Mother's Day - Priceless!

Mother's Day is a wonderful holiday.   Gerry and I are very forunate to have both of our mothers still with us.  We enjoyed talking with them on the phone yesterday.  We really should talk more frequently.  Gerry's mother lives in Glen Carbon, IL and my mother lives in Fort Collins, CO.  Although our mothers live far away from us, they are often close in our thoughts.  We do try to visit both mothers at least twice a year.  Thankfully, both of our mothers are doing fairly well.

Ann Hans last Easter, as she celebrated her 85th B Day!





Mom Mary & Dad in March of 2013

Mother's Day is a good time to pause and reflect....  THANK YOU MOM! 

I saw this editorial in the Sunday paper which was a very touching tribute.  Worth the read! 
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-corwin-mothers-day-present-20130512,0,5719.story

 

Boston Marathon

It's the Boston Marathon, but in my mind I have another name for it - WGM.  (World's Greatest Marathon)

The 3rd Monday in April runners flock to Boston to participate in this historic event. It is Patriot's Day, a state holiday in Massachusetts.   I consider myself extremely privileged to have participated in the WGM Boston on 8 occasions.  1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001.  After my inaugural Boston experience in 1992,  I did truly have serious aspirations to run Boston every year thereafter.  Running Boston is among the greatest experiences of my life. 

In 2001, I finished 10th Master female and was awarded a beautiful Waterford Crystal Bowl. (Master in running-speak means over 40 years old.  I was 41.) 

One of my prized posessions!

Every Patriot's Day in my mind I am in Boston.  I obsess about it and my spirit is there, even though I can no longer run.  I think of all my friends who are running the WGM!  Every year I know of at least half a dozen runners who are doing Boston.

This tragedy hits hard.  I know many of us are suffering.  My thoughts go out to all.  We'll get through this, one step at a time.

Dog POOP out of control

As many of you know, I am not really a pet person.  There are a few exceptions.  I was very fond of my brother and sister-in-law's little dog, Bhikkhu.  However, I have been afraid of most dogs for more than 1/2 of my life.  In fact I would go a mile out of my way walking home from high school to avoid a barking (in my mind, ferocious) dog.  When I ran in college, recreationally, my longest run was because of a dog.  I was near the end of a 2 mile run and just about to reach campus (Shippensburg PA, 1980, very rural) when suddenly a dog emerged from a farm house, barking loudly.  I made the prudent, college-educated decision and turned around.  Thus, I ran 4 miles instead of the mere 2 intentional miles, to get back to campus.

These days we live temporarily in a town house, one mile from our real home which is being remodeled.  We are fortunate in this urban setting since we are within walking distance to...well, practically everything.  There's the grocery store 2 blocks away, the gym a mile away, the Metro Station 3/4 mile away, and probably 30 restaurants within a 2 mile radius.  Seriously.

So I walk.  I walk often.  I would enjoy my walks more if I didn't have to view the Poop from man's best friend.  Recently I took out my camera to photo the dog poop problem.



See the poop front & center 

 Here is perhaps the culprit.

This is the edging where there is much poop!

Some dog owners do clean up their dog poop.  Thank You!  Yet I often see the plastic "clean up bags" in the neighborhood, on the sidewalks and streets.  It would be great if the dog owners would pitch these colorful trash bags into a trash container, instead of leaving them curb-side.

So now I see colorful bags of dog poop!

As many people say, "IT IS WHAT IT IS"  but I think we can do better!

I am talking to dog owners.  PLEASE, PLEASE CLEAN UP AFTER YOUR BEST FRIEND!

Getty Villa with my parents

It is always nice to have family & friends visit.  An extra bonus is that I find I finally get around to see some of the sites I've taken for granted for too long.  For example, when I lived in the Philadelphia area, I didn't go and see the Liberty Bell until I was just about to leave old Philly for good.

My parents, who live in Ft. Collins, came to visit for a few days last week.  We spent most of Weds at the Getty Villa, located in Pacific Palisades, about an hour drive from home.  I haven't been there in over a decade, so I was way overdue.   Visiting the Getty Villa is FREE, though you do have to pay $15 to park your vehicle.  Quite the bargain for a fantastic day.  

Magnificent Garden & Pool

We took advantage of several tours, including an excellent Garden Tour and an Architecture Tour. 

The Garden Tour



A close up of the beautiful peach tree (the Garden Tour) 

 The interior of the Getty Villa was impressive as well.  These two pictures below were taken on the Architecture Tour.  Many galleries and much to see.  It definitely is worth a repeat visit, and perhaps I won't even wait until I have out of town guests visiting us to return to the Getty Villa!

A temporary display of the hunter and the hunted. 

Beautiful Marble - on the walls and on the floor!  Exquisite!

So what better way to finish the day at the Getty Villa than to go to the Observatory in our beloved Griffith Park.  Magnificent views!  We Love L.A.!  We love show casing our fabulous city to our family and friends. 

My dad & mom at the Observatory.   I'm so glad they came to visit us!

 Happy Spring  !  Enjoy the beauty and wonder of where ever you are.


HALF CENTURY RIDE!

Mission accomplished!   This past Saturday, March 9th was the 31st annual Solvang Century Ride.  There was also the Half-Century ride, which was enough distance for me.  I'm relatively new to cycling and completing 50 miles was a big accomplishment. 

A happy finisher.  I'm out of the saddle 4 hours and 49 minutes later.

I achieved my macro-goal of not crashing, my medium-goal of finishing the distance, and my micro-goal of not walking any of the uphills!   Gerry did the ride, as did my good friend Kiki.  We 3 musketeers stayed together pretty much the whole time.  We stopped perhaps 4 different times, the most significant "rest stop" was at the SAG station at the 23.6 mile mark.  The SAG station was amply stocked with fresh fruit, gorp, peanut butter sandwiches, cookies and plenty of water.  

I admit I was a bit nervous before the race, and felt a bit under-trained.  I did two 25 mile training rides, and several training rides of 15-20 miles.  Fortunately, my mind is my strongest muscle and I convinced myself if I could ride 25 miles, I could ride 50!  (Actual distance ended up being 51.24 miles.)

We like the Solvang, Santa Ynez Valley.  It is always a fun get-away.  Saturday we celebrated with dinner at the Vineyard House restaurant in Santa Ynez.  We've been there before and it's always been wonderful. 

California has 21 missions and we've seen probably 1/2 of them.  Sunday we visited our favorite mission, La Purisima which is in Lompoc.  It is beautiful, well-maintained, and the grounds contain miles of scenic trails.  The visitor center and exhibit hall contain wonderful informative displays. 

La Purisima Mission - worth a visit!

Gerry feeding grass to a hungry long horn.

Sunday afternoon we stopped by our favorite winery, Babcock, and did a little wine-tasting.  Babcock has some very delicious wine.  The winery is in a beautiful setting, and the staff is very down to earth and friendly.  We always try to stop by when we're in the Santa Ynez area. 

View from Babcock of the vineyards & surrounding hillside.

All in all it was an excellent weekend getaway.  I think I like this long-distance cycling sport.  I'm already thinking about my next bicycle adventure!  Perhaps I'll plan a weekend trip to Ojai....There's a ride there in June.....

ELECTION Day in L.A. Tues March 5

This is a friendly reminder to all you Angelenos to exercise your right to vote.  Often times the primary elections in March get highly ignored.  In fact in the last 3 mayoral elections for the City of Los Angeles, voter turnout has ranged between 18% and 38 %, and that figure represents registered voters!  It is a pretty dismal showing indeed.

I found this link which provides a good deal of information on the election.  It also provides several external links and 20 references, with links as well. 

I know many people argue that it isn't a priority to vote in the March 5th primary, since it looks like an almost guaranteed fact that no candidate will receive over 50% of the vote.    If no candidate receives a majority of the primary votes to be elected outright, the top two finishers will advance to a runoff vote on May 21, 2013.  My argument is that citizens of Los Angeles should participate in the election process every step along the way, beginning in the primary.  It is lazy or irresponsible to sit back and wait until May.    

Gerry and I disagree re the logistics of voting; but we both agree on the importance of voting.  He is a vote-by-mail person while I prefer to go to the polling place to cast my ballot.  I know it sounds corny, but I love wearing the "I voted" sticker on my sleeve all day.

Please go out and vote - and encourage your friends and fellow citizens to do so, too!  Let's all show we care enough about the future of the city of Los Angles to let our voices be heard !

MUSHROOMS Revisited

Last weekend it was all about the mushrooms!     The Los Angeles Mycological Society, (LAMS)   held their annual mushroom fair on Sunday at the Arboretum in Arcadia.  We had world renowned mycologists from out of town visiting L.A. to participate and assist with our surveys.  Gary Lincoff, from New York,  the author of  "National Audubon Society's Field Guide to Mushrooms"  and more recently "The Joy of Foraging" joined us.   I met Gary last year in February when he came out for the mushroom fair.

Gary teaches me about mushrooms....the start of a new hobby!

Also, the Salzmans, Manny (age 94) and Joanne (age 84) and their son Jason joined us from Denver.  

Manny at the 2012 Telluride Mushroom Festival

The Salzmans are the founders of the Telluride Mushroom Festival,  which I attended last summer.  (see previous blog entry.)   The dates for the 2013 Festival are August 15 - August 18.  Definitely worth the trip to Telluride and the experience! 


We went looking for mushrooms on Friday at Paramount Ranch, in the Santa Monica Mountains.    We were not very optimistic when we started out.  However to our great surprise, we found nearly 2 dozen mushroom species!

The weekend highlight for me was our Saturday mushroom survey in Griffith Park.  There has not been a documented survey of the mushrooms in Griffith Park for 100 years!   This was truly an exciting event.   With Gary's help, we were able to identify nearly 50 species of mushrooms!   Who knows how many species we might have on a "good"  (rainy) year.  There is much exploring and research to be done, but it is thrilling.

Turkey Tail ( a polyspore) Trametes versicolor was quite abundant.  It is located on fallen trees, and helps them to decay and breakdown.  

Turekey Tail -thought by some to have cancer-preventive properties


Below are just a few of other mushrooms we found.



Boletus



Coprinus



Bolbitius vitellinus

 The moral or should I say "morel?"  of the story....the more I learn, the more I realize I don't know and  have to learn!