First Time

This is A.'s fourth year of racing and I had never been to one before today (D. had been in charge of cycling and I was in charge of other activities, like speech and debate and soccer). I don't know how many more races will be held this season so I thought I better go today.

We decided not to camp or stay in hotel and instead we slept in our own beds until 5 a.m. Good choice! It was so cold when we arrived that the water had turned to ice in the buckets used to stabilize the EZ Ups.

Registration was easy.

There was plenty of space to wander until the start.

And then they were off!

D. got some good shots of A. racing.

If you look carefully you can see that I tried, too!

And then it was over!

A.'s summary

A great day! My only complaint was that the

beautiful portable toilets were locked
until shortly before the race started!!

Bonus picture, just for fun

Illicitly Saving the World

 

The houses in our neighborhood have three different bins. The black one is for trash, green for yard waste (no food, no succulents, no palm fronds), and the blue is for recycling (big list of no-nos for that, too). Shown is a mix of the old style on the left and the newer style for the other two.

photo credit Claremont-Courier
The trucks drive by and pick collect them, and if you are with a friendly toddler they will honk and wave.

The city has started a pilot program to collect food waste in these bins with yellow lids. The program will be mandatory by next January, which will be great for me even though we have our own backyard bins. 

Orange peels and pineapple rinds take too long to break down in our little bin, so I have been helping the city cut down on its garbage by taking these to a yellow bin. I don't think it is actually illegal, but I haven't asked permission, either. Even though the bags shown say they are compostable the city requires food to be in clear bags, which I have been using.

This is a much easier way to save the world than by trying grow my own vegetables.

Never a Dull Moment

 

Yippee - a project to watch

The first sign was the mark on the ground,

followed by strange cages.

Next, we were sitting inside and heard a truck by our house and lucky for us it stopped.

We watched its tank get filled

and then followed our new friend to the park.

Every single day we went to park and learned the whole process for installing lights. I found it fascinating but I am not sure the pictures express the joy of the process. Here are a few selected from the dozens I took.

Lights!

The final step?
Fixing all the sprinkler lines broken during the process!

More Entertainment

When it rains, it pours (not really - we had some rain yesterday but it was just a bit - I wish it had poured!). But some days we have both a ninety-year-old running past our house AND a cooking webinar on the same day!

In the old days we would walk or ride over to campus to see an event (recording of a local radio show, interview with Michael Barbaro, discussion with an author), but now the events are online. I get emails about them all the time and decided if I signed up for them I would go and be glad I did. I was right.

The first one was a brunch with Yotam Ottolenghi.

I had never heard of him but when I mentioned to a friend she said she had used cookbooks he wrote. When I mentioned it to my older sister she said she had been to some of his restaurants in London.

We bought the supplement that came with the ingredients (some shown)
 and recipe. I did not cook while we watched.

It was great to see him in his kitchen. Also on screen were an ASL interpreter
and Rico Gagliano from the Dinner Party Download podcast. 

The entire event was much more captivating than I imagined. I appreciated Ottolenghi's ability to make cooking seem possible for all and I thought Gagliano did a good job of feeding questions and keeping it entertaining. We signed up for the next brunch event, but without the ingredients.

I did make the dish for dinner, but forgot to take a picture. Here is one of the last of the leftovers.

And if that weren't enough for one day, the Superbowl was the same day.
I am glad the people in our neighborhood had good weather for their party.

Birthday Celebration

 

A friend forwarded a message about a local runner who was going to celebrate his 90th birthday by running the Fourth of July 5K route. The request was for neighbors to come out and cheer. How nice to have something fun to look forward to on the weekend!

The decorations were moderate.

The birthday boy wore a sash that said, "90 never looked so good!"

City officials were at the finish and
the mayor presented a medal.

He was interviewed by the local press

and made it onto their website.

Best wishes for many more!

Preparing for the Future

 

Even though this same person had ground the stump
after removing the old tree, he was back this
morning preparing the ground for the new tree.

There is no rain in the forecast but the ground
is still damp from last week's soaking.

They staked the tree and I hope it will grow straight and strong.

All done before eight o'clock!
May the next generation enjoy the shade!

January Leftovers

Happy new year!

Æbleskiver, also known as Danish pancakes
It helps to have an æbleskiver pan!

 

New little library in the neighborhood

Some people find pennies on the ground.
I found a smushed penny!