Reading List

A slew of books read:
* "Havana Nocturne" - featured on episode of Fresh Air, this book sounded interesting. I found myself much more enthralled with the story of the revolution than with the mob scene. The mob side of the story was quite predictable, pretty much like the "Godfather" whereas I did not know much about Fidel Castro and his revolution. Good research and writing on both fronts.
* "Mortal Syntax" - a nice book on grammar. I could do with less of the pithy stories.
* "Provence A-Z" - a guidebook to Provence by the King of Provence, Peter Mayle.
* "Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel" - less a guide than simply motivation to start vagabonding.
* "A Good Year" - watched the movie (starring Russell Crowe) first, then read the book. I liked them both, although they are quite different.

Weekend Activities

* Rode a couple of nice bike rides.
* Hiked the nature trail at Elfin Forest.
* Celebrated the soft opening of the new location of Gaffney's Wine Bar with some wonderful tastings. My favorite was a delicious cab franc.

Weekend Activities

* After several years and hundreds (if not thousands) of attempts, Sophie finally succeeded in catching her elusive prey, a lizard. This trophy was caught in the San Elijo Lagoon, on the nature center hike.

* Checked out the Del Dios Gorge hike, northward from the trailhead. This is trail #12.

Weekend Activities

* Attended the last Adventure Princess event with Jaya. In a twist of fate, it was at the same venue where we had our first event, Fiesta Island. I will miss the good times, but I made many friends that I will have for life.

SOHO Lecture

I attended tonight's SOHO's Third Thursday Author Series lecture on Consolidated Aircraft/Convair. Both authors were at the Adobe Chapel to present their work, "Consolidated Aircraft Corporation". I am interested in Convair both from an aviation enthusiast standpoint and the from the fact I work on one of their former factories. The authors, from the Air and Space Museum library, were true experts in their field and very passionate about the subject. The audience was as well, most of them being former employees or children of employees.

Weekend Activities

* Worked non-stop on the kitchen and some real progress on the finishing touches.
* Went to see Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian - it was cute, much like the first. Air and Space Magazine had an article on how "real" the movie was. However they were speaking only of the set that was built to mimic the real museum. Because if you see the performance the Wright Flyer puts on, you would think the plane was powered by a Pratt & Whitney F135, not a 12 horsepower 4 banger.

Weekend Activities

* My parents came down to celebrate Bengt's and Jyoti's birthdays. They brought cake and pie. We watched Jaya's soccer game in what is considered inclement weather.
* Checked out the new farmer's market at Flora Vista Elementary. It was a bit light on the fresh produce and had a lot of prepared and packaged foods. We bought some delicious hummus and baked pita chips.