This year the Cardinal Regime is going to the Rose Bowl parade.
The local band from Golden Valley High School was choosen to represent California Bands at the annual Pasadena Rose Bowl Parade. Its a great honor. It is an amazing experience for a huge amount of students that don't usually get out of our own community. Our community has many families that can only be described at impoverished. For the band to raise money and organize the trip to the Rose Bowl is pretty phenomenal especially considering the economic conditions. The Rose Bowl committee has chosen fewer bands to participate this year. They want the whole thing to conclude within the allotted time.
They are also trying to make sure that all the entrants have a good chance to be highlighted on their time in the sun.
One of my students, Pao (pronounced Pow) is a trumpet player in the band. This band has the most beautiful tone. The band leader, Geg Christiansen is a horn man himself. Pao is a freshman hmong student. He was born in the United States. My freshman students were born in 1994. This is pretty hard to understand because I think of 1994 as just a little while ago. This is most certainly an artifact of old age.. Ha!
Pao's extended family got together and at graduation (from Junior High) got him a really nice trumpet. He represents the pride of many members of his family. All dressed up in red and gold with white pants he represents the pride of this community. This community has really put out to get his band down there to participate.
Greg the band director has only once before had the honor to take a Merced Band to Pasadena. It was in late 80's. I had a student in that band too. He was not such a good player so he was held in backup in case a student fell ill marching down the street in competition. The band was from the one and only school at that time from Merced. It was nick named the Merced Marching 100. We used to laugh at that designation. The reality it is more like the Marching 260. They were marching on the street about 160. They also had backups in every category. When they went to the Rose Parade, they pulled in from their ranks alumni from a couple of years back to inflate their appearance. I do not believe that this will happen this year.
The individual fund raising for each member to go to this event was over 700 dollars. That is too much cash to bring in stand ins in alumni and dress them to participate.
So as you watch the Rose Bowl Parade look for the short Hmong trumpet player from Golden Valley. It just may be my student Pao!
Have a safe New Year's Eve tonight
Love
Pat
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Life's Lessons- Marley and Me
Sue and I went to see the Movie Marley and Me.
Its got some good drama,and believe it or not Annison can act.
IT follows the progression of a writer/reporter and his wife and eventually his kids as they relate to a Golden Retriver named Marley.
If you love the jerk of the tear, this one is for you. I am one usually fond of this kind of movie. The tear jerk was a little too much this time.
The kids are sweet. The story of the reporter vs the columnist is okay. The story of the dog defying training was cool. There were several variations on it. The life story as we progress and our animals age faster than we do was pretty hard. I really hate that trip to the vet.
So you know what is going to happen in the end.
Sue and I both left the theatre in tears, as did everyone else there too. If you are a dog lover you will really be hit.
Sue said that if she knew it was going to be like that she probablly would not have wanted to see it... yeah I have heard that one before.
: ) Pat
Its got some good drama,and believe it or not Annison can act.
IT follows the progression of a writer/reporter and his wife and eventually his kids as they relate to a Golden Retriver named Marley.
If you love the jerk of the tear, this one is for you. I am one usually fond of this kind of movie. The tear jerk was a little too much this time.
The kids are sweet. The story of the reporter vs the columnist is okay. The story of the dog defying training was cool. There were several variations on it. The life story as we progress and our animals age faster than we do was pretty hard. I really hate that trip to the vet.
So you know what is going to happen in the end.
Sue and I both left the theatre in tears, as did everyone else there too. If you are a dog lover you will really be hit.
Sue said that if she knew it was going to be like that she probablly would not have wanted to see it... yeah I have heard that one before.
: ) Pat
Save the Data..er Your files
What looks like a new toy is really a lifesaver.
My book, a one terabyte hard drive by Western Digital, followed me home from Costco the other day. It is quiet and will save my proverbial a@#. At least that is the plan.
Only 134 dollars after instant rebate, it sits 6 and quarter inches tall beside my mac. My internal hard drive has been giving off some pretty funky sounds recently.So if it does.. I will be ready.
One word of caution, all hard drives will crash and die.. its only a matter of time. While replacing the the hard drive on the IMac 20 incher is not a big deal, losing all of the movies and Itunes library on it would be more than a little tragic. Its amazing.. I let my reunion pages expire a couple of years ago off of GoDaddy, thinking that I saved them on the hard drive and pull them up when needed. Well, the hard drive died before the website could be redone.. so no resources to draw upon, no internet FTP to pull the files from.. This year's reunion website for the class of 1968, El Camino High had to be resembled from scratch and I had to relearn the program that it was written in.. Adobe GoLive. And granted, it was better.. mainly because of the advancements in technology and that we are no longer in dial up mode. Thank goodness for Lynda.com and the ability to pull info from the web to put it together. I had to rely on others to send me scans of their photos from the past reunions and strip them out of the emails and format them for the current site. All of this could have been avoided if by hard drive had not died. It was a big for that time 56 gig hard drive. But don't feel smug, it was fewer years than it would seem. if your internal hard drive is less than 250 gigs this could be you. You are operating on borrowed time.
Go out and get one of those bigger hard drives and back up your data. Or as the dental hygenist would say about flossing, only floss the teeth you want to save.. oh that is bad. Only back up the data you want to save... Sorry for the metaphor.. but only I can talk to you this way..
Saving is better than recovery...
Pat
My book, a one terabyte hard drive by Western Digital, followed me home from Costco the other day. It is quiet and will save my proverbial a@#. At least that is the plan.
Only 134 dollars after instant rebate, it sits 6 and quarter inches tall beside my mac. My internal hard drive has been giving off some pretty funky sounds recently.So if it does.. I will be ready.
One word of caution, all hard drives will crash and die.. its only a matter of time. While replacing the the hard drive on the IMac 20 incher is not a big deal, losing all of the movies and Itunes library on it would be more than a little tragic. Its amazing.. I let my reunion pages expire a couple of years ago off of GoDaddy, thinking that I saved them on the hard drive and pull them up when needed. Well, the hard drive died before the website could be redone.. so no resources to draw upon, no internet FTP to pull the files from.. This year's reunion website for the class of 1968, El Camino High had to be resembled from scratch and I had to relearn the program that it was written in.. Adobe GoLive. And granted, it was better.. mainly because of the advancements in technology and that we are no longer in dial up mode. Thank goodness for Lynda.com and the ability to pull info from the web to put it together. I had to rely on others to send me scans of their photos from the past reunions and strip them out of the emails and format them for the current site. All of this could have been avoided if by hard drive had not died. It was a big for that time 56 gig hard drive. But don't feel smug, it was fewer years than it would seem. if your internal hard drive is less than 250 gigs this could be you. You are operating on borrowed time.
Go out and get one of those bigger hard drives and back up your data. Or as the dental hygenist would say about flossing, only floss the teeth you want to save.. oh that is bad. Only back up the data you want to save... Sorry for the metaphor.. but only I can talk to you this way..
Saving is better than recovery...
Pat
19 second pull
Its important to have a "coffee person running your Starbucks.
My double short cap on my walk today had acceptable foam. After 2 years of going to the same Starbucks, they are getting the foam right. The manager asked me after drinking it if the foam was okay. I replied to him that it was.. but the coffee tasted better.
Some folks feel that if the drink is going to end in an espresso based beverage, it doesn't matter a whole lot whether the coffee tastes good in the drink. It just has to come across as bold and strong. Well friends there is a difference. A slopped up coffee pull can make your drink taste rather skanky. The result is a very bitter less than flavorful cup of coffee.
The manager revealed to me today that he has set the machines at this Starbucks, when he is there to pull at a "slower" than Starbucks recommended speed. The usual setting for an espresso pull at a Starbucks is around 12 to 16 seconds. This is the Starbucks company recommendations. Mine today was set at 19. The manager suggested that I request a 19 second pull for the cap to taste the way I liked it. I suppose that this is the major difference between Pete's and Starbucks. It might be the espresso blend but I suspect that it is also the length of time the pull takes.
My friend in Italy, Franco, says that he hates to get espresso coffee products in the US because the add so much hot water to the pulls. If you do them yourself at home, their is a point in time where the coffee maker just fills up the shot with hot water to even out the pull. He always wants them to stop at that point, let the hot water run into the drain and give him the straight shot. If the machine more slowly produces the shot, there is a chance that more of the oils that give it flavor will go into the cup instead of staying in the grounds..
So what do think about that? My professional baristas?
Love
Pat
My double short cap on my walk today had acceptable foam. After 2 years of going to the same Starbucks, they are getting the foam right. The manager asked me after drinking it if the foam was okay. I replied to him that it was.. but the coffee tasted better.
Some folks feel that if the drink is going to end in an espresso based beverage, it doesn't matter a whole lot whether the coffee tastes good in the drink. It just has to come across as bold and strong. Well friends there is a difference. A slopped up coffee pull can make your drink taste rather skanky. The result is a very bitter less than flavorful cup of coffee.
The manager revealed to me today that he has set the machines at this Starbucks, when he is there to pull at a "slower" than Starbucks recommended speed. The usual setting for an espresso pull at a Starbucks is around 12 to 16 seconds. This is the Starbucks company recommendations. Mine today was set at 19. The manager suggested that I request a 19 second pull for the cap to taste the way I liked it. I suppose that this is the major difference between Pete's and Starbucks. It might be the espresso blend but I suspect that it is also the length of time the pull takes.
My friend in Italy, Franco, says that he hates to get espresso coffee products in the US because the add so much hot water to the pulls. If you do them yourself at home, their is a point in time where the coffee maker just fills up the shot with hot water to even out the pull. He always wants them to stop at that point, let the hot water run into the drain and give him the straight shot. If the machine more slowly produces the shot, there is a chance that more of the oils that give it flavor will go into the cup instead of staying in the grounds..
So what do think about that? My professional baristas?
Love
Pat
Monday, December 29, 2008
Wasting a Day on Football
After all of these years I should know better.
Sunday I wasted a whole day watching football.. granted a High Def screen and signal are compelling.. but..
The 10 o'clock start and the raiders beat the Tampa bay "men in pewter pants." It pretty well kicked the door down on the chances of Tampa Bay doing anything in the playoffs. Its a little sad because their quarterback Garcia has a very compelling piece to him. He is not one of those superman quaterbacks 6 feet four inches and 230 pounds (like the Raiders Jamarcus Russell) He is about 6 feet tall and pretty scrawny. Linzi and I were down to the interview with him after the 49ers demolished the Buffulo team composed of rookies. He had a few cuts and scrapes but he didn't have the "quarterback" presence of a Steve Young or a Montana. So I always thought that for him to succeed in NFL was really great.
The 49ers played a game that followed. Starting at 1 o'clock the 49ers worked the clock even without the major running back. They too won the game but lost the season. There were some good running plays up the middle and the teams looks a lot sharper than they did when they squeaked out a win from behind in the St. Louis stadium. The sun was shinning brightly in SF and the game was beautiful in HD.
The evening game between the broncos and the chargers was played in the San Diego. The winner would get into the playoffs the loser would be out. The ponies (the Denver Broncos in their most depreciated form) didn't have the horses in the tank. While it was an interesting game, the Chargers blew them out in the end.
So those of us on the West Coast will be hoping for the Chargers to make it through the playoffs. Arizona will also be in the playoffs.. but few people are giving the cardinals much chance against their East coast rivals.
Next week the wild card games begin. They are usually the best games of the playoffs.. but there is a time cost.. and how many diet cokes can you drink before you have to find the "facilities". At the park this could be a major issue.. as more is on the ground than hits the hole.. I know I could have gone along time without saying that..
Happy Monday.. Pat
Sunday I wasted a whole day watching football.. granted a High Def screen and signal are compelling.. but..
The 10 o'clock start and the raiders beat the Tampa bay "men in pewter pants." It pretty well kicked the door down on the chances of Tampa Bay doing anything in the playoffs. Its a little sad because their quarterback Garcia has a very compelling piece to him. He is not one of those superman quaterbacks 6 feet four inches and 230 pounds (like the Raiders Jamarcus Russell) He is about 6 feet tall and pretty scrawny. Linzi and I were down to the interview with him after the 49ers demolished the Buffulo team composed of rookies. He had a few cuts and scrapes but he didn't have the "quarterback" presence of a Steve Young or a Montana. So I always thought that for him to succeed in NFL was really great.
The 49ers played a game that followed. Starting at 1 o'clock the 49ers worked the clock even without the major running back. They too won the game but lost the season. There were some good running plays up the middle and the teams looks a lot sharper than they did when they squeaked out a win from behind in the St. Louis stadium. The sun was shinning brightly in SF and the game was beautiful in HD.
The evening game between the broncos and the chargers was played in the San Diego. The winner would get into the playoffs the loser would be out. The ponies (the Denver Broncos in their most depreciated form) didn't have the horses in the tank. While it was an interesting game, the Chargers blew them out in the end.
So those of us on the West Coast will be hoping for the Chargers to make it through the playoffs. Arizona will also be in the playoffs.. but few people are giving the cardinals much chance against their East coast rivals.
Next week the wild card games begin. They are usually the best games of the playoffs.. but there is a time cost.. and how many diet cokes can you drink before you have to find the "facilities". At the park this could be a major issue.. as more is on the ground than hits the hole.. I know I could have gone along time without saying that..
Happy Monday.. Pat
Saturday, December 27, 2008
New Photos on Flickr
Please check out the latest of the pbrownie photo stream.
There are lots of photos of making lemon shooters.. mini lemon meringue pies on top of mini phylo cups and the fun we had putting on beards and acting foolish for the camera on Christmas day.
The Christmas party was great. We missed a major person in it. Kelly had enough of pressures.. who could blame her and opted out. Renovating any part of your house is enough to make you want to sit down and cry. Let alone a phd study and a bi bay lifestyle.
I made two lasagnas. One of them used portabella mushrooms. That was a first for me. Also I made up a meat lasagna that was more like chili mac without the chili. Booth of them were successful and we had plenty of leftovers.
I also tried my had at making crustini with pesto. The pesto was really good.. made with fresh basil and olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and pine nuts. Just a little goes a long way.
Mom made a ham. It was great although there were not many ham eaters in this "going" vegetarian oriented crowd. She was glad there weren't any turkey leftovers.
Linzi and Sean invited a Christmas "orphan" from Oakland to join us. He is a ginger. See her blog for an explanation.
We all tried on funny Santa beard masks for the Christmas shot. It was a lot of fun. I added some strictly casual shots for my flickr stream that you may enjoy. A more formal shot may be referrenced in Cammie's flickr stream.
Hope you had a great one.. One thing can be said today.. it is over.
Love
Pat
There are lots of photos of making lemon shooters.. mini lemon meringue pies on top of mini phylo cups and the fun we had putting on beards and acting foolish for the camera on Christmas day.
The Christmas party was great. We missed a major person in it. Kelly had enough of pressures.. who could blame her and opted out. Renovating any part of your house is enough to make you want to sit down and cry. Let alone a phd study and a bi bay lifestyle.
I made two lasagnas. One of them used portabella mushrooms. That was a first for me. Also I made up a meat lasagna that was more like chili mac without the chili. Booth of them were successful and we had plenty of leftovers.
I also tried my had at making crustini with pesto. The pesto was really good.. made with fresh basil and olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and pine nuts. Just a little goes a long way.
Mom made a ham. It was great although there were not many ham eaters in this "going" vegetarian oriented crowd. She was glad there weren't any turkey leftovers.
Linzi and Sean invited a Christmas "orphan" from Oakland to join us. He is a ginger. See her blog for an explanation.
We all tried on funny Santa beard masks for the Christmas shot. It was a lot of fun. I added some strictly casual shots for my flickr stream that you may enjoy. A more formal shot may be referrenced in Cammie's flickr stream.
Hope you had a great one.. One thing can be said today.. it is over.
Love
Pat
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Its Crab Season!
I fondly remember a great time we had in Sebastapol with my sister Kelly. We had the girls and the local grocery store got its first special on crab.
Kelly went down and bought up. We ate those babies New England style. Spread the newspaper out on the table and have at it.
We demolished them.
This year's carb experience was not as emblematic of the great crab harvest. I bought a medium sized crab.. on sale for 3.99. and I picked and cracked the meat out. Sue and I had a crab salad sandwich apiece.
Crab salad is pretty easy. First you have to peel a crab. You get rid of its gills and its guts. Then carefully washing all the center meat and cartilage you end up with a lump of crab. You crack the legs and pull out the meat. You put all you don't eat in a container. Then immediately take the shell out to the trash. That stuff stinks.
A couple of tablespoons of mayo.. it you dare and a finely chopped up stalk of celery and you have crab salad.. yum..
Our parents had no sympathy for those that were not crab eaters. Their philosophy.. more for the rest of us..
Love to all you crab eaters out there.. go out and eat some crab!
Pat
Kelly went down and bought up. We ate those babies New England style. Spread the newspaper out on the table and have at it.
We demolished them.
This year's carb experience was not as emblematic of the great crab harvest. I bought a medium sized crab.. on sale for 3.99. and I picked and cracked the meat out. Sue and I had a crab salad sandwich apiece.
Crab salad is pretty easy. First you have to peel a crab. You get rid of its gills and its guts. Then carefully washing all the center meat and cartilage you end up with a lump of crab. You crack the legs and pull out the meat. You put all you don't eat in a container. Then immediately take the shell out to the trash. That stuff stinks.
A couple of tablespoons of mayo.. it you dare and a finely chopped up stalk of celery and you have crab salad.. yum..
Our parents had no sympathy for those that were not crab eaters. Their philosophy.. more for the rest of us..
Love to all you crab eaters out there.. go out and eat some crab!
Pat
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