Off to the races

This past weekend was the first race for A.'s mountain bike team. The whole team did a practice run on Saturday and then the sixth through eighth graders had their races. Sunday was race day for the high schoolers, with the youngest riders going first. Some people camped, but D. and A. decided to sleep in their own beds and get up early.

Ninth-graders raced the loop twice

Picture taken at the front of the pack before the start.

There were about 45 riders in each group and throughout
the season the riders will have different starting positions. 

Tenth graders waiting for their race

Another picture from the start, but before they started racing (I think).

A. and teammate during the ride

Not A., but a nice shot

A. and teammate finishing together.
You can see the results here.

 It was a great day and A. is looking forward to the next race.

Bucket list

If a new study is correct, more than 91 percent of us have a bucket list — things we wish to do before we die. This revelation is interesting on several levels, including a question of what that minority of nearly 9 percent is thinking. Surely those people are aware that the chance of their kicking the bucket is 100 percent. Are we to believe that nothing in their basket of wishes is unrealized?

From an opinion piece in the NY Times, 2/13/18

I knew I was in the minority in so many areas of my life, but I had no idea so many people had a bucket list. My life seems full as it is and if there are more good things to come that is fine, but I am not wishing for anything (except things I can't have, like a better ability to remember names or the ability to magically transport myself to a place for one day).

Good things from the last week include

going to the library to pick up the books I put on hold
(Caldecott and Newbery winners)

cycling home from the grocery store and finding a horseshoe by the side of the road

being invited to pick tangerines

splurging and buying daffodils

Not shown - finding jigsaw puzzles for sale for 75¢, talking to a dear friend for her birthday, and strolling around the farmers market.

The way we roll

It is true that D. was able to make the bike rack he has had since before we were married work for transporting bikes, when I was driving to practice I spent an awful lot of time looking in the rearview mirror checking to see that the bike was still there. Time for an update.

Easier said than done. We borrowed the modern version of our old bike rack. It was sturdier and in some ways better, but still not the right thing. D. spent a lot of time researching tow hitches (use existing holes? create new ones? weld it on?) and different transportation systems that attach to the hitch.

In the end he chose the same hitch our friends have for their car, which is the same as ours. With A.'s help (and the help of a few building blocks that we still have) they were able to attach it without much problem.

D. chose a rack that was very similar to the rack we have used on top of our old car. It is a basic system that has been around for a while and he was able to find one used.

Ta da!

Another Celebration

The same kids who organized a New Year's Eve party for the neighborhood decided to host a celebration for Valentine's Day.

Activities included making valentines

decorating cakes

and a toy and candy hunt.

I tried a new recipe from an author I find entertaining.

(1 bag frozen peas, cooked + small bunch of cilantro + 3 Tbs garlic + touch of olive oil) salt to taste  / cuisinart = Rosenthal House Special Pea Dip.  from Textbook

It made me a little less sad to miss the celebration for Carnival in Sant Cugat

Love is in the Air

I had a bit of time before a meeting so I stopped by the library (which was closed or it would have taken me more than a bit of time) to return a book and the post office to buy some stamps. Lines have been short and I had exact change so I thought it would be quick.

There was a short line that moved quickly but the first slowdown was choosing which love stamp I wanted. In the end I decided I liked the top one, which is last year's design.

The next slowdown was when the postal worker told me the exact change I had was incorrect because the rates had gone up recently. I was shocked because I had not read about it in any newspaper (you would think they would publish it there since I would guess people who read the newspaper on paper are the kind of people who go to the post office to buy stamps). Also I was amazed because my mom had not mentioned it. Even more amazing was when I called my mom she said she did not know, either. I have to say that scooping my mom on any news is worth the penny more per stamp!

We chatted a bit more and I learned that my mom had given blood that day and is only a pint away from sixteen gallons! I had an appointment to donate that afternoon and had just been debating whether to buy liver and onions at a diner. I have been rejected for low iron so many times I have become desperate. Instead I had iron-fortified cereal, oranges, and an iron pill for breakfast and lunch. Ta da! Now I am five pints away from ten gallons. I wonder if I will get to sixteen before they invent an effective blood substitute.

U-Pick

The day started with A. riding with his team and D. and I riding out to a bike store to check out a new mountain bike for D.  Riding with bigger wheels, full suspension, and a dropper post would make it easier to ride with the teenagers on the team, not to mention that it is fun!

After everyone had returned and showered we headed over to to Heritage Park in La Verne, which maintains an orange grove, historic house, and historic barn.  For five dollars a bag anyone can pick oranges starting in January until they are gone, which is usually early March.

I love old oak trees. I wonder how quickly they grow and what
size this was when people were living in the Weber house. 

Plenty of people were picking oranges but it didn't feel crowded.

Pickers, long poles with a hooked basket on the end, are provided.

Wintertime and the living is easy.

Not sure if this is an historic turkey, but it reminded A. of clothing worn by women long ago.

Recipes

Even though there seem to be limitless recipes online and I have files on my computer, I prefer to look at paper while I cook, either in a cookbook or a recipe I clipped or printed. I limit my cookbooks to one shelf

but I have a folder (which was a wedding shower gift from my childhood neighbors) of recipes that I decided needing thinning out.

The folder now has recipes I actually use. I have a pile of recipes that I am emotionally attached to (mostly hand-written by family and friends) and a pile of recipes I am willing to let go of. I know I should recycle the second pile because anyone who actually wants them probably has their own collection already.

The saved recipes will go into this wooden box tucked in the back of the cabinet. Also in that box are recipe cards that say, "From the kitchen of J.", which were a gift from my mom, along with little protective plastic sleeves to put recipe cards in, which were also a gift from my mom.

Some people who read this blog would say I should simply recycle the entire contents of this folder of recipes that caught my eye but I haven't tried yet, but I am not ready to do that. I will go through it and save recipes that still catch my eye and try to use one a week. Poco a poco, bit by bit.