I had a student randomly stop by my office today. She observed that I appear to have gotten a lot of sun. More precisely, she said, "I'm used to you looking pasty." Thanks.
But she's right that I did get a lot of sun over the last week. The California vacation started off with a stop in San Diego. But I didn't get sun there. I spent the day indoors playing board games. I can now add "Titan" to the list of games that I've played. Apparently, it's a classic game from the early 80s. It's another one of those games that lasts a very long time. The back of the box says that it takes two to twelve hours to play (and has 800+ pieces). I think our game lasted about 5 hours.
I spent a day in San Diego and headed up to Long Beach to hang out with Justin and Janet. And as an added bonus, Katie joined us for dinner (Greek restaurant). And as a bonus upon the bonus, she brought Dominion and we got to play a couple games of that. Now there are more people in this world who know that game and enjoy it.
The next day, I got on a boat to head to CBS. This year, there was a much larger faculty contingent. I think it was about twice as big as last year.
A few quick highlights:
* A 7.5 mile hike into Avalon (that's where I got most of my sun)
* Learning how to change a diaper (though there was no hands-on application of said lesson -- thankfully)
* Presenting a session (which went pretty well)
* Hanging out with friends (both presently and formerly from both Las Vegas and San Diego)
Upon my return to the dock, I received a series of delayed texts (there's no cell phone access at CBS) and discovered that life-changing changes happened while I was gone. The last of the kids being born into the small group (in this cycle) was born. Exciting times!
I spent one more evening in Long Beach. We had a quick cooking adventure. We wanted to have a dessert of some sort, so we started with the concept of cocoa powder and ended up with chocolate custard served in a pastry cup with chocolate whipped cream. It was quite tasty and quite fun to just go with the ideas that came up. I have to admit that the chocolate whipped cream idea was stolen from a friend, although the proportions I used were completely made up (and cannot be replicated because I just dumped in the cocoa powder and powdered sugar, so I just don't know how much I used).
The drive home was an adventure in itself. I can now say that I've had a catastrophic blowout in the middle of the desert. And by catastrophic, I mean that it was a full zipper blowout all the way around the circumference of the tire. Both me and my car came out uninjured (I followed the safe protocol of NOT slamming on the brakes). There was a comedic element to the blowout. As I was driving, I started to hear a humming from the front left of the car. It was fairly loud for just road noise, and seemed like it was getting louder, so I started to have a conversation with myself: "If this noise continues, I'll pull over at the next exi...*FOOM*... I think I'll pull over right now." So I pulled over somewhere around here:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=35.396887,-115.816154&hl=en&ll=35.308401,-115.328979&spn=1.266336,2.705383&sll=35.406961,-115.7547&sspn=0.158102,0.338173&t=h&z=9
It's approximately 80 miles out of Las Vegas. The good news is that my AAA membership gave me 100 miles of free towing, because I'd rather not ride a donut for 80 miles on I-15. So after a relatively short wait (30-45 minutes), my car was loaded up on a tow truck and I was once again heading home. I had a good (and interesting) conversation with him. Apparently, he drives to and from Baker about 3-4 times a day, picking up people like me (and not like me). I asked him about his more interesting rides, and I guess women would rather have sex with a stranger than pay him a few hundred bucks for a tow. Also, he's picked up his fair share of cross-dressers ("high heels, legs, tits, and an Adam's apple that sticks out to *here*." -- Only on the road to Vegas?) He values an education, even though he doesn't have one, which he wants to instill into his two daughters who are approaching college age in a few years. He also works 6 days a week, often running 14-16 hour days, plus he's on call. His desire is to just get a regular job working regular hours after he gets his daughters to college. Interesting guy.
To close this portion of my vacation, I got to spend an afternoon at a pool party with a bunch of 4th/5th graders. I got to grill food (burgers and hot dogs), which for me is a way to add fun to the party. Hanging out with the screaming kids wasn't nearly as bad as one might imagine it would be (in reality, I had a great time). No drownings or injuries probably helps. I got slightly burnt shoulders, which gives my back a tri-color complexion.
The fun is almost over. I don't expect to get much more sun from here on out. I've got to get back into the working mentality and finish typing up some notes and taking care of a few other things.
