The dive boat (Horizon) got in around 7:30-ish last night, so I stayed over at Peter's. We stopped on the way and bought a bottle of red wine (might have been a zinfandel), about a half pound wedge of brie, and some fruit for breakfast, as well as some milk. We slept very well, and spent the early morning snuggling and sipping tea. Peter had an 8 o'clock telephone call to take, so I spent some more time relaxing in bed, thinking about our dives this past weekend.
We ended up not going to San Clemente after all because the U.S. Navy was busy shelling the place (how much practice the Navy needs in shooting onshore targets is unknown to me, but it must be a lot, because the island was closed to divers) for the entire weekend. We did go to the ocean side of Catalina, to Farnsworth Bank, where we'd gone diving in May and enjoyed the hydrocoral. There were lots of little fish about, including the California State fish, the Garibaldi. As juveniles, the Garibaldi sports electric blue spots, and are quite stunning in addition to being extremely cute!
After Farnsworth, we went to another site, but I don't remember that one so well because I'd skipped the third dive, and then went on the fourth dive after taking a much-needed nap in the early afternoon.
The next day, we were at Santa Barbara Island, where there is a sea lion rookery and we were greeted and buzzed by several younger sea lions. On the surface, we could hear the adults calling back and forth, their voices echoing off the rocky shore.
For the third day, we returned to Catalina, but closer to the south end of the island, closer to but not in Avalon's Dive Park. Visibility was poor on the first dive, so we scuttled our second dive. Some more adventurous divers went on a second dive while those of us staying on board began packing up our things to return to San Diego. I was finished packing my dive bag in about a half hour, and my drysuit hung, drying, on one of many hooks meant for hanging dry- and wetsuits. Peter and I napped a bit while the rest of the divers got back on board and the boat left Catalina for San Diego, a 7- to 8-hour drive.
Today, I've spent a lot of time catching up on my email inboxes, and also checked my postal mail. There is quite a contest between two people in our district for City Council, Carol Kim and Chris Cate. There is quite a spate of negative ads running from Chris Cate's campaign, which makes me feel much less inclined to vote for him. Instead of talking about his own character and his ability to serve the public, it appears that Mr Cate is trying to paint Ms Kim as unworthy of the post and therefore people ought to vote for him instead. Typical Repugnican move, in my not-quite-humble opinion.
I made a shopping trip up to Sprouts to buy dinner ingredients, including quinoa for stuffing the 8-ball squash we'd received as part of our share last time. We ended with quite a bit of extra filling, so I might spread it into a baking dish and sprinkle it with some cheese and just bake it to eat on its own, or spread it, along with the ground beef I'd bought, also from Sprouts, between some lasagna noodles to bake for dinner. I don't have any ricotta, but perhaps the vegetable filling will be enough, since I don't plan to make a very large lasagna. I'm really just using up the remaining lasagna noodles that we have.
I've been toying with the idea of making another ganache, and then making some more puffs to fill with pastry cream, though this time, I will make sure I make the puffs when Kat is home so she can help me fill the piping bag with the pastry batter, as it really does seem to be a two-person task.
Tomorrow, for lunch, I will go to the Energy Innovation Center for a presentation on Net Zero Energy Buildings. It will be very encouraging to learn about the use of modern technology to tackle our biggest challenges, with energy being our primary concern as our species evolves beyond burning fossil fuels for energy.
Who knows? I might even feel motivated enough to go to the gym tomorrow, as my visits there have been few and far between of late.
For now, though, I will head to bed to try to get a good night's sleep.
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