My swim classes have been really fun. One had to be canceled, so the make-up class is tomorrow, but I've really enjoyed the classes. I've gotten to the point where I'm not embarrassed to attempt trying a stroke I'm not very good at in a pool, so now when I go swimming with Tim, I can do the breast stroke. Tim is really good about feeding me tips on what I'm doing wrong, I was just always too embarrassed to do a stroke badly in front of everyone at the pool. Now, I'm not so embarrassed so I can just swim and learn.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Soccer Tournament!
Last weekend, my friends Jason and Beto came up to me at my soccer game and said that they had put together a 7v7 tournament for this Saturday, and were in need of women. I agreed to play, so today I woke up, walked the dog, munched on some cereal, and pedaled over to the Gilman fields! I was playing on Beto's team; he and his good friends are Mexican, so they called the team Mexican Ajax. They were all really good at both English and Spanish and they really enjoyed teasing me. There was a guy named Miguel that I had a lot of fun playing with. He was really good at playing, and he was really nice and helpful about giving me tips as to how I can improve my play. All of the people on the team were really jovial, and at the end Beto asked me if I'd be interested if he put together another team. My reply was "of course!!" Miguel also asked me for my email so that he could tell me about a pickup game that he plays in twice a week so that I can go to that and get better! It was funny because when I first met him, he told me he lived in Newark, which is a little south of Berkeley. Then he asked where I lived, and when I said at the top of the hill in North Berkeley, he started asking about road names. He knew the area really well, so I was confused...I asked if he had ever lived in Berkeley and he shook his head no. He tried to explain why he knew the roads so well, but I couldn't understand him. Later that night, in the email about pickup games, he told me that he knew the roads in the area so well because one of his jobs is a flower delivery man. No wonder!
My ultimate team was practicing on a nearby field, so during the lunch break, I pedaled over to say "hi" and run around with them for a while. It was nice to see them again, since I couldn't play in the last two league night games because of my swim class!
At the end of the tournament, I hung around for a while talking to the guys, and then I headed over to Pam's. We walked over to Viks and had a lovely Indian lunch. After lunch, we pedaled over to my house to take Navi for a nice walk. I had a headache, so we decided we'd drive Navi to the beach and stop at Target to get some coffee on the way. Once we got to target, I remembered that Navi still had advantix drying on her fur, so I decided to take her on a walk around Target and go to the pet store instead. We bought her a few treats at the pet store, got coffee at Target, and headed home to use the grill pan I bought at Williams-Sonoma on Friday! We made chipotle pork burgers which were good, but I don't think I would make them again. We also grilled corn on the grill pan, which came out amazingly well. We ate the corn with honey ancho-chile butter which Pam is now addicted to! We also had a wonderful salad. After dinner, both Pam and I were pretty exhausted so she headed home and I fell asleep before 9:30!!!
My ultimate team was practicing on a nearby field, so during the lunch break, I pedaled over to say "hi" and run around with them for a while. It was nice to see them again, since I couldn't play in the last two league night games because of my swim class!
At the end of the tournament, I hung around for a while talking to the guys, and then I headed over to Pam's. We walked over to Viks and had a lovely Indian lunch. After lunch, we pedaled over to my house to take Navi for a nice walk. I had a headache, so we decided we'd drive Navi to the beach and stop at Target to get some coffee on the way. Once we got to target, I remembered that Navi still had advantix drying on her fur, so I decided to take her on a walk around Target and go to the pet store instead. We bought her a few treats at the pet store, got coffee at Target, and headed home to use the grill pan I bought at Williams-Sonoma on Friday! We made chipotle pork burgers which were good, but I don't think I would make them again. We also grilled corn on the grill pan, which came out amazingly well. We ate the corn with honey ancho-chile butter which Pam is now addicted to! We also had a wonderful salad. After dinner, both Pam and I were pretty exhausted so she headed home and I fell asleep before 9:30!!!
Friday, August 20, 2010
Swim and Emeryville!
Today, I decided that I have now swum in three of Cal's four pools, and I wanted to see what the last pool was like. The last pool is called Golden Bear Pool, and it is on the Clark-Kerr section of campus. Tim and Pam decided they'd like to go along, so we all met and started swimming! Pam is learning to swim the strokes properly, so Tim was giving us both good advice, and he helped me with my breaststroke. I still need a lot of practice, but hopefully I'll get somewhere!
After a while, Tim got bored and headed home. Pam and I swam a little longer and then we had plans to head into Emeryville. We were going to bike over, but we realized that it might be hard to bungee cord a large, long package to a bike, so we decided to bike to my house, and take the car instead. We did that, and drove over to Emeryville to the Williams Sonoma to pick up the grill pan I have had my eye on for a while! After that, we headed over to the berkeley bowl to pick up some scrumptious food. It was pretty late, so we decided to try cooking our first meal on it on Saturday instead, so I picked up some ravioli and stuff for salad to make a quick dinner with when I got home.
I dropped Pam and her bike off at home, and then headed home to make dinner! I came home to a ravenous Timmy, so I made some artichoke and cheese ravioli and salad. We didn't like the ravioli much, but the salad was good. We also had tomato, basil and red onion bruschetta that I had made the day before on toasted bread, which is always delicious!
Tim decided he was going to head into Tahoe with our group of friends this weekend. I declined because of my soccer tournament tomorrow, and because that way I could stay home and watch the dog. I headed to bed while Tim was packing up, ready to wake up and play soccer!
After a while, Tim got bored and headed home. Pam and I swam a little longer and then we had plans to head into Emeryville. We were going to bike over, but we realized that it might be hard to bungee cord a large, long package to a bike, so we decided to bike to my house, and take the car instead. We did that, and drove over to Emeryville to the Williams Sonoma to pick up the grill pan I have had my eye on for a while! After that, we headed over to the berkeley bowl to pick up some scrumptious food. It was pretty late, so we decided to try cooking our first meal on it on Saturday instead, so I picked up some ravioli and stuff for salad to make a quick dinner with when I got home.
I dropped Pam and her bike off at home, and then headed home to make dinner! I came home to a ravenous Timmy, so I made some artichoke and cheese ravioli and salad. We didn't like the ravioli much, but the salad was good. We also had tomato, basil and red onion bruschetta that I had made the day before on toasted bread, which is always delicious!
Tim decided he was going to head into Tahoe with our group of friends this weekend. I declined because of my soccer tournament tomorrow, and because that way I could stay home and watch the dog. I headed to bed while Tim was packing up, ready to wake up and play soccer!
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Swim Class 2!
Today I had my second swim class, and we focused on backstroke after freestyling for a little while. He had us kick on our back while paying attention to our head position so that our bodies floated correctly in the water. After that, he had us stroke while paying attention to getting a full body rotation yet keeping our heads entirely still. I don't have a terrible time keeping my head still when I have a unique cloud to look at, or a ceiling, but the cloud cover that day was perfectly white and uniform! As a result, my head wobbled all over the place and my swim instructor had a good laugh. He told me to try putting an almost empty water bottle on my forehead and concentrate on getting the full rotation while not letting the bottle fall off. I was hesitant but tried it and the water bottle immediately fell off. I had thought it would fall on my face and hurt, but it just kept falling into the water. I will have to work on that so that I can be more streamlined without a head wobble.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Pork: The Other White Meat
Pam is an assistant for a kitchen school called Kitchen on Fire and this week the school offered their assistants a 2-for-1 deal on a class called Pork: The Other White Meat. Neither Pam or I cook very much pork and some of the recipes looked really interesting so we decided to take the class together!
When we got to the class, I was a little baffled as to how the class would work because there was only one stove. There were a few ovens, but it was clear that the majority of the work was going to be done on the stove. I was also immediately turned off because the owner of the school wasted the first 15 or so minutes doing shameless advertising of the other classes available. Look, I paid a lot of money to learn how to cook, not listen to you talk about how cool your classes are. I'm fine with you handing over a pamphlet with the schedule of upcoming classes or something, but I'm not going to listen to you advertise. You even have more chance of my signing up for another class if you just hand me a written schedule. Anyhow, after the guy finished babbling on, the Chef took over and provided us a brief overview of all of the recipes. After 45 minutes or so, she had gone over all of the recipes, and told us that each recipe had a little station, and we could pick which recipe we wanted to work on and just work on it.
It was a madhouse. There were probably 12 or so people in the class, and I have never felt so uncomfortable in a kitchen! People were walking around clueless with hot pans, hot baking sheets, people would be crowded around the one stove trying to work on various foods, and all of the Chefs seemed to tell us different instructions. The main chef kept telling Pam and I to check the pork ribs every 30 seconds, and every time we went to check or re-apply glaze, another Chef would tell us that we should only check every 10 minutes. It was a little frustrating, and I didn't really like it. I had imagined something very different.
However, most of the food was really good, and I would make 4 out of 5 of the recipes again! There was a pulled pork recipe that you can do in the oven, which is really cool! I always thought you needed a smoker, but you don't. I don't even like smokey flavors all that much, so it's nice to have this version! There was a pork ribs recipe that tasted delicious, and I think Tim will really enjoy that recipe. My favorite was probably the recipe with pork chops and a rosemary mustard sauce...it was so tasty! There was also an indian spiced pork burger that was mild for indian food, but still really tasty. The only pork recipe I didn't like was a pork tenderloin that was braised in thyme milk. It wasn't bad, but I've had much tastier pork tenderloin that didn't need nearly as long to cook!
All in all, I think it was pretty successful! I'm not sure whether I'd take another cooking class at Kitchen on Fire, though. I need to take a cooking class somewhere else to see what other schools do. I guess I had a more home-ec like vision of a cooking class in my head where everyone had a stove and an oven and worked in pairs to make all of the meals together. Maybe that's unrealistic, but I was hoping I'd have more hands on experience with all of the recipes, rather than observations of a chaotic kitchen!
When we got to the class, I was a little baffled as to how the class would work because there was only one stove. There were a few ovens, but it was clear that the majority of the work was going to be done on the stove. I was also immediately turned off because the owner of the school wasted the first 15 or so minutes doing shameless advertising of the other classes available. Look, I paid a lot of money to learn how to cook, not listen to you talk about how cool your classes are. I'm fine with you handing over a pamphlet with the schedule of upcoming classes or something, but I'm not going to listen to you advertise. You even have more chance of my signing up for another class if you just hand me a written schedule. Anyhow, after the guy finished babbling on, the Chef took over and provided us a brief overview of all of the recipes. After 45 minutes or so, she had gone over all of the recipes, and told us that each recipe had a little station, and we could pick which recipe we wanted to work on and just work on it.
It was a madhouse. There were probably 12 or so people in the class, and I have never felt so uncomfortable in a kitchen! People were walking around clueless with hot pans, hot baking sheets, people would be crowded around the one stove trying to work on various foods, and all of the Chefs seemed to tell us different instructions. The main chef kept telling Pam and I to check the pork ribs every 30 seconds, and every time we went to check or re-apply glaze, another Chef would tell us that we should only check every 10 minutes. It was a little frustrating, and I didn't really like it. I had imagined something very different.
However, most of the food was really good, and I would make 4 out of 5 of the recipes again! There was a pulled pork recipe that you can do in the oven, which is really cool! I always thought you needed a smoker, but you don't. I don't even like smokey flavors all that much, so it's nice to have this version! There was a pork ribs recipe that tasted delicious, and I think Tim will really enjoy that recipe. My favorite was probably the recipe with pork chops and a rosemary mustard sauce...it was so tasty! There was also an indian spiced pork burger that was mild for indian food, but still really tasty. The only pork recipe I didn't like was a pork tenderloin that was braised in thyme milk. It wasn't bad, but I've had much tastier pork tenderloin that didn't need nearly as long to cook!
All in all, I think it was pretty successful! I'm not sure whether I'd take another cooking class at Kitchen on Fire, though. I need to take a cooking class somewhere else to see what other schools do. I guess I had a more home-ec like vision of a cooking class in my head where everyone had a stove and an oven and worked in pairs to make all of the meals together. Maybe that's unrealistic, but I was hoping I'd have more hands on experience with all of the recipes, rather than observations of a chaotic kitchen!
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Intermediate Swim Class!
I signed up for an intermediate swim class at Cal a while ago, and I had my first class tonight! The class description said that you would learn to improve your freestyle and backstroke, and learn breaststroke. If there is enough time, you might learn the start of butterfly and/or flip turns. I already know how to do flip turns, and my freestyle is pretty good, but I was interested in improving my backstroke and breaststroke so that I can get a better workout in the pool. If I like the classes, I can take further skill levels and get even better, and learn butterfly, too! There are six classes over a three week period, so it will be interesting!
The class was held at the Strawberry Canyon pool, which is Cal's pool that they use for classes so there are always a lot of little children running around. When I got there, I wasn't really sure where the class was, or who the teacher was, so I ended up sitting and observing until people were practicing their strokes and I figured out who the teacher was. He was a little shocked at first that I was deaf, and asked if he could just speak really loudly. When I said that I couldn't really hear at all and I would just lipread, he was really nervous at first but calmed down fast when he realized that I didn't really have a problem keeping up. He was really observant about making sure he was looking at me so that I could lipread him, and he was also extremely calm and patient. I liked him a lot, and if I take more advanced classes I will probably try to see which classes he is teaching.
He started out with freestyle and had us all kick while floating on our sides. Our head position was really important, because your eyes should always be facing the bottom of the pool, but the top of your head and your neck need to be in line or your body will either float weird, or sink. After a while, he started us stroking and kicking and paying a lot of attention to our rotation. He helped me perfect the stroke a little bit, so I think I have an even nicer stroke now! In the next class, we will start the backstroke.
The class was held at the Strawberry Canyon pool, which is Cal's pool that they use for classes so there are always a lot of little children running around. When I got there, I wasn't really sure where the class was, or who the teacher was, so I ended up sitting and observing until people were practicing their strokes and I figured out who the teacher was. He was a little shocked at first that I was deaf, and asked if he could just speak really loudly. When I said that I couldn't really hear at all and I would just lipread, he was really nervous at first but calmed down fast when he realized that I didn't really have a problem keeping up. He was really observant about making sure he was looking at me so that I could lipread him, and he was also extremely calm and patient. I liked him a lot, and if I take more advanced classes I will probably try to see which classes he is teaching.
He started out with freestyle and had us all kick while floating on our sides. Our head position was really important, because your eyes should always be facing the bottom of the pool, but the top of your head and your neck need to be in line or your body will either float weird, or sink. After a while, he started us stroking and kicking and paying a lot of attention to our rotation. He helped me perfect the stroke a little bit, so I think I have an even nicer stroke now! In the next class, we will start the backstroke.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)