19 Monday Mar 2012
Posted in kids, photography
This was the most interesting corner of my house. We have three fish in there: an angel fish, a tiger barb, and a red platy. Originally, there was a guppy instead of an angel fish, but the tiger barb attacked the guppy and killed it. We then went to a proper aquarium store as opposed to one of the big chains, where people don’t always give the best advice, and asked for a fish that could survive in this tank with the barb. The Angel Fish is now king (or Queen) of the tank.
19 Monday Mar 2012
Posted in kids, photography
Watching old Woody Woodpecker and rolling around in an empty laundry basket.
19 Monday Mar 2012
Posted in photography
I wanted to share the impressive parking skills of this patron with the world.
19 Monday Mar 2012
Posted in Author Interviews
Kristina McMorris is the author of BRIDGE OF SCARLET LEAVES, which I had the honor of reading back when it was in looseleaf form; and LETTERS FROM HOME.
***
Los Angeles, 1941. Violinist Maddie Kern’s life seemed destined to unfold with the predictable elegance of a Bach concerto. Then she fell in love with Lane Moritomo. Her brother’s best friend, Lane is the handsome, ambitious son of Japanese immigrants. Maddie was prepared for disapproval from their families, but when Pearl Harbor is bombed the day after she and Lane elope, the full force of their decision becomes apparent. In the eyes of a fearful nation, Lane is no longer just an outsider, but an enemy.
When her husband is interned at a war relocation camp, Maddie follows, sacrificing her Juilliard ambitions. Behind barbed wire, tension simmers and the line between patriot and traitor blurs. As Maddie strives for the hard-won acceptance of her new family, Lane risks everything to prove his allegiance to America, at tremendous cost.
***
I was surprised to learn that there were indeed some Caucasians who went to the internment camps, inspiring Kristina’s story.
Kristina and I started corresponding a couple of years ago, before LETTERS FROM HOME, another WWII story, was released. Like me, she’s half-Japanese, only it’s her father that’s Japanese. Not only is she an all-around nice gal (in the parlance of her novels’ era),she’s an enterprising book promoter; just read about some of the things she did to help launch her first book.
One day, after I’d started pen-palling with Kristina, I was walking through Costco and saw Mr. Yoshida’s sauce. The name was familiar. Wasn’t Kristina’s maiden name Yoshida? I wondered.
Yup. Kristina’s dad is the Mr. Yoshida.
I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Kristina in person, when she organized a group of women writers to meet for a retreat at Mt. Hood. It was a fabulous weekend, and I came away with many new friends.
Here are a few questions I asked Kristina:
Do you dream in black and white, or color?
I read a long time ago that people dream in one of the two, so I always ask everyone this. I haven’t found anyone who dreams in B&W yet!
You would think I dream in black & white, since my books are all set during the ’40s. But alas, I’m not that unique. From what I recall, only color dreams for me!
What are your hobbies?
Authors on deadline are supposed to have hobbies?! Ha. As the mother of two young sons who are now active in various sports, I’m finding less and less free time these days. But when I have the chance, I enjoy reading, watching films (I especially love movie trailers, which always hold so much promise!), and dining with friends over good wine and food that’s too pretty to eat.
What are your favorite and least favorite parts about writing?
My favorite part is editing. I love to tweak like nobody’s business.
My least favorite? The blank page. That blinking, taunting cursor is not my friend. But I push myself to fill the pages regardless, propelled by the vague memory of how wonderful it feels to type THE END.
If you could have any super power, what would it be? What would your superhero name be?
Given that I so often complain about wanting another hundred hours in a day, I would either slow down time or eliminate my need to sleep. As for a name? I’d have to go with “Crasian.” A friend once combined “crazy” and “Asian” to describe me, and the fitting nickname never fails to make me laugh.
What’s your favorite snack? Notice I did not say “healthful snack.” (I think healthful is correct. My MIL always corrects me when I say healthy).
I’m a longtime fan of salt & vinegar chips, but my latest discovery is the baked Cheez-It Duoz that feature both smoked cheddar and Monterey Jack crackers. Yum!
18 Sunday Mar 2012
Posted in photography
This is called a “shamrock plant.” I found some growing in a pot outside and got excited because I thought I’d found 4 leaf clovers. It is really Oxalis regnellii, or sorrel.When I was looking up the plant, I kept seeing the oxalis regnelli listed as a purple shamrock, but I’m going to defer to the USDA plant website, which pictures the green variety; triangularis has the red purple leaves. Its leaves are edible in small quantities (but the website I’m linking to notes ALL of it is actually toxic; it’s just low in toxicity. Hmmm).
18 Sunday Mar 2012
Posted in photography
I’m behind on Photo a Day. It began with clouds– there were no clouds at all the day of the assignment. It rained over the weekend. I took both of these on Friday, March 16.
14 Wednesday Mar 2012
Posted in helpful hints, random stuff I've done
I like to use green cleaning products whenever I can, because I’m sensitive to regular cleaning products.
Cleaning with vinegar has been around since…forever.
I remember watching an old episode of Jon & Kate Plus 8 (yep,very very old) when Sara Snow came on and demonstrated to Kate, the OCD germophobe, how to use vinegar to clean. Then she told Kate not to wash mushrooms, just wipe the dirt off. “If there’s a little bit of dirt left on there, it’s not going to hurt anyone,” Snow says. You can see Kate start twerking. Must not yell at Sarah Snow. Dirt? Dirt? AUGHH!
Anyway, vinegar is really really cheap. You can get a huge 1.32 gallon container of Heinz 5% acidity at Costco for $3 or $4.
I was at Target the other day and saw this 32 ounce vinegar in their cleaning section:
It’s watered down to 4% acidity. You don’t even get a spray cap with it.
$2 for 32 ounces. $4 for 1.32 gallons (which is more than 258 ounces).
Which one should you get?
I think there exist people who believe that you cannot use vinegar from the grocery aisle for cleaning, because it doesn’t specifically say MADE FOR CLEANING. It reminds me of this lady I used to babysit for. I went grocery shopping with her to mind her kid. She wanted to get ginger ale and wouldn’t buy it unless it said Caffeine-Free. I said all ginger ale is caffeine free, so if it said anything, it would say, “Caffeine Added.” But she did not believe me, probably because I was 14. But if she thought about it, or heck, even asked the grocery store manager, she would have known I was correct. (And, ohmygosh, I just realized that baby is now like 24 or 25).
So if you are thinking about buying vinegar from the cleaning section, do yourself a favor and walk on over to the grocery store aisle.
Another shopping tip that will save cash: if you want microfiber cloths for housecleaning, go to the Automotive Section. They are cheaper there, for some reason, and come in larger packages.
Does cleaning with vinegar work? I think it works as a disinfectant, but if you have food on a counter, you have to let it sit for a while.
I prefer the Method products sold at Target, which work better and don’t make me have asthma attacks. The Daily Green has a guide to green cleaning products; it’s part of Good Housekeeping, so I think it’s a pretty good resource.
Here’s the Jon & Kate vid, if you must:
13 Tuesday Mar 2012
Posted in photography
The assignment was a Sign.
I just got this for my car yesterday and couldn’t resist. It’s my Smart Girl Mudflap.
I like the palm trees and sky reflecting, too.
BTW, it photographed better with a dirty window than with a clean.
13 Tuesday Mar 2012
Posted in random stuff I've done
I have this friend. I love having her as a friend for many reasons, but one of the more superficial ones is because she does a bunch of semi-crazy shit that I am too lazy to attempt. For instance, she is a huge Disneylandophile, so when they were open 24 hours for leap year, guess who was there all night? Yep. I bet when they start taking regular people to Mars, she’ll be on the first shuttle, and she will text me a photo of herself with the Earth in the background, waving at me.
Anyway, Sprinkles in LA opened a Cupcake ATM. What need is there for such a thing?
Haven’t you ever been out late at night and had a craving for a cupcake, and all the bakeries and even the grocery store bakery cases were all shut down for the night, so you went home and threw a stick of butter and two cups of powdered sugar into a bowl and spooned it up into your mouth? Not that I have done that. I’ve just, you know, heard of people doing that.
So my friend, who lives in the heart of cupcake land (and though some people say cupcakes are over, they are not any more over than frozen yogurt, which is still going strong.Go to any yogurtland on a Saturday night and see what I mean), went to the Sprinkles cupcake ATM today. 24 hours of cupcakes! She sent me this video.
Another thing I’m glad she did, so I don’t have to.
I like it because there’s just the sound of cars, then wind howling like banshees over the moors…of the streets of the city of angels.
Here’s the real promotional Sprinkles cupcake ATM video, if you want to see it:
12 Monday Mar 2012
Posted in Uncategorized
There is a line in Sarah Jio’s book The Violets of March that stuck with me. Well, the gist of it stuck with me, because I can’t find it again (I guess this is a time when an e-copy comes in handy, to search out phrases). The main character knows somebody who had three kids and thinks, You’d have to be crazy to have three. Which I found funny because Jio herself has three kids, and so do I.
If you have more than 2 kids, a lot of people do think you’re crazy. (Except Catholics or Mormons. Many of those families are a lot larger, so three is quite small in comparison).
After our third child was born, I schlepped her along in her infant seat to a farm field trip for Son’s preschool. Another mother, who had two older kids, looked her over, commented on her cuteness, then shook her head.
“Man, you guys are crazy!” she said, in a not-terribly-joking tone. “Three kids.”
The truth is, we are kind of crazy, aren’t we? We had two kids, a boy and a girl. They were out of diapers. They were almost all out of preschool. I had lost all the baby weight and was very healthy again. My body hates pregnancy– I gain a ton of weight, my joints loosen for like 5 years, and I had ulnar nerve problems (in my elbows).
So why did we have another?
I couldn’t sit at the dinner table without looking around for who was missing. Then I realized all four of us were there.
And I couldn’t shake the feeling.
Little Girl is different than her older siblings. She is more physically daring, more like Cadillac than like me. She’s a blondie.
I guess there’s also this: you never regret having another, but you might regret not having one.
But I wouldn’t go all judge-y on you if you had two. Or three. Or six. Or one. Or none.
Before Number 3, Cadillac used to say if we needed to have four, so nobody would have to ride alone at Disneyland. But that’s gone out the window.
Three is our magic number. We are done. Cooked.
It’s easier to just bring a friend to Disneyland.
