Musings
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My Fabulous Fur Coat
The world has gotten a lot more complicated in the last 50 years, I think. What I mean by that is that people (most, at least) used to feel no guilt about having diamonds and wanting fur coats. And if they DID feel guilt, it was for being too materialistic. Nowadays, however, we not only know how many little minks go into a fur coat, we also know how much suffering and corruption goes into a diamond ring, and it gives us pause. My Grandma is getting older, as we all are, and is starting to give away some of her more prized possessions. This is partly because she’s getting…
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Lyrics…
Did you listen to music in high school, lay on the floor with your frinds in the dark and really LISTEN to the lyrics, let them wash over you, think about what they mean to you, to the artist, to the world in general? I know you did, Wendy, because, as you say, in some ways we were seperated at birth, but others…I don’t know. I did. I analyzed the lyrics to my favorite music, analyzed the tone of voice that the singer used…I loved it. Loved music with such a passion…it was an amazing time. I rarely listen to music that way anymore, and I’m not sure if it’s…
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No Thought Here…
I’ve read some pretty thoughtful blogs today…mostly Here and Here. I thought about writing a post about meeting my father when I was 21, what that was like…or the dangers of global warming…I don’t know. Instead, I’ll tell you that our garden looks nice after our Earth Day treatment yesterday, that we went to the farmer’s market this morning and bought purple cauliflower for $7 (I hope it’s good!), that I’m going to go downstairs in a minute and start a leg of lamb for dinner, which we will enjoy with the purple veggie, and that I’m gonna help Maya with her math. And, today is my beloved mom’s birthday.…
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What are we eating?
Have you ever driven across the country in the summer on 80? What do you see? Corn. Corn corn corn. Well, I read a review in the Chron a few weeks ago about this book, The Omnivore’s Dilemna, and now I’m listening to the author talk about his book on Science Friday….wow, amazing stuff. Did you know that ecoli is caused by feeding cows corn? And that if they stop feeding the cows corn for 5 days before slaughter, and feed them grass, we wouldn’t have to irradiate beef? AMAZING. He says that we are eating SO MUCH CORN that it is starting to cause malnutrition in people who are…
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Overnight in Reno…
We went on an overnight trip last night to Reno, Nevada. Ted’s friend from High School, Scott, loves making films, and about 5 years ago, he remade an old Twilight Zone episode into a 40 minute feature, “The Shelter“. He was showing the film at a high school (Hug High School…mascot, the Hawks…fun to say, Hug High Hawks) in Reno today, so we thought it might be fun to drive up and see the film, and maybe play in the snow. News flash: No snow in Reno. It was in the 50s. Anyway, we drove up yesterday afternoon, and found our hotel. We stayed at the Siena, which was NOT…
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Superheroes
In yesterday’s post, which was a meme of six weird things about me, I mentioned that my personal real life hero is Harriet Tubman. I admire her for her grace, her courage, her determination, and her strength of conviction. She was a woman who wanted freedom, and found a way to attain it…once she had tasted the sweet flavor, however, she determined that she must free others, so she went back into harm’s way, so that she might rescue others. I’m assuming you all know of her work. Of how she, along with the help of the underground railroad, spirited slaves out of the south to their freedom in Canada.…
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Misc…
Just a few things…First, today is the first day of Passover. Happy Passover everyone, and if you celebrate with a Seder, enjoy! We’re only Jewish for Hannukah, so we won’t be celebrating…but we wish everyone who does a lovely evening. Second, today is national D.E.A.R. day. DEAR stands for Drop Everything And Read. Maya’s class does this in the mornings when they get to school every day, which is nice. If you have time in your day, sit down today and read for 30 minutes to celebrate. Why leave all the fun for the kids? 🙂 Lastly, I’m getting a lot of SPAM email. Blech. Comes in looking like this:…
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Wanted and Loved
We were watching “Six Feet Under” last night, and boy, that show has gotten pretty depressing. Wait, it has always been depressing. What am I saying? Anyway, David and Keith are looking into adopting or having a surrogate mother help them, so they can be dads. At one point, they go to the house of another gay acquaintance of theirs, who has some other friends over for drinks. They raise a toast to David and Keith’s endeavors. The toast? “May every child be wanted and loved just as they are, because otherwise, life is hell.” Wow. Now, I know this toast is coming from a gay man, and his personal…
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A Weekend to Myself….Really?
For some reason I joined this group of bloggers called Crazy Hip Blog Mamas…maybe saw them on Wendy’s Site, maybe the other J, not sure…I haven’t checked them out very often, because hey, only so many hours in one day, and I have all of these blogs over to the right there that I MUST read, or I will wither up and die. Well, today for some reason I went over there and looked, to see what’s up. They are positing a topic…What would you do if you had an entire weekend to yourself. So, here goes… An entire weekend…to…myself….hmmmm. I’m thinking I would either: 1. Sit around and eat…
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Tired of the Rain Yet?
I’m guessing I’m the only person in Northern California who isn’t sick of the rain. This year has set records for the rainiest spring ever, and the most rainy days. Add that to the fact that the snow up in the Sierras is about twice as wet as normal CA snow, and the reservoirs are getting close to capacity, and much of the Central Valley is below sea level, protected by an old and neglected levee system, and this could be a rough summer of flooding for CA, as the snow melts and overtaxes the reservoirs. All of that is bad. Also bad is that people are SICK of grey,…
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Happy HNT & Working from Home
Today is my first day working at home. The plus? These are my work shoes. Old, comfy slippers! (See that bit of ankle showing there? That’s your HNT!) So far, the best part is the comfy, and that I somehow seem to get a bit more done. The bad part is, it’s right in my bedroom. No other place in condo living for the computers and desk, etc. Sigh. But Maya gets to sleep until 7, we have breakfast together (at work, we would go to our seperate computers and eat at desks…she doing neomail or reading Kim Possible fan fic, me doing work email, etc.), we walk the dog…
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Happy HNT & Working from Home
Today is my first day working at home. The plus? These are my work shoes. Old, comfy slippers! (See that bit of ankle showing there? That’s your HNT!) So far, the best part is the comfy, and that I somehow seem to get a bit more done. The bad part is, it’s right in my bedroom. No other place in condo living for the computers and desk, etc. Sigh. But Maya gets to sleep until 7, we have breakfast together (at work, we would go to our seperate computers and eat at desks…she doing neomail or reading Kim Possible fan fic, me doing work email, etc.), we walk the dog…
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Old Enough?
One of the comments on my post about boredom was that the person was surprised that I didn’t feel Maya was old enough to be left alone…which got me thinking, “How old is old enough”? I’m not stupid like these people, who left their kids for the weekend while they go to Vegas. But I DO trust my daughter, and since there’s no younger sibling around for her to worry about, when would be old enough? I know when I was her age, I was home alone, sort of, because my mom worked and my brother was there. He was 12 to my 10, so I would think that’s a…
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Quote of the Day…
I’m cleaning off my desk at work, because soon I’ll be working from home, and I have to figure out what to keep here, and what to take with me. I came across this quote that I found somewhere once…maybe Center for a New American Dream? I’m not sure. Anyway, I’m thinking you’ll like it. I do. “Money can never buy you love or happiness. You cannot go into a store and pay a person to be your friend. I mean, you could, but I would rather meet them under a big apple tree.” – Rebekah McConnell, 11 years, Meridian, ID. I love the optimism of it, yet the knowledge…
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Boredom….
Ted just finished reading A Sense of the Mysterious, by Alan Lightman. Here’s a description that I found online: Alan Lightman was horror-struck to realise that he has no spare time. He has become “a unit of efficiency”. He has to reach back to his childhood for the last time he meandered through a day, when time was not cut into efficient byte-sized pieces for instant use. As he writes, the reader thinks. A Sense of the Mysterious is a collection of essays by physicist-writer Lightman, a great introduction to his work and pure pleasure for fans. So Ted was telling me a bit about this book yesterday, which got…