visit with the Drummond-Joshis

 Wendi & Rasesh and the kids came to visit recently.  What fun!  Of course, Taran had a good time rockin' out in the studio (he even wore his rocker-jeans).  I love this photo, despite the fact that you can't see his face head-on, because you can appreciate how he's belting out his tunes.

 Taran felt equally comfortable playing the "guitar" as he did sitting behind the drums.  Multitalented guy!  He also was confident in directing his "band" -- telling Tom, me and Wendi which instruments to play for which songs.  hehehe.

 Angilee (sorry if I'm mis-spelling!) is growing quickly and learning all kinds of new skills.  She's already adept at crawling, and I suspect it won't be long before she's cruising... She's really gorgeous.  I had a hard time picking from the couple of dozen pictures I snapped.

Pfost Big Rack Red

Now I've done it.  I have been talking about brewing
beer since I moved to Colorado but found that the
number of great breweries close has kept me busy
until now.  Brewing beer in the Boulder area is like 
having a subaru with a ski rack and a dog inside: 
Everyone does it.  So I slowly amassed the equipment
needed and a few weeks ago brewed my first beer.
I must say it was pretty easy; If you know your
way around the kitchen and have some experience
with yeast it's really no problem.  The brew store
makes it easy by having ingredient kits for
the more popular beers at the ready. 
This is an amber with some extra hops in the
secondary and I am very pleased with the
result. Super drinkable with a nice malt and
citrus balance.  The second brew is already started,
A scottish brown.  Yummm.

Padres vs Dodgers

Since baseball season opened the week that we were in San Diego, we decided to take in a game.  The Dodgers (boo!) were in town to play the Padres.  Unfortunately, the Padres got their hineys handed to them on a silver platter!
But the evening was nice, the new (to us) ballpark was great, and we had really good seats (2nd row, between 3rd base and left field).
I was also amused at the Budweiser slogan.  I think the "grab some buds" could be interpreted in more than one way....

walking in La Jolla

 When we visit Sherry & Mike, we typically take a daily walk along the beach in Pacific Beach (which we love).

 This time, just for some variety, they took us up to La Jolla, to the Seal Rock area.  We hadn't been there for several years, so it was nice to see.

 As you can see, the weather was perfect (as usual) -- so we enjoyed the lazy afternoon.  I think the seals were enjoying the lazy afternoon, too!

BBQ day

 While we were in San Diego, Mike & Sherry's new BBQ arrived (like everything else in life, ordered on Amazon -- of course).  Tom & Sherry spent the morning putting it together...

 And wasted no time trying it out.

 Success!  We had a wonderful lunch of grilled vegetables and home-made sausage.  YUM.

more extraordinary cooking from Sherry

Sherry cooked us a wonderful meal with chicken that was essentially poached: Hainanese chicken & rice.  It is a speciality of Singapore.  We'd never had anything like it -- very moist & succulent, but the skin, of course, was not at all crispy.  A very different texture, indeed.

funniest photos

 One of the "border businesses" that still thrives is the pharmacy trade -- because the prices for medications in the U.S. are so ridiculous.  I thought this "House Pharmacy" was hysterical!

 Although many of the nudy bars are gone -- they're not completely extinct... I would suggest that you click on this photo and look at the marquee sign carefully.

I was disappointed that I covered part of the lens with my finger... but you get the idea of this photo.  I think I'll propose to my boss that Kaiser should send me to Mexico once every 3 months to purchase medications for our region.  I'll get a nice trip, and we'll erase our budget problems in no time!

lunch in Mexico

 Fortunately, the food in Tijuana has not changed: it is fantastic!  We stopped at two different places for all kinds of goodies -- tacos, empenadas, tortas, etc.  Delicious.

catching up on our trip to San Diego

 Tom and I recently returned from a great trip to San Diego.  One of our best days was going down to Tijuana with Mike and Sherry, to go to a "locals" market.

 Tijuana is nothing the way I remember from college.  Apparently, in 2008 things really changed -- due to a combination of the H1N1 flu epidemic, the general economic downturn, and the new requirements to actually have/show one's passport at re-entry.

 The net result is far less tourism.  I suspect this is both good and bad... There are clearly far less bars & far less begging right at the border.  I suspect there is far less daily traffic of liquor, cuban cigars, etc. across the border.  Certainly their retailers have suffered; many of the shops have closed -- it appears, permanently.

 The nice part is that what's left is far more "real."  We enjoyed poking around the market for several hours.  I've never seen so many delicious looking chillies in one place!  I really wanted to buy some of the mole pastes, but I feared that the TSA would consider this a "liquid," and not let me bring back more than 3 oz to Colorado (so I didn't buy any).