My honey is planning a 22-mile hike to the top of San Jacinto on Memorial Day weekend. And he suggested we stay in a hotel. and he’s doing all the research.
A stupendous feat is a perfect birthday activity.
Isn’t he the greatest?
Not Cheap Airplane Tix
I bought airplane tix last night.
Newark (EWR) – Palm Springs (PSP) $365
I kept waiting and waiting for a sale to come around, but the price stayed about the same. And it was virtually the same price to fly into LAX and ONT – so I figured it was easier to fly into Palm Springs. I miss the days when you used to be able to fly coast-to-coast for $250.
Also, I bought LAX – BKK. That cost $880. That price never changed either. I think that is the same that I paid when Bella and I went to Bangkok four years ago. (Except that it was only $600 for Bella; international tix for kids are usually only 80% of the adult ticket) Luckily, my mom has offered to pay for the ticket so I could go hang with Sue while she pops the new Lee kid into the world.
I almost had a heart attack last week surfing for airfares. I pulled up a roundtrip ticket to Bangkok and the ticket price had gone to $2700!! I started scrolling desperately down the page in a complete panic – only to discover that I had made a typo. Instead of BKK I had typed BBK, which apparently is a airport in Botswana. Boy, going to Africa is expensive.
The way I look for cheap tix is by using the “Expand Search Options” function at orbitz.com. I click “check any airports within 80 miles” and “search for tickets one day after and before.”
Posted in travel
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Putting Songs into iTunes
I can never remember the exact process to transfer music (from a backup disc – CD or DVD) to my iTunes. Here are Chad’s directions:
1. Go to “edit” in itunes, select “preferences”
2. Select the “advanced tab” and choose “general”
3. Check the box that says “copy files to itunes music folder when adding
to library”
4. Drag the music files into itunes.
5. Under “file” go to “import.” locate the text files that have the names
of the playlists, and import them. this will automatically load the playlist
in track order. **The songs have to be loaded already for this to work.**
And here’s the link to a video tutorial for the same thing.
Posted in ipod, itunes
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Final Final Draft
Just thought I’d mention:
I FINISHED THE THESIS!
the cover page, the bibliography, the whole thing. Off to the printer’s tomorrow!
Now to reward myself with a little sleep – a few hours anyway.
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holy crapola
Jeez. Here I think I’m done, and then I find the exact same two sentences in my conclusion that I used in my introduction. Yikes.
The Chicago Manual of Style (14th edition) is turning out to be a good, good friend.
(See, I post a lot more when I am “working” on my thesis. Hence, Bella’s habit of yelling, Mom! Are you blogging again?! every time she passes my door.)
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Spacey Mc Space
Just back from a second round of walking around the house aimlessly looking for that final draft I printed out a few hours ago. That’s right – I can’t find it. I just need to read through it one more time before I print out a good copy, but I cannot find the damn thing anywhere.
Perhaps it is because I have too many dang piles of papers, theses, and books laying about on every available surface. Chad made a little video of Giselle the other day and played it on the TV. I could only gape at the mess on the screen – whose house was that messy? My house? Needless to say, despite Giselle’s playful gambols, that video will not make it to youtube.
Or perhaps it is because I woke up at 3 am this morning to see Chad off to Laguna. He gets up that early to beat the traffic back.
Or maybe I can’t bear the thought of being done with the thesis. could that be it? WHERE ARE YOU THESIS?!
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Final Draft of Thesis
Could this be it? This is the first time I am printing the whole thing as one document. If I finish the bibliography tonight, I can bring it to the printer tomorrow!!!!
I think I’ll call it “Intimacy in the Works of Janet Cardiff Including Collaborations with George Bures Miller.”
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Federal Study Indicates Moms Should Stay at Home
Another NYTimes article providing statistical weight to something teachers and mothers already intuitively know: kids who spend time in day care are more disruptive in the classroom than kids with mothers at home.
The article is titled, “Poor Behavior is Linked to Time in Day Care” and outlines the findings of a $200 million, federally-funded research project by The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Here are the first three paragraphs of the article (read the whole thing here):
“A much-anticipated report from the largest and longest-running study of American child care has found that keeping a preschooler in a day care center for a year or more increased the likelihood that the child would become disruptive in class — and that the effect persisted through the sixth grade.
The effect was slight, and well within the normal range for healthy children, the researchers found. And as expected, parents’ guidance and their genes had by far the strongest influence on how children behaved.
But the finding held up regardless of the child’s sex or family income, and regardless of the quality of the day care center. With more than two million American preschoolers attending day care, the increased disruptiveness very likely contributes to the load on teachers who must manage large classrooms, the authors argue.”
Posted in mothering
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Personalised Rock Candy
This is my latest wedding temptation: personalised rock candy from Australia. Sue introduced it to me first. In fact, she is strenuously trying to convince me to get some for my wedding as she discovered it too late to use for hers. She has actually shipped me a bag to taste (it’s delicious) with an order form.
The simplest (under 8 letters + heart), smallest bag (14 kg) costs $196 Australian. If I do it, another woman I know who is planning a summer wedding might split shipping with me. Bella wants vanilla or butterscotch flavor.
The picture above is from sunshinecandykitchen.com.au
The place Sue actually got the candy from a shop in Melbourne and their site is suga.com.au. Their stuff is quite a bit more expensive.
I don’t know, but this might be the stuff that tips me over the $2000 wedding.
Posted in wedding for $2000
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How Many in March?
It seems I let more plastic bags into my life than I thought. At the beginning of this month, I took on Tiff’s challenge to minimize the number of plastic bags I accepted during the month of March. I normally carry canvas bags in the trunk of my car, so I didn’t think it would be a big deal to SHOW OFF and not accept any plastic bags this month – but I CAN’T DO IT! and it’s driving me crazy.
All was going well into the middle of the month. I was feeling smug and was only counting that I had accepted one measly bag, and that was a bag I had actually refused at the grocery store, only to witness the idiotic checker chuck the unused plastic bag in the garbage!
Then I walked into a local restaurant to pick up lunch for six people and realized that there was no reasonable way I could get out of accepting the two plastic bags holding all the sandwiches, salads, and soups. Same the next day when I was at the farmer’s market: I accepted one plastic bag to carry all the tzaziki and hummus I got, because I didn’t want to dribble in my canvas bags. Not such a big deal.
Today was my downfall. Chad and I ran into the market, only planning on picking up a handful of items. I brought in my new very roomy Trader Joe’s canvas bag (that a friend gave me because she says it’s impossible to remember to use it…) and started shopping. We ended up getting more that we had intended, but barring the $1.50 gigantic sale can of hominy, I still thought everything would fit.
When we got to the register, the fellow asked me if I wanted the groceries in the canvas bag. I said, “Yes please. Everything EXCEPT the gigantic can of hominy.”
He said, “Okay. Not the hominy.”
Next thing I know he is asking, “Paper or plastic for the rest, m’am?”
Resignedly I said, “Plastic.”
After I paid, I looked into the bags – I mean good grief it looked like there were tons of bags in there suddenly. I checked the ROOMY canvas bag: one can of hominy and the orange juice. Nothing else. Everything else had been put into no less than FOUR plastic bags.
Sigh. So much for showing off.
On the upside, I have been discovered (via Tiff) a cool blogsite dedicated to reducing trash. It is called “Say No to Trash,” and you can check it out here. Today he wrote about two men who have pledged to make zero impact on the planet for a year. They live in Manhatten and they are writing a book about the whole experience.
(The hominy is for making posole the next time Maya and I cook together.)
Posted in modernday hippiness
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