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Criss Cross
“Wanna go to the movies?” he asked. No one had ever asked Debbie this question before. She had imagined, often, being asked this question, but not by Lenny. He was the wrong person. Wasn’t he? She had never felt that way about him. Had she? His question caught her off guard, and she didn’t know what to do with it. The part of her that was open to the universe was facing in another direction just then. She felt disoriented and uncomfortable and there was Lenny, waiting for her to say something back. “I think it’s better if we’re just friends,” she said. To her relief Patty arrived with a…
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Pardon The Mess…
My blog has been acting weird lately, and we suspect that the template that I’ve been using isn’t completely compatible with the newest version of WordPress. Every few days, I get completely locked out of my blog. And then Ted has to go in and fix it, because I haven’t asked him to show me how to do it myself. I was locked out on Thursday or Friday, and vowed to get to it over the weekend. But I spent my weekend bike shopping, reading, watching BSG, watching the Super Bowl, gathering tax information together, putting together girl scout cookie orders, grocery shopping, reading some more, watching Big Love, and…
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Bicycle Update
We went to REI yesterday to see if they had any bikes like the ones I wanted, and if they might be any cheaper there than at the bike store. They don’t have as big of a selection of cruisers, but they did have this very pretty purple bike, the ‘Karma’, by the same company, Electra. And guess what? It’s a lot cheaper than the others. Partially because this particular model is a bit cheaper, and partly because there was an air bubble in the paint, so there’s a spot that looks a bit funny, so it’s not perfect. Well, who is? These bikes aren’t cheap, and the Gypsy I…
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Friday Five ~ Sucky film version
This one started over on Facebook, where my friend Jeff mentioned being proud that he had never seen Ghost. Which started a discussion of films we’re glad we never saw, which morphed into a discussion of films we wish we could unsee. I like that idea, except for the brainwashing aspect that’s kind of there in the undercurrent… So, here’s my list of 5 films I wish I could unsee. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZTYkmAcsvk[/youtube] 1. Crash. And by this, I mean the 1996 version that most people were smart enough to avoid. I pink puffy heart James Spader, but he should have been smarter and skipped this one entirely. Blurbs are from imdb.…
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Apostrophe Abuse
Not sure if you’ve noticed, but parenting doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Which makes it difficult sometimes. For example, a few years ago we went to a somewhat upscale French bistro in San Francisco for dinner. Maya wanted to wear jeans, and we told her that was inappropriate, that at nicer restaurants, people wore nicer clothes. Of course, we were the only diners that evening who were not wearing jeans. Thankfully, she learns more from us at this point than the world around her, and does pay attention to what she’s wearing and whether it’s appropriate to her surroundings. Another example of parenting not happening in a vacuum is grammar…
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Baby, It’s COLD Outside
OK, not really. I mean, it was 34 degrees when I went for a walk this morning, which was enough to make me wish I had worn my hat, but not enough to make me turn around and go get it. And it’s supposed to heat up again over the next few days, so we’ll again be in the mid 60s for highs by the end of the week. Those of you in Wisconsin, Toronto, and New Hampshire, please, don’t kill me. I know, 34 is NOT cold, and for mid 60s right about now, you’d probably sacrifice a calf or something. When I go out in weather like this,…
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Happy Birthday, Mozart!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltNkfRFpeHc[/youtube] Mozart, Clarinet Concerto, 2nd movement, performed by the Vienna Philharmonic Women’s Orchestra. Today is the 253rd anniversary of Mozart’s birth, so I thought I would share this beautiful, beautiful piece of music with you. From the first time I heard this piece, I was enraptured. It was used in the film, “Out of Africa”, and I think the music from that movie made me love it as much as the beautiful cinematography, the costumes, and of course the compelling story. If you haven’t seen it, it does hold up very well. Of course, the all time wonderful Mozart film is “Amadeus”. I don’t know how much of that one…
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California Academy of Science
(Leafy Sea Dragon photo found here) We went to see the new California Academy of Science on my birthday, and perhaps because my birthday is during Christmas vacation, it was crowded. Really, really crowded. Far too crowded for enjoyment. We waited about 40 minutes to even get in, and once we did, we could barely get near any of the exhibits. We were there for about an hour before the claustrophobia of the situation took us over, and we had to leave. It’s not cheap, either, so that was an expensive hour. I mentioned this on my blog, and my San Francisco bloggy friend patois mentioned that she might wait…
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Happy 250th Birthday, Robert Burns
A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns O my luve’s like a red, red rose. That’s newly sprung in June; O my luve’s like a melodie That’s sweetly play’d in tune. As fair art thou, my bonnie lass, So deep in luve am I; And I will love thee still, my Dear, Till a’the seas gang dry. Till a’ the seas gang dry, my Dear, And the rocks melt wi’ the sun: I will luve thee still, my Dear, While the sands o’life shall run. And fare thee weel my only Luve! And fare thee weel a while! And I will come again, my Luve, Tho’ it were ten thousand…
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Tamar
“He was not what you’d call a lovable man, my grandad. It wasn’t that he was cold, exactly. It was more as though he had a huge distance inside himself. There’s a game I used to play with my friends. One of us had to think of someone we all knew, and the others had to work out who it was by asking questions like “If this person was a musical instrument, what would it be?” I used to think that if Grandad were a place, it would be one of those great empty landscapes you sometimes see in American movies: flat, an endless road, tumbleweed blown by a moaning…
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TGIF
savage chickens comic found here I’m glad it’s Friday today. It’s a rainy day, for which I am thankful, because we NEED the rain. This has been our driest January since 1920 or something stupid like that. I hope we get lots more in the weeks to come. Even more importantly, snow, because California’s main water source is snow melt. Hmmm. Today is the last day of the quarter for Maya, so they get out at noon. I’m working 1/2 day, and then we’re going to pick her up and go into San Francisco, and try again at the Academy of Sciences. We went on my birthday, but it was…
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Flat Iron Advice
I’d like to ask some advice, PRODUCT advice, from my female readers with curly or wavy hair. Maya is interested in getting a flat iron, and we’re considering it as a possible birthday gift. My hair is so stick straight and flat, I have zero experience in the flat iron world, so I thought I might ask you guys. I mean, I can read reviews online any day, but advice from real live people that I know and trust is even better. So, here are my questions. Does price matter? I’ve seen them from $20 to $200. I know that sometimes, spending more is worth it, because you get what…
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Wordless Wednesday
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At Last…
“What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them — that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account — to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and…
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Hola!
(photo of Cherry’s margarita, via Cherry’s camera. Me, I take mine blended. But boy, hers LOOKS good, doesn’t it?) It’s been a long time since I did a restaurant review here. Back when I started blogging, my plan was to write about local restaurants, thinking that maybe some people in and around the ‘Creek’ might enjoy reading them. It didn’t take me long to lose interest in restaurant reviews, and I started writing about other things, whatever I happened to be thinking about kind of things. But once in awhile, a restaurant comes along that deserves mention. Hola! Restaurant in Burlingame is one such restaurant. (Looking at their website, I…