Imagine Peace

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Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

-- John Lennon

I made my wish today after my oncologist told me that my cancer is probably back.

You make a wish too.

Nifty Home Products

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I am in a nesting mood. I've been spending my free time at IKEA, Cost Plus, Pottery Barn, and lots and lots of places online. The new house inspires me very much. I want to retain its aesthetic beauty and get our stuff to fit seamlessly and efficiently.

Here are two nifty products I've seen in the past two days.

1. folding drying rack from Ballard Designs:




2. strappy "droog" thing from Twig:


Ironically, there is an amazing home store in Los Gatos called Twig as well, but they are not affiliated.

First Booze Mail Party

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I survived planning my first corporate party!


The Million Booze March happened on Wednesday, 9/19 at the San Mateo County History Museum.



Note to self: don't wear these shoes to the next Booze Mail party! (At least not to the prep and cleanup portions of the party.) I took them off the instant I walked in my front door, and there they continue to sit.





The first photo is Adam, Renkoo's fearless leader and the second is one of me with Doug, my super schwag bag buddy who taught me a life-changing motto that long night of the 400 bags: "It happens" (everytime something went a little haywire). He and his wife Winnie live exactly four blocks away from our new house in San Carlos and brought us the most awesome bag of welcome wagon goodies ever on our second day here.



Here's a picture of me taking time to enjoy all my hard work! (Why do I look so foreign to myself here? I had to ask Jeff if that was really me. "Oh yes," he says.)

So many people came from most of Jeff's jobs over the past four and a half years and I was especially happy to see Raj, the CTO from Jeff's last job at Silver Spring Networks. He is seriously one of the nicest, smartest guys around town. Also from SSN is Stefan, seen here schmoozing with my darling husband (also very nice of course!)


All of these pictures (except my cute and comfortable-for-one-hour-not-six shoes) and more can be found by following this link to the Flickr account of Terry Chay, taken with the coolest camera I've ever seen, a Leica M8.

And if you're wondering why the title of this post is "First" Booze Mail Party, it's because the very next day, Adam asked me if we could get started on the next one! Guess it was a success!


Santa Cruz Boardwalk

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These pictures are from Jaden's second trip to the Boardwalk (was the first time one or two summers ago?) He pretty much thought it was the bee's knees both times. This year is the 100th anniversary. He still hasn't been with his Daddy though.



While we waited for Nana to come back from the bamboo nursery, we hung around the actual beach part of the Boardwalk.


Then Nana arrived and we started cruising and checking out the big rides like the Giant Dipper.




Jaden and I went on the Red Baron together the first time I took him to the Boardwalk.


It was probably my last time ever going on it since my kid likes to lean over the bar when we're paused at the top and yell "Howdy" to every little ant on the ground.

We learned that Nana is not a fan of the Red Baron or the Sky Glider. I like the Sky Glider, or at least I did when I was a kid. I never liked ferris wheels though.


We all stopped to watch the Typhoon in action.


And then we watched Jaden imitate the ride.

We ended our trip with an exciting ride on the Sea Serpent.




See ya next summer at the Boardwalk!

Drooling

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Ana blogged about some finds on Etsy recently and one of her finds has got me drooling.



This carnelian ring is so simple and beautiful but there's more to it than that. My grandma gave me a ring of hers that my grandfather had bought her, it was a garnet solitaire set in gold. It was her birthstone and extremely sentimental.

And I lost it during college during one of many moves. It haunts me to this day that I lost something so precious. It's not that it was a fancy stone or extremely expensive. But he's gone and then it was gone and now she's gone.

She was a gold kind of gal and I'm a silver kind of gal so if I still had it, I would have had it re-set by now into white gold (methinks platinum would have been a tad excessive in this case).

Anyway this picture just reminds me of it.

Nonna, mi dispiace e mi manchi.

Hello Asthma Attack

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Tonight, 45 minutes before we were to sign our lease and pick up our new house keys, I was struck by an asthma attack. I've never had asthma before, but I assume that's what I experienced.

I have allergies and have an inhaler for the dry cough I get sometimes from that. I did not have an inhaler with me, but I did have two dependents: Jaden and Jackson. The fires going on around here have made our air thick with smoke and the sun hazy as can be.

Honestly I am trying not to be dramatic but it was really terrifying to have Jaden and the dog under my responsibility and totally unable to breathe. I have wheezed plenty in my life with a dry cough, but I never wheezed like that. I couldn't speak or breathe, I just used everything I could to dial Jeff on my cell and toss it to Jaden in the back seat. Unfortunately Jaden couldn't tell Jeff where we were, only yell "It's an emergency! Mama can't breathe." I was trying to choke out "Sequoia High School" but Jeff was yelling back, "It's huge, where at Sequoia?"

I was getting so scared that I just decided to drive. (It struck me right outside the car after I had tried to run Jackson to tire him out. Somehow I got us all in the car and buckled and that was before even calling Jeff). Poor Jeff. What he must have been thinking as I choked out, "I'm just going to drive, I'll be okay" and hung up on him.

Anyway. Long story. Got to Renkoo parking lot and sent my 4 y.o. unattended through the parking lot, down the hall and into the office to get Jeff. I managed to get in the hallway and collapsed on the stairs. Started crying pretty much. My lungs were spasming at a slower rate.

Eventually we made it to the appointment to sign the lease. What a handful of a family we were -- the anxious dog, my over-tired, over-hungry child, my heaving self and Jeff who had been dealing with melting servers all day long. In the middle of all that, I went to Walgreen's and had my inhaler Rx transferred and filled. We picked it up on the way home. It helped very little. The hot steamy shower helped a lot -- while I was in it. Now I am sititng very still, typing very fast and not talking. Talking = Lung Spasms = Bad.

Google'd "coughing asthma henry coe fire san jose" and got this KRON article titled: "Health Advisory Issued Due to High Level of Pollutants."

Nice.

NOT!

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Conversations with Jaden, I've Lost Count of the Number

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Scene: dinner table. dinner was one leftover mini-burger (1.5" diameter) cut into six pieces, two teaspoons of mac&cheese, one teaspoon of peas&carrots. about two pieces of burger and all the mac&cheese had been eaten.

Jaden: I'm full Mama.

Me: Are you sure about that? You know, this is the time to fill your belly for the rest of the night.

Jaden: I'm sure.

Me: How about that trick where you close your eyes and feel your belly? Is it still full?

Jaden: I'm sure.

Me: Do you know how else you can tell you're really full? When someone offers you a bowl of chocolate ice cream with chocolate sprinkles AND M&Ms and as yummy as it looks and as much as you want it, you could not even fit one bite of that ice cream in your belly.

Jaden: Was today a work day and a school day Mama?

Me: Yes.

Jaden: Then you wouldn't offer me a bowl of ice cream on a day like this.

To understand why this conversation makes my son a future lawyer, you'd have to know that we have a new rule in effect wherein Jaden gets dessert on the weekends only. So now you can see how skilled he is at finding loopholes.

Plenty

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I checked this book out of the library and I'm about 2/3 of the way through. I had to renew it once already so I need to hustle and finish it.

It is really thought-provoking. I have read a lot about eating locally in the past, but this book slams the idea home. The authors state that the average ingredient travels 1,500 miles from farm to plate.

I can't get that number out of my head. Here I am stressing over my Element's mpg and really my food choices are a way bigger problem! I thought organic or not was a big stress, now I need to worry about how far my food has come.

For example, my Trader Joe's canola oil comes from Canada. Ouch. My super yummy Ritz replacement cracker, Late July, comes from Maine. Goodness, I don't even want to talk about my olive oil. I need my Italian olive oil, hello!

My challenge to you: go see how many things in your pantry come from your own state. Forget 100 miles, just see if you are eating in-state.

I am beginning my Google process and this was the first link I checked after this search: average mpg semi trucks. 6 MPG!!! OMG. My Element is practically a gift to the planet after the amount of gas my little crackers traveled to my pantry.

I am going to drown with my crackers in a cup of long-distance tomato soup now.