Turtle Farming

I've always had an interest in growing things, since my days of working at the Geneva Greenhouse through high school, so I recently signed up for an 'Urban Farming' class at a place called Silverlake Farms here in LA. The class was an intro to growing vegetables, and they went over the basics of what we needed to do to start our own veggie farm. One thing about living in a city like this, is that no matter what your hobby, you're going to find a lot of interesting people that are involved in the same type of thing. Case in point, was the couple that ran SilverLake Farms. They are an awesome couple, Tara and Beat (pronounced Bay-ot) (In typical Mitch-fashion, I thought his name was Bear, which is what I called him the entire class.) Good ol' Bear was walking around the Franklin Hills community garden while we were learning about soil, and I glanced over to him as he was doing a little weeding. Apparently weeding involves eating, because he started pounding down all the flowers that were growing around the weeds like he was at a buffet. I started busting out laughing, elbowing Mike at the same time to take a look.

At the end of class, Tara gave us a tour of the garden, and she gave us a sample of a celery plant that she was growing. No joke, it was the best celery I ever tasted, I ate it all the way down to the leaves. We also sampled some Asparagus that was growing right out of the ground, I ate the entire thing it was so good. Right when I finished it, Tara mentioned to me "Mitch, be careful, I knocked a slug off of the bottom part of that piece I gave you." Uhhhh....thanks for the heads up Tara.

The class gave us a starter set of seeds, and we had our choice of what vegetables to pick. We opted for beets, cucumbers, heirloom tomatoes, romaine lettuce, eggplant, summer squash, and parsley.



This would compliment well our grapevine that is growing like crazy, as well as an avocado tree that I'm growing from a pit I stuck in the ground, and a pumpkin vine that is growing from seeds I stuck in a pot after Halloween.





I had such a good time that I emailed Tara letting her know that if she needs any volunteer help at their community garden, I'd be happy to help. Here was her response:

"I would like to take you up on your offer.  Are you available Tuesday 16th to help my husband install a small irrigation system at the Silverlake Community Church?  ....I'm hoping you can help.  It's a volunteer job....We could also use an extra pair of hands on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of next week...  My husband has to install an irrigation system for a job in Studio City.  He could definitely use some help."

Soooo, to make a long story short, I took a 1/2 day off of work to see what this is all about. Turns out volunteering=digging a ditch for 4 hours in the Valley in order to put some piping in. This experience has temporarily ended my volunteer activities for the time being.

But back to the farm....

I had seeds, but no where to plant them. So I called a guy who builds custom planter boxes. English is his second language, here's how our conversation went:

Me: "You were recommended to me as someone who could build a planter box for me."
him: "yes, yes."
Me: "I'd like a box that's 4 ft long, 2 ft wide, and 2 ft deep."
him: ...
Me: "hello?"
Him: "Wait wait, give to me again."
Me: "4x2x2, etc etc."
Him: "..." "..."
Him: "$40"
Me: "Tell you what, I'll give you $80 if you can give me that box, two smaller ones, and deliver it to me."
Him: "......"
Him: "$90"
Me: "Oh yeah, how about $85?"
Him: "...." "Haaaahaaaahaa"
Me: "OK ok, you win, $90 it is."

So we got the boxes, they delivered them from the Valley down to our house, and these things were freakin' huge. So the next dilemna was to find the dirt necessary to fill this box, for our vegetables. Kelly came up with the idea that people give soil away on Craigslist, and lo and behold; we found 'Ed' a gentleman in Culver City who was getting rid of all of the soil at his house We emailed for me to come pick some up. But before he could give it to me, he first wanted to learn what I was going to do with it. Like, he wanted to screen me first to see if I was going to put his soil to good use. When I told him I wanted to grow vegetables, it seemed to pass his litmus test. I went to pick up the dirt with two garbage cans, he helped me fill them up and lift them into the car, and they filled the box half full. So I drove back again on Saturday, and got two more garbage cans of dirt, and finally had enough soil for our seedlings to go in. Ed and I became such buddies that he also dug up two of his red leaf lettuce plants for me to plant, and about 1/2 dozen radishes. Nice guy.



I'm happy to say that the soil is in, the seedlings are planted, and I'm planning on having a bumper crop soon, followed by a raging party where we get to eat all of our produce. Stay tuned.

Slap Happy

Slap Happy is defined in the Urban Dictionary as: "term used to describe one's mood when sleep deprived or tired. Signs of being 'slap happy' include inane rambling, strange remarks, odd random behavior (such as giving oneself a wedgie), uncontrollable laughter at one's own jokes."

First of all, urbandictionary.com is the greatest source for real world definitions. I highly recommend it. Second of all 'slap happy' is a perfect explanation for the customer service chat I had with my financial institution as I was trying to work out my taxes this year. See below:


Ramona Hinrichs: For your tax filing you only need your total 2009 contributions not in which year they were made

Me: Great, thanks. I appreciate the assistance.

Ramona Hinrichs: Your are welcome. What other questions do you have for me today?

Me: none, you're awesome! Have a good one and hopefully you don't need to talk to too many more dumb dumb's like me.

Ramona Hinrichs: Oh no, not dumb at all. Thank you so much for your business. We appreciate you choosing Fidelity. I hope you have a great day!

Prostitutes, day laborers...and me

So as I mentioned in this post, I take the bus to work. Saves me on parking garage fees and gas, and it's an easy trip into downtown L.A. I like it, and I try and sell anyone else working in downtown to take the bus. Although I'll be honest, it's not the most comfortable trip in the world, so even though it has all these benefits, a car ride is always much more comfortable. Which is why I accepted Wendy's offer.

Who's Wendy you ask? Well, I arrived at the park n' ride and was walking over to the bus stop when an Asian woman in about her 50's rolls down her window and says "are you heading to downtown? If so, wanna hop in with me for a ride?" I looked around, and said "me?" "Yeah" she said "c'mon hop in!" Which, of course, made me feel like I was a prostitute roaming the streets. So I got in and we started discussing my price and what she gets for it....just kidding. She needed me in order to hop into the carpool lane. Yeah, it was a bit uncomfortable, but she went to explain to me that she does this all the time. And apparently so do a lot of people that commute to downtown. They just pull over at the bus stop and pick up a passenger. So as I'm thinking that I would never want my wife picking up random dudes to to drive into L.A. Wendy says "my husband doesn't think it's a good idea for me to pick people up, but I tell him everyone here seems friendly enough." Surrrrre they are.

Since I learned this, now I'm actively looking for people to pick me up while waiting for the bus. Which translates into me staring like a creep at everyone that drives by. If anyone, and I mean anyone; gives a signal like they'd stop, I start raising my eyebrows at them and nodding my head so as to show "pick me, pick me" which (hence the title) made me feel like one of those day laborers you see outside of the Home Depot or Uhaul rental. Hasn't worked yet though. I'll continue working on my sales pitch when cars drive by, and keep you posted if I have any luck.

Superbowl 10k and festivities, 2010

I'm going to have to start dating these specific races now, because I'm starting to hit the point where I'm talking about the same races year after year (is that a good thing? A bad thing? Am I getting old and predictable, or just dedicated and consistent?)

This years race had a big turnout of friends, and it was also going to be a barometer for several of us that are planning on racing in a couple of triathlons this year, specifically Carlos, Drew, and I. The total cast of characters included: Kelly, her sister Kristy, Nick, Paul, their friend Jay, and Carlos' girlfriend Brittney. Half the trouble was the logistics alone, getting down to the start. For some reason that aspect always stresses me out the most. So, we met at my house, I gave everyone a ride down in the xterra then i doubled back to my place grabbed my bike carlos and brit (who rode down on pegs) rode down, locked bike up at spectrum then ran the race by myself. Phew!

Actually, in terms of the race report; that's about all there is! I wore the superman cape, and somehow got started up towards the front, which I must say isn't that much fun. People that are waaay too focused, and not wanting to chat with the peeps around them. One happening of note: about 500 yeards into the race there was a loud crash, the equivalent of hearing a bike crash (you know I have experience in this if you read this post, and that post)and I look over, there's a girl in her twenties, who just absolutely killed a parking meter. I mean, she was obviously embarrassed, but also just too hurt to get up or even try and recover. It was ugly, and I for one know how that feels:not well.

I ran hard the whole race, and started doing the math at mile 4 to try and figure what my finishing time would be. I realized coming down the straight away looking at the ocean, that unless I blew a hammy, I was going to finish around 50 minutes. My goal was to break 50 minutes, so I double-timed it the last mile, and actually got in at 49 minutes, something-something seconds. A new personal record! A good sign for the upcoming triathlons, and it was good to see that everyone came in happy and satisfied with their times. We hit the beer garden afterwards, which is always a scene, but it is a must-do to get your two free Asahi's. The Superbowl hijinks that followed were 'typical' for us, so rather than discuss I'll include my video recap here:

Youtube video

I will say this. I didn't include in this video about 30 minutes worth of keg stands, and the fact that we polished a keg by halftime.

So what have we learned here?

None of us are getting thaaaaat old.

I turned 32 this past week, and although I'm not feeling any older, I noticed that there's a few more gray's sprouting up, knees are a little more achy, and it's tougher to get moving in the morning.

My friend Tony and Coral made me a nice happy birthday video, with their fish eye camera, sung in Polish:



The older I get the more I cherish my friendships, and Tony and I became friends when we were 7 years old. Amazing!

I rode the bus in from home today to work, which always makes me feel better because I:

a) Save a little money on gas & parking, and
b) feel a little 'greener' by leaving the car in the garage.

On the bus there was a teenager sitting in front of me, and he either had some serious mental problems, or (more likely) was tweaking on some type of drug. He was tearing threads off of his shirt and throwing them on the ground, talking to himself, rolling his head back and forth. At one point he was looking at his phone and then just threw it down on the ground and left it there. I couldn't stop looking at him, and I kept thinking I should say something. Not harsh, but more so just see if he was alright. Who knows? Maybe his girlfriend just broke up with him, and he was heartbroken about it. Maybe he got in a fight with his parents...we'll never know though; because I got off without saying a word.

...Which got me thinking to Thanksgiving this year. I met my brother for a Turkey Trot run in Long Beach, and it just so happened that they were handing out random pies to people that crossed the line. When I ran across the line I won a pumpkin pie! It was great, I felt a little weird because I know that my face was as red as my shirt; it wasn't my best showing in a race; due to some serious sleeplessness. But regardless, I had a pie. Pumpkin pie. Which I love.

By and by, I was driving home after the race, and taking my time to enjoy the beautiful morning. Pulling into Hermosa, I stopped at a four-way stop on Hermosa Ave/2nd to let a lady and her dog walk by.

She was crying.

It made me so sad.

I made a right turn and slowly rode by her wondering why she would be crying on Thanksgiving, and thinking what could I do to help? I pulled over two blocks up and tried to think quickly. The only thing I could think of would be to ask if she was O.K? Then I thought, why don't I offer her my pumpkin pie? I mean, it's thanksgiving, a time to give, right? But wait, would she think I was a total creep? Here's some red-faced dude offering her a pie in the middle of the morning? Does she have mace on her, will I get sprayed in the eye? Is it worth the risk, to try and cheer her up? Arrrgh, decisions.

What would you have done?

Sadly, I did nothing. I put the car in drive and headed home. I regret not doing anything. I'm still not sure what I would've done, but damn it I wish I at least tried. I hope that lady is O.K.

IPods=Damn Shame

Technology is great, and I'm not sure how I would get through any of my training runs if I wasn't pumping tunes into my ears when running by myself. But one place where I think ipods are a damn shame is on race day. My most recent experience is at one of my favorite running races , the Santa Barbara Half Marathon, which is a beautiful race held along the coast of Santa Barbara the first week in November. This is my 4th year doing it, and my second year running it by myself.

One of my favorite things about organized races is the sense of comradarie I get with my fellow runners. No one on my pace is necessarily trying to win their age group (trust me on this one...) so it's easy to encourage the people around me, and for a little thing like a "looking good" comment to go a long way to pushing me towards the finish. But probably what I enjoy most is when it gets towards the latter part of a race, and I'm hurting and wanting the race to be over. When I come across someone who looks like I feel I really enjoy the satisfaction of being able to tell them to 'keep going' and that they're "looking good, almost there." It helps me probably more than it helps them.

This year I realized what was different when I passed a woman at mile 9 who looked to be not having fun, and when I passed I told her "almost there, you're doing great" with no response. So I looked over and noticed she had her headphones in. As I ran the last 4 miles I observed that almost all of the people running had ipods in, and in turn seemed to be in their own little world.

Now, I know the race organizers "strongly discourage" wearing ipods for safety reasons, but really shouldn't the people running want to set the tunes aside for a few hours and just soak up the atmosphere around them? Sadly, I think running is changing like the rest of the world where each individual wants to 'create' their own atmosphere that's not to be shared with anyone else.

I for one, thing this is a change for the worse.