Score Yourself

Mark sent me this link and told me to rate myself. With only the first page to work with, there is no way to score higher than 25. I am doomed to be a very poor wife, indeed.

Tiabla posted the rest of the three-page test, along with the companion husbands' test. You can read more about the test in Husbands, rate your wives in the Monitor on Psychology.

Better an average wife than a lame-duck spouse.

The Importance of Being Multi-Culti

Mark and I are just checking our to do lists and having an "Aack!" moment. He traveled for work one week. Than we played tag team and I went on work travel for a week. We are at home together for one week and then off to New Zealand. Add to that, a personal family crisis that is not blog fodder.

Lovely holiday cards and letters are arriving daily, adding to our sense of failure. I haven't even started my holiday shopping. Why can't more people call a gift moratorium?

Luckily, we are a multi-cultural family. My mother in law sends out our holiday cards before the Jewish New Year in the Autumn. My mother sends out her cards before the Lunar New Year in late winter. Thus, anything in between those two holidays counts as on time! Saved by multi-culturalism.

Besides, we hope to have some lovely pictures from our trip.

My house will never be in House Beautiful

"Iris, why do your toys have to always be spread out all over the stairs? Can't you play somewhere else?"

"The stairs are the mountains. I'm a goddess; I live on Mount Olympus. Duh."

Hogwarts was not built in a day

We have proof.

iPod U

I read the LA Times story about university lectures available for free from several universities. Apparently, the top rockstar at iPod U is UC Berkeley's philosophy professor, Hubert Dreyfus. Philosophy 6: Man, God and Society in Western Literature is the most popular lecture series.

That brings back memories. Dreyfus' picture in the LAT story shows his hair is gray now. The reading list is as I remembered. Back then, I was a 17 year old engineering major swamped with lectures, labs, and weekly theoretical problem sets and practical labs (with reports!) for each of my 3 other classes in math, chemistry and computer science. I didn't give the assigned reading for Philosophy 6 the close reading that I gave my technical classes.

Also, I found the vocabulary of the humanities professors and TAs esoteric. I'd never heard anyone use the phrase, 'paradigm shift' before that class. I recall having to look up paradigm in the dictionary because the usage didn't square with my understanding of the meaning of the word paradigm that I learned in science classes. When I approached my philosophy TA for help, she might as well have been speaking a foreign language. Then I asked the professor after class. Again, unintelligible. (Science and philosophy are two disciplines divided by a common language. LOL)

Maybe, now that I have more life experience under my belt, I can try again to understand his lectures. There is enough room on my iPod to download the entire 29 lecture series. I still have the old class reader. (During my stuff diet inventory of my books, I found my old philosophy and history readers from college.)

Iris has been asking all sorts of existential questions lately. She is obsessed with Greek mythology. She thinks the world would be a better place if people believed in gods instead of a single god again. She needs to read more about creation myths around the world. I just happen to have that in one of my old readers. See, you never know when you are going to need the old baggage, impedimenta, that you save. Hmm, I can give her my old Latin textbooks, too.

Aside:
Many people assume that Iris is named after the flower. After all, I grow several types of irises in the garden. Additionally, many girls are named after flowers, myself included (but in Chinese). That is not quite the whole story.

Mark and I were sitting in the dining room when he asked me what those pretty purple flowers were in the backyard. I said they were irises. Didn't he remember from the time we bicycle toured around Mendocino and Sonoma counties in the spring? He asked me the name of the blue flowers by the road and I pointed out the characteristics of irises to him. (He also didn't know that those pretty yellow flowers were the California state flower, the golden poppy. It is a mystery how he graduated from high school in California.)

Anyway, he said, "Iris is a girls' name. I think she is a Grecian or Roman goddess. Let's look it up." So we ran upstairs (he ran, I waddled) and pulled the dogeared copy of Edith Hamilton's Mythology off the shelf. Iris is the Grecian goddess of the rainbow, a wonderful name for a multi-racial child.

When she was old enough to ask how she got her name, we told her about the goddess. She was enthralled, reading every Greek mythology book she could get her hands on. In addition to playing princesses and fairies, Iris likes to direct her playmates in 'gods and goddesses' play. But first, they have to decide if they are playing Greek or Roman. I asked her the difference. She says they have to use different names and the stories get a little garbled in the Roman version which gives them more freedom to improvise. Oh.

Retail Therapy

Mark and I received the shock of our lives last Tuesday. Statistically improbable events tend to visit our family with alarming frequency. After drying off my tears, I went shopping. Mark acted as my chauffeur and really got into the spirit of retail therapy himself. I am not going to show all that we got. I am not proud of falling off my stuff diet.

But the books I picked up at Books Sanseido are too cool to keep to myself. No, we didn't drive to Japan in the minivan. We visited the branch in Torrance, California.

It is late so I will blog about what attracted me to each of these 4 books later. I also special ordered a copy of Pattern Magic 2. I know that YesAsia.com probably could have gotten them to me sooner. But, I wanted to make sure that my local bookstore knows that there is a market for that book here. Maybe they will order two copies. You can always visit the store in about 2-4 weeks to find out.

In the meantime, I make a Flickr! photo set of the scans so you can see more detail. Check out the Knitting & Sewing set.

While I am at it, you can visit me on Ravelry here.
Visit me at LibraryThing here.
Browse Mark's DVD collection here.
(Keep in mind that I have only uploaded about 30% of our books so far and Mark's DVD collection has grown considerably in the last 18 months.)

We are having our Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. Yesterday, we rode our tandem bicycle with the LA Wheelman for their annual Thanksgiving Day Ride (long route, ~39 miles). It was a lovely day and the views were amazing.

Thursday, November 22 - 9:00 a.m. THANKSGIVING DAY RIDE. (Long 39, Medium 36, Short 27) This is our traditional Thanksgiving Day ride, giving you an opportunity to work up an appetite for dinner later. All routes are almost the same length and most riders could probably do any of them, so it just depends on how fast you need to get home. If you have a small 10 lb. hen in the oven, maybe you need to do the short. If you have a 15 lb. bird roasting, maybe the medium, and if you have a 20+ lb. tom, you can do the long and still have time to spare before that little pop-up timer pops. The long and medium both go to the Pacific Palisades before a trip down to Marina Del Rey for a break and then return. The short skips the Palisades, but is otherwise the same. No matter which route you choose, it’s a pleasant way to start the holiday and a surprising number of riders usually show up. START: THE "CORNER", Olympic Blvd, 1 block west of La Cienega in Beverly Hills. From the Santa Monica Frwy (10), off & north La Cienega 1½ miles, L - Olympic 1 block to R- Le Doux.

Of course, we forgot the camera. It was good to ride with the club again. Bicycle people are the best. See the LA Wheelman 2 month ride schedule to catch up with them.

I have another terrible non-green confession. We are flying on a jet across the ocean just because we thought it would be fun to visit New Zealand. Mark has always been intrigued by the natural scenery there, I am fascinated with volcanoes, and we are all eager to visit our friends. We had so much fun when they visited us in LA last year, we wanted to see them again ASAP.

The trip home

I am never sure whether the drive from Los Angeles (LAX) to San Francisco (SFO) or the reverse trip from SFO to LAX is the homeward direction. I am sure that I am lucky to live in either place.

Sailing with my sister, Ann, and her friends on her boat, Matsu.
The view from Grandview Park is indeed, grand.
Moon rise over downtown San Francisco. Can you make out the Transamerica Pyramid?
Another view from the place more people on earth say they want to visit than any other. I never tire of the place.
Iris and her cousin, Waldo the wonder dog, in Ann's backyard.

Thai Silks in Los Gatos (NorCal) gives Oriental Silk Co. in Los Angeles (SoCal) a run for its money. I love them both. I spent so long trying to make up my mind, Ann had time to shop at Uncommon Threads across the street and Iris read an entire book. Ann and I also shopped Artfibers in SF, but I was too overcome by the fibery goodness to remember to whip out the camera.


Much book shopping occurred, at Village Stationers (in Palo Alto), the Great Overland Book Company and especially at Black Oak Books (the SF location). These came home with us. (A few left home with us for on the road reading.)

Iris' haul.
My haul. Love, Loss, and What I Wore by Ilene Beckerman is a gem. If you see it in a bookstore, buy it.
Mark's haul.

Things my mother never taught me

I have to admit to being such a bad mom, that I sometimes use the TV and internet as a babysitter. One morning, when I really, really wanted to finish reading my book, I let Iris use my laptop to surf the web. (I set up the iBook with her own profile and put a few approved websites on her bookmark bar.) She decided to see what's new at Barbie.com as it has been a while since she last visited.

In general, I am not keen on Barbie anything. But she can only play the PBSkids games so long and I discovered that the YouTube cute animal videos are not necessarily kidsafe. (But that is a whole 'nother story and we won't go into that now.) She decorates and redecorates the virtual bedroom in Barbie world and doesn't bother me about redecorating her real room. I can go along with that.

She asked me to come read something on screen so she could continue. That's odd, I don't recall that ever happening before. What does it say onscreen? She read something about how she has to be thirteen or else have a parent sign her in. Since when did kids have to sign in to Barbie.com?

Guess who just launched the fastest-growing virtual world ever? (Link goes to Scientific American blog entry about this.)

The site is not that easy to find for aging eyes. If you type in barbie.com, you will be redirected to http://barbie.everythinggirl.com/

It is a visually rich (or cluttered) entry page. Notice midway on the right, there is a link for Parents in a font that I can easily read. It doesn't mention the virtual world at all.

How did Iris get to the password-protected part of the site? Look up at the very top to the moving banner bar. In font about half the height of the Parents link, you will see links to Barbie, My Scene and Polly Pockets.

What's this new link, Pixel Chix? I visited the site and looked at the FAQs for PixelChix.com.

Q: What is the goal of play in the Pixel Chix™ Love to Shop™ Mall?

A: The main goal of play in the Pixel Chix™ Love to Shop™ Mall is to work and earn money, and then use the money to buy fun things. Each Pixel Chix™ pal can work and shop in any of the 4 available stores. Every time you buy a new item, you unlock new animations/games that will play when you select that item in the money/stuff screen. There are also games that you can play with your Pixel Chix™ Love to Shop™ Mall pal just for fun while she is shopping. These games can be played by pushing the smiley-face button (fun button) while shopping in any store.

It goes on in horrifying detail.

Mall FAQs:

* What is the goal of play in the Pixel Chix™ Love to Shop™ Mall?
* Are there levels of play in the Pixel Chix™ Love to Shop™ Mall?
* How does my Pixel Chix™ Love to Shop™ Mall pal earn money while working?
* How does my Pixel Chix™ Love to Shop™ Mall pal go shopping?
* What happens if my Pixel Chix™ Love to Shop™ Mall pal does not have enough money to buy something?
* How does my Pixel Chix™ Love to Shop™ Mall pal access things she has purchased?
* How does my Pixel Chix™ Love to Shop™ Mall pal play games?
* How do I make one Pixel Chix™ Love to Shop™ Mall pal go from her Pixel Chix™ Love to Shop™ Mall to an adjoining Pixel Chix™ Love to Shop™ Mall?
* How do I make the Pixel Chix™ Love to Shop™ Mall pal leave the Pixel Chix™ Love to Shop™ Mall and return to the Pixel Chix™ House?
* Can I connect my Pixel Chix™ Love to Shop™ Mall to a Pixel Chix™ Car and have them visit?
* Why aren't both pals shown in the Pixel Chix™ Love to Shop™ Mall when I call a pal into a Mall from another Mall or Pixel Chix™ House?

My drug regimen is nauseating enough, but I just about tossed my cookies when I read this.

NO! NO! NO! I do not give my permission. You do not teach my daughter that the point of life is to fritter away her life force to earn money to buy frivolous stuff that she doesn't even need. The point of life is not to be a "good little consumer". Advertisers has a different goal for our lives than we do. But I didn't discuss that with Iris. I wasn't ready for that discussion.

Instead, we had a little discussion about websites that put cookies on your computer and which ones we should avoid. I didn't go into the ubiquity of cookies because I don't know how to explain the nuances of when cookies are acceptable and when they are not.

My mother did not explain any of this to me she didn't need to. Advertising did not reach as deeply into our lives 30 years ago. Also, we didn't have this technology in the home yet.

Aside:
Notice I said in the home. This technology is older than commonly believed. It just wasn't in use outside of a few research labs. Markup languages that preceeded html had been invented decades before Barbie.com. I grew up on the fringes of what is now known as Silicon Valley and my father worked at a national lab. As a tween, I had a programmable calculator and my sister and I shared a home computer. On Family Days at the lab, I recall using a networked computer to play a game where I had to try to guess if there was a human or a computer program on the other end.

Links:
I was caught unprepared for the birds and the bees discussion as well.
MPAA Rating and Parental Complacency
Kathleen at Fashion Incubator explains Why Barbie dumped Ken

Addendum:
It appears that the virtual world mentioned in the Scientific American link is Barbie Girls, http://www.barbiegirls.com/home.html while I had stumbled upon Pixel Chix, http://pixelchix.everythinggirl.com/us/home/

The introduction for Barbie Girls is even more disturbing. The girls earn "Viva" a form of currency, by playing games or watching movies at the "cinema". I interpret that to mean watching commercials and helping them gather marketing data on girls' preferences.

I still haven't figured out how Iris got to Barbie Girls the other morning. She might have heard about it through viral marketing and typed in the url on her own. She learned about Webkinz and Club Penguin from other girls.

You call this a vacation? Part I

I realized yesterday, as I madly dashed about, running errands and going to the doctor, that I am not on vacation. I have really signed up for a week of stay at home motherhood. I had better keep my "market work" because that job is less physically strenuous than SAHM. It pays better, too.

I had even prepared for my "vacation" by doing 6 loads of laundry, precooking meals and getting the garden in a reasonable condition on Friday and Saturday. Additionally, the cleaning lady had left this house in ship-shape last Thursday.

Where did the time go?

In the morning, Iris and I decided to tackle her neglected photo album. My mother in law had repeatedly asked the whereabouts of Iris' photo album. She pointedly told me that she had made albums for all three of her children. It is not that I don't want to do it. I love shopping for scrapbooking supplies. I love collage. (Everything I made in my high school and college art classes turned into a collage.) I blame lack of time and more pressing priorities.

Previously, Iris had already scrapbooked her daycare years. Next, she wanted to commemorate her two years in Montessori school. We looked through the photographs and Iris asked why they were all baby pictures. I told her that her Montessori years were all digital.

We went to the Windows-based computer and cropped and tuned the pictures we wanted using Picasa. Then we exported them to a "printme" folder that I made on the desktop. (If you don't export them, the changes you made and see on the screen, do not appear on the transferred file. Don't ask why.) Finally, we uploaded them to Costco's photocenter. I promised Iris that she could have a Costco hotdog for lunch when we picked up our photos. (Note to self: I can delete the photos in the printme folder now.)

All this digital picture tuning and uploading took some time and Iris lost interest. She retreated to her bedroom with the riveting book, "Little House on the Prairie".

As long as we were out, we ran other errands. I needed some supplies for the Mickey Lawler Fabric Landscape Painting class and the on-going 5S (Seiri and Seiton again) project. After Costco, we visited Staples and Home Depot. Iris had also outgrown the dress patterns and we needed to stop by Joann's to get larger ones. Yipes! Do not let a girl with no concept of sewing and scheduling difficulties near the pattern books.

Then, since we were already at Joann's, the pollen was flying and my immunologist was on the way home, we stopped for allergy shots. It was 4 PM by the time we got home. We both ate a snack and I realized she was due for Tae Kwon Do at 5 PM. She didn't want to go. I made her go. A whole lotta details were omitted here.

Class began and ended late. I used that time to show off the movie project (more on that later) and to compose a to do list for "family work". Yipes! It was 6:30 PM before we got home. Mark had just finished cooking salmon, rice and asparagus for dinner. My hero.

We did not resume the scrapbooking until after dinner and bathing. We worked from 8:30 to 11:15 PM. Mark conked out and Iris was at the end of her tether. But, I just wanted that sucker to be done. I found these two organizational products, bought at Target and Costco respectively, very useful.


I put Iris in front of the TV today so I could do a little writing and computer work. We may not get to the Getty Brentwood center until Friday.

My to do list includes life maintenance stuff like catching up on filing, rebalancing our portfolio, filling out medical and childcare flexspending reimbursement requests and medical coordination of benefits forms. (I am insured from both my employment and my spouse's employment, which is great in theory; but the paperwork is appallingly complex.) This stuff, like brushing and flossing, is not so much fun. But it must be done or the market will rebalance for us like we painfully discovered in 2000. ;-)

You call this a vacation? Part II

Driveway Moment

I came home from work last night while KPCC aired This American Life. I was so riveted, I stayed in the car until the end of Dan Savage's monologue. The episode airs today on most public radio stations. If you miss it, you can listen to it at the This American Life website.

Today's episode deals with "What I learned from TV". Dan Savage was so poignant, funny and spot on in his observations. DS's son, and Iris, love the Disney show, "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody". That show creeps me out but I never understood why until DS deconstructed the show in his monologue.

Just as DS, growing up in a straight family, learned about what it was like to be a gay man from TV, his straight son, growing up with two daddies, is learning about straight life from TV. "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody" is not worthy of emulation. DS objects to the rampant stereotyping, especially the sex-crazy portrayal of 10 year old Zack who constantly harasses 17 year old Maddie, who works at the hotel, for dates.

I agree with everything DS said about the show. But I would add, "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody" plays workplace sexual harassment for laughs. I don't want Iris to grow up accepting that as normal and acceptable behavior.

Thoughts on Hollywood SWAG

So the dorky secret date took us to the James Bond film festival at American Cinematheque's Aero Theater. Mark loves trivia. He took third place even though his brother has had his Sean Connery as 007 boxed set for the past year. Take a look at the Hollywood SWAG he won. The cologne was not in the picture because he gave it away as soon as he opened the bag. (I have asthma and we keep a scent-free home.)

When we looked at the loot, we both thought about the goodie bag at a toddler birthday party a few years back. Both of the little girl's parents work in Hollywood, but they also work hard to 'keep it real' for the sake of their daughter. Imagine my shock and horror when the mother handed me a huge shopping bag for a goodie bag. I peaked inside and saw several games, toys, two t-shirts, and two largish stuffed animals--all in the same cartoon character theme as the party.

All I could think was, "She upped the ante! I can't believe she did that. There is no way I am going to be able to keep up with this." I must have looked really panicked. The mother quickly related how she had called the promotions department at Movie Studio X and asked if they had anything they wanted to get rid of. Before she was off the phone, some gofers had dumped six boxes of this movie promotional stuff in her office. Then she asked if Iris liked the cartoon character. There were still two more boxes of this stuff in her garage she needed to unload.

I need to stop obsessing about goodie bags. This is my sixth post on the subject.

Digression

Iris' nanny gave her a fantastic haircut. Look at the softly layered shoulder-length bob that beatifully show off her natural soft waves. Is it not adorable? Should I beg for a matching cut?

That's all folks.

The View From My Seat

Mark posted about our family bike ride this Sunday. However, he tends to exaggerate. I checked our mileage with Gmaps Pedometer and we only rode about 19 miles. It sounds more impressive if I write 30 kilometers.

We asked a gentlemen we met on the bike path at Marina del Rey to take our picture with the ocean behind us. Alas, only a sliver of the Pacific is visible, but you can see Malibu behind us.

Mark trained Iris to run to the sidewalk, press the walk light button, and run back to the bike at red lights. Iris was the only member of the family without bicycle shorts. We had to go shopping after the ride to outfit her. She takes after her fashionista mother; I have 6 pairs of bicycle shorts (4 are Pearl Izumis). Sports garb make up over 40% of my wardrobe of 50 black bottoms.

These are my most expensive pair of shoes. They are black, leather and made in Italy. They fit like a glove. (He told me pick out any pair of bicycling shoes in the store for my birthday. He didn't set a price limit.) You will appreciate the finest in bicycling garb if you ever go on a 12 hour death ride with Mark. Look back at the top picture. Do you know the meaning of randonneuring ?

That's all folks.

Technology Fatigue

I have technology fatigue. I just don't feel like learning yet more arcane things that will become outdated and change once I master them. For example, I am the only person in this household who has not learned how to use the DVR cable box yet.

Mark is the only person I know who can write a two-page "Home Theatre Operation (Fundamentals)" in 10 point font, single spaced with a straight face. If those are just the fundamentals, how much more is there to learn? Come to think of it, how can someone who can write a whole page about managing screen aspect ratios not remember where we keep the extra cleaning supplies?

Iris has that child-like facility to master electronics just by playing with them. That's what makes her such a good beta tester of consumer electronics. Read improvising for proof.

Me? I know how to open a book.

Readers of Mark's new blog know that he got an iPod for the holidays. Once he had ripped his entire CD collection into iTunes, I thought our household would go back to normal. Wishful thinking. Then he wanted to listen to the iPod in the car. However, my sister had warned us that the wireless iPod transmitters are not useful in urban areas due to FM interference. Mark bought a cassette adapter but quickly rejected that because of the terrible sound quality.

A friend, the one who brings home electronics (meant for adults) for children to beta-test, told Mark about a product that allows one to hook up an iPod USB port to the CD changer input inside the dashboard. We don't have a CD changer so that input would be available for this doohickey. Mark went online and ordered it right away. Mark is a bit of a klutz. I told him to please, please, don't open the dashboard without the help of this friend.

Unfortunately, this doohickey arrived a couple of days ago--during the Consumer Electronics Show. The engineer friend always presents his company's new wares at CES. Of course, Mark couldn't wait until next week and had to pull apart the dashboard right away. OK, he waited until after dinner.

The installation, even without the help of a consumer electronics engineer, seemed to go OK. Aside from the long black cable hanging out from the top of the dash, he couldn't put it somewhere less obtrusive, the dashboard looks the same as before. He dropped a screw but we hope it landed in a harmless place. The thing worked! When I went to bed that night, I left my Mark sitting in the minivan in the garage, rocking out.

Fast forward to the next morning. Flustered, as usual, I couldn't find my keys. When I did find my keys, the engine wouldn't turn over. The ignition just made ominous clicking noises. Yet, the electrical system appeared to be functional; the radio and the lights worked. I called Mark to tell him about this development. He was about to step into a meeting and said he would deal with it later.

I checked my watch and realized with a sinking feeling that I had just missed a bus. I grabbed my coffee mug and walked to Starbuck's, making a slight detour to the post office first because I had time to kill. Because it was such a beautiful day, I kept walking along the bus route while enjoying the coffee. By the time I got to work, I was much calmer.

Digression
The high winds and record cold snap produced two gorgeous days. The light has a special quality, like in paintings of Venice. Yesterday, during physical therapy, I watched the alpenglow wash across the snow-capped San Gabriel mountain range in the distance with the skyscrapers of Century City and Downtown Los Angeles in the foreground. I didn't have a camera available, but the colors of this photo are close.

That's all folks.

Stretching the Definition of Family Movies

My husband was so inspired by A.O. Scott's article about taking children to movies other than "kids' movies" that he started a blog. I guess he wasn't content with my meager coverage of Iris' film education. You will find the link to Bad Dad on the right, along with some of my other coworkers' blogs. (It hit me the other day that I am 40 now and I have known him for 20 years, seeing him both at work and at home.)

Now we can be like Maribeth and Richard. We can leave comments on each other's blogs instead of actually talking to one another. I am jealous, I have never gotten a marriage proposal via blog comment like Maribeth. Oops, on more careful reading, that wasn't exactly a marriage proposal. However, I never got one of those proposals from blogging, either.

Links:
MPAA Ratings Decoded
MPAA Rating and Parental Complacency
Bad Dad

The Santa Chronicles 2006

The Santa Chronicles continues. Click here to read the beginning of the Santa Chronicles. Click here to read Santa Chronicles II.

She had been agitating for a specific Bratz Rock Angels doll. I dislike Bratz even more than Barbie. (In fact, I have softened considerably to Barbie since watching the 'Barbie Princess and the Pauper' movie in which Barbie saves her kingdom from financial ruin with her prowess as a geology sleuth.) I told her to save up for the Bratz Rock Angel in question. At the time, that seemed to be the thing she most wanted so I dispatched Mark to the store after bedtime to secretly buy it for her.

Iris wrote to Santa what she most wished for in the whole world. She didn't want to tell anyone what she wished lest that spoil her chances of receiving it. Then she finally let on to her dad what she asked for. She wanted not one, but two dolls! One doll was the one we had already bought and hidden away, but she also wanted the My Scene Lindsay Lohan doll.

Oma searched the stores and came up empty. The internet failed us. Besides, even if we could find it online, it would not arrive in time. I tried to talk her out of it. I asked, how could Santa bring you the Lindsay Lohan doll when we haven't seen it in any stores? She said that Santa has ways. Besides, the elves can make anything that kids really want.

While waiting in a doctor's office this afternoon, I conversed with a sixth grade girl. She told me that the doll could be found at Toys R Us. I asked if she meant My Scene dolls in general or the Lindsay Lohan doll in particular. She thought a minute and said she was sure she saw the Lindsy Lohan doll. I called Mark right away by cell phone and he braved the crush at Toys R Us. Alas, the rumor was not true.

A friend told me about how she lined up at 6am in order to buy her daughter a Cabbage Patch doll in the 1980's. I marveled at her motherly dedication and decided that I would never do that.

This year, Iris will have to learn about the fallibility of Santa Claus. But perhaps we shall send Mark to the Mattel store at opening tomorrow...

We already had one miracle today. Mark asked me to try to buy more Hanukkah candles today as we did not have enough for tonight. I turned the box upside down and found exactly 9 candles!

The End.

Holiday

Now where are my presents?

We don't normally use candles or the fireplace at chez badmom. It struck me that we don't have many opportunities to watch smoke rising. Yes, it is polluting. But it is mesmerizing.

She is still wearing her TKD uniform because she received her orange belt today. The end.

Haiku wrap-up

Eighteen for dinner
Our Australia cousins
Gulp. No worries mate!

Sudoku ate our household

We were blissfully ignorant about Sudoku until Sandra Tsing Loh's NPR piece about it. Why, oh why, didn't we turn off the radio? DH searched through the recycling bin for a puzzle and became hooked immediately; he has an obsessive personality. I looked over his shoulder and helped him fill out a few squares. Fast forward and our marriage suffers as he beats me to the LAT puzzle morning after morning.

For our anniversary, I bought him Will Shortz's Sudoko 2 and asked him not to write the solutions in the book. He saved the marriage by creating a printable blank Sudoko template.