Books I haven't read

My older sister posts books she has read, but the truth is I don't read many books.  I feel lucky to read the NY Times each day and later I read a page of a magazine before I fall asleep.  I read thirty-three books while were were overseas (not including books I started and didn't finish), but I read two or three books last year.

My daughter is an amazing reader.  I love finding books for her to enjoy.  Here are some recent ones.

Last night she started this, and said it is entertaining.

She asked me to read this, but I haven't started it yet.  I'll keep you posted.

Weather, winter edition

Remember in September when it was over 30ºc inside and outside?  A few months later it is almost the same temperature inside and outside again.

And since this picture was taken in the bathroom, I'll add a cute photo of A. after his shower.

Dogs

One day this month three different families asked us to host their dog over break.  While no dog could ever replace Maggie in our hearts, it has been fun to have Darwin with us.

Darwin is obsessed with tennis balls.  His owner suggested that he could be employed by a ball-finding agency.  He learned to use the doggie door by having the ball thrown through it.

The obsession was ever so slightly annoying, so we hid the balls in the mudroom.  Darwin to the rescue!  Unfortunately, he was smart enough to learn that the mudroom door can be opened with a gentle push, but hasn't been smart enough to learn that it swings closed and he gets stuck in there.  It has been only three days, so I am guessing he will soon learn.

Magnets

Remember that I wrote that Buckyballs will no longer be manufactured?  We bought some faux bucky cubes, which arrived today.

Wait - if there were 3^3 + 4^3 + 5^3 in the first picture, how could this picture exist?

Christmas again

It isn't my favorite holiday, but my two favorite things yesterday were both Christmas related.

The first was hearing my daughter sing O Tannenbaum in German and have my parents-in-law join in.  Sorry, no picture.

The second good thing was hearing the brass carolers play O Tannenbaum and other carols outside out house, which was the childhood home of the lead musician.  Just imagine seeing this group outside your door each Christmas Eve.

Table tennis

The previous owners of our house used the room next to the garage as the man cave, complete with an enormous television, beer frig, and a place to smoke cigars.

With some work we got rid of the smell and converted the room to an art studio where the kids could make a mess and no one worried too much, as you can almost see in the movie.  I wish I had more before pictures, but at least I have some great after pictures.

Our neighbors were on sabbatical five+ years ago and their tenants gave us this table topper when they moved and yesterday was the first time it was used.  It isn't the biggest space, but big enough for having fun.

Christmas at school

The tradition in A.'s classroom is to do a reader's theater version of Dickens' The Christmas Carol.  The not-so-coveted role of Tiny Tim went to my darling son!

A beautiful crutch made by loving parents at the last minute.  Life's little victories.

On stage

Following along with the script.

If you come visit I'll show you a couple little videos that A. requested I not post.

I wish I had taken a camera when I volunteered at R.'s German Christmas Market.  Each class sang (R. can now sing O Tannenbaum in German), they had bratwurst, all sorts of cookies, and hot chocolate, and plenty of activities for the visiting children.  It was sweet to watch how the high school kids were so patient with the younger kids and how much the younger kids looked up to the older kids.

And now the kids are on vacation and I am not!

Buckyballs

What did I do before we had a subscription to the New York Times?  I used to take it from the student union on Tuesdays (for the science section) and Thursdays (for the tech section), but getting a subscription with educators' rates was such a good deal that we now get it Monday through Friday.

Today I read an article about the end of the production of Buckyballs, which are small rare earth magnets that are dangerous if swallowed.  The manufacturer tried to decrease problems of these incidents by posting warnings all over the box and where they are sold.  They made a public service announcement (check it out here).

We bought them a few years ago when we saw them at Mrs. Nelson's Toy and Bookstore because David had seen them written up and wanted to play with them.  And they are so fun to play with!  Here are just a few pictures from the web.

You can poke around and find more pictures and videos.  For a few more hours before Buckypocalypse you can check out the original website here.  Lots of places no longer sell them, but we found a place in Hong Kong that has good prices, if you are interested.  Just don't swallow them.

Wishes

I swear I am not trying to compete with Charlotte and her blog, but when she posts something I feel like there is no point in posting the same thing.  She wrote about the closing of Stone Center for Children's Books (a.k.a. Stone Library).  She posted about the new Methodist Christmas scene.  She wrote about another little library that for weeks I been meaning to tell her about.  Most days I feel like just posting a link so you'll read her blog.

Once in a while I post something before she does (not that we are competing, I repeat) and other times I post about my life, which isn't her life.

Today is a post about something I made a special trip to take pictures for and I am not picking up my kid at school so I can get it posted.  And is it even worth it?  Of course not, but at the same time it kind of is.

For about the last three years the local Trader Joe's has had a wish tree.

Anyone can take a little tag, write a wish, and put it on the tree.  The staff read them and only take them down if they need to make more room.

a life of love

Teaching Job for my DAD

I saw one that said, "I want to fly, " by Josiah, age five.  Someone wrote about gun control, another about knowing a savior, and one about health.  It's great that people take the time to write something down and are willing to share it with others.  I wished that everyone felt loved.

Magnetic Wall

I used to babysit at home that had an entire wall covered in cork board so the family could hang the calendar, artwork, and almost anything else.  David didn't want to worry about pushpins and didn't want to use the magnetic paint that has a texture.  We bought a huge piece of steel from a neighbor who uses it for both work and art.

Rejoicing In The Uncertainty, by James Mitchell

Our results are less artistic, but make us happy.

We display art, play with Frigits (an idea from Uncle Ed), and use the magnetic poetry and letters.

Ooh - look!  The first three things have been done! 

Unfortunately the kids don't produce much two-dimensional art these days.  Fortunately my older sister sent some!

Can you see Debbie's jizo?

I hope you'll come visit and play or create art with us.

Cello Caroling

Each year A.'s amazing cello teacher has her students practice Christmas carols and a few weeks later they busk in the shopping district of our town (Claremont Village).

My favorite part of the cello caroling was having everyone at our house to rehearse.  I don't know how she does it, but fifteen minutes after they started they sounded dramatically better.  It makes me understand why people start bands.

It had been chilly by L.A. standards, but the sun came out and A. was not forced to wear long pants, just long sleeves.  The basket was set out with a portion of the proceeds going to the House of Ruth and a portion being divvied up among the students (ooh - not so many words with double vv).  No one recruited them for a professional gig, but I thought they sounded good.

I have no idea how the settings on graphic converter changed, but it did lead to this cool version of the top photo.

Traveling museum

Unfortunately we have no immediate plans to visit the museums in Washington, D.C.  Fortunately one of them is coming to us!

Today's NY Times had an article in the business section about the advertising campaign for the Holocaust Memorial Museum, which prepares to celebrate its 20th anniversary.  One event is a four-city tour, including a stop at the Skirball Cultural Center.  In addition to items from the museum, the schedule incudes a film about life before the Holocaust, a talk about technology, a workshop about photos, and an art project.  It isn't a topic that brings joy to my heart, but I am grateful to be able to learn from historians in a variety of ways.

The event is free, but registration is required.  It can be done online here, or
by calling (866) 998-7466.

Found

Good things came in threes today.  The towel that seemed to have disappeared between the clothesline and the house appeared under the guest bed, where I would have sworn I had looked a thousand times. A sock that had been missing for weeks appeared.  (I am not sure if this counts as being found, but when I told David it was too bad I was still missing one of his gray socks he said that he had an orphan sock, so the sock I had classified as an orphan was really the match!)  The last found thing was A.'s water bottle, which had been left at school last week and had not shown up in the lost and found the few times I checked.  The school sent a reminder to parents to check the lost and found before vacation, after which everything will be donated.  David looked this morning and there it was.  So satisfying!

Streaking

When I say I have been swimming for thirty years, I mean I joined a team in 1982 and have continued to practice and compete.  I don't mean I have swum every day for the last 10,950 days.  I had no idea that when some people say they have been running for 30 years, they mean it literally, as I learned from the official group called the United States Running Streak Association.

Here is their definition.

The official definition of a running streak, as adopted by the Streak Runners International, Inc., and United States Running Streak Association, Inc., is to run at least one continuous mile (1.61 kilometers) within each calendar day under one's own body power (without the utilization of any type of health or mechanical aid other than prosthetic devices). 

Running under one's own body power can occur on either the roads, a track, over hill and dale, or on a treadmill. Running cannot occur through the use of canes, crutches or banisters, or reliance on pools or aquatic devices to create artificial buoyancy.

When David and I were on vacation last month I was catching up with my Runner's World and read about a challenge to run at least one mile every day between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Even though I had run on Thanksgiving (Thursday), I had gone swimming on Friday.  I decided since I was reading it Saturday that just this once I could give myself credit and swap the days.  I ran a mile when we got home Saturday evening and my running streak began.

I have stuck with the streak and have now run fifteen consecutive days.  I am pleased to say that I have not had any ill effects, but unfortunately I have not noticed any benefits, either.  I am trying to stick with it and enjoy it, but not become obsessed, which I could see myself doing.  Would I be like the person who ran with his daughter pushing the IV pole?  You can read more at the runeveryday.com site.

Gardening

I can't remember if I have mentioned that I do not like gardening.  I don't mind mowing the lawn or pruning bushes (which I usually think I do too aggressively, but then I turn back and the whole thing has grown back - nature bats last).

Indah Bulan took our almost dead front lawn and turned into a incredibly low-maintenance, low-water piece of art (slight exaggeration).  I love it!

Unlike the inside of the house, I have dreams about what I would like to see happen with other parts of a yard.  I am so lucky that one of them came true.

I was so tired of these bushes.  They needed frequent trimming, hung over the sidewalk, and covered up the stone wall.

I hacked away at the bushes, but that was pretty ugly.

It was tough work, but I dug out the stumps.  But what next?  I had no clue.

Thank goodness for Indah Bulan.

I'll post another photo in a while so you can see how it is filling in.  Eventually the cactus will branch out and flower, but each bud opens only once and at night.  Come see for yourself!

Field trip

When A. came home with a permission slip to visit the Maloof Foundation campus I knew I wanted to chaperone.  It would be a short drive (< 20 minutes), it was a short trip (just over two hours), and I really wanted to see the houses after they had been moved from their original location, which is now part of the freeway we took to get to the site.

I had second thoughts when I saw the school bus.  What had I gotten myself into?  What if the kids broke something?  What if they needed so much of my attention that I couldn't focus on what I wanted to get out of the trip?  The group of eleven kids I was given was great, either because I was lucky or because they are all great kids.

We had a chance to visit the workshop where chairs are still made.  One woodworker had been there since 1962, another since 1981, and the third was a son of the younger guy.  The chairs may not be made by Sam Maloof, but it certainly is made by people who knew him and his style.

Part of the gate to the main entrance.

My favorite part was poking around the house and the grounds.

There were lots of beautiful doors and knobs, but I was not able to get good pictures of them.

In the kitchen Sam Maloof had made a counter
for the herbs and spices.

A stand used to hold the guest book.

This is one piece from a room
filled with pieces waiting to dry and be shipped.

Theater

It's great to go to live theater.  It seemed easier growing up, partially because my parents bought the tickets and did the driving, but also because the drive was shorter.  We see a bit of theater here, sometimes at Candlelight Pavilion, the dinner theater about four blocks away, most recently The Drowsy Chaperone.

A couple weeks ago David took A. and a friend to see You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, which was performed by a children's group at Bridges Auditorium (a.k.a. Big Bridges).  He was proud of himself for not bothering the other patrons by singing along, even though he knew all the words having performed as Snoopy in his childhood.

This weekend I had a chance to see Gruesome Playground Injuries, which was being performed at Pomona College's Allen Theatre as part of a senior thesis in directing.  The play was written Rajiv Joseph, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, but known to me as the son of my father's dean and someone who was several years behind me at the same high school.  Based on the title I would not have chosen to see the play, but was drawn in by playwright.  Plus, I had told my parents I would see it.  I am very happy to report that I was glad I went.  It was entertaining and reminded why I like live theater.  A review for the college newspaper can be found here.

And next?  Maybe Sweet Charity at the dinner theater or The True Story of the Three Little Pigs at Haugh Performing Arts Center, which we haven't been to in ages.

Birthday gift

I am so lucky to have my parents in good health and living in my childhood home (and to have my childhood neighbors in their homes, too).  It does mean that when I visit my parents I sometimes have a chance to step back in time and examine contents of box that was discovered in the basement.

A year or two ago the box contents included two pairs of shoes I had worn in college.  One was a pink espadrille, kind of like the Toms shoes people wear now.  I remember that I wore them with pink pants.  Sorry I don't have a picture to share with you!

The other pair is shown below.

I remember wearing these to the bar, maybe with a denim mini skirt?  I brought them back to California and wore them a bit, but they weren't very comfortable.  Maybe because they were falling apart?

I had a birthday not so long ago and my parents-in-law said they would buy a pair of shoes for me and yesterday I went to the store.  I saw many pairs I liked, but these were my favorite.

Now it is time to plan another visit to Ohio so I can poke around in the basement for more treasures.

Giving Tuesday

I worry that I'll run out of blog material so I was happy when this topic was given to me.  I heard this story on NPR and people were encouraged to blog about.  To follow up Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday there is a new invention, Giving Tuesday.

It is great for me because most of the year I collect all the solicitation letters and then deal with the entire bunch at once.  Tomorrow can be that day.

Something different

Today's good thing was doing something new.  It was promoted as Russian masterpieces and a cookie extravaganza with the Claremont Symphony.  Guess which part enticed my children?  It didn't bother me because we got out of the house, enjoyed some music, and spent time with people while munching on cookies.

Twenty-four hour vacation

Last May we listened to a sales pitch about time shares, which we declined.  In addition to all the other enticements, we received a free night's stay at a Hilton.  We could have gone anywhere, but we chose to go to Pasadena.  While some people commute there from here and some people go there just for dinner, but we never seem to make time for a visit.

The hotel had a great location, making it easy to cycle from one place to another.  We could have saved a three dollars by parking the car ourselves, but it would have been in a lousy a location and we weren't sure what we would do about the tandem.  The valet staff was fantastic, parking the car close to the entry and allowing us access to the bike, which we kept in the back of the car.

We were given a room with a view of the mountains (if you stood on the balcony and craned your neck).

This was the view from the window.  Luckily, we were busy enough that we didn't spend much time looking out the window.

Our first stop was Target to buy a bicycle lock.  Even though it was Black Friday, it was four in the afternoon and not crowded.  Because it was open until 6pm, we chose to visit the Pacific Asia Museum.  It was free because it was the fourth Friday of the month and because it was Member Appreciation Day and reciprocal memberships were honored.  We showed our science center membership card and went in to explore.

This kimono caught David's eye, but I liked some of the more traditional art better.  What I really liked was visiting in the gift shop, where I could touch things.

We enjoyed dinner at Saladang, a Thai placed recommended by some swimming friends.  We tried soup, curry, and a noodle dish (sorry, I didn't think to take a picture - I tool a picture of the napkin to show to A., who likes to different folds when we have company).  Then onto Vroman's Bookstore and a movie at the Laemmle.  What an amazing set of advertisements (that is a new one to me) and trailers.

We would have gone to breakfast earlier, but I introduced David to the DIY shows on HGTV.  Amazingly, we were able to pull ourselves away after watching one episode of Yard Crashers.  Just another reason why we don't have a television.

The small museums we wanted to visit didn't open until noon so we went back to Vroman's before cycling over to Old Town Pasadena.  You needed to look carefully for the old part, but it was a fine way to pass the time, especially since I could visit The Container Store.  Thank goodness there isn't one close by (or if there is, don't tell me).

Before lunch we cycled to the Pasadena Museum of History, right next to the Avery Dennison headquarters (because Avery Dennison had bought the land from the owners of the mansion next to the museum) and not far from the Rose Bowl (today's final, Stanford 35, UCLA 17).

The main exhibits were about the Doo Dah parade, which I remember hearing about from my older sister.

The paraphernalia was fabulous!

The other exhibit was about the Pacific Electric Railway, then and now.  The photographer did a great job of collecting old photos of trains in town and photographing the current sites, often with a bus in the picture to show where the light rail lines have been replaced.  More information is here.

We had a quick lunch at the Himalayan Cafe, packed up the car (which they let us keep parked, even though we had checked out), and headed home.  I was grateful not be in the traffic jam headed west (football traffic?  holiday traffic?) so we could zip home and greet the kids, who probably missed us terribly since they hadn't seen us in 24 hours!