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Romantic? Or Realist?
Every once in awhile, I’ll be talking to someone, and they’ll mention that someone is (or isn’t) their ‘soulmate’. The idea, the way I understand it, is that there is one person out there, who is perfect for you, and assuming you want to be in a relationship, you have to find them. I find this difficult to believe. Also, somewhat depressing. What if they’re perfect for you, but they get hit by a car, and you never get to meet them? What if they’re already married? What if they’re perfect for you, but they’re in Sudan, and you’re in Stockton, and you never have a chance to meet? What…
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Sunday Cooking
OK, so I know most people don’t bother reading blogs on the weekend, since you have lives and chores and families and so on, so I save the easy ones for these days. Posts that I figure maybe 3 people will read, and I’ll get maybe one comment. I’ve learned my lesson, people, I’ve poured my heart and soul into a weekend post, and seen on my site meter that it is basically ignored. The perfect lazy post is a recipe that I can just copy and paste from a website. I mean, at that point, why do I even bother? Because I can’t help myself, I guess. Maya has…
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Elephant Appreciation
Yesterday was Elephant Appreciation Day*. I thought it was September 23rd, but I was wrong, and thus, I missed it. But really, is it ever too late to appreciate elephants? And, since elephants in the wild are pretty much in Africa and India and Southeastern Asian countries, shouldn’t I have celebrated on Thursday night? Do elephants care about such things? I’ll admit that I never had much of an opinion about elephants growing up. I mean, they’re big, and they’re kind of prehistoric looking, but what else? Dumbo? Dumbo’s cute. That’s about as far as I went. Then, when I was an International Relations major in college, we watched a…
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Calling all Gramarians
Awhile ago, I posted a list of thirteen grammar mistakes that bug me. If you like that kind of thing, you might enjoy listening to this. It’s “To The Best Of Our Knowledge”, from NPR, and it talks about IM and text messaging, but also about changes to grammar in general. My favorite part so far is an interview with the author of “Woe is I“. I’m about 2/3 through (Have it on my iPod, and I listen while I walk the dog…), and I’m enjoying it. Hope you do as well.
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Book Meme
I’ve been tagged by Lotus Reads for an interesting meme about books. The hard thing is that I tend to read a lot. Not nearly as much as I would like to, or as much as I used to, but a lot. At the same time, I have a pretty crappy memory, so I might answer these questions one way today, and if you asked me again in a year, or a week, you might get all different answers. 🙂 1. One book that changed your life? “The Blood of Others“, by Simone de Beauvoir. I read this my senior year in college, and I remember the feeling that I…
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13 6 Misc. Thursday Thoughts
1. Mr. Armani, jumping into the fray about overly thin fashion models (in Madrid recently, they forbade models with a BMI lower than 18. Medically, a BMI of under 20 is considered underweight.) “conceded that he had always used models “on the slender side”, adding: “This was because the clothes I design and the sort of fabrics I use need to hang correctly on the body”.” (Quote from Yahoo news.) OK, but then shouldn’t the largest size you sell be a 0? Because if I’m understanding you correctly, a healthy woman cannot wear your clothing and have it ‘hang correctly’. So, my advice? Either sell only to size 0 women,…
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Grandpa
Saturday, we were driving around in the car, listening to the radio, and my perhaps favorite new song came on: “I Write Sins Not Tragedies”, by Panic! at the Disco. Why do I like this song so much? Because, in addition to a catchy pop tune, it reminds me of my Grandpa. Here are the lyrics: I’d chime in with a “Haven’t you people ever heard of closing a goddamn door?!” No, it’s much better to face these kinds of things with a sense of poise and rationality. I had to laugh, because that “Haven’t you people ever heard of closing a goddamn door?!” sounded JUST like something he would…
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My Horse Picture
When I was maybe 7 or 8 years old, my mom worked as both a Montessori school teacher, and because we all know how well teaching pays (esp a private school), she also worked at a local restaurant. The restaurant, as I remember it, was next door to a small art gallery, where they sold paintings by local artists. I’m not sure how we ended up going inside the gallery, but we did, and I fell in love with one of the paintings. It was of two horses, running in a field, and it was painted on a piece of wood. My love of horses knew no bounds, and this…
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Movie Time
We have watched several DVDs over the last few days…I watched “Last Holiday“, which was cute, but I didn’t laugh even once. It’s a remake, and the premise, if you don’t know, is that a quiet, mousy woman is told that she’s going to die in a couple of weeks…which motivates her to take the bull by the horns and finally live life. She goes to Europe and spends a week or so living with such gusto, such abandon, that everyone around her is enthralled and falls under her spell of forthright talking and joie de vivre. Like I said, cute. No more. We TRIED to watch “Super Troopers“, but…
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Birth Story
Black Belt Mama has a second blog, called Birth Story, where you can tell the story of the birth of your child if you want to. I wrote about Maya’s birth there awhile ago, and my mom just wrote about my birth. If you’re so inclined, go check it out. 😉 (My mom’s birth, Lilith Joycelyn, and my brother’s birth, Richard Roland, are also there. Which led Maya to wonder if her Granny might write the story of my Grandma’s birth as well.)
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Dealbreakers
I was reading Dooce yesterday. I don’t usually read her blog, because when someone gets 400+ comments on a post about nothing at all, I get a little jealous, and I don’t want to hang with them anymore. Of course, she never knew I was hanging with her to begin with. Anyway, once in awhile, I’ll come back and check out her blog, and see what’s new in Dooceland. On this particular day, she was talking about her friend Maggie (who is cousin to a friend of ours), another big time blogger, and how she has a book out called No One Cares What You Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas…
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Sitcom Theme Songs I Can’t Help But Sing Along With…
This one is kind of embarrasing, but I can’t help myself. I totally ripped off the lovely Tracy at The Starshine Report, but really, I have no shame. 😉 I’ve decided to pump it up a bit for you, though, so you can watch the videos yourself, and see/hear the theme songs. Enjoy! (lost these when I  moved to WordPress. You can go here to see them, or check them out at YouTube.) 1. The Jeffersons. I dare you not to sing along. I, too, want a piece of the pie. And remember the interracial couple next door? The black woman was my boyfriend Lenny Kravitz’s mom. Whew. 2.…
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Zachary’s Pizza
If you’re from the Chicago area, you probably can get Chicago style pizza any time you want. I’ve never been closer to Chicago than I-80, driving from San Francisco to Philadelphia, so I don’t know for sure. But if you live in the Bay Area, the best place to get Chicago style pizza is indisputably at Zachary’s. The problem is that Zachary’s is always CROWDED. There is one location in Oakland, another in Berkeley, and the wait is often over an hour. So the ‘in the know’ solution is to get your pizza ‘half baked’, and take it home, finish cooking it there, and enjoy. Well, good news to those…
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I’m Just Sayin’
I bought a cute dress at maxstudio.com once, and now I get these emails telling me of their new lines, etc. The one I received yesterday came with the subject line, “Snazz up your office wardrobe”, and this picture. Tell me, if the girl in the middle doesn’t work at Vogue, where could that possibly be appropriate office attire? I’ve only been working from home for a few months here…has office culture changed THAT much? Wait…maybe she works from home, so she can wear whatever she wants? I’m thinking maybe she should add a bra to her ensamble.
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Jupterian*
Did you know that Maya was born on Jupiter? Perhaps that would explain why she’s so darned smart and beautiful and yummy as well. I love this picture. She’s just so pretty. 🙂 When she was a baby, she had a birthmark on the back of her head. It was a large red hemangioma (sometimes called a ‘strawberry‘), which looked remarkably like the big red spot on Jupiter. So we decided that she was FROM Jupiter, and thus, a Jupterian. When she was little, and asked where babies came from, we gave her a couple of answers. We sometimes told her the truth, and we sometimes told her that she…