Thursday, May 31, 2007

Drew's Last UCI Show

With Drew graduating in the middle of June, he held his last show at UCI last Friday night, May 25, at the Little Theater.




Wednesday, May 30, 2007

2007 Baseball Game #16

Jack played his sixteenth game of the 2007 baseball season against the Yankees. At the plate, he went 2 for 3. Jack bounced one in front of the plate and got throw out at first by the catcher, pulled one down the third base line and beat the throw to first and drove one over the third baseman's head into the outfield for a double.

He played four innings at shortstop and pitched one inning. Jack made several nice catches and stops at shortstop. The coach gave him a gold ball for his fielding after the game. He was happy with his pitching because he struck out one of his classmates from school.

Jack's team lost 14 to 7. They finished the season with a record of 4 wins and 12 losses. All of the teams move into a single elimination play-offs series starting Saturday.

 

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Song for 1997

On October 31, 1994, Hunter, Snipes, She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and I saw the Rolling Stones' Voodoo Lounge Tour at the Oakland Coliseum. In 2005, I saw the Rolling Stones' Bigger Bang Tour at PacBell Park with Hunter, Robbie, Kurt, Joy, Craig and Keith.

The Rolling Stones' Bridges to Babylon Album was released in 1997. The Song for 1997 is Anyone Seen My Baby?

Google Street View

Google has introduced Street View for San Francisco, New York, Las Vegas, Miami, and Denver.

As an example, here is link with a map and a view of California Historical Landmark #810 which was just down the street from where I was staying in San Francisco two weeks ago.

In April, while we were in San Francisco, we went out to California Historical Landmark #82 (Fort Point). Here is a link to a Google Street View of the Fort with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.

Monday, May 28, 2007

Atlantis

We finished the day watching a TIVOed two hour episode of Digging for the Truth titled Atlantis: New Revelations. I did not realize that the first references to Atlantis were in two of Plato's dialogues.

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Robert Louis Stevenson State Park

Traditionally, we hike on the Sunday of a three day weekend. We have been debating a couple of places over the last several days. Even though Sharon was feeling a little under the weather, we decided to head to Robert Louis Stevenson State Park above Calistoga. The park includes a ten mile round trip hike to the top of Mount St. Helena.

We ended up hiking a couple of miles round trip pass the Robert Louis Stevenson Monument and up to the point that you could see back down into the Napa Valley. At this point, you are hiking along a dusty fire road. We made a decision to head back down in the forest to eat lunch and then back to the car.


We made a couple of stops at wineries on the way home. We stopped at Markham Vineyards, Franciscan Oakville Estate and Nichelini Winery. The Nichelini Winery was probably the most interesting. We came home via Highway 128 through Winters. The Nichelini Winery is in hills near Lake Berryessa.

California Historical Landmark #710

Robert Louis Stevenson State Park
California State Historical Landmark #710

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This landmark is located 7.5 miles Northeast of Calistoga, California on Highway 29 and then about 0.5 mile up the trail to the monument. There are 16 other California State Historical Landmarks in Napa County. The GPS coordinates for this location are N 38° 39.215 W 122° 36.259.

You can log your site to this site at waymarking.com!

In the spring of 1880, Robert Louis Stevenson brought his bride to Silverado. He and Fannie Osbourne Stevenson lived here from May 19 until July, while he gathered the notes for Silverado Squatters.



This tablet placed by the club women of Napa County marks the site of the cabin occupied in 1880 by Robert Louis Stevenson and bride while he wrote Silverado Squatters.

Doomed to know not Winter only Spring, a being trod the flowery April blithely for a while took his fill of music, joy of thought and seeing came and stayed and went nor ever ceased to smile.

Robert Louis Stevenson.
May 7, 1911


Nichelini Winery

Nichelini Winery
National Register of Historic Places #1979000508

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This historic place is located at 2950 Sage Canyon Road (State Highway 128), St. Helena in the county of Napa, California. It is 11 miles east of Rutherford and 28 miles west of Winters. The GPS coordinates for this location are N 38° 29.934 W 122° 17.626.

You can log your vist to this site at waymarking.com.


The Nichelini Winery is the oldest family owned and continuously operated winery in the Napa Valley. 1n 1884, Anton Nichelini, a Swiss-Italian immigrant homesteaded the land. Since then, the winery has remained in the family and is now owned and operated by four of his grandchildren.

Nichelini's original Roman press and handhewn stone cellar are distinctive features of the vistor area. The press is believed to be the only one still standing in a California winery.

Saturday, May 26, 2007

A couple of movies

After a day spent working around the house and the mini storage, Sharon went with Liz to see Waitress at the Tower Theater and then out to dinner at Lucca's.

Jack and I watched Happy Feet on Directv pay per view.

Friday, May 25, 2007

Indian Dinner at St. Mary's

On St. Patrick's day at the St. Mary's School dinner and auction, Sharon and her brothers won the bid for a traditional Indian dinner with the parish priests. All of the families plus Sharon's mom had dinner Friday night in the St. Mary's rectory.

It was a Traditional South Indian dinner prepared by one of the parish families. The priests at St. Mary are all from the Kerala state of India. Kerala is a state on the Malabar Coast of southwestern India.

The dinner included five courses. The first course was a soup made from sweet corn, onion, garlic, mustard, cashews, raisins, curry leaves, pudina leaves, carrots and green chiles.

The second course was appam with leshtu. Appam are bowl-shaped thin pancakes made from fermented rice flour. Leshtu is lamb cooked with potatoes, coconut and Indian spices.

The third course included Chicken curry, fried rice with prawns and thoran. Thoran is a dry Keralite dish made of vegetables like pea, unripe jackfruit, carrot or cabbage with grated coconut.

The fourth course included a fried pamplet, broiled brown rice, yogurt curry and papadam. Pamplet is the Indian term for the fish also known as pomfret or Pampus argenteus. The fish seemed like a perch. Papadum is a thin South Asian wafer, best described as a flatbread.

The fifth course was desert. It included payasam and fruit. Payasam is a rice pudding typically made by boiling rice with milk and sugar.

The meal was very different from the India dinners I have had in restaurants in the United States and England. By the end of evening, everyone was stuffed.


3rd Grade: Art Lesson G

Sharon spent the afternoon as the art docent for Jack's class. The lesson talked about Impressionism. The word “impressionism” was used for the first time by a French art critic Leroy who was shocked by Monet’s new artistic style, which broke away from traditional, realistic painting.

The class watched a video called Linnea in Monet’s Garden. They looked at three of Monet’s paintings: Tulips in Holland, Tulips at Sassenheim and Artist’s Garden at Vetheuil (all shown below).



For their art project, the class went outside and painted our own impressionism landscape.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

May 2007 Cub Scout Pack Meeting

Leaving his game early, Jack and I went to the May meeting of his cub scout pack. Jack got his Bear Badge, a gold achievement arrow and a science belt loop.

Starting June 1, we will be working on his Webelos requirements.

For their activities, the boys had a t-shirt race and practiced making a number of knots out of licorice ropes.

2007 Baseball Game #15

Jack played in his fifteenth game of the 2007 baseball season against the Angels. The umpire showed up more than 20 minutes late so the game did not start on time. Unfortunately, we were planning on leaving early to get to a cub scout pack meeting. As a result, Jack only played two innings. He got to bat once, walked and came around to score. In the field, Jack played two innings at shortstop and made a couple of nice plays.

 

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

San Francisco Runs

I spent three days in San Francisco at the Stanford Court last week for a meeting. Wednesday morning, I ran down California to Market, Market to Embarcadero and then down the Embarcadero to Fisherman's Wharf. Thursday morning, I ran the other direction on Embarcadero to AT&T Park. I particularly enjoyed the run down to McCovey Cove.

I put together the satellite and topographical maps shown below of both runs with data from my Garmin. I also built Google Earth KMZ files from both of the runs. These can be loaded into Google Maps: 05/16/2007 San Francisco Run and 05/17/2007 San Francisco Run.





Tuesday, May 22, 2007

CA Historical Landmark #810

Site of Old St. Mary's Church
California State Historical Landmark #810

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This landmark is located at 660 California Street in San Francisco, California. There are 48 other California State Historical Landmarks in San Francisco County. The GPS coordinates for this location are N 37° 47.554 W 122° 24.350.

You can log your visit to this site at waymarking.com.


The first building erected as a cathedral in California, Old St. Mary's served the Archdiocese of San Francisco in that capacity from 1854 to 1891. Once the city's most prominent building, it is built of brick brought "around the Horn" in sailing ships, and much of its stonework was quarried and cut in China.


Monday, May 21, 2007

Song for 1985

The song for 1985 interweaves a couple of unrelated topics. I started working for Farm Credit in late 1980. By early 1982, I had gotten to know Larkin at the banks and started skiing with him. At some point in the next couple of years, I was riding with Larkin and he was playing a tape by the Irish band Simply Red. I ended up buying the album.

Jumping to a completely different thread, one of the things that I lost when my first marriage imploded was the relationships that I had built over ten years with Jamie, Jane and Bill. Jamie and I would occasionally ski together. One time, after a long day of skiing at Heavenly, we were driving back to Shingle Springs in the dark. I was charging hard down the two lane section of Highway 50 somewhere between Strawberry and Ice House Road. At one point, Simply Red was playing and Jamie turned to me and said "can you even see the road?"

The song for 1985 is Simply Red's Holding Back the Years.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Explorit Science Center

As an extra credit science project for his class, Sharon, Jack and I spent part of Sunday at the Explorit Science Center in Davis. The current exhibition is called Looking Up: The World Above Us. Jack had to choose his favorite exhibit and write a report on it.

 

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Shrek the Third

Sharon, Jack and I finished the day going to see Shrek the Third.

2007 Baseball Game #14

Jack played in his fourteenth baseball game of the 2007 season against the White Sox. Due to the rain-out make up game last night, this is the third game that he has played in four days.

At the plate, Jack was 1 for 2. He doubled down the third base line to drive home a run and then came around to score. In his second at bat, Jack struck out looking. The umpire's have been calling a large strike zone. While this makes sense at this age, it can make it very difficult for the kids to know if a pitch is going to be called a ball or a strike.

In the field, Jack played one inning at first base, two innings at shortstop and pitched two innings. Without Jack anchoring the middle of their defense at shortstop, his team is not a very good defensive team.

Leading 8 to 5 in the top of the sixth (they only play six innings), they lost 9 to 8. They had a runner on third in the bottom of the sixth with one out. The next two batters struck out looking. Jack was in the on-deck circle at the end of the game. Their record is now 4 wins and 10 losses.



Friday, May 18, 2007

2007 Baseball Game #13

Jack played in his thirteen baseball game of the 2007 season against the Twins. This was a make-up game for one that was rained out earlier in the year.

Jack played four innings at shortstop and one inning at catcher. He came very close to turning a double play; Jack fielded the ball going to his left, continued on to second base to force the runner and made a great throw to first.

At the plate, Jack was 0 for 2 with a walk. He struck out swinging and grounded to the second base with two outs and the bases loaded for a fielder's choice.

The Twins pitching was very good over the first four innings holding Jack's team scoreless. They scored 5 runs in the fifth inning to lose by a score of 14 to 5. Their record for the season is now 4 wins and 9 losses.



Wednesday, May 16, 2007

2007 Baseball Game #12

Jack played in his twelfth game of the 2007 baseball season against the Twins. Joe, one of kids in his class, plays on the Twins. I was in San Francisco for a meeting and missed the game. It was fun to talk to him on phone and get a summary of the game.

At the plate, Jack went two for three. He grounded out to the pitcher, doubled into center with two RBIs and singled to the second baseman. He stretched the third at bat into a triple with aggressive base running.

Jack played five innings at short stop and made several nice plays.

Leading 9 to 7 in the top of the six inning, his team lost by a score of 10 to 9. Their record is now 4 wins and 8 losses.

Jack got a golden ball for his performance.

San Francisco County CA Historic Places

San Francisco County, California
National Register of Historic Places

1970000146 Fort Point National Historic Site - [map] - {37.81048,-122.47702}

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Morgan and Jack

California Historical Landmark #82

Castillo de San Joaquin
California State Historical Landmark #82


Fort Point National Historic Site
National Register of Historic Places #1970000146


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This landmark is located at the end of Marine Drive in San Francisco in San Francisco County. There are 48 other California State Historical Landmarks in San Francsico County. The GPS coordinates for this location are N 37° 48.629 W 122° 28.621.

The first ship to enter San Francisco Bay, the San Carlos (Captain Ayala), dropped anchor off this point August 5, 1775. Lieutenant-Colonel Don Juan Bautista de Anza planted the cross on Cantil Blanco (White Cliff) March 28, 1776. The first fortification, Castillo de San Joaquín, was completed December 8, 1794 by José Joaquín de Arrillaga, sixth Governor of California. In 1853 United States Army engineers cut down the cliff and built Fort Point, renamed Fort Winfield Scott in 1882. This fort, a partial replica of Fort Sumter, is the only brick fort west of the Mississippi, its seawall has stood undamaged for over a hundred years.

Fort Point is considered one of the finest examples of military architecture in the United States and is San Francisco's only major building constructed before the civil war which has remained basically unchanged since it was completed and garrisoned in February 1861. Two months later the firing of Fort Sumter, South Carolina, marked the beginning of the Civil War. But the bombardment also clearly deomnstrated that brick and granite fortresses could not withstand the devastating power of rifled cannon. Fort Point was the last such fortress to be constructed.

Monday, May 14, 2007

Goldfinger


Sharon, Jack and I watched Goldfinger, the third James Bond film. It stars Sean Connery as James Bond, Gert Fröbe as Auric Goldfinger, Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore, and Harold Sakata as Oddjob.

The film marks the first appearance of Bond's company car in the films. The Aston Martin DB5 is equipped with a number of Q Branch's modifications, including bulletproof front and rear windshields, oil slick dispenser, smoke screen, front machine guns, rotating licence plates, and a passenger ejector seat.

Bond's mission in the film is to stop the gold-obsessed Auric Goldfinger before he can detonate a dirty atomic device supplied by the Chinese government in Fort Knox, irradiating the gold and thereby increasing the value of his private stock and disrupting the economy of the Western world.

Saturday, May 12, 2007

2007 Baseball Game #11

Jack played in his eleventh game of the 2007 baseball season against the A's. They played the A's in the third game of the season. Andy, one of kids in his class, plays on the A's.

Jack pitched the first two innings. He has not pitched in two and a half weeks and I was surprised when they ran him back out there. Jack ended up pitching two shut-out innings. He also played three innings at shortstop.

At the plate, Jack went 2 for 3. In his first at bat, he lined one back to the pitcher and was throw out at first. Jack lined one down the third base line in his second at bat and then scored from first on a double to left center. In his final at bat, he bounced one down the third base line for a single and eventually came around to score.

His team ended up winning by a score of 12 to 10. Their record for the season is 4 wins and 7 losses.




Friday, May 11, 2007

Back from Spokane

After spending most of the day helping Kevin pack and clean his dorm room, Sharon flew back to Sacramento. Jack and I picked her up at the airport. Tom and Kevin will be starting to wind their way on Saturday.

B-17G Flying Fortress Again

This morning one of the articles in my newsreader was a Sacramento Bee story about a B-17 visiting Mather. About this time last year, the B-17 was also at Mather. While I got a close look at the plane last year, I did not get an opportunity for a ground tour or a chance to climb inside. I went over this afternoon and got an opportunity to see it up close inside and out and take a few pictures!

picasa photo album
B-17G Flying Fortress


Thursday, May 10, 2007

2007 Baseball Game #10

Jack played in his tenth game of the 2007 baseball season against the Yankees. He was 1 for 3 at the plate. He hit a high pop up on the right side behind the pitcher for an out, drove one through the left side for a single and hit one down the third base line which the other team made a great play on. Jack came around to score on his single.

In the field, he played four innings at shortstop and made several nice plays.

Trailing 7 to 6 after four innings, his team ended up losing 12 to 6. Their record is now 3 wins and 7 losses. This was a game that Jack particularly did not want to lose; one of his classmates was on the other team.


Finally to Spokane

Sharon and Tom finished up their trip. They spent the day winding their way from Hood River, Oregon to Spokane, Washington with a couple of winery stops along the way.

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Song for 1996

Sting is one of Sharon's favorite musical artists. When Sharon and I were married, the first dance was When We Dance by Sting.

The song for 1996 is When We Dance.

Continuing towards Spokane

Sharon and Tom continued their trip to Spokane. After spending Tuesday night in Ashland, they headed to McMinnville to have lunch with Chilton's and make a couple of wine tasting stops. From there, they headed to Hood River to spend the night at the Columbia Gorge Hotel.

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

To Gonzaga

Sharon and her brother Tom took off on a road trip to Spokane. They are going to pick up Sharon's nephew, Kevin; he is finishing up his freshman year at Gonzaga.

Solano House

Pony Express
Solano House

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The River Steamers from San Francisco left Sacramento at 200 p.m. every day with no trips on Sunday. The pony express westbound mail was arriving in Sacramento at 5:25 p.m on April 13, 1860. Captain Edward A. Poole on the River Streamer "Antelope" agreed to wait since San Francisco planned a celebration for this pony express arrival.

The second westbound pony express trip was also late. It was arriving around 1:00 a.m. on April 23, 1860 and the next river steamer would not be leaving for 13 hours. The Sacramento Pony Express agent decided to have his rider continue overland to San Francisco. Telegraphing ahead he made arrangements for fresh horses and a new rider at Benicia. The first stop would at the Solano House on this new route.

Sunday, May 06, 2007

I am not 28 anymore...

I have come to realize how badly I hurt my legs when I ran the California International Marathon in December. Thinking that I could still break four hours and forgetting that I am not 28 years old anymore, I ran full speed for the first 10 plus miles. It took a month afterwards for running not to be a struggle. The tops of both of my hamstrings hurt for months. It was only a couple of weeks before the American River 50 that my legs started to feel normal again.

In contrast, only three weeks after I ran the American River 50, my body feels pretty good. I ran 35 miles last week, just the third week after the AR50. It took me six weeks after the marathon to get back to that level.

Physically, the AR50 was easier than the marathon. I am feeling pretty strong and fit at this point and pondering what challenges I am going to set for myself for the future.

Saturday, May 05, 2007

2007 SEAs dinner and auction

Sharon and I stopped by the Sanborn's house for a drink and hors d'oeuvres. The four of us then spent Saturday evening at the SEAs dinner and silent and live auctions. The event had a Mexican theme this year.

This is one of the main fund raisers for Jack's school. It is the eighth year that they have had the auction and the fifth year that we have gone. As part of my parent hours for the school, I worked Thursday night and on Friday helping with the set-up.

We ended up bidding on a couple of silent auction items, but unlike last year, we did not bid on any live auction items.

2007 Baseball Game #9

Jack played in his ninth game of the 2007 baseball season against the Red Sox. They played the Red Sox in their first game of the season. At the plate, Jack went 1 for 2 with an RBI, a run scored and a walk. He popped up down the first base line in his first at bat, singled to the left side in his second at bat and walked in his third at bat. In his third at bat, Jack fell behind two strikes and no balls. He fouled a four pitches and took four balls and ended up drawing a walk.

Jack played four innings at shortstop and one inning at first. Like last week, he just did not have very opportunities for plays in the field.

Trailing 5 to 4 after six innings, his team ended up losing 9 to 4. Their record is now 3 wins and 6 losses.



Morgan's 20th Birthday!



Friday, May 04, 2007

Google Map of AR50 and Pics

I built a KMZ file that can be loaded into Google Maps of the course of the 2007 American River 50 run and the pictures we took along the way. From Google Maps, you can zoom into parts of the course and look at satellite and map views of parts of the trail. You can click on the push pins to see the picture that was taken at each spot.

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Shows in May

From: Andrew Heringer
Subject: Shows in May

We got some shows coming up in May in California and Oregon that I hope some of you can come out for.

MAY 6, 11 am to 4 pm - Free Show

Rally for Darfur - Irvine, CA at UC Irvine in Aldrich Park

STAND, a national student anti-genocide coalition, is throwing a Southern California rally in a collective effort to raise awareness and encourage proactive action to halt the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. If you are able, please come out and show your support.

May 12, 7:30 pm
Woodland, CA - Woodland Opera House

SINGING FOR SAMMIE! This is a benefit concert for a little girl with cancer, come out for some great music and an even better cause. Also Thomas Cunningham and Justin Farren.

May 17, 8 pm - Free Show
Eugene, OR - EMU Amphiteater

Willamette Valley Folk Festival Preview Show with The Conjugal Visitors

May 19, 8pm - Free Show
Eugene, OR - Cuthbert Amphitheater

Willamette Valley Folk Festival - Line up TBA

In other news, we are starting work on some recordings and we hope to have another album, as of yet untitled, by the end of the summer months.

thank you all for your continued support.

2007 Baseball Game #8

Jack played in his eighth game of the 2007 season against the Mets. At the plate, Jack went 1 for 1 with two walks and three runs scored. In the bottom of the first with two outs, he drove the second pitch into left center for a double and then scored from second on a single.

He played shortstop four innings and first base one inning. Although he did not have many chances in the field, Jack made the last out of the game. He fielded a sharp grounder to his left and chased the runner back towards second and tagged him out.

Trailing by a score of 8 to 1, his team rallied to win 13 to 10. Their record is now 3 wins and 5 losses.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Song for 1986

I prefer to run listening to music. Over the last twenty-five years, I have run to two albums more than any others. These are George Thorogood's Born to Bad [released 1982] and Live! [released 1986].

I saw George Thorogood in concert with Kurt and Joy Snipes on August 2, 1991.

The song for 1986 is George Thorogood's One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer.