OC Family - Moms. Kids. Life. - (Fortified with Irony)

Who's your Olympic star?

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:15:00 GMT

Watching the Olympics can inspire anyone to greatness, especially with the right hero as a role model.

For the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, Shaun White and Apolo Ohno are capturing much of the attention and media coverage in their extreme sports of snowboarding and short-track speedskating. And Wednesday night, White successfully defended his gold medal in the men's halfpipe.

When I was a little girl, watching women’s gymnastics in the Olympics inspired me to take up that sport. Next thing my mom knew, she was shuttling me back and forth to practice two, three, four times a week and my grandfather built me a balance beam in the back yard.

Well, I didn’t become the next Nadia Comaneci. And I went on to other sports like synchronized swimming (no joke) and, in college, rowing.

Now my 7-year-old son is competing in one of the newest extreme sports in the Olympics: BMX racing. BMX made its debut in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where three Americans made the podium: Californians Mikey Day and Donny Robinson, who took silver and bronze in the men’s competition, and Jill Kintner, who won a bronze for the women.

Watch a video of the 2008 Men's Olympic final here.

By the way, Day, Robinson and Kintner are all on Twitter!

The BMX Olympic Training Center, which has a Beijing replica track where the Olympic trials and training took place, is just down in Chula Vista. With its three-story high start hill, huge turns and gigantic gap jumps, it’s not for the faint-of-heart, and offers plenty of excitement for spectators.

In September, it hosted the world’s top racers for the UCI BMX Supercross World Cup -- including my son’s favorites, Day and Robinson. He cheered them on each time he heard their names and every time they blazed past us on the track.

To my son, Mikey Day and Donny Robinson are on par with Shaun White. Even higher, because they represent the best of the best in his sport.

They don’t have a video game or a clothing line like the snow- and skateboard star does. But if they did, they would top my kid's Christmas list, for sure.

So what is it that makes a sport or an athlete connect with young athletes? I don’t know the answer to that. But I do know my son will be rooting for his favorite racers for the 2012 London Olympics. And maybe working toward the 2020 Games himself...?

Want to learn more about BMX racing?
Check out Orange County’s track, the Orange Y, off Chapman Avenue and the 55 Freeway in Orange. They have practice and racing Wednesday and Friday evenings and Sunday afternoons. As long as a kid can ride without training wheels, he or she can probably make it around the track!

And if you’re in Chula Vista, there’s a new race track there, adjacent to the Olympic replica track, as well as the BMX Hall of Fame.

Moving Forward. Eventually.

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:41:00 GMT

I drive a Toyota Prius. There, I said it.

We’ve been together quite happily for going on five years before this whole recall debacle. In fact, my aunt is on her second Prius, having passed her first along to her eldest daughter.

It’s served me well with its average 40-45 mpg, a sticker that lets me drive in the carpool lane solo and just enough room to carry my kid and his BMX gear to races and other adventures.

Thus far, my model year has not been named in any recalls (knock on wood). Some Prius owners reportedly state that their cars have spontaneously shut off or had braking problems -- none of which have affected me (knock-knock).

Friday was the first problem I’ve experienced with my Prius. And of course it was when it was loaded up to take the kid to a big Nationals BMX race in Chula Vista.

And of course it happened just as we passed the last San Onofre exit on the I-5 and entered the long no-man’s-land that is Camp Pendleton.

All of a sudden, the dashboard started beeping at me. The check engine light came on. That, I can handle.

But then a series of exclamation marks in increasingly alarming colors lit up on my dash. And no exits for miles.

I carefully drove to the first available exit, which is apparently home only to Camp Pendleton, a trail head and lots and lots of Border Patrol cars. I pulled to the side of the road and consulted my owner’s manual.

It told me to contact a dealer immediately. I found the closest one 14 miles away in Carlsbad. They told me to bring it in right away, but it might take a few days to fix.

I pulled back on the freeway and inched my way to Toyota Carlsbad, where I threw myself upon the mercy of service advisor Dave.

He checked me in and offered me a rental Yaris -- no way all our stuff would fit in that! He called in the big guns and got a Ford Flex from the nearby Hertz. We loaded it up and got on our way, not even late for the kiddo’s practice!

The wee one and I really liked the Flex. Just big enough, but didn’t drive too big. I have a serious case of SUV-envy, but really liked the Flex. Even drove nicely in the torrential downpours we encountered.

Bless his heart, Dave called the next day with good news. My Prius had a water-pump issue, one covered under the 60,000 power train warranty the hybrids have. I squeaked in with about 59,700 miles on my car.

After a rainy day of BMX racing Saturday, the wee one and I drove from Chula Vista to Carlsbad to -- somewhat reluctantly -- hand the Flex back in.

Total cost for the repairs and rental? Zero. Whew!

We finished off the long weekend with more damp racing Sunday, where the kiddo faced some very serious competition in his 7-Expert category, including a kid who won the Worlds!

Well, we didn’t bring home a trophy or a new Ford Flex. But he had fun and we got our car back. And best of all -- no charge!

And no recall. Well, yet... By the way, next car? It'll be an SUV or pickup. And I wouldn't say "no" to a Flex.

Woodward West Winter Camp

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 15:42:00 GMT

Over Christmas break, my wee BMXer finally got the chance to do something he’s been begging to do for ages -- stay at action-sports camp Woodward West, in Tehachapi, Calif.

It’s the West Coast outpost for Camp Woodward, featured in a Fuel TV show (new season starts Jan. 31). It’s filled with ramps of all varieties and forms, inside and out, plus dirt jumps. It’s sheer heaven for BMXers, skaters and even mountain bikers.

The minimum age for camp is 7, so their Winter Camp was his first opportunity to stay there. It was also the first time he’d been at a sleepover camp, leading to a great deal of anxiety on my part. But there were a surprising number of 7 and 8-year-old campers, plus two 10-year-old friends of his.

The younger campers get a “mini-dad” assigned to their cabins to help keep an eye on them. Each cabin has about eight bunks and a private bath with shower.

There were 300 campers, 155 of whom, I’m told, were BMX. So that officially makes more BMX kids than skate, mountain bike or in-line.

Not only do they have great staff and counselors, they get visiting pros to help the kids out. Etnies BMX pro Aaron Ross (see video link below), as well as Mike Escamilla and Brian Kachinsky attended the winter camp, sharing their expertise with the kids. I set up a Twitter list so I could follow some of the action from home!

After getting settled in, all the kids and parents started exploring all the ramps, running up, sliding down and planning their rides. They hit up The Enterprise, a huge outdoor skate park, before heading to the 50,000-square-foot Hangar 18, complete with a vert ramp and foam pit to practice gnarly tricks into.

Those kids were probably worn out before they even got to ride! My kid informed me that he’d be working on back flips. I told him to start out with something a little easier.

The daily schedules were posted and, in addition to instruction times and free riding time, they could play dodgeball, listen to live music and make skateboard decks.

I knew he’d be ok when I said goodbye to him and he dashed off to his cabin without so much as a look back.

I waited anxiously for a call from him for the next four days. It didn’t come.

He claimed he couldn’t figure out how to use the phone card. But, following updates on Twitter, which showed pictures and videos of kids running on giant mats in the gymnasium (Woodward also teaches gymnastics) and hurling themselves into foam pits, I didn’t blame him.

The last night of camp, I tweeted @WoodwardWest to send a picture of my kid. She sent two -- one of him in the foam pit and one on the tramp bike -- a BMX with no wheels for use practicing tricks on a trampoline. It made my night!

Parents started lining up the last day to come in and see what their kids had learned. I entered Hangar 18 and the first thing I saw was his friend Tucker, 10, do a backflip (here he is doing it at Etnies Skatepark).

My kid, notsomuch. He was pretty exhausted from four days straight of riding all day. But he showed me a couple new tricks he’d worked on.

Once he got his energy back, he told me all about the fun he had. And begged to go back for a week at summer camp.

I’m saving up now!

Here’s a great video of pro Aaron Ross and some kids at Woodward West Winter Camp. Didn’t spy my kid in it, but looks like lots of fun!

Go ahead. Party like it’s 1999.

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:52:00 GMT

It’s amazing that the first decade of the 21st century is nearly over.

As we bid farewell to the aughts, let us remember where we were 10 years ago.

Then: We were subjected to hype over Y2K.

Now: We’re subjected to hype over 2012.

Then: Jeans were jeans. And boot-cut.

Now: Skinny jeans are everywhere. Even on your sons.

Then: Some of us had cell phones. They stored phone numbers, but not much else. If we were lucky, they had about seven novelty rings. Five of which may or may not have made your ears bleed. They were not smart phones. More like motivated phones.

Now: Most of our phones can text, e-mail, take pictures, Tweet, Facebook, surf the Web, play games, order a burrito and sound like Mr. T, if you're into that sort of thing. Oh, and make a call. And get you in trouble with your spouse (Tiger Woods, I’m looking at you!).

Then: Cameras had film. Seeing your photos after getting them developed in an hour was amazing.

Now: Film? Is that the stuff you used to take to camera shops when they were around? My 7-year-old son doesn’t understand a world where he can’t view a picture on a tiny screen one second after it’s snapped.

Then: We got our music on CDs. We bought them at places called “record stores.” They came encased in large, plastic holders that cashiers needed the Jaws of Life to open. We needed the Jaws of Life when we got home to remove the wrapper and industrial-strength tape keeping them safe and tamper-proof.

Now: We download music from the Internet and listen on our phones. No tools required.

Then: We had dial-up. If anything. Remember the lovely sound of your computer modem connecting?

Now: We complain if the free Wi-Fi at the coffee shop is sluggish because too many people are livestreaming video via their iPhones while sipping their lattes.

Then: TVs and computer monitors were as deep as they were wide. God forbid you should ever have to move.

Now: Not only are our televisions ginormous and thin, but they’re also HD. Now I see every pore on a news anchor’s face. How did I ever survive before?

Then: We got our news in the newspaper and on TV. We got our celebrity gossip on Entertainment Tonight.

Now: Newspapers? What are those? Today, we get our news and celeb gossip online. Often from the same source. And indistinguishable from one another.

Then: We asked directions if we got lost. And got a TripTik from AAA if we were really organized and planning ahead.

Now: We Google directions from our smarphones or search on our car’s GPS, which can be configured in a variety of accents. Just for giggles.

Then: “Checking in” meant calling when you got there.

Now: “Checking in” means whipping out your smartphone and logging in Foursquare or Gowalla or Whrrl (or all three) to post your location, meet up with your friends, review a restaurant, post pictures, microblog your experience and earn virtual badges with arbitrary names. Oh, and retain your mayorship. Duh.

Then: Our moms and significant others wanted to hear about our day.

Now: Our moms and significant others want to hear about our day. But that doesn’t stop us from also telling everybody else in the whole world about it anyway!

Thanks for reading. Follow me on Twitter if you're up for shenanigans.

Even ‘SC fans can back these buckeyes

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 18:11:00 GMT

With the regular college football season now wrapped up and bowl games coming up, it’s time for some buckeyes. Not the Rose-Bowl bound Buckeyes, although I’m equally excited about that. I’m talking about candy buckeyes!

I first learned to make these in high school home economics class back in Ohio. Now it’s a nearly annual ritual for me to make the ridiculously yummy peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate. They get their name for their resemblance to horse chestnuts, also known as buckeyes -- from the state tree of Ohio and namesake for Ohio State athletics teams.

For reasons I cannot explain, the Ohio State mascot, Brutus Buckeye, is basically a man with a nut for a head.

My son, however, thinks his head is made from peanut butter.

I consider myself a Buckeye since I spent most of my formative years at THE Ohio State University, although I earned my degree from Cal State Long Beach. I even have OSU colors, scarlet and gray, tattooed on my body forever. No lie.

Candy buckeyes are just about the only thing I make full use of my kitchen for. I’m no domestic diva and buckeyes are quite a production, but they’re worth it! And they’re perfect for holiday parties!

How to Make Buckeyes:

You will need:

2 (16-oz.) jars of creamy peanut butter (Jiff or Skippy, not the healthy kind)

2 large sticks of unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 lbs. of confectioners sugar

2 (12-oz.) bags of semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 stick of paraffin wax (or 1/4 bar -- weird, but keeps them firm)

waxed paper
double boiler
toothpick
patience

Make sure the butter and the peanut butter are nice and soft to start. If you have a fancy mixer, mix the butter, peanut butter and sugar together until smooth with no lumps. If you don’t have a mixer, work the butter into the peanut butter in a large bowl (or separate into two) and gradually work in the sugar; then mix it in a blender until smooth.

Transfer your creamy peanut butter mixture into two bowls and put in the freezer. Leave it in at least 30 minutes, until nice and firm. Take one bowl at a time out and scoop out a tablespoon or so at a time and roll into balls, then place on a cookie sheet covered with waxed paper. It helps keep the peanut butter from sticking if your hands are a little damp. If it starts getting soft, put it in the freezer and pull out the other bowl of mixture. Keep this up until it’s all in ball form. Put them all in the fridge or freezer for at least 30 minutes.

Next, melt the chocolate and wax in a double boiler. Pick up peanut butter balls one at a time with a toothpick and dip in the chocolate, leaving a small exposed spot at the top, resembling a buckeye. You can fill in the toothpick holes with a little of the mixture. Keep the balls you’re not working with in the freezer or they’ll start getting soft and mushy.

Place completed buckeyes in the freezer or fridge to firm and chill.

This recipe makes about 72 buckeyes. Share with your friends. Or not!

Brutus Buckeye image from Columbusing.com.

Arnette BMX Fall Classic

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:49:00 GMT

Although BMX was born in Southern California, we don’t get to see too many freestyle competitions here. BMX racing, however, goes off regularly at the Orange Y on Chapman Avenue.

But last weekend, Etnies Skatepark in Lake Forest hosted all levels of BMX riders -- little guys to pros -- for the Arnette Fall Classic contest Sunday, Nov. 29 (Ride BMX story here).

We love Etnies Skatepark, a private-public partnership between the City of Lake Forest and Sole Technology. It’s one of the few skateparks that allows BMX bikes in. Plus, it’s free to ride. By the way, it has a new website.

Though he’s a seasoned BMX racer at the Orange Y and further afield, my little 7-year-old is just starting to do the park contests, which are a very different animal. He’s still grasping the concept that you get points for pulling tricks, not just riding. But he has lots of fun, regardless.

The 10 & Under category had six riders, including the legendary Tucker Smith, 10, a good friend of my wee one. Tucker’s got some crazy tricks and riding skills way beyond his years! It’s no surprise he won the category and took home an 18” Haro bike and trophy.

The competition was sponsored by Arnette, which supplied cool sunglasses-shaped trophies.

BMX pros Rob Darden and Corey Martinez also showed up to sign autographs and hang out to watch all the action.

It was a great competition and I hope to see more of these here in Orange County!

Click below for my Whrrl story on the day!

Sleepover camp -- how young?

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 12:38:00 GMT

How old were you when you first went to a sleepover camp? How old was your child?

Though it wasn’t my original intent, I decided this week that my 7-year-old wee one will attend a three-night sleepover camp 150 miles from home, without me there. I think I’m much more anxious about it than he is! But I don’t want to deny him the opportunity for a really great camp, Woodward West.

As an avid BMXer, one of his favorite TV shows is “Camp Woodward” on FuelTV. It follows three teenaged boys at an incredible, massive action-sports camp in rural Pennsylvania.

Camp Woodward has an outpost in Tehachapi, Calif. (between Lancaster and Bakersfield), called Woodward West. That camp has five concrete, wood and Skatelite outdoor skate parks, plus a 50,000 square-foot hangar filled with ramps.

The hangar also has a foam pit to practice those gnarly 360s and backflips on your bike or skateboard before committing to them over unforgiving, hard ground. It also has a “resi” vert ramp, a ramp with about two feet of padding covered by a smooth riding surface.

He’s been begging to go to the camp, but this coming summer will be the first he meets the minimum age of 7.

We visited for a BMX competition in the hangar last spring (read previous blog post on it here). He rode the ramps for eight hours. And threw a fit when we had to leave.

I resolved to send him for a week in summer of 2010. I plan to apply for a parent job that week so I’ll be close to him since he’s never gone to a sleepaway camp.

For his 7th birthday in September, I promised to take him for one of their Action Sports Getaway weekends in November. A family can stay at the nearby lodge and ride ramps in the hangar. But it turns out that their three-night, four-day camp is a better deal and will give him more riding time and instruction.

I hoped to be up there with him for the whole time, but that didn’t work out. Regardless, I know how badly he wants to go and, somewhat nervously, signed him up anyway. I read this in the registration packet:

“It has been our experience that it is more often the parents that are having a difficult time adjusting to their child’s absence or overreacting to a child’s early anxiety at being away from home.”

He, mind you, hasn’t expressed any concern about it. He also knows at least one other rider who will be there, so he won't be totally alone.

Now I’m trying to stay philosophical about sending my child away for the one week of the holiday break he will spend with me, not at his father’s house. I’m also readying him for taking care of himself, taking big-boy showers, brushing his teeth without me nagging, eating all his food, etc.

The kiddo will get to spend four days riding at a place he’s been looking forward to going for more than a year. He’ll get in some good riding time with help from other riders and with trained professionals to coach and mentor him.

Plus, he’ll make some new friends who share his passion.

Hopefully he’ll be one happy camper.

Here’s a clip on the BMX camper from last season’s “Camp Woodward” on FuelTV.

Follow me on Twitter. If you dare.

So you wanna be a BMX mom?

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 16:38:00 GMT

Kids’ sports and activities fall into a few categories. There are those the parents want the kid to do. There are those that the kid is good at. Then there are those that the kid actually enjoys.

Neither soccer nor baseball, both of which my wee one took up at 5, jibed with him. He just wasn’t into it.

Yet within a month of getting the training wheels off his bike, he was racing BMX at Orange Y and jumping off curbs.

Every sport involves a learning curve for parents and for kids. First of all, BMX is broken into a few categories. There’s race, flatland (the guys who stand on pegs and balance and do crazy kinda stuff popularized in the ‘80s and ‘90s) and freestyle, which encompasses everything from “street” to “park” to “vert.”

Focusing just on freestyle, you’ve got to worry about what bike to use and where to do it. After some trial and error, ie. getting kicked out of some skate parks, I started to get a sense of it over the past year and a half.

Skateboarders used to be the persecuted sports minority, with nowhere to ply their trade, er, craft, er, whatever it be. Now there are plenty of skate parks (at least in Southern California), but few that allow BMXers in.

There is a safety concern, and that I understand to an extent. But some parks in Orange County do at least share their space.

Etnies Skatepark in Lake Forest is the best example. The park is a great public-private partnership between the City of Lake Forest and Etnies (Sole Technology), which is just up the hill from it. (Read about my tour of Sole here).

The skatepark has three BMX sessions each week, including Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings. Best of all, it’s free, once you sign a waiver and get an ID card for your kid. Also, they offer lessons through the City of Lake Forest’s Parks & Recreation department.

They will be expanding the park this winter with some new sections. They will also begin charging $5 for nonresidents to get an ID card as of Jan. 1. Still, it’s a bargain.

Next up is Vans at the Block in Orange. They also have three BMX sessions, 6 to 10 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. There’s a minimum age of 6. Given the late hours and the fact that it costs $15 to ride, we don’t go there much. And, honestly, my son prefers the Etnies ramps for his bike and I think the City facility is actually better maintained.

Lastly is Morning Ride, a BMX shop in Lake Forest that also has ramps. It’s small with some indoor ramps, but reasonably priced to ride. Right now, Tuesday nights are free.

Further afield, you can go to the Compound in Lake Perris and Mission Valley YMCA in San Diego. (Links to previous blog posts).

There’s also an upcoming camp in December from Team Soil through the City of Newport Beach.

As far as bikes, check with each facility to see what they allow. Start with what you’ve got and go from there. Right now the trend is for super light bikes (around 25 lbs.) with small chainwheels and a single brake cable. But if you've got it and they'll let it in, ride it!

My little guy rides a 16” wheel, which is a good place to start for anyone 8 or younger. He’ll start moving up to 18” before long. For freestyle tricks, 20” bikes are a little big for anyone younger than 10 or 12. Check out Morning Ride or Bike Alley in Orange, which focuses more on race, but has some freestyle. But both will give you good direction.

It all seems intimidating and, frankly, dangerous. There are, however, a broad range of kids, bikes and ages hitting the skate parks. Particularly at Etnies, you’ll find even really young kids riding and having fun, sometimes with their parents.

Of course, pad them up. Roll them in barrels of toilet paper. Tape pillows to their backs. Ok, just kidding. But most parks require long pants, elbow pads and a helmet. To be extra safe, throw knee pads/shin guards on them, as well as a full-face helmet, if you have access to one.

I’m still learning about all of this but if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask!

Bike Paradise in the IE

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 22:05:00 GMT

Being a mom of any sport -- Soccer Mom, Baseball Mom, et al -- means lots of travel. And not the super glamorous kind, but usually fun.

This weekend, I took my wee one for a day of bike riding in Paris. Scratch that, I mean Perris. Slight difference.

I don’t often venture beyond the Orange Curtain, and if I do it’s usually shuttling my kid to some BMX race or another. Saturday, at least, we got a biking twofer -- racing and freestyle.

We loaded up both bikes -- the race bike and the freestyle one -- and made it to Perris Lake in about an hour. Both Perris Lake BMX track and the Compound are near the dam, on the Lake Perris Fairgrounds property.

Orange County only has two skateparks -- Vans in Orange and Etnies in Lake Forest -- that officially allow BMX bikes in. Even that is only for limited hours. So it’s great to find the Compound, a ramp park open to bikes, skateboards and Razor-type scooters. Even if it is way off in the IE.

It’s got three main sections, all with wooden ramps. Two are covered and a third is outside. They used to have a foam pit to practice those hard-core tailwhips and backflips, but they took it out.

There’s also a small dirt section, which is basically a few 5-foot-tall mounds of dirt in a parking lot. Not for the faint of heart.

It’s $15 to ride all day or $10 for a three-hour session. The day we were there, they were hosting a rockabilly-type event. So lots of tattoos, slicked-back hair and girls with red lipstick. One booth was selling super-cute, handmade purses with skulls, leopard print and crushed velvet. I couldn’t resist and bought one!

The Compound has a limited snack bar, basically with non-diet sodas and candy. Bring a cooler stocked with drinks and snacks if you're not aspiring to diabetes. There are some picnic tables, but it wouldn’t hurt to bring a chair if you’ve got one. The restrooms are passable, park-type restrooms.

Next door is an ABA BMX track. It’s been recently redesigned with help from Maris Strombergs, the first BMX Olympic gold-medal winner! Yes, BMX racing is an Olympic sport now.

Saturday was part of a four-race series for extra points and accolades. That means more and better racers showing up.

It’s a nice dirt track and well organized. There’s a decent snack bar with some hot food like pizza, plus they had a barbecue going. Only restrooms were porta-potties.

In the end, my kiddo got fourth of seven riders in a really tough field. He just moved up to expert class and up an age group, so he’s finding his place in the big pond.

Also, we managed to score some loot in the raffle! I always buy tickets at big races and never win. But my $5 investment netted us some bike inner-tubes, grips and a brake cable.

And Sunday? Etnies Skatepark BMX session and the second in the Intense Winter race series at Orange Y BMX (I'll post more on that later). Both safely behind the Orange Curtain!

And all that was after a crazy busy, stressful week at work.

Do you ever feel like you need a weekend to recover from your weekend?

Microbrew Mania

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:40:00 GMT

Orange County has its share of microbrew beers, usually tied in with some type of restaurant. But Saturday night, I was lucky enough to sample some one of OC’s lesser-known breweries, The Bruery.

No, that’s not a typo, that’s how they really spell it.

The Bruery makes unique, high-end craft brews with names like Autumn Maple, Orchard White and Mischief. It’s in, of all places, an industrial complex in Placentia, California. Yes, Placentia.

They have a tasting room right in the middle of the Bruery, among the giant, shiny vats and rustic barrels filled with their products. The tasting room is open Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons.

There’s no food, no snacks, no amenities. Just good beer.

With my kiddo at his dad’s for the weekend, my friend Claire and I decided to check it out. We each ordered a flight of beers for $8, including the glass.

We started with the Orchard White. The beer sommelier, or whatever you’d call him, described the hints of lavender in it. My nose immediately picked up the aroma. It was soft, golden and delicious.

Next, we moved on to the Saison Rue. It had a strong flavor with a noticeable hint of molasses. So did their seasonal brew, Two Turtle Doves, which also had hints of pecan.

Their Autumn Maple, another seasonal brew, is made with yams and pumpkin and spice for a nice turn on traditional pumpkin ales. Claire also tried the Hottenroth Berliner Weisse, with its sourness balanced by adding rose essence (they also had raspberry, pomegranate and orange blossom).

The Bruery sells bottles of their concoctions for anywhere from $8 to $18 each. This ain’t no Coors Light. They also sell growlers, jugs filled for you straight from the taps.

We had a great time sampling their brews and will definitely be back again to try more. And I suspect some people may be getting bottles of Bruery beer in their Christmas stockings!

By the way, you can occasionally find the Bruery’s beers on tap at local pubs. Haven Gastropub in Orange, for one, usually has a keg or two on tap.

Are you a glutton for punishment? Follow @OCMarisa on Twitter.

The Importance of Vowels

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:29:00 GMT

My second-grade son was telling me the other night about a book his teacher read at school, "Beverly Cleary Sucks."

I wondered what the heck kind of books they're letting in schools these days!

Apparently it's Beverly Cleary's book, called "Socks."

My bad.

He has a new-found love of reading chapter books. He’s always been a strong reader, but not too motivated to challenge himself reading harder stuff on his own.

That is, until he discovered Diary of a Wimpy Kid books (Amazon link). He plowed through the newest one, “Dog Days,” and is nearly done with the original “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” book. The other day he read 46 pages on his own!

Today for a special treat, I picked him up from school to join us at work for a barbecue lunch. Normally, he likes to play and ride his bike around the park.

This time, he just wanted to sit on his own and finish his Wimpy Kid book so he could get started on the next one, which his dad just bought him. I’m really glad to see him so taken by these books!

He still should have run around and played some, though!

What books do your little readers like and why?

That’s How We Roll

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:23:00 GMT

What is your commute like? Did the untimely demise of Daylight Saving Time change anything for you?

The wee one and I are fortunate enough to live a block from his school and slightly less than a mile from my work, so we ride our bikes most of the time. Sometimes, for whatever reason, I have to drive my gas-guzzling hybrid and feel shameful for it.

But an earlier nightfall means leaving work and picking up the wee one after dark.

Normally, not such a big deal. When you’re mostly a bike commuter, a slightly bigger deal. When you’ve been commuting on BMX bikes that aren’t technically street legal, kind of a big deal.

Most of the time, my kid rides his freestyle BMX bike, the one he takes to the skate parks. And I ride my BMX cruiser. Yes, I have a BMX. It’s got 24-inch wheels, rather than the 20-inch ones most BMX bikes have. It’s what people over 30 race at the track (um, no, I don’t race).

But it still looks like I’m riding a kid’s bike, it’s hard work to pedal, and it doesn’t have lights or reflectors.

Nor does my kid’s bike. Bringing a bike with reflectors to the skatepark immediately identifies you as a kook. It would be like surfing in a safety-orange vest.

Now my kid has his new 20-inch Verde BMX he won this weekend. It has no reflectors, but I got some easily removable lights and flashing valve caps. He thinks they’re cool, so that’s a good thing.

And, for the fall and winter, I’m switching to my commuter bike, which has lights and reflectors. And a basket. Because that’s how I roll. Literally.

You know what else it has? Gears! I’d forgotten how awesome gears are! And sitting down while pedaling! It feels weird, kind of like switching from a convertible sportscar to your mom’s big, luxury SUV with cruise control. But I’m getting used to it again.

It baffles my kid. As someone who busts his tiny little-boy butt pedaling up huge berms and over big jumps on a BMX, the concept of gears totally eludes him. He just doesn’t get how they work. Or why.

Me, however? I’m going to enjoy them. And my basket.

By the way, his is consistently one of only three bikes in the bike racks at his elementary school. What’s up with that?!

Candy is Dandy But New Bikes Are Better

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:13:00 GMT

My son definitely pulled in the mother lode for Halloween.

I’m not just talking about trick-or-treat candy. Although we now have enough sweets to keep him, me, a small provincial territory and an HMO’s worth of dentists occupied for a very long time.

Not only did my kid get candy for Halloween, he got a new bike.

Let me explain. My 7-year-old son rides BMX. He races at “expert” level (expert for a 7-year-old) and is ranked in the top 10 in the state (technically Southern California) for his age. He also rides freestyle, riding a (different) bike in the precious few skateparks that allow BMX.

So on Halloween morning, of course I drove him down to Mission Valley YMCA Skatepark in San Diego for Biketoberfest, a BMX competition (click here for a video from RideBMX). Because, duh, doesn’t everyone go to BMX contests at skateparks for Halloween?

Well, at least a couple riders wore costumes. Including one very brave, brave man who sported neon spandex and zebra stripes, 80s hair-band style.

Long story short, my little guy did a respectable job, but the contest featured a lot of older, more seasoned riders with bigger tricks. But he had fun.

Then, as we were leaving the competition area, we saw one of his fellow riders apparently being given a brand new 18” Haro bike! And pretty much all he had to do was look into a video camera and say: “Upgrade!”

My wee one and I stood and stared gape-mouthed at the scene. How could such a magical thing -- a free bike -- happen?

Video camera man caught sight of my boy and a female co-conspirator swooped in sweetly, asking if he’d like to upgrade his bike to a 20-inch from his 16. Every bit his cynical, jaded mother’s son, he declined.

I urged him to reconsider.

He humored me and went to examine a pack of about five colorful new BMX bikes from various manufacturers. He skeptically selected a white bike by Verde with cool aqua rims and grips.

The next thing he knew, he was riding that bike and saying “Upgrade,” into a video camera. The skepticism melted away to the joy of a boy with a brand new bike.

We stayed for a couple more hours and he swapped between riding the two bikes. He even tried each out on the vert ramp. The bottom of the vert ramp, not the top!

I asked the guy who gave him the bike how this all happened. He said that he had asked some people he knew to donate bikes for the competition and they did. Simple as that. Big thanks to the Biketoberfest organizers and Steve and Corey at Verde bikes!

Well, I can say that there were half a dozen or so ridiculously happy kids riding new bikes that day, who can probably report the best Halloween ever in their lives.

Beats candy any day of the year.