Be observant of children and pets...

I just received the following email from my employer (who also happens to be my neighborhood association).

Dear Residents,

Public Safety has asked that we pass on the following information to you.

A local biologist that tracks collared mountain lions, has tracked one to the general area of the Baxter water tank. Mountain lions in the area are not an unusual occurrence, as they frequent the entire Santa Monica mountains.

Please be observant of children and pets.

Thank you.

Assistant Real Estate Manager

Pepperdine University Real Estate Operations

I love the last line... I don't know about you, but I read it as "You can observe this 300lb mountain lion consume the children and pets!  The show starts at dusk!  Don't miss it!"  :-)

Happy Birthday, Tater Tot

We had a wonderful time celebrating Tater's Sixth Birthday this week.  Chuck E Cheese's and home for presents.  His "friend party" is next week.

Tiny's Donut Show

Yesterday we made the delicious 500-calorie Apple Strudel.  Before doing so, we watched several YouTube videos about how to prepare Apple Strudel.  Madison loved the shows, and as soon as we had a few minutes she asked if I would help her with something.  So, here is the beginning of the next "Rachel Ray"...

Tater's Theme

We had just seen Rocky 2 a few days earlier when I spied Tater performing this original composition on the stairwell...

Apple Strudel - DELICIOUS!

We had a big "Root Beer & Apple Strudel Festival" today at church as a fundraiser for the youth group's trip to San Felipe.  Well, after 48-straight hours of Halloween parties, birthday parties, and sleepovers, Kids #1 & 2 were too pooped to go.  But I had already bought all the stuff to make the strudel (the recipe is here).  I did make one change though... I soaked the raisins in Bourbon and microwaved the bourbon & Raisins for about a minute to soak up all the juice.

Holy-moly!  It's so good.  The only problem?  As you can see from the recipe...500 calories a slice!

Wrapping up the MotoTour

Mark and I made it home safe from our CA MotoTour.  Wow.  What a wonderful trip.  I seriously can't remember the last time I had so much fun.  In summary, we rode back roads up to Ojai, over the mountains to Bakersfield.  Across the South Central Valley up to Sequioa National Forest, through the forest and across the Central Valley to Monterey.  Then down the PCH from Monterey to Malibu.  950 miles in all.  Absolutely incredible.  Both our bikes handled flawlessly and we had such a wonderful time.  Mark created a neat slideshow here (beware... it's long).

Here are a few of my favorite things about the trip...

3 - The joys of being on the open road on a powerful bike for days at a time.  It's a great feeling just being out in the world with little traffic, comfortable cruising speed, and no interruptions.  I listened to "Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond, and "The Long Tail" by Chris Anderson, as well as a few great NPR podcasts (check out this interview from Fresh Air).

2 - The amazingly diverse scenery of Southern and Central California.  As you can see from the slideshow link above, CA is an amazing state.  From breathtaking Alpine Forests, to vast agricultural plateaus, rocky, sea otter filled coasts to barren deserts, we have it all within a few hundred miles of our house.  It was amazing how much we saw in 950 miles and 30 hours of riding.

3 - Quality time with the most faithful and steady friend of my life.  Those of you with close siblings understand this, and those without...I don't think I can explain it.  My entire life Mark has been my best friend, trusted advisor, and playmate.  I'm so grateful to have had this time with him.

Guilt-free play

My wife and I have a consistent discussion about the value of "play" and "down-time". This often occurs when one of us starts a new book. Its hard for us to fall into the book for hours on end without lots of guilt. Same with most any other leisure activity.

This week's "Speaking of Faith" addresses this issue with an interview with Stuart Brown, the Director of the National Institute for Play. He argues that "play prepares us for an evolving planet," and that without sufficient play time we will find that we are fixed and rigid in response to complex stimuli. Play is universal across the human species as well as almost every other intelligent form of life on the planet.

Take an hour and listen to it. You'll be glad you did.

The nicest shot ever...

RD has been bragging about shooting in the 70's for about a year. I've never fully believed him based on the countless times I've played with him. Well, he proved his metal this weekend with an amazing 77/75 (how do you count a mulligan?). This shot was the single nicest shot I've ever seen. Notice the ball mark just to the right of the hole. And this was from the tee box! He nearly cupped a hole-in-one. AMAZING. Congrats, RD. You earned it.

Happy 4th!

What a wonderful day to be on campus at PU. We have so many wonderful traditions here...

• a family parade with firetrucks, bikes, convertibles, motorcycles, and children dressed up in patriotic form.


• A reading of the Declaration of Independence from our own Don Marshall


• The pledge and prayer


• A cookout/picnic/potluck at the Baxter park for the whole PU community


• Pool Olympics for all the kids.
  


• Water-balloon toss


• Egg toss


• And ping-pong out on the bluff.

This year I MC'ed the Pool Olympics. Contests included the belly-flop , a "goofy/no splash dive", cannonball, and a team relay where members had to swim across the pool pushing a water balloon through the water without using their hands. It was super fun. My friend Hung took lots of photos...I'll post them soon.

Thanks, Reverend!

In another one of those "it's-a-small-world" moments, I noted on Meat and Three Cafe the other day that RTB would be in DC this week conducting Customer Service training for the Westin Embassy Row.  Even though we live in the same town and work at the same place, we rarely get to spend much time together.  So I was delighted to take the opportunity to stay with him last night at the Westin.  My flight from DCA was a 9am, so by staying with him downtown I was able to sleep in until 6:30 and take the Metro to the Airport.

Plus, we went out last night and found an amazing pub in DC where they had about 15 small-print pages of beer choices.  We both chose a country and tried new brews.  The Boddington Cream Pale Ale was awesome!

We had a great time talking about life, work, and finances until about 2am.  It was the perfect way to end an amazing few days here in DC/MD. 

out on the town with Mom

Mom & I having lunch at Phillys Cheese Steak where Buckeye Good Food used to be.

Clippers Spirit

My buddy Dave scored us box seats to teh Cippers. We enjoyed watching my Wizards pull out a one-basket victory. The highlight was a visit from the Clippers Spirit at halftime. : -)

What happens when you mix "funnest" and "hardest"?

What happens when you mix "funnest" and "hardest"?

With all of the "indoor" time necessitated by the smoke in the air here, we've been looking for cheap fun indoors. So, this week we taught Matthew and Madison to play "Nertz". Nertz is like a group game of solitaire where everyone is allowed to play on the Aces in the middle. I think it's a common game, but it goes by different names in different parts of the country (Nerf, Gluck, Peanuts, Pounce, Solitaire Frenzy...).

Anyway, it's a really fun game to play with the family, but it's quite a bit more challenging than any card game the kids have ever tried. So, after about three hands Matthew was having a great time. He blurted out

This is the FARDEST game I've ever played!

Of course, he simply used the common contraction of "Funnest" and "Hardest", but it sure made us laugh!