Last night Beth and I drove out to the UCB theatre to see a show. But on our way our route was blocked by hundreds of bicycles coming down Fairfax.
They just kept coming. The light would change but no one would stop. It was just a huge mass of cyclists. For a good 10 to 15 minutes I think.
What the heck was that?
So I posted about these eggs I found that were from New Zealand. I bought them because their package stated that they didn’t trim beaks. A few people complained to me for buying eggs from so far away. Yes I know, that’s why I made a mention of it in my post.
I want to buy local eggs. When I lived in Kailua I usually bought my eggs at my local farmer’s market or traded bread for eggs with my friends who owned laying hens. Trust me, local eggs is my ultimate goal. But I also believe in voting with my wallet, so if a company is going to not trim beaks, they have earned my support. So I bought their eggs.
Where I live now there is a farmers market. But I have not made it yet. It’s on Sunday mornings. And so far I haven’t woken up and remembered it. It’s a new habit I have to get into.
But I also wanted to try a CSA. I had heard about www.farmfreshtoyou.com from a friend of a friend. So I gave them a try. I went with delivery every other week to start.
Yesterday I got my first delivery.
I came home and a box was waiting for me by my door. This is what I got:
Pretty sweet huh.
Now I’m not saying it’s perfect. There are CSAs that come from closer farms.
But FFTY is very convenient by the fact that they deliver to my door.
Most local CSAs have pick up locations, in fact one even uses the farmers market as a pickup location. But as I’ve admitted I have yet to make it there on a regular basis. My schedule is a bit irregular so I might not always have the opportunity to make my pick up. However I will always go home at the end of the day. And waiting there will by my box.
Also they are customizable. You can request to just get fruit or just vegetables. You can ask to not get a specific type of food.
Personally my only complaint was that my tomatoes were cold. I assume everything rides together in the refrigeration truck. So tomatoes may suffer a loss of flavor from being too cold. But because I can customize, I can just that request no tomatoes be in my box. And get my tomatoes from my local farmers market or my backyard.
As I had mentioned earlier I went to Los Cabos for my cousin’s wedding.
My mom and I flew in a few days early to explore the area. 
This shark was hanging outside a restaurant that was closed. 
As I got closer to take a picture I noticed that a bird had nested in its mouth. 
This is from a series of bilingual cards. 
I guess it’s a way for children to learn Spanish. Except for this one. This one does not teach anything. Because that is clearly not a horse. So if the guy really is a horsebreaker, he’s in trouble. But I usually root for the lion anyway.
This is me at the urinal where we stopped for lunch. Well we didn’t stop AT THE URINAL. The urinal was in the restroom, in the restaurant, where we stopped for lunch. (Whew!)
A more pressing question is who took this picture while I’m at the urinal and what I had to do to get it from him?
P.S. I’m the captain.
While trolling through Whole Foods I always take a long pause at the egg section. There are just so many varieties to choose from it’s hard to figure out which is the best choice. But this time I found a new one. 
Now I know New Zealand is a long ways away for eggs to travel, which means it takes a lot of petroleum to get them to my fridge. But for the first time in all of my egg-buying years I saw this:
Sold.
P.S. Here’s something else I discovered. The stone fruits that are underneath, tend to be riper than those on top.
Of course it’s risky to remove them because of, you know, gravity. But who doesn’t love Jenga?
P.P.S. Like how I used the word “stone fruits?”
I’ve been going through stuff at my parents’ house. And I came across my old checkers game. 
It was a birthday gift from one of my classmates when I was in third grade (I think). You’ll notice that I lost one of the darker pieces. 
So to compensate I added a Millennium Falcon eraser. 
Something is up with my camera. Sometimes it holds my pictures hostage.
Case in point: I was in New York last May. And one night I hung out with Scott Adsit and his girlfriend, Sandra. We took a picture in the street. Later when I turned on my camera, I discovered that this picture was the only picture on my camera. (This scared me because I had other pictures on that camera and someone had specifically told me not to lose those pictures.) And now they were gone.
I turned my camera off and then on again. The pictures were back. All of them. That is except for the picture with Scott. I plugged my camera into my computer. Again all of the picture were there except that one. Periodically I’d turn on my camera and it would show me the picture. But whenever I went to unload new pictures it was nowhere to be found.
I took a picture of the screen on my camera because it looked like that pic would be trapped there (like Zod in the Phantom Zone) forever.
Eventually I did get the picture off. I waited for it to resurface, I plugged in the camera while it was still taunting me with it, and presto. 
I think I’m going to retire that camera.
Okay I probably should have posted this one BEFORE the last one. But that’s nine. Count ’em nine bonnets de douche. Which I used to make that bread I just showed you.
(For those who have no clue what I mean: bread-making-tip-one-shower-caps.)
I know I can buy them. I know I own tons of ’em already. But taking them from hotel rooms just makes the bread taste better.
Needless to say it’s tough returning to Los Angeles after everything has ended.
But as a symbol of my slow return to normalcy I baked my first bread on the mainland. It turned out beautifully. And I had to do it with measuring cups because I didn’t have a scale. (Although I just bought one today.)
All of my bread books are in storage. I might have to just go buy a second copy of Jim Lahey’s My Bread, because I don’t know if I can just wing it for the next few months until I find a place. I guess I could give it away when I break my other one out of jail. But the thing is, I write in my cookbooks. The recipes have dates and notes around them from when I tried them before. I kinda like keeping a record like that.
On a separate note, I just received a letter from the Hawaiian Humane Society with the names of about forty people who made donations in Nunu’s honor. I can’t tell you how good it makes me feel that you honored her memory in that way. Mahalo nui loa.
More on that later. But I just had to share this picture with you.
It’s a Nativity Set made up entirely of Mariachis. Pretty sweet.
Further Dispatches 