Mistry family site – Page 2 – Our family website, blog, photos

Books / Thoughts

2020 Coronavirus Pandemic update… 🦠

Apr 8, 2020Apr 17, 2020

So I can remember when I look back. This is how things were 8 April 2020

Stock market tanks ~30%, impacting all savings and retirement accounts
6.6 million people filed for unemployment heading to expected 10 million
Schools cancelled – parents and kids at home for 3 wks so far…
Prineshs last semester at Caltech online only & graduation canceled
Krishan in Brooklyn with his friends, minimal impact to his tutoring so far
Riki in Melbourne – not much news
CDC recently recommend wearing masks outdoors
Self-distancing measures everywhere
Panic buying sets in and we have empty shelves for (of all things) toiletpaper, flour, eggs, sanitizers, wipes
Huge lines at groceries / Costco limiting number of shoppers
Restaurants, bars, stores, businesses all closed
Parks, trails, entire cities locked up.
Olympics and All major sports events / seasons cancelled.
Concerts, tours, festivals, entertainment events – cancelled.
Weddings, family celebrations, holiday gatherings – cancelled.
Church / religious services cancelled, some Repub states holding out
No gatherings of 50 or more, then 20 or more, now 5 or more.
Don’t socialize with anyone outside of your home.
Children’s outdoor play parks are closed.
Shortage of masks, gowns, gloves for our front-line workers.
Shortage of ventilators for the critically ill.
Some manufacturers, distilleries and other businesses switch their lines to help make visors, masks, hand sanitizer and PPE.
Government closes the border to all non-essential travel.
NY Javits center, other facilities ready for the overflow of Covid-19 patients.
Press conferences daily from NY Governor (good) and admin/trump (bad).
Chief Medical Officer Dr Fauci pushed to background on daily updates re US new cases, recoveries, and deaths.
Barely anyone in the street or on the roads.
People wearing masks and gloves outside.
Essential service workers are terrified to go to work.
Medical field workers are afraid to go home to their families.

This is the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) Pandemic, declared March 11th, 2020.

Hikes & Walks

South Fortuna trail and flowers…

Mar 15, 2020Mar 16, 2020

Headed off early to Mission trails South Fortuna Trail, and was amazed by the number of cars already parked and people hitting the trails to deal with social distancing for the coronavirus outbreak

Rain over the past few days left the ground a bit soggy, but it was lovely to see some of the flowers beginning to peek out. No California poppies yet, but lots of other bright and brilliant little flowers were blooming along with fields of California daisies.

After completing approximately 6 miles on the Fortuna trail, drove around to the old mission dam, and pulled over to take some pictures of some spectacular road side treasure flowers.

The entire Dam street was jammed with people taking their kids out and going hiking themselves, so headed back for a nice quarantini and soak in hot tub 👍🏼❤️

Events

Our actual 7th Anniversary…!

Mar 2, 2020Mar 2, 2020

So, another 4 years have zoomed by, and it was our actual 7th anniversary this weekend…on a Saturday, just like on 29/2/92…

We had a nice roof-top dinner at a friends on the Thu overlooking Balboa park, with great food and – although the sun had set – views of the city and planes coming in for landing… I made my hummus and the new recipe meatballs – turkey with pork, bread, stock, onion, masala & parmesan – which are coming out great, as well as butter-chicken which everyone loved.

Our friend Lynne had given us a bag of limes from her tree, so we made Lime Marmalade, lime pickles and a pineapple-lime chutney, and salted some cutup limes for another pickle. I’m on the lookout for wild fennel for a new infusion, and hit on the idea of using the iNaturist app to see where recent sightings have been but, so far, have only have old, dry plants…

Fri morning, we headed to Rachelles for lunch with the old ladies that D does her pastel art with – she’s their mascot, and probably the youngest person there (I was one of 2 guys…) Her house up by La Jolla is lovely & eclectic and has a hedge / wall of beautiful ficus trees all round. Then off to our favorite little walk off La Jolla Farms road, where the rabbit and hummingbirds didnt disappoint, and we took pics of D with her glamorous straight hair, posing with various backdrops, and then down to Blacks beach where lots of surfers were out (had to edit her hiking boots out of the pics!)

On Sat, I had laid out the new silver & copper rings I made in the lovely copper enamelled bowls for her to find in the morning, and she gave me a sumi-e painting of the many things we’ve done. She ended up pretty much ignoring the rings, and apparently chose to wear a crappy earlier version of the enameled initial earrings I’d made weeks ago…

We went to the fish market, which was packed, including some politician being filmed shaking hands with the locals… The catch looked great, but we were too chicken to try anything new or exotic… After her meltdown, I dropped her and went to my pottery, where my new pieces had all come out pretty well, and I trimmed the bottoms and also found the rounded vase from the most recent firing

On returning, she was still in a complaining mood, but had made lots of food, including prepping her biriyani… She didn’t know what we were going to be doing so, while helping, I coordinated the ‘surprise’ guests for the evening. Unfortunately the front desk wasn’t staffed well that day, so it made it difficult to arrange – I stashed a box with a bottle of wine, bottle of Rye, plates and forks on the 10th floor for our friends to set up the surprise. Thankfully, Steve and Lynne were game, and while Faisal and Karin came to the apt, the others managed to make their way in with me popping out under the guise of ‘looking for my Amazon delivery’… But, of course, D was too smart and suspected / expected something to be going on… Faisal was nudged into asking to ‘see the roof deck’ so we headed up with drinks.

D saw our guests as she walked around the outside of the building, and made knowing noises indicating she knew something was going on.. Thankfully, they were all very excited, so we took pics, grabbed everything and headed back down to the apt, to munch on D’s delicious samosas, eat hummus and Joe’s excellent rosy red lamb chops – he has been challenged to a ‘poke-off’ as he claimed his is the best…!

The gang liked my homemade gin & anise vodka, the red wine was a hit with Lisa & Steve & I polished off a good amount of the Rittenhouse 100 proof ‘bottled in bond’ Rye, which was excellent…Rajiv had made some delicious soup, and his little niece (?) had a nice time trying everything before he had to leave….

Needless to say, a fun time was had by all, and people were almost too stuffed to make a dent in the delicious biriyani… Lisa demonstrated her red-wine-cleaning-off-the-carpet technique and had lots of good notes to swap with Lynne on many subjects, including jewishness…!

Woke late and groggy the next cloudy day and headed off to the Del Dios Highlands walk.. It was beautful as usual, and the unrelenting steady steep slope had us huffing and puffing to the top. We spoke to our dear friend Ken near the top, eating into his time to check out the ladies at his yoga class. After a good look at the reservoir we headed back, marvelling at how mountain bikers could actually make it up *and* down the same slope we were having trouble walking…

Back to the apt, feeling lazy, had a quick nap and downloaded some movies for D to watch. While I plodded thru my Spanish homework D watched Parasite and announced it was very good…

So… we shall see what the next anniversary brings… Thanks if you managed to read this far! Leave a message…!

Hobbies

Pounding the pound…

Feb 19, 2020Mar 2, 2020

Just as with Brexit, ‘pounding the pound’ is a technique…😂😂😢.

Attempted the usual techniques described in converting a coin to a ring, and discovered that the Mexican peso and the British pound share some similarities with their 2 colored coins!

Uncategorized

Cuyamaca Peak hike 0220

Feb 18, 2020Feb 19, 2020

Decided rather late to head out to the Cuyamaca state forest and hike the second highest peak in the area.

As always we balked from paying the state park fee, but because there was no good phone reception and I couldn’t figure out an alternative hike, we bit the bullet and paid!

Alltrails app suggested we take the Cuyamaca Peak trail via the azalea glen loop, 1600′ ascent, approx 7.7miles… The area suffered from a massive fire in 2003 and while it’s growing nicely, the stark white black and gray skeletons of trees are everywhere, including many charred scaled trunks and stumps

The hike itself was not strenuous, and went through some beautiful scenery with tall trees and bushes and small stream cutting across them. We hardly saw anyone, but were happy to have taken plenty of water. As we climbed higher we found ice on the shaded side of the trails, and D decided to cause trouble by picking a snowball fight, which is never a good idea… part of the reason why it’ll be called the ass kicking hike!

We were pretty tired by the time we got near the peak, but pushed on up the last tarmac road leading to the communications towers at the top. The view from there was fantastic, with multiple layers of mountains in the distance hidden and partly obscured by low cloud and mist

From the top, we plug it back down the service road, which was chewed up by the SDG&E work that’s been going on to build what looks like facilities near the top.

By the time we got back down, our feet were aching and we had covered just over 9 miles.

The beautiful weather and views definitely made it worthwhile, and we jumped back in the car, listen to the book on the way back, D had a quick nap before a client, and I jumped in the hot tub to soothe my aching feet, followed by an excellent hazy IPA by abnormal

Hikes & Walks

Prez Day Wkend 0220

Feb 16, 2020Mar 4, 2020

On the 13th, before Valentines day, we were very happy to see Julie & Kyle who were passing thru to see their son Christian at UCSD LaJolla and then to family party in Riverside… They were treated to some homemade smoked salmon and marmalade – to which they made appropriate positive comments!

So, fast forward to Sun 16th, after Karins ‘4.0 Upgrade’ party – see previous post – and while D treated a patient, I headed up to Balboa Park snapping pics on a crystal blue morning to the SD Mycological Society annual Mushroom event, listening to Quichotte by Salman Rushdie (what an imagination he has!)…

I tasted a couple of the mushroom dishes, and watched a movie trailer along the lines of “How to Change your Mind” by Michael Pollan, and when D joined we took a good look at the various mushrooms, related paraphernalia, salves, tinctures, fridge magnets, t-shirts and paintings of fungis!

Then we made our way to Loma Portal and Stone Brewings ‘Love is Brewing’ wedding event…where D told them we were ‘getting mrried on the 29th’… then advised a young couple on their wedding plans while I sampled the various wedding related food and beer… Then off to the central library to a great concert by the very talented Amber Liao where I actually didnt nod-off… but dear wife did…

After, we shot off towards Gliderport, parked by the Salk and walked down to Blacks beach as the sun burned thru some afternoon cloud… I’m sure its an optical illusion or my imagination, but it feels like more sand has eroded each time i visit 🙁 The beach was beautiful as always, with more than the usual fat old naked guys playing around, so we had a good stroll before heading back up to watch a beautiful sunset, talk to some local USD students, a couple visiting from DC and a tall goth looking woman with blue hair…

Events

Party in White…

Feb 16, 2020Mar 4, 2020

We were happy to be invite to Karins 40th – felt quite odd as we haven’t been to any 40th’s for over years! The theme was White, so D was able to pull out several choices… I was not 🙁

So, on Valentines, after receiving all her beautiful new handmade earrings, D heads off to get JSJ done to her, and I head off to the local Goodwill, sorting thru hundreds of wrong sizes and colors…wishing Krishan or D were there to do the work… Eventually found a pair of light colored Lee pants that were about the right size, a few items for the kitchen including measuring cup and tea infuser, and made my way back past all the homeless folks hanging out by the metro… Dinner was delish artichokes and making the ‘Meyer-malade’ for us to share with Lynne who gave us the lemons

On Sat, I forgot there were no classes due to presidents day wkend, so we ended up trying the two types of McD chikn sandwiches then to the library talk on the origins of the french Baguette – from neolithic times to just after WWI – v interesting. D went off to treat a patient, and I hung around for the ‘Fear No Art’ show, which had some nice exhibits. Then off to try catch the last of the fish market, and was treated to the seals hanging around barking for chunks of tuna…

We got to Kouskous early so walked around block (and chatted to a nice ex-manhattan Brooks Bros guy running art store) and met Karin and early friends at the restaurant… Her ‘sistas’ from Florida had a cute baby with them, Viveca / Gordon & Faisal were there and a fun time was had by all, with a somewhat entertaining belly dance by a younger version of Arvind with tattoos, and tunes by Alina… Nice to see D get a bit of a dance lesson by one of the guys who was very good and put her thru her paces….! Then us old folks left relatively early to get to bed…!

Visitors

Nisha visits SD…

Feb 12, 2020Feb 12, 2020

Nice to have Nisha visit from rainy cloudy Seattle – on picking her up we took her straight to Tacos El Gordo for dinner… Next morning, following D’s “plan for the weekend” we went off-script to briefly visit the Salk institute, where a kind guard let us look around. Its a lovely building overlooking the ocean, and afterwards we had a quick stroll at the top of Blacks beach…no paragliders…

Then off to a supermarket D had heard about near Solana beach, where we got baguettes, cheese & pate, and headed off to the Encinitas Meditation Gardens, where we walked down to the beach for the first time… As they walked thru the garden, I watched the ocean and was very happy to see 2 whales blowing and diving twice – always beautiful…

The walk thru Annies canyon was great as usual, and many bird spotters were out and about, so I jogged back to grab my binocs… As we walked back down, we came across a chinese guy and his daughter using a large format Chamonix brand camera with bellows lens. Turns out he’s an artist and had stage a scene below us where he had written in chalk on various logs in different languages…’viru’, ‘el virus’ etc with an axe embedded in one log. He stripped off his top and went down to the logs, adjusted the axe and lay face down in the grass asking his daughter to take the shot!

We saw a few lovely hummingbirds and then via Torrey Pines, the Sunset Seat, Costco and Modern Times, got back home, coaxed Nisha to sit in the hot tub and had a lovely masala stuffed Branzino (black bass) dinner…

Next day it was down to Black beach for a nice stroll with the naked fat old wrinkly guys and, via gliderport and model gliders, to stinky La Jolla seals and birds… Grabbed a burger at Chicago Fire Grill and had a quick nap while they shopped the UTC mall…then to meet Lynne-with-an-e at Quigley Fine wine for a Meyer Lemon exchange, intro to her PhD friend, followed by quick visit to 3-4 different things in the city including the Cube of Silence protest in Little Italy and Mad Cat DJ back home for G&T, wine and the ladies chatted into the night with D providing lots of good aunty advice…

Sunday we had Dim Sum with Penny & Victor who hadn’t seen Nisha for 16+ years… Back home to make Meyer lemon marmalade (will use white sugar for next batch as brown sugar / maple syrup doesnt make an attractive looking product… The ladies did some Sumi-e and while I worked with Faisal they walked Balboa Park. After a quick beer tasting at Pure, we headed back for lamb-nu-saag dinner with Prashna…and ladies chatting into the night again…with lots more good advice dispensed…again….

Hobbies

Library 📚 & projects…

Feb 5, 2020Feb 5, 2020

So, oddly enough, the SD Central library has ended up being a great resource for us as we settled in… The building itself is pretty remarkable, with a huge dome, multiple different levels, lovely architectural details and spaces that accommodate different needs.

As in other places we lived, I signed up to borrow some books (they had an a Jasper Fforde book I hadn’t read, and a few others I wanted to read)… Pretty quickly, beyond databases for researching potential companies, the broad range of things to do was super-interesting: audiobooks, concerts, art shows / exhibitions, presentations etc… so we jumped right in…

One of the resources I came across was just amazing – an Innovation Lab with multiple 3D printers, milling machines, laser cutters and VR googles…! I ended up meeting with the staff, who were very helpful and the lady who oversees similar labs in the library system.

Ever since I saw the IKEA DIY garden and its open-source plans from Space10.com in 2017, I wanted to build it… Unfortunately, back then, it was hard / expensive to find a laser cutting shop that would do what i wanted… So, here was a small laser cutter…. Why don’t i just ‘scale down’ the plans? Great idea! Using Inkscape software, I resized the 12′ globe made of 4×8 plywood sheets into a 12″ globe to be made out of 1/8″ plywood. A quick trip to Home Depot to get a plywood sheet cut up, and we were ready for action!

The library folks helped me get connected to the laser cutter, adjust the parameters for cutting and reconfigured the cutter to accept the plywood sheet feed in from the front. The (very pleasant!) smell of burning wood, somewhat similar to burning books, attracted the attention of library security but, once they knew what we were up to, they were great. With the closed loop fan system on full, I figured out how to get all the 200+ pieces cut, and ferried them back to the apartment to assemble the globe…

Lot of fun – the project was super interesting and I finally got to learn how to use a laser cutter AND build something I’ve wanted to for ages…

Hikes & Walks

Blacks Beach 02022020

Feb 2, 2020Mar 4, 2020

On this palindromic date, headed to Black‘s Beach for the lovely view above the beach in the brilliant sunshine, then walked down to the beach, which was stunning as always, packed with surfers and only one naked guy…

Then back to the apt, and en route, decided to make a cheesy jalapeno dip with special ingredient evaporated milk to tide us over. D prepped her sausage rolls and two apple pies – one with honey crisp apples and one with pink ladies – to take to Steve & Lisa’s for the Superbowl that they’d kindly invited us to… Great time there with Greg & Celine and Lisa’s amazing spread… Shame about the result, but good company, a video call from our Scarsdale friends gathered at Joel’s and great food made it a fun day…