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Safety
This week was the final week for the PEP program I’ve been teaching at Maya’s school, and the lesson was on health and safety. One of the exercises that we did was to write categories on a flip chart, and have the students (4th and 5th graders) give as many examples of how to be safe within that category as they could think of. The categories were: safey in the home, personal safety, water safety, bicycle safety, outdoor safety, and nutrition and exercise. One thing that struck me when they were brainstorming their answers is, these kids are pretty sure that they or someone they know is going to be…
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wins the Orange Prize for Half of a Yellow Sun!
Ms. Adichie, from the website for her book. Dewey over at The Hidden Side of a Leaf has interviewed me about my recent read, Half of a Yellow Sun. Coincidentally, I recently found out that Half‘s author won the Orange Prize for this book! She’s only 29 years old, so this makes her the youngest author ever to be awarded the Orange Prize, AND, I believe she is the first African to be awarded this honor. So, to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, I say, CONGRATULATIONS!
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J Needs…
Here’s a twist on a meme I saw on Scarlett’s page, and thought might be fun. Here’s what you do: 1. Go to Google.com 2. Type your name and the word ‘needs’ in quotes in the search engine and hit the button. Give us 13 that make sense, if you can. (Scarlett used 10, but I went for 13, so I could make it a ‘Thursday 13’. 😉 ) Let’s see what “J needs”… J Needs Your Help! (This is true…sometimes, I do need your help.) J needs to work on her parenting (Sadly, this is often true. Actually, I think all parents need to work on their parenting, though.…
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My Thoughts on Paris…
In between Buy Me, the ever pessimistic view of the real estate market, and a repeat of the always charming Groundhog Day the other night, I found myself briefly watching the obnoxious TVGuide Channel, which was busy crowing about Paris Hilton checking into prison. For the first time ever, I found myself feeling a little bit sorry for her, as the vultures joked about what her roots will look like when she gets out of prison. Prior to this, I have never felt the remotest sympathy for Paris. She’s a spoiled brat media whore, famous for sex tapes, partying, and having a crappy attitude. She has more money than God,…
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Scarlett’s Trilogy
While researching my list for the challenge, I noticed that Gone With The Wind won the Pulitzer Prize in 1937. I have mentioned a few times of my love for Gone With The Wind, how I’ve read it over and over again, how I can open it at almost any point in the narrative, and know exactly what’s going on. I have to say, though, that I have always felt a bit guilty for loving it, because of the racism of the writing, in addition to an overly romanticized view of the ‘gentility’ of the antibellum south. And yet…I’m sucked in. Sucked in so completely that I can’t resist a…
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Book Awards Reading Challenge
I discovered a new book reading challenge that I’m all over like a cheap suit…this one is called the Book Awards Reading Challenge. Coincidentally, Ted got me hooked last week on yet ANOTHER internet timesuck, which would be goodreads, where you can keep track of all of the books that you ever remember reading, look at what your friends are reading, compare your lists and ratings with them, and figure out what NEW books you might want to read. Fun, huh? Definately. (Mom, it looks like you can upload your spreadsheet maybe…if you want another time suck in your life. 😉 ) Back to the challenge…this challenge is to read…
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Top Blog Mag
Guess what? I wrote a post for this week’s issue of Top Blog Mag. Check it out!
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Town or Country?
Are you a town mouse, or a country mouse? That’s the question posed today at Sunday Scribbling. I could say either…I love the city, the lights and the vibrancy and the diversity and the culture. I lived in San Francisco for 7 years, and never thought I would leave. I loved the restaurants, the shops, the odd people on the bus (though not always their smells or habits), all of it. Of course, city living has its downside…parking is an issue, hard to find a place with a washer and drier hook up, and to buy rather than rent requires the kind of income that I will never attain. Country…
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Anatomy of a Wedding Shower
It seems that a certain Miss Cherry is getting married in a few short weeks, and as her de facto maid of honor type person, I decided to have a wedding shower for her today. Yay! So, let’s see, what do we need… Guests…check! We’ve invited family and friends to come and take it easy, have some snacks and drinks, get to know each other, and shower her with lovely gifts. Gifts….check! Including several big and heavy ones sent by far away family who couldn’t be here, and I’ve been dying to tell her that they’re here, but I would prefer for her to be surprised… Food…check! It’s an afternoon…
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Spending $$$
Ms. Mamma had a post the other day, in which she was sporting some stylin’ new shades. She mentioned that she almost didn’t buy them, because they were expensive, and she’s not rich. Immediately, my mind went to a ploop type graph, in which I show WHY I don’t buy expensive sunglasses. As you can see, I have tried a couple of times to own cool, sexy sunglasses, but it’s really not a good idea. I said as much to Ms. Mamma, and she replied that she is gifted in such a way that when she buys sunglasses, she keeps them as long as she wants to, unless her mom…
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Green and Black Olive Chicken
If you’re the type of cook who doesn’t like to cook, doesn’t really know HOW to cook, I’ve got an easy-peasy recipe for you today. This is the kind of recipe that you open a jar, pour it out, pop in the oven, and dinner’s ready. You can sit down with a glass of wine, and watch Take Home Chef, or whatever, while you wait…So, here goes. Green and Black Olive Chicken 2 – 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts 1 jar Barilla brand Green and Black Olive Sauce Preheat oven to 375. Line a baking dish with foil (makes clean up easier, and we’re going for easy, right?). Wash and…
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Blog Game…
I popped on over to The Hidden Side of a Leaf yesterday morning, and found she has a new blogroll game you might want to try out. It’s to get us all reading outside of our usual group of blogs, and see if there’s something new out there you’d be interested in. I know, many of us only have room for so many blogs on our blogroll (assuming we read them all, like I do, almost every day), but once in awhile it’s fun to check out something different. If you’re interested, here are her rules: a. pick someone from one of my 3 blogrolls. (J’s note…not MY blogroll, hers!)…
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Half of a Yellow Sun
Last night, I finished the second book in my Chunkster Challenge, Half of a Yellow Sun, in which the author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie tells the story of the small, short lived nation of Biafra. Biafra tried to seperate itself from Nigeria in a horrible civil war, from 1967 – 1970. Nigeria received support from the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, while Biafra was supported covertly by France, Rhodesia and South Africa. While Nigeria certainly had military superiority, they mainly won victory by shutting off borders and shooting down relief planes, causing a famine that killed over a million people. It was from the horrors of Biafra that the humanitarian…
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Rethinking the Draft
Memorial Day came about as a day to stop and honor those who died in service to their country, following the Civil War. On Friday, I listened to an interesting radio program (which I already mentioned on Saturday), which discussed the meanings of Memorial Day, and how the bulk of this war is being carried by the military, and the rest of us are pretty much free to go about our business, hopefully spending plenty of money at the mall, maybe even buying a new car or two, so that we can keep the economy strong, and get that Dow Jones up higher and higher. There is such a huge…
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Misc. Thoughts…
(I found this odd apple image at http://princev.front.ru) Maya’s come home from Science Camp. It is SO nice to see her…to hug her and hear her stories. They took hikes, sang songs, went to the ocean, checked out tidepools, saw tons of stars, and Maya won the title of “Hard Core” by eating an entire apple, stem, seeds, and all. Atta girl. Watched “The Queen” the other day. It was good. It was interesting to see a bit of what maybe went on in the royal family at that time. I came away with a feeling of, ‘wow, I’m glad I’m not part of THAT messed up family.’ And while…