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Hey, I’m “published”!
Back when Maya was in 4th grade, I went along with her class on a field trip to the Black Diamond Mines, in Antioch, CA. I took some pictures, of course, ‘for the blog!’, and they live on Flickr. Fast forward a year and a half, and I received an email from the folks over at Weekend Sherpa, wanting to know if they can use one of my pictures for this week’s newsletter! How cool is that? It’s the first on one the page, of the graveyard. And, how cool to find a website like this, that talks about groovy things to do in Northern CA, little hikes, big hikes,…
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An old lady, living in a not quite so old lady’s body…
(click to enlarge) Last Sunday, Ted and I took our weekend ritual walk over to Cafe Heavenly, where we usually get coffee for Ted, and we often get breakfast for both of us. We ordered our breakfast, plus a bagel to take back for Maya, and the total of the bill came to $19.43. “Oh,” I said to the young woman behind the counter, “1943…that’s the year my father was born.” She looked at me with a completely blank face that clearly said, “and I want to know this why?” and I realized, I’m turning into one of those people who just randomly says things that pop into my head,…
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Outsourced & Zatar
Last Saturday, while I was all grumpy and crisis-of-faithy after picking up the newspaper at breakfast (note to self, funnies only from now on), we decided it would be fun to go to Berkeley to see a nice romantic comedy. You know what? It was! We went to see Outsourced, which isn’t playing yet out in the ‘burbs, hence the driving in to Berkeley. Outsourced is the story of Todd (aka, Mr. Toad), a call-center manager in Seattle who learns that his call center is going to be closed down, and he must go to India to get the new call-center up and running, as well as to train his…
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Crisis of Faith
I know, that’s an odd title for a post written by an atheist, isn’t it? But it’s what I feel sometimes. And atheists have faith, too, as much as the next person. I don’t believe in a higher power, but I believe in the human spirit, in beauty and hope and love, in the miracle that is a baby being born, and the devastation that is a loved one lost. Some days, however, I truly should stay the hell away from the newspaper/TV, etc., because the real world has the ability to crush me, casually, as though it doesn’t even care that I exist. The evil that men do to each other…
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Honey Apple Turkey with Gravy
This Monday, as Maya and I were walking to school, we saw these wild turkeys on the bike trail we travel (ok, not THESE wild turkeys…I brought the camera on Tuesday, and they were gone…stupid turkeys). Which reminded us, oooh, Thanksgiving is coming up pretty soon…and then, Maya said, I’m looking forward to Canadian Thanksgiving! Ooops…well, at least I didn’t totally miss it, because lo and behold, I came home, and checked, and that very day was Canadian Thanksgiving! Sooo…I decided to continue our recent tradition, and make a yummy Thanksgiving dinner for my family. (Ted was born in Canada, and came to the U.S. when he was 1 1/2…so…
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Vernon God Little
What if you were a 15 year old white boy in Texas with some sort of irritable bowl condition, and your best friend were a gay Mexican boy who couldn’t take the cruel teasing of his classmates, and shot and killed 16 people at high school, including himself? What if, because Jesus (your best friend) is dead and also a murderer, and the townspeople want answers, and blood, you suddenly find yourself in jail, not yet accused of a crime, but coming close? What if you befriended a CNN reporter, the only semi-decent reporter in town, only to have him betray you, sleep with your mother, and then you find…
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The “What’s In Your House” Meme
(this is our finished kitchen, all staged and prettyful) I got this meme from Autumn’s Mom and Ally Bean at Tangerine Zest. Here goes. What kind of soap is in your bathtub shower right now? Dove pro-age body wash, which pretty much tells you WAY too much about me. Do you have any watermelon in your refrigerator? Not currently. What would you change about your living room? I wish it were larger. We have an extremely small living room. Are the dishes in your dishwasher clean or dirty? Dirty. Just emptied the clean ones, and put in the 3 things that were in the sink. What is in your fridge?…
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Taken By Trees
Last night, I was sitting, trying to finish up my work for the evening, waiting for my stupid Outlook to open so I could send an email, and Ted had gone for a walk with his iPhone and the dog…I looked over at the Party Shuffle he had on his iMac, and one of the songs was Julia, by Taken by Trees. Hmm, I thought, I wonder how long it’s going to take my stupid Outlook to open? I wonder if that’s a cover of the old Beatles tune? So I clicked it, and lo and behold, it was NOT. So, then I thought, I should check out this Taken…
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Clarification, s’il vous plait
On Monday, we received a progress report for Maya’s Core Class, and there was a comment in the appropriate field that said, “Missing Work”. Her grade thus far in the class is an A-, so I wasn’t too worried. (I don’t worry too much about grades anyway, but at this school, Core is English and Social Studies, which are Maya’s two favorite classes, so if she’s not doing the work, that would surprise me. Actually, she always does her work, so it would surprise me even if it were a class that weren’t her favorite.) So I thought about it a bit, and sent the teacher an email: Dear Ms.…
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(Not) Wordless Wednesday…Vernal Falls Edition
I was prepared to write up a long post all about our weekend in Yosemite, but Ted beat me to it. He did such an awesome job, you can read all about the bears, etc., here. I got our pictures developed…since we THOUGHT we had forgotten our camera (it was in a side pocket, which we didn’t check. NEWMAN!*), we bought a disposable camera to use…and we only took pictures on the hike up to Vernal Falls. No pictures of any other camping stuff, I’m sorry to say. Anyway, if you read my post on Saturday, you know that hiking to Vernal Falls was the one thing I REALLY wanted…
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Waiting
Waiting is the story of a man, Lin, who lives in Communist China during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s. He is a doctor in a military hospital, and is satisfied with his life there. His aging parents live in a remote village, and want to arrange a marriage for Lin, so that the wife will care for them in their illness and old age. Lin agrees, and so he is married to Shuyu, a devoted and old fashioned woman who cares very well for Lin’s parents, and gives him a daughter, Min. Lin does not love Shuyu, and never has, but he is grateful to her for all that…
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Stopping Abuse
I read over on Roc Rebel Granny about blog against abuse day, which was last Thursday. I didn’t read about it in time to do a blog post at the time. Coincidentally, I read about a study which suggests that teens with several close friends, especially same sex friends, are less likely than other teens to be in abusive relationships. Here is the article, in its entirety: Teenage girls who stick close with their circle of friends are less likely to take abuse from the boys they date, a new study suggests. The intricacies of the teen years include more than the physical sprouting and associated zits. Teenagers begin to…
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Sunday Book Coveting*
The other day I was walking Genevieve, our lovely dog, and listening to To the Best of Our Knowledge on my beloved iPod. The episode is titled Women & Islam. (You can click from this page to listen, if you wish). The first segment discusses a book titled My Sister, Guard Your Veil; My Brother, Guard Your Eyes. I might want to read this book, even though I’m not a big non-fiction reader. It is a series of essays written by Iranian women, and discusses the Iranian revolution, and how it has suppressed women in Iran, and yet in no way has it completely stifled feminism there. From Powells.com: In…
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Vernal Falls
(photo found here) My favorite thing to do in Yosemite National Park is to hike up to Vernal Falls. It’s a moderate hike, and takes awhile, but heck, what else are you going to do all day? 😉 If you’re feeling brave, and you have longer, you can keep hiking up to Nevada Falls. It’s a cool feeling to find yourself at the top of a waterfall (see the tiny person there, to the right of the falls?), and a unique way to experience the beauty of Yosemite. Hopefully, while you’re reading this post, our place is in the process of being sold (goes back on the market today, first…
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Why I Heart This American Life…
You may or may not know that I like to download podcasts of a few of my favorite NPR programs, which I then listen to on my beloved iPod while walking Genevieve in the morning. I download three shows from NPR. The first is Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me, which makes the people walking past me think I’m insane, because I just start laughing out loud to myself, seemingly at nothing. The second is To The Best of Our Knowledge, which I’ll admit is last in my queue, and sometimes I get to it, and love it, and other times it falls by the wayside. The third show I download…