Spotlight

Over the last couple of years, Sharon and I have tried to see most of the Oscars nominated films. Trying to get a jump on this year's films, Morgan, Sharon and I went to see Spotlight. Unlike past years, I googled a number of sites this year trying to find out which films the critics thought would be nominated. Spotlight seems to be on the top of everyone's list.

Spotlight is about The Boston Globe's Spotlight team and its investigation into the widespread Catholic priest child sex abuse cases in the Boston area. Spotlight is the oldest continuously operating newspaper investigative unit in the United States. The film is based on a series of stories by the real Spotlight Team that earned The Globe the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.

The film stars Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams and John Slattery. Keaton plays the head of the Spotlight team.

I thought the film was very well done. In my opinion, it is a much better film than The Big Short. Sharon rated the film an 8.5 on a scale of 10. I would give it a B+.

New Year's Day 2016

Sharon and I went to Mass at St. Ignatius [The Octave Day of the Nativity of the Lord & the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God].

Afterwards, we wandered over to Tom's and watched Notre Dame play Ohio State in the BatttleFrog Bowl. I am still trying to figure out what BattleFrog is... The group included Tom, Jim, Eric, Kevin, Leah and Lydia.

Falling behind 14 to 0 in the first quarter, Notre Dame got blown out by the score of 44 to 28. Ezekiel Elliott ran for 149 yards and matched a Fiesta Bowl record with four touchdowns.

New Year's Eve 2015

Sharon and I had a late dinner at Paragary's. They had a very nice set menu including duck confit & local chicories, roasted chestnut & celery root soup, maine lobster & gnocchi, tenderloin and sea scallops. It was one of the better meals that we have had recently.

We arrived home about the same time as a large group of teenagers that were apparently abandoning a local party for our house. Leaving the house to the kids, Sharon and I walked down the street to a New Year's Eve party at Mitchell and Greg's.

When we wandered back a little before 1 am, the house was empty except for Jack and a friend. We crashed about 1:30 am...

Game of Thrones

I finished reading Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. Over the course of a ten week period, I read chapters in the book, watched the corresponding episode of season one of the HBO show with Sharon and then listened to A Cast of Kings podcast about the HBO episode. While I had previously watched season one, Sharon had never seen it before. I got the idea of doing this from the podcast; they did a book club and season one rewatch this fall.

The descriptions of the Vale, River Run and the two major battles in the book are very good. It really highlights challenges of bringing this type of book material to the screen. In particular, in season one, you only see the aftermaths of the battles, not the battles themselves.

It is also interesting how they cast the principal child characters as much older than they are in the book. The casting of Rob and Jon Snow as men in their twenties, rather than teenagers makes it a much different story.

I enjoyed the book. I was pleasantly surprised at how well written it was. I am motivated to read the rest of the books. The only thing that I regret is I was reading a couple of books at the same time during the ten week period. I would read the chapters for the episode and then switch to another book while waiting to watch the episode with Sharon. As a result, I didn't feel like I immersed myself in the book as much as I would have liked. I have never really tried to juggle reading multiple books at the same time.

2015 Carmel again Day 3

Sleeping late, we had breakfast at the hotel. Afterwards, we drove down to the Carmel Beach and walked to the south end with Tiber. We walked back to the car along the path on the street.

Packing up the car, we rolled from the hotel a little before 11 am. I decided to take 101 through Morgan Hill to 680 to 80 rather than 156 to 5.

We eventually stopped for lunch at the Lazy Dog Restaurant in Concord. We had lunch on a dog-friendly patio.

There was some traffic on 80 at the normal gore points. We got back to Carmichael about 4 pm. It was about a 5 hour trip home, including almost an hour and a half stop for lunch. This is almost the same travel time that it took us to get to Carmel via I-5 and Pacheco Pass.

I enjoyed the trip with Tiber enough that I can see Sharon and I doing some kind of short trip with him again...

Starbucks iTunes Pick of the Week - Retype - Typography Photo Editor

The complete list of Starbucks iTunes picks of the week is here!



Code Expiration: March 22, 2016

2015 Carmel again Day 2

While Jack watched Tottenham beat Watford by the score of 2 to 1, Sharon and I did some of laundry and had breakfast at the hotel. After Jack had some breakfast, we got organized for a hike. The plan for the day was to head out to Garland Ranch Regional Park. This park allows dogs.

On the way, we stopped and got some nice sandwiches at Erik's DeliCafe.

We ended up hiking 4.77 miles in about three hours including a stop for lunch. From the visitor's center, we took the shortcut trail to the homestead trail to the sage trail to the sky trail. This climbs up to almost 1,000 feet. At the sky trail, we headed down to Inspiration Point for lunch.

Morgan started up the trail after us. She finally caught up with us at Inspiration Point. A 360 degree panorama from Inspiration Point is here.

From Inspiration Point, we headed down the sky trail to the mesa trail. We took a side trip to an indian grinding rock and continued up the waterfall trail to a dry seasonal waterfall. We turned around at the base of waterfall and headed back to the visitor center on the lupine loop.

I enjoyed the hike. In spite of the climb, Tiber did great. He was a ball of energy the whole time. A Google Map and views of the hike in Google Earth are here.

After getting cleaned up, Sharon and I headed back to Grasings.

Leaving Tiber with a dog sitter, Jack, Morgan, Sharon and I finished the night with dinner at the Flying Fish Grill. Sharon and I had a great dinner there in July. Morgan had ahi, Jack had seafood pasta and Sharon and I spilt a clay pot. The clay pot was a novelty dinner; it is not something we would do twice. We brought a bottle of Bouchaine Pinot Meunier with us.

While Morgan drove Jack and Sharon back to the hotel, I walked back.

2015 Carmel again Day 1

When we were in Carmel in July, we talked about coming back and bringing Jack and Tiber. We decided to fit in a short trip between Christmas and New Year's.

Up early, we were going to try and get on the road by 8 am. With some struggles getting Jack in the car, we left about 8:30 am. With a quick stop in Lathrop for gas, it took just about three and a half hours to get to the hotel. We are spending two night at the Carmel Country Inn. Amazingly, the room was ready.

After getting the car unpacked, we headed to Bistro Giovanni for a nice lunch.

After lunch, We took Tiber down to the Carmel Beach. We walked from the hotel to Ocean, down Ocean to the beach and then along the beach to the southern end and back. Tiber got to play with two other younger, smaller corgis.

From there, we walked up to the George Rodrigue Studio that was closed when we were in Carmel in July. Sharon looked at some prints and originals, but they are mostly out of our price range.

In total, we probably covered about 3 1/2 miles. Tiber started to drag a little heading back up Ocean from the beach. I had forgotten how much uphill it was.

After a nap, Sharon and I wandered down to the Carmel drug store and then to the bar at Grasings. While I am not sure that we will eat here again, we both like the bar.

The four of us finished the night with dinner at the Forge in the Forest. They allow dogs on the patio. Sharon had sole, Jack had lobster tacos, Tiber had some chicken and I had butternut squash ravioli. This was not a good meal. I am not sure what was going on. Our waiter seemed dazed and confused. At one point, he said something about two other waiters quitting. Sharon and my meals and the service were bad. I will not go here again.

The Big Short

Over the last couple of years, Sharon and I have tried to see most of the Oscars nominated films. Trying to get a jump on this year's films, we went to see The Big Short.

The Big Short is based on the 2010 book of the same name. Written by Michael Lewis, the book looks at the financial crisis of 2007–2010 which was brought on by the build-up of the housing market and credit bubble.

The movie follows the simultaneous stories of three groups of people who discovered the groundwork for the financial crisis and managed to enormously profit from it. The film stars Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, and Brad Pitt.

In spite of the buzz about the film, I am not sure that it is going to be nominated for best picture. The film starts slow and has an odd cadence to the first twenty minutes. At best, I graded the film as a "B," while Sharon gave it a "B-". I can see Gosling getting nominated for supporting actor.

In a unique way, the film does a solid job of explaining some of the key concepts of the credit markets. Nevertheless, I am still not sure I understand what a synthetic CDO is...

Christmas Day 2015

The three of us had a very nice Christmas morning opening presents around the tree. We had a lazy breakfast of blueberry pancakes. After breakfast, we went down to the field with Tiber. Jack practiced flying the drone that he had gotten for Christmas. Tiber wanted badly to get ahold of the drone.

Sharon and I spent some time in the late morning working to get the house back in order. It was a mess after Christmas Eve dinner.

Continuing our tradition of seeing a movie on Christmas Day, we went to see Star Wars - The Force Awakens. This is the seventh year in a row that we have seen a movie on Christmas Day. This was Jack second time seeing the film; Jack and four of his friends had watched episodes one through six on Saturday and then went to see The Force Awakens at midnight at the IMAX. Tom and Eric joined us for the movie. Tom hadn't seen it, but it was Eric's third viewing... The movie was very good. Sharon gave Star Wars - The Force Awakens a 9.5. I don't think that I have ever heard her rate a movie higher!

After watching Star Wars, the five of us headed to Buca de Beppo. Sharon had made a reservation a couple of weeks ago. I have been amazed in the last couple of years how crowded Buca de Beppo is on Christmas Day.

Sharon, Jack and I finished the night watching Elf. We had watched Elf before on Christmas 2004!?!

Christmas Eve 2015

Jack and I went to the 4 pm Christmas Eve Mass at St. Ignatuis. We got there about 3:30 pm and the place was already filling up. Tom, Eric and Sharon rolled up just before Mass started. We wedged the five of us into the space that Jack and I had been saving... While I probably shouldn't be, I was surprised at how many people were packed into the church.

After Mass, we rushed home. For the fourth time in the last five years, we hosted Christmas Eve. At seventeen, I think that it is the biggest group we have ever hosted. It included Sharon's brother Tom, Eric, Kevin, Leah, Lydia, Jim Dunn, Sharon's brother Tim, Kathy, Eileen, Will, Erin, Dillon, Leah parent's Terry and Steve, Sharon, Jack and I. It was interesting to add a baby to the mix.

Sharon made a great dinner of individual beef wellingtons and squash. Leah contributed a green bean casserole. The Tims brought some bundt cakes for desert.

After dinner, we exchanged gifts. Eric gave bobbleheads as gifts, including Pope Francis to his dad, Winston Churchill to me and Napoleon to Sharon.

Christmas Card 2015

See all of the Christmas Cards since 1997!

2015 Christmas Tree

Starbucks iTunes Pick of Week - Lines the Game

The complete list of Starbucks iTunes picks of the week is here!




Code Expiration: March 15, 2016

2015 Christmas Lights

2015 Christmas Lights from heringermr on Vimeo

Georgetown

Jack has been accepted at Georgetown. He is very interested in their international business program.

This is the second of six early action colleges that he will be hearing from before the end of December.

Notre Dame

Jack has been accepted at Notre Dame into the Mendoza College of Business.

This is the first of six early action colleges that he will be hearing from before the end of December.

Limelight

Wandering back from St. Helena, I met Snipes at the Limelight. We spent about an hour catching up before I headed for home...

Drew leaving Milo Greene

Hey Friends. Andrew here. The quickest way to say this is that I am leaving Milo Greene. A few months ago - I came to...

Posted by Andrew Dawson Heringer on Thursday, December 17, 2015

California Historical Landmark #890

Colusa County Courthouse
California State Historical Landmark #890
See this location on Yahoo Maps in Flickr
See this location on Google Maps
This landmark is located at 547 Market Street, Colusa, California. There are two other California State Historical Landmarks in Colusa County. The GPS coordinates for this location are N 39° 12.836 W 122° 00.534.

You can log your visit to this landmark at waymark.com.

Erected in 1861, this Federal/Classic Revival style building is the oldest remaining courthouse in the Sacramento Valley. The 'Southern' style reflects the county's heritage and states' rights sympathies during the Civil War. In its early years, the courthouse also served as a center for cultural, social, and religious activities.