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The Riverside City Council Regatta and BBQ went well today. It was a fundraiser for the City Councilmemeber’s favorite charity and the Riverside Community Sailing Program. Eric and Jacob were a great help for the event. They helped get the boats in the water and set up. Then they went out and placed the marker buoy’s for the race. I was surprised to see Eric piloting the boat. I could not figure out how that happened other that I let him pilot a small boat for a few minutes on a fishing trip a couple of years ago. I guess I forgot, teenagers know everthing, including how to drive cars and boats.
 Placing markers for the race The Councilpersons boarded their boats and waited for the countdown from six minutes until it was time to sail over the start line. They sailed around in circles waiting there time. There was some heckling from the dock. One councilperson commented, “With all this hot air on the lake, I would not be surprised to see a hurricane.”
 Councilperson's waiting to start They were off. A couple crosses the line early and had to circle back. There was ripple by ripple announcements of their position. They made it to the first buoy and were soon into the second leg of the race.
 Sailing through the secong leg of the race Soon enough the council members finished and were on the way back in.
 Sailing back to the dock After the award was given out – a perpetual award with a yellow rubber ducky on it – we started cleaning up. Of course before that happened, Jacob and I went out. I sailed out teaching him a little. We switched position which was a little tricky and then he sailed back. He began to get the feel of where the sail, the boat and the tiller needed to be to keep wind in the sail.
 Kell's Original Hemp Blend in Amber and Old Spice
For today’s shave I wanted to prepare for the Riverside City Council Regatta and BBQ. I decided to grab Kell’s Original Hemp Blend Handcrafted Shaving Soap in the fragrance of Amber. I used my Simpson Chubby 1 brush which worked great with the Kell’s soap. The fragrance was nice. As for hemp, hemp rope was used on sailing ships from very early time. As or the soap, it is Kell’s special blend with hemp seed oil. So a little sailing theme with a little hemp seed oil in honor of old ships and their hemp ropes.
Shaving was smooth with the soap. After the shave I had to break out the Old Spice for the finish. Every bottle of after save comes out in the hand a little differently. As for today, I had a liberal dousing of Old Spice.
We were off for an adventure in LA on Tuesday night. We stopped at Carl’s Jr to learn a little about physics. If you try to eat the Six Dollar Jalapeno Cheese burger you will not be able to finish your fries. From there it was off to the observatory to learn a little more.
As we arrived there was a little crisis. Eric could not get cell phone coverage. Then there was celebration, he had coverage. Another 40 feet and he did not have coverage. It seemed to be one of the topics of discussion all evening. While the discussion of cell phone reception was being bantered about, I was admiring the architecture. I really liked the painted ceiling when we entered the observatory.
 The Ballin Ceiling Mural at Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles One of the first stops was the Dark Side of the Moon. Eric and Michale were caught on camera studying the dark side of the moon. Perhaps they were looking for Pink Floyd?
 Can you find Mr. Floyd on the Dark Side of this Moon? The next stop was for the boys to spend a little time with Albert. I was hoping something would rub off on Eric. His excitement was overwhelming. After Albert we went to a display of the planets in the solar system. Below each planet was a place to weigh yourself with the gravitational pull of that planet. Some scales were nicer than others.
 Rubbing shoulders with Mr. Eienstien After a few more exhibits, the place to look was the periodic table. In each box was an example of the ore, or natural state of the element and the refined state. I was disappointed that there was no Californium. Of course Eric caught that they were missing the Plutonium as well.
 It is all Elemental Next was the large Tesla Coil. It buzzes and shot out some good lighting like zaps. The boys had fun watching it.
 Tesla Coil From there it was up to the roof to get a look through the telescope. On the way up the roof Michael was taking a picture of the city so I took a picture of him taking a picture.
 LA Once to the telescope, the planet for the night was Jupiter. We learned about some of the moons of Jupiter and then looked through the telescope. It was amazing to see the striations on the planet, a planet that was so far away. After Jupiter – we were back on our way home.
 Musgo Real - shaving cream and after shave I have always liked the Musgo Real Orange Amber after shave. The Musgo Real shaving cream has been sitting on the shelf for a couple of months. Today, it was time to break it out and give it a try. A small amount in the palm of my hand and I began working up a lather. Next i continued the process on my face, adding small amounts of water as the lather continued to build. The fragrance of the shaving cream is pleasant. It made its way into a rich thick lather which is accomplished with the natural base of lanolin and glycerin. It was one slick shave as the Dove razor made quick work. Of course, I finished off with the Musgo Real Orange Amber after shave. It was a great shave.
Some days there are things that make you laugh. Some times they are paired with serious events. This past week my sweetheart received her certificate and watch for being an employee of the State of California for 25 years. Congratulations to her for that achievement. The watch is nice and has the Seal of the State of California on it.
Now for the funny part – the watch came in a nice leather case that was packaged in a box. On the box there was this sticker that said, “WARNING: Contents of this package contain chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm. Only in California there would first be the law that you needed to tell everyone that a certain chemical or material can cause cancer. Of course they had a liberal list of substances. That liberal list also included the material the 25 year watch was made out of. Only in California . . .
 California and the Seal of cancer
Several weeks ago the boys in Crew 6 planned out things that they wanted to do. They like food and the topic of Gourmet Cooking came up. I am game, there is no reason why they should not learn a little about cooking and enjoy eating. The first meeting where they cooked they made hot wings. They turned out great. They said that they should have been hotter. Next time they will know that they need to kick it up a notch or two.
In the last meeting the boys wanted to make pizza. Pizza is simple and also can be very technical. I went on a shopping trip to obtain the ingredients that were requested as well as a few extras.
For great pizza, one needs a good foundation. I started with my favorite pizza dough recipe from The Complete Book of Pizza by Louise Love. She has many great recipes in her book.
One thing about any yeast dough, rise times are all relative. How active your yeast is, the temperature of the dough, the ambient air temperature. The dough rose quicker than I had estimated. I punched it down and estimated that it would rise again before we started rolling out the dough.
There is always a teaching moment to be found. I grabbed the generic Pizza Seasoning and packed it for the trip to where we meet. I also went to the garden and clipped some herbs. A little look, feel and smell or the fresh herbs as compared to what was dry and in the bottle is always helpful to a better understanding herbs and their use. To my surprise a couple of the boys could name a couple of them.
 Herbs- clockwise from upper left - marjoram, , thyme, sage, cinnamon basil, sweet basil, oregano and rosemary The boys started by forming their dough. They each had a 12 inch pizza tin. The adults had the 16 inch pizza tin. The boys went for a thicker crust and the adults went for that thin crust look.
We let the dough rest as we grated cheese and cut up the other items that were going to be used as toppings. We had several items for them to choose from: basil, garlic, hot Italian sausage, Italian brown mushrooms, Japanese eggplant, olives, onion, pepperoni and finally peppers of the green bell, red and jalapeno varieties.
 Pizza before the cheese is added Decorating the pizza or choosing what went on them was the next step. Eric used pepperoni to create a smiley face. He added some mushrooms, jalapeno and Japanese eggplant for other facial features. Michael went for a mounded look with lots of onion, garlic bell peppers and other goodies. We grated some fresh Parmesan cheese on top and the pies were ready for the oven.
They came out wonderful and they were quickly eaten.
 Finished pizza  Close up of the finished pizza
At work a few of us are excited to see lunch time come. We quickly eat lunch and then head outside. As for the lunch itself, I have learned to subsist on Lean Cuisine and other sub 350 calorie lunches. This type of lunch does two things. One, I have lost 10 pounds in the last month. I want to lose more and I do not think it will be a problem. Secondarily, it does not take much time to consume low calorie meals.
As for the outdoor activities, some of the people go for a walk and a couple of us throw a little lead down range. This activity has been a lot of fun. I started out with a CO2 powered BB gun that was fairly accurate at 25 feet. It is a blast to shoot and a good way to work on sight picture and trigger control. I have seen an improvement at the range and going through 1,500 BB’s is much less expensive.
 Smith and Wesson M&P lookalike BB gun As with many things in life, there is always more. Soon a RWS LP8 break barrel high velocity air pistol in .177 caliber was in hand. If that was not enough, Sheridan C9 pump – Blue Streak – pellet rifle was throwing lead, .20 caliber lead to be exact. Things really get going with the Benjamin Discovery PCP rifle in .22 caliber More will be written on each of these later. We have moved back to 50 feet and the evidence of fun is shown below.
I was given a sample of Edwin Jagger Premium Shaving Cream in the fragrance of Sea Buckthorn. I decided to try it out. I stropped up the Dovo razor in preparation for the test. I dampened my face and badger hair brush and proceeded to get a little of the Sea Buckthorn shaving cream on the brush. As I applied it to my face, I noted that the fragrance was pleasant and that it lathered up quickly. As I used the Dovo razor, it slid nicely across my skin taking with it whiskers as it went by.
The shave was good. I like the fragrance and the lather which the Edwin Jagger shaving cream produced. I applied a liberal amount of Penhaligons’s English Fern to finish the shave off.
We have a Raccoon problem in our neighborhood. There have been a few around for years, but it seems to have multiplied in the past few months. The trash cans get knocked over more often and vegetables get eaten out of the garden.
 Raccoon Devastation Last night I received a call from a neighbor to come outside. I did and he had me look up in the tree in front of our house. Behold, it was a momma raccoon and two infants. The neighbor’s dog started barking and the raccoons ran up the tree. Now when a raccoon is up a tree in some parts of the country, it comes down heaver than it went t up. The fact that my trash cans get knocked over all the time, the thought crossed my mind.
Then Eric came out, assessed the situation and went back in to get his gloves and a hoodie. He wanted to climb the tree. We helped him up to the crotch of the tree, which is about 15 feet up. He climbed a little farther, but he figured out that there was no way to get closer. We took his picture and you can see the reflection of the eyes of the raccoons.
 Eric up a tree being watched by Racoons
Technology is a wonderful thing. As I was working on sending out a mass emailing to almost 500 people regarding an upcoming scout training, I was sitting behind my desktop computer and had my laptop on my left. Both were up and running and I did a few different things. I went into the living room to find Eric on one computer, Jacob on the Linux box I just put together and Emily sitting at the table with her laptop. They were all on Facebook working intently on their farms. When it got late and I wanted to go to bed, they promised not to talk but to instant message each other through their Facebook accounts.
Today, Jacob is not feeling well. I sat with him in his room and watched a lifetime of Sponge Bob. He decided to work on his farm so I brought him my laptop. He is farming and I let him know that I would be taking care of other things. He barely can talk and he called me back to his room. He wanted to let me know that he would IM me on Facebook if he needed me. Then again, how is this not different from a phone call from a child’s cell phone to my cell phone when the child is 50 feet away in another room? I just love the call, “Dad, I am hungry. What is there to eat?”
Today was the first scheduled day of sailing for the Riverside Community Sailing Program. Three of us showed up and two of us put a boat in the water. There was a gentle breeze with an occasional sustained gust that would get us moving. It was great to get out and have fun.
 Sailing at Fairmont Park  Sailing at Fairmont Park
Almost every weekend I grab my sourdough starter from the refrigerator on Saturday, feed it well and wait until Sunday to make some pancakes. For starter I have used 1847 Oregon Trail Sourdough Starter for many years. For many years Carl Griffith shared his starter and it is now shared by his friends. They also share their recipes and pictures of their creations on Carl Griffith’s Sourdough page.
As for the pancakes, I have been using the same recipe for a long time. It is simple and uses basic chemistry. You take 2 cups of sourdough starter at room temperature, a culture where you have your yeast creating carbon dioxide bubbles and some acid. You add 2 tablespoons of sugar and the yeast get real happy. Then comes the 4 tablespoons of olive oil, one egg and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. I let this sit for a minute before I add in the final ingredient. An elixir of 1 tablespoon of warm water with one teaspoon of baking soda. The first step is putting the baking soda in the water and letting it sit. The last step is to carefully fold the elixir into the batter and let it bubble and foam for a minute or two. If everything is happy, the acid in the sourdough mixture reacts with the baking soda to create more carbon dioxide. This is only enhanced as the batter is carefully poured on a 400 degree griddle. Nothing like light airy pancakes. Happy pancake day as we had pancakes for dinner. And yes, a few even had peanut butter on them with real maple syrup tonight.
Updated to fix broken links 7/23/2013
 Arlington Today is another Arlington day. The Dr. Harris Co. Ltd fragrance of Arlington is wonderful. It is one of my favorites. A couple of days ago I used the Arlington saving soap and today I used the shave stick. Again I noticed that it lathered well. I used the Akro stick yesterday and did not get the same lather as I am today with the Arlington shaving stick.
With all the wonderful lather I shaved my neck as well. I find it much easier to shave my neck with a straight razor as opposed to one with a handle. The geometry is better. Then again, the shave with the straight razor is better than any modern razor I have tried. As for the final touches, a liberal dousing of the Arlington aftershave was required.
As the sun was setting I was putting dirt back in the hole created for the new plumbing. I ran through the sprinkler timer for each zone and they work. Put some water on the roses and other vegetation that had not received water in a couple of months. It is amazing what a simple project to replace on valve turns into. It alwasy costs four times as much and takes four times as long.
 No leaks
I thought I would start a simple project of replacing a broken sprinkler valve. The new valve did not fit because it required more space between the pipe that came into the valve and the one that left the valve. Then in the process, I broke a pipe from another valve. It was also evident that another valve was leaky and should be replaced. Hey it was only a matter of time and they all would need to be replaced. So, it was off to Home Depot to get parts at nine and once back home it was time to work. However, I came in from the heat after 2 to take a break and to learn that it was 104 degrees outside. I thought it felt warm. The children never stayed long when they came out to visit. I will be staying inside until it cools off a few degrees. More later . . .
 Leaky and broken
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