Brothers and Parents and Friends, Oh My!

As summer comes to an end, so does our streak of guest-hosting mania ... we managed to host Kelly and Ginger (see previous posts), my dad, Nick's parents, my friend Amanda (and her new boyfriend, Andre, who we were delighted to meet), and my brother Derrick and his girlfriend Monika. All this in one and a half action-packed months! Thankfully, Nick and I really enjoy playing San Diego tourist in our own town!

Derrick and Monika were with us for a week, which we attempted to cram full of the SD experience. They spent a day at the beach, where they rented bikes and cruised the boardwalk, a day at SeaWorld, and a day at the Zoo. I managed to give them a thorough tour of all my favorite breakfast places: The Mission, Big Kitchen, The Broken Yolk, and of course, Hash House A Go-Go, where Derrick ate an entire pancake. Yeah, I know, it doesn't sound that impressive ... but their house flapjack is about an inch and a half thick and well over a foot in diameter (16 inches, maybe? It's ridiculous). Our server said that he had never seen someone finish one before. I told them they should have a wall of fame - then again, Derrick might be the only one on it.

We tried to give them a San Diego Bay experience by renting a sailboat ... on a day where there was absolutely NO wind. It was shameful. It took us 25 minutes just to get out of the harbor, and once on the bay, I think I saw only 2 other boats operating without their motors. Yeesh. We didn't even last an hour before we threw in the towel and headed over to the Midway Museum. Here are some pictures Monika took:

Thrown in the brig for conduct unbecoming...

Here's Der in the T2, one of the planes Nick trained in back in Pensacola

Um, he wishes.

A trip to San Diego just isn't complete without a visit to the Wild Animal Park. However. For those not familiar with San Diego's microclimates, here's a lesson:

1) Coastal San Diego is temperate paradise - highs in the summer are high 70's to mid 80's. Highs in the winter are mid 60's to low 70's. Seriously.

2) The farther inland you go, the more extreme the temperatures get. Just 5 miles East of the coastline, you're looking at summer highs ~5 degrees higher (10 miles, 10 degrees).

3) As you get close to the mountains, the weather is what you'd expect for mountains surrounded by desert: hot, dry summers and cool to cold winters.

4) The Wild Animal Park is in the foothills.

5) The longer you live in Coastal San Diego, the more you would rather pull out armhair than voluntarily visit hot/cold/rainy/cloudy places.

Okay, so now maybe it will make more sense when I say that I wanted to cry when Monika said "can we go to the Wild Animal Park?" Facing 100 degree temperatures (please keep in mind that while my MIND still thinks I'm a Chicagoan, my body knows I live in San Diego, where 100 degrees is frickin ridiculous), we planned to escape the heat of the day and spend the later part of the afternoon and early evening out there. Didn't matter, it was still H-O-T. You know, I suspect the animals are all San Diegans at heart, too, because they didn't seem to be fans of the heat either. If only I could have rolled around in the mud like the rhinos ...

Here are Derrick and Monika by the Lion Camp:

So for now, it's back to the grind for us. Nick is going to be up at China Lake Naval Air Station (Ridgecrest, CA) for most of September, but we do get to have one nice reprieve: we're going to meet in Reno for Tailhook (convention of naval aviators) for a long weekend. We always have a great time at 'Hook, so we're definitely looking forward to that!

That's Why They're Called Business Socks!

Hysterical. 'Nuf said.
It's Business Time (click on it! You know you want to!)

Middle of August?!

Well, several things have happened since the last blog entry. Firstly, half of August whizzed by - how the heck did that happen? I also celebrated my birthday (I am proud to say I am still officially in my MID-twenties), and Nick and I are having a great time entertaining more out-of-town guests.

As many relocated Chicagoans will probably tell you, people across the country have only a vague notion of what food delicacies Chicago has perfected. Clearly, an injustice has been done to my fine hometown because San Diegans (and probably many others out there) think that the famous Chicago-style pizza is DEEP DISH. Ack! When I explain that STUFFED pizza is the end-all-be-all pie that the Windy City created and perfected, I get blank stares. Don't even get me started about explaining why catsup should not come anywhere near a beautiful vienna beef hot dog ... it's a conversation I've had too many times to bear recounting here. So I decided that I was going to have a Chicago-style birthday party, complete with all of my food favorites. Natural casing Vienna Beef dogs, check (Chicago-style, mais oui! We had all the fixins, down to the radioactive-green relish. Oh yeah, and guests were warned that catsup would be confiscated at the door). Italian Beef sammiches on Gonnella rolls with grilled onions and hot and sweet peppers, check. Homemade potato chips, check. Polish sausages? Of course! And because I didn't want to have to roll people home, we decided to forego the stuffed pizza and instead had Chicago-style thin crust. Yes, yes, Chicago has its own way of doing thin crust, too - crispy crust, aged cheese, not-too-sweet sauce, cut into squares.

Anyway, the party was great fun, and it was a very delicious birthday. The food got raves, and we even rented a miniature Vienna Beef hot dog stand that heated the au jus for the beef, steamed the buns, and kept the dogs hot. And now all of the party attendees know what "dragging the dog through the grass" means. Don't you? Hmm, guess you should have been at my party ...

I'll fill you in on our August guests another time - maybe then I'll have some pictures to put up!

Twin Cities Tragedy

To all of our friends from Minneapolis or with family and friends still in the twin cities, we hope that your loved ones are safe and were nowhere near the bridge when it collapsed. We have been watching the news in absolute disbelief ...

My thesis advisor is from Minnesota, and flew into Minneapolis yesterday morning for his annual August family vacation. We knew he wouldn't be staying in the city, but emailed him to check and make sure they were all okay ... and he sent back a message saying that they had just crossed the bridge right before the collapse (two, three minutes prior) - they had decided to go to a Twins game at the last minute. They heard about it on the radio and stopped and walked to the river to see what had happened, and took these pictures about 40 minutes after the collapse:

He said the scene was completely surreal - civilians were pulling strangers out of cars and helping them up the embankments, even that long after the collapse. What a testament to the people - their spirit and nature. I cynically wonder if californians would do the same ...

Please be safe and hug your loved ones.

I'm not normally one to foist my opinions about things onto other people ... wait ... yes ... yes I am.

Despite San Diego's fantastic indie music scene, I am hardly hip enough to be on top of what's up-and-coming. I do, however, like to think that Nick and I embrace little-known artists from various genres and help them rocket to stardom by purchasing their album and maybe even attending their small-venue concert (you know, where the tickets aren't more than, say, $25 - we're not rich, after all). Indeed, I feel a slight twinge of annoyance when our names aren't mentioned in the liner notes of their next album. But that doesn't stop us from being enthusiastic when an artist we really like starts to catch on in the mainstream.

One such artist, with whom I am currently enamored, is Brandi Carlile. I can't claim to have listened to her "way back when" or anything like that, but our local indie radio station (103.7: for those in the SD area, give it a listen) played her single and I was hooked. Her voice had a Bonnie Raitt-esque quality in its simultaneous roughness and clarity, and her strength in the upper range is amazing. Her newer album, The Story, is great, but her tour album is INCREDIBLE. So in this Milli Vanilli world of Live and STP wannabes (aka Chris Daughtry and the like - sorry, Daryn ... but girl, you know it's true!), it's good to give a listen to groups that may not make the Top 40 but really have something to contribute musically. Brandi Carlile's Website (click the Play button in the upper right to hear excerpts from the new album)

On a similar vein, the Landmark theaters (showing indie films) in San Diego are showing a movie that I love love love. It's an Irish film called Once, and it's kind of a modern musical about two Dublin musicians trying to get by. I had heard snippets of the music from the movie online, and I bought the soundtrack album immediately. If you find this movie, see it - it was really beautifully made.

Enough promo ... if you're just dying to add an album to your collection, well, these are my recommendations. There you go.