So my mom came and visited me in Santa Barbara. She only stayed for one real day (she was en route to China) so I decided to show her around Santa Barbara. Not that I know my way around Santa Barbara, mind you, but whatever. So after walking around UCSB for a while and visiting the buildings, etc., we took off for downtown SB.

We arrived and parked at the visitor center and asked the people there when the sunset was, since we wanted to catch it along Stearn's Wharf. The people said around 5:30. We had a good 2:00 hours before then so we decided to walk up State Street (the main drag) and look at the stores/people/trees.

The first really interesting thing we hit was "The Robert Craymer Collection". Not much of a story here but my mom and I both liked the guy. He designs furniture, gets them built with his own workers, and shows them in his own store on State street. What's more, the designs are quite good. I actually wouldn't mind having this guy design/furnish most of my house. Good entrepreneurial-self-motivation-skill-ship-ment-ness.

So it gets near 5:00 and we start taking the trolley down to the waterfront. 5:30 sunset my ASS! The sun had already long gone off to REM sleep by the time we got to the Wharf, which was at 5:20. Stupid visitor center *mumble mumble*. So we walked along the wharf and mom bought some over priced souvenir shells instead. We drove to a Mexican restaurant afterwards (Carlito's on State street), had some Mexican grub and a margarita each (with which my mom took some medicine...uh...), and decided to go bake to a bakery we visited earlier.

On the way there, I see a store with Kite Boarding[1] materials in it. I get all giddy and hyper and the owner comes over and starts getting all giddy and hyper too cause he's just stoked that somebody is stoked about kite boarding. Hell yeah! We get to talking and he seems like a pretty cool guy. Tells me kiteboarding stories, answers some of my questions, and insists that I take a quick ride around the block on his electric scooter. OK. Alright, it was fun, I admit it. Kiteboarding, I find out though, is damn expensive. Guy (by the name of Eric) quoted 4-6 lessons at $75 each and a ~$1400 package of board, bindings, harness, kite, and associated gadgets. Ouch.

So we get back to Andersen's (the bakery) and have the best coffee/dessert we've ever had. The place is, for some reason, lined with great desserts, 3/4 of which contain marzipan, the almond past of the Gods. I would gladly club baby seals for that stuff. No I wouldn't, but trust me, it's good. Eventually we find out that the owner came over from Copenhagen about 30 years ago and all the desserts are her own recipes (influenced by traditional Danish desserts, of course). Awesome. We finish our Sarah Bernhadt (butter rum, marzipan, and chocolate mousse on a coconut macaroon, covered in dark chocolate...holy...just...it's holy), complimented the owner, and left satisfied.

Dropped my mom off at LAX today and came back to SB all tired. I've got abstracts due, piano practice to do, papers to refinish, Japanese/German/Weight Training (stop laughing!) to start tomorrow and I still want to buy a Z3 and go kiteboarding. Just so happens I'm wasting time checking out craigslist LA and find an easy to do web job that I applied for (update a site, write some HTML, upload some stuff, get some money). Guess that will go to the kiteboarding/Z3 fund. My mom is right. With my aspirations of sports cars, 9-foot concert grands, and new boarding sports, what am I doing trying to be a professor in a field with very little money? Why am I not staying at Paris and watching Metallica (since Metallica Kicks Ass, remember) in Las Vegas on New Year's eve?

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Music Theory had better be good to me. That's all I'm sayin'...

[1]Kiteboarding: where you strap your feet into a board (snowboard style), hold on to a big kite, and have the wind drag you through the water/sand/snow. SSX-length airtime is possible, if still somewhat dangerous.