Rainbows

The weather has been pretty warm the last couple weeks, but we have still had a couple rainy days. Two days in a row there were rainbows over town! One even started downtown on Santa Cruz Ave! Who needs a pot of gold when you live in Los Gatos? Wait...I do.

Fight Club

Velasques vs. Dos Santos

Now that I am super into kickboxing I am also becoming more interested in watching fights on TV. I've accompanied my BF to watch fights before, but I wasn't exactly excited about it (but went that way he could have a couple beers and enjoy himself and not worry about driving home). But now that's beginning to change. I like boxing a little, but I really like the MMA (mixed martial arts) fights, since some of the moves they do I have learned in kickboxing. And just like any sport that you actually know a little something about, it has become much more interesting and less violent that I had first assumed. Of course they are fighting, so there is obviously going to be cuts, scrapes, blood, black eyes, swollen ears and faces, but for the most part all the guys fighting are very respectful of the rules of the sport, and each other. They aren't angry or borderline murderers or anything like that. They are athletes.
But I can still watch the fights both ways. The old way that found it horrifying and gruesome and my new way. We went to Hooters to watch the George St.Pierre fight a couple weekends ago. And it was actually really fun! I was able to spot moves that I knew how to do which was awesome. Like the "superman punch":) and I came to understand much more clearly why our kickboxing coaches are always telling us to do things like extend our arms when we punch, or keep our hands up at all times. It makes sense when you actually watch people who are fighting. And there is a strategy, a point system, and all kinds of rules that are (believe it or not) intended to protect the fighters. So that was all interesting too. But then I had a moment where I looked around me, and there on all the 30 or so TV's were two guys covered in blood (and I mean blood on the guys, on the ground, all over the place),  beating the stuffing out of each other and I thought to myself, "What in the world am I watching?!?" and had to cover my eyes because it was so...painful to watch. And they went for all 5 rounds so it was a good fight, but it just looked so painful you know? I must have too much empathy or something.
LOL. Well, the next big fight is at the end of December, and one of the fighters is a local San Jose guy, Cain Velasquez. My BF actually recognized him and his family walking around Los Gatos this summer and stopped to say hi! So I'll be cheering for him. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm actually looking forward to the fight...ha ha. Who am I?

Packers vs. Giants: FAIL

Uggg....I don't even know how to begin. Last night's game was AWFUL. Just terrible. Not since the...beginning of the 2009 season have I seen such a horrendous game! It was so awful in fact that I'm not even going to give much commentary because it was all so awful. I know why it everything collapsed, because key players were out and they were trying to "make do". But shoot. Do we have to melt down while playing the freaking Giants, on Sunday night football? Oh the torture! Oh the suffering! As if the Giant's fans are not obnoxious enough already.
But I am a true fan. And yes, I did watch the entire game, to the bitter, BITTER end. Som looking on the bright side of this train-wreck of a game:
Cobb played well
Kuhn got his longest run
Hawk played solid, like he always does.
Rodgers "Movember" mustache was amazing
McCarthys "Movember" 'stashe was kind of squirrly, but still cool.
Hopefully they figure out what to do with the O-line by next week, and Matthews is back. And...well, that's it. That's all I have this week.

Thanksgiving

This year I had a relatively quiet Thanksgiving. Just me, Mom and my Sweetie. He decided to go play soccer with a bunch of his friends so that left me with the morning free. So I went for a really nice run outside. I haven't done that in a while. Run outside I mean. The weather was warm and sunny and very summery, but it at least looked like fall. The leaves (well, some of them anyway) are falling, and while there is still a lot of green, there are  some really spectacular burst of color here and there. And along N. Santa Cruz Ave, by the grocery store there are these really huge trees, with equally huge brown leaves that crunch under my feet when I run over them. And it's quite breathtaking when a big gust of wind rustles the branches and the leaves spin and fall all around.
I cooked my second turkey, and am pleased to announce that I cooked it the right-side-up. I may have mentioned this before, but it has always seemed counter intuitive to me to lay the bird on it's back. At any rate, I thought long and hard about it before setting it in the pan, and managed to do it correctly. I also made a few other sides, potato stuffing (a brilliant recipe that I acquired from my old roommate), and green beans. Mom brought over pilaf (my Pepere Joe's recipe) and a kale salad, and a pumpkin pie.
I watched football, and was very disappointed to see the Lions loose. I really wanted them to win. And that was pretty much it. Like I said, it was quiet, but nice;) Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving too!

A Wine Club Thanksgiving!

Our Fortified Wines

Last night was Wine Club night again, and it was my mom's turn to host. She put out a beautiful Thanksgiving spread, complete with fancy (and I mean FANCY!) hors d'oeuveres. See the photos below for the details. My favorites were the deviled quail eggs with caviar! So tiny, but so delish! Our class covered fortified wines, i.e. wines that have had spirits added to them halting the fermentation process and increasing the alcohol content. Fortified wines include, ports, sherrys, and Australian Muscat. Most of them tasted somewhat how you'd expect, but the "fino" sherry caught us all by surprise. It smelled wonderful but it tasted briny and sort of salty and...quite frankly gross. It was a little like sparkling water, with the same mineral quality mixed with pure alcohol. Anyway, you won't fine me ordering that off the menu ever. I'll stick with the sweet cream sherrys. We learned that wines began being fortified after the English boycotted French wines in the late...1700's (I think, I can't remember). England started getting their wines from Spain and Portugal, but half the time it was no good by the time it reached England. So they started adding grape spirits to the wine to stop the fermentation (which if it continues too long produces vinegar) and voila! they had a wine that could withstand the journey, and practically NEVER  went bad. Ports come from Portugal, sherry from Spain, and of course Muscat from Australia. 

After class we (the guests) made fun Thanksgiving bouquets to take home while mom finished cooking. We had a wonderful and hearty (thank goodness, because I'd just sampled 6 fortified wines!) Thanksgiving dinner! We had cranberry stuffed turkey, brussel sprouts with apricots (OK, ok, I admit I am not the biggest fan of ye'ol brussel sprouts because I find them to taste very bitter. But the way she made them, the outside leaves were SUPER delicious, especially with a bite of apple and almonds!) And there were sweet potatoes as well. So tasty. I even had seconds!

The night was topped off with pumpkin mousse and homemade gingersnaps dipped in white chocolate! It was such a great "party"!

I'll tell you, I don't even miss the parties I used to have in college. Kegs full of cheap beer and 7 different kinds of potato chips. No sir! This is how I roll now. Beautiful, thoughtful food, a little education about what I'm drinking, and plenty of time to sip and enjoy with friends. What a night! And what a perfect meal to get in the holiday spirit! Thanks mom!

On the Road to Tahoe

This weekend my BF and I went up to Lake Tahoe for a quick little overnight "get away". I was hoping for a little fall/snow, you know, to get it the holiday spirit. My expectations were exceeded a thousand fold! The drive up and back was hands down the most beautiful drive I have ever taken in the Sierra! There were gorgeous fall colors, and picture-perfect snow covered Chrismas trees (technically pines and redwoods;). And the weather was spectacular. We got a sample of pretty much everything you can imagine. On the drive up we had sunny skies to start, then cloudy skies, then rain, hail, light snow, heavy snow with HUGE snowflakes, more hail, more rain, fog, more snow. The drive ended with sunny skies and poofy white clouds over Lake Tahoe, and a beautiful blazing orange sunset.You know how they say life is a journey, not a destination? Well, this trip was a perfect example of that. The drive there and back was definitely the best part of the weekend! Here are a few of my best photos! Enjoy! (P.S. These were taken from a moving vehicle, and I was trying to avoid barfing as we careened around the mountains, so I apologize if some of them are a little blurry.)

On Your Mark, Get Set...

GO!
I officially wrapped my first Christmas present of the season last night! That's right! Wooo Hooo! Yipppeeee! Hoooray!!! I know it's abnormally early, but there are two very good reasons why I went ahead and did it anyway. 1.) I felt like it, and 2.) This first present has to be very carefully mailed to the middle of the Alaskan wilderness and I have something else I have to send up there tomorrow that happens to be perfectly suited to wrapping it in.
Ok...and I may as well confess I listened to some Christmas tunes while I was doing it....and I may further confess that I have put out a couple of Xmas decorations out a wee-bit early (in the form of cute little candle holders that I got last year at Pier 1)....But that's it. I swear....
At least till I get home tonight:) Yay Christmas!!!!

P.S. Don't forget to take a moment to admire my super cute snowman scissors I got:) Just looking at them makes me happy:)

Richard Feynman

In between the books for book club I have been reading The Pleasure of Finding Things Out by the late Richard Feynman. He was a theoretical physicist who did great things (that neither you or I would probably understand) in quantum mechanics and electrodynamics. He was also on the Manhattan Project, which you will recall was a group of scientists commissioned by the Army to build the first atomic bomb.

But the thing that I like about him, and about reading about him is that he seems like he was a cool (but quirky) guy. Sure he could do calculus in his head, but he was also really funny, and almost...like a kid. He wasn't arrogant, nor did he act super intellectual. He was just a big curious kid that happened to be good at math!

The part of the book I am reading now is about his time in Los Alamos when he was working on the bomb. And the story I just read was so funny I just have to share it with you!

So the way things were back then was that all the scientists were in Los Alamos, but the location of the plant where the Uranium was to be processed was elsewhere, and the people handling the stuff had no idea what they were doing. At the time the Army didn't want the two groups to mix, because they were afraid it would become easier for secrets to get out. They wanted the plant people to be in the dark. But it became apparent that they had to learn at least a little bit about what was going on in order to design the plant properly and not blow themselves to smithereens accidentally. So they sent Feynman up there to explain it all to them. Apparently they were amazed by him. In his own words "So I sat down and told them how it works...yak yak-all stuff which was elementary primer stuff back at Los Alamos, but they'd never heard any of it, so I turned out to be a tremendous genius to them. So from being rather primitive back there in Los Alamos, I was a super genius on the other end."

After he explained everything and everyone was amazed, the contractors etc. said they understood and asked him to come back in a month so they could show him their plans. So a month later he goes back and they take him into a giant room with a huge table covered in tons of blueprints (which he, Feynman, doesn't know how to read). They started explaining their strategy to him how all these valves and ventilators work but  because he is such a "genius" they didn't bother to explain to him how to read the plans assuming he already knew. Of course he did not. Feynman tried to follow, but he had no idea what the little boxes with crosses that were all over the plans were. Clearly they were important. At first he thought they were windows but that didn't work because some were not on walls, then he thought they might be some sort of valves. But he'd waited too long to ask! In his words "I want to ask them what it is. You must have been in this situation like this- you didn't ask them right away, right away would have been OK. But they have been talking a little bit too long. You hesitated too long. If you ask them now they'll say what are you wasting my time for?"

He looks at all the plans spread out everywhere. What was he going to do?! So he came up with a plan. He decided to point to one of the little boxes and ask "What happens if this valve gets stuck?" That way they would say either "nothing" which confirmed it was a valve, or they would say "That's not a valve that's a...whatever" and then he would know what it was. 

So he chose a random box and cross and pointed to it. In his words "What happens if this valve gets stuck? figuring they're going to say "That's not a valve sir, that's a window." So one looks at the other guy and says "Well, if that valve gets stuck," and they go up and down on the blueprint, up and down, the other guy up and down, back and forth, and they both look at each other and they turn around to me and say "You're absolutely right sir." So they rolled up the blueprints and away they went and we walked out."

Isn't that hilarious? He found the one mistake on the entire plan set by accident!

As he was leaving the Lieutenant that he was with said "You're a genius. I want to know how, how you do something like that." And Feynamn responded " You try to find out whether it's a valve or not."

The book is filled with stories like that! There is another one about how he stole top secret papers to prove that the security was less than stellar, or he used his wife's lingerie to secure a room for himself instead of sharing like everyone else did. He really just seems like a fun-loving likable brilliant guy.

The book before this one is called Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman! and also has some great stories in it.  His books have very little to do with describing physics. They are more a memoir of his life while he was doing physics. If you are looking for some light and fun reading, I highly recommend either of these books!

Fall Back

Sunday marked the switch to the "fall back" portion of Daylight Savings Time (is that supposed to be capitalized?).
I like that it is a little brighter when I wake up, and doesn't feel so much like the middle of the night as I shuffle into the kitchen to make my emotionally comforting but technically ineffective pot of decaf coffee.
But I do not like the fact that it seems so much later in the afternoon when I get off of work. It makes me feel that I've somehow been at work twice as long as normal...I mean it's practically nighttime by the time leave!
I don't think it would bother me so much if I didn't have to go to work. But oh well I guess.
It wouldn't be so bad if it was at least cooler and more "fall" like, because then I could feel all warm and Christmassy inside. But noooo. It's been like 80 degrees and sunny. Apparently nature did not get the memo that it's called "fall" back for a reason. If I was meant to be wearing shorts and flip-flops to work it would be called "summer" back. Whatever. Actually it's probably not natures fault. We are the ones causing global warming. And at the rate we are going Santa is going to have to buy a yacht if he wants to continue living at the North Pole.
Speaking of Christmas, only 49 shopping days left! I've been collecting (and creating) Xmas gifts all year, but I made my first holiday Amazon purchase yesterday! Ahhh...I love giving presents! And I have a Christmas CD in my car...He he he...I know it's way too early but I don't care. It makes me happy when I drive to work in the morning. Hopefully the weather gets festive soon, so I can better enjoy the long dark nights that lay ahead! Even if it doesn't, I *guess* I'll survive. After all it's practically Christmas!!!

Election Day

Don't forget to vote!

Today is Election Day. In general I avoid politics because it is almost impossible (in my opinion) to find any real "truth" amid the politic-ing. But that doesn't mean that I don't take my opportunity to cast a vote when the time comes to do so. Whether or not I enjoy watching the debates, or reading the seemingly endless collection of "Say yes to Prop 34" or "say no to Prop 37" fliers that I get in the mail, I do feel a sense of responsibility to involve myself in the confusing world of politics when election time rolls around. Even if I don't "feel" like it. I am often confused by the propositions, and sometimes it takes me a good long while to figure out what they are even saying. For a long time I didn't vote on most of them because, again, I felt like there were too many hidden agendas, that there was too much trickery and deception going into writing them for me to ever make heads or tails of anything. But then I realized that (for myself) that probably isn't the right thing to do. I don't think anybody can know what candidates running for election are really thinking. Nor can we know what the writers of the propositions have in their hearts as they writing. We can't know (no matter what they say or promise) for 100% what electing a specific person will do, nor can we know exactly what will happen if we vote yes or no for a specific proposition. But seeing into the souls of politicians is not our responsibility. Our responsibility is only to make the most informed judgement we can, based on the information available to us even. (Even if that information is cryptic, convoluted and confusing as hell.) That's it. That's what we have to work with, and apparently it's the best that our country can do. We have to make the most of it.

So now I just do my best to understand the issue at hand, and give the prop (or candidate) the best vote I am capable of. To summarize, you probably won't ever hear me ask "Who did you vote for?" but at the same time I always cast my vote. I think you should too.

Up early casting my vote!

The Origin of AIDS

As a change from the physics kick my book club has been on the last few months we read a book about virology, biology, and the history of disease. The Origin of AIDS by Jacques Pepin, was an...I don't want to say "awesome" (because it is truly tragic)...but a brilliant book. I love a book that has more references than it does text!
Pepin chronicles the history, not only of the disease but of the research, the forensic investigation into the origin, and propagation of the deadliest disease to touch the modern world. He sleuthed out the truth buried in mounds of reports and papers published in the early to mid-20th century, and in long forgotten blood specimens hidden in freezers in central Africa. He presented data, clearly and fairly, and he warned against interpreting data that you don't understand (which was an excellent point!).
I thought the book was not only insightful in terms of the obvious topic, but also a fantastic example of the use of the scientific method, and an informative history of Africa during the era of colonialism.
Contrary to what many Americans might think, HIV and AIDS didn't originate within the homosexual community, but rather it was a disease acquired from chimpanzees, and initially transmitted through the unsterilized needles of colonial doctors trying to control (then) known diseases like African sleeping sickness, yaws, syphilis, malaria and leprosy. Only then did it spread to prostitutes and then later to Haiti where it finally encountered the US homosexual community. The story is a sad one, and tragic in the true sense of the word, but it was also encouraging in that science has been able to understand HIV and AIDS to the extent that has, and in such a short time. Only 20 years ago AIDS was considered an un-curable death sentence. But (and unfortunately this only applied to non-3rd world countries) now it is something that can be controlled and people can live long relatively healthy lives. Just look at Magic Johnson. He was diagnosed in 1991 I think.
Technically the book was profound too. It got scientific, but not in a gratingly boring kind of way. I'll admit that there was much more information than I really needed, but at the same time, in some cases I really appreciated it. For example I didn't know that the primate version of HIV is called SIV, and there are many variations within the chimp/gorilla/monkey populations around the world. I didn't know that because SIV has been around in primates for a couple thousand years, most of them are immune to it now (the ones that weren't died off long ago and never reproduced). Hopefully the story of HIV and humans will eventually play out in the same manner. I didn't know there was an HIV-1 and HIV-2. I didn't know that HIV-1 had subtypes, the most common being HIV-1 M, but additionally there is an N, O, and P each indicating a different cross-species transmission from ape (or monkey) to human. That fact was especially amazing to me for some reason. There was just tons and tons of fascinating information like that throughout the book.
Like I said before, at the same time that the story was tragic, it was also inspiring. The contrast between the devastating topic, and the medical genius that finally discovered it's MO, was a little difficult to navigate emotionally at times, but it was absolutely worthwhile read.
I definitely recommend it, not only as an interesting scientific topic, but also as a wonderful example of the use of the scientific method, and a piece of recent history. It's a piece of history we still are a part of, and I think it is worth while to try to understand it.

Week 9: Packers vs. Cardinals

We won again! And I'm not just talking about the game. We went to the same bar as we went last week, and just like before there were more Packers fans there (a whopping 5 of us!) so they played the whole game WITH sound!!! Yay! Super cool hu?
Anyway onto the game. The defense started out strong with...Daniels getting a sack early on. (I had to look up who he was because I had no idea. He was our 4th round draft pick, and a rookie DE out of Iowa.) Cobb had an amazing 40-some yard punt return. And I am pleased to say I feel like he is making some great decisions on special teams about when to go for the extra yards and when to take a knee.
I don't know what the deal is with Crosby, but I hope he gets it sorted out soon. he's missed like 5 of his last 9 field goals with the ball swinging widely to the right it seems right at the end of the arc. I don't know much about kicking, so I really cant do much speculating, but something is amiss for sure.
Our running game was the most productive it's been all year. I thought both Starks and Green did a great job moving the ball down the field and setting up pass plays. And they get some nice rushes for more than 2 yards (which it feels like has been our average the last 8 weeks.) I just can't say enough about how happy I am to see the ground game improving.
Rodgers had a pretty good game I thought. He had a couple errant passes that were probably his fault, but the interception was just one of those freak events that are nobody's fault...well, not Rodgers anyway. He made a really great fumble recovery a few plays later too. I saw the ball come out and not a Packer in sight and then all of the sudden there was Rodgers coming from the left, totally horizontal, flying in the air and diving on the ball! LOL. It was pretty amazing, especially since the last time I'd seen him (on the screen) he was way in the backfield. It was a great play, and in my opinion more than made up for the bad passes he made earlier.
I saw Jeff Saturday make a couple great blocks down field. That was cool. And James Jones made another incredible catch for a TD. He is just getting better and better every week. Awesome! Tom Crabtree's TD was nice, especially after he dropped a wide open pass a few plays earlier. Speaking of dropped balls, we had a few of those yesterday that I wasn't so happy about. Driver had one that was right on the numbers, and a couple other guys I can't remember. Randal Cobb had another spectacular game, and I am glad to see that he's not developing a cocky attitude about it. He is a solid, versitele, dependable player, and I am sure Rodgers is enjoying having him on the field. I still don't have anything good to say about Jermichael Finely.
Seeing Nelson go out with a sprained ankle, and then Bulaga with...whatever happened to him, and then Mathews wasn't so encouraging, but at least next week is our bye, so hopefully they have time to heal up.
The O-line did great, especially considering they had to do the old "switcharoo" moving Lang to fill in at right tackle for Bulaga and Detrich-Smith filling in for Lang at guard. To be honest, I almost thought they played better than when Bulaga was in. But I'd have to watch the game again to state that with any certainty.
The defensive line did pretty good, and Williams did a good job in his match up with Larry Fitsgerald. Hawk turned in another solid performance.Walden had a nice game, as did Casey Hayward, and Desmond Moses. All those guys have really stepped up and done a nice job this season. We have a lot of talent on our defense right now. They combined for an interception, and then later in the game Walden made a crucial stop on third down. I think it may have one of the key moves that drove away any last hope the Cards had to come back and win. If that didn't do it then Jarret Bush's recovery on the Mathsay punt certainly did. I don't care for Bush on the D, but he's been pretty great on special teams.
Over all, it was a really good game I thought. All phases were present, and carrying their own weight. I thought the newer guys stepped in and played great, and the veterans performed the way they are supposed to. I thought the play-calling was good (although I generally prefer to see more no-huddle), and for the most part execution was right on. WooHoo! A nice way to head into the bye!

A Light in the Dark

Yesterday was Halloween. Normally I'm a big fan of holidays, but for some reason other than the dressing up, Halloween just doesn't do much for me. Maybe it's because I never did it as a kid, so I don't even have the warm fuzzy feeling of acquiring a hoard of candy from perfect strangers for free. Maybe it's because I'm not into scary/gross looking things like chainsaw murderers and severed heads. I mean if I'm going to spend money on decorations I want them to be pretty and happy, not looking like they've been pulled out of a dumpster by homicide detectives. Yuck. Anyway, to not be a total party pooper, I do like the "3 year old" version of Halloween, i.e. cute jack-o-lanterns and dressing up as furry animals etc.
But anyway last night, I decided to stay in and...hide from trick-or-treaters instead of dressing up and facing the crowds. Lol. Not very festive I know. But we didn't get any trick or treaters last year, and I'd purchase two bags of candy which I ended up eating half of, so this year I thought I'd just buy no candy and hide.
Anyway, since I didn't want to have the lights on I just closed the blinds and lit a bunch of candles. It was really cool, and even a little spooky when the wind blew through the cracked window. I had the fireplace going, and managed to cook dinner in the dark (very difficult to do by the way, especially chopping things with a sharp knife), baked my BF some special Halloween cookies, and then I sat in my reading chair, sipped a glass of wine and read half of my book for book club. It was awesome!
I often light candles around the house, but rarely do I ever actually only have candle light to see by with all the other lights off. It was a cozy sort of experience albeit difficult from a practical standpoint. It's surprising how thoroughly a little flame can take the edge off the darkness. Even one candle can cheer things up dramatically. It's comforting in a sort of instinctual way. It got me thinking about the olden days, before electricity. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of electricity, and technology and flushing toilets and all of that, but I think there are trade offs for those things that we aren't even aware of anymore. I mean, we don't even experience nighttime really. We just extend the day with lights inside our homes until we are ready to go to sleep. But last night almost felt like camping. I could feel it getting darker and darker out. It was pretty cool.
Anyway, I really enjoyed my quiet night at home, and even though I didn't go anywhere, it actually felt like one of the most Halloweeny Halloweens ever! It was dark and windy and a little rainy out, and kind of spooky, but also bewitching.