Pining for the Fjords

Let's see...what to blog about this week...oh, I haven't done any yard updates since mid-May!  Let's do this!  In the last update, I'd made it to late January (the blogs about the yard may soon lap themselves at this rate), when our most recent yard improvement project was reworking some of the decomposed granite (DG) in the front yard and replacing it with rock to help with water flow. Eventually, it stopped raining here, and we started eyeing the area next to the block wall in the back yard where we built the retaining wall last November.  We wanted to put mulch in this area, but every mulch option we found cost a whole freaking lot of money (why is mulch so much?!?).  While searching Yelp for something random, I stumbled across a review for the City of Long Beach Mulch Yard, which was conveniently just a few miles away from us.  We drove down there one morning in late March with the pickup truck and for free (as city residents, we can have as much as we w...

When last I blogged about our concerts at the Hollywood Bowl, we'd just been amazed by the prodigious talent of violinist Joshua Bell, playing with the LA Philharmonic on a Tuesday night.  Just a few days later, on Friday, 9/1, it was back to the Bowl yet again for what was probably my most highly anticipated show we'd be seeing: the one and only John Williams conducting the Phil, playing some of his most renowned musical scores. Chris was back on his standard work schedule by this time, so he arrived home by 5pm, and we packed up our picnic and headed out the door to the Lakewood Park and Ride stop we'd taken the week earlier to the Gipsy Kings show.  The buses were once again comfy and we sat back to read, this time without intrusion from the riders in the row in front of us (thankfully). Because you're not really a business student unless you have a giant pile of unread Wall Street Journal  copies somewhere. The crowd was absolutely massive for this...

Over the long Labor Day holiday weekend, we spent an awful lot of time hauling rock into the backyard (Amy), catching up on studying Finance and Statistics (Chris), and doing other various and sundry projects outside and around the house (both).  By the time Labor Day itself rolled around, we were ready to put on clean clothes, hang out with some great company, and relax.  I'd been reading recently about a slew (that's the official word meaning: nine) of breweries now open on a six mile stretch of La Palma Boulevard in Anaheim/Placentia, so we decided to head over and try some of them; we asked Dad and Risa to accompany us, and we were happy they accepted! The first stop on the self-proclaimed La Palma Beer Trail (as an aside, why would call a row of breweries anything but an "ale trail?"  It needs to rhyme, folks) is The Bruery, which we all really love, as well as their newer, IPA-focused brand, Offshoot.  We've been to The Bruery many times before, so we elec...

When last we blogged , we covered the first pair of concerts we attended at the Hollywood Bowl, the Tchaikovsky Spectacular, featuring our new favorite faux dad Bramwell Tovey, and Holst's The Planets .  We saw The Planets  on a Tuesday, and that very Friday, 8/25, it was back to the Bowl to see the Gipsy Kings!  I will admit to not knowing a lot of Gipsy Kings music, but the 3-4 of their songs I have on my running iPod, I enjoy very much.  We figured they would be high energy and would draw a great crowd, all of who would be ready to dance the night away! This was Chris' final Friday off for his summer work schedule, so since he was already home, we elected to travel together, buying advance tickets ($7 each versus $12 at the door) to use the nearby Lakewood Park and Ride location.  We also planned to take a full set of picnic options, since we'd have both of us available to carry backpacks outfitted with coolers; in addition to our picnic fare, we invested i...

As all of you probably know by now, Chris and I are fans of all sorts of entertainment and attractions.   Turkey stampedes , professional bike races , cultural events , wildlife exhibits  - the list honestly goes on and on.  There are few events too obscure or odd for us, and on the other end of the spectrum, we also love attending fancy-pants things like the symphony and opera.  For my birthday present last year, Chris bought both of us tickets to see the LA Philharmonic in Walt Disney Concert Hall, which was incredible, so now we're fully on the list for all of their various mailings and advertisements.  Every summer, the Phil moves a bit further north and takes up residence at the legendary Hollywood Bowl; while we weren't interested in committing to a whole series of just one type of concerts (just classical Tuesdays, for example), when they rolled out their "5 or more" packages, we were intrigued, particularly since tickets in the cheap seats started at a v...