Marital Osmosis

© Design for Obama

Marital Osmosis is the process by which after living with a software engineer for 7+ years, I can read this poster even though it's in another language. Jeff, they are speaking your language here too.

For even more well-designed posters that you download and print, click here and don't forget about Shephard Fairey's fine artwork also.

Yes We Carve

© Yes We Carve

It matters not which way you are voting in six days, you have to admit Samantha Shiells has some MAD pumpkin carving skills.

Jaden asked me two hours ago if we could carve our pumpkins this year (did we not do that last year? Huh?). Well Jaden, you better believe that Yes We Carve this year!

Room 10

I have unofficially assigned myself as the class photographer.
It is a colorful, delightful experience.

The K/1 classmates all have an 8th grade buddy.

Celebrating a classmate's birthday

Friday Poems

I thought this was an interesting poem during these times of great financial duress on Wall Street. So maybe it's not all due to low interest rates, subprime loans and greed -- but to broken hearts!

To the loves i missed & had

You know what's true and
you know what's real.
You got hurt and you know
how it feels,
to have no money.
So you go out and give
your love
to stocks and bonds.
And forget all about
your honey.
But that won't last,
and your life will soon
seem dry.
High heaven knows
we all get lonely,
but you will wonder
why.
God only knows and i
can but sigh,
For you've cashed in
and passed love by.

-- Anthony R. Valli

Note: all capitalization choices are my dad's.

Behind Door #1...

...are the rest of the Pajaro Dunes photos.

Driftwood

This is some driftwood I passed on the beach in Pajaro Dunes.

A week went by in the following ways: a PET scan and results*, a weekend trip to the beach with family and the first sickness of the season has set up camp. I will catch up eventually!


*The scan results were better than expected; there are no new areas of cancer, two of the prior three decreased a little and the third increased as I knew it had. I am holding steady Freddy. No treatment yet, next scan in February.

Blog Action Day, Part 2

Yesterday I happened upon this book at the library.

Being keenly interested in the topic of organic food, I tossed it in my over-stuffed book bag. While Jeff was doing the bedtime routine tonight, I started checking it out.

I am deep in Chapter 1, wherein one of the co-authors (Anna Blythe Lappé) is explaining about our food supply and food system and discussing it within the framework of the "Six Illusions." They are the Illusion of Choice, Safe & Clean, Efficiency, Cheap, Fairness and Progress.

Well as usual I am horrified by what I read about industrial agriculture. In section on the Illusion of Fairness, I learned that "economists generally agree that once four companies control 40 percent or more of a market, real competition...is shot." (Campbell R. McConnell and Stanley L. Brue, Economics, 16th Edition, New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2005, p. 468).

Drumroll, please....

The four largest producers in each of the following categories control the following percentages: 84 percent of the beef market, 63 percent of the flour and 80 percent of the soybeans, 80 percent of the commercial seed market and as far as GMO seeds, 90 percent of THOSE are controlled by one company, Monsanto. (Grub)

Excellent. So glad I already buy as much organic food as financially possible. Where is Coupon Mom for moms like me Oprah?

Moving on. Why am I posting twice on the topic of poverty for Blog Action Day> It's because of what I just read
on page 22, still in the Illusion of Fairness: "Wal-Mart, which entered the food sales market only fifteen years ago, now collects roughly one out of three of our food dollars." (Grub)

The author then tells an anecdotal story about visiting Paris, MO, with a population of less than 2,000 that while small, is surrounded by farmland. There was not a single store or restaurant selling fresh food of any kind. Unless you count tater tots or the tomato sauce on a microwaveable pizza.

And to bring it closer to home, I share a fact the author quotes from Christopher Cook's book Diet for a Dead Planet: in a San Francisco neighborhood, low-income residents paid 64 percent more for equivalent food than their wealthier neighbors.

Um. No, Jaden. Mommy getting to stay up later than you is not unfair. People not having access to fresh, healthy food at all or at higher prices is unfair. Gosh this discussion of poverty in America is a GREAT diversion for me during a PET scan week. It's enough to make me want to buy apples and spinach (organic, duh) and pass them out to everyone.

I am steaming mad and I'm not an artichoke so I don't like the feeling.

I might even host a Grub Party!
Would anyone come?

Serious: Blog Action Day on Poverty


Jeff brought this to my attention the other day and Clare is participating too.

I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to say on the topic so I started looking at the resources which led me to Our Day to End Poverty which led me to an idea I have wanted to do for as long as I can remember.

They said, "Visit Second Harvest to find a local food bank or food rescue organization that can use your help."

And maybe 2008 is the year I finally do it.

I have always, always wanted to help at a food bank. I think this goal came into being during the early 1990s when I lived in San Francisco with my dad for about a year and a half. I was barely 21 and working my first full-time real job in a law office. I would get my paychecks cashed because a) I could and b) they were SO BIG in my eyes. I would go shopping on the way home at the Embarcadero. I would always run into homeless people. I got proposed to multiple times by kind, old men. Or so I thought.

Some days I didn't give any of my cash away. Some days I'd give $1 to one person or $1 to many people. Some days I gave $5. One day I had $30 or $40 left and a homeless man touched my heart somehow. I don't remember what he said but I felt so horrible having that money in my pocket while I was talking to him. So I gave it all to him. He was speechless. I'll never forget the look on his face.

I get conflicted from time to time about homeless people, especially any with addictions. Those close to me know it is a complicated topic for me personally and I struggle to find compassion for addicted people. I've grown up a lot too and had my own struggles (in life, not with addiction).

This exercise has made me stop and remember my youthful compassion. And I am fired up to look into volunteering at a food bank. I remember a friend in high school used to go with her parents during the holidays. She hated it as a teen. But I know I want Jaden to experience this with me when he is a little older. I think five is still a little too little, even if he is mostly 35.


Silly

All Day Trip

We went to see the Blue Angels yesterday in SF.

SF really dropped the ball on public transportation. We took the train which was standing room only. That took 30 minutes, but then it took us another 3.5 hours to finally get to our seats at the Marina. Streetcar after streetcar was full and they only got us to Pier 39. At which point there was nothing: no buses running and two taxis refused to drive us anywhere near the Marina. They both said "NOT POSSIBLE" and drove away mid-sentence! So we hoofed it two miles there and back. At the end, we got a ride home: total transportation time was 7 hours for a one-hour air show and dinner. Wowzers!

Even though I spent most of my day traveling, I managed to take a few pictures.

Friday Poems

Restless Sleep

Late in the night when all is quiet
I am awakened, though I am tired
I cannot find a way to sleep.
Fragmented thoughts pass in progression
standing by this window 'I'
view them heading to the deep.
Leaving nothing but some voice &
stretching limbs that have no choice
but to turn and follow them to sleep.

-- Anthony R. Valli

Hello Gorgeous

Hello Sigg Competition!

This beauty features:

• Unbreakable stainless steel interior and exterior
• Hygienic push button lid with pop-up straw
• Sweat-proof design won't leave water rings
• Fits most automotive cup holders
• Keeps contents cold for 12 hours
• 18 ounces
  

Too bad the Thermos site doesn't provide the price.

Signing Off

I've been filling 30 Boxes for 21 months now.

This feels really, really weird.
Goodbye first real writing job...

Listening....

Thank you library for your awesomeness.

It Makes Sense That I'm Tired

© The Country House

In the Breeze

The coastal breezes carried my troubles away for two lovely days.
For the rest of the pictures, click here.

Fly

Like this gull, I'm off to Seascape for a weekend with dear friends.
I plan to restore my weary mind, spirit and body.

Health & happiness to all!

Dahlias

Cheer up world,

there are dahlias among us.