My New World Of iPad

What's been going on this week?

I have wanted an iPad for the past year and around the holidays, my son mentioned that you can get refurbished iPads for a fraction of the cost. I did look at them on New Egg and other places, but the fact that it was just someone's old iPad, turned me off to the entire thing. The battery was old and the case had scratches on it. Nope, not going there.

I found out later that if you buy a refurbished iPad from the Apple Store, the battery is brand new, it looks brand new and (the best part) it is under the same 1 year warranty as an original iPad. It is more money, obviously, but less than a new one.

I didn't have the money and so no one got me a Christmas gift or a birthday gift and I figured that after the holidays, I would try to get one.

My friend in Hawaii sells cases for iPhones and at the end of the year he sent out a survey and asked what new products we might be interested in. Being I was thinking of buying the iPad, I said iPad.

Next thing I know, there is this beautiful line of iPad cases on his site. I was in love! One problem, I still did not have my iPad yet.

So I went back to the Apple Store and checked out their stock and found one that was $249. A bit more than I wanted to pay, but I went for it. It came the other day and it is truly a nifty toy to have.

My first task was BUYING MY BOOK at the iBooks store. Ah, I finally own a copy of something I created by my own hand. Life is good.

The next thing I did was go over to my friend's website 808 Shells and choose a really cool gecko case. I expected it to take lots of time and instead, within 3 days, I had my Hawaiian iPad case and cover. The cover is magnetic and so when you lift it off the iPad screen, it turns on the iPad. Very cool.

The owner of the business used to be in the office next to mine, back in the mid 2000's. I wrote about him, HERE.

I now feel wonderful having supported him and his family.

Me By The Sea

Happy Valentine's Day!

Being that we went to the ocean for my 60th Birthday, we are hanging around the house this Valentine's Day.

I thought I would bring back the memory of being somewhere nice for a special occasion.

If you have some water in the area, take a ride over to it. Make an ordinary day, just a little romantic.

Of course, on the East Coast, it is probably snowing...but you get the idea. If you get a break in the weather, take advantage of it.

...and of course, enjoy your day.

GM Comes To EcoCar3 Team

My son was at school last Sunday, to meet with the new G.M. Rep for the Team. She came out to visit in the middle of winter and I am sure visiting Southern California was no hardship for her.

They did initially meet at Cal State L.A. Eventually, they moved on to Santa Monica and the beach. A nice time watching the sunset and then dinner at Barney's Beanery.

From what my son says, he really likes her working style, so far.

This makes me very happy.

You look at the second photo and you get the feeling the rest of the team does too.

Roasted Shrimp With Garlic

I saw this on made a week ago, on America's Test Kitchen. It looked so incredibly easy and so since I had the right kind of shrimp, I went looking for the recipe. KCET came to my rescue, with a non subscription version of it. Check it out HERE.

I went just a little long on the broiling, so listen to them, when they say 2 to 4. I went with 5 minutes and the second batch was a little over done.

Otherwise, an excellent way to make something ordinary into something just a little better...maybe for Valentine's Day. :-)

Bollywood Bites

I won a free lunch at my company's Holiday party last December.

I am not a big fan of the trucks that sell things out front of our building (minus the soft serve ice cream I get 2 Friday's a month). :-)

I had eaten at Bollywood Bites once before and liked their lunch and since this one would be a freebee, I decided to get the entire lunch, instead of just 1 entree and some rice.

I had heard that the Butter Chicken is excellent and so that was a given. Seen on the right, in the photo.

I also got Chicken Korma which is chicken cooked in cashews and saffron. It was also great.

It was basically too much for 1 meal, but what the heck, you can save it for later, too.

Indian food is definitely a good change.

Trees By The Frank G. Wells Building

A different view of the trees out front of the Disney Gate. In back of the trees is the Frank G. Wells Building. It has a Starbucks in it and trust me, if it wasn't late in the day, I would be begging to get in there. :-)

But I digress...

Look at this! All those trees are blooming away, in early February. It happens every year but it shocks me, just the same.

I still don't know what they are. I keep hoping I get to the nursery this weekend, to find out.

Kind of interesting to see trees blooming, next to imagined palm trees.

More than the groundhog, these trees tell us that the end of winter is coming along. I am sure the East appreciates hearing this.

A quick note:
A very happy birthday to my nephew, Paul. One more semester and he is finished college. Hope he has a great day.

Lake Erie In Winter

My Water Post For Today.

A former work colleague of mine is "Friends" with me on Facebook. On Friday, Jim Conners posted several photos and this was one of them.

I know he lives south of Buffalo and so I asked him if the photo was Lake Erie or Lake Ontario, knowing in my heart of hearts, it was Erie.

I was right and after a conversation, I asked him if I could use the photo for my Monday Water Post and he graciously said yes.

I love the solitude of the picnic tables by the waterside (it kind of reminds me of Rudy's in Oswego) and the small stand of trees.

I can't tell if the waves are water or snow drifts. At this time of year it could go either way.

A beautiful photo.

I hope you enjoy.

(I swear, Santa Barbara and Ventura are coming up next.)

Welcome To The Morning. A North Facing Sunrise

I spoke yesterday of the wonderful sunrise that was happening out my north facing window on Thursday. If you missed it, the post is HERE.

I did post a similar photo to this one on Facebook but, as usual, it totally loses its wonderfulness upon upload into that app.

So here it is, in all its glory.

It only lasted a few brief moments, but it was so worth the effort to capture it.

Welcome to the morning.

Two Views Of The Snow Moon

The moon in February is called a Snow Moon and I really wanted to get a good shot of it. Being I have no real camera, these cell phone photos are the best I could get.

This first one was taken while waiting for the light to change in the Bridgeport area of Valencia.

I had seen the shot the day before and just couldn't get my camera going in time. My Husband was the driver, that day.

The next day I was driving and so I took the photo from the driver's side. Not perfect, but yes, you can see the moon over on the left (unfortunately lower) side. Win!

The next morning I was drawn outside by an outrageously beautiful sunrise that turned up through my backyard windows. Those windows face directly to the north. I was so surprised and so I stepped outside and took a few photos of it.

While I was there I turned to the west and guess who was still around? Yes, it was the beautiful snow moon, saying goodbye to me.

So I took its photo, too.

Enjoy.

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

First things first. I want to wish a very Happy Birthday to my youngest nephew.

James turns 21 today and yes, another Electrical Engineer on the way. My Dad would be so proud.

On to my post for today.

Yes, this is the fence that surrounds The Buena Vista Disney lot. I pass it every day, on my way to the van pool.

The building you see is the Corporate "7 Dwarfs" Building. As you can tell, those offices are right on the sidewalk and so I can glance into the offices, as I go on my way. Lots of memorabilia hanging around those offices (much more than the PBS stuff I used to have, back in the day).

I love the fence design and the fact that the sun was setting gave the building an even more beautiful rose glow.

Sometimes, you can see the mouse ears cast shadows onto the windows, another fun thing to watch for.

As I finish my walk along the fence, I get to the gate. Of course, every single day, I get the glares from the two guards at the guard shack. Heaven forbid I try to walk onto their property.

Good fences make good neighbors? Sigh.

He Did It!

I already mentioned the fact that my Vietnamese other "son" has finally graduated from Cal State Northridge.

The other day, his diploma arrived and he couldn't wait to show it off.

Onto Facebook the photo went. It gave my day a lift, since he is the first one of the group to get his Bachelors.

His diploma says: Bachelor of Arts in Cinema and Television Arts with emphasis in Film. Mine, all those years ago, reads Bachelor of Arts in Communications Studies: Broadcasting. You can definitely feel the difference in our degrees.

Now, to get a job.

Good luck, my son.

Billy Joel Songs Ranked From Last To First

I was born and raised in Hicksville, New York. Our one basic claim to fame...Billy Joel.

I have been a fan of his since Piano Man and I must say, his early work always spoke to me, because he talks of growing up on Long Island (Italian Restaurant, Great Suburban Showdown, Seen the lights go out of Broadway) or his years in Los Angeles (Piano Man, Los Angelenos).

My personal problem with this list of 121 songs is that the person who ranked Billy's catalog of songs, obviously had a different feeling for the songs, then I did. As a matter of fact, in the midst of the 80's and his obsessing about all things Christie, (Uptown Girl) Brinkley, I was longing for a oldies concert.

Well, look at the list and see for yourself, how your favorites stacked up. Billy Joel Songs Ranked From Last To First.

In the man's defense, in the top 20 songs, he chose 1 song from Piano Man, 1 song from Streetlife Serenade, 4 songs from Turnstiles and 6 songs from The Stranger (no surprise there, it was his break out album). That makes a total of 12 songs from what I consider some primo Joel. He didn't have a single song from 52nd Street, though Stiletto ends up at 22. A shame because I consider that album a wonderful followup and as a matter of fact, the closest one to the sound of Steely Dan. He even acknowledges that fact, in one of his reviews, Zanzibar (#67 on the list). Big Shot, a GREAT song IMHO, sits in a slot with 2 other songs from the same album (46-48 on the list).

Let's just say, all lists are subjective and this one definitely goes afoul of my taste.

More Purple Mountains

On Friday we had to meet the Van Pool 10 minutes early. What that ended up meaning is that the sun was still up in the air and so I walked to the Disney Lot viewing Purple/Pink Mountains!

I have mentioned the phenomenon before HERE.

I saw them the entire time, but the better view was going to be near the gate to Disney and so the sun kept going down and the mountains started to get darker, down by the bottom of the range.

Still a wondrous sight.

Neermahal Agartala, India

My Water Post For Today.

My Human Computer Interaction teacher was visiting his wife and making presentations in India. As a matter of fact, he is trying to get back home, as this posts. Good luck to him on that, since snow is coming to the entire East Coast.

That aside, he posted this photo about a week or 2 ago and I thought it was just fascinating. He and his wife were sightseeing in India and they came to see the Neermahal Palace (which means Water Palace). It is the only summer palace in India. Sort of on par with the Taj Mahal. In order to get to the palace, they had to take a boat and this photo is the result of that trip.

I love the 2 men boating on Rudrasagar Lake and the way the lake is so misty.

A wonderful photo.

FYI: Some Santa Barbara water photos next week.

My 11th Order From Abundant Harvest Organics

It's 3 weeks and here I am with a new box of produce. This new idea would have worked just fine, if I did not get a huge gift basket of apples and oranges for my birthday on Sunday. If you remember last time we discussed my produce situation, I mentioned that I had so many oranges that I felt like I had a tree. The same now goes for apples, since I got at least 10 oranges and 10 apples.

Without further adieu, here is this weeks box. A much smaller amount, by the way, only 11 items on this list, though they snuck in 2 lemons which brought us back to 12.

4 Fuji Apples

9 Brussels Sprouts

3 Carrots

1 bulb of Fennel

3 Green Garlic (they look like scallions)

Herb Bouquet (the usual suspects, thyme, sage, winter savory)

5 Oranges

9 Sunchokes (a knobby potato with a lot less starch. Good for diabetics, so they say)

A Huge Amount of Tatsoi (The green leaves on the far left)

A bunch of Tokyo Bekana (The bunch of pale green leaves, bigger than last time)

3 Yukon Gold Potatoes (one is heart shaped, perfect for February) :-)

2 Lemons (not mentioned on this list, but there you go)

In addition to the produce in the box, they had a box from Tuesday when the truck was at our Whole Foods and once again, I took a few items.

3 more Carrots

1 more Lemon (I didn't know it was also in my box and I had used my last lemon the other day)

1 Butternut Squash (I am going to try something different this time and it was small...Yay!)

What did I do with the last box I got?

First thing, I took out my food processor and used the shred blade. I still had (and still have) some of the big radishes left, but I got rid of many of them, in a pot of chicken vegetable soup I made Sunday night. I also used the two rutabagas I had, which smelled and tasted a lot like a radish. In addition, I put radish in my coleslaw (which I made at the same time) and I put cabbage and carrots in my soup. 4 potatoes, a can of black beans and it was set. Produce gone and lots of lunches for me and dinners (occasionally) for my Husband. I think I have just 1 black radish and maybe 1 or 2 watermelon radishes left. Minus the fruit situation, I did well.

What to do with the things I just got?

I bought a sweet potato and was thinking of finding something that combines the sweet potato and the butternut squash. Maybe Scalloped Sweet Potato and Butternut Squash. I found a nice recipe on All Recipes and it looks like it might use some other things in my box...double win.

No idea what to do with the Tatsoi, but I think it is similar to Bok Choy and so I am sure I will do something...like THIS recipe. The Fennel? Now this also looks tasty, though I would definitely not make it the same week as the Scalloped Potatoes above. Potatoes Au Gratin with Fennel and Bacon.

More adventures in eating, to come. See you in 3 weeks.