Sunday started nicely with some good surf in Encinitas, and a good breakfast burrito in a little dive on the coast highway.   It was  brought down a bit by the realization that Spinnner’s wedding ring was apparantly lost in the ocean during the session.  We then consoled ourselves over the loss with a relaxing drive home through the back county on Via de la Valle and the Del Dios Highway, admiring all the bright colors on the side of the road.  Just wanted to reach out the window and grab a handful.

Plants in north county are looking pretty dry after days of 100+ degree heat, bringing back lots of memories of Firestorm 07, but those cyclists looked plenty hydrated, and so pretty in the varying hues of lycra.   Mmmm, nap time until we meet some friends for pizza this afternoon.

Trying to get caught up on some things now that the antibiotics from that little attack of diverticulitis are clearing out of my system.  The big summer project, an online homework site for Randy’s class (and potentially others) seems to have survived the first stress test of 32 demanding ten-year-olds, but they’ve exposed a few cracks the beta testers missed, and the scaling now that there are a few thousand homework responses in the database is showing some trending on my server usage that I want to work on.  This was my first large database project from scratch, and I learned a lot, but am definitely still learning.

The morning walk, when 400 or so pounds of humans are pulled around the neighborhood by a 20-pound furball, is usually the zen part of the morning. Fresh air, a bit of chat, a little stretching of the legs and a lot of calm. Nod to the early risers, let the ladies of our local Curves fawn over Diego, check out the occasional cute jogger as appropriate and keep an eye peeled for Walks of Shame.  Good for the soul, all that.

This morning though the manager of a Kindercare here in the neighborhood interrupted the bliss (and her own posting of another eyesore sign) to ask us to keep Diego off her precious patch of grass. Just a tad peeved that the woman who keeps a multi-year supply of used cigarette butts on the sidewalk ten feet north of her little fiefdom decided to upset my balance on the assumption we wouldn’t clean up after our dog.  Not a good way to start the day at all.

Randy’s in class all weekend, and I’ve got a bit of cabin fever after convalescing all week, so I drove over to Oceanside this morning with the camera.  

I was expecting some quiet time on the pier with a cup of cocoa and maybe a chance to snap a few surf shots.

Instead I stumbled onto the 33rd Annual World Bodysurfing Championships, which I watched for way too long. Just another reason why I love living in Southern California.

Doing much better, and currently enjoying my first attempt to caffeinate since Monday (five days ago).  It tastes like metallic sludge, but then again everything tastes like metallic sludge due to my antibiotics.  At least it smells like good coffee.  Maybe after nearly thirty years of addiction I’m finally to the point where a scratch and sniff picture of coffee would be enough to trigger a Pavlovian response or release some of the accumulated residue from my cells back into my bloodstream.  Somehow I doubt it would work long-term, but it sure would save a lot of time and dishes in the morning.

Not as cool as the scene in Re-Animator where the reanimated intestines reached out and tried to kill people, but my intestines seem to have made a power play over the weekend.  I think their efforts at global domination were nipped in the bud, but expect some high-as-a-kite posts during Diverticulitis II: The Wrath of the Colon, playing this week at Casa.

This year’s Howling Point Invitational Slackathalon has entered the final sprint stage with a special arts week.  Last week Spinner saw Spamalot in LA while seminaring on someone else’s dime.  Tuesday we’re going to see Wicked at the Civic here in San Diego.

Tonight was about the local arts though.  A friend of Spinner’s choreographed part of the Mojalet Dance Collective’s Summer Sundays show, and we drove down to The Vine in Rancho Bernardo to show our support.  It was a great show, and Heather’s segment certainly rocked, but I have to admit I was particularly struck by a modern blend of dance and yoga postures set to Miles Davis’  jazz and called Modern Meditation.  Their flexibility was just a little unnatural, and kinda scary, but the piece was fascinating and exciting to watch.

As part of the UC’s Great Slide to Mediocrity, UC Irvine has axed five sports programs: men’s and women’s rowing, men’s and women’s swimming and diving, and sailing.

I haven’t seen their swimming and diving team in years (this didn’t include their water polo program), but their rowing crews were regulars in San Diego, particularly at the Crew Classic.  They will be missed.

We’ve had young pandas here before, but never like this.