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I Need A Chauffer
Yesterday, I walked everywhere, and boy, these dogs are barking. I started with a walk to Noah’s for breakfast, which is just about a mile and a quarter each way. Not too far, but my shoe selection was based more on heat than comfort. In other words, I was wearing sandals. Next, we had to go to the old work office to move what little bit of stuff there still remains into a storage space. The office is in a business park, and the storage space is actually a small office two parking lots over in that same office park. Yesterday was also one of my coworker’s last day, so…
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Props to Safeway
I stopped at Safeway on Thursday evening, and when I got back to my car, there was a woman filling the trunk of the car next to me with fruit and veggies. Corn, watermelon, strawberries, and so on. She didn’t have any bags, she was taking the items out of a big box and putting them into her trunk. I asked her if she had bought all of this at Safeway, wondering if she was against bagging her groceries for some reason, or if she were planning a huge party, since there was so much food. No, she said, Safeway donates the food to the Lindsay Wildlife Museum. Color me…
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Rue Lepic
As you all surely know by now, what with the duo Anniversary Posts and all, Monday was our 13th Wedding Anniversary. We had some different ideas as to what to do to celebrate…we thought of going to Napa, or to a play, etc. We finally settled on taking Maya with us, and going into the city to one of our favorite restaurants, Rue Lepic. We haven’t been there in perhaps 12 years or so, but nothing has changed. I don’t know if you would consider that a good thing or a bad thing, but we considered it a good thing. The story as I remember it is that the chef,…
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Our Summer So Far…
When planning our summer, with me working from home and Maya home as well, one concern that I had was too much TV/Video games. If we lived in a neighborhood full of kids, this wouldn’t be an issue, because she would be out playing with them enough of the time to counter-balance the time spent on XBox or Disney Channel. But we don’t. The other kids in our neighborhood are in summer day camps and their parents are at work. If I were a stay at home mom, I could keep her occupied for much of the day – we could go on day trips to the zoo, the park,…
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This Isn’t Even Alaska…or Yosemite
Here’s your picture of the day. Click the picture to get the story. Moral of the story? Don’t leave food in your car…a lesson I learned back in 1984, Yosemite, food in the station wagon, bear in the station wagon, food gone, windows broken, car moved a couple of feet, 4 very scared campers who had just graduated from High School (one of whom would be me…) Ack! (Picture died with the move to the new blog. Sorry. It was a picture of a bear in a convertable.)
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More Cooking Today…
One of the comments I got on my anniversary post asked about a recipe for Roti, which is an Indian flatbread…very similar to Naan, though not exactly the same. Roti is better. 😉 The Guyanese commenter, Shelliza, noted that when her mother tried to give her the recipe, it came out, “a handful, a pinch and this much”, which is just how Ted and his mom make it as well. So I can’t give you their recipe. However, my friend Cherry tried to find a recipe online, and she gave it a try. She said it was very yummy. I asked her for the recipe, and she said she melded…
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Recipe Wednesday
When Maya and I were trying to plan her summer a few months ago, one of the classes she was interested in taking was a cooking class. The only problem was that the class she wanted to take was through a program that would have her going at 9:00am, 5 days a week, which didn’t fit in with her plan of relaxing and sleeping in this summer. So, we decided that we would have our own cooking class, and I would teach her how to make some dishes. We bought a great looking kids cookbook, but we haven’t tried any of the recipes yet. Thus far, we have had one…
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Happy Independence Day
Go get your BBQ on, and while you’re enjoying feast, family and fireworks and a long weekend, let’s remember what we’re celebrating, what our little experiment in democracy means, how much we have gained these last 230 years, and just how much we stand to lose. Happy Birthday, America. Let’s all work together to make this the best country we can. K? (It’s been awhile since I read the whole document, which is indeed a very dangerous document – It brought about a complete change in government, after all – so if you’re interested in having a read, click here.)
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This Is Us*
A few nights ago, I was up watching Sex and the City DVDs, and it was the episode where Miranda and Steve get married. Miranda was saying that she didn’t want the cookie cutter wedding, didn’t want someone else’s idea of a wedding, that what she wanted was a wedding that represented them, and who they were. I liked that. I liked it, because it resonated with me. I felt like we had that, a wedding that represented us, 13 years ago today. When faced with the idea of a big white dress and a long walk down the aisle, I thought, “Well, that’s nice for other folks, but not…
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Mark Knopfler/Emmylou Harris concert
Last summer, Ted’s boss had 8 tickets to see Mark Knopfler at the Greek Theater in Berkeley, and then something came up, and he couldn’t use them. He knew how much Ted loved Mark Knopfler, so he very generously gave him the tickets. No $$, just tickets. NICE! So, we rounded up the family, and we all went. It was such a great concert, with SO MUCH energy, so much fun, wonderful wonderful. We had a great time. You all know how I feel about Dire Straits, and this was a great concert, because he played a lot of the old Dire Straits material for it. Friday was the last…
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Saturday Dog Blogging
I know, dog blogging is supposed to be on Fridays, but oh well. Sue me. 😉 Maya has requested that I write a blog telling how we got Genevieve. I have mentioned it once before, when we had dog visitors, but here’s the whole story. Back in 2002, we decided we were ready for a dog. Ted and I had both had dogs a lot as children…Ted a series of dogs, his favorite being Chamailie, and me one dog, my beloved Samantha. I had Samantha for 16 years, and when she died, it broke my heart. So I wasn’t ready for a dog for quite awhile. Add to that the…
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Almost Famous
Back in 2002, before I knew what the word ‘blog’ meant, before I realized the obsession and time suck that is the blogging world, I discovered the obsession and time suckiness of genealogy. My great-great Aunt had written a letter back in 1963, which appeared to detail our family tree back aways, and I thought a nice birthday gift to give my mom would be a map of the family tree for her wall. As I tried to put it together, I realized that there were holes and inconsistencies in the letter, and so I had to try to figure as many as possible out. What I discovered was that…
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Children Who Feel Empty…
I found this article in my SF Chronicle Magazine, from Sunday’s newspaper. It’s pretty long, but worth a look if you have some time. Really, there’s nothing here that I haven’t thought before…too many kids today are overscheduled, over-pressured, and very unhappy because of it. One thought that came to me, though, is that this story is about upper-middle to upper-class kids…what about the lower-middle and lower-class kids. When their parents push them and push them, isn’t it supposed to be a sign of caring? And conversely, if they DON’T push them, isn’t that a sign of failure? Where’s the happy medium? The article, which is really exerpts from the…
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Welcome to the World of Blogging!
Maya’s Granny, aka, my Mom, has decided to give this blogging thing a whirl, since she enjoys reading other peoples’ blogs so much. Go check her out. :)Â
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Everything Old is New Again
My buddy Neva and I went to dinner and a little shopping on Monday evening, and one of the places we ended up was Sephora. I wanted to get some Lorac mascara, as recommended by Gina. The girls who worked there had the bright, multi-colored eye shadow that was semi-popular in the mid-80s. You know, like Cyndi Lauper here used to wear. Seeing them made me think a couple of thoughts… 1st, boy, I’m getting old, because things that were trendy when I was in college are coming back around. 2nd, it reminded me of my mindset when I tried these looks…I just wanted to be cool. That was the…