Cooking Madness

I was perusing the Dollar Stretcher website and I read this excellent piece of advice for those preparing school lunches every morning. In a nutshell, it said to prepare "prepackaged" lunch bits on the weekends. I'm a big advocate of less waste, make it yourself, control the sodium and fat by preparing your own - that sort of thing. So, I made a bunch of stuff for Gabe's lunches this weekend. I was rather tired, but kind of proud of myself:

• hard cooked eggs (for which he requires hand-drawn faces)
  
• pumpkin bread (baked the fresh pumpkin myself!)
• oatmeal cranberry cookies (from the Trader Joe's freezer section)
• toasted pumpkin seeds
• chocolate pudding
• popcorn - bagged it in little bags, too
• and....honey butter, for his morning waffle

Dang, I'm good!

Speaking of waffles, we picked up a belgian waffle maker at the recent garage sale weekend here for a buck. Makes great waffles, too. I loves me a good bargain.

Local History

I don't plan on living in this area forever, and I feel a bit ashamed that I haven't taken advantage of some of the rich opportunities here. Specifically, I haven't done any visits to local historical spots. This should be rectified. In that spirit, I'm collecting here a list of places to visit and things to do. Please make suggestions as you see fit!

Moffett Field Museum

History Park at Kelley Park

Filoli

When you have sons

It's an email meme, but funny all the same....

You find out interesting things when you have sons, like...
1.) A king size waterbed holds enough water to fill a 2000 sq. ft. house 4 inches deep.

2.) If you spray hair spray on dust bunnies and run over them with roller blades, they can ignite.

3.) A 3-year old Boy's voice is louder than 200 adults in a crowded restaurant.

4.) If you hook a dog leash over a ceiling fan, the motor is not strong enough to rotate a 42 pound Boy wearing Batman underwear and a Superman cape. It is strong enough, however, if tied to a paint can, to spread paint on all four walls of a 20x20 ft. room.

5.) You should not throw baseballs up when the ceiling fan is on. When using a ceiling fan as a bat, you have to throw the ball up a few times before you get a hit. A ceiling fan can hit a baseball a long way.

6.) The glass in windows (even double-pane) doesn't stop a baseball hit by a ceiling fan.

7.) When you hear the toilet flush and the words "uh oh", it's already too late.

8.) Brake fluid mixed with Clorox makes smoke, and lots of it.

9.) A six-year old Boy can start a fire with a flint rock even though a 36-year old Man says they can only do it in the movies.

10.) Certain Lego's will pass through the digestive tract of a 4-year old Boy.

11.) Play dough and microwave should not be used in the same sentence.

12.) Super glue is forever.

13.) No matter how much Jell-O you put in a swimming pool you still can't walk on water.

14.) Pool filters do not like Jell-O.

15.) VCR's do not eject "PB & J" sandwiches even though TV commercials show they do.

16.) Garbage bags do not make good parachutes.

17.) Marbles in gas tanks make lots of noise when driving.

18.) You probably DO NOT want to know what that odor is.

19.) Always look in the oven before you turn it on; plastic toys do not like ovens.

20.) The fire department in Austin, TX has a 5-minute response time.

21.) The spin cycle on the washing machine does not make earthworms dizzy.

22.) It will, however, make cats dizzy.

23.) Cats throw up twice their body weight when dizzy.

24.) 80% of Women will pass this on to almost all of their friends, with or without kids.

25.) 80% of Men who read this will try mixing the Clorox and brake fluid.

People I Never Knew Whom I Mourn

Just finished watching the 2008 Mark Twain award. Given posthumously to George Carlin. Yeah, I sniffled. I started thinking.... We have so FEW free-thinkers on the public stage any more. We NEEDED George. I never knew him personally, but I miss him. There are others like him that are now gone that, when I think of our world's, country's, generation's, society's loss... I totally mourn. Something's coming, and we have hardly any nay-sayers left, or people sticking up for the little guy, or enormous examples to the next generation. I think of my son, and think that I cannot do it alone. I cannot be all people to him. (duh) He needs age-appropriate, insightful, dangerous, public and unafraid people to provide him with the examples he could use to encourage him along the way - to think for himself, to question authority, to stand up for the downtrodden, to care.

I know there were people like that for me, and one of them was George Carlin. Who will Gabe's George Carlin be? Perhaps there are people waiting to be discovered that I would rejoice to know exist. My fear is that while there may be folks out there with the potential and the drive to escalate their non-conformist, unique viewpoints to the public eye...we will never be able to find them, nor them us. Things have changed. The freedoms discovered in the 60s and exploited in the 70s have vanished. I hesitate to list reasons why - there are so many. The reality is they're going. In the 80s you could feel it dying.

So, here's my list of folks who I never knew personally, but whose passing I mourn. (Yeah, some of them are from other ages, but they would have LOVED the 60s!) Yeah, and some of these are "just artists." Yeah, right.

George Carlin
Fred Rogers
Mother Teresa
Jimmy Hendrix
Robert Heinlein
Gilda Radner
Bob Marley
John Langstaff
John Lennon
Joe Strummer
Bruce Lee
Jeff Buckley
Jim Henson
Freddy Mercury
Jim Morrison
Johnny Cash
Mark Twain
Edgar Allen Poe
Jane Austen
Jack London
John Muir


[oh, there's more, but it's late]

Making Desires Known

Gabe is musically inclined. Definitely something we encourage! He plays on all his toy instruments, some not so toylike (ukelele, harmonica). He's taking piano lessons and enjoying them very much. He's not so big on homework and in that takes after both his parents. He has definite preferences in the music to which he listens. For example, the Tad he has plays I think six or seven classical music clips. There's one I'm having trouble identifying that he absolutely HATES and will not listen to. Don likes to tease him and make him listen to it when it comes on (we use the Tad to measure the time we spend snuggling at bedtime).

Recently, he's started really enjoying one of the CDs I got him a while ago: Philidephia Chickens. He's learning the words and the tunes. We leave it in the car now as he prefers it the most. Truthfully, as far as kids' music goes, it's quite listenable. It's not annoying repetitive stuff like London Bridge, and it's all original.

A few days ago, he tries out this conversation on me...

G: I like Philadelphia Chickens.
M: Great! I'm so glad you like it!
G: Is there more? The music, is more music like it?
M: Are you asking if the group made another CD?
G: Yes!!
M: Yes, there's one called Dog Train, but we don't have that one.
G: [quiet]
M: Would you like to get Dog Train, too?
G: Oh, yes!

Which I interpret to sound like this....

G: The album Philidelphia Chickens is fantastic! I really enjoy it.
M: Great I'm so glad you like it!
G: Have the artists put out additional CDs?
M: Yes, there's one called Dog Train, but we don't have that one.
G: Oh, I would very much like to aquire and listen to that album soon!

So, for anyone wondering what to get Gabe for his birthday...... (Yes, it's on his Amazon Wish List)

An Observation on Easter and Selfishness

I live in a relatively small town for the Silicon Valley. I like to think it's a friendly, neighborhood-conscious, responsible kind of town. I was shaken in my view this past Sunday by an event held at our local Trader Joe's. It was a great idea, holding an Easter egg hunt in their store. In fact, I thought it really provided for SOMEthing for the secular to do on that holiday.

Yet, it was a nearly total disappointment. It began at 8:15 am and at 8:20, when we arrived, ALL SEVEN HUNDRED EGGS were already gone. As we were walking into the store, we saw LITTLE kids leaving with baskets LOADED with eggs. Clearly, the parents had found them for the children, 2-3 year olds mostly. Bigger kids, too, but I kind of discount them because kids don't have internal monitors for appropriate behavior when in competition mode. That, certainly, is a learned behavior.

Luckily, we are blessed with an incredibly good-natured little boy. He was more than satisfied with his Trader Joe's balloon. I must say, the line for the balloons was also enlightening. All those kids - many WITH their parents - and the first "thank you" I heard for the free balloon came out of my own kid's mouth. And I was embarrassed because I had to prompt him.

The "me first" mentality that made those parents take the lion's share of the eggs for their largely non-comprehending little children disgusted me. Don and I started discussing some rules that Trader Joe's could post for the hunt, but what really got me what that they needed to be posted in the first place! Were these people raised in a vacuum? Don't they see the hundreds of eager little kids ALSO wanting to find their very own egg?

The failure of these parents to self-regulate their greedy, selfish natures forces a commercial enterprise (TJ's) to impose it from without. And, from the go-to-church clothing I saw on most of the families, most of the participants were Christian. In what universe does a Christian need moral regulation from an outside source NOT their church? So, to extrapolate to the nth degree, I saw a failure that morning not only of my usually kind community, but of human nature, Christian churches, and parents.

Jericho Continues!! (sort of!!!)

It will be in comic book format. Click this link to read a very nice blog entry about it.

I especially enjoyed this show for reasons you might not expect of me. Yes, it does fall into the realm of scifi (post-apocalyptic), which is a favorite genre of mine. However, it had other features which particularly endeared it to me:

1. They didn't flinch at killing off main characters.
2. While some fantastic things happen, what you mostly see are how regular people, with regular issues, deal with a horrific situation.
3. The difficulties faced often raised very relevant concepts that have lately lost value in our world: honor, patriotism, sacrifice, to name a few.

So, although "only" in comic book format, I'm thrilled to see Jericho return.

Sad, sad day

Today, a long time friend of mine lost his battle with cancer. Dave Ponkey was an enormously lovable human being, a talented story-teller and a brave man. Everyone who knew him is stunned and wounded by his death. We all thought he had more time so, while we knew he had a short time left, we were all unhappily surprised by the news this morning.

Updates to be posted here as they become available. In the meantime, please enjoy some of his stories here.

3/26/09 - UPDATE

There are several memorial services planned on the West Coast:

3/29/09 in the Vallejo area
4/18/09 at Southern Faire

Please contact me if you need information about these events.

Sorry mom. I thought I'd invite comments on two of the world's greatest burdens. I'm trying to create a ledger, showing a balance in the end (of course, entirely subjective). This came out of an online argument in which I participated where I challenged people to do the same. We'll see how it all turns out!

BTW - this is unfinished. Please suggest away. Also, it seems to be posting badly. I'll work on that!

RELIGION		HUMAN (OVER)POPULATION
PLUS	MINUS	PLUS	MINUS
clear definition of morality
cultural organization
dietary regulation - for safety (eating kosher, for example)
music
art
literature
preservation of antiquities (and perhaps culture - Irish monks)
advancement of science	retardation of science