Making excuses

I was chastised the other day for not paying more attention to this blog recently. By my mom.
Yeah, yeah... I know!

Here is the thing: I used to blog in the morning. I would get up, make tea, get my photos ready and blog.

But these days I have not really had a morning. My work schedule has changed a bit. It was a good change, since it means getting home earlier (in time for dinner before 9 p.m.). But it also means going in earlier.

I now leave the house right about the time I used to sit down to blog.

So I just need to get myself acclimated to this personal time change. And I need to learn how to blog at night apparently.

Or get up at 6 a.m.

Yeah... funny. That is so not happening.

Round Robin Photo Challenge: Light Moves

I went in on another Round Robin Challenge

(head there to see who else played).

The idea for this challenge is:

Take a picture that shows the quality of the light.

By that I mean the hues of a sunset, water reflected on water,

refracted light, something interesting with light.

I have to confess that mostly I relied on stuff I had already shot.

So let's start with that, then I will give you my new shot at the end.

And here we go:

St. Thomas sunset

Port of Long Beach
a little on the grainy and seedy side


Pepto-Bismol port sunset


Fifty-fifty
sea and sky


Water, light, magic

Shadow play


Moonfright


The water's fine


Just under the surface


I've been on that blimp
(and on that bridge)

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Can you tell I like sunsets?
And water...

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So I really do need to get back into the habit of
taking pictures, pictures, pictures.

I was really good for a while.
I do carry the camera at all times.

But usually everything is such a rush.
Rush to get to work.
Rush at work.
Rush to get home.

Note to self: Slow down. Look at things.

Take more pictures.

A glimpse below the surface

I had seen a mention on another Web site about a new IMAX movie at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. It is called "Under the Sea 3D."

I mentioned it to Manfriend and we watched the movie trailer.



We decided to see if there were any showings Monday since we both had the day off work. We were in luck. We got two tickets online to the 1:30 show.

(Note on the tickets - The fine print on the tickets says parking is $6. It is really $8 now. The guy at the entrance said they raised the price at the start of the year. This reminds me now that I was going to call the Science Center to let them know they need to update their Web site.)

We had some computer chaos in getting our print-at-home tickets printed, so we were running later than we hoped. By the time we go there a long line had formed. So our seats were not the best.

Next time we need to leave earlier so we can get seats in the middle. I think it will make a big difference.

But, as for the movie...

This is a 40-minute 3D film that focuses on aquatic life in the waters off Papua New Guinea, as well as Cape Catastrophe and the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

You get your obligatory great white shark and sea lions and sting rays. But there are some other, more interesting creatures, too.

Some highlights:

Sea dragons
Sea snakes - the creepiest, but really beautiful. And the 3D was good here.
Juvenile catfish swimming in a wave over the ocean floor - MF loved this scene.
Frog fish - crazy-looking creatures
Potato cod - just a big prehistoric-looking fish. 3D was good here, too.
Garden eels - this scene was mesmerizing for me.

MF really liked the 3D graphics. Even down to the titles and credits, the 3D graphics were good. I think with seats more in the middle they would have been even better.

The movie was narrated by Jim Carrey. At first I was worried he would be, well, Jim Carrey. But it was a pretty subdued narration with only a couple lame, family friendly jokes in there.
The main thing I noticed about the narration was that it was slightly preachy in parts, talking about global warming.

Don't get me wrong, I think it is an important issue.

But yeah, it was a little preachy. Maybe they figure since the audience is mostly kids they can get them to start thinking about the issue early. Which is not a bad thing, I suppose.

And really, it could have been a lot preachier.

I did like that even though the movie is geared to kids (yeah, yeah... but the adults were enthralled, too) the filmmakers did a decent job of making it realistic but not too scary.

They showed the mating process of cuttlefish. Not anything too graphic or nasty.
And they also showed things eating other things. Again, not too graphic, but part of the cycle of life.

Of course, when they showed the great white shark and then the cute sea lion puppies and said "The sea lion needs to be ever-vigilant about the great white" I was thinking "Noooooo... they can't show a baby sea lion being eaten."

And they did not. Which is good. Because a lot of little kids would have been traumatized. Not to mention the nightmares I would have had.


As for the theater experience... Well, I would have preferred fewer kids. Maybe going on a school holiday in the first weekend the movie was open was a mistake on my part.

The place was crawling with kids. And the showing was sold-out. So we were cheek by jowl in that theater.

Kids were standing in seats trying to reach out and grab 3D fish as they swam by; they were yelling out "Shark!!!" when one appeared onscreen; they constantly asked questions.

I was hoping for a more peaceful experience. I think a child-free showing would be extremely popular.

All in all though, it was worth the price of admission, the drive to downtown and the masses and masses of kids.

And I think I want to go again. Maybe in a month or so. And get good seats. Maybe an evening show. Maybe after the kids have all gone to bed.

If you want to know more about the film, including some cool behind-the-scenes footage, check out the movie's Web site.


And a couple newspaper reviews with differing opinions:

New York Times review - mostly positive

San Francisco Chronicle review - more harsh

Mmmm... cupcakes

I did make cupcakes this week, but I want to work on that recipe a little more before I post it.

In the meantime, I can recommend these peanut mini cupcakes made by a colleague.

He posted it on his own food blog, Tofu Fighting, which I have added to the food files section of my links.

Getting paid to dive

Way back in November manfriend and I went on a boat diving trip to one of the Channel Islands.
We both took a lot of pictures and I wrote a lot of words.

And this weekend it was the cover story in the Orange County Register's Travel section.

You can read the story by clicking here. There are 30 photos in the slide show there, all of which were posted here first back in November.

The layout appears below.



Yay! It was a lot of fun to write about these dives. I guess it is fun to write about something that is so enjoyable.

Next up: I may try my hand at writing a food article.

$1,600 would have bought a lot of shoes

Well, I have officially done my part to stimulate the economy in this past week or so.

It started out nice enough.

Manfriend and I went for a Monday afternoon dive at Redondo before he had to go to work for a late shift. I forgot the o-ring for the camera, so the only picture is from the parking lot.
But the dive was nice. Conditions were totally flat, visibility was decent.

We saw a couple baby horn sharks (no sign of mama shark... whew!) and a traffic-cone orange anemone like nothing I have seen there on any previous dive.

When we got home, MF had to get to work so I cleaned the gear then got cleaned up myself for a quiet night of leftovers.

But I heard water running. I checked the sinks. Nothing. I checked the hose outside where I was cleaning the gear. Nothing. I checked the shower. It sounded like water running in the wall, but no water was coming out of the faucet.

This cannot be good.

Finally, I called MF. He asked about the water heater.

It never even occurred to me to check the water heater.

I went outside to go around to the side of the house where the water heater is, and before I got there I knew that was the problem.

Water was streaming down the driveway from the side of the house. It was all flooded on the walkway.

I got over there and turned off the water going into the water heater and that seemed to stop the waterfall.

It was late. Any solution would have to wait until morning.


Since MF had worked late that night, he was not going to work until later in the day, so he was able to help me check things out in the daylight.

Yeah. It was bad.


Calling a few places, I found out that it would be about $1,000 to have someone come out and install a water heater. But, if we did it we could get save almost $500.

Lucky for me MF is pretty handy to have around the house.

Also lucky for me (yes this will sound weird), my car was in the shop. This was lucky because it meant I had a rental. It was a little Kia Rondo. It looked tiny when I picked it up at the rental place. Turns out the back seats fold all the way flat and you can fit a water heater back there.


So we got it home and dragged it to the side of the house. After only one more trip to Home Depot for the proper valves, we had it installed.

That was the first $560 of the week. Oh, and I had to use a vacation day to stay home to do that and deal with the car in the shop.

Plus it looks like the valve is a little leaky, which is what likely caused the top of the thing to rust out over time. So I still need to get a plumber out to fix that.

Then came the car repair stuff. There were some seals and hoses and whatnots that needed to be replaced. The car, with 85,000 miles on it, still runs great. And since I drive about 80 miles a day to and from work, I need to keep it that way.

So, another $400. Thank goodness I don't have a car payment.

Then the car repair guy told me I needed new tires. I was afraid of that.

Since I had already taken a day off to deal with the water heater, I decided to wait a week on the tires. I was worried all week that I would have a flat or a blowout on the freeway. I get paranoid like that sometimes.

I called a few places and checked with Costco and found a good deal at Ocean Tires in Hermosa Beach. I took the car in Monday and got the thing four new shoes.

$534.

Is that it? Please, let that be it. At least for the next six months.

Oh wait, I almost forgot about the money I spent on the car rental.

$100.

Now, let's add it all up...

$1,594.

Yep. That's my part for the economy.

Craving, satisfied

I finally gave in to my recent scallop craving.
And man, am I glad I did.
I made a lovely appetizer last night of seared scallops in lemon-shallot sauce.

I think I have a new favorite preparation for scallops.
And the best part: It was so easy!