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Tamar
“He was not what you’d call a lovable man, my grandad. It wasn’t that he was cold, exactly. It was more as though he had a huge distance inside himself. There’s a game I used to play with my friends. One of us had to think of someone we all knew, and the others had to work out who it was by asking questions like “If this person was a musical instrument, what would it be?” I used to think that if Grandad were a place, it would be one of those great empty landscapes you sometimes see in American movies: flat, an endless road, tumbleweed blown by a moaning…
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TGIF
savage chickens comic found here I’m glad it’s Friday today. It’s a rainy day, for which I am thankful, because we NEED the rain. This has been our driest January since 1920 or something stupid like that. I hope we get lots more in the weeks to come. Even more importantly, snow, because California’s main water source is snow melt. Hmmm. Today is the last day of the quarter for Maya, so they get out at noon. I’m working 1/2 day, and then we’re going to pick her up and go into San Francisco, and try again at the Academy of Sciences. We went on my birthday, but it was…
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Flat Iron Advice
I’d like to ask some advice, PRODUCT advice, from my female readers with curly or wavy hair. Maya is interested in getting a flat iron, and we’re considering it as a possible birthday gift. My hair is so stick straight and flat, I have zero experience in the flat iron world, so I thought I might ask you guys. I mean, I can read reviews online any day, but advice from real live people that I know and trust is even better. So, here are my questions. Does price matter? I’ve seen them from $20 to $200. I know that sometimes, spending more is worth it, because you get what…
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Wordless Wednesday
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At Last…
“What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them — that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account — to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and…
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Hola!
(photo of Cherry’s margarita, via Cherry’s camera. Me, I take mine blended. But boy, hers LOOKS good, doesn’t it?) It’s been a long time since I did a restaurant review here. Back when I started blogging, my plan was to write about local restaurants, thinking that maybe some people in and around the ‘Creek’ might enjoy reading them. It didn’t take me long to lose interest in restaurant reviews, and I started writing about other things, whatever I happened to be thinking about kind of things. But once in awhile, a restaurant comes along that deserves mention. Hola! Restaurant in Burlingame is one such restaurant. (Looking at their website, I…
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Ready for BSG?
Wait, you’re not watching? OK, catch the frak up NOW, then tune in tonight on SciFi. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF_PSOgRAcA[/youtube] That was part one…here’s part two: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2GcJR2uwhw[/youtube] And here’s the preview for the coming season, the final 10 episodes: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PjFSlmtm14[/youtube] Ready? Go!
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Happy Birthday, Grandma
Today is my Grandma’s birthday. She’s 86 years old. I’m not sure anymore that I want to live to be 86, but if I do, I hope I can do it with the grace and spunk that my Grandma has. She’s a wonderful, caring woman, who hasn’t had the easiest life, but still finds something good to say about most people, and never lets you doubt that she’s on your side 110%, as long as you don’t get between her and the dark chocolate in the box of See’s. I remember my mom wrote a wonderful birthday tribute to Grandma a couple of years ago, and I decided to repost…
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Local Boy Makes Good
Hats off today to a local hero, Chelsey B. “Sully” Sullenberger III, captain of the airplane that suffered an emergency landing in the Hudson River today. “Sully” made sure all passengers and crew were off of the plane, walking up and down the aisles twice in a sinking airplane before evacuating himself. (I say local, because he’s a resident of Danville, CA, our neighbor to the south, and the town in which Ted grew up.) What wonderful news, to hear that everyone behaved decently and kindly, and that everyone survived. Thank you to the captain, the crew, and indeed to the passengers who helped keep things calm in the face…
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Throw One Shoe…
Ted mentioned the other day that our economic situation is so bad, that even if every American man, woman, and child were to chip in $1 or $5, it wouldn’t really help anything. I thought, but what if every American man, woman, and child were to throw one shoe at George W. Bush? Heck, even if every man, woman, and child in DC next Tuesday threw a shoe, surely at least one would hit him. THAT’S a movement I could get behind. You have at least one extra shoe lying around, don’t you? That you’d be willing to donate to the cause? A girl can dream, right?
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Casual Classics Challenge
MizB over at MizB Challenges You is hosting 5 different challenges this year, one of which is the Casual Classics Challenge. I’ve been looking for some motivation and accountability to inspire me to read “Mrs. Dalloway”, in case I decide to read “The Hours”. Do you find my life pathetic when you read that sentence? I sorta do, but also, I suspect that those of you who read book blogs and participate in challenges probably understand. The rules of this challenge are quite casual, which is nice. The goal is to read 4 Classics in 2009. That’s it. And the definition of Classics* is pretty loose, too. Any book written…
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I Want to Ride My Bicycle
On Friday, we took my bike in for new tires and inner tubes, and while the kind people at the bike shop were fixing up my bike, I drooled over the new, comfy, touring bikes that they had. All shiny and new and pretty. And I’ll admit it, I want one. There are two that I keep going back and forth on, and I’m not sure which one I would buy if I had the money. They’re both by the same company, Electra, and they’re both touring bikes, which means that you sit pretty much upright when you ride, and they have a nice comfy seat. Check them out. At…
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Revolutionary Road
“He felt as if he were sinking helplessly into the cushions and the papers and the bodies of his children like a man in quicksand. When the funnies were finished at last he struggled to his feet, quietly gasping, and stood for several minutes in the middle of the carpet, making tight fists in his pockets to restrain himself from doing what suddenly seemed the only thing in the world he really and truly wanted to do: picking up a chair and throwing it through the picture window. What in the hell kind of life was this? What in God’s name was the point or the meaning or the purpose…
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Friday Dog Blogging
You wouldn’t believe the week I’m having! Sorry, I forgot to say, “Hi Everyone, this is Genevieve”, but I was distracted by the week I’m having! It started on Wednesday, which was a very bad day. First off, I didn’t get any breakfast. Medium Boss usually feeds me, but I think she forgot or something! Then when we went for our walk, we stopped at the vet’s office! I hate that! Why should we stop there? Usually when we stop there, whichever boss is with me stays in a little room. The doctor takes me into another room and tells me what a pretty girl I am, and feels my…
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Dewey’s Book Challenge
I was looking around for a Classics Reading Challenge yesterday, hoping for some accountability that will get me to read a few classics, when I came across this excellent blog, A Novel Challenge, which lists a TON of current reading challenges. Really. A lot. If you’re looking for a chick lit challenge? She has links to one. Historical Fiction more your thing? She’s got that, too. Practically anything you’re looking for, it’s there. I found a classics challenge there, and as soon as I figure out what I’m going to read for it, I’ll put up a list. Anyway, one of the challenges I came across is the Dewey’s Books…