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.

Entertainment

 Before the excitement of driving to LAX we had the excitement of the first rain storm of the season. Of course I was happy to have rain for my garden and rain barrels, but I would have also appreciated warm and sunny weather while entertaining people from the chilly heartland.

Twice I took my dad to the pool. In the upper-righthand corner of the picture are four circles, which are hot tubs. Even though the pool water was on the warm side it was still wonderful to get into the hot water after a swim.

Mom and I started four puzzles and finished three. It was a great rainy-day activity.

Conflicted Shakespeare topic of local talk
The Shakespeare Club of Pomona Valley meets at 2 p.m. on Monday at the Joslyn Center, 660 N. Mountain Ave., Claremont. Speaking at the free and open meeting is Amanda Zarr, who is returning to Claremont after playing Beatrice in Ophelia’s Jump’s summer production of Much Ado About Nothing at Pomona College’s Sontag Greek Theater. The topic of her talk is “Conflict in Shakespeare.” Ms. Zarr will review the wide range of semantic resources used by The Bard to show characters in opposition. Ms. Zarr is a professional actor and adjunct theatre professor at Chapman University. She has been a company member with Shakespeare Orange County for more than a decade, and has been seen on television and in films. Light refreshments will be served.

Always good to be open to new activities. This one got a thumbs up.

And what would the trip be without a visit to the thrift store?
Seniors (55+) received 25% off and they carded my mom!

This William Dean Perry card was only 10¢ but I resisted temptation.

Add reading two newspapers, eating meals, and hanging out and zip, zip, zip, the time was gone.  I am looking forward to the next visit!

Mini post

Today is the day I have been waiting for since April 5.

Other people like to watch lots of movies or maybe play endless games of Candy Crush and Words with Friends.  I like to save pre-season predictions and compare them to the final standings.

Good thing the sports writers are not making their money this way!

They did predict that Cleveland would finish third in their division, which they did. 

If the Cubs go on to win the World Series then Cleveland will have the longest drought in baseball.  But I can take it because I am from Cleveland, which is statistically the most cursed sports city in the U.S., which was determined mathematically by the New York Times.  Boston didn't even make the top ten so I didn't have to feel bad about Cleveland sweeping their baseball team at the end of the season, allowing Cleveland to answer my annual prayers ("Please let this be the year that Cleveland finishes above .500).

Yes, it is trivial, but it is a pleasant way to pass time and play with numbers.  As my younger sister (from another city that did not make the list of cursed sports cities) said today, only 150 days until spring training.

Two minutes

When the kids were little we had a timer to help them brush their teeth long enough.  We found a toothbrush that flashed for two minutes, at least many time before wearing out.  Eventually I started looking for little things to put in a little space by the outlet cover.

I loved these for the variety, the old favorites and the unfamiliar.

We have a lot of traveling to do.

Some puzzles were significantly easier than others, but were good for all of us to try.

This was our most recent set of cards.  I took to adding a post-it note so people could write their answers, if so desired.  Not all were family-friendly and I was afraid some would give nightmares, but others generated good discussions.  A question from a different set was, "Would you rather have zero children or twelve children?"

I'd love to hear your ideas for other forms of two-minute entertainment.