Hangin' with Haberlachs

The park across the street from Linda and Adam's house.


Arthur's getting good at catching!


This girl gets cuter every time we see her!

"You're going the wrooong waaayyy!!"

This is my first experience with the "keep left" driving system (I think some parts of Europe do it that way, but we did zero driving when we were there). I haven't actually done any driving since we got here; it's all been Nathan. But it's still terrifying to sit on the left side of the car and constantly be going the wrong way! Nathan has been doing great, and I certainly trust his driving skills, but I'm constantly fighting the urge to shriek and cover my eyes. The only annoyance now for him is that the turn signal and wiper stalks are also reversed, so he's constantly turning on his wipers when he's trying to signal!

At some point I realize I'm going to have to drive that thing. But today we're taking the bus up to Circular Quay (pronounced "key") to walk around central Sydney and see, among other things, the Opera House!

Getting there is half the fun?

Our travel to Sydney went astonishing well. We were expecting lots of bad behavior and less sleeping then necessary, but it all worked out pretty well.

Qantas pre-boards families with young children, so that was a happy surprise. But that was nothing compared to when we got to our seats, which had an excessive amount of leg room, and even footrests -- footrests!!!! Turns out we were in the last row of "premium economy" -- there was a small divider between our seats and the row behind, and I looked back and noticed that the seats there were much less plush. I quickly sent Linda an email on my phone, then sent her a pic. She was jealous that we had somehow been upgraded to this special class!

We all managed a reasonable amount of sleep -- some with, some without sleep aids -- and the 14-hour flight went relatively quickly -- that was when trouble started. Another big plane full of people arrived from Hong Kong about the same time, so the queue for customs was huge. I don't even remember how long it took us to get through. Then we got our checked bags, which wasn't too bad. But then we had to wait in another insane queue for "quarantine," which is where they check to make sure you aren't bringing anything into the country that will infest the local flora or fauna. Finally we got outside, into the fresh morning air, where we got to wait in yet another bloody queue (check out all my local lingo!) for a taxi. Next time I see another line like that I'm going to have to be seriously medicated. "Don't lose it now," Nathan implored me. I managed to make it until we all piled ourselves and our stuff into a "maxi taxi" and headed over to Randwick. Whew!

Tuesday morning in Sydney

At least I'm pretty sure it's Tuesday, which would mean Monday afternoon in California. It was not a great night for jet-lagged toddlers here. They woke up periodically from 1:30 on, and Nathan finally got up with them for good at 5. I had a brutal headache, possibly from jet lag, possibly from lack of coffee. (There is no coffee machine in this apartment; I found this out a couple weeks ago, so Linda bought me a coffee maker, but she was sick with food poisoning yesterday so we haven't seen her yet.) Hopefully it won't be more than another day or two before they're adjusted. Nathan and I haven't been feeling too bad jet-lag-wise, just a little tired.

First unexpected cultural difference: eggs are unrefrigerated in the store.

Second one: most of the restaurants nearby seem to be BYOB.

Speaking of coffee, at some point I need to figure out how to order it; Adam says they don't have American coffee everywhere, just espresso and cappuccino, because of Turkish and Greek influences.

View of city lights from our flat

Here we are!

The Southern Hemisphere! The flight went astoundingly well, and we're in our home for the next month: the flat of Steve and Trudy, who are living in our house! (When we were on the plane at some point it hit me that there were probably some strange people walking into our house right then, just movin' on in, like we have now at their home. It was the first time the whole plan seemed weird and crazy to me!

We're all kind of punchy from jet lag, and the boys are napping finally, so that's what I'm going to do...

Just a little patience

No, this is not another Guns N' Roses post, sorry... It's me that needs a little patience, mostly with my youngest son. He is intensely cute, very affectionate and usually pretty well-behaved for a two-year-old. But he is a stop-and-smell-the-roses kind of guy, whereas I am interested in getting moving, going forward, getting the next thing done.

Yesterday we went over to the coast to go berry-picking, which involved some walking through fields. I was interested in moving on from the ollallieberries to the strawberries (yum!) whereas he was interested in checking out the puddle around the leaky irrigation system feature. Unlike his older brother, he does not respond to calls of "C'mon! We're all going this way!" and has no fear that he might get left behind. So there he stands, while the older brother and I are hundreds of feet away. I sigh impatiently and call again, then call to my friend to see if she can coax him along. For the millionth time, I think to myself "I can't wait until they're old enough to [insert one of any number of tasks -- keep up, hike with us, get their own beverages -- here]."

Maybe it was the fresh, cool air or the slower, coast-side, agricultural feel, but it hit me that I could be saying that forever, or at least until we're old enough that I'm trying to keep up with them, and instead maybe I should just look at things from a two-year-old's perspective and try to figure out what really is so interesting about that puddle.

It won't be easy for a caffeinated, often half-crazed, to-do-list-obsessed multi-tasker like me, but maybe the start of a month-long vacation is the perfect time for me to make such a resolution and try to stick to it.

Those lousy community organizers

Oh, how I love this. During the campaign Palin was all about how Obama didn't really have any responsibility as a "community organizer," and now she's going on and on about how she doesn't need some silly title like "governor" to work for Alaska. If Republicans really think she is their great hope, they may as well go home.

Nowhere is the power of resentment to trump reason more flagrantly illustrated than in the incessant complaint by Palin and her troops that she is victimized by a double standard in the “mainstream media.” In truth, the commentators at ABC, NBC and CNN — often the same ones who judged Michelle Obama a drag on her husband — all tried to outdo each other in praise for Palin when she emerged at the Republican convention 10 months ago.

....

The Palinists’ bogus beefs about double standards reached farcical proportions at Fox News on the sleepy pre-Fourth Friday afternoon when word of her abdication hit the East. The fill-in anchor demanded that his token Democratic stooge name another female politician who had suffered such “disgraceful attacks” as Palin. When the obvious answer arrived — Hillary Clinton — the Fox host angrily protested that Clinton had never been attacked in “a sexual way” or “about her children.”

Americans have short memories, but it’s hardly ancient history that conservative magazines portrayed Hillary Clinton as both a dominatrix cracking a whip and a broomstick-riding witch. Or that Rush Limbaugh held up a picture of Chelsea Clinton on television to identify the “White House dog.” Or that Palin’s running mate, John McCain, told a sexual joke linking Hillary and Chelsea and Janet Reno. Yet the same conservative commentariat that vilified both Clintons 24/7 now whines that Palin is receiving “the kind of mauling” that the media “always reserve for conservative Republicans.” So said The Wall Street Journal editorial page last week. You’d never guess that The Journal had published six innuendo-laden books on real and imagined Clinton scandals, or that the Clintons had been a leading target of both Letterman and Leno monologues, not to mention many liberal editorial pages (including that of The Times), for much of a decade.

Almost time to go...

One week from now we'll be in Australia! We'll be fighting jet lag and recovering from a 14-hour flight with two toddlers, but we'll be in Australia! The guest room is pretty much complete. There are some relatively minor clean-up issues in the rest of the house. Last week I packed two suitcases with clothes for me and the boys. This week I need to get the van washed, renew prescriptions, clear out the fridge, obtain some Australia cash, and store away (in the outside office) stuff I don't want our home exchangers messing with (sewing machine, Roomba). And I need to pack carry-on bags.

I'm looking forward to hearing lots of cool Australian accents (are there any good movies with Australian accents in them, so I can start training my ears?); apparently the Australians are very British, and so they say stuff like "lift" and "que," which I get a kick out of. I hope this also includes "trousers" instead of "slacks," because I've always hated the word "slacks" when referring to pants (I think it brings to mind something cheap, plaid and uncomfortable and not suited to Midwestern humidity and heat). And maybe we'll even get to hear Athena's budding Australian-speak!

Top 5 Fridays

My five favorite recipes from the CSA so far this season:

5) Oriental Tabbouleh

4) Double-dutch mac 'n' cheese with chard (scroll down)

3) Carrot-apple-raisin-walnut-etc salad

2) Middle Eastern -style greens

1) Steamed hot and sour bok choy

The Pop Report

Almost a year ago I decided to try to get off the diet pop. Finally, it seems I'm close. The last few weeks I've only been drinking it about twice a week, and it seems that about half the time I drink it I immediately get a headache. So that's a good thing. And I figure pop won't be as pervasive in Australia as it is here, so that will help. I here they really know how to do coffee there, so I expect I'll be drinking a lot of that.

In other diet news, I'm trying out a dairy-free diet to see if it makes me feel any better, tummy-area-wise. Hopefully they have soy milk at the coffee joints in Sydney, or else I better get used to my coffee black.

Manic Monday!

Most common time for time-outs? Definitely the dinner-cooking period.

The Oakland Zoo seems a lot smaller, and it's hills flatter, when pushing only one kid (Arthur's a big boy!) and pushing him in the Chariot.

re: Washington Post: Why aren't newspapers seriously considering going to a non-profit format, like NPR?

Revamp

This weekend our house will be transformed: I started today with a sorting and purging of the toys -- out goes all the baby stuff. (This took longer than I expected, probably because it's the first a real toy purge has ever performed in das Schrenkhaus.)

Tomorrow we continue moving most of the office furniture out of the soon-to-be guest bedroom, which will accommodate one of the two couples staying in our house during the swap. Sewing and crafting supplies go to the new office-nook in the sun room, then the treadmill and its TV go to the guest room.

We're starting to get close to our deadline: our flight to Sydney leaves in two weeks and two days! It is truly amazing how much stuff we have: not just the usual stuff, like clothes, books and toys, but there seems to be an endless stream of items that don't fit neatly into any category, like the short cord in a plastic clamshell that I found when I cleaned out my car to get it bathed earlier this week. I think it's from the car charger I bought for my phone, which provided cords for a couple different kinds of phones. Or all these frames... why do I have so many freaking frames?!? I should have a frame sanding party, so people will come to my garage and help me sand the frames and then paint them to match the colors of my walls, which I read in all the magazines is the thing to do.

Manic Monday!

A collection of random thoughts...

I love how well my 2-year-old communicates: "I get in my seat and eat gwiwed cheese!"

I also love how boxes of random eBayed Legos show up at our house from time to time.

But I hate Target's web site.

And I was too tired to post this last night.

Sue to restore Hetch Hetchy

Oh snap!

Bay Area water hypocrisy exposed

Published online on Wednesday, Jun. 24, 2009

By Bill McEwen / The Fresno Bee

One of these days, a water-starved farmer will walk into federal court and demand that O'Shaughnessy Dam come down, finally restoring glacial Hetch Hetchy Valley to its natural grandeur and releasing a natural flow into the Tuolumne River.

Such a lawsuit wouldn't get the farmer more water. But it would expose the hypocrisy of Bay Area environmentalists who depict San Joaquin Valley residents as ignorant hillbillies making a mess of the desert and the Delta with their irrigated farms.

Hetch Hetchy -- the twin to Yosemite Valley -- should have been restored decades ago, say many environmental groups, including the Sierra Club.

But the only way the dam falls is if a federal judge orders it. And no environmental group will sue. Why?

They say it's better handled with cooperation and education. My explanation is simpler: it's because the dam holds some of the best drinking water on earth -- granite-filtered water reserved mostly for the allegedly environmentally conscious folks of San Francisco and other Bay Area cities.

Amazing, isn't it?

But the only way the dam falls is if a federal judge orders it. And no environmental group will sue. Why?

They say it's better handled with cooperation and education. My explanation is simpler: it's because the dam holds some of the best drinking water on earth -- granite-filtered water reserved mostly for the allegedly environmentally conscious folks of San Francisco and other Bay Area cities.

Amazing, isn't it?

Environmentalists sue to restore the Owens River and Mono Lake. Environmentalists sue to restore the San Joaquin River and bring back its salmon run.

But they won't unleash their lawyers on Hetch Hetchy, one of the world's great wonders, or demand that San Francisco surrender its drinking water so that the Tuolumne River can teem with salmon again.

Can I prove that environmental groups are picking other battles to avoid a backlash among their Bay Area supporters? No. But it sure looks that way.

Here in the Valley, east-side farmers are giving up, on average, 170,000 acre-feet of water each year for the reintroduction of salmon into the San Joaquin.

Shouldn't Bay Area residents forfeit a similar amount -- about half of Hetch Hetchy's storage capacity -- to recharge the Tuolumne, the San Joaquin and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta with cold Yosemite water?

Shouldn't we enjoy Hetch Hetchy Valley, as it was before powerful San Francisco interests stole Tuolumne water rights -- and broke John Muir's heart -- in the early 1900s?

San Franciscans beg to differ. They claim that the dam has created a beautiful lake and Hetch Hetchy Valley was overrated -- its spectacular vistas mere figments of Muir's imagination. Two of the loudest opponents against restoring Hetch Hetchy are Sen. Dianne Feinstein and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Three years of drought and the dramatic degradation of the Delta are hog-tying west-side farmers. They are trying to survive with a fraction of their usual water deliveries.

What are San Franciscans giving up? Not their precious Hetch Hetchy tap water.

Let's give the San Francisco greenies a dose of aggressive environmentalism. Let's sue to restore Hetch Hetchy.

The columnist can be reached at bmcewen@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6632. Check out his blog at fresnobeehive.com/news.

Recession depression obsessions

A couple weeks ago I was at the Menlo Park Farmers Market and my favorite vendor (Phil the Prune Man, guy in the 49ers or Giants cap with all the dried fruit and nuts) was pontificating on the state of the world, as he is wont to do.

"I just don't want to know anymore; it's too depressing."

He was talking, of course, about Iran Iraq health care bailout layoffs blahdee blahdee blah. It was then that I realized why Jon & Kate and American Idol absorb people's attention the way they do: people just can't deal with the death toll in Iraq and the chaos in Iran or really understand credit default swaps and GM's bankruptcy. So they look at the Gosselins, whose lives they can sort of relate to, but who have problems big enough to make their own look small. They look to American Idol for, well, I'm not 100% sure because I've never watched it, but maybe there's just something about the elimination/reality/game show genre that's super-addictive.

Mommy wants turtle shoes!

Yesterday I was reading Parenting magazine (which really should be called Mommying, because it's 100 percent geared toward women, as far as I can tell) and found an item singing the praises of this lovely piece of footware. Being the lover of turtles, wedges and hot pink that I am, I decided that we needed enough shampoo, etc, for a trip to Target! As usual, my first task after entering the Target was to purchase smoothies and salty snacks for the munchkins, so as to keep them from whining through the entire shoe shopping expedition. But when we got to the shoe department, no hot pink turtle sandals were to be found.

After spending another 45 minutes or so browsing around the Target, and oddly not finding about three other things I had on my list, I went home and, during nap time, checked the Target web site. Yes, indeed, they are available! But only in size 11. Let's check eBay, I say. Oh, yes, lots of sizes available, many for more than double the list price!1 What's going on here? My best guess is that someone who works at Target or Parenting bought up a bunch of these after they find out it was going in the magazine, but before the item ran. Very clever. Either way, Target is really making out on some of their fashion items.

Manic Monday!

Anyone know where to get Dots (potty training motivation) in bulk?

I may have to go to Target today.

Redwood City needs many things, but this would be a good one to start with (or maybe it could come right after In n Out).

Top 5 Friday!

Top 5 Things I may do with my extra free time:

5. Sew

4. Scrapbook

3. Blog

2. Become a professional organizer

1. Start a Redwood City news blog

Those Americans

Even at the start of the Obama era, I have to marvel at the dumb stuff we continue to pull years or decades after the rest of the world has clued in. Like, oh I dunno, climate change.

Or how about the fact that our idiotic drug and gun policies are destroying Mexico?

Or that there are two dozen other industrialized nations -- including ones that our soldiers fight with -- who allow gays to serve openly in the military? My mind is particularly boggled by the story of this guy who was an Arabic translator who was fired six months after 9/11 because he was gay!!

Maybe when I go to Australia next month, I can affect, say, a German accent? Or maybe just wear a shirt that says "My house has solar panels, I don't own a gun and I don't hate gay people. Oh, and I believe the earth is a few trillion years old."

Manic Monday!

There's a lot up in Emerald Hills that Nathan and I wanted to buy a couple years ago and build a fab MKD house on; the new owners have built a house that looks like it belongs in some dismal midwestern subdivision -- and it's GRAY! (what's the emoticon for "gag"?)

I hate it when I'm craving In n Out but don't have time to drive to Mountain View or Milbrae. Stupid Redwood City.

Least favorite thing about homeownership: disposing of rodents that die in our yard.

Have I mentioned recently that I wish Janice Joplin were alive to beat Faith Hill unconscious with a copy of her unbearable cover of "Piece of My Heart"?

Manic Monday!

Project Runway starts up again right after we get back from Sydney!

If I'm getting ready for an outing with my two kids (and no other adults) and I don't use screaming, panicking, rushing or a cattle prod, it takes an hour.

My spice drawer I adore:

This is almost as bad as bailing out GM

Jerry Hill wants to give Half Moon Bay a bunch of money to pay their lawsuit settlement, which was brought against them because of their no-growth policies. If Half Moon Bay has to go under and the residents get fewer services, good! Because the no-growth policies came from the residents, who believe: "I'm in, now shut the door!"

"The fear and concern for me and the state is a potential bankruptcy not due to financial mismanagement, but due to a lawsuit that created a unique situation for Half Moon Bay," said Assemblyman Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, who introduced the legislation.

Click here to find out if Hill is your representative, and don't vote for him.

And thanks to Watch Dog San Mateo for pointing this out.

This is a lot of drugs

On Monday I spent almost 3 hours in a doctor's office getting dozens of little pin pricks and needle marks and blowing into some kind of contraption and hitting off a inhaler to try to figure out why I'm sometimes (mostly during intense exercise) short of breath. The findings:

- I'm very allergic to mold (which I found out from a blood test a couple years ago) -- but who, exactly, isn't?
- I'm a tiny bit allergic to cats, but not at all to dogs;
- My ability to rapidly exhale (presumably indicative of my lung capacity) is so-so, and improved by 30 percent by an inhaler with a couple medications in it.

It was a lot of information at once, and kind of overwhelming. The doctor wrote out this detailed "plan" that includes the inhaler, two pills and two nasal sprays. She drew out this whole explanation complete with sketches of some lung parts, but I didn't really understand it and of course I can't read any of her handwriting. Maybe I'll get a clearer explanation at my follow up appointment a month from now.

We'll see how I feel after a couple weeks of serious allergy meds.

Screw our schools

That appears to be the official stance of the vast majority of Redwood City residents. Today's election on Measure E put one issue on the ballot: yes or no. Yes = give our school district money it needs to function, No = our children who don't go to private school can make do without, say, science teachers and pencils. More than 60 percent of people who bothered to vote in this election voted yes, but we live in this effed up state where everything needs a 2/3 super-majority to pass, and we all know that you can't get more than half of any one group to agree on anything, unless it's, say, a group of newspaper reporters choosing whether to get liquored up or not get liquored up after a long day in the newsroom.

More than 75 percent of registered voters couldn't be bothered to drag their sorry hides to their local polling place (likely as not to be all of 100 yards from their front door), putting them solidly in the "screw our schools" camp with those who voted "no."

Manic Monday!

I get the feeling Conan O'Brien is aimed at my age group, but only the most milquetoast among us.

Regular viewers of Lost and Cubs fans have a lot in common.

Nathan and I did not sign up for all this public scrutiny when we signed up to have a crew of cameramen follow us around and record every move of us and our eight kids.

End of an era

The least-funny host in the history of the Tonight Show retires. Does anyone under 50 watch that guy?

Anyone remember when Conan O'Brien was, like, edgy?

Top 5 Fridays

My five favorite recipes from the CSA so far this season:

5) Oriental Tabbouleh

4) Double-dutch mac 'n' cheese with chard (scroll down)

3) Carrot-apple-raisin-walnut-etc salad

2) Middle Eastern -style greens

1) Steamed hot and sour bok choy

Good times

How did we miss this when we were in Orlando??

Celebrity fans to buy Cubs?

Fans owning the team can't be bad, right?

We are so far behind

Mmm, some local politicians are endorsing water recycling. Good work! How long have we been living in this near-desert?

Have I mentioned how insane it is that we don't have any kind of water use regulations around here? I'm pretty sure I have. But I'll mention it again. Why are Californians so incredibly delusional when it comes to water???

Baseball too nonchalant about steroids

Morissey gets it right, as usual.

Oh for Pete's sake

Really? Someone's trying yet again to build something on the bay in Redwood City? Yeah, that's worked out so well in the past.

I'm not the only one creeped out by Redwood Shores, right? A former council member who lived in Redwood Shores called it "Stepford Shores."

caffeine, bdays, Big Unit

the Cubs are here on my bday?
oy; maybe it's time for Randy Johnson to retire...
this coffee I'm trying from whole foods tastes a lot like coffee; and surprisingly, I'm liking that!

Top 5 Fridays

I'm nothing if not inconsistent.

Top Five Things I Don't Miss About the MLB Package:

5. Len

4. Bob

3. The same commercials every half inning (at least I could usually fast forward through them)

2. -$180 a year

1. Um, baseball games are kinda long.

The Pop.

I seem to have successfully gotten myself down to having one diet pop every other day since I returned from Illannoy (a trip like that is far too stressful to go without at least one a day). The question is, am I ready to go cold turkey? Or maybe a couple times a week? Last time I cut way back on the diet pop I got bronchitis, which totally sucked. Like, a lot. So you can see where I'd be a bit nervous...

Manic Monday

Something new to try to get me to blog more: a random, sometimes Manic list of stuff I can post on Monday

Some blogs I've been reading:
Urban Chickens
Adam's House of Misc

I'd rather not hear about your TWO-year-old backsliding on his potty training when I can barely get my three-and-a-half-year-old to sit on a potty.

I like this.

screw you, San Carlos!

Linda and Adam will be visiting the Bay Area in a few weeks (YAY!!!) and wanted to have a park picnic with friends. Burton Park in San Carlos would be nice, we thought. So I emailed the parks department and, lo and behold, there were picnic sites available for the last weekend in May! Kind of amazing...

Reservations are over-the-phone only, so I called the park department:
Me: "I'd like to reserve the tot playground area."
Parks lady: "Do you live in San Carlos?"
Lady: "Oh! You have to live in San Carlos. I should have asked when you emailed..."

So I went on to the Redwood City parks site, to see if I could reserve and are at the lovely park where we had Arthur's bday party. It was available, and as far as I could tell, you don't have to be an RC resident, of course.

Who does San Carlos think it is, Shallow Alto?

"I'll start believing environmentalists when..."

This column by a Central Valley farmer makes some good points, particularly on#10!!

Hopefully I'm not the kind of environmentalist he complains about; I do my best with my solar panels, bike trailers and organic local produce...

#10: I’ll start believing San Francisco environmentalists when they stop taking their drinking water from a national park.

#9: I’ll start believing the French on energy and environmental issues when they turn off their nuclear reactors. Nuclear power cannot be good in France and bad in the U.S.

#8: I’ll start believing Europeans about organic farming when they stop chain smoking.

What a bunch of spoiled babies

"We want to be able to get to Santa Monica fast, without emitting greenhouse gasses, but only if the yucky part is in the *sniff* East Bay."

How much do you want to bet that the Shallow Altans, if they get their way, will roll their eyes and sigh about how they would love to take the train instead of flying, except they would have to go over the bridge to *gasp* Fremont!

Yay Woodside! -- wait, Woodside?!?

After years of being mostly hostile to cyclists, Woodside has suddenly made a dizzying number of improvements to its roads. Perhaps if I were some kind of citizen journalist, and/or had some free time, I'd find out who was responsible for this. Thanks to the Redwood City Bicycle Pedestrian Committee (which I helped found, back when I had time) for passing this on.


April has been a month of bike safety progress in Woodside! Since the Peninsula Committee's Woodside Ride on April 4th:

1) Caltrans reduced the speed limit from 40 to 35 mph on westbound Woodside Rd (Hwy 84) approaching the I-280 intersection This is the area where Michelle Mazzei was run down and killed by a motorist in October 2005.

NOW

2) With TDA funding, Woodside reconfigured the westbound bike lane on Woodside Rd approaching the Canada Rd intersection so that straight-through cyclists are not channeled to the right of the right-turn-only lane.

BEFORE

NOW

3) With the same TDA funding, Woodside extended the NO PARKING red curb along the eastbound Woodside Rd bike lane (east of the Canada Rd intersection). The bike lane is now 12 feet wide where parking is permitted east of the landscaped triangle.

BEFORE

NOW

4) In another TDA-funded project, Woodside replaced a depressed drain grate in the westbound Woodside Rd bike lane west of Buck's Restaurant with a flush, at-grade solid plate. Cyclists now have one fewer obstacles to navigate. (They can now concentrate on getting around the cars that park in the bike lane, legally. Unthinking cyclists frequently choose to park in the bike lane when they go for a ride.)

BEFORE

NOW

5) Woodside has diagonally striped the northbound shoulder of Portola Rd between Sand Hill and Mountain Home Roads to inform cyclists and motorists alike that the shoulder is not a bike lane. There is a steep-walled drainage ditch adjacent to the shoulder. This stretch of Portola Road is a shared roadway.

BEFORE

NOW

Heading Down Under?

We've got our best lead yet on a home exchange in Sydney, where Linda and fam are for the year. Some 'hood called Randwick, which sounds very Australian. I didn't think it would take quite so long to find an acceptable home exchange.

I'm also starting to think about all the things we need to do around the house before a home exchange happens. I think I could spend all day, every day for two weeks working on projects and organizing around the house and not be finished...

BAD Redwood City!

I just got a totally bogus ticket parked downtown. I shall be fighting it...

UPDATE: I called my contact at the city and he jumped on it -- I guess bogus parking tickets are not the way to get people to return to downtown and spend money. The traffic sergeant called me personally and said he was taking care of it and if I got any more notices in the mail to call him!

Go Redwood City!

Conserving water, like we didn't know that.

Are you familiar with freezing rain?

If you were in Illannoy this month, then probably so. Yes, this month: April. It's freaking APRIL people! Why Do You Still Live There?!?!?!?!?!?

Go, Obama, Go!

Now we know what we're getting Arthur for his birthday. Make sure to scroll all the way down.

Suck it, Starwood

Don't ever go to a time share presentation. No matter what you are promised. These people are big fat lying liars. $100 for 90 minutes of your time? Yeah, right. More like 2-and-a-half hours, and they'll try to give you half the money at the end, and jam your cell phone, so no one can rescue you.

Don't do it, even if you think you might want to buy a time share. Because you don't. Anyone who can do simple math can figure that out.

Finally, if you ever do get sucked in to going to one of these things, bring a tape recorder. I'm sure they'll love that!

No exercise without electricity!

One commenter calls this the fluff that's killing the Chronicle; I call it creative reporting by a worker bee who was probably sent by his editor to cover a potentially boring event.

(thanks, Wags!)

Who's the @$$hole at Microsoft that came up with this?

This morning I was using my laptop and my 21-month-old was sitting next to me on the couch and he suddenly shoved a blank onto my lap, thinking I might be cold, I guess. In the process he banged on the keyboard and my screen turned UPSIDE DOWN. I restarted a couple times, and the Windows screen before the actual launch of Windows was right side up! Luckily my husband's laptop was nearby and I was able to easily find the solution.

Someone has to have waaaay too much time on their hands to do something like this. Microsoft needs to lay off about 25 percent of its workforce.

LGLIZ IT

and EFF OFF are two license plates I've seen recently. How did they make it past the DMV censors?

Top 5 on-the-go exercises

Oh, yeah, I haven't done this in a while!

Top 5 Strength Exercises For When You Have No Equipment and/or Only 20 Minutes:

5. Push ups (military, knee, bench, wall, whatever you can do!)

4. Tricep dips (when it gets easy, lift one leg straight out in front of you)

3. Walking lunges (keep going until your quads quiver)

2. Bicycle (for abs)

1. Superwoman (lay on your belly and lift all your limbs; for your back)

Not cookin yet...

Still working on the kitchen...

Procrastination

In case anyone's wondering: yes, I realize I'm remiss in not blogging about Feinstein's remarks at the inaugural lunch and the Chronicle's alleged dire straits. I just haven't had the time to sit and ruminate about how to do that without degenerating into a screaming rant.

Also, is it dorky to take a blog roll-call? AFAIK, the only people reading this blog are:
Linda
my sister (thanks a lot!)
people with google alerts to "Hetchy"
and people with google alerts to "Terry Gross sucks"

Our Tuesday

We went up to the SF zoo and took a scenic drive for nap time before heading to a playdate. Rough times in Feb. in Northern California.

:-p

I am so cranky today. It's a non-pop day. Coincidence?

New laptop

So little :-)

New book

In the chaos of the kitchen remodel, I can't seem to find my copy of Cadillac Desert, so I'm on to Loving Frank, which gets lots of praise and is my book club's selection this month.

On-and-off

For almost a week now I've successfully had pop only every other day! This is a big step, to go without diet pop for a whole day on a regular basis. I'm not sure what my next step should be; one day on, two days off...?

We're getting a new kitchen!

Yes, it's really happening. Follow the transformation here...

STILL more evidence the TSA is evil and wants to ruin flying for everyone

This is from a guy we know who does massive bike trips around the world with his wife:

If anyone on the mailing list has any contact with the TSA, I would
greatly appreciate any help you can give. My fuel bottle, and
incredibly difficult to find fuel pump for my MSR Whisperlite
International Stove, were removed by the TSA in San Francisco, without
us being paged (we were at the flight over four hours early),
and despite the fact that this fuel bottle and fuel pump have never
been used, and never contained any fuel within them (and thus are
completely safe for flying).

I'm not sure what we're going to be able to do. We're incredibly
beat after 40 hours of travel, and have no more internet time.
If anyone could help with this, I'd greatly, greatly appreciate it.

Here's some of the details:

Hello,

My name is Greg Kaiser. I flew Delta Flight 618 out of SFO on
Saturday, Feb. 14. I received notice that a fuel bottle was
removed from my luggage. I got then notice when I arrived at my
final destination, CPT (Cape Town, South Africa). According to the
card, this was done by Covenant Aviation Security, LLC,
Screener ID: 126374.

This fuel bottle has never been used, nor never contained any fuel
of any sort. Thus, it is not in violation of any TSA Safety Restrictions.
Furthermore, within this fuel bottle was the fuel pump for my Mountain
Safety Research (MSR) Whisperlite International Camp Stove. Like the
fuel bottle, this fuel pump has never been used, and never been exposed
to any fuel.

My wife and I now find ourselves in Cape Town, South Africa, about to
embark on a large scale bicycle tour
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bicycle-safari), and find ourselves
without the means to cook food, or without our backup source for
boiling water. We have all the other components of this piece of
equipment which is vital to our survival (including the stove itself,
which your agents correctly did not remove from our luggage, and an
entire field repair kit).

If you still have this fuel bottle and fuel pump in your possession,
we request that you immediately ship it to our hotel in Cape Town.
Time is very short, as Feb. 20 will be our last day in the hotel.
If you do not still have this fuel bottle and fuel pump in your
possession, we request that you immediately contact Mountain Safety
Research to get at least a replacement fuel pump to our hotel no
later than Feb. 20 to correct this mistake.

The hotel my wife (Mary Kelly) and I (Greg Kaiser) are at through
Feb. 20 is:

Best Western Cape Suites Hotel
Corner De Villiers & Constitution Street,
Cape Town 7925
South Africa

We have very limited internet access and are 7 to 10 hours time
difference from your officies. We hope you can resolve this
mistake immediately, as we put considerable effort into assuring
that all of our luggage meets TSA standards, and do not want our
once-in-a-lifetime trip, or our health and survival on this trip,
threatened by your mistake.

Thank you,

Greg Kaiser

Oops, we did it again

Yet again Redwood City has effed up in its efforts to revitalize downtown and gotten into legal trouble.

This time, a judge basically told the city to start over again in its environmental review of the downtown plan, which calls for 12-story buildings, thousands of apartments, etc. This is a few years after the city had to write a formal letter of apology and post a plaque in honor of their victims in a case of overzealous eminent domain seizure.

I need to go to the dentist

Philanthropy

It's not often I truly envy the super-rich; I ride my bike past their houses two or three times a week and gasp and gawk; I drove my dream car for a few years. But what really makes me dream is the foundations; what good could I do with, say, five hundred million dollars?

I got to thinking about this when I came across this article about Andy Grove, while I was doing research about the funders of the non-profit I just started working for.

Friday the 13th: Blame someone else day.

Apparently today is Blame Someone Else day. Of course, for some people, every day is Blame Someone Else Day. But I'm not naming names today.

Water water...um, nowhere

I am reading this amazing book called Cadillac Desert (see left) about the history of water, or the lack thereof, in the American West. It starts, naturally, with the Owens Valley water grab by Los Angeles in the late 19th and early 20th century. It is truly incredible the lenths the went to -- and are still going to -- to get water to Los Angeles, which is essentially in a desert. Basically, they took water from an agricultural region -- the Owens Valley, east of the Sierras -- and brought it to the San Fernando Valley to make it an agricultural reason. That may be oversimplifying it a bit, but thousands of people died and many more than that lost their homes and livelihood along the way. And Manifest Destiny kept most people in power -- all the way up to the White House -- from questioning the moral and financial soundness of these plans.

I'm about a quarter of the way through the book, which is sizeable, and so far it's very readable and I recommend it. If you have limited reading time, though, at least get it from the library and read the introduction.

I would cancel my HBO if it weren't for Flight of the Conchords

and Big Love.

Replacing Bob Costas with JOE BUCK?!? Just to clarify, HBO didn't fire Costas or anything -- if that were the case, I actually WOULD cancel HBO. He left to go to the new MLB network.

HBO executive: "Let's replace the Greatest Mind of Our Generation with a total tool."

Color

I am obsessed with color. I have a ridiculous number of nail polish bottles. And I am well on my way to painting every room in my house a different color. First there was the deep-red hallway:



Then our bedroom:


Then the back or "sun" room (the pic doesn't do it justice, but it's butter yellow):



And this week I finally got to paint a room my favorite color:



Oh, I've also painted one wall in the boys' room yellow, one red and one blue.

G'day!

Technology is cool: we just did a video chat with Linda, who is in Sydney tomorrow afternoon while we're in Redwood City this evening!

I'm also glad we'll probably be going to Sydney in their winter, because Linda said they have humidity there in the summer. Blech.

Finally, we're still looking for a house swap, so if you know anyone who lives in Sydney and wants to spend some time in Redwood City... "Climate Best By Government Test"!!

Mmmm...coffee?

So it's been, what, six months since I started trying to get off the pop?! At this point I'm drinking one or two a day. Most of my caffeine is coming from FRS and, yes, coffee. We do have a coffee maker, which in the past had only been used by guests. I actually had to read the manual to figure out how to make coffee.

I have an actual plan: one a day for a couple weeks, then one every other day. And at the end of the month, I'm done.

Joshua Tree

I've busy with my mother-in-law in town, who enabled us to go to Joshua Tree last weekend, sans kids! It was awesome, and I highly recommend it.

I'm also painting the bathroom purple, attending my second Restore Hetch Hetchy board meeting tomorrow, and trying not to get my hopes up that kitchen remodel is still on...

Oh, almost forgot -- I got a new job, too (fundraising, PR at a non-profit).

The latest from RHH

Great article on Restore Hetch Hetchy in the East Bay Express.

In related news, did anyone else find it ironic how Diane Feinstein was going on and on about that painting of Yosemite Valley at the post-inaugural luncheon?

"just put down the food"

Linda turned me on to MeMe Roth, an anti-obesity activist. Her attitude and arguably extreme views piss people off, but it's because she herself is so pissed that we're slowly killing our children.

I'm also enjoying Dietribe, even though it's yet another freakin reality show.

Best announcers: Vin Scully. Oh yeah.

Vin Scully is clearly, obviously, the best announcer of all time. Any list like this that didn't put him at #1 would be have absolutely zero credibility.

Of course, Bob is in the top 10, so that's good, too. But this guy at #31 is a total douche bag.

Fun at the old ballpark

Suspension of disbelief

You really need a lot of it to watch 24 this season, if the first four hours are any indication. Let's see... Tony is not dead because of ...some kind of... injection? And U.S. air traffic control, water plants and electricity are all behind one firewall? OK. And that's just scratching the surface.

Speaking of 24... you really need to be at least as far to the right as Joel Surnow to put up with living in the Midwest if there's nothing else stopping you from living in California.

More miscellany

We really need to go here soon...

If you put a glass bottle full of liquid in the freezer, set a timer to remind yourself to take it out.

Ew!

This year I will...

Everyone knows resolutions don't work. So this year I thought I'd try something a little different: a new monthly resolution, x12. Here's a draft:

January: eat fewer processed foods (see "now reading" at left)
February: completely stop drinking diet pop
March: cut way back on sugar
and so on...

We'll see how it goes.

Yo-yo-yosemite!

This weekend I learned that chains are a pain in the ass.

And even though Yosemite is gorgeous in the winter (and the crowds are largely contained), it's better to go in the spring or summer simply because the days are longer, and there's no point after dark.

I also learned that my kid doesn't like snow.

Breathable air = fascism

There is so much hilarity in this Mercury News story, I envy the writer who had to work on Christmas Day to produce it.

Critics say the new law is government run amok.

Miller, the firewood seller, said he is particularly offended by the air district's complaint line, which allows people to report on neighbors. "That smacks of Marxism,'' he said.

...

Vince Noack, a retired contractor from Santa Clara, said: "I think this damn law is absolutely criminal. It's going to put hundreds of firewood people out of business at a time when the economy is already falling apart.''

As a young man in the U.S. Army, Noack said, he landed on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day and helped liberate two Nazi death camps. "And now I can't even light my fireplace when I want,'' Noack, 86, said with a sigh.

Galen Mitrzyk, a Palo Alto resident, said he agrees with Noack. "This man put his life on the line fighting fascism,'' said Mitrzyk, 53. "He has a right to burn a fire.''

Mitrzyk, who once worked in marketing for Hewlett-Packard, has been battling the air district, arguing that the new law is unconstitutional because fire is a key part of pagan rituals.

Mitrzyk, a neo-pagan pantheist, performs a fire-gazing ritual in his backyard in which he builds a small fire in a chiminea, a freestanding fireplace. He said the day he performs the ritual is based in part on the full moon, and if the lunar calendar happens to conflict with a Spare the Air alert he's going to start the fire whether the district likes it or not.

So. Many. Toys.

These boys of ours got a ton of presents. The tree was surrounded by gifts, many of which generated an obscene number of twist ties. Arthur's big present (the only thing actually purchased for him by his parents) was a big, realistic fire truck made by a company called Bruder. I bought it at Talbots Toyland, the greatest toy store ever and one of the local businesses you should definitely support: free gift wrapping; free storage of the gift until it's time to give, in case you have spying eyes to worry about; and their prices are equal to or better than Toys R Us or Amazon. And they have all kinds of high-quality products NOT made in China.

Those Germans know how to make a toy fire truck, lemme tellya. And NO twist ties! Just slid right out of the box. I'm assuming this is because the Chinese toys would bust apart on the boat ride if they weren't lashed to their boxes. Not the German toys. Beer, birks, Beamers and toys. Good stuff.

Miscelany

I got all my final Christmas errands done this morning, thanks to the babysitting co-op!

I'm continuing to be glad I'm not traveling to the Midwest this month.

I usually get cash or a gift certificate from the kids I read to at a local day-care; this year I got candy.

I should really start a Redwood City news blog.

I thought video games were recession-proof?

EA to cut 1,000 jobs.

iTunes weirdness

If you use iTunes, maybe you can clue me in on something. Is it normal for random songs that I've never heard of to pop up in my "library?" I only use iTunes about once a week, when I have opportunity to go into my office and close the door and get stuff done while someone else is wrangling my kids. Today was such a time and there they were, random songs from various genres and almost all were from artists I had never heard of.

The Power of Vitamin C

Since I got over my walking pneumonia bout in October, I started taking 1000 milligrams a day of vitamin C supplements. My kids have been sick a few times since, and my husband had stomach flu Monday. I have been fine. Coincidence? I'm a believer.

A great cause for Redwood City school

A woman in my mothers club teaches low-income gradeschoolers and has set up a fundraiser so the kids can go on a field trip to a farm. Check it out and donate if you're moved!

Bunions

Apparently, I have bunions. A particularly bad one on my right foot. So to start with, the podiatrist created casts of my feet for orthotics, which may help the problem and postpone surgery for 1 to 5 years.

Having the surgery, which as far as I can tell is inevitable, would involve two days on my back and three weeks of no driving. Nice! Sounds like it'll be time for some of the relatives from the midwest to come out and help with the boys when that happens.

Illannoy

In the state of my birth (and the first 23 years of my life, god help me) the current governor was arrested today, and his predecessor remains in prison (at least for now).

No, you don't have to gain three pounds this month.

Here's my latest (yeah, I know it's a few weeks ago) story for the Mountain View Voice.

Stop holiday weight-gain before it starts!

"Another Caucasian..."

The NYT on TBL and the renaissance of the White Russian.

There's Tricky Dick, and then there's regular dick

Regan tore down Carter's solar panels.

The Pop Report

It's been nearly four months since I decided to quit drinking diet soda. It's going ok. I'm down to just one on most days. But there was a domestic incident today related to pop.

You see, sometimes I stop at a gas station or convenience store or such to get a 20 ouncer. And one in eight of these has a buy-one-get-one-free coupon under the cap. So I ended up collecting four of these. So I had me a stash in the fridge. Now, my dear husband has been supportive of the pop-quiting. We haven't bought any cases of cans or bottles since I started my experiment, not even Splenda Coke.

Hubby: If you can have a stash that I can't drink from, then I want a stash that you can't drink from.
Me: But I'll drink from it!
Hubby: But you can't!
Me: But I will anyway!

He does not understand the power of addiction.

We decided that we would try not to have any more pop in the house. He can have a stash at work....

Happy Thanksgiving!

kiefer-rocks.com

How much does Kiefer rock? He was on the Tonight Show earlier this week talking about how he rides his bike around LOS ANGELES to pick up stuff like his scripts and puts them in the basket on his bike! *swoon!*

Cub = moron

Apparently you have to have an IQ lower than the president's to be on the Cubs.

"Maybe we underestimated how prepared you have to be, how ready you have to be, especially in a five-game series," Dempster said. "It's like a short heavyweight bout. Ding, the bell is ringing, you've got to go."

So, did they not know that it was a five game series? That they had to win three whole games, or, more importantly, not lose that many? The year after being swept in the playoffs?

I don't want to hear any more effing excuses out of these losers. Thank you.

Packages you won't need a saw to open

The NYT has an article about the "frustration-free" packaging, which I am excited about...

“I shouldn’t have to start each Christmas morning with a needle nose pliers and wire cutters,” said Jeffrey P. Bezos, the father of four young children and founder of Amazon.com. “But that is what I do, I arm myself, and it still takes me 10 minutes to open each package.”

Well, this is just silly

So the Yes on 8 people are bitching and moaning because the No on 8 people are calling for boycotts of their businesses. Um, so? When they made donations to Yes on 8, they should have known those donations would become part of the public record. If they didn't know that, too bad for them. Witchhunt? Um, no. Boycotts are a totally legitimate political tool.

And, as always, I am tired or hearing the anti-gay-marriage people try to explain how they don't hate gay people, they just don't want them to be happy.

TLC is weird

Am I the only one who's disturbed by the fact that there's a whole TV show about women picking out wedding dresses? "...what may be the single most important day of their lives..."?? Ugh.

Obama Wooo!

Frustration-free packaging!

This is just about the greatest idea ever. Those clam shells totally suck, and they are horrible for the environment. Yay Amazon!!!

Top Five Reasons to Vote

5) 8 = Hate

4) There's probably a local measure in your area that is actually really important.

3) "Just because I can see the moon doesn't make me an astronaut."

2) It's really pretty exciting that we get to vote for a black man for president for the first time ever.

1) You get a sticker.