Mocha Flan Cake

Here's the first bakeshop creation: mocha flan cake.

bakeshop

I started a professional bakeshop class today. I know that you're probably thinking "bakeshop? I thought she was doing photography now." Well, I am doing photography, but I am also doing bakeshop. Why? Because it is interesting and I enjoy it, and I am rationalizing that I am out meeting a lot of people so it gives me an opportunity to network and pass out my photography business cards.
Anyway, there is no pre-registration for the class, it is a show-up-early-on-the-first-day-and-hope-you-get-a-spot class. I had been warned that I needed to show up REALLY early because the classes are very popular. The class starts at 8 and when I got there around 6:40 there was already a line. But I put my name on the list and was fairly confident that at No. 14 I would get a spot. I did, but more than 90 people showed up. They only let 25 in the class, so they were (trying) to turn a lot of people away.
What got me, though, was that there were a lot of people who wouldn't leave. It was almost like they thought if they just kept sitting in the back of the room that the teacher would make an exception and let them in the class. It got very frustrating. A school administrator showed up and asked everyone whose name was not on the list of 25 to please leave the classroom and meet with her in the hallway. Several people left, but there was still far more than 25 in the room. Then they actually read the 25 names on the list and asked those whose name wasn't called to please leave the room. There were still 42 people in the room. It took over an hour to sort it all out. What a waste of time.
Then, some of the exiled people tried to sneak back in. They tried the "I left my bag in here somewhere so I am just coming it to look for it" routine, and the "I got a ride here and I don't have any way to get home so I am just going to sit here" routine. Somehow both of these translated into trying to join the class groups. Luckily the teacher was on to this and didn't allow that to happen.
I am curious to see whether (or, rather, how many of) these people show up and try this nonsense again tomorrow.
The registration debacle aside, I am really looking forward to this class and you can look forward to pictures of my creations. (You only get to taste test if you come to visit.)

Open for Business

Chelsey has launched the website for her photography business. Check it out: http://www.chelseykayphotography.com
-Jason

The benefits of old-school technology

One such benefit is that when you leave your old, extremely limited cell phone on the bus, nobody cares enough to steal it so you can retrieve it from lost and found the next day.
-Jason

Rock and Roll Arizona

We went to Phoenix for the MLK weekend to cheer on our sister-in-law in her half-marathon. It was a nice day for the race. Chelsey and I ran a couple of miles with her in the middle of the race for support, then took a shortcut to the finish to see her there. Missy finished strong right around her goal time.
We also had a great chance to see Chelsey's family and relax. We also went to try a triple-D restaurant we'd never been to: Chino Bandido. Turns out that Mexican food and Chinese food is a winning combination.
-Jason

Cabrillo National Monument

Last week we went out to Point Loma and the Cabrillo National Monument. The monument is right at the tip of Point Loma, above the entrance to San Diego Bay. There are several things to do there. Our first stop was the tide pools on the west side of the point. The rising tides against the cliffs of the point create some really interesting tide pools. We saw several sea anemones and limpets hanging out in the pools. I also learned that when sea anemones are out of the water, they close up and cover themselves with hard shells. Unfortunately, we weren't that at the lowest point of the tide, so we couldn't go out far enough to see any sea stars or octopus.
After we'd poked around the tide pools we went back up to the top of the cliff. During the winter, grey whales migrate from the arctic to Baja California to mate and give birth. They swim fairly close to the coastline past here, so it's possible to whale watch from the cliffs. Chelsey and I spotted around eight whales while we were watching. Of course, we didn't much of the whales. We looked for spouts out on the ocean. Sometimes after spotting the spout we got to the see the whale's fluke as they dove down again. It was pretty neat being able to spot so many whales from the shore.
-Jason
There are a few more pictures on the picasa site.

fireworks

We spent New Year's Eve at Sea World -- thanks for our 2012 passes Fred & Peggy! -- and had a great day. The park had a special Shamu show planned for 7:30 to be immediately followed by a fireworks show just as the park was closing (8pm is the new midnight). It had been moderately foggy all afternoon, but it really started to roll in around 7. When showtime came, we heard the pop of the fireworks being launched and the boom when they went off, but we couldn't see them. I thought that maybe we'd see some diffused colors through the fog, but it was so thick that we couldn't see anything at all. So we listened to what I'm sure was a great show.
I took the first picture as we were waiting for the Shamu show to start. I took the second from the same spot during the fireworks show. The lights going up the pole were still on but were completely blocked by the fog.