thar she blows...

...a hump, like a snow hill, it is moby dick.


OK, it isn't moby dick, but a grey whale made its way into the santa cruz boat harbor this afternoon, and we stopped by on our run to check it out. it surfaced for air a couple times while we were standing there. it was quite an impressive sight.

in other notable mammalian sightings during our run, we also saw a raccoon scurrying along the harbor, and a harbor seal swimming under the murray street bridge. not bad for a short evening jog.

thoughts from this morning (so far)

marta read something on the interweb this morning saying that dave chapelle was checking into a hospital for "exhaustion". what exactly does exhaustion mean? i know that lindsey lohan gets it sometimes. lots of stars get it. i think it is simply a publicist's way of saying, "my client stayed out for 4 nights straight and got completely messed up on drugs, so now they are checking into a hospital so fake journalists can't take any more embarrassing pictures of them." is there any other definition for it? could it mean that they were trapped in the woods without food or water and are now being treated for dehydration and exposure to the elements? can regular people get it? what if i show up at the hospital and tell them that i think i have exhaustion? maybe i'm wrong here, maybe regular people do get it. please forgive me if that is the case.

item number two of the morning would be the podcast of the today show that the driver of my shuttle was listening to. the first segment i heard was about the new trend of hiring parenting coaches. then they had a fashion show for new teen beach fashions. it sounds like the tankini is going to be real big again this year, but don't forget to apply the spf. the shuttle reached my stop before i got to the part about new options for summer outdoor furniture. hard hitting stuff.

san luis obispo tar balls

this weekend, we went to san luis obispo for a camping-themed reunion with our good friend angela. although she's an iowan, she can be found in l.a. this summer. it seemed like the right time to meet up with her. we chose the midway point of san luis obispo for hiking, camping, and camroderie. despite the ever present summer coastal fog, we enjoyed our beach dune hiking, until i had a run in with pollution.

the beach looks beautiful and unspoiled, no?



as we finished the hike with a walk along the beach, i stepped in something cool and squishy with my bare right foot. thinking i had stepped in one of the abundant jellyfish on the beach, i quickly scraped at the sticky mass on the sole of my foot with my hand. only then did i discover that a jelly fish it was not (but a jelly fish may have been preferable). it was a tar ball. go ahead. click on the link. they're super gross, sticky, highly concentrated black balls of oil spill remnants, all wadded up with a coat of sand and awaiting a bird, person, or other living thing to engage with its poisonous sticky stinky innards. engage i did. i engaged this tar ball all over the bottom of my foot and, as a result of my desperate attempt at beachside removal, a majority of fingers on my right hand as well.

here's a picture of my foot.
here's a picture of me and my friend brer rabbit.



after some complaining on my part, general laughing at (not with) me on david and angela's parts, and a very clever application of tape, the joy of the weekend was restored. we retired to the camp site after wine tasting in the paso robles appellation for some tecate tasting.

last of the mohicans

last night marta shaved off my mohawk, the one that she shaved in seven days ago, on the 4th of july (see happy independence day). the main thing i learned from my week with a mohawk comes from the comparison with my month with a mustache. unlike guys with mustaches, there seems to be no friendly bond between guys with mohawks. guys with mohawks are just as likely to sneer at each other as they are at anyone else in the general population. the friendly nod that the mustached give each other invites newcomers into their fold. mohawkers have no such friendly fold. let me be clear that i'm not suggesting that the mohawked are a bad group. i did enjoy my week as one of them. i'm only suggesting that they need to work on group cohesiveness.

independence day (part 2)

the city of santa cruz doesn't have an official, city-sponsored fireworks display; however, the tens of thousands of people who flock to the beaches of santa cruz for the fourth put on the most amazing display of illegal fireworks we have ever seen. the scpd spent all day closing off roads, manning check-points, and apparently confiscating fireworks in what is either a futile attempt to stop the display, or an attempt to appear as if they tried to stop the display. take a look at this video to witness the scope of this event. fireworks went on at this pace for several hours.

happy independence day!

moments in sandwich history (#2)

The first recorded sandwich was produced by the rabbi, Hillel the Elder, who lived during the 1^st century B.C. He placed a mixture of chopped nuts, apples, spices, and wine between two matzohs to eat with bitter herbs.

This sandwich fact was found at http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/SandwichHistory.htm