After we got home, Jen did some research on spelt (neither one of us knew anything about the stuff). She found out that spelt is actually a type of wheat. And even tho spelt is technically “wheat free” (in the sense that it’s not made from normal wheat, and as such, is OK for people who only have a wheat allergy) it’s not actually gluten free. This was confirmed later when Jen started to notice some of the usual symptoms caused by her gluten allergy.

It’s too bad because the pizza was pretty good and we thought we’d found another place in downtown SLO where Jen could eat without worry. But that wasn’t the case.

We didn’t see much of an eclipse, so far as I can tell. Other people had better experiences, tho.

It was public knowledge that he had been battling the cancer for a few years. I wasn’t aware that the disease had progressed to this point. I was filled with the same kind of shock/surprise that I think everyone else was when the news came down.

Stephanie summed it up pretty well:

The Beastie Boys are three dudes you’d expect to live forever. You’d expect them to always be this background presence in your life, doing cool shit you can only dream of and being these weird almost super hero characters, lending their voices to causes you care about. Doing things you can’t do yourself.

I was in fifth grade when Licensed To Ill came out. I listened to it. A lot. There’s things on that album that appealed to my 10-year old sensibilities. When Paul’s Boutique came out a few years later, I listened to it. Once. Then, never again. That’s a testament to the artistic drive of the Beastie Boys. They had a hit with Ill. They could’ve stuck with the formula and followed it up with a copycat album (a perfectly acceptable thing to do at the time). But they pushed forward, broke new ground. They did that a lot in the years that followed.

Anyway, it sucks when people die. RIP, man.

NASA is in the process of moving the shuttles to their final resting places. This is achieved by piggybacking the shuttles onto a modified 747.

Later this year, Endeavour will be brought, in this fashion, to Los Angeles. If they do a flyover of L.A. similar to the flyovers that happened in D.C. and New York, I hope I’m able to go there and see it.

It’s a far cry from an actual shuttle launch. But it’d still be cool to witness a shuttle in motion.

Here’s a personal favorite from my die-cast collection. It’s old and showing its wear. Kinda like a real space shuttle.

Amidst all the shuttle news of late, I read about how NASA had planned to use Vandenberg AFB as a secondary shuttle launch site. Those plans were stalled in the mid-80′s and were never picked up again. Too bad because I live a mere 50 miles north of Vandenberg. We can usually see other spacecraft launches from there. Here’s a photo I took in the moments after a rocket launch that happened in 2005 (we were living in Nipomo then, which is even closer to the base).

Would’ve been a piece of cake to see a shuttle launch from Vandenberg. Oh well.

Actually, it was a couple weeks ago.

Kinda surprised that no one’s written a song yet called “Deleted My Blog.” Unsure if this type of song would lend itself better to a blues style or perhaps something more on the emo tip.

Earlier today, while I was out for a walk, I saw something I hadn’t ever seen before. A truck, driving up Laurel Lane, hauling a flatbed trailer (I’ve seen plenty of these, it’s the next part that I mean). Upon the trailer was a helicopter, the rotors tied down in a back-to-front-of-trailer fashion (you know, so they wouldn’t be sticking out into traffic). Copter-truck passed by too quickly for me to take its picture. Disappointment.

I did, however, get a photo of this Instagram-appropriate vehicle.