The Dark Knight

Today Michael came over in the afternoon and at 3:15 we went to see The Dark Knight with his dad. I thought it was very enjoyable and a lot better than Batman Begins. It was very long but well done and the joker was amazingly creepy. I hear he was nominated for an Academy Award for the performance.

Lord of the Rings meets Warhammer

Yesterday I went over to Michael's house and he gave me a very late birthday present, a set of Lord of the Rings Orc miniatures similar to Warhammer, along with a paint set. He also gave me a small bag of static grass to use for the base. This morning, I got up and painted three orcs: one spearman, one infantry, and one archer. I also super-glued the arms onto some of the miniatures that came in separate pieces. Later on, I will add fake landscaping to the bases.

After lunch I went to the Monterey Sports Center to finish up the Swimming Merit Badge that I had a partial on for a couple of years. I had to jump in the water with a shirt and pants on and inflate them. All I had to do for the shirt was blow in it to fill it with air. For the pants I had to take them off (with a bathing suit underneath, of course) and inflate them into a buoy.

When we left I went over to Michael's where Matthew and his brother were too and we played guitar hero. I got a 277-note streak on Rock You Like a Hurricane on Medium. Later today, we went to SaveMart and I ran into Mr. Bell, Riley's dad, and Yann all within 5 minutes. Weird.

Spanish Bay with Matthew

This morning around 9:00 I went over to Matthew's house. I helped him with some effects in Photoshop and played SSB Brawl and Mario Kart Wii. Then a couple hours later we went swimming at the pool at the Spanish Bay Inn located in Pebble Beach.

One of the best thing about the Spanish Bay pool is that the water is non-chlorinated (just heavily filtered), so you can open your eyes underwater for a long time without any stinging. We took a break around noon and got food. I got a cheese quesadilla with guacamole, and Matthew and Michael (his brother) got burgers. After we were done swimming we went into the hot tub and then left back to his house, where we jumped on his trampoline and I helped them set up blogs.

Matthew's Blog: http://midnightsun1994.blogspot.com/
Michael's Blog: http://michaeljohnson-blog.blogspot.com/

RE: Jesse's Visit

Last night after dinner, Jesse and Lara came back over and we had a ping-pong tournament for about two hours in the garage. We each got to play everyone else, and the winners turned out to be my mom and Jesse, who nearly tied every time. I left and went back with them around 9:00. Today, we went to have brunch with Gpop (grandfather) at the bagel bakery and I had a jalapeño cheddar with cream cheese, tomato, and smoked salmon lox. Afterwords, we decided to use his guest passes and go to the aquarium.

The last time I had gone to the aquarium was in the winter during the huge storm and blackout (the aquarium was the only place with power). Since then, they had redone the Splash Zone exhibit and moved the touch pools upstairs. We went around and saw all the regular exhibits, like the jellies, penguins, outer bay, and kelp forests. There was a presentation going on about how fish inflate their bladders to control buoyancy (a skill also present in armadillos that they use to float across rivers).

While we were looking at the various fishes, we were talking about many things and telling stories. Lara was telling me about how when she and her friends used to come to the aquarium, there would be a sign above the octopus tank reading Don't Flash the Octopus.

Sure enough, even though they moved and enlarged the tank and made about six new signs, they still said the same thing. Funny.



Another hilarious happening was how earlier today we were talking about Jesse's dog Sherlock's odd habits while going to the bathroom. While in the Wild About Otters exhibit, we learned that freshwater otters do practically the same thing. Here's the description on the sign...

Otters do the Darndest things.
Just before a freshwater otter poops, it does a "latrine dance." You might see it turning in a circle with its tail raised, stomping its feet up and down.

We left the aquarium around 1:30 and went back to the house, where I played Kirby Air Ride with Lara. They left back to Exeter at 3:30.

Church NERF

Finally, the long-awaited church NERF gun battle was today at Cypress Street Park. At the last minute at church, we managed to get a few people to come. Michael also invited Paul, his friend from San Jose who comes down to visit every couple months. The Bruemmers and the Lohs were the two families who came, and most of them brought NERF guns. We played two rounds of Capture the Flag and had popcorn and white grape juice boxes as a snack.

Squirrel!

On the walk back from church today, I passed by a squirrel near Hilltop Park. As I walked toward it, it wasn't running away as would be expected, but stayed where it was, eating seeds on the road. I got out my camera and took a couple of photos...

Jesse's Visit

On Friday my half brother Jesse and his wife Lara came over to visit from Exeter (near Visalia in California). We had dinner at the local Lebanese restaurant Tabouli and went to Marty's. Yesterday, he picked me up around noon and we ate lunch at the 17^th Street Grille in PG. After that, we went off to try out disc golfing.

Jesse had been telling me for a while that disc golf was a lot of fun, and I finally got to try it. We went to the Don Dahvee Park course near the Del Monte Shopping Center. It was an 18-hole course that wound up the side of Munras Avenue in Monterey. The game plays just like golf, but you use special Innova frisbees that come in different types, i.e. putter, mid-range, driver, etc. The object is to get the disc into a metal basket (the hole) in as few throws as possible.

Most of them were pretty straight-forward, par 3, with usually a small hill and a couple trees in the way. The hardest hole was under a highway overpass where the tee-box was on one side and the basket was on the other. In the middle was a large gorge with a small river running through. We decided to skip this one. Hole 12 was right next to Whole Foods, so we stopped and had Indian Chai Tea Lattes. Mmm...

Since my dad is out of town, Jesse and Lara were staying at the house, so I stayed the night last night and we watched Wild Hogs.

RE: An Odd Coincidence

Regarding Mr. Bell's new post as principal of PGHS, here's an article that I found in the Bulletin:

Pico Retrospective

Since we won't be going to Pico Blanco this year (see The News About Pico for more information on the cancellation and the switch to Camp Emerald Bay), I thought I'd post some photos and other stuff from last year's camp.

Even though Emerald Bay will be a blast, nothing can really replace our local council camp, and its a shame not to go. First, the famous "Scoutmaster Belly Flop" video of Mr. Randall in the traditional water carnival event.



Here's some photos I took at Pico 2007...

Birthday Celebrations

Today was my dad's birthday and I got him a rug that matches our decor and a brand-new metal grip hose nozzle with eight settings. For lunch, we went out to our favorite Mexican restaurant in Sand City, Papá Chano's. As usual, I got the Chile Rellenos plate, which is one of my favorite Mexican dishes. It comes with a large cheese-stuffed breaded poblano pepper, plus rice and beans. For about another two to three dollars, the Platillo de Chile Rellenos has two peppers, rice and beans, and a tostada-style salad.

Tonight we are going to have a fire in our fire pit outside after dinner.

The News About Pico

Due to the Basin Complex Fire in Big Sur, our traditional Camp Pico Blanco has been cancelled for this year. Scoutmaster Randall has been trying to get a replacement camp and finally found one: Camp Emerald Bay on Santa Catalina Island. The troop last went here in 2003, and was told it was pretty much impossible to get in again. However, due to our status as "fire refugees," they let us come in at last minute and also took almost $100 off the admission price for the week-long camp. The water is supposed to be much warmer than Pico and most of us will probably take entirely water-oriented merit merit badges.

The Antique Show

The past three days were the St. Mary's church antique show (this year's catchy wordplay title: "Baroque 'n' Eggs") so yesterday and today I volunteered with the church youth group in food service. Last year I was a food server who waited tables at lunch, but that was really stressful and not very enjoyable. Instead, this year I worked in the snack bar temporarily put up in the courtyard. Yesterday I arrived at 9:30, and the first 1 to 2 hours were spent selling donuts and coffee for $1 each.

After this, the people began sitting down for lunch and food servers began their jobs. My job was to fill lemonade and ice tea and set them out for waiters to pick up. They would sometimes come with orders for an Arnold Palmer (½ lemonade, ½ ice tea) or some custom order like "I want two thirds ice tea and one third lemonade with extra ice and a bit of water in it."



Around 1:30 today the lunch crowd left and went back to the antique show, or to the organ concert in the church, and we got sandwiches, pizza, and leftover lunch desserts.

After leaving, I went with my dad to the new Lighthouse Cinema and watched Get Smart starring Steve Carrell.

Moth Sightings

This morning while working in the garden I came across this moth on an orchid. I couldn't resist taking a macro, and it turned out quite good.

At first I thought it was an infamous Light Brown Apple Moth, but it turned out to be a very different species apparently.

Classic Wallpapers

I came across these old desktop backgrounds from my old site and since I am taking down the old one I moved them here.

Across the Dunes A desktop background made in Adobe Photoshop portraying the dunes around Monterey Bay in California. For more about this image, visit the page on the Digital Artwork Gallery. 1024 x 768

Apricots and Creamy Lemons This humorous wallpaper depicts, as the title suggests, apricots and creamy lemons. In the foreground is a spoon with "lemon cream" in it. A classic background to lift your spirits on a gloomy day! 1024 x 768

Blue Midnight A classic desktop background featuring a lake at midnight. This wallpaper was inspired by the rock ballad jazz song,Blue Midnight composed by Larry Neeck. 1024 x 768  1280 x 1024

Country Road A desktop background made in Adobe Photoshop portraying roads seen in areas such as Fort Ord, California. For more about this image, visit the page on the Digital Artwork Gallery. 1024 x 768

The Spider A close-up image of a spider on a web at night. This photo was taken with flash on a camera's Macro setting. This background is perfect for the current Halloween season. Show off your spirit! 1024 x 768

Pimpin' Batman

I finally got around to uploading Malcolm's Batman rap. He recorded it Friday and Saturday at Chawanakee and told me to put it up on YouTube. I strung the two clips together with some background music and titles that Malcolm told me to put on.

Enjoy the random video.

Eggplant Panini Sandwiches

These warm Italian sandwiches are great for lunch or dinner.

Ingredients
• 1 medium loaf of selected french bread
(we used an asagio cheese loaf)
• 1 small eggplant, sliced
• ½ cup egg whites (Egg-Beaters brand)
• 1 cup italian bread crumbs
• Shredded Italian cheese
(we used Trader Joe's Quattro Formaggio, a mixture of provolone, fontina, asagio, and parmesan.)
• 1 large tomato, sliced
• 1 bunch fresh basil
• Butter or cooking spray for broiling

Preparation
• Pour egg whites into a small bowl, and bread crumbs into a second small bowl.
• Bread the eggplant slices by dipping both sides in egg, then in bread crumbs.
• Broil on high on both sides until the bread crumbs are a golden brown.
• Slice the bread into 12 slices and place on a cookie sheet. Spray with cooking spray or spread on butter.
• Add a slice of breaded eggplant to each slice. Sprinkle cheese on top of the eggplant slices.
• Broil on high until bread is toasted but not burnt.
• Add a tomato slice and basil leaves to every other slice, and make the ones without these additions the lids of the sandwiches. Serve while still warm.

Makes 6 sandwiches.