Pasadena Summer Fest

We just got bck from the Pasadena Summer Fest at the Rose Bowl. We didn't stay too long because it was too hot. They had different booths set up for "A Taste of Summer" and we had a Jamaican chicken kebab, pad thai, and a peach italian ice. All of the seating was on the grass and it was bring your own blankets/lawn chairs which I always think is fun. We heard the Pasadena City College Studio Jazz Ensemble:

Their band leader sang on one of the songs, which I thought was strange. They also played a Gordon Goodwin tune, which D and I recognized from the Gordon Goodwin concert we went to a couple months back.
We also heard a little bit of Afro-Cuban Timbre Jazz:



Here's D reading Business Week (again!), trying not to roast.

The Greatest Spectacle in Racing

The Indy 500 was an exciting race. At the end a 19 yr old rookie almost beat out Sam Hornish Jr. He won by less that 0.1 of a second. If you are not a fan on IRL, I want to let you know that it is the largest (by attendance) one day sporting event. The race is watched by 300,000 people live. I was rooting for Marco, but it was cool to see Hornish win.

3.5 months

The time until my half-marathon.
I can't say the training is going as planned. I started running on the treadmill until the stuffyness of the gym drove me outdoors. That and the fact that dirt tracks are one of the best surfaces to run on. I noticed that running outside allows me faster times as well.
I ran barefoot on the beach 2 days ago, and my calfs hurt. However, I was able to run today. I started out too quickly because there was another runner and I got competitive. However, I found my pace and was able to run 20 laps (4.97 miles) in under 48 mintues. Which is a 10 minute mile pace. That is a personal best for me. I wanted to run 24 laps(5.965 miles) but I like to get fast times. So running under 50 minutes was exciting, however I might have been able to do 5.965 miles in under an hour. I really need to up the distance though. I have run around 5 miles 5 times. I probably should be at 8 miles now. So I have to get crackin. I have definitely improved, but I wonder what I could accomplish if only I worked harder to maximize my limited running ability.

Our Xanga Returns!

I've decided to post reviews of movies/books on our old xanga. That is the one feature I miss on blogspot. Just click on the link to the right, "D + L's Former Blog" to access it if you're interested.

Beach Outing #2

After church today, D and I headed out to Laguna Beach. The problem with Laguna is that there are no big parking lots. We did find a metered space but put in some nickels and dimes before realizing the machine only took quarters, and it didn't even return our change! Oh well...I guess we should've paid better attention. We ate lunch at the Laguna Beach Brewing Co. (Thanks, Entertainment Book). It was on the second story, (just like Hurricanes), but this had an ocean view:



Afterward, we walked along the shoreline. We noticed how there wasn't much space between the water and the sidewalk, so it was much more crowded than HB (kind of like Waikiki). Also, there were TONS of kids running around. It was a nice day to walk, though.




I was hoping the guy in the yellow shirt had something on underneath--I think he was European, so I guess he had some sort of excuse.

Beach Outing #1

Even though it did not win in D's poll, we spent the day at Huntington Beach. We left our place around 9:15 a.m. On our way, we filled up our gas tank, picked up a couple of Lee's Sandwiches (grilled chicken and grilled pork, $1.95 each). Then we continued down Beach Blvd. to PCH.

We were able to find parking at the beach lot that is a couple blocks South of the pier ($10, all day). It was still early, so there weren't too many people out. Plus, it was overcast, with just the slightest of sprinkling, so that kept the "posers" away, according to D. We set up camp, which consisted of towels for me to lay out on, a chair for D to lounge on, and an umbrella, for which I forgot to bring the extra pole extension. Look at how short it was:


At least I was able to lay out underneath it.

D had fun reading his Business Week and I too brought an assortment of magazines.


D went for a run on the beach and I took a nap :) By noon, it warmed up, and the ocean breeze felt so good!


Here's D with his sunglasses. I can't find mine...I guess I haven't worn them since last summer, hmph.

D: Hi just wanted to add some comments. L is a good listener especially at low volumes. She was able to hear some interesting conversations. There was a family of four with a boy around 10 yrs old and a daughter around 8 yrs old. The dad told the boy that he and his sister gained weight and that the boy should suck in his stomach. But the boy said that he only weighs 96 pounds and only gained one pound since his last docter's appointment. The 10 yr old's dad said, we are honest with each other. Would you tell you your kids if they were fat?

Later, the boy was talking to the parents of another family and their son, around 4 yrs old, said to the 10 yr boy, "you're a fat boy." The 10 yr old said that's not very nice and walked away. The parents of the 4 yr old boy told him off and lectured him. The 10 yr old boy was not very fat, I did notice he had a kinda round stomach, but was pretty average weight. He definitely wasn't really fat. Anyway, it was strange that the 4 yr old said it matter of factly especially to an older boy. BTW, the 10 yr old's parents weren't there when the 4 yr old boy said what he did.

Another conversation was among a set of parents and three teenage girls. The mother took a picture of the girls and one said she didn't like the way her top looked. Then the mom said to the girls that she didn't want to see any butt-cracks. And the dad said yeah, no butt-cracks. That is pretty funny. If I am blessed with a daughter I will make sure she doesn't show off any crack.

Finally, there was a group of guys that set up nearby us. One of them got the brilliant idea to try to do back flips off of this ledge of sand and then some of the other guys tried it too. Then they wanted this guy to take pictures of them all doing backflips at the same time. A couple of of them were in pretty good shape, but there was one guy with a bit of a paunch that also did it, even though he admitted he didn't have good "hops". They were making it look easy, and D said he wanted to try it, (which I strongly discouraged) but then we heard one of them talk about an injury he had while doing the vault, so apparently these guys were gymnasts and D realized that he shouldn't try it.

Around 3 p.m., we packed up our stuff, put it in the car and headed over to the pier where there was an AVP beach volleyball tournament going on.

We were able to get pretty close to the action, and caught a game with Karch Kiraly!

Nice flourescent pink hat, Karch!

We saw Karch and his partner win one game and then lose another. One of their opponents, Rosenthal, had his own cheering section of some rowdy guys. They were chanting, "Let's go, Ro-sie!"

Nice serve, Rosie!

D: Couple random notes. L thought I looked dorky with Teva's. But I asked her "have you ever worn Teva's?". Teva's are really comfortable. I am representing NorCal ruggedness. HB is the best beach in SoCal. I forgot about the volleyball tournaments in my past blogs. There are 3 SoCal beaches where they have AVP tournaments, Manhattan, HB, & Hermosa. The tournament was great and HB's beach really is long. It blows Santa Monica out of the salt water. K, my brother-in-law says there are a lot of bums in HB, you should check out Santa Monica. I love the close walking to the restaurants from the beach. I do like Hermosa for that reason, but the selection of restaurants/bars is not large. Hungtington is a great every weekend beach. It is close by to our place as well.

Finally, we ate an early dinner at Hurricanes. It's mainly a bar, so I wouldn't recommend it for families, but we had a really good hamburger and chicken sandwich (with our Entertainment Book coupon).

There were a lot of people out and about on the main drag:


All in all, it was an excellent day--sooo relaxing.

Garden Grove Strawberry Festival

This past Wed. I went to the downtown L.A. farmer's market during lunch to buy some strawberries. The season is almost over, and I felt like we haven't fully taken advantage of it. So I picked up 3 baskets for $5 from Oxnard and they were really good. On Wed. and Thurs. nights, D had sliced strawberries with vanilla ice cream, and he was waxing poetic over how delicious it was.

Then, last night D and I went to the Garden Grove Strawberry Festival. I read somewhere that it is the second largest community-organized outdoor festival west of the Mississippi (the largest is the Portland Rose Festival). It was kind of a pain to find parking, but we eventually found a spot (park in the La Verne/Acacia college parking lot).

There is no entry fee, and right when we entered we came upon a large strawberry shortcake. Miss Garden Grove and here entourage were passing out small pieces, also free (only on the first night).



As you can see, it is actually made up of separate cakes, arranged as one. I thought it would be one huge one, but I guess that would be a lot more work. Anyway, the cake itself was pretty tasty, but the whole strawberry on my piece was kind of underripe.

There were a lot of unsafe-looking carnival rides and booths with people selling some weird stuff (anyone want a wax form of your hand?) D signed up to win this Mazda 5:



I told him he probably wasn't allowed to win, but he pointed out that it didn't look like it was a Mazda-sponsored contest, so he filled out the card.

The food options were kind of limited. D had a hot dog and a really watery soda ($5). I had corn on the cob with chili powder/parmesan ($2). They had huge strawberry shortcakes, but since we already had a small piece of one, it didn't make sense to buy another. D claimed he had never had a funnel cake before. Failing to see how this was possible, we bought one with strawberry glaze ($5):



It was nice and hot, but D thought there should have been more fresh strawberries on it. (He's becoming such a foodie!) I think this booth supported the Kiwanis club. The other food we bought also supported community organizations, so I didn't feel bad paying the higher prices.

Overall, it was really crowded. I thought they could do a better job of promoting the whole strawberry theme. If you didn't know it was a strawberry festival, you probably wouldn't have been able to tell it apart from any other fair/carnival. So, this will probably be a one time thing for us, but I would like to go back to the street we passed which is supposed to be like "Old Town Garden Grove", or something like that.

Crossing Our Fingers

D and I are crossing our fingers that it stays sunny throughout this 3-day weekend. We have a lot of outdoor activities planned. I'm already looking forward to it.

Trader Joe's Outing

Today D & I headed out to Marina Pacifica to: 1. hang out at Barnes & Noble; 2. shop at Trader Joe's and 3. redeem our coupon for a free 8 oz. cup of fro yo at Golden Spoon (we had the Heath Bar flavor, on the recommendation of my sis--good choice).

I remember when I was younger I didn't understand the allure of Trader Joe's. My parents used to get excited about going there, but it just seemed like another grocery store to me. Now, of course, I fully appreciate their enthusiasm. Interesting foodstuffs at reasonable prices--nice! Unfortunately, we don't live too close by to one, so we didn't get their Fearless Flyer this time around. However, I accessed it online, here, and the current issue is really good: 104 all-time favorites picked by the staff.

For lunch we had the BBQ Chicken pizza...yum. I also picked up a carton of non-fat plain yogurt which I am going to try with their frozen very cherry blend. Other things that went into our cart: a tub of hummus, pita bread, organic tomato pasta sauce, frozen party meatballs, vegetarian egg rolls and their version of orange chicken (I've never tried this, and it is relatively expensive, but we're trying not to eat out this weekend, so it will be a little treat for us).

This afternoon D & I watched the Preakness. D almost welled up when Barbaro got hurt, it was kind of cute (D's reaction, not the horse getting hurt).

Track

I have discovered that running around a track is much more enjoyable than running on a treadmill. Over the weekend I ran at the Pacifica H.S. track. I ran about 5 miles (20 laps) and ran it in 52:17. Which was surprisingly fast for me. Then I ran yesterday at University (the Trojans) H.S. in Irvine, and the track is nice. There is a wildflower area on one end, and then a basball diamond on one side over a little mound/hill. It also is nice and cool at 6 a.m. I need to leave by 7 a.m. or the H.S. gives cars parked in the lot a ticket. I ran 3 miles in 28:06.

What made me want to switch running surfaces was knowing that many runners mess up their knees. So I decided to do research. And I found a ranking of different surfaces.
Best surfaces to run on article.

Mother's Day/Dad's Birthday

On Sat. we had everyone over for a combined Mother's Day/Dad's birthday celebration lunch. We have a lot of celebrations between May and July so we tend to combine them. My sister and bro-in-law did the majority of the cooking, so all D & I had to do was clean up our place!

On Sun. we went to the WPC Mother's Day breakfast before service. We had scrambled eggs, sausages, pancakes, fruit and jook (for the Chinese contingent). D and I were so full we didn't eat lunch until around 3 p.m.!

SoCal Beaches continued

Two Weeks till L and I hit the beach! I am really pale according to L, so I am excited to show off my paleness. Currently Laguna and Seal Beach are tied for 1st place. In a close second are Huntington Beach and Santa Monica.

Here are some interesting numbers to ponder for the people that haven't voted. Huntington Beach is 8 miles long. Laguna is 7 miles long. And Newport is 6 miles long. Santa Monica is only 3 miles long and filled with tourists. However, Santa Monica beach is probably the busiest since there are 15M (45M for Santa Monica Bay) visitors. Huntington beach has 11M visitors, Newport 7.2M visitors, Laguna 3M, and Hermosa/Manhattan with about 3M. When I visited Santa Monica I usually parked by 3rd street promenade and then walked over PCH. This is not very easy. Further, the pier is pretty gaudy and cheesy and they have a lot of homeless people. But they do have wide beaches, a nice bike path, and eateries.

Huntington beach has the moniker "Surf City USA". It is close and the parking is not too bad. Huntington beach has nice restaurants, such as Duke's and Sparks, even though they are touristy as well. They also have the longest concrete municipal pier in CA. They have great surf shops and nice atmosphere with broad side-walks.

I was suprised with the amount of young people partying it up in Newport. Interesting for a snobby place like Newport. However, the pier isn't that great, and they don't have a cool moniker and parking is tough.

On Saturday, May 27th, we'll be at one of SoCal best and most popular beches. But which one is the question. Stay tuned to find out!

WPC Women's Retreat

This past weekend I spent some quality mother-daughter time at the 2nd Annual WPC Women's Retreat. The speaker was Tara Barthel and the theme was "Real Peace for Real Women". Tara was quite an engaging speaker AND biblically based...now I am reading her book, "Peacemaking Women". Read her blog--she mentions how much fun she had with us :) I like how she calls herself a "recovering lawyer".

On another note, WPC was written up in the OC Register, pretty cool.

SoCal Beaches

I am new to SoCal and need some help with figuring out which beaches are the coolest. Please give me your favorites. I think Huntington Beach is the best for a everyweek destination and Laguna Beach is the best for a weekend getaway. However, your opinion matters. We need a destination for Memorial Day. Would you like to influence where L+D spend their weekend? Please vote. Here are some criteria for the best beach. We need a beach with...
- Relatively easy & cheap parking
- Good cheap restaurants (burgers NOT steaks)
- Wide and long strands of sand to walk on
- Relatively clean water
- Shops: clothes, ice cream, trinkets

What is the best SoCal Beach? Santa Monica Manhattan Beach Hermosa Beach Redondo Beach Seal Beach Huntington Beach Newport Beach Laguna Beach San Clemente    Free polls from Pollhost.com