Exodus’ Neighborhood

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Turning East

Steve Betz
7 days ago
5 comments

Most mornings, when we walk Penny and climb Mt Miramar, we look to see how good the ocean view is – how crisp and how far can we see – Pendleton? The Coronado Islands off Mexico? One day last month, when it was exceptionally clear, we could see Catalina Island.

But this morning, the slate grey Pacific held little interest, as our gazes turned east to the rocky summits of eastern San Diego County and beyond. Today is the first day of our Winterreise – our trip to see The Beloved’s folks for Christmas.

Backlit East County

Penny had a good long walk and I know from all the running around and prep that we've been doing that she knows something's up.

Are you coming?

We’re shooting to be on the road today by noon. Wish us luck!

19:34 No mail delivery today.

Austin1234
Dec 15, 2009
1 comment

19:34 No mail delivery today. What's up, they are mailmen, damnit. #
08:04 I'm listening to "Watchtower" by The Echo Falls (bit.ly/7L9JmQ) #pandora #
10:21 Facebook security confusion, read on peeps...tinyurl.com/y97kz7k #

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Early Season on Christmas

Steve Betz
Dec 15, 2009
7 comments

With our upcoming cross-country adventure looming, the Beloved and I decided to celebrate our own Christmas a little early this weekend. On Saturday, we stayed in our jammies, opened our stockings and exchanged gifts. Penny got her first stocking and was excited to find a couple of new toys and a few treats.

Stocking Stuffers

We said no tv or computer and we stayed in, lit the fireplace, listened to Christmas music and read. The weather cooperated for such a day by providing a much too rare all-day rain. Pretty much a perfect day.

Sleeping and Reading

1 comment

The Christmas feast this year was a Bobby Flay recipe that we’d decided on – a veritable mouthful: Pan Seared Duck with Red Chile Pear Sauce, Bourbon-Brown Sugar-Asian Pear Relish and Potato-Blue Cheese Cakes. We had it with an excellent Novy Family Syrah.

PSDwRCPSBBSAPR&PBCC

This week is busy with a lot of prep and packing. I did stop by AAA today while I was out and scored this important travel aide:

Traveling With Your Pet, 10th Edition: The AAA Petbook

AAA

We hit the road in THREE DAYS!

Holiday CSA box Happy Hour: The Persimmon Margarita

Steve Betz
Dec 14, 2009
6 comments

Sometimes things come in our bi-weekly CSA box and you’re just not sure what to do with them. Or more precisely, you’re not sure what to do with SO MUCH of them. Case in point – this summer, we ate a lot of bok-choi. I mean a LOT of bok-choi -- enough that you really run out of new recipes that you want to try and sort of dread seeing more in the next box.

There was a chance that would happen when in our last box, we got a whole bag of persimmons – and we weren’t sure what to do with them all. There was talk of persimmon pudding and maybe some persimmon quickbread… but then Imbibe magazine came to the rescue with something perfect for the holidays...

The Persimmon Margarita

1 3/4 oz. tequila reposado

1 ½ tbsp persimmon puree

1/2 oz. simple syrup

1 oz. lime juice

Beforehand, take your persimmons and cut off the caps and then quarter and blend (skins and all) in a blender. Then combine the ingredients listed above in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a sprinkle of cinnamon.

A good use of fresh fruit

This is a really refreshing drink and is bright and cheerful for the holidays. The little touch of cinnamon also helps it fit right in on any Holiday menu.

09:24 Pip pip cheerio! #

Austin1234
Dec 12, 2009

09:24 Pip pip cheerio! #
18:29 Never watch ufc weigh ins with ur wife #

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13:55 Down at Ace Hardware

Austin1234
Dec 11, 2009
1 comment

13:55 Down at Ace Hardware looking for a toilet plunger, bring on the fun! #
18:10 I'm listening to "Suite For Keyboard by Handel, George Frideric (bit.ly/4UysND) #pandora #

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06:37 Shouldn't all high schools

Austin1234
Dec 10, 2009

06:37 Shouldn't all high schools be like this. Imagine what our world would be like tinyurl.com/yjrpx6k #

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Close Only Counts in Horseshoes and…

Steve Betz
Dec 10, 2009
7 comments

The City of Brotherly Love. This week, the Philadelphia Eagles organization announced that they’d extended head coach Andy Reid’s contract three more years (which would take him through the 2013 seasons). If Big Red makes it through that, he will have coached the Eagles for 15 straight seasons. A remarkable achievement really – only 12 coaches have coached one team for 15 seasons in the NFL. A lot of them are in the Hall of Fame.

And then there’s Andy Reid.

The Reid-McNabb Era with the Eagles (they began together) to me is one of the great water cooler discussions of the last decade, because they make you address the question: Is it more important to be consistently good or to win a Championship? (The obvious answer is that you want both, but we’re not talking about the Steelers or Patriots here…)

Same as it ever was

Since 1999, the Eagles have been one of the winningest teams in the NFL -- amassing a record of 105-66-1, which is essentially 10 wins a season every season for more than a decade. After Reid’s first year, in which the Eagles went from 3 wins to 5, the Birdz have been under 0.500 only once. The Eagles have won the NFC East 5 times (and could win their 6th this season), have made the playoffs 7 times, playing in 5 NFC championship games.

Of course, the blemish on the current (and I suppose now future) regime picks up there. They are 1-4 in NFC Championship games (which is pretty bad considering they were favored in 3 of them) and they lost the only Super Bowl they reached to the Patriots. So, in the end, a lot of success, but no championships.

Let’s contrast that to a different team, baseball’s Florida Marlins. Since 1999, the Marlins have gone a decidedly meh 875-905 (0.491 winning percentage) and have not won the National League East. They have come in 2nd only twice. In those 11 years, they have had one (count ‘em… one) playoff appearance when they were the NL wild-card in 2005. And yet, that year, they went on to win the World Series.

One Time Champs

And so, which would you rather root for:

A team that wins a lot of games, that is relevant year-in-and-year-out, that consistently makes the playoffs and contends for, but never wins a championship – rightfully said to underachieve on the biggest stages.

or

A team that has been generally irrelevant except for one season in which enough things came together for them to squeak into the playoffs and pull off (an over-achieving) Championship, only to return to irrelevance?

And thinking about it, despite all the frustrations and disappointments, I have to say that I was glad to hear that we’ll have a few more years of the Reid-McNabb Eagles trying to get to the summit.

What about you?