A Star is Born!

Our beautiful daughter, Berkeley Celeste Lai, was born last night! She is truly a joy and wonder, a blessing indeed.



Here are some vital stats:

dob 11/16/05 @ 11:03 PM
7 lb. 12 oz.
20 in.

Fire Season Officially Over in California

Except, as it would be, in my home region of San Diego County as well as San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

Ah well, at least the rest of the state is considered to be out of the woods now because of some early rains we got last month.

Yippee!!

The Two Tiggers - Halloween 2005

What's not to love?

College Football: Trojans PUSH past Irish, 34-31

PHOTO CREDIT: Southern California quarterback Matt Leinart (11) scores the winning touchdown against Notre Dame with three seconds remaining in the game in South Bend, Ind., Saturday, Oct. 15, 2005. USC defeated Notre Dame, 34-31. (AP Photo/Joe Raymond)



In a game too incredible for words, and an ending approaching the stuff legends are made of (see the all-time most unbelievable play: "The Play" - Cal v. Stanford), I must defer to revered silence and point my dear reader to the Los Angeles Times story instead.

So now, I bow to Touchdown Jesus and say, "Thank you and fight on!"

Border 50 Fire is Out!

Thank you, firefighters!

College Football: UC Davis Stuns Stanfurd, 20-17

PHOTO CREDIT: Who are those guys in gold? And what is he doing to that poor little Stanford guy? (UC Davis, 9/17/05)


I must really not be paying attention to let this gem cross below my radar. Or maybe it's just that my radar doesn't go so low as to pick up anything of note down on the farm. In fact, I'm reporting this a full 3 weeks tardy!

On one September Saturday evening in Stanford Stadium, the unlikely happened. The UC Davis Aggies football team, making the transition from Division II to Division I-AA, took on the Stanford Cardinal in what should have been a laugher for the boys in red. That wouldn't happen. Even with the Cardinal taking a strong lead, 17-0 deep into the second quarter, it wasn't going to happen, because the mighty-mighty Aggies would find a way to storm back with 20 unanswered points to march away in victory. Cue: UC Davis fight song. Oh, wait. Does anyone even know the Davis fight song? Really, should anyone know it? Or, do they even have one? No matter.

Indeed, as one San Francisco area headline says it, "Stanford football: Making history for all the wrong reasons."


Go Bears! Grrrr-rah!

Just so nobody takes offense, the Aggies do indeed have a fight song. You can hear it here, and find out more about their marching band here.

Border 50 Fire - San Diego's first big fire of the season

PHOTO CREDIT: Tecate Fire along the US-Mexico border -- the international border is the brown fence on the left (video still from KGTV Channel 10 San Diego)


Just a quick step outside tells the story: The filtered sunlight casts a faint red-brown hue on the skies, clouds, walls, and sidewalks. The hot, dry smell of smoke is ever-present while the tiny white specks of a distant ash-fall are unmistakable.

Now San Diego County has it's own fire to take care of. Early this morning a Santa Ana wind-driven fire broke out near Barrett Junction of State Highway 94 in south east San Diego County, not far from the Mexican border. (Actually, it's more like south central county, but we San Diego Metro-centric folks think central is plenty east to qualify as south east.) Then later this morning news was out that another, much larger fire was coursing northward from Tecate, Mexico, threatening to make a border crossing, which it did.

It's been officially named the Border 50 Fire and is 0% contained, or shall we say, completely uncontained, as of this moment. The fire (according to the CDF website) started at 9:17 a.m. and has currently burned 1,000 acres in Mexico and 500 acres in the US.

California Wildfires Information: Fire Season / Topanga Fire Update

PHOTO CREDIT: Plumes of smoke rise from brush fires burning near Chatsworth. (Damon Winter / LA Times / September 29, 2005)


Back on June 23, I posted a California Wildfires Information entry mistaking the Morongo Valley fire for the start of the fire season in Southern California. While I did mention that the giant Cedar Fire among other mammoths that broke out in SoCal and my beloved San Diego County took place three days after the birth of my second child, Jackson, on October 25, 2003, I was fearfully thinking that the fire season was coming early this year.

Now with the additions of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita slamming ashore in the Gulf Coast, the idea of natural disaster is all too vivid.

It's interesting that while we were getting all that rain earlier this year, with landslides and floods throughout the southland, nobody even once mentioned that rain, in a basically arid and desert region, could prove itself so harmful later in the year. With all the new and dense vegetation (read: weeds) that sprouted up everywhere, giving us a soft blanket of green on our normally dusty, sagey hillsides and canyons, there was not even a whisper of what it would mean for the fire season -- namely, that all this new growth would eventually dry up in the summer heat and become massive stands of fuel for the flames when Autumn's Santa Ana winds would come blowing across the desert and into our beautiful, sunny Southern California.

The Topanga Fire (pictured above) is still a raging, uncontrolled mess.

Once again, here are some important fire-related websites for us Californians:

- California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection (CDF) has a page detailing current major incidents going on in the state at CDF Major Incidents.

- National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC).

- USDA Forest Service's Active Fire Map; a really good place to get a visual idea for major fire incidents nationwide.

Crossroads Christian Fellowship

Just wanted to point you toward a website I created for a pastor friend of mine, Rod Robison, and the church he planted last Easter - Crossroads Christian Fellowship in Santee, CA.

Relic from our Half Dome Adventure

I was clearing out a couple very old items from the pantry today and came across this container of powdered Gatorade fruit punch. Knowing precisely how long I'd had it (too long!) without even looking at the label, I tossed it straight into the trash when a bell went off in my head.

D'oh! You can't throw that away! At least not without its due ceremony to remember its contribution and place in your life story.

So I reached into the trash can, removed the now more than 4-year-old container of Gatorade, and took this picture, all the while singing its praises and thanking it for simply "being there" in our time of agonizing triumph. After all, this was where the "4 servings of Gatorade powder" came from on our Half Dome Hike back on June 5, 2001. (You can read all about it in my previous blog entry, "Hiking Half Dome - Yosemite National Park".)

To think that we moved from our condo to our current home and took this old container along with us and never thought to trash it any earlier than today is almost comical (almost, only because if you know me, you propbably wouldn't be all that surprised). Actually, I'm sure I had thought of discarding it before, but subconciously felt too strong a connection to it to do so. So today the deed is done, but its deeds are not forgotten.

The Mission: best breakfast in San Diego

Yesterday we had one of those rare opportunities to go out together without the kids! So we took quick advantage of the situation - both boys in preschool on the same morning, Mary with a light(er) morning work schedule - and headed for our favorite breakfast spot in San Diego: The Mission in North Park.

Mary had her usual - Mission Rosemary ("Crispy rosemary potatoes, scrambled eggs, sautéed tomatoes, and grilled rosemary bread."). And I had the 2+2+2=$5 special ("2 Blackberry Pancakes + 2 Scrambled Eggs + 2 Strips of Bacon"), an unlisted menu option that's just enough for the growing boy inside!

They also have two other locations; one in Mission Beach and another in the East Village, Downtown, not too far from the ballpark.

So next time you're in town, invite us (or just me, or whatever) to join you for breakfast. Who knows, we might even pay!

The Rainbow Revolution

All stand. And welcome me to the Rainbow Revolution!

All right, what the heck is he talking about? And what's with that silly photo of a flip-flop?

Goaded along by brother Jobo and sis'n'law Joanna, I have been conviced that my cheapo plastic Old Navy five-buck-a-pair sandals just don't cut it in today's more-chic/less-shabby world. So tonight I plopped down some heavy plastic and sprung for premium leather Rainbow Sandals (#301, blackforest brown) at PacSun in Parkway Plaza near my house. They come fully equipped with a lifetime guarantee (MFR: "Our Warrantee is for the Lifetime of the sole. As long as you haven't worn into the next layer of the sole from either the top or bottom") and people have been known to be wearing the same pair over 20 years! Not sure what I really think of that, but sounds better than my current not-so-stylish and not-that-comfy 6-monthers.

I've yet to actually wear them though. Kinda scared to set my feet free in these suddenly upscale environs. I'll try them on the carpet first. Then slowly ease into walking through the tiled kitchen. Then maybe, just maybe I'll take them into the garage in the next month or so. I'll update you all once I've ventured to take them beyond the perimeter of our property.

The Trouble with Reading

I was thinking the other day, why am I such a bad reader? Why is it so hard for me to do some real, solid reading, as opposed to my typical 3-6 pages a day?

I've determined that it's a fiction v. nonfiction thing.

Air travel, for instance, seems like the perfect time and place for solid reading beyond the 6 page barrier. Still, I never seem to even crack open that novel or even really see it until I've returned home and replaced it on the bookshelf. Pathetic. Yet on that very same flight I managed to completely consume a number of magazine articles, lengthy ones, mind you, and even read through the first 15 pages of the latest political expose madness in the airport bookstore while waiting for my flight. And that novel just rests tucked away in my carryon bag.

Fiction - stories from another world, not necessarily otherworldly in the alien sense, but certainly not from the here-and-now which we know and love and live in. It's the unreal, however real it may seem.

Nonfiction - stories from this world, that directly affect/infect this world and its populants. It's real for the most part, save tabloid journalism and books by would-be/washed-up celebrities trying to make a cheap buck at someone else's expense, however unreal it may seem.

So what's the difference? Why can't I concentrate on fiction but can eat up the nonfiction without breaking sweat? It seems I've just answered my own question -- "without breaking a sweat" is the key.

Fiction necessarily requires the full participation of the reader. I've got to put my whole self into the story if I'm to breach the first barrier, the fact that it is fiction, the unreal passing itself off as real. No one ever wrote a bit of fiction with the intention that the reader would disbelieve the whole thing, the entire premise. Fiction is intentionally real and unreal at the same time.

Nonfiction, on the other hand, starts and ends in what we know, the here and now (or in the case of history, the here and then). There is no barrier to breach and no participation needed. There is no suspension of disbelief, just the invitation to disagree should an opinion be given, and I guess that in itself is one entre to reader participation, but it's not required.

I love the fact that I'm a writer. I hate the fact that I write so little. It's high time that I breach the barrier to make the unreal real.

US State Demonyms: Ans, Anders, Ians, Ers, and Ites, OH MY!

No, not US State Demons! I'm talking about "demo" as in deomgraphics and "nyms" as in names - names of people. For example: the name for people from California is "Californians" (not Sunshine Staters or Hippies or whatever else you've got in mind for us, please!).

We really don't talk about state demonyms enough. Some of you are rolling your eyes and thinking, why would we ever need to? But what do you do when you need to make a gross generalization about a mass of people in another state? When I lived in Wisconsin, people were always talking about how much they hated them "Flatlanders!" The what?! The who?! Unbeknownst to me, Wisconsinites (d'oh, what's an "ite"? this is getting interesting...) consider their state mountainous, or at least a little hilly. And they have an ingrown disaffection for those south of the border, known more properly as Illinoisans or Illinoisians (no one seems to agree on this one, go figure), and love to ridicule their neighbor's flat(ter) geography. Soon after, I learned that those on the other side of the great lake are called Michiganders. "Ganders? You've got to be kidding me!" But it's true.

It got me thinking... if I were in conversation and needed to refer to a stateload of people, what would I have said? "Yeah, those Michigan-- an-- er-- um, those Michigan people are so...."

While Alabamans seems obvious, there are some who go for Alabamians - I'm sorry but that's just too close to Albanians for my taste. Similarly, there is disagreement in Colorado, even among their own state and federal officials - the governor favors Coloradans while the congresswoman from the 4th district leans toward Coloradoans.

And just where did Floridians buy that extra vowel, "i"? Shouldn't it be Floridans?

A person from Utah is a Utahn, rhymes with Yukon. And while many Utahns are Mormons, and many Mormons are Utahns, not all Utahns are necessarily Mormons and vice versa, so let's get that straight.

As I've already mentioned Michiganders, something to keep in mind is that theirs is but a variant of the -er ending with the likes of New Yorkers, Maylanders, and Mainers.

Now Mainers serves as our entre into completely alternate demonyms that truly are nicknames as they don't actually use the state's name as their roots. Some Mainers prefer to be called Down Easters, referring to their far eastern longitudes and not to Easter/Spring chicken down feathers. Indiana Hoosiers are a classic, but what of Massachusetts? They're called Bay Staters? Really? I guess any variant on Massachusetts as a root just end up sounding silly, so the state legislature went so far as to write it into law. Wow.

But my all time favorite must go to our friends in New Mexico. You can't really argue with the cheerful ring of "New Mexicans."

US State Demonyms: Just the List

Alabama = Alabamans, Alabamians
Alaska = Alaskans
Arizona = Arizonans
Arkansas = Arkansans
California = Californians
Colorado = Coloradans, Coloradoans
Connecticut = Connecticuters, Nutmeggers
Delaware = Delawareans
Florida = Floridians
Georgia = Georgians
Hawaii = Hawaiian
Idaho = Idahoans
Illinois = Illinoisans, Illinoisians
Indiana = Hoosiers
Iowa = Iowans
Kansas = Kansans
Kentucky = Kentuckians
Louisiana = Louisianans, Louisianians
Maine = Mainers, Down Easters
Maryland = Marylanders
Massachusetts = Bay Staters
Michigan = Michiganders, Michiganians
Minnesota = Minnesotans
Mississippi = Mississippians
Missouri = Missourians
Montana = Montanans
Nebraska = Nebraskans
Nevada = Nevadans
New Hampshire = New Hampshirites
New Jersey = New Jerseyites, New Jerseyans
New Mexico = New Mexicans
New York = New Yorkers
North Carolina = North Carolinians
North Dakota = North Dakotans
Ohio = Ohioans
Oklahoma = Oklahomans, Oklahomians, Sooners
Oregon = Oregonians
Pennsylvania = Pennsylvanians
Rhode Island = Rhode Islanders
South Carolina = South Carolinians
South Dakota = South Dakotans
Tennessee = Tennesseeans
Texas = Texans
Utah = Utahns
Vermont = Vermonters
Virginia = VirginiansWashington = Washingtonians
West Virginia = West Virginians
Wisconsin = Wisconsinites
Wyoming = Wyomingites

5 Holes for 5 Trees

Let us learn to see the ((sub)urban) forest for the trees...

Thanks to People for Trees and San Diego Gas & Electric - and, of course, our tax dollars hard at work - this week we are the proud recipients of 5 free shade trees for our home landscape. We have judiciously chosen, according to the free shade trees program's guidelines, planting locations around the main house and cafe for maximum possitive reinforcement. The idea of the program is that one of years, the trees will become large enough to give shade to our home and thereby lessen our reliance on air conditioning and the electricity drain that comes with it.

So over the weekend we dug our 5 holes for 5 trees and are in the process of sticking'em in the ground so they can grow to their full glory in our backyard. Here are some snapshots of the trees we received:

Lagerstroemia indica - Crape Myrtle, multitrunk, pink
This multitrunk specimen was clearly a busy little tree in the nursery. It arrived in a 15 gallon landscape tub like all the others, but this on had branches and leaves starting from the base and flaring out 4-5 feet in all directions; delicate pink flowers all over it. The crape myrtle is a deciduous flowering tree with striking smooth bark in its more mature stages. It's planted widely as a street tree throughout El Cajon in both its multi and single trunk forms. We'll have to prune the extremely low horizontal branches upon planting since we want it to be a shade tree, not a shade bush, near our outdoor kitchen's seating area.

Lagerstroemia indica - Crape Myrtle, single trunk, lavender
This lavender specimen is on a single trunk with its first branches at about the 5 foot mark. It should serve as a nice screen between our bedroom window and out neighbor's patio.

Prunus cerasifera - Purple Leaf Plum
This spring flowering and summer leafing deciduous tree has distinctly dark purple leaves. Since there's nothing like these purple leaves on any other tree, it's very noticeable when driving around town; though this tree is often pruned incorrectly or not at all, making them sometimes look wiry and odd. Hopefully we won't make those same mistakes. This tree will anchor the southeast corner of the cafe, at one end of our eventual lawn.

Agonis flexuosa - Weeping Peppermint
"He must have a truly romantic nature, for he weeps when there is nothing at all to weep about." Or so wrote Oscar Wilde. Truly there is nothing to weep about for this tree either, for we shall love it most tenderly and speak to every so often. We felt our landscape needed another tree of weeping habit. When we moved here, we inherited a huge California Pepper (Schinus molle) directly behind the cafe, up near our citrus orchard. We weren't sure what to think of it at first, except that we did appreciate its lacelike weeping quality. Granted, sometimes it weeps a bit too low for our tastes and we have to shorten its 'do, but we wanted another weeper, something a little closer to our main outdoor living spaces. So we've chosen to plop him between the patio basketball hoop and one of the cafe windows to provide much needed afternoon shade to the west facing cafe.

All right, take a breath, I'm almost done...

Brachychiton acerifolius - Australian Flame
Our favorite tree of all, if you've been to our home, no doubt you've seen the year-old (time in the ground) Australian Flame in our front turnaround. In just a year, it has more than doubled in height. This little one's spot is between the other west facing cafe window and the kids' playground. It should fit right in because of its towering upright habit and large shiny evergreen leaves. Plus, the one in the frontyard got practically no water from us and is really a maintenance-free tree since it just kind of self-prunes the leaves and branches it doesn't need, and always goes up, up, up!

So come on over and meet these new additions to the landscape in person.

Road Trip!

LEAVING OUR HEARTS IN SAN FRANCISCO
but first we have to get there!


It was 4th of July weekend - Friday. Maybe this was our first mistake, but we really didn't have much choice since it's how vacation schedules panned out for us. So the big drive had to be now.

The plan was to send both boys (a 3-year-old and a 20-monther) to preschool for the morning while my wife and I had a nice breakfast out - just the two of us - and then packed up the car. We'd pick the boys up at noon and start our northward travels straight away. The boys would fall fast asleep from school-exhaustion as always.

Foolishness! Somehow they both suspected something was vastly different about today. Maybe it was that we were on the 805 north, which we're never on at this time of day. Or maybe it was the fact that it wasn't just dad driving them around as is customary, but mom was in the for the ride as well. Whatever it was, neither would sleep nor show any signs of breaking any time soon.

Not to worry, seems that all the holiday traffic was heading southbound into San Diego anyway. A quick listen to the traffic report on KNX 1070 AM told us to steer clear of I-5 and stick with I-405. Still, all was well, and we didn't have any traffic until the usual slowing after LAX (where we also lost our carpool lane). Traffic dragged for the typical miles past LAX, through Culver City, the Westside, Westwood, and the Sepulveda Pass, but nothing unusual, nothing to seriously fret about. The drive through the San Fernando Valley was a breeze. This was about to be the best SF road trip ever!

D'oh! I jinxed it!

As we approached the 405-5 merge just south of the Newhall Pass and the Santa Clarita Valley, our lovely 4-5 lanes of traffic turned into a virtual parking lot. Jackson, who hadn't slept since waking up at 6 this morning was a very unhappy traveler now that it was 7 1/2 hours later. Sometimes he's working on his second nap by now, but not today. Today he was screaming. So much so that we thought something was terribly wrong with him. Had he fallen and hit his head at school and we weren't told? Was there something else that we missed? I called his preschool on my cell phone to ask if something had happened to him today, and I could barely carry on a conversation with the poor kid crying in the car seat behind me. They said nothing happened except that he had a great day. No matter. We had to stop the car and console him. And if he would prove inconsolable, there was a possible total road trip abandonment in the works as a last resort.

So there I was in the freeway median with the 20 feet from northbound 405 on my right and another 20 feet from northbound 5 on my left; the heat, scorching.

Jackson did stop crying, but only as long I held him. Any gesture toward the car and car seat illicited yet another screaming response. It was time for prayer and setting up the DVD player!

Twenty minutes into "Toy Story," Jackson fell asleep. Nolan, who couldn't believe his eyes, must have been thinking, when did we get a DVD player in the car? Where has this been all my life? (The quick answer is simple: we got it just for this trip, just for time such as this.)

After eventually emerging from this traffic crawl, and having crossed the Newhall Pass into the Santa Clarita Valley, we started to zip past familiar sights once again - Magic Mountain, those sometimes-brown/sometimes-green round rolling hills in front of you just as I-5 sweeps left, and the Grapevine. Thankfully, the rest of the trip up the lonely I-5 was uneventful as always and we eventually rolled into Santa Clara County (where we were staying at my brother's house) about 9:30 p.m. - basically, nine and a half hours after our departure from El Cajon.

We ended up having a great trip - visited lots of family, road some full-scale and small-scale trains, watched the down-home Alamaeda Independence Day Parade, went to the beach, strolled around Berkeley (see below), and hung out at San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf, Golden Gate Park, and Yerba Buena Gardens/South of Market area science centers. Out of total exhaustion, we decided to cut our 9-day trip short by a day so we could take a weekend to recover before the work week started back up.

Whew - after reliving the trip just now, I'm tired all over again...

Berkeley: views from a stroller

So it's ten years following graduation and we're once again walking the wonderfully, elegantly grimy (read: earthy) streets of Berkeley. More particularly, the Telegraph Avenue section on the southside of the University of California campus. Go Bears!

Not all that much has changed since 1995; at least not too drastically. Sure, our Unit 2 dorms now have these rather bulky additions that remind me of the condominiums in San Diego's Little Italy neighborhood - not really low-rise, not really high-rise, lots of funky color. Most of the same stores are still around. And more importantly, most of the same cafes are still pumping out the best coffee this side of the world. Feel free to check out my Berkeley Walking Tour on the House of Lai website.

What has changed is the fact that we were now walking these sentimental sidewalks pushing our two boys along in strollers. The whole time going to Cal, I always wondered about those people who'd walk around Berkeley's southside with babies and strollers, thinking, "What's up with that? A baby? In Berkeley?"

Now we were those people. It really gave us a sense for how we've moved from one life-stage to another and another and still another! I guess you'd call it perspective.

Sadly for us, both Nolan and Jackson would appreciate none of the city's quirks and would instead fidget, complain, and simply want to release themselves from their strollers while we tried to shop for cool t-shirts and outfits for both them and their new baby sister who'll be added to the clan in November. We ended up having to ditch Berkeley in favor of romping around Jack London Square in Oakland (messing around in a fountain and visiting the Barnes & Noble).

(Epilogue: We managed a return trip to Berkeley the next morning to actually complete our shopping spree at both the Cal Student Store on campus and Bancroft Clothing, a local favorite.)

Lai Genome Project

Drum roll please...

We're having a GIRL!!!

This morning we went in for Mary's 20 week ultrasound and found out in no uncertain terms that our third child will indeed be a girl! We are incredibly excited, especially in light of the Lai family history of having children of only one gender or the other, but never both - and we were well on our way to having all boys (though we love them both beyond imagination!).

This brings me to my family gender theory (the Lai Genome Project)...

My eldest sister, Elsie, has three lovely girls. My next eldest sister, Marj, has three equally lovely boys. And while my brother Paul has managed one boy and one girl thus far, he has Tsao family genetics on his side. As far as the Lai genome is concerned, it's strictly one gender per family. Until now.

It appears that the key variable in the equation is the gender of the individual Lai family member contributing to the chromosomal makeup of the child. The two Lai females (my sisters) have either three girls or three boys. I, a Lai male, will now have two boys and one girl. My father, obviously a Lai male, has managed both boys and girls.

This leads to two deductions in my family gender theory: 1) Lai sperm, whether X or Y, show no signs of power struggles - neither one dominates nor is a better swimmer/impregnator than the other; and 2) Lai eggs cooperatively choose early on in their life cycle which chromosome (be it X or Y) they will accept into their domain.

Now the final proof for the Lai Genome Project lies in newlywed brother Joey...

Apples & Oranges: a comparison

          
Who says you can't compare the two?