Max Pictures’ Blather

…fauna being primarily ducks (I see a trend forming here).

Miss T and I recently took a late morning walk through the sound end of the UC Davis Arboretum. It was only for about an hour-and-a-half, but the 90° temps had me panting like a St. Bernard by the time we headed back for the car.

You can avoid heatstroke and still take a summertime look at the arboretum via 40 UC Davis Arboretum photos.

Even the ducks were smart enough to keep to the shade.

…in the Bay Area (mostly to V-Town residents). Everywhere else it’s known as the California town that went bankrupt—Vallejo.

Some photos from early May—boats, ducks, trees, sky. 10 V-Town photos on Picasa.

…and eating in and eating out again.

(For those who complain, “Stop posting photos of things you’ve eaten,” I  say, “Stop complaining about my posting photos of things I’ve eaten. Go have a snack, for Pete’s sake.”)

Miss T and I have watched with some interest the opening of a Black Bear Diner in the former Bakers Square location in Davis. Black Bear Diner is a West Coast restaurant chain specializing in comfort food-type dishes served in large portions. (No actual bear meat on the menu.)

Davis being the small town that it is, the hint of anything new gets a lot of local attention. We stopped in at the restaurant last week to see what all the hubbub was about.

Black Bear Diner serves breakfast all day, so despite our lunchtime arrival, I ordered the Bigfoot Chicken Fried Steak and Eggs and Miss T had the Bear’s Choice (pancakes, sausage, eggs). As our orders arrived, there was so much food I burst out laughing. The two biscuits that came with my meal each weighed about half-a-pound, and the rest of my breakfast covered the entire surface of a 14-inch platter.

Miss T was more dismayed than amused by the volume of food served and elected to shift half of her meal into a takeout box. I ate as much of mine as I could (yes, there was that much) and did the same.

In the end, the most impressive aspect of Black Bear Diner is the amount of food served. I recommend it for reasonable prices and comedic effect.

What you don’t want to order at Black Bear Diner is sushi—there isn’t any. In any case, sometimes you just want to have sushi and sashimi at home. For just such occasions we’re fortunate enough to have Oto’s Marketplace in Sacramento. (Pictured: Dice-K roll; albacore; maguro; salmon.)

Finally, we spent this past Fathers’ Day at Black Angus. It’s been six or more years since I was at a Black Angus, so I can’t tell if the company’s January bankruptcy has affected individual locations or not. Our dining experience did have a “no frills” feel to it, but my prime rib was still pretty good.

I’m looking forward to more eating (in, out, up, down) this weekend!

…in anime (Natsume Yūjin-Chō and Ghost Stories).

[Warning: Rambling anime pseudo-review blah-blah-blah follows.]

Miss T and I have been watching two anime series that delve into Japanese ghost folklore. Both feature:

• teen-aged protagonists (like most anime, seemingly);
• powerful spirits in the form of cats;
• Japanese ghosts and monsters;
• and, books with the ability to deal with said ghosts and monsters.

Although we’ve been keeping up with both shows, only one is really worth watching.

Natsume Yūjin-Chō (Natsume’s Book of Friends) is centered on the story of Natsume Takahashi, a quiet teenager who has been troubled from a young age with the ability to see spirits. With his friend and spiritual advisor Madara/Nyanko-sensei—who is in the form of a rotund maneki neko—Natsume goes about releasing spirits previously bound in the “Book of Friends” by his (long-deceased) grandmother Reiko.

Ghost Stories (originally Gakkō no Kaidan) follows a group of five middle– and elementary-school students who battle angry spirits plaguing their town (usually in the old, decrepit school building). To deal with each of the displaced spirits, the protagonists follow instructions from “The Ghost Journal,” a diary left behind by the deceased mother of two of the kids. A powerful antagonistic spirit trapped in the body of the lead character’s pet cat rounds out the main cast.

The stories in Natsume Yūjin-Chō reflect Natsume’s character—hopeful, melancholy, sometimes dealing with loneliness and loss. Likewise, the character design, art direction, and story pacing are careful and deliberate. Ghost Stories episodes, on the other hand, seem haphazardly written. Characters reactions are often in the “why would anyone do that?” category. My own reaction after a recent episode was “why am I still watching this?”

If you’d like to watch Natsume Yūjin-Chō—and you should—Crunchyroll is streaming it online (subtitled only). And, uh, Ghost Stories is available on Netflix.

…in the Central Valley.

It’s cool and dark now, but earlier today was clear and bright and just a tad above 90°. Sadly, our in-the-mid-70s extended spring temperatures are over.

Time to move underground.

…with DHARMA Initiative Disinfectant Spray.

Just because Lost is on hiatus until 2010 there’s no reason to slack off on maintenance and cleaning of your local DHARMA Initiative station. At The Hut we’re running low on some DHARMA Initiative cleaning supplies, but fortunately we still have an ample supply of DI Disinfectant Spray. It’s great for indoor use and we use it to sanitize a wide variety of surfaces. (Doesn’t do a thing against smoke, though.)

Appropriately enough I recently ran across an old magazine ad for DHARMA Initiative Disinfectant Spray. You can view the ad at maxpixpix on Flickr. And, if you’ve run out of DI Disinfectant Spray and need to make some up on the fly, download the following label, print it, and wrap it around your favorite can of non-DI disinfectant:

• DHARMA Initiative Disinfectant Spray (19 OZ)

Let’s keep things clean the DHARMA Initiative way!

…just the opening of another Apple Store.

This past weekend, prior to the WWDC iPhone 3G S announcement, Miss T and I heard that an Apple Store would be opening at the mall—excuse me, at the Westfield Galleria—in Roseville. Since I’m a sucker for free coffee and Apple T-shirts, we got up a bit earlier than we usually would have on a Saturday and headed out for the mall.

With over 200 Apple Stores in the U.S., store openings aren’t really a new thing, so I wasn’t sure how many folks would show up in Roseville. When Miss T and I arrived an hour before the opening, there were about 50 people in queue. But, by the 10 a.m. opening time, the line had grown down the hall, out the door, and into the parking lot.

Even more impressive, though, were the 60+ Apple Store employees on hand for the opening. The Apple staff served coffee, posed for a group photo, held a raucous mini pep rally, and walked the entire length of the waiting line. There were so many staff, the number of customers who could enter the store must have been cut in half.

If you’ve not been to an Apple Retail Store opening, you can virtually experience one via 10 Apple Store Opening photos at maxpixpix on Picasa.

Welcome to the Apple Store! High five!

…over Central Valley.

Don’t know what types of clouds these were (from yesterday), but they reminded Miss T and I of the clouds in Partly Cloudy (the animated short that ran before Up).

A few more cloud photos at 5 Partly Cloudy photos at maxpixpix on Picasa.

…make Lost lemonade.

Even though Lost is on summer (and fall, and part of winter) break, DHARMA Initiative materiel keeps coming. It’s probably because the last time I entered 2-4 in the computer for a supply drop, it seemed like it wasn’t going through, so I kept entering it.

This week’s drop included, for the first time ever, fruit. Not canned fruit. Fruit. With peels and seeds and stuff. While personnel at the island’s stations have some access to fresh tropical fruit—guavas, papayas, etc.—here at The Hut the only plant life in the vicinity are 25 species of weeds. Consequently, Miss T and I were quite happy to receive a crate of nature’s bounty parachuting in from the night sky.

If you’re having trouble getting fresh fruit supply drops because of my earlier computer error (Sorry!), you can make your own DHARMA Initiative Fruit using whatever local varieties you have available and the following sheet of labels:

• DHARMA Initiative Fruit labels

Print out the labels on self-adhesive stock and trim ’em out as you need ’em.

Mmm, fruit.

…from Monterey Bay.

15 More Monterey Bay photos on Picasa from our recent Central Coast trip. Marvel at pictures of the meals we ate and the Clement Monterey.

It’s nice being on vacation.