Breaking News

Posted on April 21, 2010 by jeannie

[The strike lasted three days. Here is an article at the oc register recapping what happened and what was tentatively resolved.]

The teachers’ union of Capo Unified has officially announced a teacher strike starting tomorrow.

An email from the principal tells me what my child will be taught should she choose to attend school tomorrow:

“We will have college educated substitutes that have passed the California requirements to substitute in public schools.  Many have asked what will students be learn. As stated earlier – life skills. More specifically, students will learn three separate things that will be useful for a lifetime. They will:
1.      Determine their personality type through the Keirsey Temperament Sorter and learn about the strengths and weaknesses of their personality. They will discuss which personalities they work well with and what professions may be a great fit. Many of you may have taken such an assessment in your career.
2.      There will be a personal finance lesson on steps to buying new and used cars. (Hopefully with their own money.)
3.      Students will learn about the process of personal self image and the role that microbes play in their everyday lives. Foodborne illness, the threat to food safety, and adolescent slowdown will be reviewed.
These assignments are meant to be enriching exercises for our students.”

Bella will be at home studying for her three AP tests, which are unfortunately scheduled to take place in two weeks time.

Good news: Bella got a 100% on her last pre-Calc test! That brings her one B up to an A – finally! Woo-hoo! GO BELLA!

Posted in schooling, south OC | 1 Comment

Making a Crown

Posted on April 20, 2010 by jeannie

Christian woefully wishing he had a crown as nice as his friend's...or maybe he wishes he had a poncho.

Making a crown out of felt is laughably easy; the entire thing can be handstitched in a sitting while watching your kids play.

The trick is to put together a decent pattern – one that is crown-like. A crown that is too tall or pointy turns jester-like very quickly. Best is to cut out a simple crown out of paper and try it on your kid until it feels right and then to use it as a pattern. Our pattern was sketched by hand and consisted on two pieces: the front pointy bit and the back strap.

We made crowns for one of our Waldorf in the Woods crafts.

You will need

1/3 yard of felt in a color of your choice (we like to wet the felt and put it in the dryer for more texture)

1/3 yard coordinating ribbon

1/3 yard elastic, about an inch thick

embroidery floss and needle

1. Cut the crown pattern out so that the bottom is on the fold. You’ll be cutting two pieces of felt: one is the three crown points in the front, the other is a basic rectangle folded for the back. Both are cut on the fold.

2. Cut the back piece of felt slightly longer than you need, so there is growing room. The elastic will cinch it up.

3. Using regular thread and needle, sew on the ribbon at the bottom of the crown. Make sure to fold the ends of the ribbon under and in between the two pieces of crown. You can tape the ribbon ends if they are tending to fray. The tape will be hidden.

4. Sew the front top of the crown closed along the top using a blanket stitch and embroidery floss.

5. Blanket stitch along the top of the crown back too.

6. Then, with the elastic inserted inside the back strip, put the whole thing slightly inside the front crown piece and pin. Sew together firmly.

7. Then stretch the elastic and cinch up the back piece of felt and repeat on the other side.

Finished!

These are great for everyday play and make terrific gifts as well. Last year I machined-stitched a half dozen crowns as birthday favors for Christian’s first birthday. I vastly prefer the handstitched ones I’ve made since.

The spring crown I'm making for my neice, Noi naa.

Posted in crafts | Leave a comment

A Slight Chance of Meatballs

Posted on April 19, 2010 by jeannie

To change things up a bit in the kitchen, I also love to dip into an issue of Cooks Illustrated, especially now that I’ve discovered that my local library has a subscription (grrr – last two times though somebody has had every single back issue checked out!).

Last month, at Costco, I spotted a recipe for slow cooker meatballs in the current issue. I didn’t buy the issue, just reread the ingredient list until it was somewhat lodged in my brain. Of course, by the time I was actually ready to make the meatballs I wanted to review the recipe, but sadly the current issue at Costco had already been replaced with this month’s issue, and it was checked out at the library.

So, I did that flying by the seat of my pants thing and it worked out okay.

I LOVED the way my meatballs turned out and I’m really looking forward to a meatball sub for lunch (with a slice of smoked gouda).

Here’s the general idea for

SLOW COOKER MEATBALLS

1 # grass-fed ground beef

3 spicy Italian sausages squeezed out their casings (I believe the recipe called for sweet Italian, but I generally go for savory over sweet)

2 eggs

1 c bread crumbs (I used panko, because I happened to have them on hand)

1 c parsley, chopped fine (from another meatball recipe I’ve used)

1 c shredded mozzerella (may have called for parmesan)

salt and pepper to taste

Sauce: 3 large cans plum tomatoes, lots of pressed garlic, large bunch of basil chopped, one can tomato paste

1. Add the plum tomatoes to the crock pot and whizz it up with an immersion blender. Add up to one head of pressed garlic and one bunch of  basil, chopped. Turn the crock pot on. Salt and pepper to taste.

2. Mix meatball ingredients well by hand. Shape into meatballs.

3. Broil meatballs to render the fat.

4. Gently drop the meatballs into the sauce.

5. Let it simmer the rest of the day and serve over spaghetti with garlic toast.

You’ll be happy you did it.

This meal has already provided lunch (x6); plus, I used the sauce last night for pizza, and the remaining meatballs will be my sub for lunch.

So much for having some left over to freeze.

Posted in food, recipes | Leave a comment

Giving In

Posted on April 16, 2010 by jeannie

It’s not the best book I’ve read in the last year – but aside from the occasional eyeball rolling, I did really enjoy Elizabeth Gilbert’s book, Eat, Pray, Love. I think I resisted reading it, despite all the hype (it seems to be a book club favorite – and people were always surprised I hadn’t read it), because of the word “pray” in the title. I sometimes get nervous that I’m unwittingly getting sucked into an evangelical tirade – a niggling worry that is not unwarranted here in superchurch land, where Rick Warren (of purpose-driven life fame) gives his Easter sermon in Angel Stadium.

Did you understand that correctly? The local popular pastor gives his Easter sermon in a baseball stadium that seats 45,000 people.

!!

Gilbert is an accomplished writer, so you’re on safe footing here. Her only foible (or feat) is her utter self-disclosure. She gives it all away. After a devastating divorce (having been through a miserable myself, her break-down was hard to read about), she takes off to travel the world, dividing a year neatly between three countries: Italy, India, and Indonesia and their three corresponding activities: eating, praying, and loving. You’ll hear every detail, so if working through a massive mid-life crisis, eating massive amounts of pasta, praying for massive amounts of hours in caves, and sex galore do not interest you – well, don’t read the book.

A definite chick lit book, I was vastly entertained by my brother’s notes throughout the book.

I first discovered his notes when somebody on paperbackswap.com requested the book from me. Yes, in my obstinacy, a copy of this book had even come into my very home, but I was refusing to read it – even flip through its pages – and I’d posted it on my paperback.com account. But when somebody requested the book, I took a minute to flip through and realized I was going to have to spend some time erasing my brother’s penciled notes…

My brother’s notes? Well, by the time I’d busted up laughing over a few of the scrawled notes (“reminds me of high school journal entries”; “doubt it, sheesh”; “sounds so AA!”; “Leave no wreckage”) I’d decided that I should read the book – if only to read it through my brother’s eyes. He had, after all, bothered to sketch pictures of drawings described, made a half dozen guesses at what the middle initial “M” stood for, and more. He spends some time too wondering if he should even be reading it…

So, I wrote the woman who had requested the book and told her it would be another week before I could mail the book. She was understanding.

But by the time I’d finished the book, I didn’t have the heart to erase anything. My mom would LOVE to read this book. My mother-in-law would probably love it too.

In the end, I ordered another copy of Eat, Pray, Love from another paperbackswap member and had it shipped to the woman who’d been waiting for my copy.

I’m keeping my copy.

Anybody not read it yet?

You can borrow my annotated copy!

Posted in books | 7 Comments

Pieter Hugo

Posted on April 12, 2010 by jeannie

Omo Omeonu, Enugu, Nigeria, 2008

Following his popular solo NYC show,  “The Hyena and Other Men,” which captures street performers (and their children) with their muzzled hyenas during off-hours in large-format photographs, Hugo takes theatricality a step further in his new body of work, “Nollywood.” Using actors from the flourishing Nigerian film industry, the result is the bone-chilling manifestation of a collective nightmare – a place where the real and unreal are often difficult to tease apart – the devil sits next to his demure and turbaned wife or a dwarf confronts you in the jungle with a sword in hand. Using the many existing stock characters of popular Nollywood cinematic culture, Hugo goes far beyond standard documentary work. If you’ve forgotten the visceral belly-churning of experiencing something so different, so alarming, that you are startled into self-conscious awareness of your own perceived normalcy, let the bare-footed masked man (wearing only a trench coat, bowler hat, large fake ears, and carrying a hatchet) take you away. The traffic is blurred behind him, and you’ll wonder if you’re the only one who can see him (Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Bergamot Station).

Mummy Ahmadu and Mallam Mantari Lamal with Mainasara, Abuja, Nigeria 2005

Posted in art | Leave a comment

Late night convo with hubby

Posted on April 11, 2010 by jeannie

Late

Me (crawling into bed after an unexpected treat of eating buttered toast, drinking tea, and reading People magazine by myself): Did you know Robin Wright and Sean Penn broke up? And Sam Mendes and Kate Winslet?

Chad (sleepily): Mhhhmph.Yeah, I knew.

M: Those are two couples I really thought would stay together. I WANTED them to stay together. Forever.

C: I thought Bruce and Demi would stay together – what do I know?

Posted in says chad | Leave a comment

FYI Re: Songbae in Bishtek, Kyrgyszstan

Posted on April 7, 2010 by jeannie

Bishtek Updates (since people keep asking)\

April 17 clarifications:

“1) They were considering evacuating us to Kazakhstan but they never did
2) I was hired as interim CFO for Kompanion, which is Mercy Corps microfinance bank in Kyrgyzstan.”

April 11, 2010

“Hello all,

Things are fairly quiet in the city and we were “de-consolidated” yesterday which means we were allowed to go back to our own apartments.

After getting back to my own apartment, I took my first shower since Wednesday (they had showers at our “safe house” but I figured the revolution was a good excuse to skip a few days). It seems a little strange to do anything normal during these un-normal times but after my shower I got a haircut (where they proceeded to wash my hair two more times).  Then I went grocery shopping (at the shopping center which wasn’t looted) because I had left all my boiled eggs, ramen noodle bowls and canned corn at the safe house. The store where I went grocery shopping had been badly looted in the 2005 revolution, really fortified itself afterwards and survived this round.  Lesson well learned.

After shopping I did the wash which means right now I’m wearing my “gym” clothes.  When I first arrived in Bishkek last November I bought a heavy coat, two dress shirts, a pair of work pants and two pairs of socks.  I alternate the dress shirts and socks.  My next purchase was a pair of “office” slippers. This prompted someone in my office to comment that I don’t seem to care about what I wear.  He was wondering if it was a personal or cultural thing.

Since I don’t have a camera, here are some links to articles with pictures.  The picture in this article is the “mall” where I usually (or should I say “used to”?) go to lunch.

It is also the mall where I (used to) get holes in my clothes sewed.  I have so far brought in a jacket, pants and a sweater.  When I brought in my socks, though, they said no and told me just to buy a new pair.  When I told my co-worker what happened she took out a needle and some thread and sewed them on the spot (she first asked if the socks were clean and then added that I should get married so my wife could sew my socks).

This article has a map of Bishkek (I’ve also attached a copy with my edits) where you can see my old apartment.

I read another article referring to the protests as the Easter Revolution which is a little funny since Kyrgyzstan is a Muslim country.  Someone in my office suggested that I move up my trip to Bangkok but after reading the news today I’m not so sure that’s a good idea either?

Songbae”

April 7, 2010

Although all international emails and websites were cut off for a time yesterday, we have now received email from Songbae and he has called twice in the last 48 hours.

He is safe and well.

He has been in a “safe house” with other expats, but tomorrow he will be evacuated to Kazakhstan.

Last week Songbae was hired as the Mercy Corps interim Chief Financial Officer for six months. That seemed like exciting news, until he and his coworkers started being able to hear gunshots in town from the office.

News about the situation from the NY Times here. And news from msnbc.com here.

Posted in says Songbae | 2 Comments

A Soup for a Rainy Day and a Funny Feeling in Your Throat

Posted on April 5, 2010 by jeannie

We love this soup. It’s simple and tasty. Plus the copious amounts of garlic and ginger make it a good comfort soup for when Bella says she has a funny feeling in her throat.

It’s from my sister-in-law, Corrina:

“Here is the recipe for Tinola.  It was handed down to my friend from her mom, although I’m sure you can find versions of it online, as it’s a common Philipino soup.  When she gave it to me, we were sitting down to lunch together, and she wrote down the ingreds and explained what to do with each ingred verbally, so I’m trying to write it down here as I interpreted it.  She recommended that I hold the chayote with a fork while I peel it.  She was under the impression that it would make your skin itch, but it’s in the melon family, so I’m not sure if that’s the case.  I followed her advice anyway.  Most of her advice regarding proportions was, “if you like those, add lots.  If you don’t like those so much add less”.  I love this soup!

2 or 3 Tbsp light olive oil
thumb-sized piece of ginger root, sliced into pieces approximately 1″ long and 1/4″ thick
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 chicken breasts, chopped into 1″ cubes
Chicken broth, 2 boxes or 64 oz.
1 Chayote, peeled and chopped into just slightly larger than how you prepared the ginger.
Spinach, 2 or 3 cups, lightly chopped

Sauté ginger until it’s golden brown
Then add garlic and onion
Add chicken, sauté with ginger, garlic and onion until it’s cooked
Add chicken broth, bring to a boil
Add chayote and let it simmer until the chayote is softened to your liking
Turn off the fire (her words.  So cute)
Add Spinach and stir
Season with salt and pepper, to taste

I hope you enjoy it as much as I have”

Posted in health, recipes | 1 Comment

The San Diego Zoo Train Adventure

Posted on April 1, 2010 by jeannie

We were three moms, five children, and three strollers...

For Anna’s 4th birthday we took the Amtrak train from Irvine to San Diego, the #7 bus from downtown to the Zoo and back again. You’ll notice that there are not any pictures of animals – we didn’t see many! Besides which, once we were on the go, there wasn’t much time for photo-taking.

The whole day was a travel adventure and we had so much fun that Anna’s older brother asked if we could do the exact same thing for his birthday next month.

While the Amtrak is considerably more expensive than Metrolink – it’s the only service from OC to San Diego.  A trip of comparable distance (OC to LA) on Metrolink costs $15 or so on the weekend (20% less than during the week) and you can purchase a Friend and Family Pack which costs $29 FOR FOUR ADULTS ALL DAY! The Metrolink ticket (for the time being) also includes free rides on the LA subway and bus system the same day.

But the view to San Diego is waa-aay nicer. You ride along the coast and get a great view the whole way up and down. Worth the $40 round trip once, I guess.

Here’s a short clip from our return trip.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkWAXnhsOZ4]

Posted in SoCal attractions, south OC | 1 Comment

Grow Your Own Easter Basket Grass

Posted on March 29, 2010 by jeannie

My basket after one week.

Once you’ve grown your own grass, you’ll never go back to the plastic stuff. Or even the paper stuff – you’ll quickly discover that they are poor substitutes for the vibrancy of real living wheatgrass sprouting before your eyes. And real grass makes such a beautiful backdrop for frolicking spring animals like handsewn bunnies and felted chicks.

If you start your basket today, you’ll have an inch or so of growth by the weekend.

You’ll need:

plastic to line your basket

soil (I used an organic garden soil from Home Depot)

wheatberries (This had me stumped for a few days as I searched high and low for “wheat grass seeds” – that nobody had. Then I was informed that plain old wheatberries from the bulk bins at Henry’s works well – and of course it does!)

crumpled newspapers if your basket is deep

1. Add crumpled newspapers to your basket so you will only need to add a couple inches of soil.

2. Line your basket with plastic.

3. Add soil and press down.

4. Add seeds.

5. Add another inch of soil.

6. Water and keep damp for a couple days until you see sprouts!

SO EASY – I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS IS THE FIRST GRASS I’VE EVER SPROUTED!

I hosted a meetup and a dozen moms made their spring baskets with me.

Posted in crafts, Easter, waldorf | 5 Comments