Casa de mi Padre (2012)

I cannot even begin to describe this brilliantly funny movie that stars Will Ferrell.  How twisted is this movie whose dialogue is entirely in Spanish -- including Ferrell who speaks Spanish the entire time so I was stuck watching the goofball with English subtitles.  The props?  The mountains are fake, the lagoon shot inside a studio, most driving scenes with a screen projecting moving landscape, all interleaved with real shot on site sequences.  What is funny is the way the director pokes fun at the whole process of integrating fake scene shots with real scene shots non-seamlessly, on purpose of course.  The fake white lion (or some kind of cat) is awesome.  Robert Rodriguez meets bad SNL sketch equal pure fun!

Hike #11 - Mt. Rubidoux

As summer vacation winds down, I decided to take the kids to Mt Rubidoux just so they don't get tired of the mountain trails in the Angeles National Forest.  I've been here only once before -- actually riding from Rancho Cucamonga to the top and I figured the kids might enjoy it.  Not the traditional trail hike but 3 miles of paved walking, traffic closed to cars and mostly pedestrians and cyclist.

On the east side of the mountain are all these prickly pear cacti growing wild.  On the background is the City of Riverside, with several buildings from the University of California Riverside very visible from the top.  Up here, I really get a good perspective of Riverside and surrounding cities.

At the top, we crossed a small ridge to get a good view of the City of Corona and the Santa Ana hills in the distance.  We explored the top a bit -- walked to the Serra Cross (after the Franciscan Junipero Serra) and the whole time, I was wondering there's really quite a bit of history on this little hill.  As with last week, we consumed all our water by the time we got to the top and it can't cool down soon enough in the IE.  I can only do so many of these hikes in 90 deg heat.

Egg Roll Express, Pasadena

BBQ pork fried rice, steamed dumplings and wonton soup.  300 steps from the front door of our old Pasadena home.  The kids' nanny, Liliana took them here as early as 2003 for lunch.  We hardly ate inside but alway got take-out.  Not the best Chinese food but the convenience is hard to beat.  Egg Roll Express on Washington Boulevard is next to our other local place, Domenico's Italian.  The kids and I stopped by Egg Roll Express on Thursday after an afternoon at Universal Studios.  It was nostalgic being in here and ordering, guess what?  BBQ pork fried rice, steamed dumplings and wonton soup.

Hike #10 - Mt Wilson Trail, Sierra Madre

I did not intend to hike the Mt. Wilson Trail last Sunday but it was the closest hike to Chantry Flats in Arcadia -- which was so packed I could not even find parking for a mile down the road.  The last time I  hiked from Chantry Flats, there was hardly anyone up there.  Is it because everyone wants to go to Sturtevant Falls?  Has Arcadia grown so much?

As summer winds down, I do wonder if the kids will want to keep on doing these hikes.  We're on track to complete 13 different hikes during their 11-week summer vacation.  We're lucky to have so many trails all within 30 miles of home in Rancho Cucamonga.

It was the hottest hike we've done.  Around 2pm in Sierra Madre, it was 90 degrees and we ran out of drinking water just as we got to our destination -- First Water (sign below) -- which is 1.6 miles from the start of the trail.  Given the extreme heat, that's all we can handle that day.  First Water is just a stream where we played around for a bit but were not able to drink any water.  There was a sign that said Bear Spring - Good Water but we didn't want to take that risk.

July 20, 2012

Will never forget this day.  I heard President Obama around 715am on the radio about some shooting in Colorado.  Aurora, a suburb of Denver the report said.  It's not any typical Friday.  A dozen dead.  Another 55 wounded.  Shot.  I know people who live in Aurora and throughout the metro Denver area.   I've travel on business to Aurora.  The kids wanted to see The Dark Knight Returns.  As a parent, you hope you raise your children to be incapable of this terrible act of violence.  As a parent, you hope your kids do not suffer the same fate to a similar random act of violence.  Four legal guns purchase in the last 2 months.  If this doesn't change the way this country deals with guns, I don't know what will.  But there will be other days for politics, President Obama said in his speech.  Sad.  The country will never be the same again.  Very sad.

The Enlightened Cyclist

One of the funnier books I've read on cycling culture.  Even though I understand road racing, there's a whole world of the two-wheeled life that I don't even come close to understanding.  Bike Snob NYC provides an insight into the strange subculture of commuters, hipsters, fixies, cars vs bikes, bikes vs bikes, etc.

Island On The Mainland

Besides Mai Tai's, this is the only other drink I consume when I'm in the islands.  My regular stores, Vons, Ralphs, Trader Joe's or Fresh N Easy do not carry anything from the Kona Brewing Co.  Last night, I went into the Bev Mo in Rancho Cucamonga looking for some other brew (looking for Endless Summer which I haven't seen anywhere else but from a truck I was following on the 405 freeway).  Didn't find Endless Summer but I did find these Kona Brewing Co. lager and ale six packs -- at a sale price of $7.99 each.  That is less than what I paid in Kapaa 3 weeks ago so I was pretty stoked!  I should really go back to Bev Mo and get a few more of these.  Beats a 5-hour plane ride to the 808 state.