New Camera!

Just purchased a Canon Powershot A95...it is a step down from my old G3, but it will fit in my purse quite nicely, and thus make it mure likely that I will actually use it and post more of my own pictures on this weblog (and I just had to keep that flip-over LCD, I love it so). I'm still undecided as to whether or not to make this blog more personal or more about Monrovia. I rarely get comments, so I invite you to offer your suggestions.

What I've noticed lately around town is that Pavilions is getting a new facelift; perhaps they will use this as an excuse to raise their prices once again while offering less variety on their shelves. I've noticed that it's going in the direction of one brand: the Vons brand. I'm not knocking Vons...it's a darn sight better than Ralphs, but still has nothing on Trader Joe's or Whole Foods, the mecca for foodies. Naturally the farmer's market every Friday has it's own charms, and I'd like to get a pipeline into the small farmer co-op supplier.

Perhaps we could start up our own food exchange? I've got a HUGE avocado tree ready to drop tons of fruit. I know of an alley where there are tons of ripe grapes and a peach tree that is producing. Nothing like seeing trees full of fruit and no-one to appreciate them!

At my place I've planted two orange trees, a lemon, a lime, a pear and a pomegranate. I've got an apple tree in a tub, waiting for me to finally make up my mind where it will go. It's a Gala that I purchased here, but I'd be interested to hear anyone's experience growing these in the Monrovia area.

Siggraph 2005

I attended the Siggraph conference today and was particularly interested in the emerging technologies room. One of my favorites was a map projection that you could load any section of onto a tablet PC just by setting the tablet against the map. The section would then transfer onto the tablet, and could be zoomed in on or otherwise manipulated in any fashion that would work on a regular PC. In addition, you could draw on the tablet, and the resulting lines would then appear on the wall map. Very cool.

Fluffy bread

I haven't seen this brand on Monrovia store shelves, but I would say that most of what we have conforms to this description: soft. Soft and squishy! If anyone knows of a good bakery nearby, I'm all ears!

European visitors

I haven't taken any photos this week, so will talk about what else I've been doing. I hosted visitors from Austria and Poland who stayed with me for two nights. I am a member of the Hospitality Club, an international organization dedicated to cross-cultural travel and hosting of travelers. I highly recommend hosting to anyone who would like to learn about other cultures, but who don't have the time, money or inclination to travel. I also recommend it for anyone traveling who wants to meet people and really learn about the places they are visiting.

My guests were very respectful and appreciative of anything I offered them, and I was happy that they left with a good impression of me as a representative of an American. Funny, the thing that they were most confused about regarding American culture was the bread—yes, the bread you buy in the supermarket. Unfortunately, Pavilions was closed by the time we got there, and so had to go to Ralphs, which has a terrible selection of bread. We tried to find the brand that was the least squishy, but that didn't necessarily mean it would taste good. I really couldn't give them a sufficient answer about why our bread is so bad, but my theory was that either a) many people just don't know how good bread can be and don't demand it; or b) there is a pervasive idea in the U.S. that somehow foods should last as long as possible, and as a result, will never taste that great. Any other theories out there?