Good Bye May Grey, Hello June Gloom

Living here I learned that May and June are not good times for out-of-towners to visit coastal California. During most of the months of May and June, the coast is enveloped in a dense marine layer. Unlike the winter marine layers, this one does not burn off by late morning.

My office in Vista, about 6 miles or so inland, is mostly spared of this phenomenon - more often than not it's been sunny and warm out there. Locally the dividing line of good to gloom is about El Camino Real, ~3 miles inland.

Here's a link with more info. on the interesting weather pattern.

Most Ridiculous Item at Coscto, 5/31/09

Tequila in a glass handgun bottle. "The way the west was won." Really? Oh, and it's $25 for a whopping 200ml.

Outing With The Nature Girl

Living in California, Celeste sadly hasn't had as much time in nature as she did when we lived in Monona. Whether she was exploring our large back yard or paddling her kayak in Lake Monona's Sqaw Bay, she was always on the hunt for critters and finding peace in the natural world. Although we live a short distance to the beach, she's still hasn't fully warmed up to the ocean, preferring quiet and calm lakes.

This afternoon we headed out to Calavera Lake in north Carlsbad to do a little exploring. Calavera Lake is a small freshwater lake in an ex-quarry, now nature preserve. The area is also has a decent network of unmarked mountain bike trails. I rode there with a friend a few weeks back and will return to get a better lay of the land.

(crappy photos alert - all I had with me was my phone)

Bringing a small bait net, a few toy buckets and a bug net, we hit the perimeter of the lake on the search for frog, fish, tadpoles, etc.

She managed to snag a couple of *very* small fry at this spot. One pictured below at about eleven o'clock.

Being a true kid, she did manage to slip and fall into the lake up to her waist at one point. No biggie, she shrugged it off and continued her quest and found a few snails and snagged a damselfly.

All in all, a great way to spend a couple of hours with my grrrl.

Record Swap & Off The Alley

I spent just about four years during and after college working for a small independent new and used record store in the south suburbs of Chicago - Homewood's Record Swap.
I still have fond memories of my Days at the Swap. Being a music junkie it was always a thrill to be able to get first crack at the fresh trade-ins before they ended up on the store's shelves. The curled thermal paper faxes that spat out that week's latest releases from import and independent labels were carefully read (unless they ended up falling on the adjacent radiator) to ensure that I didn't miss some rare 7" or limited edition piece from one of the many bands whose music I collected as a "completeist".

While we weren't the best overall new or used or indie/import store in the Chicago area, I feel that we were the best to combine all three. Unfortunately the owner, a new father at the time, felt the urge to start carrying a large selection of children's music and toys. Relegated to the back corner of one of the store fronts, all of those stuffed animals and Raffi tapes just collected dust.

During my tenure I'm thankful that I made lasting friendships with both co-workers and some of our customers (I'm talking about you, Todd, Chris & Rob).

So what got me thinking (and typing) about Record Swap? My mom forwarded along this article about Off The Alley - the all-ages club that Record Swap created. While OTA catered to a slightly younger audience that was into alternative dance music an pop-punk, it still stirred up a bunch of memories from that place.

I left the Swap in 1993 to go work for one of the shop's vendors - Feedback, an import and indie label record distributor. Record Swap ended up being one of my accounts. Both the Swap and OTA are long gone, having gone bankrupt in 2000. However, the Swap left an indelible mark on me and my musical tastes. Maybe someday I'll write a post about some of our more interesting customers - the mumblers, Joe Crack, John Everson. Or maybe the extremely frugal owner.

California Curiostity - Tenting for Termites

No, the circus is not in town, just a neighbor with a termite problem.
I used to see tented homes undergoing fumigation from time-to-time when flying in to LAX or John Wayne/Orange County airports. In the past eight months (has it really been eight months??) three of our neighbors have had the process done. Kind of funny seeing an enormous yellow and orange tent in a row of otherwise plain suburban stucco homes.

Nothing Like Hitting the Slip-n-Slide...

...in your party dress.

with dish soap for extra slickness!

You Can Say It's A Little Dry Around Here

Nice coating of red cocoa powder-like dust on the Pivot from riding the Rancho La Costa trails Friday morning before work.