finally have most of my crap where it belongs, and life is settling back into its comfortable rut of school, work, and napping. let me say out front that i LOVE our new apartment. on a daily basis, i love it, i like driving into the underground parking, taking the elevator everywhere, cleaning the hardwood floors (even dory's "accidents"), the bathtub is phenomenal (it looks all angular and coffin shaped, but all the angles are in the right places, there are armrests), the kitchen is easy to clean, and big enough to cook in, the list of little things goes on. truly, once i get home i am glad to be there, the environment is perfect.

now for the rest of it. i went out for a bike ride last night-mind you there was an angel's game going on-and so traffic was awful, and the place was crawling with cops. after my last $450 brush with the law on a bike, i feel pressure to behave myself, which is tough. i rode toward disneyland and tried to go to the gardenwalk (food/activity mall) it was very pedestrian friendly, and there was ample parking(if you were a car) but the bike lock was way down below instead of conveniently on street level. if you have not had the nerve-wracking experience of riding a bike in a busy parking structure, i suggest you forgo it. it even makes me crazy. so i gave up on that headed back home to cut across the stadium to go on the bike path that follows the empty river. (it goes from yorba linda to huntington beach) except you were riding a trail with only major street access, and no smaller business access and staring at the backside of industrial complexes and parking lots.

i miss the old neighborhood. i liked riding through domestic streets to get to places worth going. like work. i hate having to drive to work. not nearly as pleasant as a bike ride. the new place has all sorts of amenities like a playstation room, screening room, rooftop pool, game room, gym, none of which i have actually used. i tried to use the gameroom, but they had no pool cues, and the playstation room is byo games and controllers.

the fact is, i spend 95% of my time in the confines of my own apartment, and i love it. and that is what matter. let's just chalk this up to "be careful what you wish for"

new place: before

happy birthday grandma Lois!

It is my grandma's birthday today. She is a super lady, and a wonderful and caring person, who i am lucky to have in my family.
i love you, grandma.

The end of the summer

(meg as a tree, and me as an ornithologist)

well, next week is september. and that means that summer is over and its time to go back to school. maybe its faulty memories, maybe its global warming, but it seems wrong to start back to school at the hottest time of the year (at least in these parts).

so i um, didn't get accomplished fairly half of the things i set out to do this summer. namely: jump out of a plane, or learn to weld. things came up, as they often do, and so those will have to wait until next summer. i will be driving a half dozen exotic sports cars in october, thanks to meg, it was my 30th birthday gift, and the reason for postponing the skydiving. i caught up on a fair number of the movies i missed out on by not becoming a film major. i read one book (it was assigned to me almost a year ago-but i promised the professor i would read it) "house of god" about medical internship at harvard. i went for some memorable bike rides, and mini-vacations. went to the fair (a bunch), and some good parties.

In less retrospective news: (for the 2 of you who read this that are not on facebook, or have seen me in person) meg and i are moving. the short version is that the apartments we are in are taking away our second parking place, which is essential. and after assessing our finances we realized that we could do better than the place we are in. (shame really, since we renewed the lease 2 months ago, and did all that work on the bathroom) but such is life.

we start moving in september first, and will be entirely in out new place by the 9th. it is a brand new building, really nice, and i am very excited. more posts on this to follow.

we went to see pageant of the masters in laguna beach last week. it was incredible. my friend lena was in it, and got us tickets. really, just fascinating (DO NOT FORGET TO BRING BINOCULARS) if you get a chance to go (every year, most of the summer) take it, you will not be disappointed.

this was a good summer, despite my advanced age. i hope yours was too.

now get back to work!

...this just in...

this is a photo of the match winning hit by kerri walsh in her first tournament back since the olympics (and having a baby) she was noticeably off her game but still reliable in the air.

i went to the hermosa beach open today with my friend Vern, we had a great time watched about 5 games, including the 3 game match featuring kerri walsh. the audience swelled during those games from 2 deep around the wall to 5-6 deep standing on trashcans to watch. i felt kinda bad for the other team, who played very well, and the games were all quite close, but everyone cheered for walsh, she could do no wrong.

how to spend 2 days off!

So in a bout of uncontrollable consumerism, i spent my birthday money on a new bike. if you refer to the photos of my other bike you may notice several differences. basically, this bike has multiple gears and skinny tires. i had a few days off and wanted to take my new lovely out and show her a good time, a nice weekend for two just up the coast. it was last minute and i had prepared myself to go hat in hand to every state campsite south of santa barbara, i left at 545 on thursday. my first choice was mcgrath state beach half way between oxnard and ventura, (i read some stuff about birdwatching) i got very lucky (and was the first one there when they opened) and got a campsite.

Its a decent place, the campsites were smallish, and the area around was more birdwatchy than beachy (snowy plover closed the direct beach access) there's a small estuary/large river that was very scenic, if you were willing to make the effort to get to it, and state law doesn't deter you. i was, and it doesn't, so that is where i spent my morning. it was peaceful and very well populated with seafaring and riparian birds. the fog was just lifting as i left for a bike ride.
On the road to ventura, which is a nice city, by the way. still overcast, the expected high for the day was 67. the sun did eventually come out. i wondered what one does in ventura, and remembered passing the fair on the train to portland, last year, i thought i'd give it a try. i basically followed a bike trail right along the beach most of the way, past the pier. no such luck on the fair, i was exactly a month early. i contemplated making the 20 mile trip to santa barbara, but decided against it for the sake of sunburn and dehydration. as i stopped to take a far less memorable picture, i happened to see a snake in the ice plant behind me, i grabbed him by the tail and lifted him to see his head, and it told me that he was safe. his name is Randall, and he is a california king snake, as i reached for his neck to get more control of him, he bit me between my index and middle fingers, once i got him loose, i took the following picture. he is beautiful, probably 2.5 feet.
That was it, i was tired, so i went back to camp and took a nap for several hours. i got up in the evening and went looking for something to do. i drove around and got familiar with the area, and began looking for a bowling alley meg and i saw on the trip to santa barbara, but never found it, and gave up at 2100. the following is the first thing you see when you wake up in a tent.
This is the river next to the campground, friday morning there was no fog so the shot came out better. after a little bike ride, it was time to break camp and head home.
I followed PCH all the way down, even when it was less convenient, and it was interesting. the following picture doesn't need a caption, but i believe i was in el segundo or culver city when i took it.
I had recently seen ads on tv for the manhattan beach open of beach volleyball, as an afficionado of tall women in swimsuits i though i should stop by and give my support. i wasn't sure if this was the weekend or not, but i was pleased to find out that it was. this is me on manhattan beach.
the match i watched was hyden/scott vs jensen/lane. it was in the main court, but behind the opposite side bleachers was 6more courts holding official matches. hyden is the no 1 player this year, and he was incredible. lane is the assistant coach at csulb. the level of play was incredible, but what amazed me most was the power that they could put into the ball, the serves alone you could almost feel the smack of their hand hitting the ball.

After the guys match, hyden/scott won, i went and watched the girls. i didn't know any of them, kerri walsh (gold medalist) was there, but not playing. the women don't have the sheer power of the men, but they are louder and communicate all the time. the woman in the photo had a killer serve, and her team dominated the match i saw.
I couldn't take anymore sun, my head was kinda burny, so i started back home. i stopped at my favorite tea place and took one to meg at work, before finally making it home. it was an awesome 2 days, so much fun. the bike did well, i may have to invest in a new saddle (something softer, i'm getting older).
have a good weekend!