A Very Unprofitable Journey

I have been storing several pallets for ages now, thinking that I might find some use for them. But finally I decided to load them up and take them downtown to one of the many places that say they buy used pallets. I knew I wouldn't get a lot of money, but I certainly expected more than 25 cents each, totally one dollar. But at least I would be rid of them and I wouldn't have to pay to dispose of them.

OK Fine.

Then I went on a quick errand to a gallery downtown. I park at a meter that is broken and set off running so that I could get back and avoid getting a parking ticket.

And then I was pulled over, or whatever the equivalent is for when you are running like I was. I was cited for crossing in a crosswalk when it said "Don't Walk" The light was green andI was in a crosswalk and I receive a jaywalking ticket.

Well at least I didn't receive a parking ticket.

20 Miles of Fun

Friday Night Cindy and I went out to see a friend play at a local bar. It was fun. Music was nice had a couple drinks and then went and had some delicious Mexican food and some more beer. All of this would have been just fine had I not been planning on running twenty miles the following morning.

Normally I would have blown off the run and slept in and continued on my day, but I was meeting a friend and we were doing the run together. So I hauled myself out of bed, wrapped my feet with duct tape (I've been having major blister issues) and got myself ready for our long run.

I filled up my Camelback(a personal hands-free hydration system, a backpack full of water and a tube) which holds 3 liters or 100 oz of water around 6 lbs worth. I was concerned of keeping hydrated because of my misbehavior the night before.

The run was really, really hard. I was sluggish and fairly miserable. The bag was too heavy. I whined and grumbled a lot, I felt bad for my running partner for that. After 3 hrs and 40 minutes with a few more walking breaks than usual we finished 20 miles. That's been the furthest I've ever ran outside of the actual marathons.

I had finally gotten down to close to 200 lbs, 202 to be exact. After my Friday night diversion I was back up to 206. After the long run, I was down to 200 lbs. As I dehydrated throughout the day I watched the scale go to 202, 203 until it settled at 204.

The LA Marathon, 33 days and counting; Lakers 1 down, 15 to go and a bunch of radishes

Saturday morning brought again the "long run", this time we ran somewhere between 17 and 18 miles, a bit faster and with less effort than last week's 16 mile run. It was also hotter and with that and the added miles I collected more blisters, including a very large odd looking one on my left pinky toe. It sort of looks like someone tried to fatten up my little piggy gone to market. I was a bit worn out but very satisfied with the results.

I did some gardening which included harvesting two pots of radishes, so yummy. I had never been a big fan of radishes but amazingly one's own harvest adds to the flavor of the
vegetable itself.







Later that day or rather evening, I ended up watching the Ultimate Fighting Championship 97. It was after the UFC 3, so many years ago when I took up BJJ. It was interesting to see how much the sport has changed. Much shorter rounds, the athletes have become much more skilled and well-rounded in the various mediums, and the level of athleticism has increased. Of course watching men try to beat each other up no matter how artfully usually goes hand in hand with chips and beer and usually too much of each.

Sunday I gardened as best I could given how sore I was from the run and the evening before and that our garden is bountiful with morning sun, meaning that it is scorching by 8 in the morning and unbearable by 9.

12 noon--Lakers face off against Utah Jazz in their first game of the playoffs. The Lakers won 113 to 100. I must admit it wasn't much of a game but we did win and is the play-offs and most importantly I watched it with good friends. Oh and Cindy made a pitcher or two of Bloody Marys which erased the ill effects of night before only to pay doubly for the pleasures in the late afternoon.


Juijitsu and Park day Monday---HOT HOT HOT

Took off out the door 6 am for an hour plus of hills in Kenneth Hahn. Great run wish I had left even earlier.

What I'm Listening to

I like to listen to music a lot of the time and with all of the cool new devices that enable one to get music as well as listen to music I am able to listen to a lot of stuff.

This is what's on my shuffle right now. I have my shuffle on when I garden and when I run which are pretty different activities so the music is more eclectic than it would be for either individually. It's mostly geared to the run and I've had to hit skip on more than one occasion as I just wasn't feeling the music with what I was doing. It's a funny mix and some of them are remakes that make me smile, Jessica Simpson doing You Spin Me Round. Some are single songs others are the entire albums.

I would love to list all the songs and throw in comments but time is short and like I said there's a lot.




146 songs, 9.9 hours

Arctic Monkeys
Ani Difranco
Kayne West
Marianne Faithful
Scarlett Johansson
M.I.A.
Britney Spears
K'naan
Cat Power
Coldplay
Katy Perry
Emmanuel Jal
Santogold
Eartha Kitt
DJ Khaled
Lily Allen
Peaches
U2
Tom Waits
Supreme Beings of Leisure
Kool & the Gang
Village People
Wyclef Jean & Santana
Romeo Void
Jace Everett
Mugison

Jon's Social Experiment-A Basic Statistical Analysis

Jon's Social Experiment-A Basic Statistical Analysis

Several weeks ago I thought to host a weekly discussion group or perhaps a weekly game night or maybe something as casual as a weekly potluck get together with the thought of talking and sharing food. I didn’t know what people would most want to attend. Any of the lot would have suited me. So I devised a series of 6 consecutive Wednesdays and came up with basic guidelines but tried to leave what would actually happen to the will of the group. Since it was none of the specific events as mentioned above, I called it Jon’s Social Experiment. And with a little tweeking and better records it could have been more scientific and more conclusive. But I did compile some statistics from the 6 week long experiment.

I tried to invite people from different aspects of my life which at this point can roughly be divided as people from the home school community, people that I’ve met through work and other. Again this is quite rough, some of the people that fall into the other category I did at one point have a connection due to work but it was obscure enough of enough time had passed to not fall under the work category. Likewise some of the work people, I may have met at work but the greater part of our sphere of connectivity lies out of the “work” category. I initially invited 20 people who of course were urged to bring along their family, so that a night which had 5 attendees may well become a group of 10 adults and as many children, so it never felt under attended.

Week 1

Of the 20 invites sent out 5 attended

Home school 6 invited 3 attended

Work related 10 invited 2 attended

Other 4 invited 0 attended

5 New Attendees

O Returns

Week 2

Of the 20 invites sent out 6 attended

Home school 4 invited 2 attended

Work related 12 invited 3 attended

Other 4 invited 1 attended

3 New Attendees

3 Returns

Week 3

Of the 21 invites sent out 9 attended

Home school 6 invited 4 attended

Work related 10 invited 4 attended

Other 4 invited 1 attended

2 New Attendees

5 Returns

Week 4

Of the 22 invites sent out 8 attended

Home school 4 invited 4 attended

Work related 8 invited 2 attended

Other 10 invited 2 attended

1 New Attendees

6 Returns

Week 5

Of the 24 invites sent out 10 attended

Home school 5 invited 4 attended

Work related 11 invited 4 attended

Other 4 invited 1 attended

1 New Attendees

9 Returns

Week 6

Of the 22 invites sent out 11 attended

Home school 7 invited 5 attended

Work related 9 invited 3 attended

Other 6 invited 2 attended

2 New Attendees

9 Returns

I found it to be a wonderful experience and plan to do it again in one format or another.

Wednesday Run

What is it with Wednesday runs? Last week I understood my misery. It was my longest run. It was hot. I had hotspots from before. So the silver dollar-size blisters were not a surprise. Today, however was a relatively short run, 1 hr 10 min, though it was on trails up in Kenneth Hahn. It was cool, cold actually. And yet I ended up with more hot spots and blisters. But still I did get up and run and that is good.

Lakers update

Last game of season--Play-off starts this Sunday

I'm not a basketball expert by any stretch or even a huge fan. I find the whole March madness thing disruptive. But I am a huge Lakers fan. I have been since I was a kid, the days of Magic Johnson and Kareem. And this looks to be their year. Yes the Cavaliers beat them out for best record by a game or so and Lebron will probably get MVP this year. But we just got back Andrew Bynum and he's playing well for being out so long. Not to mention Lakers beat the Cavaliers both times they played this year.

So for the next month I will be somewhat distracted watching way to much NBA playoff basketball.

It starts the Sunday. I'll definitely be watching.

Did Easter happen?

What an odd and disjointed few days I've had. Good Friday gave Cindy the day off but she ended up working a little bit each day of her three day weekend simply to stay afloat. Meanwhile Skye and I worked on the garden, getting seeds in the ground, weeding, what have you. Also I shredded/chipped three or four barrels of clippings, weeds, and yard/plant stuff. A lot of it was dry and it ended up making a cloud of debris which coated my lungs. Then I decided to "feed" the worms from the rotting bin of kitchen scraps. Gnats swarmed from the bin, I enhaled more than a few which added to the layer of unnatural coating inside my lungs. This is all unfortunate in any case, but because I am to run my "long" run in the morning it is doubly so.

I will get back to the bad run up to my run, but a bit of back story is needed. Skye and I are using the ongoing Renaissance Faire as a teaching aid. This Easter Sunday kids were free and adults get $10 with a coupon, so we determined that it would be a good day to go. Cindy opted out but another family went and we all had a lovely time. But still Skye wanted and Easter egg hunt, with clues this year, so that would have to be on Saturday morning because she was having a sleepover on Saturday evening so Cindy and I could go to at least one of the two parties we were invited to.

I remembered the implications of all this at around 3 am Saturday morning, realizing that if I was going to make a clue sheet, hide eggs and make it to my 3 hr, 16 mile run I would need to get at it post haste. Of course I was concerned about the lack of sleep that meant but it seemed like a small price to pay.

Saturday morn, clues were conceived, eggs and such hidden, and I was gearing up for my run early in the morning, duct taping and vaselining up my already blistered feet. Luckily, I had an upbeat running partner who helped make our 16 mile jaunt feel much less arduous than Tuesday's 14 miler.

I should have at this point rested but ended up gardening a bit more and doing the school part of the Renaissance Faire. It was a really amazing part of history and so much happened.

And then Skye was off to her sleepover and we were off to cocktail parties.

There was really wonderful food and I hope that I didn't appear to be to pig like, but I was hungry from the 3 hr run. So I ate a goodly amount.

At the Faire I figured I had burned plenty of calories the day before and on top of a couple practically madatory pints of Guiness, I indulged in fried oysters and spicy sausage and ice cream.

I had not expended enough energy to balance out my gluttony, but it sure tasted yummy.

Renaissance Faire

Renaissance Faire-Living History, Learning History

The Renaissance Faire can be used as a wonderful educational tool. That's the persuasive argument I often make to get Cindy to come with us. But this time around I really am using it as such. In fact Skye and are watching "The Comedy of Errors" at this very moment.

I've forgotten what an amazing period in history the European Renaissance was. And with several weeks left, I have lots of time to thoroughly teach Skye many lessons, ranging from history to art, from cuisine to costume-making, music and literature. It will be a busy and interesting time to be sure.






Skye watches on potter makes a clay tankard as they would have in England in the 1500's




Checking out how wool was spun.




16th century thrill ride



Skye was hardly enthusiastic about performing on stage with a foam rubber sword. I could hardly blame her.

We are planning to go a few more times in the upcoming weeks and would love some company.

Heirloom tomato plants arrive

A few weeks ago I ordered several heirloom tomato plants from Laurel' Heirloom Tomato Plants. She has so many to choose from. Last year I was only semi-successful with them because I flubbed up on some import things like food and water, and basic neglect because I started back to work as soon as I got them in the ground. But the ones that I did manage to revive were incredible. This year will not be a repeat and we will have more tomatoes than we know what to do with. Although I already have some recipes I'm looking forward to trying.

Here are descriptions and photos of the types of plants I got.

Yummy yummy!!!

New for 2009! Black Sea Man (4.95) 75 days (D) So many customers have gone wild over this tomato that I have decided to include it for 2009 as one of our premier varieties. A Russian tomato, the smallish determinate plants produce an enticing mahogany color fruit with olive green shoulders when mature.

Inside, the flesh is deep dark red with a beautiful hint of dark green and loaded with full-bodied, complex, intense, creamy tomato flavors. Wonderful for medium sized (10 to 15 gallon) containers, Black Sea Man has entered the running for the best black tomato in the world.

Japanese Black Trifele (TRY-feluh) AKA Truffle Black ($5.25) (SM) 80 days. Japanese Black Trifele, which translates to truffle, is a big juicy 6 -10 ounce pear-shaped, deep purple-black tomato with pretty green shoulders. In Russia the Trifele varieties of tomatoes--of which there are several colors--are highly prized and command high prices. Growing on a short potato-leafed plant, it's the size and shape of a Bartlett pear and among the darkest hued and finest flavored of the black tomatoes.

The skin is smooth and crack resistant and production is huge. Flavor is deep, chocolaty, smoky and rich, just wonderful. Took their picture and ate 'em.

Mortgage Lifter aka Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter ($4.95)(BB) (HG) 80 days.

Radiator Charlie and his big tomatoes in

a newspaper photograph from 1964.

This gigantic legendary heirloom from Logan, West Virginia developed by M.C. 'Charlie' Byles in the 1930's, is huge, sweet, juicy, delicious and prolific, with splendid old time tomato flavor. The meaty pink-red fruits weigh at least a pound, averaging 2½ lbs. and reaching up to 4 lbs. A very prolific plant which continues to bear fruit right up until frost, it also keeps very well.

Marshall Cletis Byles, who much preferred to go by MC or just Charlie, owned a garage specializing in radiator repair.

He developed Mortgage Lifter over a six year period by crossing German Johnson, Beefsteak and 2 other really big varieties, all chosen for their huge size and grand flavor. He sold the resulting plants for a dollar each (in the 40's), and was able to pay off his $5000.00 house mortgage in only 6 years with the profit from his plant sales. "I didn't pay but six thousand dollars for my home, and paid most of it off with tomato plants", said Charlie in a tape recorded interview with his grandson which aired recently on National Public Radio.

Charlie's repair shop was at the bottom of a steep hill so travelers whose radiators over-heated during the climb had to coast back down to Radiator Charlie's for repair. Other folks heard about these huge luscious tomatoes and came from hundreds of miles to buy the plant. As my customer John in Virginia says, "It's just not a real tomato garden without Mortgage Lifter." Charlie Byles lived to be 97 years old. Here is a link to the story, in Radiator Charlie's own voice:

http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.htm?programID=06-P13-00027&segmentID=6

Our deepest thanks to Jeff McCormick, a famed seed saver, for keeping Charlie Byle's tomato seeds and so many other great heirloom varieties alive and thriving for gardeners worldwide. Without Jeff's efforts many of these grand old family heirlooms would have been lost forever.

Paul Robeson ($4.95) (VE) (HG) 65-70 days. This is my all-time favorite tomato and our top seller.

It is a gorgeous, dark and dusky-hued fruit with intensely sweet earthy taste with a hint of tanginess, a luscious velvety smooth texture, beautiful skin, rich with juice. You will love it. The seed was made available by Marina Danilenko, a Moscow seedswoman.

This luxurious tomato is named for Paul Robeson (1898-1976), the elegant, renowned and charismatic operatic singer, law school graduate, champion athlete, film star, stage actor, and boundlessly brave champion of civil and personal rights throughout the world. This marvelous plant will give you its perfect 3"- 4" fruit in only 65 days from planting. Incredible; a symphony. I do believe this is the finest tomato in existence.

Peacevine Cherry ($5.25) F/C 70-75 days. The tiny tomato with the gigantic taste. Developed from Sweet 100 by Alan Kapular of Oregon, the Peacevine currant type tomatoes grow in clusters of 18 to 20 fruits on a big strong , vining plant with vines that can reach15 feet., and ripen in only 50 to 60 days from plant out.

When ripening, these marble-sized tomatoes can range from deep dark red to orange and yellow. The elaborate sparkling flavor of Peacevine literally changes from rich and sweet to tart and tangy and back again as you munch them--the Everlasting Gobstopper of tomatoes.

The Peacevine name was chosen because of the high amino acid content which has a calming effect on the body. This indeterminate variety had the highest vitamin C content in a cherry tomato among 30 varieties analyzed by Rutgers University.

Porter's Dark Cherry ($4.95) (Ch) (E) (SM) 65 days. This is such a fine tomato! Produces early, is abundant on the vine in charming clusters of 6 to 8. Small and gem-like, 1" long grape type fruits in an oblong oval shape, with a deep pink hue, it is becoming a much sought after favorite for discriminating tomato maniacs nationwide because the flavor is complex, rich and fabulous--just ambrosial. One of the prettiest tomatoes I've ever seen, marvelous in salads, snacking, and a brave plant that stands up extremely well to hot weather.

Sun Gold ($4.95) F/C (EE) (H) 45 - 55 days.

This is the one of the best cherry tomatoes I've ever tasted, rivaling Isis Candy, and ready to pick in only 55-60 days. It has the big, rich flavor of a full-size tomato, in a beautiful little deep-golden fruit growing in bountiful clusters on a huge plant. Sweet, rich, so beautiful...just left of center in the photograph at the top of this page. Most of them won't make it into your house from the garden. If you send someone to pick them for you, keep your binoculars trained upon the picker. The tomatoes in the photograph were picked on November 25th with our Los Angeles night temperatures in the 40's, Sun Gold is still going strong.

Super Snow White ($4.95) 70 days. F/C (E)

A gourmet's delight. I can't say enough about this exquisite, ping pong ball sized, white cherry tomato which ripens from white to ivory to palest yellow with a bright, rich and sweet juicy flavor. Very prolific, easy to grow, pretty as starlight and a top seller.

Sweet Pea ($4.95) (Ch) 62 days. This is the smallest and most endearing little tomato I've ever seen. Sweet Pea produces thousands of tiny ¼" deep-red currant tomatoes with an elaborate, rich, old time tomatoey taste--complex and sweet. They grow on a big wispy plant in bountiful clusters like handfuls of rubies. I had seen these itty bitty fruits decorating chef's creations at culinary events and had eaten them in salads at foodie soirees, then, after tasting them again at TomatoFest I knew I must bring home the seeds and grow plants for you.

Marathon Training--I am SO F****D

When I decided to sign up for the LA Marathon, new date, new route, I was already at a date which would be considered to be at the edge of when one should start training. And then I waited another week because I couldn't really believe I signed up for another marathon. I don't really love running. I like its effects; physical conditioning, cardio, weight loss, etc. I know there are other ways to attain each of those but running is straight forward and simple. I also like the event itself. And I like being able to say I can run a marathon.

Then I got serious and caught a cold, which is still lingering ever so slightly. And the latest dilemma has been trying to find the right shoes for my messed up, over-pronating, Morton's toed, tired and beat down feet. First I got shoes that were 1/2 size too large, which caused hot spots, then I switched to an "motion controlled" shoe to help resolve some of my running issues. That ended up in the blisters becoming hot spots.

At this point, I was beginning to realize that come hell or high water I needed to get my long runs up to the right distance, in order to be ready for the marathon.

Hell came.
I went on a 14 mile run yesterday. Up to that point the longest I had run since the marathon last year was 10 miles which I did with little effort a couple of weeks ago. I taped up my feet but shortly into the run I could tell I was going to have blister issues. I pushed on. The first several miles were tough to get into but when I hit the halfway point I was feeling good. In fact miles 6 to 10 happened with little effort. Then I started to hit the wall. Miles 12 to 14 killed me and unfortunately only got me to the bottom of the hill on the way to my house. That last uphill mile which I didn't count in the mileage because I was no longer running or jogging, took me 22 minutes of painful limping.

When I got home, my feet had blisters the size of silver dollars. I had chaffing on both inner thighs and a bit along my waistband and I basically tottered around like an old man for the rest of the day. According to one of the training schedules I have, I should be hitting mile 21 on these long runs by now.

Oh boy!!!

Blog-jam

I've been neglect on keeping up with my blog and that has created a blog-jam. In the past I have smushed everything into one entry that goes on and on, but this time I am going to try to write separate entries for each as I normally would however they will be out of chronological and for that matter any kind of logical order. These are some of the postings you can expect in the next few hours or days.



Renaissance Faire

Marathon Training

Heirloom tomatos

Coaching girl's basketball

Jon's Social Experiment

Set Decorator's Society of America - Spotlight