mmmm.... elite meat

it isn't so much the name of santa cruz's premiere steakhouse that makes me want to eat there, it's the slogan.

double entendre never tasted so good.

title 35 of the united states code, section 105, subsection (a)

i was browsing through the laws of our great land and came upon this intersting tidbit regarding inventions made in outer space.

any invention made, used, or sold in outer space on a space object or component thereof under the jurisdiction or control of the united states shall be considered to be made, used or sold within the united states for the purposes of this title, except with respect to any space object or component thereof that is specifically identified and otherwise provided for by an international agreement to which the united states is a party, or with respect to any space object or component thereof that is carried on the registry of a foreign state in accordance with the convention on registration of objects launched into outer space.

we are still looking into what exactly the convention on registration of objects launched into outer space entails.


do you think that image is a mural or bed sheets?

a stroll on the beach

while hunting for a blog worthy sunday afternoon, we took a long stroll across a few of santa cruz's beaches. we found that the rides at the boardwalk were running, the tide was going way out, the kayak surf contest at steamer lane was heating up, and the jazz festival on the wharf was.....well.....jazzy.

here's a little movie we made this afternoon from the main beach. the main beach is packed with people all summer long, but in mid-march, the cool 60 degree weather keeps them in silicon valley. the movie starts looking west to monterey bay, then turns north toward the wharf, panning around to the boardwalk amusement park, across the beaches, and then finally stops looking south with the monterey peninsula in the distance. it then zips back to catch some serious giant dipper roller coaster action. get ready; it's hot.


after that, we passed under the wharf along cowells beach.

the tide was further out than we have ever seen, and it afforded us our very first uninterrupted walk along the beach around the corner to steamer lane (this beach would normally by submerged, even at low tide).

usually we have to take the cliff-top sidewalk to reach these points.

steamer lane, a world class surf destination (or so they tell us), was hosting a kayak surf contest. it was pretty cool. here's a video of a kayaker competing on the waves.


an excellent time was had.

march posts

the ides of march have passed and we have only made 3 blog entries this month. we are going to start out the second half of march with a decent entry (not this one). marta and i are going to set out onto the streets of santa cruz and we aren't going to return until we have something to blog about. that, dear readers, is a promise.

...and the wine is bottled poetry

thank you robert louis stevenson for those poetic words, and thank you napa for a terrific weekend as we traveled north to experience you world famous wine country.

having been to a winery or two in some of california's less well known wine growing appellations, we wanted to make the trip up to napa to see what all the fuss is about. i could give details on each of the wineries we visited, but i'm not sure that would be that interesting. i'll keep it short.

we explored the grounds of the very large italian villa-esque complex at robert mondavi.

we tasted a flight of sparkling wines at mumm napa.

we made friends with some of the local inhabitants as we picnicked on the grounds of the dutch henry winery. i think this guy wants to play bocce ball.

we stayed saturday night at the calistoga inn in calistoga. it was very reasonably priced, and we were very pleased with the accommodations. we would recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind a hotel with shared bathrooms and thin walls that is above a bar that has live music until the early morning hours (those things are all true, but we seriously would recommend it). our old friend joe luckily doesn't mind a little noise so he bunked with us for the night.

a good time was had. here is a video of us driving through the valley. the vines are a little bare since they haven't budded yet, but you can get an idea for how much wine is grown in napa. rows of vines like that fill the entire valley. it is really quite breathtaking. the music in the background is off the album gulag orkestar by beirut.

somethinng newsworthy

today, march 6, is my canadian birthday. as you may be well aware, here in america we write the date month/day, but in canada they write the date day/month. this means that if you take the canadian way of writing todays date (6/3), and translate it into the american date (June 3), then today is my birthday. this actually works in many countries around the world, but canada is the only one of those countries i have had the good fortune of being in on that day. i was on spring break with some friends, skiing in searchmont canada, and i made the realization that my drivers license made it appear that it was my birthday. as i recall, i got a free beer out of the deal. anyway, ever since that trip i am acutely aware of my canadian birthday.

while not everybody has a canadian birthday (you must be born in the first 12 days of a month), i believe my brother-in-law bob had a canadian birthday just 3 days ago (march 3). that's right folks, he has the same birthday in canada and the usa. what a neat thing!

slow news cycle

it has been a while since we posted anything here on the blog. i guess there haven't been any terrifically interesting events for us to report on.

luckily, msnbc has got plenty to report on.

that's right folks. some lady who reads stories about momnesia and how to complain about your flight is going to have a baby. quite a coincidence that this hard hitting story first broke over on nbc, the sister network to msnbc. i can't wait to watch that video. it sounds like she is "really excited." hopefully she doesn't get momnesia during her maternity leave and forget about her day job reporting on how to flaunt your flaws.

*though they may sound horribly made up, all the today show stories list above are actual stories from todays episode.