Wind The Frog!

TA-DA!!!

2012-01-18T14:52:00.000-08:00

So I mentioned a little over two months ago, Chizz and I were starting a new adventure in a new city, New York! In typical “Wendy & Chizz” fashion, we didn’t move quickly. The job change happened quite awhile ago and Chizz’s company was very generous and understanding, but they made a fatal error – they told us “take your time”. So we did. Quite some time. We had to go on vacation to Honduras, get Snake off to college, go on a UCLA football trip to Oregon, see Kiki off to college, celebrate Halloween, host Thanksgiving, celebrate Christmas, ring in the New Year and then go on a ski trip. See what happened? I took MY time.

In between we packed and moved our house. We went from living in a 4+bed house to a 2 bed apartment. And it was tough. For me. I had to make alot of choices about what to bring and what to leave. We are lucky that Auntie K & Uncle D are housing the things we had to leave behind. So I can visit them when we come back to California. And I will. . .

But now we are embarking on this new stage in our lives. A stage where kids don't usually reside, where we don't have to think about what is best for the kids, would the kids like this, what would the kids think. And truthfully, it is going to take some time. We find ourselves in a habit, watching the same shows that the kids liked out of routine, quickly scanning restaurant menus to make sure there is something the kids would eat. It is hard to break. As Chizz said, it is the first time in about 21 years where they didn't have to be our primary thought. We have to work on it a bit but it shouldn't be too hard. It is still the same Wendy & Chizz, just from a different point of view. So in that vein, I think the blog is going to be from a different point of view. So this is the announcement of my new blog "Wind the Frog - The Empty Nest Years". You will find it here. We are moving on and so is the blog. Watch out New York and Wind the Frog!!

Here's The Deal

2011-11-18T07:22:00.000-08:00

Okay, so for a few months I have been dropping "oh NOT so subtle" hints that there were big changes in store for Chizz & I. I have mentioned our empty nest one or two or sixteen times. A change in lives is afoot. Now that Snake is ensconced in his VEPS (Very Expensive Private School) and Kiki fully engaged at her AAEPS (Almost As Expensive Public School), we can make the announcement. Chizz and I are moving on up! (to the West* Side, to a New York apartment in the skyyyy!) (sorry. . . .)

That's right, we are moving to New York City.    Chizz took a new job in New York with his company a few months ago and has been doing the job from the West Coast but since that wasn't the original deal, we are moving. We wanted to make sure that Snake got settled into college, that we tied up loose ends here, that we spent lots of cash flying back and forth between NY and California a few times and that we paid rent on a NY apartment for a few months before we actually moved. Now that those things have all been accomplished, we are ready to move. Almost. We still have to call the movers and pack up. Minor details.

We are excited about the move. We think it will be fun exploring a new city and learning a different way to live. Let's face it, living in New York is going to be so much different than living in California. The weather alone will be a challenge. New York actually has weather.   Living in a 2 bedroom apartment will be an experience.  Not having a car will be interesting. (After learning it will cost almost as much to house a car as to house Chizz, I had to give up one. The coin was on Chizz's side. Two out of three times!)

Yes, living in New York will almost be like living in a foreign country for this West Coast Girl. In fact I keep coming up with similarities between this move and our move to London. People speak with an accent - check! Outrageously expensive rents - check! Large cosmopolitan city with lots of diversity and different cultures - check! Soooooo, I have decided I will dust off the blog and try to blog on a more regular basis. But I think I am going to do it from a different perspective, because my perspective now is a bit different. We are not moving to NY with kids, so we don't have to consider whether there is a good school in our area, if there are activities for the kids to be involved in, where the most kids from their school live, what the kids would like, we only have to think about what we would like, what will fit in our empty nest. Our new lifestyle. . .   hmmmmm, something to think about.

IF

2011-11-13T05:25:00.001-08:00

it were your son, your brother, your cousin, your friend, your nephew, your grandson, your neighbor, would you believe Penn State and Joe Paterno had done enough?

Yeah, didn't think so.

The Empty Nest

2011-06-23T05:39:00.000-07:00

Well, this weekend Chizz and I took tiny baby steps toward the next stage in our life. We went to orientation at Snake's college. I think it is a relatively new phenomenon, parents attending orientation. I don't remember my parents going to any college orientations but it is a good idea. If nothing else, it gives the parents a point of reference when their child mentions a place or location on campus. You can visualize it in your mind. Or if they don't call, you have a better image of what trouble they may or may not be getting into.

In our case, Snake is going to a mid-size university in a large size city, Washington DC. Since he is one of over two thousand entering freshman, I am pretty sure I won't be giving away his anonymity if I mention the university - THE George Washington University. THE is a very important part of the name. If you are used to the way Ohio State football players say their almamater's name, then you get the idea. GW (or G-Dub, if you are so inclined) is right smack dab in the middle of it in DC. Four blocks from the White House, right next door to the World Bank (in fact, the World Bank Building is on GW property, if you believe GW), a hop, skip and a jump to the Lincoln and Washington Memorials. It is an inspiring location. I am hopeful that Snake will enjoy the historical and political nature of this city. I know I will on my many, many, many visits!!

The parents' program ran parallel to the students' program. Some of our seminars were the same, except from a different perspective. For example, they had a session on housing. For the kids, it dealt with specific questions on their particular housing assignments, what to expect on move in day, how to deal with roommates, the role of the house proctor (RA), and overall life in the dorms. For the parents, we dealt with the practical - what to bring (or more importantly what NOT to bring) on move in day, tours of the residence halls, how packages and mail are treated (for security reasons in DC, packages are dealt with in a different manner). I took advantage of the dorm tours. Ask my kids and the kids I have gone on college tours with, I LIVE for dorm tours - love, love, love them. The dorm Snake is going to live in is pretty old, I think built before 1925 but don't hold me to it. But overall, it is not bad. The rooms are pretty large even for those kids who will be in either a 5 person or 6 person room, like Snake. The rooms are not luxurious by any means, but they shouldn't be. These are kids, they shouldn't live in the same manner as their parents - they haven't earned it. But my-oh-my you should have heard the parents kvetching. "How could their little princess with 45 pairs of shoes be expected to share a closet? The bathroom are simply awful! These floors should be carpeted! These floors shouldn't be carpeted! (Some rooms have carpet, some don't. Whatever you have, apparently you won't be happy with)." After listening to one mom go on and on and on about how small the 4 person room her daughter had (which by the way, contained 4 single beds, 4 dressers, 4 desks and 4 closets), I told her I thought these dorms were fairly large and pointed out that at UCLA where Kiki goes, they would put 10 kids in this room and it still would have more room then most of the dorms there. She was not amused. Whatever.

Then we had the programs more specific to the attendee. For the kids, sessions on class registration, meetings with advisers, the different programs and departments at the schools. For parents, sessions on campus security, financial aid, the meal plan, study abroad, etc. GW has a Parents Services department which acts as a liaison between the parents and the college. This department had several sessions which I thought were helpful. They also sponsored some skits about the different issues parents might face (how often to call, how to deal with homesickness, when to be concerned about a student, how to let go). Although many of the skits portrayed the mom as the "problem", which didn't seem to surprise Chizz as much as it outraged me, overall the skits were very well done. And something strange hit me. In the middle of the skits, it happened. I felt my throat tightening, and tears welling up in my eyes. It is not that I didn't know that sending my youngest child off to college would be tough, but I have 2 more months before he leaves. I know it will be hard. It was hard when we dropped Kiki off. I held it together until we got in the car, then the floodgates opened. But that was when we left her there. We still have 2 more months with Snake. Why is it different?

Perhaps because it is a bigger step to our next stage, the empty nest. Its not that I am not looking forward to the next part, I am. There are some big changes afoot in the WTF household. I can't go into it in detail because we haven't told quite everyone yet and they deserve to hear in person before I put it on the Internet or the world wide web, but I am excited about what the future holds. Maybe I am not quite ready for the "kid part" to end. Oh I know they will always be my kids, but they won't BE kids. They won't need me in the same way, rely on me the same way. No more little league games, swim meets, brownie meetings, skinned knees, missing teeth, Captain Underpants, American Girl dolls. No more family Jeopardy watching, hot tubs on winter nights, inside jokes (Japanese Businessmen pods - or walking without moving arms). Yes, I think that is it. I am nostalgic for those days past. How do I know? Because I am quietly crying on the train to NY right now, making the man next to me very uncomfortable. Yes, I think I have struck a nerve. Just didn't realize it would be mine.

Okay, I Got On "The Facebook". Now What?

2011-01-25T09:17:00.000-08:00

Alright, I got a Facebook page. I am not sure why. I guess because everyone else was, all the "cool" kids were doing it, peer pressure (and yes, I would jump off that proverbial bridge). But now I am not quite sure what I do with it.

I have 11 friends as of this morning, mostly relatives. That is not very many. Not compared to one of my "friends", a teenager who at the same time this morning had 626 friends! Yikes! How does that happen? I have asked my kids not to friend me (or more accurately not to feel bad about not friending me.) At this point in their lives they deserve a little privacy and I am not ready for more access. As I mentioned to a friend yesterday, I am happy being blissfully ignorant. Both Kiki & Snake seemed relieved.

But what do I do now? I know I should put my status on it, but I feel pressure, intimidated. Some people use their status to update their friends or family on the mundane activities of their lives, but I think that might be boring. Shouldn't my status be something pithy, profound or otherwise fascinating? I think so. So I have been racking my brain. And I think the more I think I become intimidated even more. Think, Wendy, think. What did I do yesterday? Would any of those things make a good status? Let's see. "Cleared off all knick-knacks, so furniture can be moved for new carpet". No. "Watched back-to-back episodes of Tabitha's Salon Takeover" No. "Went to Safeway" No. "Went to notary to get forms signed" No. "Played 3 games of Trouble with 5-year-old" No. Maybe my life isn't fascinating enough right now for a Facebook page. That is probably why I haven't updated my blog in a while (although there might be things in the works worth mentioning later). So I am stumped. I mentioned my conundrum to my friend, she accused me of overthinking. Just put something in and don't worry about it. My Safeway trip? My TV watching? My housework? Really? If this is what my "friends" want to see, I think I need more friends.

Coincidence? I Think Not.

2010-10-27T08:24:00.000-07:00

Well if you follow baseball, you know that the San Francisco Giants made it to the World Series. Just not on the night that Snake was there. But that is okay, at least they are in it and for a few more weeks we can be tortured by the spectacle that is San Francisco Giants Baseball.

That is it's "rep" - torture. Because the Giants never do things the easy way. It seems like every game was won by one or two runs; I hardly remember any blow outs. The game is always decided in the last inning or sometimes the last out. Some people find that exciting, I find it nerve wracking. I get as nervous as I did when one of our kids was playing sports. I find myself pleading ("just let them do well", "just one hit"), pacing, watching the game between the fingers that are clamped over my eyes. It is not easy.

So when in Game 6 the Giants fell behind the Phillies in the first inning, in addition to just feeling horrible for Jonathan Sanchez (I always think about their mothers and how tough it must be for them), I knew I had to to something. So I invoked the spirits of "Giants Past":

That's right, I called out the Big Guns - the bobbleheads of JT Snow, Randy Winn and Benito Santiago. I put them around the TV and prayed that they do their magic, their mojo, their voodoo that they do so well. And what happened? The Giants tied up the game. Hmmmm. Then when the Phillies came back and tied it up, I decided we needed something else. Another icon. But what? Then it came to me. Actually, it fell out of the cabinet in the garage when I was putting something away.

The replica Giants baseball! And what happened, the Giants won. Coincidence? Puhhhhleeeeease! So tonight the Giants play in Game 1 of the World Series. And we will all be here watching - me, Chizz, Benito, JT, Snake and Randy. But don't worry if things get tough for the Giants, I've got the rally rag Snake found on the ground at Game 5 waiting in the bullpen. I'm just sayin'. . . . . .

Go Giants!!

Best.Dad.Ever.

2010-10-21T10:00:00.000-07:00

We have 1/2 of a 1/6th share of two season tickets to the San Francisco Giants. For years, our brother-in-law Uncle D has shared some season tickets with a group of friends, 2 bleacher seats in section 140. A while back, Uncle D considered giving up his share. He had become a new father and moved out of the city, my sister (his wife) was traveling on business more. It was getting harder and harder to get to games. Chizz came up with the idea that instead of giving up the seats, why didn't he share them with him? Hence the 1/2 share of 1/6th. It actually works pretty well, we get to go to 8 - 10 games a year, mostly in the summer. We all get to go to a few games a year.

This year the Giants have made it to the playoffs!!! Yahoo! So Uncle D & Chizz went to a little "draft" party with the other partners to decide how to split up the post season tickets. I am not exactly sure how it worked but I think what they did was pick numbers and based on your draw, you got to choose your ticket. Chizz and Uncle D each got a ticket to a playoff game and a World Series game. They even got the same playoff game, and they can go together. Well, until Snake expressed some interest in going. So what did Chizz do? He gave up his ticket to his son. What a guy!! So Snake gets to go to Game 5 tonight, not Chizz. So Snake gets to see arguably the best 2 pitchers in baseball today, Lincecum and Halliday, battle it out, not Chizz. So Snake gets to see, possibly, the Giants sew it up tonight, not Chizz. And all that is because Snake is already winner in the Dad lottery.

Absolutely.

Go Giants.

Facebook

2010-10-10T10:21:00.001-07:00

Chizz and I don't have facebooks for several reasons. For Chizz, it is because he has a hard time figuring out how to make sure his work life and his personal life don't intersect. He has a "phoney baloney job" gentlemen and they probably wouldn't understand things like rolling shopping carts off dorm buildings (allegedly), setting palapas on fire (accidentally - allegedly) and hitting Japanese employees of the Korean embassy with errant golf balls (truthfully). It's just best left unsaid.

Me? The reason I don't have one is that I don't want the embarrassment of my kids rejecting my friend request. Also, I think my kids have reached the age where, much to my dismay, they deserve a bit of privacy. C'mon think about it, as a young adult would you have wanted your mom knowing everything you did every moment of the day or, more importantly, every moment of every evening? Noooooooo! But in this digital age, we have the capability to do just that. Our kids have to learn what to put on line and when. If they don't it can have disastrous results - loss of potential jobs, loss of friends, damage to your reputation. I encourage my kids to think carefully about what they put online and save a few exceptions, I think they have been pretty good.

That is why I support applications such as this one. It helps kids make the appropriate choices online.

Hey! Wait a minute. . . . .

Turkeys in My Own Back Yard

2010-09-02T09:02:00.000-07:00

No, not the ones in the California Senate who can't pass a budget in time for the second year in a row. (By the by, c'mon guys and gals!!) Real turkeys. Wild ones. I was sitting talking with Snake in the family room (probably one of our deep philosophical discussion on the current problems of the day or football) when I noticed a turkey on our back lawn. Then another, then another. Wild turkeys are not totally unheard of in our area, but they are usually found in the parks or more remote areas. So I took a photo of the 5 or so that made it to our lawn.

When I was outside, I could hear quite a bit of noise. Who knew turkeys were so loud? I went the front and there were probably 30 turkeys total in the front of our house. I have to admit, these turkeys are pretty ugly. Definitely not meal material. The strange thing is that the turkeys have now made an appearance two weeks in a row - both times on a Thursday. Is this some kind of strange deep set existentialist "anti-turkey" pre-Thanksgiving message? Are the turkeys of the world (or the turkeys of Northern California) trying to tell me something? We will see how long this trend continues. And if one of these turkeys shows up with Michael Moore or some kind of a protest sign, we may be having Vegetarian Thanksgiving this November!

Like Mother, Like Daughter

2010-08-20T07:30:00.000-07:00

When I was in high school (many, many moons ago), I lived on Okinawa. Our father was in the US Air Force and we were stationed there for a bit over three years. It was different living on a military base on a small foreign island about 6o miles long and about 2 miles wide at it widest point. As children, some of the differences were especially annoying. One particular example that comes to mind was television. We received our television from Armed Forces Radio and Television. At that time, it was the only English language station in the area and it was only on about 10 hours a day, mostly when we were at school. So we didn't get to see much tv when we were there and what we did see was a bit dated.

Another unusual thing to deal were typhoons. A typhoon is a tropical storm or cyclone in the northeastern section of the Pacific Ocean. When we had a typhoon warning, depending on the level or severity of the storm we would have several courses of action. If it was a low level storm, we would just be warned about heavy rains and winds. But as the severity level of the storm increased, the restrictions became more limiting. At a certain level, they really encouraged all personnel to stay indoors unless absolutely necessary. So to make staying indoors more palatable, whenever a typhoon rating got above a certain level, they would keep television on for 24 hours. In addition, they stockpiled better programming to show only when there was a typhoon. For example, they might have Sound of Music or something similar playing. Kids always looked forward to typhoons just as kids in Maine would look forward to a snow day.

One year we were very excited because there was a typhoon rating and the Wizard of Oz was going to be on. All 5 of us were looking forward to it. Mom had made a HUGE bowl of popcorn and we were just settling down to watch. All of the sudden, Auntie K, who was about 4 at the time, announced that she had stuck a popcorn kernel in her nose. No amount of blowing could dislodge it. So Mom announced she would have to take her to the emergency room AND (cue dramatic music here) we would all have to go with her. I think my dad was working at the time and mom felt she couldn't leave the 4 of us alone during a typhoon. So we all had to go to the clinic with them and miss Wizard of Oz. Oh, the unfairness of it all. We never let Auntie K. forget that and it still comes up occasionally in family discussions. (Remember that time more than 30 years ago, when we couldn't watch Wizard of Oz because of your and your popcorn kernel?) Truthfully - it still stings.

Scan forward 35 years. Yesterday, Snake picked up Zabba from preschool. It is very convenient having children with driver's licenses now. When he came home, he mentioned to me that the teacher said Zabba may or may not have a perler bead stuck up her nose!!! Apparently a friend told the teacher she had done this but since 4 year olds are not particularly good with detail, the teachers were a bit skeptical and they couldn't see one. So I had Zabba blow really hard and then lie down on the bed. Sure enough, there was a perler bead up there. I felt I could get it with my tweezers but on my first attempt, I pinched Zabba and she was pretty reluctant to have me stick anything else up her nose. So we had to go to the pediatrician's office. They took it in stride; apparently retrieving foreign objects from noses or ears is a weekly occurrence and they have all kinds of instruments for this purpose. It took all of a minute.

Auntie L, Auntie M & Auntie S will be glad to know that I let everyone at the doctor's office from nurses to doctors to medical assistants (the janitor didn't seem very interested) know the popcorn kernel story and how this proclivity is genetic. Revenge is a dish apparently best served ice cold!!!!! (Cue evil laughter here.)

California Busy Work

2010-08-08T08:56:00.000-07:00

Did you catch Face the Nation Sunday Morning? There was a segment with David Boies, the attorney for the plaintiff and Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council. I couldn't remember exactly where I had heard about the Family Research Council but I did a bit of research and remembered. I will let you do your own research but let's just say, their organization was in the news recently when one of their founding members (whom they have since distanced themselves from in a BIG way) was caught apparently practicing what he most clearly does not preach.

As I was listening to these two men debate the recent Prop 8 ruling in California, it occurred to me that we are spending so much time doing this in our state when we have such HUGE problems in so many areas. Especially when I know that eventually we will get there, there being equality for ALL people, regardless of their gender, race, sexual orientation. We will get there. I was just hoping for sooner rather than later. I don't really want to get into the merits of each side, although. . . . Okay, just one small point. When Boies was pointing out that it is one to thing to pontificate on the television talk show circuit about "surveys", and "research" and "studies" done on the negative and harmful effect of gay marriage on children but when you get into a court of law, you need to prove that there are such studies and surveys and research done by accredited institutions. And there were none. None. Tony Perkins countered with that because this was a "new" area there had not been enough time to do credible studies or research on this issue. But he had loads of statistics that indicate the harm caused to children by being raised in single family homes or homes that were broken by divorce. Wait a minute!!! Is he quoting statistics of the harm done to children by the effects of heterosexual relationships that have splintered to prove his point that gay marriage would be harmful to children? What??? Actually he was. His point being the the breakdown of marriage started with the "no-fault" divorce laws. Wow!! Well, why don't we work on that? Instead of denying rights to a particular group who have never had the right to marry before, why don't we work on the making it more difficult for the people who get married to get divorced or make it more difficult to get married in the first place. Hmmmm. Wonder what kind of effect that would have on children? Wonder what effect that would have on prominent conservatives who have divorced, some - many, many times? What do you think Newt Gingrich? John McCain? Do you think it should be more difficult to get divorced, Rush Limbaugh, Mr. "I am on my 4th wife"? Boies also pointed out that there are studies on the effect of gay marriage on children. The studies are just not in the United States (understandably since most states preclude them) but from many countries in Europe where gay marriage has been allowed. And guess what they show? Nothing. Really. That there is really no difference to a child if a marriage breaks two gay parents or two heterosexual parents. It is hard either way. No surprise.

But I digress again, as usual. My main point was to be that the citizens of California need to really, really look around. Is this the biggest crisis facing our state? Really? Because I have found a few other things that I think we need to look at. In no particular order:

1. California is either 23rd or 44th in the nation in per pupil spending. The Census Bureau recently released ranking based on the 2007/2008 school year which found that California is 23rd in the nation. For some reason it takes over 2 years for the government to evaluate the data they receive. The NEA, which is the largest public school union in the US, found for the same time period California ranked 26th. However, the NEA just recently released its data for 2008/2009 year (apparently doesn't take them 2 years to process) which found that California plummeted to 44th place. Since historically the NEA and Census Bureau rankings have usually tracked within a few places of each other, we can expect that even in the Census Bureau ranking, California will be somewhere near 4oth place. If you have kids in public schools, you know that this is true. Parents are spending more and more out of their own pockets for school supplies, books, transportation. Costs that used to be part of the school's budgets are now routinely being passed on to the parents.

2. California is #2 on the states with the highest cost of living. (Hawaii is #1).

3. California is #3 on both highest cost of housing and highest cost of food.

4. California is #1 on highest teachers salaries. I know some people will say that is the reason that we rank so low in per pupil spending but I am not so sure. Don't we have to pay our teachers enough to eat, pay rent and pay the gas bill (see items 2 & 3)? I think it is too simplistic to say there is one root cause for all of this but at the same time, I suspect the teachers' union has done more harm then good in recent years. I know at one of the districts in our area, the teachers union and the district have come to an impasse over the district's request that the teachers pay a portion of their health care costs. Currently teachers don't pay for their health benefits at all. It doesn't seem to much to ask in this economy. I don't know anyone who doesn't pay something for their health care.

5. California has the 3rd highest unemployment rate at 12.3%. We are behind Michigan (#2, 13.2%) and Nevada (#1, 14.2%)

6. California ranks 4th in the nation in the number of foreclosures. 1 out of every 194 homes in our state is somewhere in the process of foreclosure. Wow!!

7. 21% of California residents have no health insurance, the 4th highest rate in the country.

8. We are ranked 37th out of 51 in high school graduation percentage. Only 68% of our students graduate. Arkansas, West Virginia, Michigan, Kentucky all outrank us. Kick our butt.
Shame.

So let me ask you Californians, is preventing gay marriage really more important than any of the things on this list?

People Smarter than Me Said It

2010-08-05T08:48:00.001-07:00

So I have spent the better part of a day trying to come up with something profound, wise or witty about the ruling in California yesterday overturning Proposition 8. I think my position on the issue is clear. In reality, hasn't it all been said? So in that vein, I went looking for quotes that spoke to the issue or issues brought up in the debate. Some surprising quotes from some surprising sources.

Majority Rules:

All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression. Thomas Jefferson

Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).
Ayn Rand

The truth does not require a majority to prevail, ladies and gentlemen. The truth is its own power. The truth will out. Never forget that.
Rush Limbaugh

Does Equality really mean Equality for Everyone?

An equal application of law to every condition of man is fundamental. Thomas Jefferson

A people who extend civil liberties only to preferred groups start down the path either to dictatorship of the right or the left. Justice William O. Douglas

Gay Partners already get "similar" benefits through employment so it is not necessary to get married.
I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights. Bishop Desmond Tutu

Name Calling & the Smear Campaign

Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people. Oscar Wilde
Facts are meaningless. You can use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true. Homer Simpson
If we love our country, we should also love our countrymen. Ronald Reagan.

D'oh!!!!!!

Again?????

2010-07-21T21:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning, I went out to the backyard to water some of the flower pots, it was promising to be a hot one. Something caught my eye in the pool area. This:

Another duck mom and babies. This time 8. I am not a duck expert but I am fairly certain this is not the same mom as 6 weeks prior. Last week Chizz & I were having a drink out in the backyard when a female duck landed in our pool. She was there for a little while when she went up into the bushes (where we think the ducks having been making their nests) and disappeared. Then this week, viola!!

I think it is kind of cool that no matter what we think we know, mother nature throws a wrench in things every now and then. This year there has been a lot of discussion in our neck of the woods about what a strange weather year it has been. For the most part we have had a cooler than usual summer weather. In fact the National Weather Service says it is the coolest summer in our area in 40 years. Wow! We just returned from the East Coast last week where they are going through a bit of a heat wave lately, and let me tell you - it was plenty hot. 85 degrees at night for dinner. It just goes to show that you can't control everything. Somethings just happen.

I am thinking the duck maternity ward is closed now. The mom hung around overnight, after tucking her brood under her wings for the night. She left sometime this morning after 9 or so. It was cool having them around but I am thinking we are done. Maybe. . . . .

Why I Love Our Friends. . . .

2010-07-06T10:05:00.001-07:00

We had an absolutely wonderful 4th of July weekend with some of our friends at Lake Tahoe. As our lives seem to get busier with volleyball matches, school, college searches, jobs, it is harder and harder to connect on a regular basis or as often as we would like. This weekend the stars aligned. And perhaps because we can't do it regularly enough, we seem to appreciate and enjoy the times we do spend together much more. The group is comfortable enough together to spend entire evenings together or to split up in various combos. Want to hike? Sure, at least 2 or 3 others in the group will join you. How about a trip to the beach? Off go 4. Shopping? 3 girls and 2 credit cards (otherwise known as Moms) will do that. Various combinations of kids, parents, some related, some not. It is comfortable and fun.

About 2 weeks ago, I mentioned I was making a cork wreath from wine corks I had collected over the past few months. It is pretty big and I miscalculated the number of corks I needed. So far at least 300 corks have gone into it and I had just about run out. So I just mentioned to a few people I needed more corks. This is what my cork jar looked like before last weekend (on Thursday):

This is what it looked like today, after I included the corks from the weekend and some brought by our friends:

And that is what I love about our friends. No, not that they drink a lot of wine (although that might be one of the reasons). You can count on them. Whether it is to bring you corks to finish a a project or to take your kids to the beach when you might not want to go or to provide a bed when you are on your way to the airport or to give you a hand to hold when you literally need one to go forward or to listen to your work problems or to go on a hike with when no one else in your family will or to give you aloe when you are sunburned or to share a favorite new wine store or cook a fabulous dinner while you sit around and enjoy nature. Thanks guys! XOXOXO

When You Lie Down With Dogs, You Wake Up With Fleas ***

2010-06-11T08:32:00.001-07:00

There has been quite a bit of discussion in our house about the penalties imposed on USC by the NCAA this week. In full disclosure, we are a PAC-10 family. More specifically, we are a UCLA-CAL-Stanford family. We are VERY Ucla, with 3 of my sisters having graduated from Ucla, a brother-in-law with a UCLA post graduate degree, a nephew graduating from UCLA this week, and Kiki currently attending. So we have quite a bit to say about USC on any given day, but we run at the mouth with commentary this week.

USC is one of those institutions that elicits strong emotions from people. You either LOVE them or HATE them; there doesn't seem to be any middle ground. Sort of like cilantro. Over the years, I must admit, we have been on the hating side. Probably not all deserved but they always seem to give us great ammunition. It's easy to hate them. They always win, they always have celebrities roaming the sidelines, they always get their games televised. All those things are pretty superficial but there were other things as well. Their sort of "take-no-prisoners" attitude rubs people the wrong way. There was the blow up last year between UCLA and USC when Pete Carroll decided to run up the score in retaliation for UCLA (probably ill advisedly) using its time outs to try and get the ball back late in the 4th quarter in a 21-7 game. This was after Coach Carroll cried foul when Stanford ran up the score against USC just TWO WEEKS PRIOR!! Stanford might have been retaliating for USC running up the score the year prior. It seems as far as USC believes, what is sauce for the goose shouldn't be sauce for the gander. And that is why people don't like them. It is one thing to run up a score to get a higher BCS ranking but then you can't complain when others do it to you. It is part of the game -on both sides.

I don't believe that USC didn't know about the Bush/Mayo/unnamed female tennis player infractions. OJ Mayo, a kid with a very humble background, had a 43 inch screen tv in his dorm room. No one saw that? Please. Reggie Bush, college student with middle class working parents, drives a blinged out SUV. C'mon. USC has to have the biggest pair of blinders to not see these things and not wonder how, why. If they didn't know, they should have. You can't choose to ignore things and then claim innocence. In law, very often the standard is not what you knew or when you knew it but should you have known it. In the very least, USC wasn't keeping a close enough eye on its players to know that they were possibly endangering the program with infractions. Why? Because USC is caught up in its' own hype. Take this quote from USC's athletic director yesterday:

USC athletic director Mike Garrett, speaking at a previously scheduled USC Coaches' Tour at the Airport Marriott in Burlingame, Calif., had this to say to boosters: "As I read the decision by the NCAA, all I could get out of all of this was ... I read between the lines, and there was nothing but a lot of envy, and they wish they all were Trojans."

Really? This is a jealousy thing? Really? It seems like a childish response to me. I think he would have been better off with the old "I'm rubber and you're glue" rebuttal. Always works. Of course, this is spoken by a man who probably is in danger of losing his job very soon, so you have to take what he says with a grain of salt. But it is this very attitude that the NCAA indicates in its' decision that:

"The general campus environment surrounding the violations troubled the committee"

Ya' think? From the day they first discovered they could throw a ball farther or run faster than their other classmates, gifted athletes have been conditioned to know the rules don't apply to them. It starts out with missing a class or two to travel to a game and culminates in scholarships to schools that they most likely couldn't attend by way of their high school grade point average. It is up to the adults in their lives to act like adults and tell them no. Unfortunately that does not happen often. And we are where we are. College football and basketball programs are mere training camps for pros. Players start off with a few free cars and "no-rent" housing for their parents and then graduate to the pros where they get slaps on their hands for smacking around their wives or girlfriends or carrying concealed weapons in night clubs. Why are we surprised?

I am not buying USC claims of ignorance. Pete Carroll left USC as soon as he could, got out while the getting was good. All this happened on his watch. By the time he left, USC knew what was coming down. It was why they voluntarily imposed some of their own penalties on their basketball team before the NCAA finished their investigation. So what did USC do when it came down to hiring a new coach? I would think a University that wanted to rehabilitate their image might choose a coach whose integrity was beyond reproach. Someone the kids could look up to, a role model. No - they hired Lane Kiffin. Kiffin was the University of Tennessee coach for one short year. Of course he had a six year contract with Tennessee which he had just formalized three months before taking the USC job. USC came calling and Kiffin broke his contract. Committment. In his short tenure with Tennessee he and his staff amassed 6 "minor" recruiting violations. In addition on his way out the door, one of his staff was accussed of calling the Tennessee recruits and trying to convince them to come to USC. Classy.

USC hired a coach that would fit into their win at any cost culture. And sometimes when you play with fire, you get burned.

***Apologies to my canine loving friends.

Something New

2010-06-11T08:24:00.000-07:00

I am trying out a new look. I am not if this a permanent look. I am not sure if I won't try other looks. I am a rebel that way. Buckle your seat belts.

Better Late Than Never

2010-06-04T10:14:00.000-07:00

We have a pool in our backyard; a cement pond as the Beverly Hillbillies used to say. For many of the almost 14 years we have lived here, we have had ducks that visit the pool on their way to and from where ever ducks go to and from. Sometimes in the Spring, the mom will have a few babies. We have had babies almost every spring, not all but probably 10 out of the 14 years. I suspect it has not been the same ducks over the years as the life span for this particular type of duck is 5 - 10 years. (Wow, think of that. That is a huge spread, 50%. If we did that in people years, it would be something like 38-77. Can you imagine, you die somewhere between the ages of 38 - 77? Not narrowed down any further. I guess that is what you can expect when you spend most of your days avoiding dogs, coyotes or hawks. Keeps you on your toes.) Anyway, it is most likely not the same ducks. But they still come.

This year in mid-May, we noticed a male and female hanging out a lot at the pool but it is much, much later than normal. Usually by Easter, they have come and gone. One year on Easter Sunday, we had a mallard fight in a backyard. That was the year of the duck menage a trois. 2 males and 1 female showed up at the pool a few days before, seemingly at peace with the "arrangement". However, it all came to a head on Easter Sunday when one of the males attacked the other and after that, only one male duck. That is the year Uncle D fondly refers to as "the year we almost had duck for Easter dinner."

So when the ducks came so late this year, we figured that they had missed the mating season but out of habit went to the same spot and they would move on. We saw them quite a bit last weekend while working in the backyard, swimming in the pool, hanging out in the ivy. Old habits die hard, we figured. This morning I was in the yard working on a bench I am re-staining, and I happened to glance in the pool. To my surprise:

Mom has 9 new babies. It took quite a bit of time for me to count the babies, she moved them around quite a lot not sure if I was going to do more than count or take photos. They are very, very, very new. I suspect this morning sometime. The fuzz is still there and a few of the ducks seem a little unsure of swimming. I couldn't capture it on film but a few times a few of the ducklings would hop on Mom's back trying to take a break. Mom was having none of it, quacking at them what I was sure was "You are never going to learn to swim if you ride on my back all the time". Words to live by. So I called Zabba and Auntie K over to have a look before school and they were quite the hit.

What's not to love?

After a while, she took them up on the ledge to the hot tub to rest up. Swimming a few hours after birth is just a bit taxing.

They are still out there, about 3 1/2 hours after discovery. I am sure Mom will move them in a bit but for now I am enjoying peeking in at them every now and then. Just when you think you have it all figured out, Mother Nature throws a curve ball. It is a marvelous thing to watch. Enjoy your weekend!

26

2010-05-27T09:58:00.000-07:00

So this week Chizz and I celebrated our 26th anniversary. It's a strange feeling. How did it get to be so long? In one way it seems like I have ALWAYS known Chizz, he has always been there. But in other ways, it just doesn't seem like it has been 26 years. A lifetime. I have known and been married to him more than half of my life, and he to me more than half of his. But wasn't it just a few years ago we bought our first house? No, twenty years. Wasn't it just months ago that we had our first child? No, 18 years. I never understood when older folks than me used to say "It goes by in a blink of an eye". Until recently.

Now we are almost on the threshold of a new stage of our life. I think of life as a series of thresholds. Visually I like the idea of stepping through a threshold from one stage of your life, crossing over the threshold to the next stage of your life. We arethisclose to being empty nesters. Snake has one more year of school and off to college. He has already explained to us that it is most likely out of state, most likely not on this coast, most likely extremely far away. He is ready to start his next stage. Crossing literally from the threshold of our home, to the threshold of a college dorm or apartment or fraternity. Blink of an eye.

So where does that leave us? Truthfully, I am looking forward to the next part. Who knows what that will be or where? I look forward to joining Chizz on some of his business trips. I can entertain myself in New York or Chicago or Amsterdam while he is off doing work things. It will seem strange not consulting schedules other than our own to make plans or go places. All our lives it seems we have had to check work schedules, school schedules, baseball schedules, swim team schedules before making decisions. Not any more. Not that I didn't enjoy that phase of our life; I did, we did. Blink of an eye. But our life isn't over, and I am looking forward to crossing that next threshold. Just hope this part doesn't go by that fast.

In a Nutshell

2010-04-29T07:41:00.000-07:00

This cartoon succinctly describes our recent home life here at WTF.

Is someone spying on us?

Something Stinks in Camarillo!

2010-04-17T04:36:00.000-07:00

We are still back east finishing up the great "You ruined my spring break" college tour. Last night I went online to check our bank account and make sure our tax checks cleared. They did. Quickly, of course. I also noticed three debit charges to our account from Ralphs, Vons and Hugo Boss in Camarillo, Ca. They were from Chizz's debit card. Now if you know Chizz, you know that he doesn't really grocery shop, unless you count beer, and if you looked at his wardrobe, you know he doesn't shop at Hugo Boss. And since I knew he was sitting about 2 feet away from me, I knew he wasn't in Camarillo.

We called our Bank immediately. Well immediately after about 10 minutes trying to find a line that a human would answer, not a recording. Hmmmm. Another rant for another day! The Bank employees indicated that they could tell that someone had actually swiped a card for these purchases. The persons that did this probably have the ability to clone a the card once they have a number. If you believe the time stamps on the debits, they took all the money in one day within about an hour or so. Fast work So the Bank had to block Chizz's card. Not fun while you are on a trip but since I am here, I can use my card. It is just lucky he isn't on a business trip somewhere, as it is going to take about 2 or 3 business days to get a new card to him.

So we have to wait for a few days for them to correct this. I have no doubt they will, I have loads of proof Chizz was in Philadelphia, not Camarillo. Eventually we will get our $700 back, I will make sure. So if you see a well dressed, well fed man in Camarillo calling himself "Chizz Whineberg", call the authorities. After of course, you say to him "Sir, I know Chizz Whineberg , Chizz Whineberg is a friend of mine and you are no Chizz Whineberg". Thank you.

Done

2010-04-09T07:06:00.001-07:00

With our taxes, that is. It is the first time I have had to do them in years. Now before you go and report me to the Treasury Department, there is a reason. As part of Chizz's overseas assignment, they provided someone to do our taxes for us. Expat taxes are fairly complicated, foreign income, 2 bank accounts, taxes in your home country, credit for taxes in the new country etc. It is all pretty much above my head. So for the past few years including a few after we got back, they did our taxes for us. This year we were on our own, which meant I was on my own.

Usually our taxes are fairly straight forward but this year we had a little issue with one of our investments (don't I sound like Warren Buffet?). And even though the monetary amount of this investment was pretty small, making sure I did it correctly on my taxes took 2 days of research and calls to both the IRS and Franchise Tax Board. And even then, I am not so sure. But I did it and time will tell, if the IRS and Franchise Tax Board agree that I did it correctly or if I didn't, whether they really care.

Usually I am a last minute filer even if we aregetting money back. Now not usually a-driving-up-to-the-post-office-at-midnight-on-April-15 kind of late but in a normal situation, I probably wouldn't have sat down until this weekend to do our taxes. But on Saturday we are leaving to go college touring with Snake to Washington DC and Philadelphia. Snake doesn't leave for college for another year and a half, but we are trying to get some ideas of schools he would like. Since right now he is convinced that college for him will be out of our state, and somewhere near a big city but not in Florida or anywhere else in the South, we are trying out some big cities and colleges to see if anything looks interesting.

So off we go. It is probably a good idea to do this early. Before you know it, Snake will be off to college and I will have to start my federal prison term if the IRS and Franchise Tax Board don't agree with my assessment of our tax situation. See, now I sound like Bernie Madoff.

Mom Down, Repeat, MOM DOWN

2010-03-28T17:24:00.001-07:00

Kiki came home for Spring Break this past week. It was great seeing her. Although it has only been 2 months since I have seen her, it seems like she has grown up so much. She also bought TB (The Boyfriend). He is very sweet and a little quiet, although I recognize spending a few days at your girlfriend's house might be a tad intimidating! TB is from Louisiana but just to show how truly small the world really is, he has relatives that live in our small town. Weird huh? He and Kiki live in the same dorm at UCLA. She spent the few days here showing him all the highlights of our town, which all seemed to revolve around food. The best burrito place, the best yogurt place, the best cupcake place and her favorite sandwhich place that she went to every Wednesday while she was in high school. Sadly, those are pretty much the highlights of our town. They also took a little day trip into SF and spent some time with some of Kiki's friends that are also on break this week.

So I took them to the airport yesterday, and it was a little sad, although she will be back in just 5 days for Easter! Before you ask, she has to go back, classes start Monday. Or, actually for Kiki, on Tuesday as she has managed the elusive "No Classes on Mondays or Fridays" schedule this quarter. It's true, it does exist. Not just a myth.

The airport wasn't too crowded, it was still early in the afternoon. I saw a few kids obviously going back to school, you could tell by the sad looks on the parents faces. I got out of the car and was waiting for Kiki to get out of the driver's side passenger door, and a woman in a station wagon hit me. Me, not my car. I was so stunned. I was standing by the door, sort of behind Kiki's open door and this car just merged over and hit me. I think the passenger side mirror hit my arm, it knocked me off balance and I fell to the street. Before I knew what happened, she ran over both of my feet! It all happened in a matter of seconds. I am not sure if she knew she hit me, although the sound of me hitting her car was rather loud. A sheriff hurried over. I asked him if he saw her hit me and he confirmed he did. I was a little stunned and felt more embarrassed than anything else. I was worried that she might be drunk so I asked him to talk with her. Apparently she wasn't drunk and I told him I didn't think I was interested in filing a report. In retrospect, I probably should have. I think I am fine, I have a nasty bump on my forearm (where I think the mirror hit me), an abrasion on my left foot, a bruised toe on my right foot, a scrap on my right ankle and I am slightly sore in most of those places. But I will survive. I remember thinking at the time, why didn't she stop? Couldn't she hear me? But I think probably it was better she didn't stop, a 2 ton station wagon on my feet probably wouldn't have done me any good!

So all in all, TB had a more eventful airport ride then hanging around our house for the week. Oh wait, I forgot about going to the best gas station in town. Never mind.

You Haven't Lived . . .

2010-03-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

until you've heard your 4 year old niece sing the Beyonce classic "Single Ladies". Just sayin'.

"Uh Uh Uh Oh, if you like it then you should've have put a ring on it, if you like it then you should've put a ring on it, Uh Uh Uh Oh Oh Oh Oh."

This Is So Not What St. Patrick Had in Mind

2010-03-17T14:26:00.000-07:00

When Chizz and I were first married and kidless, we really looked forward to St. Patrick's Day. The city in which we worked did it up in a big way, parades, dinners, beer specials etc. It seemed like one big party. Perhaps because it was. A bar very close to where we worked arranged to have the entire street it was on blocked off and set up outdoor bars. People would start coming to the outside bar sometime after lunch. Quite truthfully, many people would just "forget" to come back to work. Even more truthfully, sometimes those people included Chizz & me. It was a fun time, a bit reckless I am sure but all in all a good time. Those were the days.

Fast forward 25+ years and this is what I did today before I put my corned beef on. Snake left some very explicit instructions by email. And with a little editing to protect his (and quite frankly my) identity, here is his email:

RE: Operation Iron Snake

Red Mongoose, you have been chosen for a most deadly mission, if you are caught or killed, we will disavow any knowledge of your actions.

1. go here about 5 minutes before 10: http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/1C00446BC8A851B7?artistid=735341&majorcatid=10001&minorcatid=200

2. @10 SHARP: I am unsure what the screen will look like during this stage, as it is a presale, but I expect there to be a little box that says Fan Club Presale or something like that, and enter this code exactly: 12345 (I changed this code because I don't want to incur the wrath of the Iron Maiden fan club by giving out the special fan club code) .

3. Select general admission, General admission, nothing else. DO NOT,I REPEAT DO NOT SELECT BEST AVAILABLE, every second counts. As of right now, we are only buying one ticket.

4. Enter the security code

5. Now we have two possibilities.
A: There's a tickets cannot be found thing, we're too late. :( In this instance, start over and try and get another GA seat. If you get the same message, choose best available. 100s are the ones we're looking for, but I'll take 200s if I have to. If those are gone, somethings up email me.

B: Awesome, we got tickets. Now, I know you're excited, but we still have a few more steps. The ticketing system is paperless, so there shouldn't be a shipping option. If there is a shipping option, just select the cheapest one.

6. Log in or create an account. You should at least have an account from last time. Use the two cards that I gave you. Mind the timer on the page, that's how long until you lose the tickets. If you don't see a timer, don't dwell on it.

7. Fill out the number and the pin of the two cards. I'm going to write down the numbers and pins and bring them to school if this doesn't work out.

8. Finalize the order.

9. Email me, regardless of outcome.

10. Run down the street screaming "HOOOOORRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY"

11. Call the school, tell them that Snake can leave school due to a family event.

12. We party. Until June 20th.

Snake

PS: All steps are mandatory. for reals.

P.S.S: Sorry for talking to you like you're three

P.S.S.S: Do P.S.S.Ss exist?

P.S.S.S.S: I guess they have to now...

Okay this is Wendy again. You think with all of those instructions, it would have all gone swimmingly. You'd think. Well, not exactly. I got all the way up to step 5, picking the general admission ticket which he points out about 4 times, it needs to be general admission. I purchased the general admission ticket and was very pleased with myself. Actually I used Snake's gift cards and the ticket wasn't too expensive. I texted him "Transaction complete, one general admission lawn seat is purchased". Then I called Chizz to crow about my success, when I received this text from Snake:

"Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!"

Then it dawned on me. If you know Snake you know that the reason he likes the general admission seats is that in clubs these tickets usually are standing tickets and it allows to you to finagle your way to the front of the crowd and be up close and personal to the band. And if you have seen Iron Maiden, you know you want to be up close and personal to them. But this particular venue is outdoors and the general admission seats are actually on the lawn, which is in the back of the venue and there is virtually no chance you can wiggle up to the front. They keep a tight rein on those seats. So Snake apparently didn't remember that part or if he did, thought for some unknown reason, I would remember that he wouldn't want a general admission lawn seat. So I had to hustle back on the site and buy another ticket. We are still unclear as to whether he actually has a seat or if he will be standing because the ticket doesn't really indicate a seat (which is good). Of course we were successful and now we have two tickets to the Iron Maiden concert.

So if you happen to be at the Sleep Train Pavillion on Sunday June 20, come find me in the back lawn. I will be the well over 40 year old Mom in the fold out chair (because sitting on the lawn will probably hurt my back), with my earplugs in and doing the Sudoku. What???? You thought I would waste the ticket? Nooooooooo!!

Practicing

2010-03-09T08:34:00.001-08:00

So while Snake was gone on his trip, Chizz and I decided we should take advantage of the opportunity and go on a trip. But where to go? As these things usually work out, the timing of the trip was not necessarily good for Chizz's work so it was hard to make concrete plans. And because of the costs of Snake's trip, tuition deposits and college fees, the timing of the trip was not very good for our wallets as well. So where to go that we could be flexible with our comings and goings, would be inexpensive and the weather wouldn't require snow shovelling in any shape or form. Ta Da!! In laws to the rescue (how many times does that happen? In my case, quite a bit). My FIL & MIL (Father-in-Law and Mother-in-Law in internet lingo - see I am cool!) have a condo in Carmel. My MIL had it before she married my FIL. Her whole family is from that area and she has roots there since forever! She has always been very generous in letting us use it and since they wouldn't be there at the time, she kindly allowed us to camp there.

The location fit the bill on many levels, the major two being it was cheap and we could drive there - which we love to do. Chizz and I have always enjoyed driving vacations. We try and find small roads to get us where we need to go. We try to avoid freeways and highways as much as possible. It is all about the journey not the time or speed in which you get there. We enjoy looking at the scenery, the houses or little towns you find that are off the beaten path. No time frames, no agendas. Of course, the people under 20 in our house absolutely hate these kind of vacations. Actually, hate is too strong of a word. Usually, they are indifferent. As long as they can plug in and tune out, they seem to be okay. Although there are many vacations that we don't allow them to plug in, we want them to take in the scenery, actually notice their surroundings. That it is when it becomes a little unbearable for us. When they voice their boredom, "When are we going to get there", "I'm hungry", "Can I please listen to my Ipod", "I'm hungry", "I can listen AND watch the stupid scenery", "I'm hungry". So we jumped at the chance to do a driving trip without the commentary from the back seat.

The weather didn't exactly cooperate. It was off and on raining pretty much the entire time. But we managed to have a good time in Carmel. We drove along the backroads and saw some pretty impressive scenery. This is one of my favorite times of year in California, it is so green. We only have a few short weeks of rain each year and it turns the hills into an amazing array of green. In about 2 months time, these will turn into the "golden hills of California" but it is nice to enjoy the greenery while it lasts. Just around the bend from here, we found acres and acres of grape vines. Well, when in Rome. . . .

So these posts don't get too lengthy, I am going to break this up a bit. More tomorrow or, in the vernacular of the teenage people in my household, "whenever".

Did We Have a Great Time on Our Wine Tasting Trip?

2010-03-05T07:56:00.000-08:00

You 'betcha! (Details, some, to follow.)

With Apologies to my Spanish Speaking Friends

2010-03-02T11:47:00.000-08:00

Feliz cumpleanos, Serpiente!! Espero que se divierten en el Peru. Tome muchas fotografias!! Amor, tu mama!!

Boy Communication vs. Girl Communication

2010-02-28T20:23:00.000-08:00

When Kiki left for college, I wasn't worried that I wouldn't hear from her. She is my communicative child. All throughout high school, Kiki always kept in touch. Whether it was a call at break time or lunch to remind me to do something or a furtive text from class to let me know a great grade on a paper or test score. She has always kept in touch. It has been the same way since she has gone to college. She routinely calls me when walking to class to let me know what is going on in her life or to catch up on hometown gossip. She still texts to let me know a great grade or to see if I remembered to make a tuition or housing payment. I am pretty much in constant contact with her.

I always said that it would be different when Snake goes to college. His communication genes come from Chizz's side of the family tree. While as Kiki texts or calls me almost on a daily basis, I know that my contact will be quite different with Snake. I will most like drop him off at college in September and I won't hear from him again until the day before Thanksgiving when he checks in to find out his travel arrangements to come home for the holiday.

So why am I surprised at his lack of communication on his trip to Peru? Perhaps I thought the international nature of his trip would prompt some desire on his part to keep in touch or he would just be homesick. So far the communication has been minimal to say the least. He has been gone a week. I have heard from him directly twice, maybe three times. I say maybe because I am not certain about one time. It is not that I expect to him to be in daily contact with us but since there have been some developments in that part of the world, I have been wishing there was a bit more contact.

Or maybe it is because the quality of his communications have been less than satisfactory. The communications so far have been brief. His first email was about 4 lines. One line to tell me he was having difficulty texting on his phone. But not to worry as he can get internet on his Ipod through the hotel. He asked me to respond to let him know that I got his message and oh, by the way, he was doing great in Peru. I responded back with about 6 paragraphs, describing completely what he needed to do to send a text internationally, advising him of our travel plans in detail, what was going on here, reminding him to take photos, asking what he had done so far, advising him that I had followed the 5 paragraphs of instructions he left me on getting concert tickets for a concert that went on sale last week and that I was successful in getting a difficult ticket, inquiring about the weather and wishing him a great time on his trip. He responded with 4 lines (again) thanking me for getting the ticket, indicating that it wasn't a dialing problem with the texting - he just wasn't getting service, wishing me a great time on our trip and that he was, indeed, having fun so far but he was getting very little sleep. I sent him back a 4 paragraph email, detailing the results of my 45 minute communique with ATT about his difficulties in texting internationally and what he needed to do now, reminding him of the exorbitant costs of telephone calls and the prohibitive costs of data downloads or internet d downloads from his phone and reminding him not to do any of that under ANY circumstances, reminding him to try and get a good nights sleep when he can and to take photos. His 2 line response the next day was to advise me that Iron Maiden was set to make a big concert tour announcement on Thursday and I needed to stand by in case he needed to get tickets for whatever concert they were about to announce. And he was doing great in Peru.

That last communication was about 6 hours before the 8.8 earthquake in Chile, the country right next door to Peru. So I waited, and waited, and waited. Thinking any moment he would email or text me to let me know that although he had felt the earthquake, things were status quo in Peru. Nothing. And more Nothing. So I send him an email, asking him if he had heard about the earthquake and perhaps it might be nice to let his poor old mom & dad know that he was "doing great in Peru". Nothing.

Until this morning, when I got a text from an unfamiliar cell phone number in our local area code. It said "Snake is doing well and sends his love." Hmmmmmm. The second part so doesn't sound like Snake, but in a way the message is all Snake. It is all about him reading my email after the earthquake, and thinking he has to communicate with me but forgot to charge his phone and doesn't have internet service to communicate. Soooooo he talks his friend at 925xxxxxxx into sending me a quick text to let me know he is fine, the "sending his love" is the editorializing of another 16 year old boy. You just need to read between the lines (or the words if there are hardly any lines).

Gosh, I can't wait for college. I just hope I hear from him before graduation.

Metal Mom

2010-02-25T10:37:00.001-08:00

I am fairly certain I was the oldest person waiting this morning for the Ticketmaster clock to strike 10:00 a.m. for a particular show. That was the magic hour for the Mastodon concert tickets to go on pre-sale. Since Snake was a bit uncertain as to what his internet capabilities would be in Peru, he buttered me up for several days so that I might do exactly what I did. Waiting for the clock to tick down so I could snag a high coveted General Admission, Floor, Standing Room ticket??? What? He doesn't even want to sit down and enjoy the melodic sounds of "Aqua Dementia" or "Blood and Thunder" waft over him? Nooooooooooo! It is way more fun to be on the floor and thrash around and be involved in the music. Snake loves getting as close to the bands as he can. That way he can snag a drum stick or set list when the band throws them into the crowd.

My mom used to do something similar for us when we were growing up. She would call up radio stations while we were at school and try to win tickets or free albums for us for whatever group was coming to town next - Loverboy, Heart, Debbie Gibson. The worst was when she won, she would have to go on the air with the DJ and say something like "96.1 plays the coolest music" or scream like she was 15 years old. But she would do it. All for the free stuff.

So Snake will see Mastodon in the Spring. Perhaps while he is at the concert, I will sit back and listen to my favorite Mastodon song "Cut you with a Linoleum Knife", their thinly disguised rant against people who talk during movies. Just trying to make the world better, one song at a time.

Faux Empty Nest

2010-02-24T09:06:00.000-08:00

So Snake left this week to go to Peru on a school trip. His school is on the trimester system, where the school year is divided into 3 sections as opposed to 4 quarters/2 semesters as most schools seem to be. The problem is that the school year doesn't divide evenly into 3; there are a few leftover weeks. So Snake's school devised what they call "mini term". Mini term is two weeks of 2 classes per day that are sort of fun but have some educational component to them. The teachers get to teach classes in areas they might have a particular interest in or passion. For example, last year Snake took Archery and "Snap, Crackle, Pop - Your Brain on Drugs", a science course on what physically happens to your body when you take drugs. There was a history/cooking class that followed the Spice Trade in Asia and why that was both historically and culinarily important. There was a course on hiking the many trails in our area, a photography course, usually a few sports oriented courses etc. In addition, usually a trip or two that kids can sign up for (for an additional fee, of course)that have a community service component to them. Last year for example, the kids went to Louisiana and worked with Habitat for Humanity and helped rebuild an area still devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

This year the trip is to Peru. They had an overwhelming response but could only take so many students. The administration wanted to leave it open for a wide variety of students, so each student had to fill out a questionnaire and write a short essay about why they would be a perfect student to take on this trip. Snake pointed out that in addition to speaking Spanish fairly well, he was a well-seasoned traveller thanks to our short overseas assignment. He included anecdote about being held at immigration when he was travelling between London and US by himself. (Apparently, being an adult as far as flying alone on the airlines is not the same as going through immigration as an adult. A minor, under 16, must have someone waiting for them on the other side before they can be released.) Snake wrote about the incident as an example as to why you have to be flexible when you travel. Things happen and you have to learn how to roll with the punches, especially when you travel. He thinks, and I believe he is correct, that the essay was a good portion of why he was chosen.

There has only been one potential disappointment. Several weeks before the scheduled departure, there was a horrible mudslide/flood at Machu Picchu, the pre-Colombian Inca city. The roads and more importantly, the railroad tracks have been flooded and are inoperable. The Peruvian officials have no idea how long it is going to take to clear the site, although they are motivated as this is the number tourist attraction in Peru. So for now, they don't think they are going to be able to go, which is a shame. However, the chaperones are keeping an open mind and if by some miracle it opens while the group is there, they will try and get there.

The rest of the trip will include both hotel stays and stays with local families. The students will take language classes as well as classes in salsa, cooking and ceramics. They will work with younger children in preschools helping them learn a little English. They will also get to sight see and try a few Peruvian delicacies. I think it will be a fantastic experience.

Oh, and just in case you are worried about what Chizz and I doing while our nest is empty. Don't. We are going south, baby. To Carmel. Where we plan on not helping any children in pre-school, hanging out at restaruants, doing some, ok ALOT, wine tasting, taking some driving tours, going to a movie or two.

I think it will be a fantastic experience.

Lions and Tigers and Snakes, Oh My!!

2010-01-23T19:55:00.000-08:00

The weather has been wacky crazy this week. It has rained in biblical proportions, the result of 5 or so storms stacked one right after another. We have had rain, hail, a bit of snow on some of the higher elevations. Today I was working in the back room and I heard the emergency broadcasting system alert go off. Chizz was watching TV and they interrupted. On a very rare occasion we will get interruptions for an Amber alert or sometimes in storms such as these we get a flash flood warning. Not today. Today's emergency was a tornado alert!! Holy Wizard of Oz, Batman! Right here in our county. Apparently a funnel cloud was spotted in a town not far from here. It was exciting. Of course, the warning lasted all of about five minutes. It was over fairly quickly after the instructions to "shelter in place, go to the lowest elevation in your house" and "do not take shelter under a freeway overpass". Since we didn't have any freeway overpasses in our house, we were pretty lucky. We were still contemplating where the lowest elevation in our house was (we think the sunken living room, we weren't sure) when the warning was over. So we escaped the tornado.

Almost. Shortly after the warning, I went into Snake's room. Actually, the tornado didn't miss us after all. That would be the only explanation:

Backyard Tourists

2010-01-13T14:16:00.000-08:00

Lately, Chizz and I have been visiting places close by that we have always meant to go to but somehow have never gotten the chance. When we took Kiki to the airport recently, we drove by this huge flea market/swap meet that is very close to the going to the airport freeway. I said aloud "we should go there sometime and just see what it is like". Sometime was this past weekend.

Actually, we went to the flea market next door. Who knew this area would have more than one flea market to visit? Parking in the area is pretty difficult, apparently this is a very popular flea market. There are actually two sections, one is a more formal pay $1 flea market and the other area is the people who just kind of set up a little area to sell their items. I am not sure what the odds are that this is true, but I got the feeling quite a bit of this stuff was stuff that had "fallen off the truck" or just out and out stolen. There were stalls after stalls of used work tools, drills, hammers, sanders, all used. Loads of used bicycles. We saw tables of laptops, one after another. Used but still pretty nice looking. Televisions, stereo systems, speakers. The "paid" area of the flea market had mostly new stuff but still, how are these people selling table loads of 409 cleaner, or toilet paper, or socks. You have to wonder how they actually got the items they are selling but you don't have to wonder for too long. We could have even gotten a stun gun from a table with a sign that declared they had several for sale, along with some whips and stuff. I wanted to take photos of both sides but I had a feeling that people would not take kindly to having their photos taken. So because I didn't have my running shoes on, I chose not to take the photos.

After we left the flea market, we decided to go to another area we had been too before but it had been many years before, Jack London Square. On Sundays there is small farmers market going on. We got there kind of late so not much there and it was a pretty cold day. Not too cold for Asian string players.

I think this man is a regular.

One of the things we liked best in London, wait one of the things Chizz liked best in

London, was finding a new pub to try out. Very often the pubs were historic, frequented by this prince or that famous author. Very often the pub looked like it hadn't changed an iota since it was founded. So we were excited to see this on our arrival at Jack London Square. It is a cute little small bar or pub. It appears to have quite a few names: J.M. Heinold's Saloon, First and Last Chance, or Jack London's Rendezvous. The inside is adorable, about 3 tables and five or six stools at the bar. The floor has a definite tilt, you can see it in the photo of the bar, the whole bar is tilted downward. The bar does have an interesting history as well. It opened in 1883 and was built from the timbers of an old whaling ship. In the 1920s a ferry between Alameda and Oakland ran from a nearby pier and Heinold's was literally the last chance, commuters could get a beverage before getting on the boat. Over the years, the bar enjoyed a mild success. It was the teenage hangout for a young Jack London, who used to study at the tables. He confided with the owner that he really wanted to enroll in the University of California at Berkeley. Mr. Heinold lent him the money and although London didn't make it past his first year, London must have felt some gratitude as he used Mr. Heinold's name and the name for the First and Last Chance Saloon in his novel, John Barleycorn.

In the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the pilings of the pier that bar was situated on, sunk into the mud under the pier, causing the floor to slant. Over the years they have tried to shore up the floor to straighten it out, without much success. So eventually they stopped trying. The clock in the bar stopped that morning and they have never wound it back up so you can still it at 5:18. It is hard to tell from this photo, but the walls just have all kinds of stuff on them. Chizz was interested in a display case that contain lots of Germany army pins with swastikas. There are pieces of currencies from all over the world tacked up on the wall. The bar and rail are original to the bar. Can't you just imagine Jack London sitting there, having a drink making notes for his next book?

There is lots of history in our own backyards. Chizz and I speak often of how lucky we are to live in an area that folks all over the world come to visit on their vacations. Sometimes we all take for granted those things right in our own neighborhood that are available to explore. I doubt too many tourists have the Oakland Flea Market on their list or even Jack London Square but these are places I have always wanted to visit, but never seemed to find the time. This weekend we found the time. I challenge you to visit something in your figurative backyard, something you have always meant to check out. In this economy, it pays to be a Backyard Tourist. The airfare is cheap.

Holiday Aftermath

2010-01-05T15:02:00.001-08:00

Well, holidays are officially over (well, not if you ask Target because they have already moved on to Valentines Day, St. Patrick's Day and the Superbowl!). The WTF household had pretty nice holiday overall.

For the first time in a long time, I felt as if I actually got to enjoy the holidays a bit more this year. Many times it just all goes by in a red and green blur. Perhaps it is because the kids are older, or we are older but it seems as if we were all a bit more relaxed this holiday. I just didn't feel the pressure to create the perfect Christmas "damn it" and perhaps because there was no pressure, it all seemed to work out beautifully. I even sent out a Christmas card or two. We enjoyed our "old" traditions and perhaps started a new one or two. Maybe when your kids are older, you don't work so hard to create memories because part of the holiday is spent reliving the old ones.

It was nice having Kiki back from college. Mercifully, there were no power struggles over car use and I don't remember any arguments either. She has grown up and so have we. She and I were discussing her New Year's Eve plans which included a group of kids going into the City and spending the night there at a friend's apartment. I was more than a little leery about it and I expressed my concerns about it really being an unsupervised party, likely with alcohol and no adults. Kiki paused for a minute, looked at me and said "Mom, what do you think college is?" . . . . . Alrighty. Actually she is right. We have to get used to her fielding these situations on her own. Now of course, that doesn't mean she still doesn't get the occasional lecture about safety etc and that as an 18 year old, alcohol use is against the law. But I can't be with her every time she has one of this situations pop up. So I have to just take comfort in the fact that I have given her 4,357,286 of these lectures and hopefully when the time is right, she will hear my voice in her ear giving the lecture again as if it were on shuffle on her Ipod.

Snake spent the holiday recharging his battery, which included sleeping until noonish, spending time on the computer, endless hours of football on tv and a few concerts. He went back to school today and I think it has been hard for him to get into the groove. He just called and told me he forgot what the schedule he was on today (his school has a block schedule which has a different schedule each day). So he inadvertantly skipped second period today because he thought it was a day he had a free period. He is on his way to the office to 'fess up and take whatever consequences are assigned.

So now I am left with dismantling Christmas. That always seems to take longer than it did to put it up. I have two mini deadlines, one is to make the house seem livable by tomorrow when Auntie L comes to visit. The next is one is two days later when the recycler comes for the tree. Right now, the cyclone that is my living room says I might not make either deadline. Yikes.

According to Target, I only have 32 more shopping days until the next big holiday, the Superbowl. Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la!

VICTORIOUS!!!

2009-12-16T08:32:00.000-08:00

See post here . Told ya! Details to follow after the holidays as I don't want to give away who might be getting these items.

Merry Christmas to All!!

Grocery Store Pet Peeves

2009-12-09T08:35:00.000-08:00

Is it just me or is it something about the holiday season that just makes grocery shopping almost unbearable? Normally, I love shopping in all shapes or forms. It is in my genes - come from a long line of shoppers. It is part of my DNA profile. During the holiday season, I actually enjoy the gift shopping; don’t mind crowded malls. I take it as a challenge, a sport, competition. Getting the best deal gets my adrenaline pumping. If shopping were a sport, I am sure I could go pro or at least be in the elite category of amateur, like triple A or bowling or Nascar.

I think it is because at the holidays there are so many amateurs in the store, those who don’t know the in and outs, the etiquette. And maybe it is because I consider myself an expert in the field; I am annoyed by those that don’t follow the rules of grocery shopping. Oh and don’t kid yourself, there are rules. Let me give you a few. (And these are in no particular order because quite frankly they are all important).

1. Don’t park your cart on one side of the aisle and yourself on the other side. For example, if you are in the canned soup and vegetable aisle don’t park your cart on the soup side and then wander across to look at the canned veggies. What you have done, effectively, is block both sides of the aisle. People and carts can’t get around you. Cart management is very important in grocery shopping. Have a little self awareness, know where your fellow cart managers are, anticipate their movements, and get out of their way if you want to check the sodium content of every single can of chicken noodle in Safeway. Another tip, if your store has pillars in the most inconvenient places like mine, be aware of where you stop your cart. If you stop your cart right next to the pillar, guess what? No one can get around you. This also applies to the stores that display items in the aisles. Don't park your cart next to the display. It won't kill you to move ahead a few feet and go back to the item you want to look at or retrieve. Trust me.

2. If you bring your kids to the store with you and I recognize that there are situations where that needs to happen, keep them under control. Like automobiles, no one under 16 should be allowed to drive a cart. It is not adorable to have your 5 year old push your cart. In addition to the inevitable cart-run-into-your-heel-confrontation, I saw a 6 year old almost take out an entire display of Christmas M&Ms the other day at the store. I used to tell my kids on the very few grocery store trips they went on, that they couldn't be wider than the cart. So they had to either walk way in front of me and the cart or, preferably, behind me and the cart.

3. Express lanes are for those who can complete their transactions quickly. Repeat that out loud to yourself. If you haven’t used your debit card in the last 7 months and you just can’t remember your pin, you shouldn’t be in the express lane. If you want to discuss why (Insert Your Store’s Name Here) doesn’t carry your cat’s favorite brand of kitty litter, you shouldn't be in the express lane. If you are buying some exotic type of produce (yes I am talking to you radicchio buyers!) that the clerk just can’t remember the code for or can’t find the code for, you shouldn’t be in the express lane. And another thing express lane users, start your debit card or store card swiping as soon as the clerk has rung up the first item. There are few things in life more annoying than watching someone ring up an order in the express lane, THEN the customer searches her purse or goes through 27 cards in his wallet to find their store card or their credit card. Remember it is for those who can complete their transactions quickly. If you see yourself in any of those examples, the express lane is not for you. If you aren’t sure, message me your circumstances and I will be happy to let you know.

4. Regular lane users you have some rules too. (Please read express lane section about when to swipe your credit card or store card. It applies to you as well.) If you have brought your own bags to the store, don’t wait until the order has been bagged to present your reusable bags and ask that the order be re-bagged because you are a friend to the environment. If you can’t remember to present your bags before the bagger has started bagging, then you aren’t really very “green” to begin with and now the environment will just have to pay for your transgression. Think about that next time. If you really were concerned, you would make an effort to present your bags earlier in the process. Moving on. People that only have 1 or 2 or 3 items that stand behind big full carts in the regular lanes should not expect to skip ahead in line. 1 or 2 or 3 item people have whole lanes dedicated to them, the express lanes. My store has at least 5 and usually 3 of them are manned most of the time. If the express line is a little too long, you think you will move over to a regular line and someone will let you go head of them “because I only have one thing”. NOT IN MY LANE. I will wait you out. You can shift your weight from one ankle to another, try to make eye contact or sigh so deeply you begin to hyperventilate, I will not let you move head of me in line. It is the fairness of it all. Let’s face it, you are probably the same people who count items in the express lane and call out to the checker, “she has 13 items, only supposed to have 12”. We have our own lanes, let’s use them people.

5. Frozen food aisle. If you are looking at items in the frozen food case, don't hold the door open and peruse at your leisure. The glass doors get all fogged up and the next person can't see through them. Look through the glass, make your choice, THEN open the door to obtain your item or items. It goes without saying that you shouldn't leave the door open while you review the nutrition facts on the side. Close the door, review facts, put item in cart or back in case. Not rocket science.

6. People that eat from the bulk food bins. Do I really need to say this? I can almost excuse the kids, they don't know better. But it isn't usually the kids I see that stick their fingers inside and take a piece for snacking. Don't do this, no matter what!!! Unless you would like me to send Chizz or Snake over to put their grubby hands all over your food after they have been cleaning our gutters. Just saying. . . . It's gross and it's illegal. It is stealing, no ifs ands or buts. Frankly most produce departments (where these bins are usually located) will give you a taste of any item if you request it. If you take it, you are stealing. It is shop lifting except you aren't carrying the product out under your coat, you are taking it out in your stomach. And let's face it, someone always sees you do it. Be a better example. Shame, shame, shame.

So I think with these simple rules (Wendy's rules,if you insist), grocery store shopping can be a much better experience for everyone. Do you think I should print this out a few hundred times and give one to anyone I see not following the rules? Maybe not. But shape up people, or I just might!!

Parents Weekend

2009-12-03T08:41:00.000-08:00

Chizz and I recently participated in a time-honored ritual - parents weekend. For those of you not in the know, its where parents of college students visit their children at college and get an idea of what the kid's life is like now that they aren't living with you 24/7. My mom gave me some very good advice. She told me this is what she used to do. Instead of worrying about what evil influences Kiki might be exposed to and wondering where she is late on a Saturday night, I have to convince myself that she is always at the library - studying. Hmmm. I think I can do that. Maybe. Actually, I think I like being a bit ignorant about what is going on at college in that way but those aren't the things you find out about at these Parents' Weekend events anyway, so off we went.

UCLA puts forth a good effort educating the parents on what programs are available to the kids, what it is like to live on campus, giving tours of campus (if you somehow managed to get through the application and acceptance process without going to one, I don't know how you did it. I think I have been on at least 6 campus tours of UCLA), eating in the dining hall, special lectures and parties where you can rub elbows with the chancellor and other important people. You can sign up for just about all of the events or pick and choose your way through. We signed up for a few but avoided anything that looked suspiciously like it would be a hold-up for money. I can't blame UC, all the campuses are looking for dough in this atmosphere but we already give UCLA $27,000+ a year. We don't have anymore money. They need to be talking to Snake! He has all the money in our family.

We also got to go to a football game. Auntie L & Auntie S, being alumni, are season ticket holders for football games so we were definitely interested in catching up with them at the game. Kiki is pledging a sorority. I am not going to say which one to keep her anonymous but let's just say one or more of the names includes the Greek letters, Gamma, Chi, Delta, Alpha, Phi, Rho, Kappa, Episilon, Pi, Iota, etc. So there were activities involved with that. Most of the sororities had a "Dad's day" where the dad got a t-shirt. We went on a tour of the sorority house (where Kiki may live next year) and then to the football game. It was fun. We sat with Auntie L, Uncle S and Dew. The next day there was a ceremony at the sorority house, where the new members are presented to the rest of the members and their parents. Kiki needed a white dress. I think finding a white dress in fall was harder than getting her accepted to the college to begin with!!

It was a very nice time and now when I speak with Kiki on the phone about this person or that building, I can use my imagination to picture what she is talking about. The trick is turning off your imagination so you don't see what she is NOT talking about!! Library, Library, Library, Library.

I am a Subscriber, hear me ROAR!!

2009-12-01T14:32:00.000-08:00

The WTF household is a two paper household. We receive our local newspaper and also the San Francisco paper. We like getting two papers for a number of reasons. First, they fulfill two entirely separate needs. The local paper lets us know what is going on in our county, the happenings in our more immediate part of the globe. The SF Chronicle keeps us up to date on the news on a more national scale. Our ritual in the morning has been Chizz reads the local paper at breakfast and I read the SF Chronicle. He leaves for work and takes the Chronicle with him and I read the local paper at a more convenient time during the day sometime after he leaves. It works for us.

Until about 2 weeks ago. I received our renewal bill for the Chronicle. $403 per year. Last year I paid $140. It is now almost triple. I understand the siege newspapers are under right now trying to stay afloat and relevant in this economy, but I can't single handedly bring them back. When I sat down and figured it out, it doesn't make economical sense to subscribe to the paper at this rate. You receive very, very little benefit. The newspaper stand price (what it would cost if I bought it at Safeway) for a full year of the SF Chronicle is $417.00. When we subscribed to the paper, I usually didn't read the Saturday's paper - too little content. Very often when we went on vacation, I donated the papers. Count vacation papers at 15 per year, and 52 Saturday papers, the newstand price of my paper goes down to $350. Even if Chizz bought the Chronicle at Bart every single weekday he commutes into the city, we would still save money not subscribing.

So I cancelled our subscription. And I made sure the Chronicle knew why. And apparently they don't care, at least when I called in they did nothing to try and retain me as a customer. Based on some discussions I have had with my friends and family, I think the SF Chronicle is losing lots of customers with this approach. I would not be surprised if they aren't around much longer. I worry about the state of all newspapers. I love sitting down and reading one, but I think I am in the last generation that really does that. The younger generation gets their news from the Internet or television. Nothing wrong with that, it is just a different medium. Quite frankly, the newspaper industry doesn't appear to be doing anything to lure younger readers. They certainly don't do anything to keep their current ones. It is a shame.

Don't worry, we still subscribe to 2 newspapers, our local paper and ta-da . . . . the Wall Street Journal! (And which we receive for the bargain price of $150 per year). Sorry Chronicle, but by the time you do get around to offering me a discount to come back, I most likely can't or won't be persuaded to come back. The only downside, I don't have 2 Sudokus to do every morning. Oh, well I'll survive!! (Probably more than the Chronicle can say!)

Do You Zhu Zhu?

2009-11-17T14:41:00.001-08:00

The call has been put out. Someone in my circle of family and friends wants, wait should I say, needs a Zhu Zhu pet. In case you don't have a person under 10 years old in your life, Zhu Zhu pets are this years "it" toy. You know, this year's Tickle-Me-Elmo, Wii, Princess Unicorn or Cabbage Patch Kid (okay I am dating myself here). Every year there is always a toy that is impossible to get, yet somehow it ends up on every kid's list. And parents go nuts trying to find that toy, paying 2, 3 even 10 times the value to get the item for their precious to open on Christmas Day.

Oh I mock because I have been there. One Christmas when Snake was 4 years old, all he wanted for Christmas was "Black Buzz". It was a special edition Buzz Lightyear Figure, that wasn't really black, it was silverish, kind of a plastic shiny chrome color but that is what he called it. He saw one in the Disney store and it was all he talked about. So of course, by the time I got to the Disney store to buy it , they were out of stock. It was hard to find. So I put the call out to the network of sisters, aunties and grandmas. And California was searched up and down the coast for a "Black Buzz". It was searched and it was searched hard. I tried to manage Snake's expectations. "You know sometimes you don't get everything you want for Christmas, but there is always your birthday just a little over 2 months away", in my cheerful it-doesn't-really-matter-if-all-of-your-Christmas-dreams-are-dashed, right? mom voice. I started to panic but Snake never did. He kept telling me "don't worry, Santa will bring it". Oh right, I forgot.

So I have been searching for Zhu Zhu pets. I have searched every store in about a 15 mile radius from my house looking for the toys. I can tell I am not the only one. The store clerks are just a little snippy. "Do you have---", I don't even get a chance to finish my question before several of them have cut me off "No. We don't have any Zhu Zhu pets. No. We don't know when we will get any in. No. We don't have any idea of when any kind of toy shipment will come in." (Apparently these boxes just appear like magic in stock rooms everywhere.) So I have taken to having them show me where the Zhu Zhu's will be, if and when they are ever in stock. So I know where to look without disturbing the toy department clerks who are too busy and important to answer my questions about . . . toys. And when I find them, because I have every confidence I will, I will buy as many as I can. And distribute them to my family and friends who need them. At cost. Because I understand.

Oh and yes, Snake did get the Black Buzz for Christmas. It was found about 2 days before and made its appearance under our tree on Christmas morning. Snake just said "See, I knew Santa would find it" and he was right. Then Kiki dropped it about two minutes after he opened it and his little shiny chrome foot broke off. We spent Christmas morning buying Scotch tape at Walgreens to tape Buzz's foot back on. And to all a good night!!

Nooooooooo! Say it Ain't So, Joe!!!!!!!

2009-11-05T14:24:00.000-08:00

For the past few months, I have been missing something at my Trader Joe's store. I have checked for it over and over again, and it hasn't been in the freezer section. For a few weeks the sign was still there, so I thought perhaps there was a run on this product and eventually it would be back. But then, the sign disappeared. It wasn't there any more and I started to lose hope that the product would be restocked. So today I asked about it. (I hadn't asked before because until I got an answer one way or another, I could still pretend that the inevitable might not happen.) It was not good news. Trader Joe's will not be restocking the Cranberry Oatmeal frozen cookie dough. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I loved the Cranberry Oatmeal cookie dough. Every store has chocolate chip dough or sugar cookie dough. Those flavors are common and pedestrian. But only Trader Joe's had cranberry oatmeal. Every adult that I made those cookies for, loved them. They were easy, just pop them out of the freezer onto a cookie sheet and 12-15 minutes later - viola! Yummy cookies.

So I emailed Trader Joe's and asked them nicely (I said please) to bring back the cookie dough. If not permanently, just until I can corner the market on the cookies and stock my freezer. You can email them too, here. Please. I asked nicely.

Mind if we watch while you spawn?

2009-11-01T13:36:00.001-08:00

Chizz has been wanting to go up to Lake Tahoe and see the salmon spawn at Taylor Creek. A friend of his from work went a week before and had some amazing photos. We decided to take a drive up for the day. Snake needed freeway driving experience and we wanted to see the salmon spawn, so we figured we could get two proverbial birds with one big car shaped stone.

Taylor Creek is off the south shore of Tahoe. We don't often get to the south shore, we are more north shore folks. Each autumn, mature Kokanee salmon return to the streams where they hatched to get a mate, spawn and die. Wow!! And each year we humans come to watch. Not much privacy. It was a beautiful day in California. We had some pretty significant rain the week or so before, so we were happy to see blue skies and it was only a bit nippy. We really didn't need sweatshirts or jackets. We probably missed the optimum day for viewing by a week or so, but it was still pretty good and far as really getting to see a number of salmon up close and personal. The salmon go through some pretty amazing physical changes not the least of which is changing from their silvery kind of color to a brilliant bright red. When you walk along the creek, you just see all kinds of fish kind of swimming in place looking for a good place to lay and fertilize their eggs. Also there? The ducks - ready to eat freshly laid eggs and/or fish. They weren't really picky. The ducks did this amazing thing where they kind of scooted along the water really fast and chased the fish. I am not sure if they were trying to catch them, and I never really saw any duck catch a fish or if they were trying to stir up the bottom of the creek where the eggs were just laid to try and eat the eggs. But there was quite a bit of scooting going on.

Even though we were a few days past the prime viewing time. There were still quite a few people there that day. I am not sure if it was the beautiful weather that brought them out or the chance to see the salmon spawning. But I was amazed at the crowd. Most of the people were respectful of the process, the viewing of the circle of life so to speak. But there are always a few that let their kids try and touch or catch the fish for the cute photo op. I wondered how the parents would have liked it if someone was yanking on their fins while they were conceiving their little miracle, or, more morbidly, meeting their maker. Some people just seem to believe that everything is put on earth for their amusement, to do with as they please. No wonder our society grows up with such entitlement!

I will say US Forest Service does quite a good job of explaining what is happening. There were various signs around, explaining the differences the male and female fish go through physically, what each of their roles were, how many made it through(3 eggs from every 1000 laid will survive). You can walk down the path and see the various spots that a salmon might choose to spawn. There is an underground cutout you can go through and it explains the different terrain and animals that live nearby and how that effects the salmon process. At one point we walked over a bridge and we could look down on all the various salmon in the creek bed. This is a photo of Chizz and Snakes' shadows. I thought it was cool. I am easily amused.

The aspen trees are beautiful this time of year and accompanied by the gorgeous weather, one appreciates living in such a beautiful place.

Boys - 2, Girl - 1 : (

2009-10-02T05:44:00.000-07:00

I am interrupting our Asian travelogue to bring a very important post, at least it is very important to me. We had an exciting event in our household a few weeks ago, we dropped Kiki off at college. I think I am safe to mention her school (UCLA) for a few reasons (1) she is one of 4500+ freshman arriving this fall and (2) "Kiki" is not her real name so her anonymity is probably pretty safe.

Her scheduled move in time was between 12 - 1 on a Saturday. Our trip down to LA was a very circuitous route. Chizz was on his annual "golf" trip with his college buddies in Yosemite. We couldn't fly because there was just so much stuff to bring, comforter, hair dryer, ironing board, iron, towels, sheets, etc. It would have cost us $200 in extra bag fees!! So we needed to drive. In order that we not have 2 cars in LA, which would also mean we would drive back separately for 6 hours, Kiki & I drove to Yosemite first and picked up Chizz. We then drove another 1 1/2 hours back to Fresno, got a hotel room and woke up pretty early on Saturday morning to drive the remaining 4 hours to UCLA.

As we got closer to the campus, the excitement level in the car started to amp up. UCLA really makes a big production of the process, which I think helps the kids feel really welcome. When we drove up to the designated building, there were students all wearing the same t-shirts, applauding, doing the 8 clap, cheering the kids and screaming "Welcome to UCLA". It was intimidating and welcoming at the same time, if you can imagine it. The parking lot is controlled pandemonium. Cars all over the place, students directing traffic, people walking in between cars with boxes, fridges, microwaves, suitcases. Once you park your car, you check out these huge bins. I thought Kiki brought alot of stuff. It filled up the trunk of our car, 2/3 of the back seat and even still Chizz had a few things perched precariously on his lap. Actually she did pretty well. We took 1 1/2 bins of belongs up to the dorm room. I saw one girl take 4 bins loads of things. During parent orientation, UCLA staff warned parents that most of the kids would be living triple in a room originally meant as a double. Translation: There is no room for "extra" anything. Very explicitly, one of the orientation staff told us, don't bring furniture, don't bring big lamps, don't bring stand alone microwaves (although we saw plenty of those being traipsed upstairs) and if you even dare to bring a U-Haul, they would literally turn you away. (Sidenote: Kiki is lucky that she is going to UCLA where the weather is fairly mild all year long. Winter gear here will probably consist of a long sleeve t-shirt AND a sweatshirt, and perhaps covered shoes. Other than that, it is strictly flip flops, shorts and spaghetti strap shirts. Since she will be coming home for Thankgsiving, she can switch out her "summer" gear for more appropriate winter togs.)

We met her roommates. Both are from local towns not far away and both seem very nice. Kiki seems a bit more, how should I say this politely, ummmm "boisterous" (read : LOUD) than her roommates. So far, she says, it looks like this roommate situation is going to work out just fine. The first week has been a variety of "get-to-know-you" activities with the dorm and floor mates, concerts (with performers I had never heard of but Kiki was quite excited about them) and finding their way around Westwood.

She seems to be loving it. Her college life so far seems to be full of parties, dinners, game nights etc. I think she has mentioned going to a class or two and there might even be a bit of studying going on but I am not sure.

It has been an adjustment for me. Kiki fills up a room or a house when she is in it. She constantly has music or the tv going or sometimes "her talkers" as her little cousin likes to say. Not that Snake doesn't make his presence known, it is just in a different, more quiet way. She and I did a lot together, more than I think we really realized. She was always up for a Target run, or a browse through the mall, an occasional movie. We had a lot of the same "guilty pleasure" tv shows in common, Biggest Loser, Drop Dead Diva, Hell's Kitchen, Gossip Girl. I miss those nights where we would sit together in the family room and laugh or be shocked at something mean that happened on Biggest Loser or see how many times Gordon Ramsay would throw the risotto on the floor.

My whole life has been surrounded by girls. I come from a family of 5 daughters. On my side of the family, the girls outnumber the boys by a ratio of 2 - 1. On Chizz's side, it is completely different, 6 boys 2 girls. But I have never in my entire life lived in a situation, until now, where testosterone outweighs the estrogen. (Let's face, even when it is even 2 girls, 2 boys, it is never really even!) So these past few weeks have taken some adjustment. Let me say the boys in my family are really enjoying the shift in the balance of power. There seems to be more football and baseball on the TV, more wrestling and rough housing, more "gross" jokes. It is like the inmates are running the asylum. People tell me it is going to be an adjustment, but I think I just need to take more control. Only time will tell!!

And tomorrow, she turns 18. Very symbolic in a way. Her first birthday away from the family is the birthday where she becomes a legal adult. Part of me is sad that we can't be with her on her birthday. But mostly I know that she is where she is supposed to be. As Chizz pointed out on the long ride home back to Northern California, this is the goal. This is what we were supposed to do. We raised a smart, funny, beautiful girl. She is going to be great. This is the end of her childhood but the beginning of her life.

Now we just have to convince her mom!!

Koh Samui

2009-09-20T14:03:00.000-07:00

Some of the most beautiful beaches in the world are in Thailand. We knew that we wanted to include a Thai beach during our trip, we were just concerned that because we were going during the summer months we might encounter some rough weather. Not just rain but it can get fairly windy and if the water and tides were too rough, we wouldn't be able to go in the water, snorkel or even take a boat trip. We had read about lots of trips that are canceled during the summer because of rough weather or seas. Probably one of the most famous beaches is in Phuket. But Phuket being located on the coast is very susceptible to bad weather. So after a bit of research we decided to go to Koh Samui . Koh means island in Thai. It is in the Gulf of Thailand and a bit more sheltered. We could possibly encounter rain and wind but if there was a chance we wouldn't, it would be here.

We had an interesting flight to Koh Samui on Bangkok Airways. It was the first time the kids had ever been on a plane with a propeller. They were a little taken aback. Kiki & I were sitting next to each other on the plane. Right after they started the engine, I asked her if she had seen the guy go out there and start the propeller with his hand? It took her a moment before she realized I was kidding. Even though the plane was pretty small, it was an uneventful hour long flight. An hour long flight that included a meal. . . wait - don't get me started on those airlines again.

Samui is beautiful. As a family, we really love beautiful beaches, decent hotel rooms and great restaurants that are within walking distance of our hotel. Samui had all of those. Our hotel was really nice, the pool area was great with little cabanas available for those who needed some relief from the 100+ degree temps or didn't necessarily want worry about sand everywhere. I loved these little elephants at the pool that shot water all day long. When we weren't at the pool we spent time at the beach. The beach is where it is at in Thailand. You can lay there and soak up the rays, drink fancy "umbrella" drinks from the bar, people and shop!! Perfect day. You don't even have to go to the stores, the vendors come right to you. Dresses, t-shirts, massages, jewelry. What's not to love. This is the view from the chaise lounge. One of the nicer things about traveling with teenagers (and quite frankly, one of the annoying things) is that they have in their mind what they would like to do and sometimes that doesn't coordinate with what you want to do. Chizz and I were really up for a snorkle trip, but Kiki & Snake were not feeling it. Kiki wanted more sun time and she has never been wild about snorkeling and Snake was a bit concerned about jelly fish. So Chizz and I went to Koh Tao, a short 1 1/2 hour boat trip away. We left them at the hotel with strict orders about how much they could order on their room tab. They are actually pretty responsible and we have never had a problem with that, which makes me proud. It was kind of nice. Since our nest is close to emptying soon, we are envisioning what our life will be like in a few years without the kids. If we use this trip as a guide, it will include daiquiris, snorkeling, beer and boat trips! Sign me up. Here are some photos from our trip.

So Koh Samui certainly hit the "beach" spot. That isn't to say we didn't have a spot of rain here and there. Like most tropical locations, Koh Samui can have short, incredibly powerful rain showers for about 45 minutes or so. Then it clears up and it is absolutely beautiful. The rain also cools it down a bit. We can heartily recommend Koh Samui. Next stop, Cambodia!!

Five Nights in Bangkok (and the World's Our Oyster)

2009-09-18T09:23:00.000-07:00

Bangkok was the first stop on our Asia trip, and our third and our fifth! We stayed a few days and then used Bangkok as our base when we went on some other trips. What makes Bangkok interesting is that it is both a big city and small village at the same time, a paradox of sorts. There are many different angles to this city and we got to see just about all of them. This photo represents some of the different sides of Bangkok, where we see a religious building in the center, in the forefront a small river house, and in the background a more modern office building. Multi-dimensional.

Whenever we have travel involving crossing more time zones than you can keep track of, we like to try and emerge ourselves in whatever time zone we are in at the moment. So that meant the minute we got to our hotel, we dropped our bags and went right out to explore the city. Bangkok is built on a river, the Chao Phraya and there are many canals that branch off it. We decided that we would take a boat tour down the river and through the canals, sort of an overview. It was a great introduction to the city, the culture and some of the things we had in store for us over the next few days.

The next morning we went over to the Grand Palace complex. In addition to the palace itself, there is quite a bit to look at in the complex, many statues, buildings - all incredibly ornate. The Palace isn't used as a royal residence any longer but quite a few of
the ceremonial events and royal rituals (coronations, weddings, funerals etc.) are still held here. And as with any palace, no matter how ceremonial, there are guards to make sure that everyone stays where they are supposed to and doesn't touch anything they aren't supposed to. Apparently these guards are ceremonial too, as we noticed there was no ammunition clip in the gun. I guess they don't expect any trouble!!

The palace grounds are full of statuary, each more interesting than the next. Looking at some of the statues I think I see an inspiration for some Disney characters. Don't some of these guys look Disneyesque?

Also on the temple grounds is the Wat Pra Kaew. Basically, a wat is a monastery temple complex in Thailand, Cambodia or Laos. In its strictest definition a complex can only be called a wat if it has a minimum of 3 resident monks. No trio of monks, no wat. However, over the years the term has been used to generically describe just about any temple in these countries, sometimes even temple ruins in which obviously no one lives. We saw many, many, many wats (both real and faux) in our almost 3 weeks here. Much like churches and temples, I am fascinated by them. This particular wat housed a very famous Buddha statue, the Emerald Buddha, thought to be nearly over 2000 years old. There are very strict rules when visiting a wat; usually no speaking, no shoes, you are not supposed to stand in the presence of the Buddha, you can either sit or kneel and when you are sitting or kneeling, the heels of your feet cannot face the Buddha. It is considered a huge insult to show the bottom of your feet. It is really tricky to sit down "Indian style" or crossed leg and not point one of your feet to the Buddha. You have to be pretty aware. This particular wat did not allow photography inside so I had to take the photo outside of the temple doors, which explains the fuzzy focus. It is interesting to remember that while many of us are sightseeing and touring, these are still active places of worship for many local citizens. We came across quite a few people praying and making offerings to the Buddha. It is important to maintain a respectful distance while people are worshipping in the place we are traipsing through.

Pretty much right next door to the palace complex is Wat Pho. It is one of the oldest wats in Thailand and houses the very famous (and very large) Reclining Buddha. Wat Pho is also the original birthplace of Thai massage and even before its founding in 1788, it was center for Thai medicine. You can still see some tablets on the walls that depict different muscles and bones in the human body. The reclining Buddha itself is pretty amazing. It is about 150 ft long, approximately half a football field long.a The bottoms of its feet are inlaid with mother of pearl.

Bangkok is a city struggling with its image. It has so many incredible historic and religious sites yet it is quite well known for it's tawdry side. In the evening we went by several bars that seemed only to have Western men as their clientele, apparently waiting for special "company". We often saw much older, less attractive men with very, very (very) young beautiful women. Chizz and I had quite a few discussions on whether these were two adults indulging in consenting behaviours or examples of desperate people being taken advantage of, on both sides. We never solved it. One evening, late, we were walking back to our hotel(remember,every vacation with Chizz contains at least one leg numbing walk or most likely several) and we walked past a bus stop. Snake pointed out that there seemed to be quite a few people waiting for the bus that evening. When we looked over, we saw probably about 20 mostly young women, in very short skirts and even higher heels. They could have been waiting for a bus, but I don't think so.

One evening we went to Cabbages & Condoms, a local restaurant in Bangkok. It is owned by the former minister of health in Thailand. A percentage of the profits are given to a non-profit organization that promotes birth control, aids awareness, rural development, and environmental conservation. While I think the food is passable, it's decent,not knock your socks gourmet, but good, you don't really go there for the food you go there for the other stuff. Such as "condom man", this man in a suit made of condoms! I am not sure what his super powers are, or at least I don't want to think about it.

They even used condoms in decoration, like this tabletop.

Or this lamp.

They also give out lots of free condoms. In very inventive ways.

If you have older kids, it is definitely worth a trip. If you have younger kids, unless you want to explain LOTS of things, you might want to save it for another time.

All in all, we enjoyed Bangkok and learned something from all of its various aspects. Next stop! Island hopping!!

Asia, Part One!

2009-08-04T08:58:00.000-07:00

I have been dithering in my mind the best way to go about documenting our Asian Adventures in a logical fashion, when the trip itself was a bit scattered. When you travel on frequent flyer miles (thank you very much Chizz and Chizz's company) you fit your travel ideas into the limited frequent flyer allotted seats on each flight. So when we booked our main tickets to Bangkok and Hong Kong so many, many months ago, we hadn't really fleshed out our entire trip. We knew we wanted to go to a beach in Thailand, we weren't sure which one. We wanted to try and fit in a trip to Cambodia but we were uncertain whether to fly or go by some other method or really whether it was safe because of rising tensions between Thailand and Cambodia (it was). We ended up using Bangkok as our base and we went back and forth from there. Bangkok to Koh Samui (the beach) back to Bangkok. A few days more in Bangkok, then Bangkok to Cambodia back to Bangkok again. We wanted to go to Hong Kong, we knew, but ended up staying a bit longer because of the frequent flyer situation. So rather than tell a completely chronological story, I think I will break it down a bit by location.

But before I do that, let me tell you a bit about the actual travel. As I mentioned, Chizz had a gazillion frequent flyer miles. When we were booking the trip, we tried to do the whole thing business class but at that time the airline would only allow 2 FF mile seats awarded in business class per flight. So although we had enough miles and the seats were available, we had a quandary because there were 4 of us flying. I have loads of friends that routinely travel in business class and put their kids in coach. I just couldn't do that, Chizz was silent on the matter, so we all flew coach. It took us about an hour to book it over the phone. We booked on the phone because we had multiple locations and it was fairly complicated. When we finished, we ended up with a route that looked like this:

Leaving: We went from San Francisco to Singapore, 5 hour layover in Singapore and then Singapore to Bangkok, all on Singapore Airlines. Our trip from Bangkok to Hong Kong was on Thai Airways.

Returning: We went from Hong Kong to Vancouver on Air Canada (more about them later) and then from Vancouver to San Francisco on United.

In Between: We flew from Bangkok to Koh Samui and Cambodia both times on Bangkok Airways (more about them later but simply said my FAVORITE airline of the entire trip)

Okay, when we arrived at the airport in SF we found that our flight was actually going to make a short itsy, bitsy stop in Korea which we hadn't known about before. The kids were excited, hoping to get a Korea stamp in their passport (they didn't) but I was thinking that it would make the flight longer which is just what we needed since it was already about 30 hours of travel time. Actually it was just fine, we were just there long enough to get off the plane and stretch our legs, walk a bit and get right back on.

Let me say a thing or two or twenty seven about Asian Airlines in general. I think I am qualified now because I flew 3 different Asian airlines during this trip. They are flippin' phenomenal. You don't realize the difference in service between American based airlines and Asian based airlines until you have experienced it. And I am not talking about the ingratiating, over-the-top, somewhat annoying in your face kind of service. I am talking about genuinely nice flight attendants. The attitude was "I am glad-you-are-here-because-I-recognize-without-passengers-taking these-flights, I-wouldn't-have-a-job" kind of nice. I didn't see one attendant lose his or her cool during the entire 14 hour first leg of our trip. In fact I didn't see any attendant lose their cool or speak in any kind of a snippy tone until we were flying back. Every single flight we took on an Asian Airline served a meal of some kind and free drinks. Every single one, the 14 hour flight, the 5 hour flight, the 3 hour flights and the 4 slightly less than one hour flights we took. Some of the meals were more elaborate, some were sandwiches. But the point is every one of them served a meal, at no extra cost. And even though we didn't pay for the longer legs of our journey, we did pay for the shorter flights to Koh Samui and Cambodia. I know the price points, and they were right in line with what we pay in the US for short hops. In fact a few of them were cheaper.

This is the part whereI had inserted my rant on US airlines and unions and such but I have changed my mind about including it. I have already ranted so much about this in the past few weeks, that my kids start convulsing when they hear me go off. And I already bored just about every member of my family with this story one, two or maybe 16 times. So I am going to leave it alone. However - if you would like to hear it, give me a call I will be happy to go on, and on and on about it!!

When we were coming home, flying on Air Canada, I had a rude reminder that we weren't on an Asian airline anymore, Toto. It was about 2 hours before we were to land and the flight attendants were serving breakfast. I had noticed one woman sitting in front of me, kitty cornered. I noticed her because for a majority of the flight, she had her laptop out and was working on her photos of the trip and her photos were beautiful. I don't think she was a professional photographer but she was sorting them, deleting the duds, etc and I enjoyed watching the show. She had a set of headphones on that I have seen people wear before, the noise cancelling ones that have pretty big ear pieces. So the flight attendants were coming through and offering people their choice of eggs or congee. Congee is a sort of loose, milky, soup like rice porridge or cereal kind of thing. We saw it in just about every hotel we stayed at. Not my cup of tea but since this flight had about 90% Asians on it, quite a few of the passengers were making that choice. The photo woman didn't hear the flight attendant because of her head phones, so he tapped her on the shoulder and kind of gave her a "what do you want" look. The woman took off her head phones and said "excuse me?" and the flight attendant yelled "EGGS OR CONGEE, WHAT DO YOU WANT???" and I mean he yelled it at her, with such a nasty tone. She was embarrassed and I was embarrassed for her. The guy was a total jerk. Two rows up, one of the passengers asked what congee was. The same attendant said,very sarcastically, "some kind of Asian crap cereal" and rolled his eyes. All in full view. I was mortified. Even if this guy had had the worst possible day, it was no excuse for his attitude. I think it is very typical of the western flight attendant attitude: "You-are-so-lucky-I-am-here. It's-not-about-the-passenger,-if-you-are-lucky-I-might-allow-you-to-buy-a-$7-bottle-of-cheap-wine-from-me. But-only-one-don't-ask-for-another! " Or something like that.

Okay, that turned into a mini-rant - sorry. The flight over went pretty smoothly, although it was pretty long. I think the kids said we were traveling about 30 hours and that was about right. The toughest part was the Singapore layover. This is one of the nicest airports ever, it includes a swimming pool, about 50 restaurants, quite a few shops etc. We were there 5 hours, but it was from 2 am to 7 am so nothing was open. So close yet, so far. We did see the Butterfly Habitat, which we could walk through. I tried to take a photo but my lens fogged up. So we hunkered down in some pretty comfortable chairs next to the Koi pond. Easily the biggest Koi I have ever seen in my life. But I thought what was really funny was the sign next to the Koi pond, warning you in order (1) Don't try swimming with the Koi (2) Don't feed the Koi and (3) Don't try to catch or eat the Koi. Really? I can see that people might try and feed the koi but have they really had problems with people trying to swim or catch the Koi? Wow!

There was also free internet and terminals at the airport, so the kids and I surfed and sent emails while Chizz caught up on some sleep. At one point we were all kind of sleeping except for Kiki, who, which should be a surprise to no one who knows her, was still kind of playing around on the internet. The police approached her and she was ordered to show her passport, her ticket on the upcoming flight and the ticket for the flight we just took. Of course she had to come over to us, police in tow. They also checked our documents as well. It was interesting. Chizz thought they did this because the airport is open 24 hours and Singapore isn't too keen on vagrants sleeping in the airport. We noticed them asking for papers from everyone in the seating areas next to us as well, sometimes waking folks up to see their documents.

After 5 hours, we were on the plane to Bangkok. Uneventful flight. The nice thing about a 12 hour flight is that is makes 3-5 hour flights seem like a piece of cake. Which they are!

So next report, Bangkok!!

Home, Sort Of.

2009-07-08T01:03:00.000-07:00

Okay, we made it home last night but we are wiped by the travel. Or at least Chizz & I are, old people have a harder time rebounding. So I will catch up the blog as soon as I download the photos and can stay up past 4:00 p.m. in the afternoon (OMG- Do you think I have crossed over to the "wake-up-at-4:45-a.m.-go-to-sleep-at-4:30-p.m." type of old person now that I have reached that birthday? Maybe I will never go back?? Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!)

Anyhoo, here's a little commercial that we love in our family to amuse you until I get my act together. If I get my act together. . . . .

Wat You Said???

2009-06-26T17:26:00.000-07:00

So sorry WTFers to be away from the blog for so very long. It has been so very crazy here. Kiki graduated from high school earlier this month and the hoopla surrounding that event has taken up just about every moment of my existence over the past few months! And besides that I haven't really had much to say. But feeling refreshed, I am going to try and comment more often, for my own sanity rather than anything else!

Right now, the WTF family is in Thailand. I may have hinted that this was a momentous year for us. The aforementioned graduation, the previously mentioned 25th wedding anniversary and the never to be mentioned again birthday I will be celebrating in a few weeks. So Chizz and I decided we should do something special. We cashed in quite a few of the frequent flyer miles and booked our trip. 30+ hours of flying later and we land in Bangkok. We had a few days to see some of the sites there when we moved on to Koh Sumai, a wonderful little island nearby. I will blog in detail later with pictures. So far my first impression, there are quite a few temples (wats) in Thailand. I have also discovered that in addition to my affinity for churches, which I dragged my family into every single one we came across in Europe, I kind of like wats as well. So we will be seing quite a few of those.

I promise to blog all about our trip when we return in about two weeks or so! Until then, hugs!

Wendy and Her Horrible, Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

2009-04-23T21:36:00.000-07:00

I had a very bad day today. Not anything particularly life threatening, but just a yucky day. I spent about two hours today with my phone company, trying to pay my bill. Shouldn't be that hard, right? After all I signed up right away for the paperless billing. Supposed to be easier and good for the environment as well. Every month, my phone company sends me an email telling me my bill is ready for payment. Usually I go to the website, put in my ID name and password in and my bill pops up on the screen. A quick click on the pay button and it is all done.

Except today. Couldn't get in the website. It didn't like my ID name or my password. Tried changing my password, that didn't work. Signed out of my browser, tried it all over again. Still wouldn't work. So I did what I thought I should, called the company. That is where the frustration set in. I explained my situation to the operator. She transferred me to the correct department. Not really. The department I got was in Texas and apparently since I am in California, the Texas folks can't log in to see my account. So she transferred me to the correct department. Not really, again. I got the internet department. My phone company also has internet service. So she transferred me to another department. Not really. Actually I think she just transferred me to the department again, her own department!!! But not knowing that again, I explained my problem. This operator seemed particularly focused on my email address, finally telling me that I couldn't do the online billing without an address from their company. What??!!?? I lost control and demanded to speak with a supervisor, who listened to my ranting for a few minutes. Then told me the best solution to my problem would be to go online and use their email system to email a request for help. Unbelievable. The long and short, but actually the long and very long, of my story is that I was transferred I think 8 times. I lost count. It was minimally 8 times, perhaps 9. I NEVER received a solution to my problem. I received another supervisor who told me he would check into and have someone call me tomorrow. By this time, I was pretty much beaten down so I agreed.

So, I am a little hesitant to mention the name of this company but it rhymes with AT&T (oops, sorry but not really). It is unbelievable to me that a company the size of AT&T couldn't handle this question. It seems really simple to me. I probably need to get my password or ID name re-set in some manner. But I couldn't get through the maze of AT&T bureaucracy to find that department. No one seemed to know where to send me, so they just sent me. I don't have any confidence I will get a call tomorrow so I think I will have to go at this again next week.

After all of this, I went to our local grocery store chain to pick up some stuff for dinner. I don't usually like going on this day because it is senior citizen day, all seniors get a 5% discount on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Those seniors really like their discounts so the store is usually much busier on that day. But I have to go because for some reason, my unreasonable kids like to eat EVERY day. I am kind of beat, watching the young 22-23ish checker check my items through. Then I notice it. He gave me the senior citizen discount!!! I am outraged! But you want to know the worst part? I didn't say a thing, I took it - the whole $1.87. I would like to think that I don't look quite senior citizenish yet but I believe that my experience with AT&T this afternoon aged me. I just hadn't realized how much!

Deja Vu All Over Again

2009-04-13T14:04:00.000-07:00

Kiki left this morning for 5th grade camp. Wait, a minute - - what year is it? Isn't she going to college next fall (hopefully?)? Yes, yes she is but this week she is returning to her elementary school alma mater to serve as a camp counselor for 5th grade camp. All of the 5th graders in our town go away for 5 days to a camp where they learn all kinds of things about nature and science. Kiki and Snake both went when they were in 5th grade, what seems like a million years ago. Seniors in the local high school can apply to be counselors for the week. Ever since Kiki went in 5th grade, she said she wanted to be a counselor her senior year and luckily enough she was chosen. So I drove her to the school parking lot this morning to get on the big bus to the camp. The bus blocked me in, so I had plenty of time to ponder all that was going on around me.

It really seems like forever ago that Kiki & Snake went to camp. Neither one of my kids were big on sleep away camp when they were younger. They just weren't ready. Now, I think they would sleep away all the time - if allowed! You could tell the kids that were a little nervous, clinging to their parents, not really joining in, not getting on the bus until the teacher absolutely made them. But for the most part, these kids will love the experience. I think Kiki will be sensitive to those kids. I guess 10 times more girls volunteer to be counselors than boys, so the girls are asked if they would be willing to take a boys cabin. Kiki definitely said she would. She felt glad that her experience with Snake would finally pay off in something!! I did give her a little refresher course in 5th grade boys; preparing her that they most likely won't shower if given a chance; forewarning her to be on the lookout for when they when they antagonized the girls and the teachers; reminding her that this was the one opportunity that her "outside voice" could be put to good use and encouraging her to let them have fun within reason and to be a good counselor, not a stick in the mud! I think she will be a great counselor.

So as all the kids were filing onto the bus, I saw Kiki look up and spy my car still here. She rushed over. I thought to myself, "maybe she is coming back for one last hug, one more goodbye or tender word". She opened the door, leaned in and said "Mom, don't beat my WII Fit Scores."

It brought a tear to my eye.

Watch Out Dick Weber - I Am Going Pro!

2009-02-25T11:26:00.000-08:00

When I was younger, I lived on a military base in an island in the Pacific. My Dad was stationed there for almost 4 years. Living on a military base is somewhat similar to living in a small town; there is a movie theater, a bowling alley, several swimming pools, places to have dinner, parks, a really good teen center, grocery stores etc. There was always some kind of organized activity at the teen center - a dance or roller skating in the rink behind the center. As most moms would, our mom, in what I suspect was really a self defense mechanism, tried to tire us out as much as possible by signing us up for different activities or sports. One of my sisters, Auntie M, was especially interested in sports. I know while we were there she tried a variety including basketball and bowling. I think a few of the other sisters, Auntie L & Auntie S, also got involved in the bowling. As usual Auntie M. was pretty darn good for an 8 year old and she took part in the junior bowling leagues offered at the base bowling alley. She became very focused on bowling, so much so that she even asked for a Dick Weber bowling glove for Christmas one year. Dick Weber was a famous bowler back in the day. You don't think they name a glove for just anyone do you? I can't remember if she ever got the glove. I am sure she will let me know.

Last Christmas our family got a Wii. For those of you who just crawled out of a cave, a Wii is a video game console. What makes it different from an x-box or a play station is the wireless controller that allows you to actually participate in some of the different game options available. All Wiis come with a sports playing game, in which you can play tennis, bowling, boxing, baseball and golf. In order to participate you create your own player. There are lots of different style options so you can have your player look as much or as little like you as you want. My player does look alot like me but if I had really been thinking I would have made her look a little more Jennifer Aniston and a little less Donny Osmond. As all kids are, mine are particularly good at video games. They especially enjoy the guitar game that I am fairly certain I am too old for. I just can't seem to get my fingers working in the right way. But I can do the sports one.

So recently I decided that I would try and master a few of the sports games so I am not a total pushover when I play Kiki & Snake. I started with the tennis game. I am horribly bad at it. The last game, I hit a spectator in the stands. In fact I am so bad that I haven't ever won a match. Time to move on. I tried boxing. I am getting fairly good at boxing. But in all honesty, my Donny-Osmond-look alike self has not had much in the way of competition. The computer assigns opponents to you. So far my boxing victories have been over 2 very slightly built Asian gentlemen, a rather frail looking guy with a goatee, and several bespectacled fellows. (I am not sure people wearing glasses are usually allowed to box, though). I also tried baseball and I am not very good. I am not sure that any amount of practice will help me get any better so unless I can get some of the juice from Barry or Derek Jeter, I am thinking baseball won't be my game. But I rock at bowling! Oh yeah! I have had several turkeys (3 strikes in a row). I don't know if that have a name for when you have 4 strikes in a row but I have done that a few times as well. I think I owe it all to my rather unique bowling delivery, I throw the ball up in the air so it bounces a little. Unorthodox maybe but I scored enough points to be in the "pro" category!!! How 'bout that Dick Weber? I am guessing he doesn't have much to say as he died in 2005. So I am going to try golf later this week. Be afraid Tiger Woods, be very afraid!!

Come On, California!!!

2009-02-17T13:35:00.001-08:00

Okay, today I needed to call the DMV. Normally, I would rather do something fun like poke at my eyes with a toothpick but I needed some information that wasn't available on the website, so I had to call. After first advising me that all DMV offices are now closed on the first and third Fridays of everything month (thank you Ahhhnold) and then another recording to advise me that Saturday hours had been suspended (thank you California State Legislature), my "recording" advised me that "due to an increased number of calls your wait time MAY be longer than 10 minutes". 10 minutes is an incredibly long time to be on hold, even for the DMV and I didn't believe it. So I stayed on hold. and stayed. and stayed. and stayed.

This is a list of the tasks, I performed while being on hold:

1. I watched two segments of Martha Stewart cooking pork chops marinated in basalmic vinegar and preparing two pretty tasty vegetable sides that I think will be dinner tonight or tomorrow evening at the WTF household.

2. I ate lunch (a Lean Cuisine beef and portabello mushroom).

3. I finished my Starbucks Iced Tea.

4. I put in a load of laundry.

5. I folded another load out of the dryer.

6. I surveyed the creek in our back yard and wondered if it was going to overflow since it has been raining non-stop since about 9:30 a.m. today. (Most likely not, our local city works department is very wonderful about cleaning out the storm drain on a regular basis and it looks pretty good!)

7. I worried about whether the pool will over flow and should we use the sump pump tonight (and by me, I mean Chizz). Looks likely!

8. I looked for the sump pump in the garage. (Didn't find it,)

9. I reviewed the top stories in the morning newspaper. Attempted the Sudoku but got bored.

10. I put the newspaper in the recycling spot. (I am not going to finish that Sudoku!)

35 minutes, 44 seconds until Operator 2 came on the line and answered my question. All of which took about an additional 15 seconds. Great. Come on, California - this is no way to run a state.

To The Mailbox? Heck Yea!

2009-01-27T07:19:00.000-08:00

So last night there was absolutely nothing on TV. In further evidence of that fact, I submit to you that Chizz & I watched "How I Met Your Mother" with Snake. Snake likes the show quite a bit. There are some cute moments, but I wouldn't set my DVR for it. However last night's episode was particularly relevant on several levels for our family.

The show centered on one of the characters who was out of work and apparently spent quite a bit of time looking for a job. As sometimes happens while participating in this kind of search, his self-confidence was taking a beating after so many rejections. The other characters commented on the fact that his "underpants radius" was becoming alarmingly large. The "underpants radius" is the radius you personally deem acceptable to walk around in your underwear. For this character, it started out just to the couch to watch television all day when he should have been job searching, then it grew to the front door to pick up the newspaper, then to the mailbox to pick up the mail and finally to a local fast food joint to eat a meal. (Yuck!) One night when they were all at their local watering hole hangout place, they decided to get burgers and the out of work character starts talking about the best burger he ever had in NY city. Apparently several years ago, when he was new to the city and didn't really know his way around he stumbled on a small hole in the wall place and had the best hamburger ever. Since that time, he has been searching for the hamburger place and has never been able to find it. The group decides they will go with him and try and find the place. They search high and low, and with Regis Philbin (because that always happens in NY) and finally they find the place and all is right with the world.

I have my own "hamburger" story. But it is not about hamburgers. And it doesn't take place in NY city. And Regis Philbin is nowhere in it. And it is not my story. But other than that it is EXACTLY the same. It is about chicken, German chicken. Hendl. Many, many, many, many years ago, Chizz went on a business trip to Germany with some work colleagues who also happened to be pretty good friends of his. As luck would have it, they went during Oktoberfest. They managed to go to quite a few tents and drink beer, eat, and have a great time. He came back and told me about this chicken, spit roasted, and it was the BEST chicken he had ever had in his entire life. He talked about that chicken for weeks. He STILL talks about that chicken. He dreamt about that chicken. So when we went back to Germany ourselves, several years later, he made me eat chicken at practically every meal, breakfast, lunch and dinner, in a search to find the elusive Oktoberfest Hendl. But it was not to be. And he has been back several times and still can't find the chicken. We have even searched for the German chicken in Belgium and Austria, but no luck. I suspect it is really not the chicken itself, but what it represented. Four young guys, no kids, in Germany drinking beer, eating chicken, freedom. Yes, symbolism because I am deep that way. (Shut up, I am too deep!)

This morning, Snake came out of his room wearing his t-shirt and boxers only, looking for a clean pair of jeans in the laundry room. I raised my eyebrows a little, because Snake very rarely wanders around in his boxers. His response? "My underpants radius is to the mailbox and back." Ha! I told him I doubt it. I mean, I love his skinny little white legs but he rarely goes around showing them off in private, let alone in public. He glared back at me, knowing I spoke the truth.

So, if you happened to be driving by our house this morning at about 7:13 a.m. that wasn't some kind of rare albino deer running across our driveway in dark blue striped boxers. That was my son, Snake. I am so proud.

What Am I Listening To?????

2009-01-21T11:30:00.000-08:00

Every morning on the ride to their various schools, Kiki takes charge of the radio within 1.5 seconds of entering the car. She plays those radio controls with a precision not known to many heart surgeons. If she is in the back seat (because she was too slow to call "shotgun" compared to Snake who has been known to knock over people in his rush to be in sight of the car) she barks out instructions to her brother "Snake, push button 5 twice. No. Try 6. No, wait - button 3 two times". All to find the perfect song for the 5 minute ride to school. We can't take the chance that the day will be ruined by accidentally listening to NPR or Jimmy Buffet, for goodness sake. Chizz doesn't allow the kids to change his radio station settings, so he doesn't have this issue. But I usually don't mind it, I am able to block the "music" out (provided the volume is somewhat under ear breaking or car vibrating decibel range). I usually run through my daily itinerary in my mind, and it is all okay. I am so good at it, that sometimes, well after I have dropped the kids off , when I get about a block from my house (like today), I realize I have been listening to Will.I.Am or Rhianna or Let it Rock by Kevin Rudolf for the past mile. Then I get embarrassed for some reason. Like I have been caught. But here is my confession, I kind of like "Let it Rock". It is irritatingly catchy (the chorus part, not the rap part). Try it and see if it doesn't follow you all day. At least in the privacy of your own home or garage or ipod.

Let It Rock - Kevin Rudolf

It Was Brung!!

2009-01-19T08:00:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, Chizz and I spent the morning at a cheerleading competition. Now it's not what you're thinking. Unless you're thinking that our appearance at the cheerleading event was the culmination of a long night of red wine at a Christmas party when going to a cheerleading competition sounded like a GREAT idea. If so, then it is EXACTLY what you're thinking.

But seriously, some of our very good friends have a daughter who is an excellent cheerleader and happened to mention to Chizz that they would be in our neck of the woods in January for said competition and Chizz said "Sure, we would LOVE to go" (remember the red wine!). Now, Jeanne, being the good friend she is and of course remembering the red wine, gave us, not 1, not 2 but 3 chances to gracefully exit. But Chizz and I not ever accused of being graceful and knowing that our kids would not be awake until after we came home from the event and actually, not so secretly, kind of intrigued by a cheerleading competition, decided to go anyway.

I was amazed at what a huge deal this is. We showed up at the very large high school where the competition was being held and every parking space was taken up. Chizz and I have gone to many different kids sporting events over the years and we found cheerleading is very similar to our experience with swim team. Parents spend all day waiting for their kids to do about one minute of some activity and then it is over. There were the obligatory food tents and tables, the different vendors selling "cheer wear", t-shirts, ribbons, uniforms, etc. Some of the teams were huge, you just saw masses of color, red, blue, gold, walking by. The girls all had almost the exact same hairstyle, pulled off the face, very tight and topped by an elaborate ribbon of the team colors. I saw no bangs, no short cuts, all the girls seemed to have long hair. We heard that some of the teams still do the elaborate curly ponytails and buns, like you see in the movies, but I don't think I saw more than 1 team that had that look. Most of the cheerleaders were wearing sweats before their routines, carrying backpacks or athletic bags with the accoutrement necessary for the days events.

We arrived pretty early so we got the chance to watch a few teams before K's team competed. It was really interesting, in a sociological way. For the most part the teams competed one right after another. There were quite a few teams, I think we saw somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-15 groups. Sometimes there were little gaps between the groups, were music was played. I spent a good deal of time watching the cheerleaders that were waiting. In between routines, they chit-chatted, touched up their makeup, texted, practiced looking bored and all of the other things teenagers do when they are bored or want to give the appearance of being bored. But the minute a competitor stepped on the mat, these girls were in rapt attention. Did this group execute a move as well as they do? Was their throw higher? Absorbing every movement the other groups made, evaluating, critiquing, mocking (after all they are teenage girls). K's group did very well. I didn't see one mistake, although they were quick to criticize themselves. K is the "flyer" of the group; she is basically, lifted, thrown and balanced places that humans don't normally go. Some of these routines are fairly complex and they don't always go to plan. We saw several injuries happen right on the floor when a girl landed the "wrong" way. A couple of competitors limped right off the floor. I read somewhere that cheerleading is the number 1 sport for injuries in high school. Seeing some of the difficult moves these kids do, it is a wonder that more of them aren't hurt. This is not all about the poms-poms and looking pretty. These girls (and boys) are very athletic. There is an element of grace about it as well, the routines often include some dancing. I noticed that when a squad does include a boy, he is usually crouching in the back during the dance part. It is like he is not expected to move in the same manner as the girls. I guess he is just there for his muscle!

So we left shortly after the awards ceremony, where there was lots of squealing and jumping up and down. And that was just Chizz. C'mon . . . . You knew I was going to do that! K's group got a ribbon and won a chance to go to Nationals in Florida. But they had already qualified before so it wasn't a huge surprise. I can't even imagine what a big deal that is, hundreds of teams, hundreds of parents wearing their "Cheer Mom" or "Cheer Dad" t-shirts, the anxiety level must be huge. I just hope that Jeanne doesn't ply Chizz with gallons of red wine at the Superbowl party or we will be Orlando bound! (I wonder if they have "Cheer Good Friends" tshirts?)

Snake Has Left the Building

2009-01-18T08:00:00.000-08:00

Or more accurately, the driveway. Snake is, as we speak or you read, having his first driving lesson ever. For two hours, he will be navigating the streets of our town and those bergs close by. If you live near us you probably know which towns to avoid. If you don't know where we live and are unsure where to avoid, it might just be best to stay home for right now (and next Sunday between 9 - 11 a.m.).

Happy New Year! (I am tired already!)

2009-01-02T15:53:00.003-08:00

I can't believe it is 2009. Where did it all go, the time I mean? 2009 is going to be a big year in our family. Kiki will graduate from high school, Chizz & I will celebrate 25 years of marriage (possibly) and I will have a momentous birthday. I am not going to say the number out loud or write it down but let's just say the number has a zero and another number that may or may not be a prime number somewhere in it. Yikes!!! My mother has old children!

Well, I am hoping that everyone's 2009 is a great year, regardless of whether you are old or not!

Hugs.

My Kids Torment Me!

2008-12-28T08:14:00.002-08:00

So ever since my very rude encounter with a deer, (read about it here), I have had a slight deer phobia. It mainly manifests itself when we are driving at night on the dark roads around our house. Or more specifically when Chizz is driving and I am in the passenger seat. I always caution him to drive more slowly, so he can stop in plenty of time should any deer magically appear in front of our car. It has caused some tension in our family. Mainly because as Kiki & Chizz have both pointed out, my car was stopped when the deer hit it. You can't go any slower than stopped. True, true.

But I think it goes a little far when Kiki chases me through Pottery Barn or World Market or Target with deer ornaments. You don't see me chasing her with too small Uggs or used up Starbucks cards. I guess that is just because I am more mature and I can deal a bit with my phobias.

I think, however, she crossed the line the other night at dinner. In fact it was Christmas Eve. We were sitting down to enjoy a festive holiday meal. The family was waiting at the dining room table and I was busy getting some last minute items for the table. This is what awaited me at my place when I sat down:

It is one of my reindeer candlesticks with a little warning. Just rude, I tell you. Rude.

Sing-a-long

2008-12-07T00:48:00.000-08:00

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

I love this video. Apparently it is causing quite a stir in the conservative community who apparently find its portrayal of the religious backers of Prop. 8 "offensive" and "rife with inaccuracies". Hmmmm. Apparently what goes around, does come around.

Who Says?

2008-12-06T11:11:00.003-08:00

. . . .there is no fall color in California? This is a picture of one of the Japanese maples in our backyard. And it is probably a day or two after its prime. Usually the fall color in our backyard, the Japanese maples, the liquid ambers and the Chinese pistaches, times perfectly with Thanksgiving. We have dinner in our living room with all the windows and it is a bit like having dinner in the forest. But this year the trees are a bit off. It is December and we still have a few trees that a few days from being their most beautiful.

Okay, Fall done - now to Christmas!!!

Take That, Wendy!

2008-11-19T16:14:00.002-08:00

Okay, car in shop. Preliminary estimate in. I am not worried, it was just a deer - not a moose. How bad can it be? Oh bad. $6500 bad. The insurance company estimate and the body shop estimate were off by a few hundred dollars, but abra-cadabra! That difference is going poof! And Wendy & Chizz are only responsible for the deductible. As I have said many, many, many times before (but for many, many, many other reasons) - "Thank God for insurance!" Because of the holiday, my baby will not be home for Thanksgiving. In the meantime I have to make due with the rental "car". I use the word cautiously because it is pretty awful. When was the last time you saw roll up windows in a car? I didn't even know you could get roll up windows still!! I am thankful I wasn't in this car when the deer hit me. I am fairly certain this car would have disintegrated.

For those of you keeping score, Wendy - 1, Deer 1.

Take That, Bambi!!

2008-11-18T05:38:00.000-08:00

I hit a deer. Well not me exactly, my car. And to be precise, the deer hit me. I was picking Kiki up from school at about 6 p.m. and we were driving on a road very close to our home, when 2 small female deer ran in front of me. I wasn't going that fast so I was able to stop in time and didn't hit them. I was stopped for about 2 seconds when a third deer, a buck, came crashing out of the bushes and ran right into my stopped car. He bounced off my headlight and ran off in the same direction he came from. No one was hurt, except my car. Apparently a deer crashing against the headlight is not good for it. Who knew?

So I spent yesterday driving back and forth from my dealer to the auto body shop. At first, I thought the damage was relatively minor and the dealer that I bought the car at (only a few short months ago!) told me that they thought they could do it. But once I got there I was told there was too much body work that needed to be done. Like I haven't heard that before! Oh well, so my car is now at a body shop waiting to be worked on. The insurance adjuster has to go by and hopefully they will agree with the body shop as to the extent and cost of the damage. But I am fearful, you know how stubborn insurance adjusters can be! At least I know how stubborn they can be.

Karma may be a bitch in this case. I will let you know.

So Close

2008-11-07T11:01:00.004-08:00

I have quite a bit to report on (Halloween, the breakup of the commune, the great college touring road trip) but not today. I am in a bit of a hurry because we are leaving on the aforementioned road trip in about 3 hours and as usual, I am running behind.

But I wanted to drop a quick line about the recent elections. It is interesting to me that in one election we show how far we have come as a nation, where we are able to judge other people by the content of their character and not the color of their skin (hmmmm where have we heard that before?) but in the same election, we show how far we have yet to go. I was hoping that Prop 8 in California (and other similar ballot items in other states) would be defeated but I was disappointed. It saddens me that in this day and age, after all we have been through as a nation and the crises we are in the midst of currently, we still have the energy to discriminate so blatantly. I was hopeful that I would see this end in my life time but I am beginning to lose faith in my fellow human beings. I am not quite sure they are smart enough, kind enough, Christian enough to do the right thing.

In Europe and many other countries, the government has gotten out of the "marriage" business. Every person , regardless of skin color, religious affiliation, social status, sexual orientation, goes to the local government agency and "registers" their union or their partnership. After a few words by the local government official (like a justice of the peace) in charge in the jurisdiction, the couple is considered legally "hitched". If after this exercise, the couple wishes a religious ceremony of some kind they go to their church, synagogue or temple, and have another ceremony. It would be up to the religious group to decide if the couple met whatever criteria the group has set up in order to sanctify or bless the relationship. The end.

I don't understand why we don't do something like this in the United States. We profess to be a country in which government and church are separate but that is not the case, in reality. Our government needs to get out of this issue. Don't get me wrong, I am a big fan of marriage. Been married for almost 25 years. My marriage is not threatened by 2 loving, committed, consenting adults who want to legalize their union. I have known gay couples who have been together for 30 or more years. They only want the same legal rights and benefits that I have. Straight people have had the institution for thousands of years, and we haven't done that well with it. What is the current statistic of marriages that end in divorce, 40% or so? We need gay people to help our numbers a bit. Marriage isn't threatened by gay people, we straight people are threatening it. As long as we continue to let stupid straight people get married as a "joke" (i.e. Britney Spears), get married and divorced within 4 months (Renee Zelleweger), have 107 day marriages (Lisa Marie Presley and Nicolas Cage), or a 9 day marriage (Cher & Greg Allman), apply for a marriage license while still married to your first wife (John McCain), I don't think we have any place to keep gay people from the tradition. In fact, given the mess we have made of the institution, I am surprised any self-respecting gay person would want to be affiliated with it.

I am convinced it will happen someday. And I hope when future generations look back on us, they aren't too embarrassed by our ignorance. I don't know though, I sure am.

Life in the Commune, Part III

2008-10-29T21:09:00.002-07:00

One of the best things about living with a 3 year old is all of the fun things they do and getting them to repeat them over and over again. A sign of the season, Zabba has discovered candy in a BIG way. We have a little dish on the entry way table with candy corn in it and she found out she loves candy corn. She has a ritual now where she takes one candy corn in the morning before she goes to school (because 2 would be wrong) and puts in her hand and holds it almost the entire way to preschool. Then when the car goes up a particular hill, she pops the candy corn in her mouth. Every single day.

So she was discussing her love of candy with her mom the other day, and her mom, Auntie K., felt the need to counter balance the candy talk and start talking about "healthy" things to eat, like vegetables. So she said, "You know Zabba, I like vegetables. Peas are a vegetable, I like peas". Then she asked "What kind of vegetables do you like?" Zabba thought for a moment and said "Corn, Corn is a "wedgetable" - I like corn". Wedgetable!!!! Isn't that great? So Auntie K. just kept trying to get her to say it over and over again. "What else, what else do you like?" Zabba: "I like broccoli, broccoli is a wedgetable." What else? "Zucchini, Zuchini is a wedgetable, I like Zucchini."

You could play for hours.

Life in the Commune, Part II

2008-10-23T05:21:00.004-07:00

Several days a week, Chizz and Uncle D commute into together. It is about a 4 minute car ride to the train station and it takes about 40 minutes by train to get into the city. We often joke that they must seem like an old married couple, commuting in together, sharing the paper, sometimes wearing almost the exact same outfit (khakis - check, button down blue shirt - check, ipod - check!), wishing the other one have a good day when they part and the occasional "See you at home". We live in a suburb of San Francisco where couples of all makeups are seen and accepted. The joke is at home that their fellow commuters on their route probably think they are a gay couple.

Well someone apparently does. Chizz and Uncle D got a piece of mail addressed to them together, one singular piece. It was a political ad that we are all seeing in our mailboxes this past few weeks, addressed to C. Whineberg and Uncle D. It would have only been better if it were a "No on 8" card!

Sadly, their marriage and the commune will be breaking up soon. Uncle D. and Auntie K. found a cute little house, not far from us that they will be moving into soon. Now I just have to talk them into leaving Zabba with us. Strangely enough, Auntie K. has moments where she says it can be arranged.

P.S. NO on 8.

Life in the Commune

2008-10-12T03:00:00.000-07:00

While we were in London, Auntie K, Uncle D and their adorable almost 3 year old little girl, Zabba, moved into our house. It was a great deal for us, because someone we knew was keeping an eye on our stuff and we could come back summers to our own home and kind of step back into our routine each summer with very little effort. Truthfully, it made our experience in London so easy (not having to worry about our house back home) and we are indebted to them for helping us make it work.

Now that we are back, we are all living in the house together while they search for a new place to live. People ask us all the time "how is that working?", expecting I think to get some kind of dirt or a litany of complaints. Frankly, it has been pretty easy. We have been affectionately referring to our situation as "the Commune". It is fun in a way. There is always someone to hang out with, someone to watch the game with, someone to talk with. There are extra hands to load or empty the dishwasher, pick up the mail, grab the newspaper, make the morning coffee, take out the trash. I think it is helpful for Auntie K & Uncle D to have 4 built in sitters. I think the highlight of Chizz's night is when he comes in the door, Zabba runs to him, screaming his name and asking if he would like to play "baskieball". Which of course, he always does.

In fact having Zabba around is one of the highlights (not that K & D aren't cute in their own special way, it is not the same). She is always full of fun little comments. Like the time I was joking around with her about not walking on my white couches with her shoes on and a full juice cup. I asked her to jump off and like most kids her age, she asked why. Under my breath (I thought) I replied, "because I am going to kill you if you get something on them". But she just repeated "Cause you gonna kill me??" which she repeated quite often that day. "You gonna kill me?". Yikes. It reminds you that you have to be careful of what you say around little ones, they don't really get it. And who knows what she would repeat at preschool. "My auntie says she is going to kill me."

So the other night Snake and Zabba had a little confrontation. Sometimes she likes to exert her will and Snake likes to egg her on. So they were having a little stare down, finally Snake says to her "I am going to beat you in this battle of wills, Zabba". She thinks about it for a minute and says "I am going to beat you with this bottle of wine, Snake". Oh, Zabba. . . . Like we all haven't thought that about Snake!!

Not So Sweet Anymore??

2008-10-07T16:05:00.004-07:00

Kiki turned 17 last week and we had a little party here last weekend. Actually, it was a joint birthday party with one of her friends whose birthday was 2 days after hers. Her mom & I figured out that we were in the same hospital at the same time. Kiki was born by C-section so I was able to stay - I think 3 but even still probably 2 nights. Kiki's friend was born after her mom had spent quite a few hours in delivery, so their paths crossed somewhere on October 4th and 5th. Pretty cool, shows what a small world it is.

So we had about twenty 17 & 18 years old over, and we had to think of a way to amuse them that was safe, legal and wouldn't end us up in jail. I specifically warned Kiki & friends, no intoxicating substances of any kind and spoke of dire consequences should I find any. It was a pretty idle threat, these are pretty good kids and while I am not naive enough to say that I don't think any of them have had any experience in this area, I don't think they have gotten to the stage where they believe that they can't have fun without something of an intoxicating nature or in others words - 45. We just had to think of something to keep 'em busy. So we devised a scavenger hunt, by car. We had a list of some 40 things that they either had to bring back with or take photos of. The limit was 12 photos and the items had various point values assigned to them, which the kids didn't know in advance. There were no bonus points for finishing or coming back first and we had a flexible return time. We didn't want young teenage drivers rushing to try and get back for some kind of time limit. The other rules? They couldn't buy anything, they couldn't go to their homes or anyone's homes, they had to obey all driving laws, they couldn't steal or take any item without permission. They did a good job. We didn't have an expectation that they would get all of the items but they came back with quite a few. Some of the items they had to get? A McCain Sign (tougher than you think in this Obama neighborhood), California state quarter, a house for sale flyer, picture of the team with a waiter, a pumpkin, and the list goes on. It was a good way to start the evening, a good icebreaker and the kids had a good time seeing some of the creative ways the other teams obtained items and they all had stories to tell. We are a bit fearful that their classmate that works at the local grocery store might be in trouble at work since all 4 of the teams went there and apparently he was quite helpful to all of the teams. Not sure how much work he got done that night though!

Afterwards Mexican food, pin the tail on the donkey (hard to believe but the kids enjoyed it), cake, ice cream, pinatas and hot tubbing and swimming. The boys left at midnight and the girls spent the night. As far as parties go, it was pretty easy. My only job was the aforementioned liquor watch, staying out of the way when the food was served (people could get hurt!) and being invisible in a visible kind of way.

Next year, Kiki will celebrate her birthday at college. I am fairly certain I won't be invited to that party so it was nice to share this one with her. And yes, she is still pretty sweet!!

Retraction # 1 (Surprised there has only been one??)

2008-09-24T15:28:00.004-07:00

I want to take the opportunity to correct something I said in my earlier post about our visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium to visit their most recent great white shark baby. I had mentioned that we had tried a few times before to go and see sharks that had been on exhibit at the aquarium. But each time we have made plans to go, they release the shark back into the wild or it dies.

I was wrong about the dying part. I received a very nice comment from Mr. Humberto Kam, the Onlines Communications Manager of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. He points out that none of the sharks that they had on view had died while they were at the Aquarium. In fact the Monterey Bay Aquarium released the sharks back into the wild for their own benefit and apparently very successfully. To be truthful, I knew some of them had been released but I thought I had heard that one that was pretty sick hadn't made it but I apparently was wrong, very wrong.

So I stand corrected. Now those of you that know me well, know I don't admit I am wrong very often. Mostly because it rarely happens and on the slight chance I might be, I don't like to establish a precedent. But because I admire the Monterey Bay Aquarium so much, I decided I should print a retraction. I decided against just correcting the post because I am not really sure what happens in cyber-space once something gets out there. I thought I better put something out there to counterbalance my misinformation. Sort of a Ying-Yang thing, now the universe is balanced.

Not On Our Watch!!

2008-09-22T23:46:00.011-07:00

Several times over the past 5 or 6 years, the Monterey Bay Aquarium has come into possession of a great white shark. At some point they put the shark on display and you can see it up close and personal. Monterey is about a 1 1/2 - 2 hour drive from our place. At least two times in the past, we have planned trips down to the Aquarium to take a gander at a shark when they either release the shark or it dies, like the day before we are supposed to show up.

That sad tale is why when we heard a few weeks ago that they had another great white, we decided to high tail it down to Monterey right away. We actually took a nice
drive down to Monterey. It was beautiful, reminding us that no matter where we travel some of the most beautiful scenery in the world is right in our backyard. When we arrived at the aquarium, we went straight to the shark tank. Well, in all fairness it wasn't exclusively a shark tank, there were other fish inside but lets
face it, it is sort of like being hamburger when there is kobe beef floating around in there. Sort of. Anyway, the shark had only been there 4 days when we saw her. That's right, female. She is only about 4 months old. And to be blunt, she is kind of small. "Great" is a title I think she will have to grow into. Right now, I think it would be a little more accurate to call her "adequate" white shark or "average" white shark. But she does have a presence in the tank, when she swims by you can see that certain fish seem to avoid her or scurry out of the way. We talked a bit with the naturalist on duty and asked how long they thought she would be there. She indicated that the shark would be there until she exhibited an "inappropriate behaviour". Such as? Eating one of her tank mates. Yep, that would be inappropriate alright.

After staring at the shark for what seem like an hour, we wandered through other parts of the Aquarium. For anyone who hasn't been, this is a superb aquarium. There are lots of tactile exhibits which are great for both the kids and parents. This exhibit lets you "pet" a ray. The only problem? The rays pretty much stayed on the opposite side of the tank where the "petters" couldn't reach. Pretty smart, huh? These guys were just a little too eager to pet the rays.

I love looking at the jelly fish. Against this blue background, they were pretty cool.

So let the record reflect that the Whinebergs finally got to see one of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Great White Sharks!!! It was pretty cool.

P.S.

About a week after we visited, they released the great white. Apparently she hadn't been eating, food or tankmates. So they tagged her and let her go. Whew!!

Still Cruisin' After 50 Years

2008-09-16T22:50:00.020-07:00

My parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this summer. In a culture where the breakup of a 2, 5 or 10 year celebrity marriage is mourned as "long standing", a 50 year marriage is almost unbelievable. It takes resolve. I think it comes from being of a generation where successful marriages were expected, there were no other options. I don't think that is the case now.

In celebration of their anniversary, they gave all us kids presents. A concept I am hoping might catch on. So from now on, everyone should send me a gift on their birthday, anniversary or any other special occasion. Make it so. Anyway for their anniversary, Mom & Dad took all 5 daughters, their spouses, partners, and families on a week long Alaskan cruise. One big happy party of 18.

Some of us had cruised before but most were cruise newbies, Chizz included. He was concerned that he wouldn't find enough to do, he is not really the bingo type. But we only had 3 days where we were at sea the entire day, the other days were spent at ports of call. Our ship went from Vancouver to Icy Strait Point AK, then to Skagway and finally Juneau. We ended back at Vancouver. Months prior to the cruise were spent planning different excursions for the days we were in port.

Each family planned their own excursions. Our first excursion was whale watching in Icy Strait Point. Simply put, AMAZING!!! The boat was a small 6 passenger ship, it was our family plus Uncle D. The boating company won't guarantee you will see any humpback whales but our Captain was pretty confident and sure enough within about 10 minutes of setting off, we were seeing our first whales. And they were close!! The sound the whales make is so loud, it is like a groaning or creaking. We took quite a bit of video. I have some better shots of the whales but I can't figure out how to get a still photo from the video and my experts are already in bed for the evening. They have school tomorrow. So you will just have to trust me. Our captain was pretty good at spotting the whale spouting from quite a distance. Often he would see something far away and off we would go and then find ourselves within feet of a few whales. After a while, we could see the spouts for ourselves. In this photo you can see the spout. See what looks like steam rising from the water? That is the whale spouting from the hole on top of his head. We watched a sea lion play with one of the whales for quite some time. Actually I think the sea lion was tormenting the whale, sort of playing tag. It was fascinating. Since the boats are only licensed to take 6 people at a time, our group split up, going on different boats and different times. All the groups saw whales and one even saw some bears on the shore from their boat. So definitely successful outings. This is not a cheap excursion but everyone that went on the whale watching trips thought them well worth the expense.

The next excursion day was Skagway. Our family split up, Snake and Chizz went with Auntie M. and her family on the Skagway Triple Adventure, hike an hour, bike an hour and then raft an hour. They all had a great time and they got to see a bear from the shore. Snake actually spotted it and pointed it out to the group. He was pretty excited about that. Kiki, Auntie K and I went on our own triple adventure, a Ghosts & Good Times Girls tour of the town of Skagway, (and its famous brothel), shopping and lunch. We didn't spend an hour at each but we it was pretty fun and it wasn't all that exhausting. We can recommend the tour, our guide was dressed as a lady of the evening might have been during the gold rush (1896) in Skagway. She gave us a very insights into Alaska (which have become all the more interesting in light of certain other events more political lately). Alaska really is the last frontier. Skagway has about 800 full time residents during the year. During the height of the summer season, the town has about double the residents when the seasonal workers come to town to help serve the over 750,000 tourist they get per year. Our guide pointed out that there are not roads leading out of most towns in Alaska, they would be covered by snow and ice most of the year. People get into town three ways according to our tour guide, by plane, by boat or by birth canal. We met up with Uncle D., Chizz and Snake later on and had lunch at the Skagway Brewing Company. Uncle D. and Chizz have designated this summer as "Brewery Discovery Summer" and already have about 4 breweries under their belt.

Our last excursion day was Juneau. Our family did the helicopter ride to Juneau Ice Field and rode the Dog Sled. Really amazing. It was very, very, very expensive but truthfully the trip of a lifetime and I am really glad we did it. Kiki & Snake are definitely old enough to remember this and I think they will. I think Chizz thought the most fun
part was the helicopter. Those dog sleds dogs were amazing. One thing that surprised me was how small the dogs were, they were skinny. All of those movies where
you see dog sleds, the dogs are all furry and seem pretty good sized but in reality they are thin. One of the trainers explained to me that these dogs are like marathon runners plus. They often run 100 miles per day. When was the last time you saw a portly marathon runner? They just don't make them that way. The dogs were all pretty friendly and we were allowed to pet them and they seemed to be very
affectionate. I found listening to the "mushers" the most interesting part. These people live up on the glacier seven months of the year in tents. I asked him if they got cold and he told me "there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes". As my kids would say "true that". All of these guys had participated in the Iditarod. I asked lots of questions, where do you sleep? (They provide tents but most of the participants like to sleep on their sleds in sleeping bags, with their dogs.) I was surprised to learn that it wasn't all about taking the fastest dogs to the race. You need all kinds of personalities, some leaders, some followers. It is definitely a team thing and not all of the dogs have the temperament to be in the front of the pack. And some dogs have bad days, days where they don't listen to the trainer very much. Our sled had to stop at one point to switch the dogs around because one of the ones in the lead was not listening, going right when he was supposed to go left. According to the musher, the dogs are like people and will have bad days and good days. Sometimes even during races you have to switch it up until
you get the right makeup for the team. It was fascinating. Then we get to go on a short run with the dogs. Everyone gets a turn at driving if they want. We all wanted to, of course. This picture is of Chizz driving in back. He was on a different sled from Kiki, Snake & I. Snake & Chizz rate this excursion as one of their favorites, and so do I.

On non-excursion days there was plenty to keep us busy. Some of us tried ballroom dancing lessons (not Chizz & I), some played bingo, some like to sit with a fancy drink in hand and watch the scenery go by. The scenery included several hours at the Hubbard Glacier. It was spectacular. The blue in this photo is not touched up. The ice absorbs the rays of red and yellow light leaving the blue. I was surprised at how blue it was and took way too many pcitures. Beside the scenery there were other distractions. The casino was a big hit for a few in the group. We managed to get 2 teams together for the 3 day trivia challenge. And our 2 teams, Deck Three Maniacs and Spawn of Art, dominated taking home the 1st and 3rd place medals respectively. Pretty nice!! Of course the main event for the cruise was the 50th anniversary and there were a few surprises along the way. One of the sisters wrote a little poem, recited by the
children. We also had t-shirts made up that we surprised the folks with at breakfast one morning. When they came to the table, they found us all wearing identical shirts - the front had a little emblem over the top left that said "Papa & Grandma's 50th anniversary cruise", the back was a copy of one of their wedding photos. They were very surprised, although it took Papa awhile to get it. Somehow he didn't notice we were all wearing the exact same shirt!!

Not surprisingly I think, I reflected quite a bit on marriage on this cruise. I thought about my parents' marriage and what it takes to get to 50 years. I mentioned before the "no failure" option that I think a lot of long standing marriages have. I look at my siblings' marriages and relationships. Some of them are newer than others, we have newlyweds, but most of us are in long standing first (and only) marriages or relationships. That doesn't happen by accident. Our parents modeled a good marriage to us, showing us by example how to live with a partner. I am sure they would tell you not every time was easy, they lost a home to a large fire, my dad was in Viet Nam, they traveled far away from friends and family as the result of their military career. But I think it never occurred to them that it would be easier to live apart or it would be better not to be married. Of course you have to lay the groundwork for a successful marriage by really knowing the person you are going to marry and perhaps, making sure you really know yourself. What is important to you, what do you want out of life, will your partner have those things now and in 20 years. Too often people get married for the wedding not the marriage. Once the party is over, they don't have much in common. It is harder to build on that. So in addition to their 50 years together as an achievement, I think my parents can look at their children's successful relationships and marriages as "their" achievements too. They showed us what "it" looks like. Thanks Mom & Dad.

In An Instant...

2008-09-11T14:35:00.000-07:00

Seven years ago, our lives (mine, Kiki's and Snake's) almost changed drastically. I am so grateful it didn't. Every anniversary we are urged, implored, to remember. Don't worry, we can't forget.

Now Its Istanbul, not Constantinople

2008-09-02T06:38:00.000-07:00

The second half of our "Goodbye Tour"(actually it is the middle part but that is another story for another blog entry)was Turkey. After going to Egypt back in April, I really was interested in exploring some different types of culture. Turkey does a lot of advertising in London and it looks soooooooo beautiful in the billboards. Chizz had a very interesting business trip there previously, so we decided to put it on the list.

We stayed in Istanbul, which used to be known as Constantinople until 1930. Turkey, as we came to find out later from one of our tour guides, has a long history of being invaded by just about everybody. Istanbul has been the capital of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Latin Empire, The Ottoman Empire. Now it only has to survive the invasion of the Whinebergs!

Snake has studied quite a bit about Turkey and it was a bit like having your own personal tour guide in Istanbul. He was most anxious to see the Hagia Sophia, a very renown mosque in
Istanbul. Strangely, this building didn't start out as a mosque, it started out as a church when it was built between 532 and 537 AD, 1500 years ago. It is funny that we think of this area as historically and staunchly Muslim but in reality a good part of its foundation is Christianity. And the Hagia Sophia was the third church built on the site. (How come records are so good from back then that they can tell you how many buildings were on a particular site but the Social Security Administration can't find records of my earnings in 1984, a mere 25 years ago? - sorry, I digress.) So when Istanbul was conquered by the Turks in 1432, the Sultan ordered it be turned into a mosque. For about 500 years it was the center of the Muslim faith but it has not been an active mosque since 1934. There have been several restorations over the years, the inside is just beautiful with mosaics and artwork. I have to apologize for the quality of photos inside, (yes, you ARE allowed
to take photos inside). On our walk up to the Hagia Sophia, I dropped my very expensive camera with my much more expensive (at least for me) zoom lens on it. After the GREAT FALL, (which we referred to it in our house, or at least I do), the lens wouldn't come off the camera - it was kind of jammed on. Which is sort of a bummer because it means I had the prospect of taking only close up photos, or to put it in real perspective - I was only going to get photos of Chizz's nose hair in front of all the great historic places. I already have so many of those!! But never fear, I worked on it, cried over it, whine about it and finally I was able to work the zoom lens off. (See, never under estimate the power of whining!) But it was after the Hagia Sophia so these photos are all I really have.

Right smack dab across the street is the Blue Mosque. I love it when the points of interest in a city are so darn close to each other, it is very convenient. Nice of the leaders in history to arrange it that way. The Blue Mosque is simply the most beautiful mosque
I have ever been in. It is named for the blue tiles inside the mosque. As with all mosques there are some rules before you can enter. Women cannot enter with bare legs and bare shoulders. It is hit or miss sometimes as to whether men will have the same
restriction. We noticed very often Kiki and I were offered coverings if we were wearing shorts or tank tops but Chizz and Snake were not. They were allowed to go into most mosques wearing shorts. Since I heard that the Blue Mosque was particularly strict, I asked at our hotel what was the appropriate attire. Although I could tell our hotel's manager wanted to be accommodating to us (we found the Turkish people to be extremely friendly and warm) he struggled with telling us the right thing to do without seeming to somehow tell us something we didn't want to hear. Of course, we were making no value judgment, we wanted to see the inside of the mosque and were willing to abide by the rules. We wore jeans. (As an aside, we saw plenty of men in shorts but truthfully - they shouldn't have been. It annoys me when tourists do not respect the local customs and practices.) Muslims are called to pray 5 times per day. If you are near a local mosque you go int, if not it is perfectly acceptable for a Muslim to stop, point himself in the direction of Mecca and pray where he is. The floors of a mosque are usually covered in carpet and no one, worshipers or visitors, wears shoes inside. We were given small plastic bags in which to carry our shoes. It is enormous inside and you are free to wander about but you must be mindful of the worshipers, who are there at all times of the day not just when
called. They have a good section of it roped off from visitors for people to pray.
Actually, not people - the men. See that area with red carpet? That is where the men pray. See this little dark area sectioned off here? This is for the women. Need proof? Here's the sign. Different culture.

Living in Europe for a few years gives you a new appreciation for football (soccer to us Americans). Europeans live, breath and kill for soccer here. It consumes them many months of the year. It is hard not getting caught up in it all. While we were traveling, the Euro Cup 2008 was ongoing. Chizz and Snake managed to keep up on how the teams were doing and all the scores. It involve some coordination that ran from choosing a lunch place that had a television or peeking into seedy bars that might be showing the games. So when Turkey managed to hang in there until we got there, we were excited to catch a game locally. We thought we would be able to find it playing in just about every bar or restaurant and it might be fun to watch it with some locals but we really had no idea how huge this was. Although the cab driver gave us some advice, "If Turkey loses, it will be no big deal. People will be disappointed but the crowds will behave themselves. If Turkey wins, RUN don't walk back to your hotel. It could be extremely dangerous". Wow!! As luck would have it one of the main streets in
Istanbul was right outside of our hotel. All of the stores and shops were flying Turkey colors and flags. The first order of business was to find Turkiye shirts for Chizz & Snake. Check. Done. Now, lets find a place to watch the game. There were lots of restaurants and bars to choose from. Every bar, restaurant and shop had at least one if not 2 or 3 big screen tvs with the game. Mostly outside. The trick was finding one with an open table an hour before the game. We finally did and I think watching this soccer match was one of the highlights. To say these fans are fervent is an understatement. There was constant singing and chanting. The whole street was crowded with people cheering on the team. When Turkey scored a goal, pandemonium broke out. Fireworks went off in the streets, people tossed bottle rockets from the roof garden bars and restaurants. For the rest of the night, the street was filled with a red smokey haze. It was an amazing experience to watch the games with the locals, you got caught up in the enthusiasm. Unfortunately Turkey lost, and true to the word of the cab driver, the crowd dispersed rather quietly and there was no negative uproar. Most of the fans we spoke with were pleased that Turkey had made it so far, considering quite a few of their best players were out with injury. The believe there is much hope for Turkey in future competitions. You got a real "wait till next time" feel.

We decided to take give our feet a little break one morning and take a cruise down
the Bosphorous River. Like Greece, you can pay a company to do a specific tour or you can ride one of the public ferries. We decided to ride the ferry and we had a great time. You
need to get there a little early in order to snag seat by the rail or by the window inside. We decided to ride outside and just enjoyed the views passing us by. It is a great way to seen the city from a different perspective. We stopped at a city along the way and had some lunch and fed the fish from our table. Unfortunately Snake got the one bad meal we had on our trip at this place, some shrimp that had obviously gone bad. We fed it to the fish. They didn't seem to mind.

We took a day trip to Ephesus from Istanbul which involved getting up at "much earlier than any teenager in his/her right mind wants to get up" a.m. to take a one hour flight. We had a private tour guide, which was very nice. It made it easier to concentrate on just what we wanted to see and kind of gloss over anything that we didn't want to focus on. Ephesus is a very important city both historically and religiously. They believe it was first founded in the 10th century BC -- so about 3000 years ago. It is actually a very good example of how all of the different invaders contributed to Turkey's history. Legend has it first founded by the Greeks, who built the great temple of Artemis nearby. The Temple is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (racking up two on the Whineberg tally). You always read that the pyramids at Giza are the only remaining ancient wonder. I guess 1 1/3 columns does not count as remaining. We had a visit to the ruins of the temple and it is easy to see how massive this temple must have been. There is a biblical story of how St. Paul (yes, THAT St. Paul) took the local merchants of Ephesus to task for selling statues of Artemis in the temple. Apparently he objected to the objectification and commerce being done on temple grounds. I wonder how he would feel about the picture I have taken here? Locals selling replicas of what the temple used to look like, little statues, t-shirts etc. right on top of old ruins, pieces of the columns that are lying about the grounds. Some things never change!!

We later walked through the ruins of the ancient city and it is a pretty amazing site. So far most of the ruins we have seen in various places (other than Pompeii) have been fairly small and you have to use your imagination quite a bit to visualize what it was like in its heyday. Although there are good portions missing, you can still get an idea of the sheer size of the city. Ephesus used to be a harbor city and you can see definitely tell where the water used to be by the vegetation left there. After the harbor disappeared, the town slowly died with most people moving on to bigger cities. There were so many buildings and artifacts to see that I took hundreds, yes, hundreds of photos. Each of which I will show you and comment on now. No, not really but I think it will be easier if I comment on each picture separately. Get a drink and relax, this may take awhile!

This is the Library of Celsus, built in approximately 135 AD. It is an impressive building, restored several times over the years. It is an example of Roman architecture of the time.

This local theatre could hold 25,000 spectators in its day. Originally it was used for plays and other performances but there is also evidence that it was used for gladiator battles in the most deadly way. They recently unearthed a gladiator burial ground nearby. Our tour guide told us that the theatre is still used in modern times and shared with us a story about going to a Sting concert there several years ago. I can only imagine how cool that was. If you look very, very, very, closely at some of the spectators in this shot you may recognize a few. Good Luck!!

There are some remnants of some of the modern amenities that the Romans brought with them. These are exactly what they look like, public restrooms. Most likely for men only and probably only high ranking men got the privilege of "using" these facilities with 20 or so of his closest friends. And before you die of curiosity, yes I got a picture of Snake and Chizz on the thrones and no, Kiki wouldn't do it!

This is the Temple of Hadrian. Emperor Hadrian visited Ephesus from Athens in 128 AD and this temple was erected in his honor in 138 AD. He is known as on of the "Five Good Emperors" although he reportedly cheated on his wife with both women and men, and tried to poison her at some point. I guess it all hinges on what your definition of "good" is.

The Agora or marketplace, very often the hub of the town. Trade was done here by the merchants or the important citizens (men) of the day might gather to hear important news from the rulers.

This is interesting. You ever wonder how they built all those columns? For the most part, the columns were not one piece of marble or stone, that would have been too heavy to move. So they built them in sections. Two pieces like this one would be place together. See those square holes in the middle? What is hard to see is a little trench kind of impression in the stones. The two stones would be placed together, lined up so that both pieces' square holes were aligned. Then they would take melted metal and pour it in through the trench. When the metal cooled it joined the two pieces of stone together. They would add additional sections as needed. Fascinating, huh?

On your way out of the ruin site, there are quite a few vendors selling tourist junk, scarves, statues, mementos. Hard to resist these watches right? C'mon they are genuine!!

After seeing the ancient city there were a couple of other sites we wanted to see.
First was the Basilica of St. John. St. John was one of the 12 apostles and was very tight with Jesus. He was often referred to as the "disciple Jesus loved" although it was John himself who said that in his gospels, so consider the source. While Jesus was dying on the cross, he saw his mother Mary and John and said to her basically "Woman, here is your son" and to John "Son, behold thy mother". This was Jesus' way of saying "Hey, take care of my mom". So John did. He kind of retired to Ephesus to write his gospels and allegedly took Mary with him. I say allegedly because there is certainly evidence to support John was there when he died but not really much of Mary, although there is a house there. So we wanted to see both places. The basilica was built in the 6th century AD over what is believed to be St. John's tomb by the emperor Justinian, apparently not one of the Five Good Emperors; he was just satisfactory. It was massive with 6 domed structures and if it were still standing today it would be the 7th largest cathedral in the world. Of course, over the years it has fallen victim to invading armies, misuse and decay. It was also used as a mosque in the 1300s. So after the basilica we head over to Mary's house. Now here is where I have a bit of a problem with Mary being in Ephesus. The road leading up to Mary's house is extremely mountainous. I tried to imagine her traveling here, in advanced years, after her son dies, after traipsing all over the place with John (because it is documented that John moved around quite a bit before settling in Ephesus) and making it up these mountains, either by foot or donkey as suggested by Snake. It was a difficult trip by car, I can't even begin to imagine how she did it with the method of transportation available in those days. We get up to the house and it looks fairly modern and we learn that it is. The structure that was originally on this spot dates back to the 6th century, several hundred years after Mary would have died. But the foundation apparently has been dated for the appropriate time. Other than the things I previously mentioned, there is another reason I am skeptical as to whether this is Mary's house or not. This wasn't found after years of studying transcripts or writings from the era or reading of the gospel and interpreting the various phrases. This house was found as the result of a dream. A nun in Germany in the 1800s was an invalid, confined to her bed and never traveled away from home. One day she wakes up with the stigmata (marks or sores on the body in the places where Jesus had crucifixion marks) and tells of some visions she has about Mary and St. John traveling together from Jerusalem to Ephesus together. She described a house, a bedroom and a curved or rounded wall and apparently a location where it would be found. Several years later, 2 priests decided to try and find the house described by the nun and apparently happened upon its ruins. Viola! I am just a bit skeptical of that whole story. The Catholic church takes no official position as to whether this is Mary's house, but they have declared it an appropriate pilgrimage spot. And, three popes have visited there and said Mass. You can walk through the house where there is a small alter and a few pictures. There are nuns hanging around, making sure you don't take pictures and treat the place appropriately. There is a natural spring there and supposedly there are miracles attributed to drinking the water. Christians and Muslims alike make pilgrimages here. Muslims revere Mary as the mother of Jesus, whom they consider the second greatest prophet. After drinking the spring water, you can make a request for some intercession or favor by Mary by putting it in writing and placing it in the wall. The kids and I both drank the water and made the request. Even though I am not sure whether this is Mary's house, it doesn't hurt to ask, huh?

As far as I was concerned a trip to Istanbul would not be complete without a trip to the Grand Bazaar probably because as far as I am concerned, a trip isn't complete without some shopping!! I am not so sure Chizz would agree. It is an experience for sure. It is one of the world's largest covered market place, with over 6000 shops. On average, the Bazaar can have over 250,000 to 400,000 visitors A DAY!!!! Yikes, that is one huge mall. As you are walking through the mall, people try to sell you stuff - pretty aggressively. Kiki & Snake were a little freaked out by the persistance of some of the sellers. We told them it was all a game, don't be upset or offended, these guys are just doing their job. Say no thank you and move on. It is hard when you are a teenager. We had some fun, bought a few items to bring home and enjoyed the atmosphere.

I apologize for the epic nature of this blog entry. There is so much I didn't even mention, our trip to the Spice Bazzar, the rug factory, Topkapi Palace (beautiful and the harem really, really interesting) Chizz and Snake trying their hand at making pottery. But I felt this blog would have to get a zip code of its own if I kept on going. This has to be the longest entry yet. I think it comes from blogging about a trip that was a while back now. I kind of relived it while I was writing it and it was like visiting Turkey again. I would go back again, and again. We only scratched the surface and there is so much more to see. Maybe one day. Now on to the next adventure. . . . . .

Seems Like a Long Time, It Seems Like a Very Long Time

2008-08-11T08:33:00.005-07:00

Oh Froggers, it has been a very long time since I have last written and so much has been going on. Mainly the packing and unpacking of luggage. In a little over a month we have visited 6 different countries on 3 continents. We have been on planes, trains, buses, automobiles and a few boats!! I am so far behind that I think I am going to lap myself soon! So before I lose to myself, let's get this party started. . . .

When we found out that we would be leaving London and moving back stateside, we thought we would end our adventure with a big trip. Usually our trips are for a few days. We can do just about any major city in about 3 days tops - we have gotten to be very efficient sight seers! But I knew there were a few places I wanted to see that would take more than a few days and I didn't want to rush it. So we decided to go off to Greece and Turkey. It was the trip of a life time and we had a marvelous time. Starting with Greece.

Although we tend to think of Europe as one big old continent, easy to get from one place to another . . . it was a bit harder getting to Greece then most of the other places we have visited. Partly because we were coordinating Chizz's travel from the US and our travel from London. But eventually I got it all done, and we were in Athens. But. . . . our debit cards wouldn't work in the machines. I had anticipated we might have a problem in Turkey and had downloaded a list of all the Citibank locations where we would be, but nothing I had read had prepared me for an issue in Athens. After several calls to Citibank, wherein they professed not to know why our cards weren't working, we eventually were able to get money out of a few machines. We just kept going back to those. And we didn't seem to have a problem using the cards in points of service transactions, like stores or restaurants, just in getting cold, hard cash. So that is my travel tip of the day, when using your ATM card overseas, make sure you know where a local branch of your bank is in the city you are visiting. It is helpful because ideally both branches of the bank will work to solve your problem and at the least can give you a cash advance until you get home.

Athens was as beautiful as the post cards you see. There are so many things to see and we hit the highlights. If I blogged about every place, this blog would be much longer but I think I will just touch up just some of the sights. But trust me, if you can think of it in Athens, we probably did it - even if I don't talk about it here!!

I think our very first stop was the Acropolis. Actually there are many acropolises (acropoli?) all over Greece. "Acropolis" basically means the city center of the local area, usually in the high spot of the city, raised up on a rock or hill. It was the symbolic spot where the government buildings and sacred temples met up. Over the years this one became so popular and well known that it just kind of morphed into THE Acropolis, like it was the only one. It certainly lives up to its billing. I can't imagine any of the other Acropoli or "es" could possibly be any more mouth open, jaw dropping, awe striking spectacular. You have seen all the pictures, and when you consider how darn old this stuff is, it makes it even more amazing. I have seen buildings in the US built 40 years ago that haven't withheld the sands of time that this stuff has that is over 2000 years old. Simply Amazing. We took a guided tour through the Acropolis which I think was useful, you can learn a few tidbits here and there.

The grounds of the Acropolis are fascinating, you wander through just looking at the ruins, the amphitheater, and before you know it you have climbed up to the top and are at the foot of the
Parthenon, which I am guessing is the most famous site in Athens. After the tour you can wander around for as along as you like. The Parthenon was built as a temple to the goddess Athena. It is undergoing a refurbishment program right now as are quite a few of the other buildings on the site, so you will see some scaffolding. But it is quite easy to ignore and imagine it as it would have been thousands of years ago. In this view of the Parthenon, you can see where the Elgin Marbles were. The Elgin Marbles are a series of sculptures or reliefs that taken, borrowed or stolen (depending on who you ask) by Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin in the early 1800s. Lord Elgin says he had permission and produced an English translation of a document that seemed to verify his story, but the original document appears to have been mislaid. Convenient. In 1816 when the British Parliament debated the subject of the legality and morality of the removal of the marbles, they found (not so surprisingly) that the removal was legal and they allowed the British Museum to buy them and subsequently display them. We saw them when we were in London and they are pretty amazing. Especially now that I can put them in some kind of spacial perspective, seeing where they were before they were "ripped" off the walls. (Quote courtesy of our tour guide). Greece has been trying to get them back for some time but so far has been rebuffed by the English Government and the British Museum. Not a surprise.

We also spent some time at the Roman Forum, which was a little smaller than I thought. To me the word forum just makes something sound HUGE but it was actually pretty intimate. Actually the original agora, or marketplace, was much larger but over the years the remains have dwindled down. This is the original gate to the Forum area. There is an inscription that indicates the gate was built by Caesar and Augustus but it is so faded, that the only time you can read it easily is at noon when the sun is shining directly on the marble. We were there a bit past noon, and we could make out the inscription but it is not really visible on the photo. One of the things I noticed all over Athens is there are "ruins" just about everywhere. You can be walking around the corner of a fairly large street, and you will run into the remains of a column, which may be the
only thing remaining from an ancient temple or other building. There are just so many of the darn things, that you start to become a little numb to them. At first, you are excited but after a while you just walk by. I still managed to take a few photos of things just hanging around in Athens.

We took a boat ride outside of Athens, to a few of the little islands nearby. Instead of taking a "tour", we rode the waterbus which basically had three stops at each island, where we stayed for an hour or two at each place. It basically gave us enough time to walk through the town, get a feel for it and perhaps stop for a beer or ice cream and watch the town happenings. We went to Hydra, Aegina and Poros. All three were beautiful little villages.

Hydra is probably the most famous of the three as there has been some very upscale development there over the past few years and quite a few wealthy people have vacation homes here. Other than a few service vehicles there are no cars or motorized vehicles. If you book a hotel on the island and have luggage to transport, a porter with a donkey will appear to carry your luggage to your room. Most things, including people, are transported by donkey. It is pretty cool to walk through down and see all the donkeys around. The solo donkey photo is a photo of the donkey "parked" at the grocery store. It cracks me up!!

I thought Aegina was one of the most beautiful ports we stopped in. It is known for its pistachios and every shop in town carried all kinds of pistachios, salted, flavored, plain. We sampled quite a few different varieties. We bought a HUGE bag and afterwards I was concerned that we might not be able to take them into Turkey. Customs officials can be a little choosy about what kind of food you can bring into the country. Snake assured me that he would singlehandedly eat every single nut in Immigration if they weren't allowed. Thankfully it didn't come to that. Here are some photos of Aegina.

One of Chizz's favorite things we did was a visit to the Temple of Poseidon. It is not in Athens and there is no easy way to get there. You can go on a bus tour with a tour company, which normally is not our thing. You can also hire a taxi for several hundred dollars. I did some research and found out we could take a public bus, which conveniently stopped right
across the street from our hotel. The upside - bus stop close to our hotel, the cost was just a few dollars per person. Another positive, is riding public transport. We really like to use public transportation in a new city, there is no quicker way to feel like a local than when you master the city's public transport system. The downside? It is about a 2 hour bus ride, with a many stops along the way. After dithering about it, we decided to do it and it was a great experience. You can learn a lot about a country and its people riding a public bus for 2 hours. And I have to say it is one of the highlights of our trip to Athens. I think because the remains of the temple are so impressive. It is one of the few that has quite a few of the columns remaining so it is very easy to imagine what it was like years and years ago. This temple ,built in 444 BC, is actually the second temple on the site. It is located on Cape Sounion right at the top of a bluff overlooking the sea. This temple has been visited by many people over the years. One of the most interesting things is the graffiti. Now, those of you that are regular visitors to my blog, know that I usually rail against graffiti or people that can't seem to control themselves when it comes to touching artifacts.
They can't just look with "their eyes" as I have told my kids a zillion times. Buuuuttttt . . . . in this case the graffiti is pretty darn interesting. It started in the 1800s. Some say it was started by the famous English poet, Lord Byron. His graffiti was etched in a column in 1810 and can still be seen, although it is difficult and doesn't show up readily in photos. However, I was able to take photos of quite a bit of the graffiti. I guess graffiti has to be old in order for me to "appreciate" it. There may be hope for me appreciating some of the "art" left on freeway overpasses. Perhaps time will tell. As we left that evening, after spending 2 hours there admiring the temple up close and from the cafe down the hill, I captured this sunset from the bus window. I think it is a perfect ending for my Greece entry as it was a perfect ending to our visit to this temple. Next, Turkey!!

Happy Not Really Your Birthday To You

2008-06-23T23:14:00.007-07:00

There are many good things about being Queen. Big house, servants available to do your bidding any time of the day or night, cool horse drawn carriages to drive around in, the ability to banish your husband (after all, he is ONLY a duke) if he gets a little too lippy at the breakfast table. But I think I have accidentally stumbled across a not so good thing about being the queen -- you don't really get your own birthday. Queen Elizabeth was born in April some 80 or so years ago (c'mon let the gal have a little bit of mystery). But she also has an official birthday in June in which she is obligated to preside over quite a bit of hoopla, parades, troop reviews, air force flybys etc.

Now don't get me wrong, there could be some benefits to having 2 birthdays - double presents, more cake, 2 times for waiters to sing embarrassing birthday songs at Wagamamas. Although I suspect having 2 birthdays is not all it is cracked up to be. I bet people start saying things like "this one present covers both of your birthdays" or "I will bring your present at your NEXT birthday" or even worse, "it's not like it is your REAL birthday or anything". Also, the "official" birthday is either the first, second or third weekend in June depending - not sure depending on what. It is hard for a queen to make plans when you don't know when your official birthday will be.

One duty the Queen has on her official birthday is Trooping of the Colour. It is a parade of all the regiments of the British Army. The Queen inspects the troop, there are bands, and all of the Royal Family attends (Hey you tell the Queen you have better things to do). It is full of pomp and ceremony and, like quite a few traditions in England, has been done for hundreds of years. After happening upon a rehearsal a few weeks earlier when I was down in the Queen's 'hood, I decided I would go to the real deal on June 14. So after unsuccessfully trying to rally my teenagers to go (they both had last day of school parties sleep-ins planned), I took myself.

When I got to Green Park, the park outside of Buckingham Palace, you could feel the excitement buzz in the air. I could tell something was up by some of the preparations they made - like this trash can. They had "closed off" all of the trash cans in Park. I think initially this was done in the IRA era but it has lingered on in the Terrorist era as well. By the time I walked through the park, the crowds were in place, 4-6 deep in some areas. I decided not to go to where she was looking at the troops or down the mall area but thought my best chance to see something would be at Buckingham Palace itself. I wandered all the way over to the right of the side of the Victoria Memorial right in front of Buckingham Palace, not sure what I would be able to see. I found an area of the crowd that was only about 2 deep and I joined them. I started talking with a man and his two sons who had gone to every Trooping of the Colour for the past 15 years. He told me that it has become less and less British, meaning that few British people go, mostly tourists and "foreigners". He wasn't complaining, just stating fact. He clearly knew the schedule, "in 15 minutes the Queen will leave the parade grounds in her carriage with the Duke of Edinburgh (Prince Phillip)" "her carriage will be preceeded by Princes Harry & William" There was great discussion about where Camilla would be, would she be in a carriage with some of the lesser royal, or by herself, or with William & Harry. No one seemed to know or remember where she sat last year.

I was not disappointed, I got a full view of quite a few things although it was difficult to take decent pictures in the crowd. When the parade gets to the end of the mall, they have to commit to make either a left or right turn. If a left turn is made, I don't see anything. If they make a right, I have a shot. We were really lucky, it seemed all the carriages turned right. I couldn't believe how close the carriages came. You be the judge, here are some of the photos. Don't you think the Queen and I are sharing "a moment" in the first photo??

That is Prince Phillip next to her wearing the huge hat. That thing has to weigh a ton, I think there had to be some small palace courtier hunched over in the carriage proping the hat or Prince Phillip up.

This is a photo of the younger Princes and Camilla. She and Prince William have their backs to the camera, she is wearing the white hat/headpiece thing and Harry is facing the camera sort of.

After the Royal Family goes in the Palace, they open up the round about area in front of Buckingham Palace for the crowds to go right up to the gates of the Palace. I was able to get really close and then you wait for the Royal Family to come to The Balcony. We have all seen the balcony on TV, the one where Charles & Diana kissed for the crowd. The queen comes out and is
soon followed by the rest of the family.

The crowd serenades the Queen with "Happy Birthday" but really it should have been "Happy-Official-Birthday-but-not-your-real-birthday
-because-it-is-in-April-to-you" but it is hard to stay together on that. Then the
Royal Air Force puts on a show, many, many fly bys. The Queen seemed to enjoy the fly bys quite a bit. I was able to get quite a few photos. There were two college girls in front of me, who absolutely lost it when the 2 Princes came out. They kept shouting "Zoom, Zoom" referring to their cameras. It was quite funny.

Afterwards, it all kind of breaks up and people wander off. I am glad I got to see it. I have to admit a bit of a chill went up my spine at seeing the Queen and the members of the Royal Family. Oh and for those of you wondering, yes Prince Charles was there and no, he did not try to kill me (as he has before, see here and here.) Not that he didn't think about it for sure - crowds too big - too many witnesses. He had better hurry!!

Moving On

2008-06-17T03:57:00.004-07:00

In my youth, I moved around a fair deal being the eldest child of a career Air Force man. Not as much as some people, but more than others. When I was little, I don't remember having much to do with the physical move myself. I think my main job was not antagonizing or provoking my mom. A task I am not sure I accomplished. When I became an "adult", I was in charge of moving myself - although that mostly entailed roping friends with larger cars or better yet a truck or two to help me with my few boxes of meager belongings. When I got older and had a little bit more money in the bank, we could afford to hire professional movers. I like that quite a bit more but it is a bit nerve racking watching people take your possessions off in a truck and hope they end up in the same place as you.

Moving internationally is definitely a matter that requires much faith. It starts out pretty much the same as much as the other moves, someone comes to your house - gives your belongings a once over and then guesstimates how long it will take to pack and load your stuff. In my case 1 1/2 days to pack and another 1/2 day to load. Our movers showed up bright and early (about 1/2 hour early) to pack our stuff and found that our street has parking restrictions. Only stickered cars unless you make prior (about 21 days prior) arrangements. Which apparently, the estimater did not do. So how many tickets does one moving truck get in 2 days? Answer at the end of the blog. In an international move, no food, or liquid, no open containers of anything, moisturizer, soap, anything like that gets packed. Everything else is boxed or crated and then put in the shipping container. They bring the container right to your house. Which I was amazed at! Somehow I thought they would truck the stuff to the container and then load it up. Not here. Loaded and sealed here.

Our moving crew consists of 2 guys about 50 years old, Bill & Tom, and a 19 year old girl, Lauren. Bill, the crew manager, keeps calling her Laura and she keeps correcting him "LaurEN". About 20 times an hour. I am fearful Tom is going to have a heart attack on my shift, he huffs and puffs up the stairs, turns bright red and goes "Whoo" alot. I am not sure why. Tom strips down to his undershirt, one of the sleeveless varieties called a "wife beater" in some circles, which LaurEN finds very upsetting. I think I am with her, how come the guys who always strip down to tank tops (or wear speedos) are the very guys who probably shouldn't? My friend who is also moving, tells me her movers are 20 year old boys who spend more time flexing around her 16 year old daughter than actually moving. So I guess the grass isn't always greener. My 2 50 year olds and 1 19 year old are dismantling my 3 bedroom flat in about 15 hours. Her crew of 3 20-somethings have been there 4 days and she is hoping they will finish today. LaurEN is definitely the junior member of the crew in age but in stature as well. You can tell that because she gets all the "bad" mover assignments, like the kitchen. Professional movers hate the kitchen because there is just so much stuff, and lots of pieces, cutlery, glasses, plates, coffee mugs, etc. LaurEN also got the attic assignment, which requires climbing a ladder and working in a pretty hot area. She listens to her MP3 playing phone all day long with headphones and periodically sings along, out loud. So far I can tell she likes Madonna, Justin Timberlake, Spice Girls, and some other stuff. She and I have chatted a bit. She told me about her last holiday 3 years ago, with her parents, her brothers to an island off Spain. She enjoyed it quite a bit and they were supposed to go back but her mother "fell pregnant". "Fell"? I think that is an interesting way to classify it. So that brother is now 2 and they were planning something for this summer but guess what happened? More falling. What's a girl to do? I would kind of like to meet LaurEN's mum. We know she has one 19 year old, a 2 year old and one on the way at least. And we know there are others in between because she said before the two year old was born was her last holiday with her brothers. Yikes.

Our crew works pretty hard and nothing seems to faze them. Since the estimator forgot to get the parking clearances, Bill isn't sure what is going to happen with the container when it arrives. If there is no parking, and the container will require about 3 spaces, they are going to park it in a church parking lot about 6 blocks away and ferry all the stuff to the container. How will they save their truck parking spot when they are up at the container? LaurEN will stand in the parking space. No lie. The moving gods are with us and about 5 minutes before the container is due to arrive and does arrive, 2 space open up right behind the crew's truck. LaurEN is dispatched to stand in the spaces while the container comes up the street. She does and seems resigned to her fate, all in a day's work.

Everything is all done now. It is kind of sad. I have always loved this flat and even all empty, I can see why we liked it to begin with - it is bright and airy and cheerful. We had a good 2 years here and have lots of good memories. I hope the next people, an American couple with two small children, enjoy it as much as we did.

***By the way, the moving truck received 5 tickets in the 2 days of the move and the container received 3. Now you know how Westminster council makes its money.

Here I Am! There I Go!!

2008-06-17T02:12:00.003-07:00

Okay it has been a busy few weeks for reasons which I will detail later. I like to write chronologically but so much has been happening lately that things are running into each other. I don't have time to write and its piling up. So for right now I have to switch to a level of importance criteria until things straighten themselves out.

So, the big one. We are leaving London. Chizz was transferred at the beginning of the year back home to the US of A. The kids and I have stayed behind to finish up the school year. Sort of a reverse of what we did when we moved over. I haven't talked about it at all on the blog for several reasons. First, we loved living here. Absolutely. It is hard being away from family and friends and not being part of their every day lives but this experience has had a wonderful impact on our family. So I am not quite ready to give it up. A little denial if you will. But it is what it is, and as I have told the kids in a way we are lucky. We are going back home, somewhere we love. We are a part of a very transient community here, so we know quite a few people that are leaving this year. It could be worse, we could be going somewhere totally new, or a place we know that we don't like. We have some friends that are being transferred to a place they lived a few years back and HATED. Guess what? They are going back there. I think that would be awful.

Another reason I didn't mention our impending move is that I didn't want to focus on it here. Probably part of that denial thing again but I didn't want to write about leaving over and over and have that be the underlying theme of my writing for the past few months. So I left it out.

Lastly, I wasn't sure what was going to happen with WTF when I get back. The original purpose of the blog was to keep family and friends up to date with what we were doing here etc. Not that West Coast USA doesn't have some interesting things in store for us but I was not quite sure I could keep up the level of interest writing about my trip to the Safeway to pick up some avocados (which I miss terribly). But what I decided is that this blog has morphed into something else for me. Sort of a creative outlet if you will. I get a lot from it so I will continue. So readers, feel free to check in every now and then. I will still write about things that interest me, they just might not be about going to Berlin or Egypt. And don't worry, I won't be writing about Safeway avocados unless it is really cool (or I think it is!).

Now I am in my kitchen waiting for the movers to finish up with final boxes in our flat. Chizz is flying back to go on a last trip with me & the kids. Ironically he won't be coming back to the States with us because he is teaching a course here for two weeks! I think I have a few more blogs in me before I hit US soil but it is really dependent on our internet access. I may or may not have it we will have to see.

In reflecting on the blog and our stay here, I thought about the name of the blog and how I came to call it that (which I wrote about here). Actually it still applies. The trick is taking the good stuff we liked here, the trips, hanging out with the family, doing stuff, and applying it back home. It won't be completely the same of course, but I think we can make it interesting with some effort. We are going to try and do more trips at home as well. Seeing parts of the States we haven't seen before, going to events we have always thought about but never managed to do. I think one reason we were always so busy here is that we knew this wasn't going to last forever so we had to just do stuff or risk leaving and not getting the chance. I am well aware that Kiki will be going to college next year (yikes) and two years after Snake will be off as well. We don't have much time left. We need to do it now or risk not getting the chance. I think that is going to be our new theme, just do it (wait where have I heard that before?) So in a way it is another stage of our adventure. So now it is look out USA , here we come (in a few weeks) and Wind the Frog!!!

Snake: Chef, Teen, Terrorist or All Three - You Decide

2008-06-01T01:51:00.008-07:00

So I must admit a chuckle or two over the Rachel Ray-Dunkin Donuts controversy. (Controversy is one of my favorite English words. Here they pronounce it "con TRAUV ersy" - It is hard to do it phonetically and have the same effect, if you see me - ask me and I will do my best imitation.) Anyhoo, I read that some group has complained about this Rachael Ray Dunkin Donuts ad because the scarf she is wearing, clearly indicates a sympathy toward and support of extremist Muslin radical terrorist organizations. Huh?? I thought it was just an ugly scarf and truly not that flattering on her. Some people just have too much time on their hands. And of course, Dunkin Donuts issued an apology and pulled the ad. Come on Dunkin Donuts - grow a pair!! I doubt too many people would have even noticed this scarf until the complaining party pointed it out. So you have to wonder about their motivation. Perhaps this is just reverse psychology.

Terrorist #1: "Hey that kind of looks like the head wear of our supporters."

Terrorist #2 "Really, you think so? I am thinking it just looks like paisley."

Terrorist #1 "No, it does. You just have to squint your eyes and tilt your head to the left, close one eye and BAM! our scarf".

Terrorist #2: (Rather unconfidently) "Oh yeah . . . . I see it now. So what?"

Terrorist #1: What if we caused a real ruckus and said that this scarf shows Rachel Ray is a really a terrorist, and obviously she is behind 9/11 or at least supports those who are or at least sympathizes with those that do and that all of her "chefing" is really some kind of extremist Muslim ploy to get Americans to eat more Middle Eastern food and slowly but surely will indoctrinate them into our ways?

Terrorist #2: Because she wore this scarf?

Terrorist #1: Yes.

Terrorist #2: Okay but can we do this all next Tuesday because my week is just swamped.

Terrorist #1: Sure.

Terrorist #2: Yum-A!

I think that is what happened. But then I remembered this picture of Snake. It's the "terrorist making" scarf. And then I remembered, he likes to dabble in the kitchen. And then I remembered, he likes donuts. And then I remembered he is a teenager, which is sort of like being a terrorist. The signs are all there, I am surprised I didn't see it before.

Berlin - Gut, Schlechtes & Schokolade***

2008-05-30T10:00:00.035-07:00

Last weekend was a three day Bank Holiday weekend here in England and Snake had been bugging us to go to Berlin for some time so off we went. We lucked out and the weather was extremely warm. In fact, we were unprepared completely for the weather to be warm - no sunscreen, mostly long sleeved tops, jeans etc. It was nice problem to have.

Berlin is a surprisingly interesting city. It is not as quaint as some of the other European cities we have visited, it doesn't have any of that old city charm. Mostly because quite a bit of it was bombed flat or burned during WWII. So quite a few of the buildings are a bit more modern than we are used to or if they "look" old, really they are restored or remodeled to look old. It also seemed sort of empty, the streets aren't full or bustling. There is history all over the city and it was fascinating getting a first hand look at it.

Our hotel was very close to Checkpoint Charlie, so that was our first stop.
Checkpoint Charlie was a crossing point between East and West Berlin, when the Berlin wall was still in place. There were other crossing points but this was the one assigned to foreigners and military personnel. There is an interesting display nearby on the fences, detailing the history of the Berlin wall and of the checkpoint. This hut is a replica, the actual hut is in a museum nearby. This one makes a nice photo op for the tourists, as do the "soldiers" standing in front. The uniforms are not really authentic and they appeared to this military brat to be a weird combo of US military and policeman. I think the other uniform is supposed to be Russian but I was a little unsure. The soldiers have a friend nearby who for a small fee will stamp your passport with "authentic" Checkpoint Charlie passport stamps. Kiki was all for it and had it stamped in her passport. Snake looked at it scornfully and told me he didn't want any "unofficial" stamps in his passport. But he was happy to take a paper with the stamps on it. For my sake.

After Checkpoint Charlie we wandered over to the Brandenberg Gate. This is the last gate in a series of gate through which one would enter Berlin. It was built in the late 1700s and has been the scene of many historic events over the past few centuries! It was the scene of the famous Reagan speech when he implored "Come here to this gate. Mr Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" There was a big bike race the day we were there and the grounds around the gate had a little festival so we wandered through there a bit. As usual with any kind of race, there were lots of sponsors handing out free goodies. Snake picked up a noise maker that much to Kiki's dismay was used successfully throughout the weekend to annoy and irritate her. The gate opens onto Pariser Platz, which is surrounded by a few embassies (the U.S. embassy is there, the modern monstrosity that it is) and some cafes and shops. We stopped and had some German sausage & beer and watched the world go by. And when the world was going by, so did these guys wearing weird white masks and operating this puppet kind of thing. Each person operated one limb or section of the body. I am not quite sure why, I guess it is some kind of performance art. Performance art is lost on me, much in the same way modern art is lost on me. I am not smart enough.

The next morning we headed over to the Reichstag, which is the German parliament building. It was the seat of the German government from 1894 until 1933 when it was set fire supposedly by a communist who was tried, convicted and executed for the crime. But he was most likely framed by the Nazi party, who used the "crime" as an excuse to suspend human rights in Germany. The government met elsewhere for a while and the building was further damaged by bombing in WWII. The building was restored in the 1960s but by that time Berlin was a divided city and the Bundestag, the German parliament, had been meeting in Bonn for quite a few years. After German Unification in 1991, the Bundestag voted and returned to the Reichstag. We went to the top and you get a beautiful view of the city.

So the Berlin wall. . . For something that dominated a city for so long and being pretty much the symbol of the city, it is really hard to find the Berlin Wall. Most of it has been torn down but there are remnants you can you go to, if you have the patience. We had heard that there was a pretty good size section still remaining in another area of Berlin that is not really near all of the historical sites. So we took a train over, transferred and found it. It was pretty amazing and it really does give you a good idea of what it must have been like to have this wall, just surrounding and dividing
the area. It is not as big or tall as I would have thought but something about seeing it fills you with a sadness or despair. It was really easy to imagine how demoralizing that wall must of been to citizens on both sides. The remnants are all brightly painted with murals. I am not sure how organized the mural painting is, if there is someone in charge who assigns panels. We spent quite a bit of time wandering past the panels, looking at the art work, reading some of the graffiti. I took a few pictures.

I think this is my favorite scene. I think it looks like souls escaping through an opening on the wall. I think it is haunting.

A view of the wall from across the street.

When viewing the wall, it is easy to forget that quite a few people risked and lost their lives trying to get to the other side. I wondered how someone could possibly monitor every square inch of the wall, why wasn't it easy to slip across. In actuality, many more
people were able to cross the wall then got caught. Supposedly there were over 5000 successful escapes and only 200 or so unsuccessful. But you paid with your life. East German border guards were encouraged to use their firearms even if the escapees were women and children. Near the Reichstag, we saw an exhibit of crosses that represented some of the people died trying to cross the wall. The last death was in February 1989, just a little over six months later the wall would come down.

We also visited a local concentration camp, Sachsenhausen. Not necessarily a "fun" activity, but I think a useful and educational one. This entrance gate has a slogan which was included in the gates at many concentration camps. Translation: Work will set you free. Hmmmm. Sachsenhausen was not an extermination camp per se meaning that it was not used for the "routine" extermination of Jews, but it was a death camp all the same. It is believed that over 30,000 people were executed there for a variety of "crimes", mostly political in nature. Several thousand prisoners of war, mostly Russian, including Joseph Stalin's son, were executed here. This camp was a training center for the SS officers who would later be sent to run and serve at other camps. The conditions at the camp were deplorable and prisoners were used as laborers in local SS factories. Over 100,000 Jews died there of "natural causes" which included exposure, malnutrition, disease, pneumonia, tuberculosis etc. Their bodies were then cremated and dumped into mass graves. During some restoration work recently, they found another mass grave filled with ashes. The mass graves are marked by low cement benches. Tourists coming to the site mark these benches with stones which I think is a Jewish tradition to show that the dead are not forgotten, sort of a remembrance tribute. It was humbling to be in this place. Where so many truly innocent people lost their lives at the hands of their neighbors. It is a dark period, not just in Germany's history but in world history. We would like to think that it wouldn't have happened in our country, but I just don't know. It is important to remember these types of horrible events and to be uncomfortable and sad. So hopefully we will learn something.

Kiki has developed
a real love of European chocolate (thanks Chizz!) and loves to try the local chocolate when we go into town. So she quickly located Fassbender & Rausch. The store was huge. Truthfully, while Snake will indulge every now and then, chocolate is really not his thing. So he and I spent some time looking around and came across these chocolate sculptures in the shop. The detail is pretty spectacular. This is the Reichstag, all in chocolate. And the boat, the Titanic. It is pretty realistic. Perhaps that is what happened to the original ship. I think a chocolate ocean liner would go down pretty quick if it ran into an iceberg. Just a thought.

Okay so Snake pointed out something pretty interesting while we were there. He noticed that Hitler's name was very rarely mentioned at any of the historical monuments we visited. Most of the literature and the exhibits mention the SS, the Nazis, the 3rd Reich, Himmler, and Goebbels etc. quite prominently. But unless absolutely necessary to whatever the event being described, you don't see Hitler's name in print. We wondered if that was in conscious effort or if it was just the by product of a country trying to move past a very horrible part of its past. After he pointed it out, I made an issue of trying to see if his observation was accurate and he was right.

Our last night we had a great dinner at a very old pub, Zur Ietzten Instanz. It claims to be the oldest built in 1621 and I don't think I can argue that. It seemed very old German, dark paneling, small rooms. We had some typical German food and of course a beer or two or four.

We enjoyed Germany in a different way then we have other trips. It wasn't a slap your knee, guffawing type of a good time. But it was good learning about the city and its history, all of it -- even the distasteful parts. And we brought home some great chocolate which sweetened our memories.

****Berlin - Good, Bad & Chocolate

Spring is busting out all over, or at least from my neighbor's chimney!

2008-05-22T09:54:00.004-07:00

See?

What Did You Say?

2008-05-21T05:31:00.003-07:00

So this past weekend was prom at Kiki's school. They don't have Prom at English schools. Most of the preparation is fairly similar to that of a prom that might be held in middle America, shopping, shoe buying, tux renting but there are a few twists. For example they serve alcohol at prom. You heard me, I didn't stutter. I have heard a number of reasons as to why that is but the fact is it is perfectly legal for 16 year olds to drink here. Now technically the law is that they can drink only with a meal and when accompanied by someone over 18, but truthfully 16 year olds have no problem being served in any pub with or without a meal (and some bars where food isn't even served). The school will tell you that they have a hard time booking a venue without some alcohol sales. I don't buy that. With a school as well connected as this one, I am sure they have someone in the parent population who has an "in" at a hotel or owns one. I think it is that way because it has always been that way. They limit the amount of alcohol a kid can have to 2 glasses of wine and I understand they are very strict about it but I don't know how it is monitored. That is one reason why they do not allow anyone under 16 to attend prom. No matter what. If you are a junior dating a sophomore who is 15, you cannot bring the 15 year old as your date.

So in the weeks prior to the prom, Kiki & I went shopping for a dress, purse, jewelry (no you can't wear something you already have!!!), hair clips, etc. About 10 days prior to prom we went to a florist in our neighborhood to order the boutonniere for her boyfriend. The florist didn't really seem to know what we were talking about when I said I wanted to order a boutonniere but with a little bit of mimicry and some strange hand motions, she figured it out. She wasn't very helpful when we asked if there were different options or flowers that could be used. So I decided we wouldn't order it there. We went to another shop a bit closer to the school. The woman there knew exactly what I meant when I said boutonniere but she advised me in England they are referred to as "button holes". Ohhhhhhh. She was doing probably about 75% of the flowers being ordered for the prom and she seemed to have it all under control. We ordered and went on our way.

It got me thinking about the number of terms or phrases that are completely different here than in the US and without a clear understanding of the UK meaning, you could be asking for something completely different or really something that doesn't exist at all. Now, we have all heard the obvious/common ones like boot for trunk of car, or fries are called chips here but chips (like Ruffles or Lays) are called crisps. But there are some other ones I have come across that have sent me to the internet or an English friend or two for some translation. If you are invited to a fancy dress party, it is not a reason to rush out to Saks and buy a couture gown. 'Fancy Dress' means costume party. I think that one is especially confusing because I have seen some costumes in my day that were so totally un-fancy. In the UK, public schools are really private. Here a public school means that the general public can attend the school . . . as long as the student can pass the entrance exam and their parents can pay the exorbitant fees usually associated with the school. The UK version of public school is called a state school. In the US, you would get your prescription medicine from a pharmacist, in the UK he/she would be called a chemist. I always imagine my chemist with working in the back room with test tubes, pouring lime green liquid from one tube to the other, leaning back, laughing fiendishly and then coming out with my medication (even if they are pills). It gives me a little shiver.

The grocery store provides unending confusion in this area. I giggle every time I see a package of pre-made cupcakes because here they are called fairy cakes. Biscuits in the US are baked doughy, bread type items. In the UK, generally speaking they are cookies. Although there are some "savory" biscuits which are really crackers. Courgette? Zucchini. Aubergine? Eggplant. Actually I think I like these words for those items better. They sound a little ritzy, don't they? I could take my courgettes and aubergines to my fancy dress party, but I think I should leave my zucchinis and eggplant at home. Good idea?

Jinxed

2008-05-15T00:56:00.002-07:00

It's raining today! I can't help but feel responsible after yesterday's post. Sorry England.

We Are Going for A Record

2008-05-14T02:08:00.000-07:00

I think I can finally say "Spring has sprung in London". Now I have to say, I am a little fearful to express that out loud and so boldly but after about a whole week of bee-yoo-tee-ful days here in London, I am feeling a little light headed. Actually my whole body is feeling a bit lighter. I think it is because I haven't been wearing my coat and scarf. So I went out for a walk in the hood and took some photographic evidence of the good weather. I am thinking if it doesn't last I can at least look back at the photos fondly and remember the time there were a few good weather days in a row. The days of no umbrella carrying, ah yes - I remember it well.

This is in the little park near our neighborhood. They always do the nicest flowers here. It just seems like there is something always in bloom. The parks in London are really used by the people, like their own backyards. The weather peeks over 55 and people run out to use them. Picnics, games, reading books, just hanging out. People actually sit in the benches (not sleep on them).

See the little green building in the background? These buildings were built between 1875 and 1914. They are little taxi relief stations. They were provided so that taxi drivers, (at the time horse & buggies) could safely get some food and rest during their shifts. Obviously they didn't want the drivers to stop in at pubs because the temptation to drink might be too much so they created these little stands all over the city. At one point there were over 60 or so. A driver could stop in, get something to eat, get out of the cold or rain, and take a load off for a while safely. They were only open for taxi drivers and the general public was not allowed to use them. There are still a few around today and they are considered historical landmarks. Taxi drivers still hang out at the ones remaining and some are open to the general public for a sandwhich or snack. This one is not very far from our house and I don't think I have ever gone by it when there hasn't been a cab there.

But I must warn you. I did something rash. I took the blankets off the bed. I know, I know. You are probably thinking "Wendy!!! Wait! Are you sure you're ready? It's risky, daring, throwing caution to the wind." True, true, all true. But I am a rebel, a risk taker if you will. I mean it snowed here just a month ago, but I am feeling ready. There comes a time in your life when you are ready to take it to the next level, or in my case take it off to the next level. So I took off the heavy blanket. Then feeling a little giddy, - I went all the way. . . . I took off the electric blanket, unhooked the plugs from the wall and put it in the closet. I must admit I liked it. I think I need more, another fix. Maybe I will take off the flannel sheets next. No WAIT! What they say is true, removing the blankets are the gateway linens! Before you know it I will be putting away the comforter. I have to resist. . . . I think I will take it one day at a time, one day at a time. Give me the strength.

Jersey Girls

2008-05-05T23:11:00.002-07:00

Last night Kiki & I went to see Jersey Boys. It is a play about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons - how they came together as a group, their story, rags to riches and all the pitfalls along the way. What can I say? It was fantastic. Kiki wasn't sure that she would know a lot of the music and somehow my singing in the kitchen of my repertoire of Four Seasons standards didn't help and didn't inspire her to want to see the show. But she had heard from some friends that it was good so we went.

I like how the story is told from the perspective of all four of the original members. So many times when you hear the story of the group, it is usually the story of the one breakout member . It was interesting to hear how the dynamics of the group and the things that were happening to them affected all of the members. And the music. Did you know one of the founding members had a hit before the Four Seasons with a song called "Short Shorts"? Yes, the Nair song. I hadn't realized that was a real song, not just a commercial jingle. My bad. Kiki didn't realize how many of the songs she did know. I was surprised to find out how many generations the Four Seasons actually covered. Kiki was a little "creeped out" when the older generation at the theatre got up and danced during the final number.

It was a hand clapping, toe tapping, old people dancing kind of an evening. Two thumbs up from Kiki & Wendy.

He Was the Best of Authors, He Was the Worst of Husbands

2008-05-04T02:21:00.000-07:00

So the other day, I visited Charles Dickens' house here in London. It is the last remaining of Dickens' residences in London, the rest having been all destroyed. He only lived here a short time but it was a very important time in his career. It was in this house that he wrote Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby and the serialization of The Pickwick Papers began.

It is always interesting learning a bit about famous people that you have heard of all of your life, you know their work or works, but don't really know much about them. I enjoyed learning about him and found out that he was quite the character. I believe that real creative souls have something "different" about them that breeds that creative flair. Whether it be an odd personality type, a fixation or strange upbringing, in my experience the truly gifted artist, writer or musician has something in their life that they can channel or draw upon that helps them create their art. Dickens was born into a middle class family. His dad had some wealth and the family enjoyed a fairly comfortable life in London with social status and a few servants to help them get by. Apparently his dad was not a great money manager and he fell into debt and was sent to Debtor's prison. In those days the whole family went with you. So Papa & Mama Dickens and all 8 children went as well. Well not all 8, Charles, age 12, was sent to work in a boot blacking factory to provide support for the family in prison. Apparently the conditions were quite horrible and the experience scarred him for life. However, it also provided inspiration for many of his works, Oliver Twist and David Copperfield, for example. He takes the character name Fagan directly from one of his overseers at the factory. Quite a bit of responsibility for a young boy and it apparently scarred him for the rest of his life.

Eventually Dickens marries. His wife has two sisters, one of which he moves in right away to help with the wife with the household and the TEN kids as they come along. Dickens has a weird connection with his 15 year-old sister-in-law. Not that any impropriety was ever suggested but when she died unexpectedly after two years he took it very hard. He grieved at the bed where she died and he wore her ring on his finger until he died about 30 years later. I think that is a bit strange. He moved in another sister-in-law and things moved along. It was when he lived in this house that he started to find some commercial success. The Pickwick Papers had been serialized and he was putting some money in the bank. For one of the first times in his life he had some financial security. Which gave him the opportunity to do the things he enjoyed, socializing, entertaining and hanging out with 18 year old actresses.

Dickens started getting groups together to perform his works and it was in this manner that he met Ellen Ternan, a young actress that he hired to play one of the female roles. In those days, actresses were considered very low on the social and moral Victorian ladders. They were basically considered prostitutes. The gossip started when Dickens started spending more time with this actress then with his wife and family. It was quite the scandal of its day, on the level of Burton/Taylor, Woody Allen/Soon-Yi, Gary Hart/Donna Rice. Dickens initially denied the affair but he eventually separated from his wife and moved out. Interestingly enough, the kids, except the oldest son, and his sister-in-law moved with him. The sister-in-law managed his household until his death. I guess it is a good thing Dickens died first, he had run out of sisters-in-laws.

Another thing I found interesting was Dickens' travels to America. He went twice to America to do reading tours. He had discovered that there was lots of money to be made in reading his works in small gatherings. He did this in a room in his home and then took his act on the road. He decided to to America, do some readings , make some money and check out this "New World" everyone was talking about. I think he recognized quite a bit of potential in the country but there were several things that disturbed him. He spoke out quite vociferously against slavery, chewing tobacco and the American press who he felt didn't take seriously their obligation to inform the American public. He also lobbied Congress passionately about copyright laws. At that time there were no copyright provisions between various countries. So Americans could print and copy as many English authors as they wanted and not pay the authors a pence. Dickens obviously thought this was unfair and but was especially peeved about all the money he was missing out on. It fell on deaf ears and Dickens was rebuffed. It didn't stop Dickens from speaking out loud, long and often. Congress wouldn't budge but decided to fire the ultimate shot at Dickens. They told him, basically, that they thought him coming over to the US and making all that money on his speaking tour was cool but they had been thinking. Since he was earning that money on US soil, shouldn't he be paying taxes to the US government on it? Dickens hightailed it back to the UK and still was an advocate of enacting copyright laws but did it from a distance.

The house itself, truthfully, is not all that interesting. Old furniture, old clocks, his writing desk. It was learning all these tidbits that made it remarkable. We tend to romanticize our famous figures, thinking they are all "nice guys". It is surprising when we remember that they were in fact human beings, with all the good and bad that goes along with that. Dickens was, and is, still an extremely popular author. Did you know that not one of his books or short stories has ever gone out of print? That is amazing feat for any author let along an author whose last work, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, was published posthumously in 1870. Actually I think I might enjoy his works a little more knowing that he was a real person. Now - I am going to see what dirt I can dig up on Dr. Seuss.

Snake's On The Plane

2008-05-01T02:23:00.002-07:00

Snake has some business to tend to in the United States. I don't know - something about tending to his portfolio. (Joking!) So we went off to Heathrow yesterday. Always a fun trip (not!). We get to the airport and I, of course, go into "Mom-mode" organizing him, bossing him around a bit. Finally he turns to me and says "Mom, I can handle this - backoff". So I let him. And he did - beautifully. Printed out his boarding cards at the kiosk thing, dropped his bag and made his way to the security line. With a quick hug and kiss, he was off through security - crossing that line where no moms are allowed to go.

Or so I thought. I got a call about 4 1/2 hours after his scheduled departure time. From Snake. On the plane. Apparently United loaded them all up, pulled away from the gate and then discovered a mechanical failure. Which they attempted to fix while they were still on the plane. So they had been on the plane for almost 5 hours, no food, just water and waiting. Oh, they put one of the movies on, National Treasure II. What is United trying to do - kill them??? It was decided that the flight would be cancelled, a new airplane part obtained and the flight would go out at 9:00 a.m. the next day. Bummer.

So Snake and I decided he would just take Heathrow Express home. He & his sister have taken many flights with us over the past two years, they know the airport pretty well, he knows how to get to the Heathrow Express train platform and had enough money to buy a ticket. I figured I would see him in about an hour. The train comes into Paddington station which is a short walk from our flat.

About an hour later, I get another call. From Immigration. Because he is under 18, Her Majesty's Customs officials consider Snake to be a minor, unaccompanied and they won't let him go through Immigration and Customs without knowing an adult is waiting for him on the other side. When I made Snake's reservations, I specifically called United and asked if he was an unaccompanied minor and they said no. Apparently they don't consider them minors after 14. I explained that to the Immigration officer and he said that may very well be, but the government didn't and he would be held there until I got there. I was assured he would be well taken care of. So I hustled down as quick as I could. Visions of Snake being held with drug traffickers, or shoppers trying to skirt by duty laws or grandmothers trying to bring in tea bags from countries on the quarantine list filed my head. Oh the humanity.

When I get to Heathrow, I call the number I am given and told Snake will be brought out immediately. Immediately about 40 minutes later. He is there, looking tired and a little pale. I showed my ID to a very disinterested United employee and we went off on the train. When we are settled, we discuss his "adventure". When he was told that he would not be allowed to go through customs until I got there, Snake was told to take a seat on the bench at Immigration. You know the one, it is in front of the big line where people are sent to sit until they can be suitably interrogated for whatever offense they may have committed. Snake sat there for about 2 1/2 hours. Apparently watching the Colbert Report on his Ipod. All total - he spent about 7 1/2 hours at Heathrow not going anywhere. He wasn't offered any food or even offered the opportunity to buy a snack from a vending machine. So the first stop we had to make was for a Snake snack. Fortified, he was able to see a bit of humour in the situation.

I spent some time complaining to United today about the discrepancy between their minor status and Customs & Immigrations minor definition. I really didn't get anywhere but don't worry, I am penning my letter already in my head. If I had been told Snake was considered an unaccompanied minor to begin with, I would have left to go pick him up the minute he told me the flight was canceled because I would have known they wouldn't just let him walk off the plane. Conservatively that would have saved at least 1 1/2 hours off his waiting time.

So today we had to get up even earlier today to get to Heathrow. This time I made sure he texted or called me every step of the way. His last text said they were starting to go to the runway. I waited to leave the airport until he was pretty sure the plane was going somewhere. So he is off. Or at least I think so. Keep your fingers crossed.

The Distance Just Got a Little Smaller!!

2008-04-26T15:18:00.003-07:00

Okay, those of you that are close personal friends of Wendy (me) know that I am a NFL Draft groupie. I LOVE watching the draft on TV. I have been known to Tivo it if I am going to be out when it is going on but I usually like to watch at least the first two rounds on TV live.

My obsession started many, many years ago (I freaked today when I realized exactly how many years ago it was) when I had knee surgery. I had a skiing accident that pretty much ended my professional shopping career. Oh of course, I was able to keep my amateur status and I could have gone triple A or even to the Canadian league but everyone knows Canadian dollars aren't real money and if you aren't going to make it to the show why bother? Soooooo anyhoo, I was home recovering from my surgery, trapped on the couch, attached to a machine that bent my knee for me continually. I had pretty much run through all of the daytime television and late March is pretty dismal for sports on TV. So I came across the draft and I was hooked!! It has everything, drama, comedy, excitement. There is nothing like the heartbreak of following a draft hopeful that is projected to go early in the first round and watch him slip to the mid or end of the second, signifying a loss of salary in the hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars. The draft is held in NY and as a result there are always Jets and Giants fans on hand. These fans are rabid and are very vested in who their team drafts. Usually they heartily approve or they are so despondent after their team picks that I am surprised no one has jumped from the balcony in the theatre. Sometimes the cameras will show the crowd after the pick and the fans can be slapping each other on the back in joy or have their heads in their hands seemingly trying to make some sense of the disastrous pick of some idiot front office guy who probably never played a down in his life.

So when we moved here, I resigned myself that my draft watching days were over. Last year, I was very pleasantly surprised to find that they had a tape delayed mini version of the draft. They go through it really quickly. you don't get all the analysis or the drama or the commercials and I think they went through the whole first 2 rounds in about an hour and a half. Usually the first round runs well over 4 - 5 hours so to do two rounds that quickly, you know you are getting "draft-lite". In fact our ESPN feed of the draft is hosted by a man who really doesn't know much about American Football at all but he is American and large so I guess that is his qualification. But us expat beggars can't be choosers so I will take what I can get.

This year, I decided to check and see when "draft-lite" would be on when what did my eyes see? There on the TV guide channel the words that brought a tear to my eyes "NFL American Football Draft - LIVE". Live? Live??? I had to blink. Blink again. Hell yes it was live. I watched the entire first round, right up to the time the NFL commissioner handed the announcing job over to Gene Washington. Now, they won't show the other rounds, I don't think but that is okay. All the really good stuff happens in the first round anyway. I am definitely satisfied. I leave you with a quote from Yogi Berra, famous American baseball player/manager, which I think describes the beauty of the draft succinctly.

"You can observe a lot just by watching."

Damn straight Yogi, damn straight.

Quad Biking, Camels & Politics

2008-04-24T01:24:00.000-07:00

Recently a little fun sucking bird took me to task for the time between my blog entries lately. Sorry, I had been having fun living life instead of writing about it. Fun done, writing to begin. I have a few pent up blog entries to get through. So here we go. . . . .

One of the last things we did in Egypt was something that Snake was the most interested in but the rest of us thought it sounded fun as well --- taking quad bikes (ATVs with 4 wheels instead of 3) out into the desert. After being fitted with head scarves to wear over our mouths and faces to keep out the dust, we boarded our quads. Right away I noticed the sticker that indicated no one under 16 should drive but I am sure they didn't really mean Snake. Every insurance-filled-bone in my body should have been screaming out "hey what are you doing?!!" but I went on. No real instructions, just get on and go. I have to admit I was a bit nervous and probably over cautious, which is why I was at the end of the line. I could go as fast as I wanted, although I was encouraged, or nagged, along by our tour guides.

The ride is on sand, not paved road, and it was pretty bumpy. The sand flies in the air all over the place. It is tricky to keep pace, you want to be close enough to keep up but not too close to have to deal with all the dust the quad in front kicks up. Between the scarf and my sunglasses, I managed not to swallow any dust or get any in my eyes. We rode for about an hour and then you come to an area where there is an open air little cafe, where there are hundreds of the same kind of bikes parked. Apparently this is a very popular excursion in the area. We were directed to a small area where we sat and had some tea, took a load off. We were lucky there wasn't another group in our area and we had the place to ourselves. The kids and Bruce tried some shisha which is a fruit based product smoked through a water pipe. (Oh, I can see the disapproving looks --- it's not like we gave them heroin. It is part of the experience, the culture.) It was fairly obvious neither of them had smoked anything before, not much inhaling going on. I don't think I am going to have to drag them out of the shisha bars on Edgeware Road.

While we were sitting around drinking tea and smoking we got to talking to our Egyptian guide Abdulla. He asked where we were from. One interesting thing we noticed was that Egyptians didn't really seem to be able to differentiate between English and US accents. Very often they would think we were from the UK. Anyway when we mentioned the United States, he told us that he would love to talk politics with us but the tour company didn't really like him to. Of course, that was all we needed to hear and so we really encouraged him and encouraged him and encouraged him. Finally he agreed. I thought we would be discussing presidential politics because as I mentioned previously, Egyptians for the most part seem to have quite a good grasp of what is going on in that area in the US. However, that wasn't what he wanted to talk about. He was more interested in talking about the war and the perception of US citizens about the people in the Middle East. He believes very strongly that the US people hate people from the area, Egyptians, Iranians, Saudis etc. He thinks we all lump them into one group; ironically while doing the same himself. This viewpoint is encouraged and perpetuated by the local media. Abdulla professes not to understand why the western world, lead by the United States interjects itself into the region. Then came the most amazing statement of all. He doesn't believe that Middle Easterners orchestrated and carried out the 911 bombings for several reasons. First, all of the "alleged" bombers were Muslims. He believes that Muslims would not purposely cause the death of innocent people because of their faith. His second reason is that this plot was too sophisticated, too complex for a Muslim to conceive let alone carry out. He believes his fellow Egyptians and the Muslims from other countries in the region to be too simple, too pure in thought and deed to come up with something so dastardly. At first I thought maybe he didn't believe 911 happened but that was not what he was saying. He does think it happened, and get this - he believes that Israel (or the Jews as he kept saying) and the US orchestrated it together so the US would have a reason to attack the Middle East. Wow! Where do you go with that? I asked him if he knew other people who shared that belief. He told us that most of his friends believe similarly. I had read before that there were people in the Middle East who didn't believe 911 had happened but I hadn't heard this before. It was really fascinating listening to him talk. He wasn't lecturing, yelling, aggressive or upset. It is his genuine belief that Israel had something to do with this. It took me off guard but after reflection, I think it is very typical of the area. Over our past few days I had heard more than one reference to the different Israel/Egyptian conflicts and other comments about Israel or Jews. Adbulla was sincere and straightforward and I think he really believes what he is saying. Chizz and I found it fascinating and we talked to him for some time. It was really interesting getting a perspective on the whole war thing from this part of the world. We (meaning the US and our partners in these endeavors) may like to think that we know what the people here want but I don't think we have a clue. As incredible as it may seem to us, not every country or every people wants to be like America or Americans or have what America has or Americans have. It is way too complex to boil it down to "democracy or bust".

After our great conversation and a quick bit to eat, we wandered over to a Bedouin encampment. I think the idea is that you get a feel for the lifestyle. I am not so sure these people live right here but apparently not far away. There were the ever-present camel rides. The kids and Chizz went, I politely declined. Hey!! I have ridden 2 camels in my life which I am willing to be is about 2 more than most of you - so off my back!!! Besides, someone needed to take pictures. We got a view of how the women make bread on an open fire. It was actually like a little tortilla. They managed to cook the bread, offer a sample and watch their
children, who were playing nearby, all at the same time.

There was a cool demonstration of weaving on a very complex loom kind of thing.

Kiki made friends with the little boy hiding by the loom. She scooped him up and carried him about for a while. He kept wanting to kiss her. Adorable.

So we watched the sunset from the desert and it was brilliant. We climbed up a little hill so we could see it better.

Afterwards we got back on our quads and headed back for our 1 hour ride back to the base station. This time however, they wouldn't let us wear our sunglasses. Being a contact lens wearer, I was more than a little worried I would get sand and dust in my eyes and it would be all over. But the guide encouraged us and we went on. To be on the safe side, I squinted all the way back. I am so going to blame my crow's feet on this adventure, regardless of the fact that they were there before this trip. It was much scarier going back because it was dark and it made it more difficult to see the rocks and other debris that you should try and avoid. I stayed much closer to Kiki who was in front of me this time so I could see what she did. So, to mock an old parental saying, if she had driven off the bridge so would I. But much to my relief, she is a good driver and led me home (sort of).

We were so dust filled, that the black capris I was wearing looked light brown. Our showers that night ran very muddy for quite some time. I think that is the sign of a good outing, don't you?

Striking Fear Into the Heart of One Man

2008-04-22T00:00:00.000-07:00

The other day I went to Stoke-on-Trent, home to the pottery factories and more importantly the pottery factory stores of Royal Doulton, Wedgewood, Spode, Emma Bridgewater, Portmerion, and many more. I shipped my treasures home via UPS and they are starting to arrive.

Be afraid Chizz, be very afraid.

XOXOXO