Weekend with the padres - wining, dining and hiking, oh my!

In January, my parents decided to make one last visit to see us in the LA area (more on that 'last visit' soon!), and the only weekend that really worked out was President's Day, so we all quickly made arrangements for their visit this past weekend.  It was a bit of a whirlwind of a trip for them since they arrived Friday afternoon (4:30 - just in time for traffic!) and left early this morning.  We packed in quite a few activities and tried to ensure that they enjoyed this visit as much as possible.  

On Saturday, we drove up to Santa Barbara wine country.  It's a bit of a haul for a one-day visit, but we had a willing driver and a beautiful day to explore the countryside, so we took advantage of those factors.  We started out in the quaint little town of Los Olivos.  The first time we went wine tasting in the Santa Barbara area with my parents was probably 7 years ago, and at that time, it seemed that if you blinked, you'd miss Los Olivos.  That isn't the case anymore, and especially not on Valentine's day (we had sort of forgotten about that detail, but, apparently, wine tasting is a very popular activity on said "holiday").  Fortunately, we were early enough that when we stopped at our first tasting room, Byron, it was still low-key.  That was a fabulous first stop, and, since it wasn't too crowded, we were really able to take our time and enjoy the wine - which was excellent!  Byron specializes in Pinots, like a lot of Santa Barbara wineries, and they were all fantastic.  

Starting out our day

Making decisions - what to drink now?

Perhaps the best thing about Byron, after the wine, was the recommendation to eat lunch in Buellton at Industrial Eats.  It's super casual but the food is fantastic - and we definitely needed something to eat after the visit to Byron.  It's also conveniently located, right next to Alma Rosa, our next stop.  We had visited Alma Rosa with my parents a few years ago when it was in an old farmhouse, which I still prefer, and Michael and I (and Gus - it's a dog-friendly tasting room!) visited Alma Rosa back in October.  So, it's a bit of an old favorite for us, I suppose, and their wine is awfully good!

Some full belly happiness

After all of the eating and drinking and driving on Saturday, we opted for a more active day on Sunday - and set out for Mt. Lowe in the Angeles National Forest.  In the end, we did not summit Mt. Lowe but we did hike San Gabriel Peak!

Looking east

The start of the trail was through a wooded area which was nice and shaded, with lots of manzanita all around!  And then we hit a fire road which led us to this area that was once part of the Nike Ajax Missile Defense Plan (according to modernhiker.com).  Kind of crazy?!  Hikes in the western part of the Angeles are always so interesting - you feel like you are 'away from it all', and then you are suddenly reminded of the fact that Los Angeles is really right there.  

Fromt his platform, we then headed up to San Gabriel peak.  The final push wasn't technical, but it was steep.  

Ah, success!

We finished off the weekend at Angelini Osteria, another favorite from a previous visit, and we shared some excellent Italian food there.  It's always hard to choose because there are so many option, but I opted for a pasta with black truffles - and then they shaved more truffles on top.  It was kind of ridiculous!

Truffles!

Buonasera!

It was a fun-filled weekend with my parents, no doubt, and even though I'm an adult, they still spoil me.  I also feel lucky that we can still do things together, like go on a moderately strenuous hike, which is a wonderful way to spend time with them. 

Currently: Love/hate

While this is a bit late, the topic of love (and its opposite) seems timely with Valentine's Day just past us and all.  Despite the fact that I usually feel quite bah-humbug about the 14th and all the clichés that go along with it, I also often find that we celebrate something around mid-February.  Last year, for instance, we signed a mountain of paperwork to close the deal on our house and went out to celebrate that event - it was actually the 15th, but everyone still assumed that we were out for V-day.  Speaking of home ownership, this year, we felt like celebrating something since we wrapped up the last of our 2013 home improvement projects!  Woo-hoo!  And please interpret the 'we' in that statement as loosely as you will - Michael began what seemed to be a simple kitchen painting project back in the summer, but stripping the previous paint and then sanding and then painting and then sanding again became less than "simple".  We finally decided that we just wanted the job finished, so we followed up a colleague's recommendation and hired a guy who finished up the kitchen and also painted the bathrooms.  Done and done!  So, heading out on Friday night to drink a toast to the end of home improvement projects (for now) was a logical move.  We also drank to the fact that we would NOT be embarking on any major projects in 2014.  Shew!  I realize that some people love the challenge and gain a sense of satisfaction when they complete a major home project, but we have learned, over the past 10 months or so, that we are not fixer-upper-types.  I would much rather spend my Saturday outside, away from our house, hiking, biking, running, doing something, almost anything other than staying at home, working on the house.  (General maintenance is something quite different, and Michael tries very hard to keep a tidy house despite the challenges that I present to those efforts of his on a daily basis!)

Now - for the love: well, I wish that I could say that I'm feeling the love in all things swim/bike/run and life in general, but that is probably not the case.  However, I do feel that I've met my goal to be more consistent in February.  I am slowly logging in more hours, at least in the pool and on the bike, and the elliptical and I have become friendly, even though we're not "in love"!  I have yet to try out aqua jogging, but that may very well be in my future once my aqua jogging shoes arrive this week.  I know, I know, aqua jogging shoes?  Apparently they are amazing.  I'm not expecting miracles, but if aqua jogging will allow me to keep up my running fitness, then I will take it!

But back to what I *am* doing - on the bike and in the pool.  I had my first lactate threshold 'test' on Friday and that was a terrible experience!  Only 20 minutes of the test but I seriously dreaded the experience all day long.  Once I started the actual test, the suffering passed by fairly quickly and my max heart rate completely surprised me.  I'm a bit depressed because it's a good wake-up call for me - I just do NOT like to push it on the bike!  I now, unfortunately, know that I could/should be working a lot harder.  And in the pool?  I'm also still feeling slow, but I just hit a new personal distance record of 3300 meters on Saturday.

Running and I are currently on a hiatus, thanks to a bit of quad tendonitis - not nearly as common as other types of tendonitis, as far as I can tell from the Internets.  So, that is a big "hate" at the moment - I feel like a jilted lover or something and I want to yell "Why don't you love me like I love you?".  Okay, that's rather silly, and I'm trying to be patient and deal with this situation like a grown-up.  And I'm also trying to look at the big picture and not panic.

So, that's a good motto for the moment: Be an adult and don't panic.
We'll see where that takes me!

Cause for celebration

I'm not much of a valentine's day fan, which shouldn't come as much of a surprise since we've even started to not celebrate birthdays around here - at least not with gifts.  But this week did bring me/us several reasons to celebrate, so we obliged rather happily!

First of all, I had a knee appointment on Thursday morning - a very romantic way to start the day, I know.  The good and pretty damn good-looking doctor prodded, poked and groped my knee, commenting that it felt "great!"(I love that a knee can become a point of admiration).  I exhaled a sigh of relief that I have yet to ruin his handicraft!  My last cortisone shot was back in June, so making it 8 months between shots is pretty significant, and the shots seem to continue to work - fingers crossed!  Not that I'm dealing with great pain, but it starts to build up and do more than just "nag".  If the doctor approves the shots as a course of action, who am I to protest, especially if it keeps me on my feet and moving.

While we swore off any 'romantic' celebrations on Thursday, we actually did have dinner plans for Friday due to a Groupon that was about to expire.  As it turned out, we ended up with more than just a three-day weekend and a belated fake holiday to toast.  After work yesterday, we drove to the Valley (amazing when I go to a part of LA and I ask myself or whoever I'm with "Where the hell are we?"; that was definitely my experience yesterday afternoon - not that I haven't been to the Valley, but not to that part of it) and signed what seemed to be our life away in the form of loans and deeds and titles and so much other paperwork.  We also got a date to close on the house that we almost own - a real date and a real house: March 7.  HOLY CRAP!  We are now officially entering adulthood in the form of "Home Ownership"!  Like all major ventures, this is both exciting and terrifying, and we can't quite believe that it's happening.

I've kept mum about the house search - even in real life, as much as possible - because it seemed like such a fragile possibility and because it has been a somewhat emotional process.  After years of vacillating between our dream of moving to another city or state and the idea of buying a house in the LA area, we  finally decided back in October to get serious with the house business.  Redfin.com became not a fun little escape but an important source of information that we scoured weekly and even daily at times.  In October and November, house hunting took over our weekends as we spent hours on Saturday and Sundays at open houses, often feeling deflated because we didn't like the places or equally deflated because we did like them but knew that we would probably be outbid (which did happen - someone put down an all-cash offer on one of the houses we bid on, so how could we compete with that?).  In this process, we learned quite a bit about ourselves and what we wanted/needed in a house and some of our expectations were different from what we thought they would be.  First of all, because of our two larger dogs, we really couldn't be in a tiny place (under 1,000 square foot - believe me, we saw plenty of those!).  Also, a yard was key.  Ditto for a two-car garage.  And decent closet space.  And a logical floor plan.  And a decent neighborhood where I could go for a run.  And not too much work to make it liveable.  And we didn't want to be house poor.  This all seems fairly basic, but we couldn't believe some of the places that we saw (too small, weird neighbors, a nice big pitbull next door, zero closet space, no yard...).  We initially locked into the house back in December, but it did not seem real until the past few weeks when we had the inspection, the appraisal and all sorts of documents come through that indicated that it was ours if we wanted it and if we signed on all the dotted lines!

And now, after all the waiting and looking, we have a closing date and we know when we'll be moving, give or take a day.  Excited and kind of overwhelmed, we definitely celebrated last night at Bashan, indulging in one of the best meals that we've had lately.  We hadn't planned the timing, but it worked out well to eat some amazing food and drink excellent wine after signing away our lives and before the giddy excitement could wear away.  Soon we'll have to face the hard work that comes along with home buying, but for now, I'm content to just enjoy the moment!

Friday night adventures: "In Wonderland"

Despite the fact that we did not celebrate the big V-day for a variety of reasons (nice use of double "v" there), such as grading quizzes and someone taking an art class and two people not really seeing each other that day, our Friday night more than made up for an overblown, commercialized and fabricated tribute to love and romance.  Can you tell how I feel about the whole day?  I certainly don't mean to be a total cynic, but I'm skeptical.  Not about chocolate, wine and flowers, but people (corporations - oh, wait, corporations ARE people now thanks to the US Supreme Court ruling) telling that I'm either supposed to give them or receive them on a certain day.

Back to last night which was not, fortunately, a forced romantic holiday.  It was, however, Friday and the perfect reason to venture out of our usual local haunts.  We braved crowds and traffic and found our way to LACMA (LA County Museum of Art).  My parents gave us a membership for Christmas this year, and this was the first moment that we could to take advantage of our new membership status.  One major advantage of the membership is that we can spend as much or as little time as we want.  Last night, our main purpose was to see the exhibit "In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States". And see it we did!  I thought that it might be packed like the Tim Burton exhibit we saw over the summer, but fortunately it was super calm and we could take our time and really enjoy the art we saw (or enjoy the art that we liked).  It was well organized - great information and well laid-out.  I definitely liked some of the art but not all of it, which seems pretty standard.  I was, however, excited that they had quite a few works by Remedios Varo.  She's a Spanish painter who left the "madre patria" after Franco took over in '39.  I saw an extensive exhibit of her work when I was in Mexico City back in 94 (long time ago!).
These were two of the works on exhibit - the first one is called "Creation of the Birds" and the second is "Woman Leaving Psychoanalyst".  I like to imagine that she is carrying the head of the analyst, or of her father?!

There were plenty of paintings by Frida and some other women artists.  The photographs by Lee Miller, who was Man Ray's assistant but became an accomplished photographer on her own, were pretty great too.

This, however, was not my favorite:

Don't even ask me what this is...

After that exhibit, we also spent some time wandering around the California Design exhibit which we both loved, of course.  It is strange because I certainly still feel like an interloper here in Southern CA, someone who is just visiting (for a few years), and this exhibit perhaps reminded me why I feel like a visitor in such a glamorous place in terms of the "American experience".  I don't think that I'm expressing this very well, but so much in the exhibit was familiar from movies and my sense of America in the 40's, 50's and 60's, but this is certainly not a reality that I've ever personally lived, I've just experienced it through film and TV.  So, that brings me back to California.  Some of my favorite items from the exhibit - the Airstreamer and a nice little surfboard. Both are so Californian!

By the time we wandered through these two exhibits, museum headache had started to take hold (or it was a hunger headache), and we decided to leave in search of food.  Our first choice, Plan A, was way too busy at 7:30 pm on a Friday night.  The second choice, Chi Dynasty in Los Feliz, was pretty slammed but they had a few two-tops, so we sat down with no problems.  It was quite fun to be back at Chi Dynasty - it literally had been years or at least a year and a half since our last visit.  What I like about Chi, in addition to their food, is that they also make great drinks.  I had a St. Germaine cocktail that was awesome.  The dining experience as a whole was not amazing, mainly because there was a table of loud, shrill girls (heavily-made-up 20-somethings) sitting next to us, and their conversation made my ear hurt.  But the food hit the spot, and it was good for us to leave our usual restaurant haunts!

Sad to say, by the time we arrived home, I was ready for bed - apparently  an exciting night on the town for us ends at 9:00 pm!

February's not-so-low nadir

Okay, if this week is really the low point of my month, I can't complain about life! I am, however, feeling unfocused, unproductive and very stale in my classes. I've hit the point in the year with my AP class when I start to cram material into my students' brains rather than letting them absorb concepts such as verisimilitude and bildungsroman. Also, I start to count the days, and when I feel under-the-weather, like this week, I stress even more about the possibility of missing class.

So far, I am staying more or less healthy, thanks to the occasional anti-decongestant that keeps my head from exploding. I even managed a short and lame run at the gimnasio yesterday - the first time I'd run since my awesome (in my world) 10-k. After that event, my left foot swelled up and I had difficulty even walking without pain for a few days. I feared a stress fracture, took days off, and now the foot seems to be properly functioning. Haven't I suffered enough and done enough PT for the next five or ten years?!

But life *has* been busy. Somehow I ended up with after-hours work events Tuesday, Wednesday and tonight. Some of these took the form of sporting events (go team go!), but they still take time and energy. Last week, Michael and I managed to watch a few movies during the week, but there has been none of that these days!

Finally, I think that Michael and I "celebrated" our lamest V-Day ever. We've never fully embraced or indulged in the so-called holiday, but some years we do acknowledge its existence. This year, I made fried rice for us (with leftover rice, of course) and went to bed on the earlier side. I already used the adjective lame, but I'll say it again: LAME.

On the positive side, I tried to totally "nerd out" this week - saw Mike Brown, the author of "How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming". I had heard him interviewed on NPR, and he was/is very funny. He is also a total nerd - amazingly so. I think that he tried to lecture to a lower-level intelligence such as mine, and I could follow, but this was all right before lunch, so I felt a bit distracted. Still, I had to chalk this up to being one of those great learning opportunities thanks to work.

Also, we are gearing up for a three-day weekend! It is supposed to rain tomorrow and Saturday, but if the Weather Channel is correct, the sun should shine on Sunday and Monday. We have dinner plans tomorrow at one of our favorite places in LA, plus I will be learning about swimming on Saturday and Sunday, and I plan to fit in a longish bike ride.

Swim, bike, run?