Boston Marathon

Posted April 15, 2013 by joebowker
Categories: Boston
Tags: ,

I know what the finish line of the marathon is like. I’ve never run the marathon and most likely never will. But, I’ve been at the finish line many times. Most recently ten years ago when our son Mike ran Boston for the third and final time.

The New York Times wrote an editorial this afternoon that captures a part of how I feel.

A marathon is the most unifying of sporting events. The city that shows up to cheer on thousands of runners doesn’t really know or care much about who wins; there are no sides to root for or against. Those who stand on the sidelines — as they have done in Boston since 1897 — come to celebrate runners from around the world. The country or neighborhood of origin of the competitors matters far less than their stamina.

Click here for the entire piece.

I live on the west coast, but Boston is in my DNA. I can’t feel anything but hurt when I read about this tragedy. All of my extended family and friends in the Boston area are safe. But I have trouble getting the picture of the 8 year old boy from Dorchester or the 29 year old woman from Medford out of my mind. May they rest in peace.

Here’s hoping the the police find the perp and put him away for a long long time. BTW, the New York Yankees will be playing “Sweet Caroline” after the third inning. Class act. [Note: for folks not from Boston: “Sweet Caroline” is always played in the eighth inning at Fenway.]

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Rays vs Red Sox 4-14-2013

Posted April 14, 2013 by joebowker
Categories: Baseball
Tags: ,

Great game by Clay Bucholz. 8 innings pitched. 2 hits, no runs. Here’s the score card.

I will score tomorrow’s game. Will have to be up early. Starts at 0800 PDT.

Rays vs Red Sox 4-14-2-2013

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Beatles Go Baroque

Posted April 14, 2013 by joebowker
Categories: apps, Music, Reviews
Tags: , , ,

Yesterday afternoon, I pulled out of the garage and was waiting for Paula and Mary K come down and load up. The radio was tuned as per usual to SiriusXM channel 75 which is the classical Pops channel.

One of the nice things about Sirius satellite radio is the availability of classical and jazz channels all without commercials. This is one of my favorite channels. So they were playing a “Hey Jude” in the style of a concerto grosso.

From there they segued into a baroque version of “Yellow Submarine”. Mary K says nice violin. Of course, Mary K wouldn’t recognize a Beatles tune if it hit her over the head. Okay, that’s not fair, I wouldn’t recognize a Justin Bieber tune if it hit me over the head.

So I got out my trusty iPhone and loaded the “Shazam” app. This is a truly amazing app. It “listens” to a recording and instantly tells you the title and performer. Here’s the link to the app on iTunes. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/shazam/id284993459?mt=8

So next thing I do is go to the iTunes app and search for the album. $7.99 what a bargain. Apple doesn’t make a lot of money from me on music, but once in a while there is an album that I just have to have.  Here’s the link to the album on iTunes.

Here is a sample cut I found on youtube.com of “Lady Madonna” . There are plenty more cuts on youtube. Just search on “Beatles Go Baroque”

Finally downloaded and burnt a CD for playing on the car CD player. Enjoy.

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Baseball Red Sox vs Orioles 4-8-2013

Posted April 10, 2013 by joebowker
Categories: Baseball
Tags: ,

As many of you know, the Major League Baseball season has started. Many of you also know that I am fervent Boston Red Sox fan. I like to keep score of the games that I have time to watch. It keeps me in to the game. I learned baseball scoring methods as a young boy from my father and brothers. Back in the day, we didn’t have any fancy scoring tools that exist today. We just had a score sheet drawn on a white lined piece of paper. I use an app on my iPad called Pointstreak.

I thought I would explain basic scoring but I found a site that does a good job of explaining scoring. See http://www.baseballscorecard.com/index.htm

So here is the score card for Monday’s home opener for the Boston Red Sox vs. Baltimore Orioles.

Sox v Bal 4-8-2013

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San Diego Zoo

Posted March 23, 2013 by joebowker
Categories: California, Reviews, Travel
Tags: , , , ,

Mike had Friday off yesterday and he had invited Paula and me to join them for a trip to the San Diego Zoo.

We left San Pedro at about 8:30AM with Mike, Theresa and Jonathan in Mike’s Honda. He’s going to be needing a mini-van sooner rather than later. Paula was in the back seat making silly with Jonathan.

We made decent time down the 405 and the 5 to San Diego. Arrived at about 10:30AM. Paula says “too bad you didn’t bring your HP placard”. But says I “but I did, it’s in my pack in the trunk”. So we found an HP parking space and avoided parking in the back forty.

The SD zoo is a wonderful place. They have animals that I had never heard of. In addition of course to the usual stuff like elephants and tigers and bears.

Theresa brought her real camera. I just had my trusty iPhone. Here are some of my pictures.


Camel resting (it seems the animals are always resting).


Llama.


Vultures.


Elephant getting a Pedi. One of the other elephant handlers was feeding the elephant at the other end to encourage cooperation.


Pretty red flower. That’s all I know.



Paula with a polar bear. The real (live) polar bears were not available for the photo shoot.


Black and White and Red all over.


Panda (always popular)


Leopards.


Jonathan at our afternoon break. He was having a great time playing with the empty iced coffee containers.

Finally, we got to closing. Mike and I were waiting at the exit, while Paula and Theresa went through the gift shops. I was dumbfounded that neither of them bought anything.

Then we did dinner at Harar Ethiopian Restaurant. A nice little bistro on the Boulevard. Friday night was buffet night. The good news was that we got to try most everything. The bad news was I had no idea what I was eating. But it was all good. Here is a picture of Theresa’s plate. (Roberta told us about this place).


After a fine dinner, we stopped at McD’s for an iced coffee for Mike and bottles of water for Paula and me. Then home and to bed.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:San Diego, CA

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House of Cards

Posted March 7, 2013 by joebowker
Categories: Reviews
Tags:

A couple of weeks ago I started watching a new series on Netflix called “House of Cards”. It is a completely new method of delivering new TV material. Netflix had funded the production with the intention of publishing all 13 episodes at once. So if you wanted to, you could watch all 13 episodes in one sitting. I think they call it binge viewing. If this is successful we might see more of this sort of thing.

I remember doing a binge viewing session with Paula when we were trying to catch up with episodes of “Lost” a few years ago. Paula and I watched the first episode together. I really liked it but Paula says meh. So that means I get to watch it by myself on the laptop or iPad. I don’t quite have the time to do all thirteen episodes at once. Besides, I like to savor each episode. It will probably take me a few weeks to go through all thirteen

The difference here is that they don’t have to refresh the audience on what happened on the previous episodes.

House of Cards

 

House of Cards Trailer

The story is about an 11 term congressman from South Carolina Francis Underwood played masterfully by Kevin Spacey. The story doesn’t quite say whether he is a Democrat or a Republican. It doesn’t matter really. He is quite a master of the game and quite a sleaze.

One thing I like, is that Francis breaks from character and starts talking directly to the viewer. Kind of like an aside in Shakespeare. Power, sex, drugs, double dealing. It’s all there.

If you haven’t signed up for Netflix, this makes it worth your while. Trust me it’s worth it.

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Coffee in San Pedro

Posted March 5, 2013 by joebowker
Categories: California, Reviews
Tags: ,

First, let me state that I miss Dunkin Donuts. That being said, let’s look at the alternatives. I hear that DD will be opening franchises in SoCal this year. One can only hope.

Starbucks

Pros: They know how to make iced coffee and do it well. One just has to get beyond the mocha latte BS. I’ve learned how to order my iced coffee. I just say “Medium Iced coffee, no sweetener, leave room for cream.” They get it right all the time.

They have kiosks inside Albertson’s, so I manager to finish my iced coffee in just about the time it takes to do our shopping.

They have a neat iPhone app for paying for your coffee, though it doesn’t work at Albertson’s. Have to use the card.

Cons: They don’t do decaf. Not a problem for me. But Paula usually would prefer decaf after noon.

No drive-thru.

McDonald’s

Pros: Decent coffee. They have drive-thru, which is handy. They do iced coffee.

Cons: One needs to ask for black coffee, no sugar and add your cream and sugar yourself, otherwise they add way too much sugar and way too much cream. Fix it yourself the way you want it.

Don’t get me started on their burgers.

Granny’s Donuts (San Pedro)

Bad, bad, bad. We decided to try yesterday. Asked for coffee. I was given an iced coffee with way too much cream and sugar. Their english wasn’t so good either. They just didn’t understand what my problem was. We won’t be going there again, ever.

Did I mention that the donuts were stale?

Via Dolce (San Pedro)

Not bad. They know how to do iced coffee. They do decaf too. Free wi-fi. It’s good if you want to sit and linger over a coffee. Good selection of snacks.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:San Pedro

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Biscuits and Gravy

Posted February 24, 2013 by joebowker
Categories: Food
Tags: ,

Well today we were at a breakfast put on by our OES chapter here in San Pedro. Nothing unusual here, Many lodges and chapters have breakfasts to raise money for their activities.

I am writing for my friends in New England who probably have not enjoyed one particular delicacy served at the breakfast. I am of course writing about “Biscuits and Country Gravy”. Biscuits and Gravy is a dish probably better known in the south. I was first introduced to it when I was working for Raytheon in Memphis, TN many years ago.

First off, it is absolutely not good for you, but it tastes SO good. It is loaded with sausage grease, artery clogging, cholesterol raising fat.

At any rate, it is very easy to make. First the biscuits. You of course can make them from scratch, but for me that’a a bit much. Either get the Pillsbury refrigerator biscuits at the grocery or use the recipe on a box of Bisquick. Either way is pretty easy.

Next comes the gravy or “country gravy” as it is often called. Get a pound of sausage meat and fry it up in a frying pan. There might even be a recipe for country gravy on the package. No matter this isn’t rocket science.

So fry up the sausage. Once it is browned, turn off the heat. Remove the sausage meat with a slotted spoon or drain with a colander. Reserve the sausage meat and return the grease to the pan. Add about a 1/4 cup of flour to the grease. Stir constantly over low heat while slowly adding about 2 cups of milk. Add a little extra milk if you want a thinner consistency.

If you want a gravy with considerable more “kick”, try using spicy sausage meat.

Add the sausage to the mixture. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Slice the biscuits in half on a plate and add the gravy on top. Enjoy.

Here’s a pointer to the wikipedia article on the subject.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biscuits_and_gravy

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:San Pedro, CA

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Diaries

Posted February 10, 2013 by joebowker
Categories: apps
Tags: , ,

How many people out there keep online journals or diaries? This blog is a sort of journal but sometimes blogs are much to public for my taste. For that reason, I have started keeping a journal on my iPad.

Most of the stuff is either too boring or too personal to publish in a blog. It seems that back in the day, many famous people kept diaries. Presidents, Senators, Ambassadors, you name it.

Currently, the app that i use on my iPad is iJournal. It’s easy to use. It can be password protected and one can export entries in a variety of ways.

I’ve done this off and on for the past few years. Started again recently. I have to get myself in the habit of writing something everyday, even though it may seem like nothing happened. Let the future ages judge.

Does anyone have any diary/journaling apps worth looking at?

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:San Pedro

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Weather Here and There

Posted February 9, 2013 by joebowker
Categories: California
Tags: , ,

Well, i have been eagerly following the weather goings on back east. Keep all the pictures coming. I am so enjoying NOT being there.

Here’s a picture of Valentine in the snow. Kathy posted a video of her running in the snow. Pretty funny.


So what’s the weather out here you might ask? Typically, the temperature range is from 50’s at night up to 60’s during the daylight hours. We are in a rainy season this time of year.

One of the side effects of the rain is that all of the hillsides next to the roads are quite green. By summer, the hills will be a golden brown.

Another interesting aspect, is that some of the trees lose their leaves and some don’t. I don’t know anything about why that is. It just makes for continuing business for the landscapers that bag up the leaves.

So one more picture for all of you waiting for Spring.


– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:San Pedro, CA

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