The Slope is Steep and the Road is Slippery

This was a sign Peter'd seen in Beijing.  It made sense that it was at a Buddhist garden near the Wall.

It reminds me that, indeed, the trajectory of one's life can be steep, and the means to achieve it difficult and unforgiving.  But that is the journey, is it not?

I just took a pound cake out of the toaster oven (I use the toaster oven for baking things that don't need the volume of the oven).  It looks really nice, browned with a nice light crack running down the center.  It's not a difficult recipe that I followed from a website:

1/2 c. butter, softened
1 1/2 c. granulated sugar (I cut this back to 1 1/4 c. because I appreciate less sweet foods)
3 large eggs (I used 2 jumbo eggs, as they're what I have on hand)
1/2 c. sour cream
1/8 t. baking soda
1 1/2 c. a-p flour (I used unbleached and it's still pretty light in color)

Preheat the oven to 375.
Cream the butter and sugar for a few minutes to maximize volume.  Scrape the bowl.
Beat in the eggs, and add sour cream.
Sift together the flour and baking soda.
Beat in the flour mixture to the egg mixture until a smooth batter forms, scraping the bowl often.
Spray a loaf pan with Pam or some other nonstick product, then dust with flour.
Pour cake batter into the pan.  Cover tightly with foil, then bake for 45 minutes.
Remove foil and bake an additional 15 minutes.
Replace foil and finish baking, about another 15-20 minutes.
Cool on rack.

I think I'll try whipping some heavy cream to top off the pound cake because I do not have any ice cream in the place at the moment.

We have the opportunity for Kat to apply to Scripps Ranch High School, which is where I'd wanted her to go originally.  Mira Mesa High is a "Program Improvement" school, and we have the option of applying for admittance to both La Jolla and Scripps Ranch.  Given our location, it makes much more sense for Kat to go to Scripps Ranch, because the distance from our flat is about the same to either Mira Mesa or Scripps Ranch.  I want her in the better school.  She wants to stay with her friends and acquaintances.  The application is still on the dining table, where she'd left it, probably hoping I would not see it.  But I do want her to apply.  She'll get used to the other kids and they'll soon accept her as a regular student.  I don't want to fuck up this opportunity.

The Slope is Steep and the Road is Slippery.  She'll adapt to her new situation, I'm sure.  And it's not even a guaranteed entry.  It is an application, the implied meaning being that entry is not guaranteed.

The pound cake stuck.  Will need to remember to flour the pan next time,  It tastes quite good.

I think if I make this again, I will add some lemon zest or almond extract to the batter for more flavor.

At any rate, our trip to Avalon, on Catalina Island, was quite pleasant:
We took the morning ferry from Newport Beach, which is just about directly east from Avalon and therefore provides the shortest crossing from the mainland to Avalon.  We arrive in the late morning, and decided to have a snack, so we went to a wine bar with a view of the water and a Blue Planet dvd playing behind the bar.  Afterwards, we intended to go to the Dive Park and get ourselves wet.  While donning my drysuit, I pulled on the neck seal, then felt it suddenly give way (NOT what you want to feel happening with your head inside the suit).  The neck seal had ripped, all the way down to its base, and would need to be replaced.  Peter went to ask the fellow at the fill station if they carried neck seals, and was told no, but that there is another dive shop in town that does carry DUI neck seals.  We decided to go get a replacement neck seal after Peter went on a solo dive.  The entire trip over, I could tell that he was itching to get into the water, so I told him that he can scope out some things to show me on the morrow, when I'll have my drysuit whole again.

I checked into our room, whose preparations were completed while we were out, and took care of emails, which took quite a while as I'm trying to whittle away a lot of the junk that gets sent my way.  Shortly after 4, Peter returned to the hotel, and after hanging up his drysuit and liner, he joined me upstairs for a spell before we went out for dinner.

We ended up going to a rather noisy restaurant for dinner the first night, where Peter ordered fish tacos and I ordered a spinach salad and clam chowder.  The second night, however, we went to a Mexican restaurant on the ground floor instead of climbing up the flight of stairs to Steve's Steakhouse (or some name similar to that).  Peter ordered pork loin, and I ordered a duck enchilada with mole.  My dinner was really quite yummy.  Peter's was the same, also very good.  After we turned down dessert, we waddled back to our room.

The diving was good;  the water was relatively clear, and there was not the huge kelp that typically obstructs one's view in all directions.  We made one dive after breakfast, and one dive between lunch and dinner.  Since I do not have a functioning torch, we did not dive after dinner.  Instead, we sat with our drinks after dinner;  Peter had a glass of merlot and I had a cup of coffee, as I was feeling the cooling air without my hat, which I'd inadvertently left somewhere...

On the second morning, we decided that we'd make a lazy day of it instead of trying to dive, as the hotel checkout time was too early to allow us to have a decent morning dive.  We went instead to a breakfast/lunch restaurant (there are a few in town), where we were served a large omelette with spinach (me), and something more akin to a ploughman's breakfast for Peter.  As we left, we realized we were late in checking out of our room, so we hurried back to the hotel, packed quickly, and went to the storage room to gather everything to take to the ferry.  We were each fairly well-laden, with one pull-along each (I had the rolling duffle, and Peter had the two tanks on a trolley) and one gear bag each.  When we were about a quarter of the way past the point where we'd left our dive bags on a bench, we both realized that in order to get there, it would be faster if I pulled the two and Peter carried both gear bags.  We made it onto the ferry in good enough time, and watched the sun set behind the island.

So there's our trip, in a nutshell (yes, I know, it'a more like a coconut shell than an almond or even a walnut).  Now Peter's on a business trip that will take him to Beijing, Shenzhen, and Seattle.  The original assignment was for him to spend almost two weeks in China. but because he's needed at some meetings in Seattle, the China trip was truncated to three days for (I think) a product launch.

Kat will have me full-time for the next week, which I'm sure she appreciates (yes, my tongue is firmly planted in cheek).