Blog Catch-up

Well, I sure haven't posted in a very long time. Got out of the habit I suppose. And because it takes a good hour to edit the photos and post them, so I continually put it off. But following are my photo picks from the last two months, from Thanksgiving to Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and hopefully, being caught up, I can continue to post regularly.

I didn't narrate these posts very thoroughly because of how many there were, but hopefully you can at least look over the photos and get an idea of my recent experiences. We've gone on a few other hikes on which we forgot to bring a camera, but there will certainly be more.

Either way, enjoy the pictures, and I love you all!

Mt. Lukens

This is the hike I did alone that nearly crippled me for about 4 days. It was a great hike, despite the post-insane-climb disorder that developed, showing symptoms such as waddling, wincing, buckling knees, and lots of whining. It was a little too tucked away to do alone, perhaps, even though it is the highest peak still inside the city of Los Angeles. I'll do more populated hikes in the future when I go alone. Brian had to work that day, and I did not; it was Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

About 3,500 foot ascent, 4.2 miles one way, .7 miles of flat surface, the rest, and I mean ALL of the rest, uphill. I was concerned about it getting dark when I turned around to go back down the mountain at 2:30pm, so I jogged down, and made it to the base at 3:30pm, meaning it took me half the time to descend the mountain as it did climb it. That's what ended up being painful later. The descent, not the climb. Anyway - pictures to follow!


The view of Mt. Lukens from the freeway. I can't help but point at it and say, "I'm gonna hike you, mountain!"



What the trail looked like most of the time, when it wasn't open to the canyon. It followed the ridge of the mountain pretty much the entire time, which made for incredible views throughout most of the hike.



A view into the San Gabriel Mountains...





4.2 miles is a decent hike in only one direction, so when I saw this I knew I was close to the peak, and stepped forward proudly. Being at the top with the peak in view is a great, great feeling. You know you've already accomplished it, and with just a little more to go, you can savor that accomplishment.




A view from the top, looking north.



I found this interesting seal - a seal of the Survey Control System to mark that they have indeed surveyed this mountain.

Back down at the bottom, in canyon dusk, I took a picture of the very beginning of the trail. This was a great hike. I had the heebie jeebies every now and then being alone because the wind was howling in the canyon, but the trail was perfectly difficult, with amazing views and a clear trail. I'd love to do it again, but next time with Brian.

Where I Work!!!

At last, pictures of not where I spend my weekENDS, but my weekDAYS. To begin...


This is Matt, the classical engineer I work with up in Burbank. Needless to say, I don't get TOO bored working there.




This is his main editing workstation in one of the rooms.



This is in the middle room, which actually has two PCs, and this one is used for all of the design and printing work for the CD and DVD labels. I spend plenty of time here and at the cutting board to the left...



This is the third room, which is a sound booth and extra editing room. I often edit here on the laptop, mostly taking audio files from simple recording sessions and gluing them together to make an audio file of the entire piece of music to make it sound like there were no edits or cuts. It is basically taking the best of each part and gluing it together to make the best possible version of the piece of music that was recorded, if that makes sense.



Now THIS is the entrance to where I work and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Archives, located in the Los Angeles Hall of Records.



That's Steve there in the distance. He is the archivist and has worked here for 18 years, I believe. To the near left is my computer station.



The aisles and aisles of reel-to-reel tapes, boxes of programs, and anything and everything else that might be archive by the philharmonic.



My station in the back where I knit and transfer Digital Audio Tapes to CD.




Steve makes all sorts of creations with the copying machine, and this is just one of them. This is simply a collage of the funkiest faces that people have been caught making in a photograph. That and a bit of political commentary.



Here's a closer look.

That's that. I like both places that I work. Interesting people, interesting places...income......

Joshua Tree National Park

Joshua Tree National Park was beautiful. The desert is so peaceful, so simple in some ways, and so open. Hiking in it felt more like you belonged by it's side than as a conquerer of it's peaks. Plus, we stayed the night there, saw the sunset, and were up early enough to climb to a peak for the sunrise. The sky in the desert is striking - it rests into the sunset not as if going to sleep, but as if opening up to night. And at sunrise, the sun must love shining long against the plains and igniting the rocks into forms, a three dimensional blooming from silhouette. It is the most quiet sunrise I've ever seen.

We had a good time, to say the least.


Brian peeks through some rocks on the first leg of our hike.



The backpacker's yoga: removing a rock from the hiking boot.



The moon and a big (and I mean BIG) pile of rocks.



A joshua tree and the moon.



Brian making efforts to communicate with this whimsically wicked old tree.





Climbed up a small rock hill to have a snack and choose a place to set up camp. This, I will say over and over again, was the best: surveying our surroundings and finally deciding on a camping spot on a slope that flattened out right below a peak in the near distance by pointing my finger and playfully declaring, "There!" Backcountry hiking is so cool. You just walk, and walk, and explore, and take care of your own darn self when it comes to sleeping in the wilderness. Couldn't be better.



Near the slope where we camped, I got a kick out of this silhouette, as it looked like a comical community of desert cacti staring out into the sunset.



The next morning, we climbed over the peak to start our hike back to the car.



We ended up following a dry creek down to the flatland, which provided for some great views.



Do you see all of the joshua trees below?



There were a lot of really cool cacti and plants, and this was one that always made me want to refer to it as the Old Man Cactus.



Man, I loved this cacti. I always remembered this kind of cactus being in our backyard wherever we lived when I was growing up, and here they were both yellow and bright red, short and quite tall. And what can I say, everything in the desert has a somewhat humorous quality, and I wanted to make sure that it was demonstrated...



We were proud of our scrambling with backpacks down what would be a series of small waterfalls after a heavy rain. It was fun to follow the dry creek's path and hop down giant boulders through a little cascading canyon ... you can see it in the background in this picture.



I made my best effort to disguise myself among the joshua trees at one point...



With the car in sight, we said farewell to beautiful Joshua Tree and looked forward to a hearty breakfast/lunch and some hot coffee...

Christmas in Northern California

Okay - here are some pictures from our Christmas vacation up north. Once again, there is minimal narration, so please enjoy the pictures!

Brian and I at our casino steakhouse dinner the evening we arrived.


Mom and Jim in the casino after dinner...



Linda and Bob...


And the Hokey Pokey, of course!!!



We took a walk down to Lake Oroville the next day ... it was very cool and refreshing and the sun had come out to play for just a little while...



Lake Oroville in the sunset.



This framed itself well....



We saw a deer on the hillside right before driving away. The lighting kind of reminds me of Gone With The Wind...




Changing the oil in my car. The needed to be done, badly, and I wasn't going to pay Jiffy Lube the $37 and some odd cents they quoted me.



Christmas Eve brought unexpected dinner guests.



And I must have been having too much fun on Christmas day to take pictures, but I couldn't leave the Christmas blog without a picture from Christmas dinner!! So here ya go! Actually, we took a lot of great poloroids, but without a scanner, I can't do much about posting them!

I LOVED my Christmas visit. I couldn't be happier to be close to my family again, in both northern and southern California. Oh California, how I love thee....

Echo Mountain

Another one of our hikes! This time it had been a cold weekend and it had recently snowed on the mountains.

Hey guess what, there really ARE mountains in Los Angeles. This sight still confuses me. I just never, ever imagined big snowy mountains behind downtown Los Angeles. It is really quite pretty here on clear days...


This is a picture of the mountain we were about to climb. We started the trail directly at the base of the mountain at the end of this street.


I love it when you start hiking up and as soon as you've gained a decent amount of elevation, you turn around and see the city stretch endlessly beyond. How smoggy downtown is seems to be a good gauge of the air clarity that day. Today was a pretty smoggy day. Still looks neat though...


This is the trail we climbed, and the view from about halfway up.



There was a fine powder of snow on these mountains, which is positively thrilling in Los Angeles.



I liked that you could see the trees turning in the city below...



A look back down at the trail from which we came...



A part of the panorama at the top of the trail. Mountains rose beyond us but this was the ending point for this section of the trail. An old railroad was built up here I suppose to bring passengers to and from a mountain retreat. Maybe I should have read more of the historical information...huh. I think I was eating trail mix and staring at the view...



At last, Brian checks our topo maps against the peaks surrounding us. He's a good mountain man. I never knew that the word "orienteering" existed before him. But I also never had as much fun saying "rocket scienteering" before him either. Or "rocket scientry." Try it, it's fun.