Anti-Pasta Pasta

The weather has been really unusual the past couple of weeks -- definitely not typical summer weather for San Diego. Two weeks ago, the weather was cool and cloudy on a daily basis with temperatures ranging between 65°F and 75°F. Last week it was extremely warm (hot?) with temps reaching into the 90s -- we had to turn on the air-conditioner in our home for the first time this year! Now, we're back into cooler temps again. Bizarre.

Anyway, last weekend, while the weather was still very warm, I decided to make something refreshing for dinner -- my famous anti-pasta pasta! My anti-pasta pasta is exactly what it sounds like: anti-pasta salad with pasta. I simply boil up some multi-colored rotini, shock 'em with cold water to stop them from cooking, and spread them over a bed of chopped lettuce. Then, I add tomatoes, sliced red onion, olives, fresh chopped basil, roasted bell pepper, salami, pepporoni, prosciutto, and fresh-ground salt and pepper. Next, I drizzle on either home-made or store-bought Italian dressing and top it all off with freshly grated Grana Padano parmesan cheese. Add to that a nice glass of home-made red wine and you've got yourself a refreshing summer meal! Buon Appetito!

New Jersey 2010

Oh my goodness! Look how much time has passed since my last posting! I keep meaning to update the blog on a quasi-regular basis, but life keeps getting in the way.

The period of June 16th - 23rd was quite exciting as it was spent in New Jersey with family and to attend my sister Joanna's wedding. It was really nice seeing everyone again and catching up since we last saw each other. We also had the pleasure of meeting my new brother-in-law, Michael Santore, who is a really cool guy. We wish Joanna and Michael many happy years together.

The pictures displayed below are a small collection that best showcase our daily activities while in NJ. You can view the rest of the collection by clicking any of the pictures.

June 16

Anthony looking through airplane window

Dinner with the Runfola Family
L-R: Augie, Me, Gena, Anthony, Gina, Michael, Joanna, Sal

June 17

Breakfast at the Avon Pavillion along the Jersey Shore

Wedding Rehearsal Dinner

June 18

Chillaxin' on the deck while waiting for the BBQ'ed Italian Sausages

June 19 - WEDDING DAY!

Anthony and his Grandfather playing with a shortwave radio while the bride and her bridesmaids get beautified

The Bride, Joanna, with her Maiden-of-Honor, our sister, Gina on the dancefloor dancing to the song YMCA

June 21

Bottling a barrel of Sangiovese wine -- we got about 252 bottles from one barrel!

At the shooting range

June 22 - Pennsylvania

Near the spot where George Washington crossed the Delaware River

Getting ready to have lunch in New Hope, Pennsylvania

XKCD on Earthquakes and Twitter

This strip was posted yesterday on xkcd.com, appropriately enough.

6.9 Earthquake Rattles Baja and San Diego on Easter Sunday

At 1540hrs (that's 3:40 p.m. for you non-military folk ;)) Baja California, more specifically, Mexicali, was rattled by a magnitude 6.9 earthquake which was felt rather strongly here in San Diego and Los Angeles. You can read more about here.

Gena and I were sitting on the couch in the livingroom watching TV and relaxing from a large Easter lunch. I felt some light shaking and at first thought it was Gena shaking her foot. I glanced over at the cord hanging from our Rock Band drumset and saw that it was swaying (I've learned from experience that the cord tends to sway regardless of how weak a quake may be). Our dog, Leica, continued sleeping on Gena's lap and didn't react until I told Gena we were having an earthquake (what a great early warning system the dog is). At that point, the quake intensified and small figurines on top of our television set actually fell off!

Check out the USGS earthquake map showing the locality and magnitude of the quake:

BANZAI!

Last Friday we, once again, spent the night at Barona Casino. Gena regularly receives free 1-night stay coupons in the mail which we don't always use and, because it has been a while since we last stayed at Barona, we decided to use the coupon. When we go, we usually stop at one of the many fine restaurants Barona has to offer to grab a bite to eat before Anthony and I head back to the room to play games and download movies from Netflix while Gena tries to strike it rich on the slot machines. This time was different.

Because we now have a puppy, we couldn't leave her home alone for 24 hours, so we took her with us and smuggled her into the hotel in one of Gena's big purses (I call it a duffel bag). Leica kept poking her head out of the purse, so we had to throw a sweater over Gena's shoulder and let it hang down in the front to cover the dog up. It worked!

As soon as we made it safely to our room without the dog being detected, Anthony went back downstairs to play near the fish pond for a short while before it got dark outside. While he was gone, I set the camera and lights up in preparation for taking a picture that I've been intending to do for quite a while. Once everything was set up, I asked Gena to sit on the corner of the bed so I could "test" a feature of the camera. I positioned myself a few feet behind her, then ran and dove onto the bed. The first picture shows her patiently waiting while I "tested" the camera, not expecting me to jump on the bed.


I then told her that I had to adjust something on the camera and needed to take another picture like the first. This time, knowing what to expect, she prepared herself the moment she heard me running towards the bed, as you can see in the second picture. When I saw her reaction, I knew I had the shot in the bag!


Five minutes later, Anthony returned and we ordered room service while watching "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" on Netflix.

Homegrown CSI

Okay, so, Gena's favorite TV shows are CSI (all versions), NCIS, Law & Order, etc. (do you see a pattern here?). This weekend, while catching her watching what I call "The CSI Channel", and seeing two of the main characters searching a room with a UV light, I was hit with the realization that, using a UV light source, I could easily find urine stains on the carpet. Having bought a UV flashlight a couple years ago for a camping trip to the desert with hopes of finding scorpions at night (they glow green, y'know), and not having found any, I had put the flashlight away and kind of forgotten about it. Until this evening...

I jumped up off the couch and went into the garage to look for the box with camping gear. It was pretty easy to find because it was rather large-ish and had "Camping Gear" written on the side. Opening the box, I immediately found the 9" long UV flashlight, a Streamlight TwinTask 3C, sitting on top of the larger items just waiting for its moment to shine (literally and figuratively).

I returned to the kitchen where I donned rubber gloves and then proceeded to turn off all the lights in the apartment (because that was how they did it on CSI). Turning the flashlight on, I immediately saw a couple small urine stains on the livingroom carpet. Scanning the apartment, I found approximately ten small stains throughout glowing bright green-yellow -- these must've been ones that we missed because more recent "accidents" that I've cleaned up were not visible (we've been spraying her "accidents" with Nature's Miracle Stain & Odor Remover after dabbing the area dry, which does a fantastic job of cleaning up).

Check out one of the pictures I took of the stain:

Looks like we'll be renting a steam cleaner soon...

My New Leica

Actually, the title should read "Our New Leica" because Leica isn't exactly a camera in this instance -- she's the newest member of the Runfola family and is what is considered a "teacup" chihuahua because of her extremely small size.

Born December 3, 2009, Leica was given to us by a family friend whose chihuahua (one of seven different breeds of dogs he has) had two puppies. His wife, apparently, didn't want any more dogs, so he offered us one of the two pups. We acquired her on January 28, nearly two months after she was born.

Since becoming part of the family, she has brought everyone much joy, as well as grief. The grief has been brought on by the difficulty of housebreaking her, but with all three of us taking an active roll in the process, she has already progressed immensely and is running to her "puppy pad" to evacuate. Because she is still a puppy, she isn't always able to control her bodily functions (just like a human baby) and makes on the carpet, but we're always there to clean up after her and spray the area with an odor neutralizing spray.

I've taken charge of the majority of the training and have already, in less than two weeks, taught her to sit. We are now working on "stay" and, after only a couple days, I am able to walk 8-10 feet away without her moving. Daily walks are done without a leash, for now, and she does really well walking by my side and keeping pace. Occasionally, she'll fall behind when something catches her attention, or she'll run a few feet ahead and wait for me to catch up. Walking back, she knows exactly which path to take to get back to our apartment. Leash training will commence soon.

As mentioned before, we're having lots of fun with her and look forward to many years of more fun.