Change Junkies

Return of Change Junkies?

2011-12-26T20:36:00.000-08:00

I think I might revive this blog. Is anyone still subscribed? If you are, let me know, please!

Recent Photos

2009-07-27T11:07:00.000-07:00

We (F, J, our visiting-from-Australia friend S, and I) took a hike in Redwood Regional Park, and climbed Redwood Peak, hoping for a great view. It was a nice climb, and the redwoods were nice and cool, but the view was not so much of a vista, really, as the peak was densely forested.

Just before we left, Justin decided he needed a haircut so he wouldn't look like a hobbit in his new hat, which is not even featured in any of the pictures. Next time!

Pobala Persimmon Tree

2009-07-27T11:01:00.001-07:00

Advice, anyone?

Just to be clear, these pictures represent two fallen branches. The skinny one that is still attached in the picture has been cut off below the cut. The other one is still as shown here.

Meandering through the Pastures of the Past

2009-07-16T14:45:00.000-07:00

Unearthed many treasures and nostalgia triggers in boxes that have been stored in my parents' barn since at least 1998.

A few highlights:

Cornhusk dolls: These are some of the folks who lived in my dollhouse. My mom made the man and the baby, I think.
Answering machine: My sister says that we were the first people she knew with an answering machine and this was it.
Diorama of flower fairy: This was not for school, but the kind of thing a kid like me did for fun. Originally there were dried and pressed daffodil flowers as part of this I think, but they had long since crumbled and fallen away.
My first knitted projects: a bag/purse, a bear, a lion.
Pegasus: yes, this was mine.
Macrame: my mom made this and I think it's great. It definitely speaks from a certain era, doesn't it?
Apache roadster: I don't actually have any memories of this, but I'm guessing it was my older brother's.

More in another post.

Yard and Garden update

2009-07-16T14:28:00.000-07:00

Poor neglected blog, usurped by the promiscuous and seductive facebook...

Garden report: Justin made great croquettes last night with squash, beets, onions, garlic, garbanzo flour, egg. Wish I could say the eggs were from our chickens, but we don't have the chicken area set up yet, alas.

Crookneck squash, green beans, spaghetti squash (some of which we've been harvesting young and eating raw), beets (pretty much done now, until the ones I just planted are ready), a few very delicious sungold cherry tomatoes. The rest of the tomato plants (and there are a lot of them!) are laden with various shapes and sizes of heirloom tomatoes, all still green, but looking ready to change color at any minute. We ate our first pears yesterday, and I just ate a wee but ripe apple! Cactus pads (nopales) are always available, and there are a few flowers now, and I'm looking forward to some tuna (prickly pears; beles in Tigrinya).

Roses are blooming, and coreopsis, and some mallow and sweet peas and mexican primrose and yarrow. Sunflowers getting close, and some other things which I won't be able to identify until they bloom. Some flowers that were coming up all over the place (in and outside of beds) that I had left because I thought they were calendulas have finally bloomed, and although they are yellow and pretty enough, they don't look like calendulas unless they're a different variety than I've ever seen.

I radically pruned 4 camellia bushes in front, in hopes that they will grow back with a more open and natural shape (as opposed to rectangles with dense surfaces). We'll see how that works out! Here's a picture of the pruning in process.

If you can't beet 'em...

2009-06-23T22:37:00.000-07:00

Justin happily harvested a good bunch of beets the other day.

Exposing the hidden beauty

2009-06-21T22:28:00.000-07:00

We tore out the carpet in the guest room yesterday. Taking out the staples from where the pad had been attached to the floor was a little tedious, but also satisfying. Removing the tack strips along the edges that help the carpet in place was difficult at first but became easier with practice and the right tools. The floors are a gorgeous polished dark reddish honey color. The carpet pad left a waffle pattern across much of it which we need to clean off once we figure out the best way to do that without damaging the wood.

The baseboard needs some augmenting. For some reason the floor boards do not reach all the way to the baseboard (which sits on the subfloor, below the level of the flooring), so we are going to add a foot molding to the current baseboard. We thought of pulling the baseboard off and starting over, but it turned out to be a bear to take off, partly because it is partially below the surface of the flooring. I don't know if the picture really shows it that well.

We thought we might go ahead and paint too, while the furniture is out of there, so that's pretty much the agenda for this week, in addition to getting a cat and finishing our drip irrigation system for the veggies.

Mallow Maladies

2009-06-13T23:07:00.001-07:00

The Coreopsis problem

2009-06-13T23:03:00.000-07:00

So many sad plant symptoms...so few diagnostic tools

2009-06-13T22:46:00.000-07:00

If only they could talk.

We bought a coreopsis at Annie's over a month ago along with some other drought-hardy annuals. The coreopsis has grown vigorously and is now about 3 feet tall with flower buds at the ends of many top branches. All of a sudden it has been losing its lowest branches. It's quite woody and the branches at the bottom are also fairly woody and sturdy and stretch out from the main stalk nearly parallel to the ground and are quite long. The pattern is that a branch goes all wilty without changing color or anything else, then it just falls out of its socket (where it attaches to the main stalk). It's very sad to see. The branches are opposite each other and so far I think it has lost three pairs of opposite branches, the two lowest pairs and the third lowest.

The other plants right next to it are fine. However, the giant mallow (yes, I know it is considered a weed and that it has a humongous tap root, but I think it's pretty) growing across the walkway from the coreopsis also experienced one lower branch drop. It happened before the coreopsis started losing branches, so I didn't pay that much attention at the time. But the mallow is also very woody with very wood sturdy branches. It hasn't lost any more, but I did notice that it's got some kind of thing causing little bumped dots on a lot of the large lower leaves. Pictures of all of it in the next post.

Like in so much of my gardening, I am adopting a wait-and-see attitude, only because I can't figure out anything else to do.

This is also my attitude about a number of weeds/volunteers coming up around the yard. If I don't recognize 'em, I let 'em grow so I can see what they turn out to be. I was letting a bunch of something grow that I thought was calendula but now that the buds are close to opening I no longer think so. Oh well.

Other garden notes: The tomatoes are getting so big they have completely outgrown the silly little cages we had put up with they were wee. Justin improvised some new cages from the fencing I took down a couple of weeks ago. They look like they'll work, but we didn't have enough fencing for all of them.

I tore out the rue after realizing that was what had caused a bad rash on Justin's arms. I also cut down most of the luxury snail accommodations a.k.a. calla lily patch, and spread worm castings under several of the fruit trees.

So much to learn and do! I'm excited to have more time to do it starting Monday.

More Garden Pix

2009-06-07T22:34:00.000-07:00

One of the natives we bought at Annie's.
The leaf that I am holding in the 2nd picture is from a plant in a corner of the yard (3rd picture). It was completely bare at first. It has a lot of upright cane-like stems all coming from a central root area, and it is about 5-6 feet tall. Any ideas about it? It reminds me of a poinsettia. The prickly pear, of which we have been harvesting and eating the pads, is finally also producing fruit. Not a lot so far, but I'm hopeful. I'm in love with the walking onions, in multiple pictures below, not just because they look like crazy Dr. Seuss plants, but because they taste great, too!

Untethering the Fruit Trees

2009-06-07T22:20:00.000-07:00

Another task I did recently (can't remember if it was one or two weekends ago) was to free all the trees of their multiple restraints. The number of ties and ropes and wires and cords was really so incredible that I began to suspect the previous owner of perhaps acting out his bondage fetish on the trees. As an incorrigible scavenger, I appreciated his re-purposing of so many things; however, my sympathy for the trees was greater. The pile of cords pictured with my foot were all taken just from the persimmon tree, pictured below. The belt, though, remains, as I could not untie it. The bucket includes ties from several trees.

Integrating Spaces

2009-06-07T22:13:00.001-07:00

I recently took down one of the fences that had defined the dog area for the previous owners. It's interesting how hard it is to re-imagine space that has already been divided in a particular way. Slowly, I am beginning to imagine how to create the spaces in our yard that we want.

Justin has since managed to get all the rest of the posts out, discovering in the process that the irrigation pipe runs below them, along the side of the sidewalk back to the shed. Fortunately, no pipes were broken in the process of that discovery.

These pictures are from that day. Now the space looks a lot more connected, and it's saved me a lot of walking around and through the two gates.

Lizard On Crutches in Fair Oaks

2009-05-20T20:23:00.000-07:00

The fruit Ripeneth

2009-05-11T18:34:00.000-07:00

The pomegranate has begun to blossom.

The persimmon.

The fig.

The pear.

The peach.

Resident Amphibian

2009-05-08T19:48:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to trimming back the calla lilies a bit. I was not surprised to find a lot of snails and slugs, but I was surprised to find this little critter. I'm assuming it's a salamander, but I don't think I've ever encountered a salamander in my backyard in California. Does anyone know what type it is? The video shows it scampering back to cover.

Earth Day festivities

2009-04-26T17:51:00.000-07:00

I went to the 10th annual West Contra Costa County Earth Day shindig on Saturday. It's at the recycling center, but I didn't get to go on that tour. I toured the Wastewater Treatment Plant, which was just a little ways down the road. I've posted some photos on facebook, so if you're on fb you can check them out there. The power at the plant comes from three sources: methane captured from the contents of the sewers, solar panels, and from our local gas company. The stink was pretty bad in certain areas, and if I were to take students there I would suggest bringing a bandana to cover over the nose and mouth. Overall, though, it was really interesting. A good thing to see. Everyone should know where stuff goes when you a toilet.

Back at the main Earth Day event, I volunteered at a booth where we let people make paper from paper scraps. Just put the tiny scraps in the blender with water, liquify, pour the pulp over a screen, roll out water, and let dry on newspaper. It was kind of crazy, as it was very popular and there were not always enough volunteers.

Today, Forest and I made a classic cardboard and aluminum foil solar box cooker. It took longer than expected as we didn't boxes of exactly the right size and spent some time re-sizing our boxes. Still, a worthwhile endeavor. Forest is going to try it out on his balcony, which gets hot western sun.

I hope you are enjoying this lovely time of year, where the plant world seems to be noticeably changing every day.

Fruits of the Season

2009-04-15T21:28:00.000-07:00

I have just started to read about how to harvest and cook nopales. Anyone have a favorite way of getting rid of the thorns?
The lemon trees are so productive, we cannot keep up with just the windfall (and there are some strong daily winds here, so there is always windfall).
The fig, which had fruit before it had leaves, currently looks like this. I was just reading about figs last night, and I think this is the small first crop, which will be followed later in summer by a larger main crop.
The peach tree has these fruit now.
Below is the fruit on the first apple tree to bloom.

I am now pretty certain that the two trees at the northeast corner of the house are strawberry guavas. My first thought upon tasting them was, "guava-like" especially the texture and seeds inside. However, I couldn't believe guavas would grow in this climate, and also the fruit were much smaller than any guavas I'd ever seen. Other people have agreed that they seemed like guava, but nobody has been completely certain. I just read that there a couple varieties grow in the area, and one is called "strawberry guava." I believe that is what I have. Today I discovered some of the fruit higher up on the tree is quite large. Previously, we'd only seen fruit about the size of cherries.
The picture shows the range in size of these fruit.

Candid Shots Inside the House

2009-04-15T21:13:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of the inside of our house because Sophie asked. I resisted the urge to tidy up or wait until everything has a place before taking the pictures, because then of course it would be an even longer wait.

The first picture is a camellia in a bowl on the coffee table. It looks much better there than any of the blooms look on the bushes, which are still rather square (from their earlier severe pruning). The roses are on the back of the toilet in the hall bathroom. I wish I could send smell-files on the internet: these are fantastic old-fashioned really fragrant roses. When the bathroom door had been closed, I opened it and was struck by the noticeable aroma of roses in the air. The roses grow along the west side of the house.

Heavenly Spring Break

2009-04-15T19:56:00.000-07:00

I've been busy in the best possible way. Rode over 10 miles on my bike on Monday, on three separate errands. Monday also brought visitors (thanks Laurie and Helen!), which reinforced the feeling of being on holiday. I've been puttering in the house and garden, spending time reading gardening books and cook books. Made my first jar of preserved lemons (thanks for the idea, Heather!), made more lemonade, plus vegan lemon-poppyseed cake.

I've also been solar cooking again, though my box oven needs some refurbishing or something. We've done rutabagas, beets, butternut squash. I cooked some beans today, but they didn't quite get done, so I finished them in the pressure cooker.

Today I had long chats with two neighbors. One offered to bring us some lemon liqueur she made from lemons from our trees. The other offered me free heirloom tomato plants, which I promptly put into the ground. He has been in the neighborhood for 35 years and has been raising tomatoes for 30.

We had our old push/reel mower blades sharpened, and I finally mowed the front lawns today. They're going yellow, and I'm sure there are neighbors shaking their heads and saying, "What a shame! The old people took such good care of the lawn." What will they think when we sheet mulch it and turn it into a native plantscape?

Salvaging and Making Due

2009-03-30T22:44:00.000-07:00

We transformed this old wardrobe that our friend Steven had given us long ago into a pantry for food storage. Our kitchen, while spacious in the center, is not overly equipped with cupboards, and we'd been living with several boxes in the middle of the floor of the kitchen, trying to figure out where all the kitchen stuff would go. A few 1X2s and 1x4s and it is fulfilling its highest calling.

I was really wanting an outdoor table for the covered area outside the back door. I knew we would eventually find something, but I really was wanting something on Sunday morning since people were coming over that evening. I told Justin as we left to do errands, "I want to find a free outdoor table." He pointed out that we couldn't really fit a table in the car, and I reluctantly agreed.

Nothing at Urban Ore. Went to Berkeley Bowl and got the closest parking space I've ever seen on a weekend. A couple more errands. Back in Richmond, we saw a sign for a garage sale. Before we found the garage sale, we saw some furniture on a lawn with a "free" sign. One of the items was a round formica table, with detachable legs, that just barely fit in our car. And here it is:

By the way, the vase was also salvaged and the flowers are from the yard!

Name that Dormant Tree

2009-03-18T18:38:00.000-07:00

Peach Tree Damage

2009-03-18T18:29:00.000-07:00

The lovely peach tree had some plastic wrap around one limb and the crotch where all the limbs come out from the trunk. We removed it and discovered underneath some kind of damage/infestation. I can't actually tell if it is active or the result of something that already happened. I'm posting pictures in hopes that somebody will be able to identify what it is and what we should do about it!

Just a Quick Note

2009-03-15T21:12:00.000-07:00

About the trees in the backyard:

I think the tree near the house is guava. Although the fruit are much smaller than any guava I've seen, they look and taste like guava. I will take a sample to the nursery.

Other trees that were identified this weekend: definitely one is a fig,then there appear to also be a walnut, an avocado, and an apple.

Several others remain unidentified. Their identities shall reveal themselves when they leaf or flower. Mysteries of a limited time-span!

More pictures, just because I have them

2009-03-04T20:42:00.000-08:00

A few more pictures from when we were there on Monday. As you can see, we got the grand old range. We need to buy a refrigerator and a washing machine (clothesline is already in place!). We're going to leave the carpets in place for now, even though they are kinda funky (not dirty, just brown and worn).

Commentary

2009-03-03T20:47:00.000-08:00

Here's the text to go with the photos below.
1. House from across the street.
2. Row of roses along the 26th Street (western) side of the house.
3. Square bushes along the front (northern) side of the house turn out to be camellias, I realized.
4. Fruit tree covered with pink blossoms turns out to be peach. The plastic on the branch is because the branch cracked and it is healing and he (the man who made this garden) didn't want the tree to get infected.
5. Close-up of peach blossom.
6. An herb that he said was good for the stomach. Anyone recognize it?
7. Closer-up and further back of a bush that looks familiar to me, but I don't know what it is. Is it buckwheat or some other faux grain?
8. Mystery herb. 9. Mystery tree.
10. Row of aloes. 11. Big bunch of calla lilies.
12. View of back yard from southeast corner of yard, with garage and shed in view behind Justin.
13., 14. Two shots from the same spot, facing the house.
15. This is the rhododendron "tree" whose pink blossoms featured in a previous post as mystery flowers.
16. This mystery tree (followed by 17. a picture of its fruit) is close up to the house.
18. View of the backyard from the driveway gate. House is on the right, garage on the left.
19. Justin in front of the driveway gate. It's not a home without a big iron gate, right?

Please identify any plants you can!

Not featured, but I have to mention again, two lemon trees (full of fruit), several robust prickly pear cacti, a patch of calendula, lots of bolting cilantro in the beds as well as bolting radishes, a few random pots of plants, like a big purple wandering-jew (what's the right name for that?) and mint. There are also two tallish hot pepper plants, the kind with the little upright peppers. The sellers' agent, who was showing us around, warned us that they are very hot! She also said that the man said the peaches are really delicious, and she vouched for the nopales herself, which they had given her on various visits.

My visions are grand and will take years to implement, but I think I've already managed to convince Justin that we can get some hens, maybe even rabbits if we can figure out what to do with them (could we eat them? Could we sell them to someone else to eat?). I'm imagining turning the front yard into a wild garden of California natives, drought tolerant and appropriate for our climate and locale. There are a few non-natives that I really want: bougainvillea, hibiscus or rose-of-sharon, and that purple-flowering tree that is everywhere around the east bay and blooms year-round. I also really like wisteria and jacaranda. Okay, so maybe those can go in the back with the vegetables and herbs.

We want to set up greywater from the washing machine, which will be housed in the garage and easy to set up for graywater. It would be great to also do greywater from the showers, but that'll be slightly more complicated to do.

There are so many things to do! We're not really going to do much until this summer, which I will have off. That is when we will do interior painting, and pull up the carpets. (We lifted it up in two of the closets and saw the hardwood underneath, as the sellers told us it was.) It's tempting to paint now while it's empty, but (a) we don't have any spare time, and (b) it's rainy and cold and we won't be able to leave the doors and windows open to get it really ventilated.

Also looking forward to solar cooking again, in our sunny driveway or in the middle of the garden, maybe even in the front yard. That'd get the neighbors over for a chat, right?

As you can tell, I'm really excited--not just that this process is finally over, but actually excited about the particular house we bought. Thanks to everyone for your supportive words during this ordeal!

Pictures of OUR house

2009-03-03T20:20:00.000-08:00

Moving Forward

2009-02-23T19:25:00.000-08:00

We signed loan documents today. It was a stack of papers about an inch high. The branch manager who went through them with us said that when she started in the business the stack of papers was significantly smaller, but that was many years ago.

Afterwards, Justin and I walked down the street to our bank and arranged to wire a large sum of money to the title company.

Next steps: the loan will fund, escrow will close, and the house will be ours! However, since the sellers aren't ready to move until the 8th of March, we will be renting it back to them for those 9 days, and so of course there will be some paperwork associated with that!

Then we will be getting the sewer lateral upgraded, replacing one window, repairing and replacing the soffits, and a few other miscellaneous upgrades. We will be moving in March! It is hardly conceivable after all this time.

More House Photos

2009-02-20T16:06:00.000-08:00

It looks like we will close in one week, but the sellers will not be able to move out until Mar 8. To celebrate feeling like it's really all going to work out, I thought I'd post a few more pictures from when we were there doing the inspections.
If anyone recognizes what the pink-flowered tree is, please let me know.

Still On About the House

2009-02-19T12:06:00.000-08:00

Ha! Little did I know how much could still go awry...

So, just after we'd finished negotiating with the sellers on price, we found out that although the appraisal had come in at value (at the price we were paying), the lending institution questioned it. They did a "desk" review of the appraisal, meaning that they did not visit the property. Nor, apparently did they consult with anyone who actually knows Richmond and knows which streets are the borders of very different neighborhoods, etc. They found new "comparables" for our house (in the ghetto part of town) and decided that our house was worth $90,000 less than the initial appraisal. To make matters worse, they didn't do this desk review until about a week after the appraisal, so we all thought it was fine.

Our people (it's nice to feel like you've got people on your side in these things) submitted a rebuttal, showing why their "comps" were not, in fact, comparable, as well as bringing up superior aspects of the house that were not acknowledged (corner lot, 2 bathrooms, wood siding not stucco, etc.). The rebuttal was rejected. Meanwhile, during all of this, the sellers are breathing down our necks. Well, the sellers' agent is the one we were hearing from, and she has a particularly strident, panicky, aggressive/defensive, slightly un-educated email style, as well as clearly not being so good with careful reading. Seeing her emails makes our blood boil.

Our mortgage broker's company thought the desk appraisal was so egregious that they paid for an independent appraisal and, needless to say, went looking for a different lender.

We just found out yesterday morning (or was it Tuesday?) that the independent appraisal came in at value and that our broker did find another lender with the same rate as the first lender. So everything was looking really good on the lending front until yesterday afternoon, when our mortgage broker called to say that they needed some more paperwork from us that they thought they had. Unfortunately, it was not something that can be ordered online, but will take a day or two to arrive.

Still meanwhile, the sellers' agent threatened to cancel our contract and hung up on our real estate agent's broker. Fortunately, she had the good sense to call back and listen while the broker explained that she didn't have a legal leg to stand on to cancel our contract. Hopefully, she is properly abashed and will just be quiet for the next several days.

It looks like we might close next Friday, February 27th, but I have learned to take nothing in this process for granted!

House Update

2009-02-08T10:16:00.001-08:00

I've been afraid to write about the house we've been pursuing out of fear of jinxing it, but since we are almost done negotiating, it seems safe now. There do not seem to be any barriers to this going through.

Here is the google street view:

View Larger Map

And from the other side:
View Larger Map

And a few of my own pictures:

As you can see, it is still lived in. The good news is that this is not a foreclosure or a short sale. The family is moving up, not down.

The backyard, which I didn't photograph for some reason, has irrigated garden beds, a number of trees, and other mature plantings. The trees include 2 lemon trees, a pomegranate, and 2 fruit or nut trees that we couldn't identify as they were still pretty leafless. There are also prickly pear cactus (which we first ate as belus in Eritrea) that have clearly been vigorously harvested over the years.

Keep your fingers crossed for us, and start making plans to help us move or visit us!

Spelling Bee know-how

2009-01-29T20:35:00.000-08:00

I'm looking for any hints and tips for running a school-wide spelling bee for high schoolers. Has anyone done this or know of anyone who has?

National Day of Service in Honor of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

2009-01-18T18:32:00.000-08:00

Find something to do! Be part of this new tradition. I like the slogan, too: Make it a day on, not a day off.

I was so impressed by the huge and diverse number of people who volunteered for Obama's election campaign. I thought, "If only all of these people could continue their efforts, or even a fraction of their efforts, throughout the year, giving time and energy and spirit to local issues, what a difference it would make." I would especially like to see people involved in hands-on neighborhood beautification projects, especially if you live in a somewhat depressed area, because they give such a tangible and immediate sense of satisfaction.

I don't have a regular volunteer gig, and if I'm honest with myself about it I know that I would resent another scheduled commitment. However, I have enjoyed occasional days of volunteer work for shore clean-up and spreading mulch and weeding in public gardens, and that's what I'll be doing tomorrow.

If you can't find a planned volunteer activity tomorrow, how about this? Do something nice for a person whose circumstances are worse than your own. Or do something nice for the environment by not driving. Make some kind of sacrifice, but make it joyfully and with a sense of gratitude for what you have.

Thank you MLK for inspiring so many and for bringing our country that little bit closer to the ideals that we hold dear as part of our shared cultural identity.

A Bit of Inspiration In Case You Weren't Excited Enough

2009-01-17T20:18:00.000-08:00

I was just thinking about what I'm going to do in classes after the inauguration, so I was looking through some Obama speeches that I'd saved on my computer. I'm pasting below part of the speech Obama gave in Berlin, Germany on July 24, 2008.

People of Berlin - people of the world - this is our moment. This is our time.

I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we've struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We've made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.

But I also know how much I love America. I know that for more than two centuries, we have strived - at great cost and great sacrifice - to form a more perfect union; to seek, with other nations, a more hopeful world. Our allegiance has never been to any particular tribe or kingdom - indeed, every language is spoken in our country; every culture has left its imprint on ours; every point of view is expressed in our public squares. What has always united us - what has always driven our people; what drew my father to America's shores - is a set of ideals that speak to aspirations shared by all people: that we can live free from fear and free from want; that we can speak our minds and assemble with whomever we choose and worship as we please.

People of Berlin - and people of the world - the scale of our challenge is great. The road ahead will be long. But I come before you to say that we are heirs to a struggle for freedom. We are a people of improbable hope. With an eye toward the future, with resolve in our hearts, let us remember this history, and answer our destiny, and remake the world once again.

New School for the New Year

2009-01-17T17:25:00.000-08:00

My school moved locations over the holidays. Our new site is all portables, which sounds depressing, but it is really nice. It feels open and new, with benches, and little new trees and plantings, tables with built-in chess boards, basketball courts, a mini soccer field (asphalt, but still better than before), brand-new and adequate bathrooms (which the students have been keeping clean), a loudspeaker, a sign board out front, a big open central quad, and a lunchroom. The only thing we're missing is an auditorium or gym. We had to skip our first week's weekly assembly. For week two, we had our assembly outside in the quad. It's been incredibly warm and lovely (or maybe I should say 'disturbing' because of what it means in the bigger picture) for January, so it was actually quite nice to sit outside. It also helped with the acoustics, as far as I was concerned. The cheering didn't echo, which I think discouraged kids from shrieking crazily as they sometimes do. Less shrieking = happier me.

One day earlier this week I sat down at the black and white checked table outside my classroom door at lunch. No kids were around, so I just sat down with my book and lunch. After awhile some freshman boys came up and asked if they could join me at the table and play chess. It was fun to sit there and listen to their silly 14-year-old boy banter while they played chess with what I can only assume was very little skill as each game went quite quickly. I love the kids at my school. They are a delight.

Our new site is at the back of an elementary school. Apparently they (and we) had argued vociferously to the school board against our being placed there, but to no avail. I joined our principal, one of the deans, another teacher, and 3 students in visiting the elementary school staff meeting. They were all genuinely and pleasantly surprised to find out that we had already been in full session for over a week with our 350 students. One woman openly admitted that she had expected the worst and was really happy that it seemed like it was going to work out. We came up with ideas of how we can collaborate: reading buddies, crossing guards, leadership councils working together, etc. I'm excited to get involved in something like that.

Perhaps related to the new site, but also the students' greater maturity due to being a few weeks older, and the general sense of new start that a new year brings...my students really impressed me with excellent projects this week. They worked harder on making them good looking than they had on projects I assigned earlier in the school year. Overall, I feel optimistic about the rest of the school year.

On Tuesday, as a school, we will be walking down the street to the MLK Community Center to watch the presidential inauguration on a big screen in the gym there. I am so happy that I will get to see it, and grateful that I work at a school whose administration is flexible enough to change our schedule and organize for us to do this. Teachers in Oakland have been warned not to try to watch the inauguration on the internet in their classrooms because they're worried that it will crash the district network if everyone gets on at the same time.

I wonder if more or fewer people will watch the inauguration than watched Obama's acceptance speech.

Quick House Update

2009-01-03T11:09:00.001-08:00

We have decided not to spend any more time, energy, or money on this particular house. It's kind of amazing that it is so difficult for people to buy a house that they can very clearly afford. Nobody seems to be arguing that we can't afford it or even that the house isn't worth buying. Quite to the contrary: they want us to borrow more than we need to, pay extra middle men to consult and inspect while we do repairs paid for out of loans rather than from our own funds, or hire a shady appraiser to see something different from what is there.

We are cutting our losses and washing our hands of the property if you don't mind a mixed metaphor. We are a little weary of the process, so we're not sure when we'll have the energy to look again, but when we do, I'll be sure to post the play-by-play here if we find something worth bidding on.

I was really getting excited about moving to Richmond, so we are also considering renting there instead of here. Still, finding a place to rent also takes time and energy, both expected to be in short supply soon.

Here's hoping that the changes that 2009 is sure to bring are generally of a positive type!

Latest Installment of the House Saga

2008-12-20T10:23:00.000-08:00

Buyer sends Seller the appraisal info from Lender that says house is not worth as much as they're asking because there is some major dry-rot damage to deal with. Lender will not fund loan. Seller sits on this info for 5 days. On Friday...

Seller: OK. We'll lower the price to the appraised value. All other conditions remain the same.
Buyer: That's great. [aside: 'all other conditions' means that they are still giving us some cash back and dealing with the sewer]. Isn't this good new, Lender?
Lender: Well, actually, this doesn't solve the problem for us. We can't lend on a house that has a deficiency mentioned in the appraisal until that deficiency has been remedied.
Buyer [thinking to themselves]: WTF?! Remember, the Seller and the Buyer are the same flippin' company! [aloud to lender]: Okay, well here are a few things to think about. 1. We just talked to another lender and they have a lower rate. 2. We are planning to repair the dry-rot right away and we have the cash for that. We would be happy to put it in a special account so you could see that the repairs are done. 3. The close-o-escrow deadline is the 24th, so time is of the essence.
Lender: That's all good information. Let me run it by my boss.
Buyer: It's 4:00. Just wondering how things are going.
Buyer: It's 4:30. Just wondering if you've made any progress. Even if you haven't, could you please call us before you leave the office? Thanks.
...
still waiting...
I'm guessing he was out of the office before 4 on Friday. Hmmm. So far, there is very little to recommend these people, and if any of you readers want to know who they are, email me. I'm happy to share.
Maybe they'll come through on Monday and we'll sign then and close on Xmas Eve, but somehow that is seeming less and less likely.

Home-buying saga update

2008-12-15T19:28:00.000-08:00

Seller (financial institution to whom ownership has reverted after foreclosure): Buy this house for X dollars.
Potential buyer (us): We like it. In fact, we'll offer you X+3, assuming nothing untoward shows up in the inspection reports, and assuming we can get funding.
Seller: Great. We accept your offer.

Buyer: Ooh, well now. We just spent a pile of money to have various experts inspect the house. They found quite a lot of work that needs to be done. Our revised offer is X-35 and we'd like you to pay for some of the repairs.
Seller: We're willing to come down to X-10 and we'll give you y dollars for repairs. That's our last offer. Take it or leave it.
Buyer: Okay, we'll take it. Now we'll just finalize the loan, which we are getting from your very own institution. That should make it easy.

Lender: We'll need to get the house appraised.
Buyer: Really? Even though you're the ones selling it?
Lender: Well, the asset side and the loan side are different.
Buyer: Right.

Lender: Uh, the appraisal came back at X-29. We can't approve the loan as is.
Buyer: WTF?!
***
I've left out some important sub-plot involving requests to extend deadlines, a power struggle over a power of attorney, a search for an English-speaking doctor in Germany willing to sign a letter stating someone's sanity, miscommunication about said letter, a search for home insurance, intervening and upcoming holidays, full-time teaching, the end of the semester and the consequent work due, and a trip overseas by a key member of the cast.

Tomorrow brings home my honey, and earlier in the day hopefully also an answer about what the seller is willing to do about the fact that their own damn company's hired appraiser says the house is not worth as much as they are asking for it.

Keep your fingers crossed for us!

A Saturday Morning in Richmond

2008-12-13T15:23:00.000-08:00

Here are the lovely beds where I helped spread mulch this morning. It's along the Richmond Greenway, a bike a pedestrian path built along an old unused railroad right of way.

I took my bike up on BART to the Richmond station. For the return, I rode 5 miles to the El Cerrito Plaza BART station. I rode the Greenway trail to its eastern end, followed bike routes on surface roads to the Ohlone Trail just below the Del Norte station and followed the Ohlone Trail, which runs along the BART tracks, to the Plaza station. It was a pleasant ride, though if my front tire had had more air I might have ridden faster and with less effort!

Although none of my students showed up, it was really nice to get out there and help with the gardens. I especially enjoyed getting into the back of the pickup and pitchforking the mulch out. It was great to do physical work that didn't involve much thinking--a good contrast to my usual daily concerns.

I'm feeling happy and tired right now. I'm sure I'll have some sore muscles and will sleep well tonight!

"Make indeed you are getting all of the home insurance overlooks you deserve."

2008-12-11T18:00:00.000-08:00

"In nowadays's quickly-paced world it's more important than ever to make an intelligent judgment about your Home cover requests. That's why the guys at limitless Home cover Quotes we'll give you the newest options to make indeed your investment will be cosseted. They strive to inindeed that you will avert money by stodgy out a Home cover citation form. The treat is very regular, plug out a fleeting form that only takes about four summary. They will then associate three principal insurance agencies in your neighborhood, they will associate you with a citation that will avert you tons of money!"

So, I'm shopping for home insurance and decide to see if I can find any useful tips in how to choose or what to think about when making this big decision. The first article I came across, from which the quote above is taken, appeared to have been written in another language and translated by machine or by a 1st-year student of English with a small dictionary and thesaurus. I especially liked "...that will avert you tons of money!"

Yes, this means we are closer to the reality of being home-owners. It looks like we will sign papers Wednesday morning and the "loan will fund" on Friday, which will mean at that point that it is our house and we can begin the process of hiring people to help make it habitable. (It's not that bad, but there are things we want/need to do before moving in, such as having the sewer repaired so that we are no longer inadvertently fertilizing the ground along the side of the house!)

Doesn't look like we'll be home for the holidays, but maybe by my birthday.

There was a walk to the river.

2008-11-30T22:48:00.000-08:00

There was walking around the neighborhood.

2008-11-30T22:46:00.000-08:00

There was horse shoe playing.

2008-11-30T22:44:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving

2008-11-30T22:23:00.000-08:00

And the food-bearing trees...

2008-11-23T13:46:00.001-08:00

Laying out photos and text in blogger is ridiculously unwieldy and frustrating. The preview is not a true preview. It just really seems like the smart people working on this should be able to make this work better. Anyway, the trees pictures below (or wherever they end up!) are walnut, probably a plum, tangerine and almond (next to each other in the same photo), pomegranate (plus another photo of a pomegranate blossom cuz they're so pretty), and a fig (with Justin and his parents in the picture). Those trees are all in the backyard (well, really it's a sideyard). There are also small lemon and lime trees (one of each) in the front yard, both with fruit on them, but I forgot to get pix of them.

A few pictures from today's house inspections

2008-11-18T21:37:00.000-08:00

Been through the ringer, ready to hang out in the sun

2008-11-17T19:35:00.000-08:00

An emotional month so far:

UP. Tuesday, November 4 brought great joy and pride as Barack Hussein Obama was elected president of this sometimes inspiring but all too often disappointing nation. What an amazing night! It's still almost impossible to talk about. The next day on my way to work--walking to the station, riding the train, walking to my school--I nearly cried several times, just thinking about what it means to have this man and his beautiful family in the White House. Actually I got choked up on election day on that walk as I passed three polling places along my route. I counted a dozen people lined up waiting for the 7 a.m. opening time at each of the first two polling stations, then two dozen at the third, which I passed just as they were beginning to open. A young woman posed for a picture in front of the "polling place" sign, probably her first time voting. Never, ever have I seen anything like this before. No politician in my lifetime has generated so much good will, so much interest among non-voters, so much volunteerism. I am just incredibly happy about this.

DOWN. Unfortunately, the good news on Tuesday night was tinged with shameful news: a majority of voters in my home state of California actually voted to amend the state constitution to limit the definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman. It is one of the meanest-spirited items I've ever seen on a ballot, and I'm ashamed that the people of my state would embrace that. Incidentally, it also seems ridiculous that a simple majority of voters can change the state constitution, especially in the direction of taking away rights that are already there or implied. Fortunately there are lots of smart people already looking at every angle of this, and I'm optimistic that it will be overturned somehow. Meanwhile, I want to scream and shake people when I hear anyone say "traditional marriage," as if there were one tradition and that tradition was pure and good.

DOWN. Tuesday, November 11: A popular senior at my high school died unexpectedly in his sleep. My school is small, with less than 400 students, and this young man had been there for 4 years. He was one of those people who was friends with all types of people, a positive life presence who touched everyone who knew him. Naturally, his death has had a huge impact on our school. If you are interested in reading more about him and seeing some of the beautiful tributes from the students, check out our school blog here. Although I didn't know the student, I was affected by seeing the grief of the other students, including some of my own. These are kids from tough neighborhoods who have seen tragedy and unexpected loss before, so to see their raw sorrow was heart-breaking.

UP. Today, Monday November 17: Our offer on a house was accepted, and we are now in the escrow stage! We have inspectors coming tomorrow. If all goes according to plan, we should close in about a month. I'll post photos after tomorrow.

Take care of yourselves, my good people.

Why Not Just Stop Being Greedy Bastards?

2008-10-27T21:26:00.001-07:00

Can someone explain why this isn't being considered?

If a lot of the people who are in trouble on their mortgages got there because of adjustable-rate mortgages, and
if the banks and other lenders are in trouble because too many people can't pay those mortgages

why can't the banks/lenders just revert everyone's mortgage to the rate it was when they could pay it?

Obviously this doesn't help people who can no longer pay because they've lost their jobs or whatnot, but that is not the vast majority of people getting foreclosed on, as far as I can tell.

This seems like such a simple solution, there must be something wrong with it. Anyone care to explain?

A few recent photos

2008-10-25T07:19:00.000-07:00

1. Train-window-view of the valley, somewhere between Sacramento and the the bay area.

2. Snow-covered mountains in the Sierra, somewhere between Sacramento and Reno.

3. Justin and me at a rest-stop on the way to Reno.

4. Finally, for our Australian friends, and any other fans of Brett and Jemaine, a photo of a real sign-spinner. This kid was on a corner near my parents' house. Over the course of the recent weekend I spent in Sac, I saw 5 sign-spinners! Maybe they've always been there, and I just was never tuned in to them, but I really noticed them this time.

I certainly never see sign-spinners in the neighborhoods where I live or where I work. I guess out in the suburbs there are so many businesses (that all seem the same, I might add), that business owners find it worth their while to try to grab passing motorists' attention this way. It's not so different from street-hawkers and touts in less-industrialized countries, I guess.

Another Weekend Away

2008-10-12T20:30:00.000-07:00

So...good news #1: our car made it to Reno. Good news #2: our car made it back from Reno. No problems!

It snowed Friday, so Reno was cold! I find high desert lovely anyway, but it was especially lovely today: clear, cold but not bitterly so, and not windy. The drive through the mountains up and back was also a nice reminder of what a beautiful state we live in, and how we should get out of town more often.

Monte-Carlo Motel: service was bad, price was okay (burnt-out lightbulb which we had to replace with the walkway light because the clerk left and never came back all night, plus our friends couldn't get into their room and we had to climb through the window to open the door, which made some of them very uncomfortable, but it was better than trying to sleep six people in two beds).

Breakfast as Circus Circus: only so-so, though it was my first time ever in a casino, I think. Oh, wait, I visited one in Australia, so it was my first time in an American casino. We didn't do any gambling all weekend--not even a single quarter!

A stop in Sacto at RR's deceased grandmother's house was nice. It was one of those perfect Sacramento fall days, where the sky is impossibly blue, and we ate fresh ripe persimmons from the trees.

Now, I just have to get a lot of school work done in a very short time. Hmmm. Once again, I'm imagining a career that doesn't involve bringing any work home in evenings or on weekends. What job would that be?

My School Picture

2008-10-09T22:00:00.000-07:00

Yes, I have become a polo-shirt, khaki-slacks, lanyard-with-key-and-ID, matching-earrings kinda gal. Well, during the week, anyway.

Funny, huh?

Getting Better All the Ti-ime

2008-09-24T22:29:00.001-07:00

Although things are not materially different in my classroom, I'm not letting stuff bother me as much so I feel less angry and edgy and so am probably being slightly more effective, although--as I said--things don't seem that different. What I mean is--they feel different to me, but I'm not sure that anything really different (particularly, anything better) is happening.

Today, a girl was in tears because it's picture day and some boys (friends of hers) had purposely held her down and messed up her hair. Later, but before we went to have our pictures taken, there was nearly a fight in my classroom. Fortunately, the more aggressive boy is quite small and I could physically hold him back from the other one (which I could not have done if it had been the other guy aggressing). Also fortunately, a third boy--slender but tall--coaxed/guided the angrier fellow out into the hallway. Eventually, things were resolved, but it took some doing. I was glad that I stayed calm and didn't freak out.

My sweetie is in Berlin for a few days, at a conference. We've been house-hunting lately, which is nerve-wracking. Put in one offer that was rejected. Are considering putting a low offer on a house that needs a lot of work, wishing we were more confident about home repairs. I think I need a little more stress in my life. Maybe I should start a club at school... Well, that's taken care of as I've already told students I would start an Environmental Action Club. A student asked me about it today: When are we starting? Oh, boy.

Life is full, full, full to bursting with lifeyness, isn't it?

Got out of town!

2008-09-20T22:15:00.000-07:00

We spent the morning along the Richmond shoreline, picking up trash along with many others, including four students from my school.

We worked along the edge of the marsh, where the garbage was dense and tiny--hundreds of small pieces of styrofoam and plastic, tiny ziplock bags that I think fishhooks might come in, plus lots of the usual straws, plastic bottle caps, cigarette filters, and plastic bags (especially the kind chips come in).

The tide came up quickly and as we watched a young woman found herself suddenly nearly to her knees in the mud. She was wearing waders, and even with lots of help, could not get one foot out without abandoning the wader. My students and I had just been joking around about one of them getting lost in the quicksand.

After a productive (albeit somewhat depressing) session on the beach, we enjoyed a free lunch at the park for all the clean-up volunteers.

Next, we drove to central Marin County and visited my friend Jenny. She and I are getting together weekly to spend time together writing. It is nice to have dedicated work time and someone else also doing the same thing. Justin enjoyed a nap and some reading at that time.

After a quick stop at a grocery store, we headed to Muir Beach. There we enjoyed a beach fire and shared meal and bbq with folks from my work. Good people, beautiful location.

A lovely full but not stressful day. Feeling refreshed, though I have plenty of work to do tomorrow.

Thanks to all those who've called or emailed to express their sympathy/support about my work situation. Just so you know, I had a better day on Friday. I was able to maintain my own perspective (plus a couple of students were absent, and that helped re-set the tone). Hopefully we'll keep moving in a positive direction from here.

A Shinier Day, somehow

2008-09-18T20:58:00.000-07:00

Slightly better day today. Not because things were really better, but because I talked to colleagues, attended a good p.d. session, had a useful phone conference with other teachers and our CEO, and got a ride home from a colleague who talked about Week-Without-Walls, a cool thing that our school does every spring.

Also... more than half the students got either 7 or 8 out of 8 on their spelling tests. Hurray! Small successes.

Remember spitballs and rubberbands?

2008-09-17T20:39:00.000-07:00

Not sure why I keep trying to be a teacher. I think it's something to do with the facts that (a) I like people, including young people, and (b) I like teaching, in the sense that I like helping someone learn something new, or see a new perspective, or experience something new. I'm interested in the processes of people's minds, so I don't get impatient when a person is struggling to learn something; I find it interesting to figure out how to explain or teach something.

However, I really don't like dragging anyone anywhere (obviously I'm speaking figuratively here, though I wouldn't enjoy literally dragging anyone, either). I don't like feeling invisible, and I really don't like feeling like an impediment to other people's fun. In other words, I hate classroom management. I also hate chaotic classrooms. Preventing chaos and entropy and wholesale abandonment of any educational objectives is extremely exhausting, at least with my current group of 14 and 15 year old.

I was going to say that it's just the age of the students, but then I remember my classes in the Solomon Islands, where I don't remember having any classroom management issues.

I feel pissed off at society for creating an anti-educational atmosphere among the poor and working classes. I feel pissed off at the parents for not raising their children to have the manners I expect. I feel pissed off at the dads who haven't been there to raise their sons. I feel pissed off at the moms whose ideas of strict parenting involves physical and verbal abuse. I feel pissed off at all the elementary teachers who didn't quash students' inappropriate classroom behavior. I'm horrified at myself for using the word 'quash' about what is really liveliness and spirit. I'm pissed off at myself for letting myself get into the situation I'm in. I'm also pissed off at myself for not having more fortitude and more persistence (I am already fantasizing about how I could honorably escape from my job). However, I do know (or think I know) that it'll get better and that I'll be sad at the end of the year to leave my students for the summer. If I think about them individually, I love them and even understand and can sympathize with what they do. Still, I cry.

I'd like to teach. I'd like to feel like I was offering them something besides an obstacle to get around, an object to laugh at, an authority to rebel against.

Not today, apparently. Maybe tomorrow.

Catching up

2008-08-31T12:37:00.000-07:00

A brief summary to play catch-up and then maybe I'll be able to post current thoughts.

A week and two days of what is known in the educational field as 'pee-dee' (Professional Development), some of it with the staff at my school, some of it with the whole network of 4 schools.

Three days of Freshman and New Student Retreat at Stanford. A great experience. Check out Challenge Day. It's an amazing program, and made the whole exhaustion of shepherding 15 ninth graders for three days completely worth it. If you ever have the chance to be part of a Challenge Day, do it.

One week of school.

Done!

Now we're in the three day weekend, leading to the short 2nd week of school.

I'll try to get back into some sort of regular posting. Hope you're all well and happy.

BTW, doesn't the new Republican VP scare you? I don't want to be all about fear politics, but in this case, voting your hopes and not your fears amounts to the same thing: we can't let McC & P into the White House!

2008-08-11T20:15:00.000-07:00

Back in Oakland

2008-08-07T15:59:00.001-07:00

I am waiting for hot water for a shower, as we turned down water heater while we were gone, something I didn't remember until I was stepping into the tub. Traveled for just about 40 hours straight through.

Bus: Katherine to Darwin: 4 hours
Waiting in Darwin & at airport, where computers were down and they were hand-checking everyone in (most of this time was in town, though, where we had dinner at sunset on the wharf, and played cards in the park): 8 hrs
Flight: Darwin to Brisbane: 3 hrs
Changing planes at airport: 1/2 of an hr
Flight: Brisbane to Sydney: 1 hr. +
Waiting in Sydney airport (where we slept and had some actually good sandwiches and Coluzzi Cafe) + sitting on runway waiting out a thunderstorm: 6 hr + 1/2 hr.
Flight: Sydney to SF: 13 hr + 1/2 hr.
Gathering bags, going through customs, getting BART (which happened to have delays a couple of times on the tracks), plus cab ride from station: 2 hrs

Total travel time: 38.5 hours.

Now I go to shower and then to visit the bounteous berkeley bowl to bring fresh vegetables back into my life!

Last Day in Kath

2008-08-05T17:14:00.001-07:00

Have had a lovely few days just lolling at Rob's. Helped make a path through the mulch and banana trees in his garden, long walks and swim at low-level, playing with friends at hot springs, "fancy" dinner at hotel restaurant, backyard barbecued fruit and veg and 'roo, watching 'flight of the conchords', playing rummy, laughter, conversation, clean laundry, etc. I finished Wuthering Heights last night, which means I can leave it behind and start something new for the plane.

Have about 24 hours of traveling ahead of us once we get on the plane tonight, but before that we have a 4 hour busride and then six hours or so in Darwin before our first flight.

Looking forward to being in our own humble abode again and seeing all of you dear people who live nearby.

It's been lovely being back in Australia, and now we're happy to be going home.

Territory Wildlife

2008-08-02T18:22:00.000-07:00

Justin escaping a croc in the Katherine River. Frogs in the toilet at the caravan park in Kalk.

Crows drinking off the tap in the caravan park.

PIctures from Kalk

2008-08-02T18:15:00.000-07:00

Caravan park camping

2008-08-02T18:14:00.000-07:00

This was during one of the first three days of camping, when it was unbearably windy pretty much nonstop.

Caravan Park

2008-08-02T18:12:00.000-07:00

That's our tent on the other side of the shade structure.

Wave Hill

2008-08-02T18:10:00.000-07:00

The view from inside the caravan park at the edge of town. That's the highway between us and the hill.

Written July 20 with no way to post

2008-08-02T17:50:00.000-07:00

I'm writing this from Kalkaringi (which is pronounced, and should be spelled, Kalkarindji). We got a lift down from Katherine with two government folks on Tuesday, July 15^th. They were interesting to listen to and provided a somewhat different perspective than we usually get.

We spent Tues-Wed-Thur-Fri nights in the house of a teacher who is away because they're on school break (between semesters). It was nice to have a proper house to stay in as we got to know people and our way around. Saturday night we moved to the Health Center housing—a little flat that is used by visiting health workers, I guess. It is empty until the 23^rd, so that gives us another four days with electricity (refrigeration, lights, and charged batteries for recorder & laptops).

We'll spend the final 8-9 days at a campsite. We'll be in a tent, but because they're set up for people with caravans (RVs), there is electricity, so we will be able to charge batteries. We don't have any sort of lantern, having only brought small flashlights, so we'll most likely be going to bed quite early once we're over there! Being close to the equator (about 15 or 18 degrees south, I think) means that days and nights are closer in length anyway, but it is also the "winter" season here, so sun sets by 6:30 and it's dark by 7.

It's the cold season here, known as the Dry Season. It has in fact been chilly at night. Some days have been hot, others cool enough to wear jeans and sneakers all day. The difference between day and night is marked, as is the difference between being in the shade and in the sun during the day. It's a dry heat and when the wind blows it's cold.

The landscape is...hard to describe. I will try to take a picture, but pictures don't capture the expansiveness of it. To me, it is like the feeling I get in the high desert, though we're not at a high elevation here. It's definitely Big Sky country, but there's also an openness to the landscape that gives a sense of stillness with plenty of room to breathe. Nothing is crowded together—not the leaves on the trees, not the houses in the community, even the clumps of grass respect each other's space.

People move slowly, except when there's a real reason to move fast: for example, the athletes at the footy[1] match today, or small children chasing each other. Children roam around in multi-age groups, adults sit under trees in their yards playing cards. Dogs fight, squeal, growl and howl all day and most of the night (there seems to be a period right after dawn when the dogs and crows are quiet). There are large crows in every tree and they make a particularly mocking call back and forth, seeming to echo between trees. The crows are called "wak-wak" in all the languages around here, and that seems a much closer approximation to their sound than "caw-caw".

Another sound that surprised us the other night was the sound of hoofbeats clattering down the road in front of the house. It was too dark to see how many there were, but it sounded like more than two. We've seen a few horses around the community, and they all look well-fed and cared for. [Later, we found out that they are wild horses that wander around eating whatever grass they can find.]

Besides the health centre, there is a shop (food store), a take-away (hot food), primary school, secondary school, church, and government offices. There's also a social club—the only place alcohol can be bought or consumed. It's open from 5 pm to 8 pm. Justin went one night and I went with him another night. It's an interesting event. People manage to get more drunk than you'd expect in three hours, but it does limit problems. Also, People are more talkative and friendly to us outsiders after drinking than they tend to be otherwise. There was even a little dancing to the very loud rock-and-roll hits of the ages, which people seem to prefer, despite the prevalence of 50 Cent and Tu Pac clothing.

[1] Australian Rules Football, in this context, though 'footy' can also refer to Rugby (of which there are two varieties: Union and League) and even to soccer, I believe. Can 'playing ball' in the US refer to more than one sport, or is it always baseball?

And Reporting from K-Town

2008-07-13T19:22:00.000-07:00

After a couple of possible lifts evaporated, some other avenues opened up, and it looks like we are probably heading out to the community tomorrow.

It's been fun to be in Katherine again. The weather is gorgeous: days in the upper 70s to mid-80s I think and nights mostly in the 50s (I'm talking Fahrenheit degrees, of course). The skies are clear blue, except for occasional firesmoke, the night skies full of stars. The town is full of families from outlying communities, and tourists from all over. It's school holidays, so kids are on break, and next week is the Katherine Show, so there's extra hustle and bustle around that.

We visited the Hot Springs, which you may remember from our first visit here as misnomered tepid waters. We also went swimming yesterday at the Low-Level Crossing of the Katherine River, a place where there could theoretically be crocs but where it's unlikely this time of year particularly. We swam in the shallow, swift-moving area, just to be sure.

It's been interesting seeing which businesses are still, mysteriously, open, and which have closed. A few new businesses have sprung up, and others have simply changed hands.

We've been staying with our friend R and he has swept us right back into the whirlwind of the Katherine social scene. That is, barbecues and dinner parties and general hanging out much more frequently than our maybe-once-a-week social life back home! It's been really good seeing old friends and also meeting new people. This funny little town, which certainly has its prickly side, seems to have welcomed us back with open arms.

I'm looking forward to getting out to the community tomorrow and seeing what is in store for us next.

I probably won't blog again for at least three weeks, but do check back in August!

Reporting from Sydney

2008-07-04T20:29:00.000-07:00

I haven't been taking pictures, so I'll post more from the first day. Thursday I walked all around the University of Sydney and Newtown, in the morning by myself, then in the arvo (that's Australian for 'afternoon') with S & M. It was so pleasant out that I was in my t-shirt for awhile. In the evening I walked back and picked up Justin and we walked back and met S & M at B's house, then we all walked back to Newtown for a good Japanese dinner.

Friday turned out to be really rainy all morning and until just before 3 when I finally left the house. Justin, S & I met MK where she works at the ABC, an impressive building where all the ABC radio and tv programming is recorded. We didn't see any famous people (that I know of), but we watched some impressive tv on 4 huge monitors in the lobby. Groups of people getting off work would come through in waves every few minutes. We realized that they must be coming out of the elevators.

MK took us to her place, where we waited for N (S's brother). Then we drove to MK's parents' house that they've just finished fixing up. There was a great balcony with a few of twinkling Sydney below and dark patches of water, but it was too cold to sit out there. We had a fabulous meal, accompanied by great stories and jokes. Eventually we went back to N & MK's place, where I managed to stay up all the way to midnight. I still woke around 5 a.m., but I think I may be as adjusted to the time difference as I'm going to get!

This morning I've come back to the house in Rozelle, while Justin attends the conference. Today's weather is a mix of blue skies and now thick white puffy clouds. It's really lovely, especially when you remember that this is winter!
This isn't the best picture, but these trees are fantastic and all over. They have these clusters of red flowers and no leaves right now. Quite stunning. A little like the effect of persimmon trees when they have their orange fruit and no leaves.

This was part of a series of indigenous culture plaques along a trail near the water where I walked on the first day. It shows the indigenous language groups of the Sydney area.

Self-portrait by water

2008-07-01T23:33:00.000-07:00

I was actually much happier than I look here. It's just that I was trying to take a self-portrait and it was really windy and cold. I don't know how that lock of hair is not blowing wildly.

Iron Cove Bridge and footpath along the water

2008-07-01T23:14:00.000-07:00

A quail-like pigeon? on my path

2008-07-01T23:11:00.000-07:00

Iron Cove Bay

2008-07-01T23:09:00.000-07:00

Sunny skies on the other side of the world

2008-07-01T23:02:00.000-07:00

Here's the house we're staying at in the Rozelle suburb of Sydney. Justin and Sophie are off at the conference and I spent the morning reading, catching up on my political news from home, and emailing. Also, I had a slight mishap with the door. Let's just say that I couldn't figure out how to lock it, then turned another deadbolt (with the door open) and couldn't get it back. So, not only could I not leave, I couldn't shut the door. It was incredibly windy this morning, so that was a bit frustrating.

At lunch time M came home (she lives in the cottage in back) and fixed the door. So I went for a walk down to the park and the harbour near here and along the water. I've posted a few pictures from the walk. It was really really really windy.

Now I'm back here, sitting at the nice table in this lovely old house. Justin and Sophie should be home soon, I think, and then we'll see about dinner.

Sun in smoky skies

2008-06-27T20:23:00.000-07:00

This is what the sun looked like this morning (and the past several mornings and evenings). A friend in Sacramento wrote on his blog that the wildfiresmoke was reminding him of his childhood, when the rice farmers used to burn the rice stubble every fall. It's funny to be nostalgic about air pollution, but the memory of those distinctive rice-burning days is somehow pleasant for me too.

Here in the East Bay, the smells are not so reminiscent (most of the smoke is actually blown up into the valley), but today it was cold, and with the hazy skies, it really felt like autumn. I heard a firefighter on NPR say that the fire conditions are like those not usually seen until October. Generally this early in the season you'd have the fires cooling off at night and not so much completely dry vegetation. It doesn't bode well for the rest of the summer.

Classroom preview

2008-06-27T19:50:00.000-07:00

I visited my classroom today--the one where I'll be teaching next year. I'm so excited to be back in a real classroom! Of course, I've spent more time teaching in other types of spaces that had become classrooms than I have in real classrooms, but there is something motivating about a space that was designed to be a classroom.

The school is an old building, and we're only in half of it. I'm on the third floor, which seems great to me. There are two sets of stairs leading down. My classroom is at the end of the hall, across from the stairs. The teachers' resource room and bathrooms are also on the 3rd floor, at the other end of the hall. Of particular note are six big windows (they open! and there are working blinds!), lots of bulletin boards, lots of white boards, lots of space above the boards for posters, a small built-in closet for supplies, an overhead projector, and dictionaries under every desk.

Scavenger that I am

2008-06-24T18:05:00.001-07:00

Today as I was riding past this hippy house a few blocks away, I saw that there were some furniture and books sitting out in the "free zone" (anything sitting between sidewalk and street is assumed to be free, unless there's a person standing there, loading things into a vehicle). I picked up several good cookbooks.

On my way back from my errands, I saw that a new item had been put out: A papasan chair! I have always secretly coveted a papasan chair, but never could justify the expense or space they take up. How could I pass up a free one? I stopped and sniffed the pad/futon part (it smelled perfectly fine), pulled it over to the sidewalk, sat in it, smelled it again, looked at all the parts. Where could I put it? Who might like it? My new classroom! Perfect for the reading corner! How could I get it home?

I went home and got this great bike trailer I have been meaning to rehab, but haven't got around to yet. It is functional, but (a) both tires are flat, and (b) there's no longer a way to attach it to a bike. So I pulled it by hand, walking as quickly as I could. Chair still there! I loaded it in, balancing the bottom stand on the seat, and pulled it home. Here it is on my bottom step:

Now it is filling up the entire entry way! Next challenge: how to get it to Richmond, and when.

The bike trailer, by the way, was originally a baby/kid trailer that my folks pulled me around in when I was four or five years old. I have vague happy memories of being in it, riding down along the American River behind College Town. Later, my dad re-purposed it by attaching a wire basket to the frame.

There is something so satisfying about scavenging. I love the surprise element--not looking for anything in particular, and then suddenly coming across something great.

I love the free aspect because spending money on myself is generally accompanied by internal conflict. I think I enjoy things more that I have scavenged than things that I've bought.

I love that I am appreciating an object which is no longer being appreciated. Sort of like rooting for the underdog. (Of course, there is clearly still a little love there, or the person would have put the item in the garbage instead of in the free zone.)

I love the ecological element: keeping something out of the waste stream. So many perfectly good goods get thrown away, just for convenience's sake. (Can they still be called 'goods' if they are no longer good? What if they never were good?)

No Flowers or stars or cheese for Charlie or Algernon

2008-06-23T19:56:00.000-07:00

For the past couple of weeks, I've been reading the novels I'll be reading with my 9th graders next year. So far I have read Tangerine (E. Bloor), Fallen Angels (W.D. Myers), Flowers for Algernon (D. Keyes), and To Kill a Mockingbird (H. Lee).

I like everything except Flowers for Algernon. It is one of those annoying mid-twentieth-century psychotherapy-laden novels. You probably know what I mean: lots of dream sequences (more on this in another post), lots of repressed memories, lots of sexual dysfunction, and everything goes back to the bad, bad mother. The female characters are all terrible flat stereotypes; actually, so are the men.

The idea of exploring what happens for a retarded man who--through the magic of science--becomes a genius, and then realizes that his intelligence is going to fade and soon is back where he started is an interesting premise. Unfortunately, it almost seems like a gimmick to explore pop-psychology, rather than a true delving into what "intelligence" is.

It would be interesting for someone who is up on the latest cognitive science to re-examine and re-write this story with what we now know about how the brain and mind work, as well as more modern notions of what goes on in the mind of a person with a low-IQ. (The science and scientists in the novel are also ridiculous; for one thing, they perform this brain surgery on the human protagonist after doing it to ONE mouse, without even waiting to see what the long-term consequences for the mouse will be!)

It turns out that the story was originally a short story, which I believe I was moved by when I read it in sixth grade. It probably should have remained a short story. I'm going to hunt it down and see if it is worth all its glory. The novel sure isn't.

The novel has been banned and the subject of controversy across the country and the decades since it was first published in the mid-1960s. The objections seems to be the sexual content of the novel. I would never try to stop or even discourage a student from reading the novel, but it certainly doesn't qualify as good literature. I object on the grounds that it is dated, sexist, and leaves the reader feeling kind of embarrassed for the entire pop culture of the time. It smells musty to me, like double-knit polyester and synthetic hair pieces.

Have you read it? Did you love it? hate it?

Is CAHSEE really how we want to measure success?

2008-06-20T14:58:00.000-07:00

This is in response to the Open Forum piece in today's Chronicle by Julian Betts and Andrew Zau ("Predicting success, preventing failure"). While I agree with the conclusion that helping students who are falling behind in elementary school would be a wise investment, I disagree with their characterization of the opponents of the high school exit exam. Certainly there are those who "feel it is unfair to English language learners and special ed students," but there are many other, and arguably more important, objections to the test.

I agree with the notion that a high school diploma should mean something, that it should represent a certain degree of knowledge and skills. It is reasonable that some facility with both the English language and basic math be part of that knowledge. One problem with CAHSEE as it now exists is that it does not measure the right things. It does not represent what we really want a high school education to be about.

The essay notwithstanding, the test does not demand real creativity or problem-solving, nor does it measure interpersonal communication skills, mental flexibility, empathy, the ability to understand current events in their historical context, knowledge of basic scientific principles, technological competence, or involvement in community issues. Supporters of the test might say that the test is designed to measure only the bare minimum skills, and that those other competencies are accounted for in the coursework requirements for graduation.

To those proponents, I would point out, first, that graduation requirements are set by individual school districts, and coursework assessment is generally determined by individual teachers. We trust teachers to determine whether students are achieving the really important skills that will mark them as either educated or uneducated people, yet we must turn to a state-wide mainly multiple-choice test to tell us whether the students have the basic skills which they should have acquired years before graduation. This makes no sense.

Another objection I have is to the content and structure of the test itself. Let us just consider the English Language Arts portion of the exam. Despite the traditional division of language skills into reading, writing, speaking and listening, only the first two are tested at all, and those not very well. The 'literary response and analysis' questions do not allow students to demonstrate their own insight or sensitivity to the literature, but merely to choose among interpretations (only one of which will be considered correct). 'Writing strategies' are measured by 27 multiple-choice questions, which do not ask students to write or revise anything, but only to choose among several imperfect and often odd options. A student's mastery of 'written and oral English language conventions' is measured with 15 multiple-choice questions which do not consider oral conventions at all. Students' writing skills (called 'applications') are measured by one essay, on a topic given to them at the time of the test, which may or may not be anything they've ever thought about before or even care about. Is this really the kind of writing we want to demand that high school graduates be able to do? It is neither an approximation of a real-world work task, nor of the type of writing called for in higher education, where writing is a means to expressing one's understanding and knowledge of a particular topic.

Many of us who oppose the CAHSEE cannot help but resent the financial boon it has provided to the testing industry while schools continue to struggle for funds. ETS, which creates and sells the CAHSEE (along with other tests: STAR, AP, SAT, GRE), is enormously profitable. Although it has tax-exempt non-profit status, the company had an operating surplus of $34 million in 2001, according to a 2002 NY Times article. In addition to ETS, other companies profit by providing testing preparation materials, classes and tutoring. The high school exit exam is another step toward the privatizing of (and profiteering from) public schools.

Yes, let's invest in elementary schools. Let's make sure that students become strong readers and skillful mathematicians long before 12th grade, but let's not short-change society or the students by equating passing CAHSEE with having become truly educated.

Out Bush, Outback, Down Under

2008-06-19T11:00:00.001-07:00

As some of you have been asking about where we'll be going in Australia, I thought I'd post a few links:

Here's a brief profile of the community. Here's info about the famous strike that took place there and that was a turning point for indigenous people's rights in Australia. Here's a simple map of the NT. Here's an aerial photo of the community.

We're expecting to camp at the caravan park there, unless something better manifests. At this point, we're not sure how we'll charge the batteries in the recording equipment or laptops. Also, we don't expect internet access once we're there, so lower your expectations about hearing from us!

For those who've asked about weather: For the past month, lows have been in the upper 40s to mid 60s and highs have ranged from mid 60s to low 90s Fahrenheit. I imagine that when we're there, that everything may be slightly colder, as we're moving into the winter. Sydney, where we'll be for the first week, is basically like San Francisco in the fall or winter: highs in the low 60s and lows in the upper-40s.

We're not leaving until the end of this month, but this gives you a little time before we go to ask more questions.

Cactus blooming down the street

2008-06-18T12:03:00.000-07:00

Isn't it lovely?

A Few Words about Marriage

2008-06-18T11:00:00.000-07:00

I just need to say a word about how proud I am that California is (finally) offering all couples the chance to have their relationships legally recognized as legitimate. The paper is full of pictures of couples who are so happy to get married after 20, 30, 40 years together!

A short note on how my thinking has changed about the institution of marriage. When we got married, I felt first of all that it was ridiculous that our commitment needed to be voiced publicly and legitimized by a stranger at the county office. It seemed to me that those promises should be a private and personal matter. I also felt ashamed that I was benefiting from the privilege granted to me by the fact that my love and I were of different sexes. I had said before that I wouldn't marry until everyone could marry, but then when it came down to going in the Peace Corps together, I threw my principles out the window for personal advantage.

After getting married, I slowly came to appreciate the institution, the idea of a publicly understood and defined relationship. Being married meant that my friendliness would not be misinterpreted as romantic interest in others, I was "out of circulation". Being married meant that people understood that my relationship was deep and permanent, we were not merely playing with each other until something better came along. My marriage has been the most permanent thing in a life that has involved a change in job or housing, often both, at least every year for the past 14. Being married has given me a sheen of respectable normalcy to people who are otherwise baffled by my life choices. These are all about the public face of being legally married, using terms like "husband" and "wife", wearing a wedding band.

I can't say for sure about how those outer trappings of marriage affect the inner life of our relationship. I would like to think that the love we have for each other would keep our commitment to each other and the relationship strong regardless of social recognition, like those couples who have been together for 40 years, waiting for the chance to be legally married. I don't know. I do know that if we had to keep our partnership secret, if in a million little ways on paper and in conversation our relationship was seen as not as legitimate, not as real, as other people's, I would be deeply bitter.

Marriage has taken many forms across the globe and over time. Generally, it has been about giving social legitimacy to a sexual relationship. Many (most?) of those forms have not been about two people choosing each other as equals in a lifelong partnership; however, that is the ideal in our culture here, today. I am happy to be part of a society that is moving in the direction of greater equality, one which recognizes the importance of love in the creation of healthy, lasting relationships of all kinds.

Tinglingly, achingly, burstingly alive

2008-06-17T11:06:00.000-07:00

A friend just sent me this in an email, and it seemed especially appropriate after the last posting:

I don't believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive. -Joseph Campbell

What makes you feel alive?

While Walking Past the Cemetery this Morning

2008-06-15T09:32:00.000-07:00

"Safely home" reads the gravestone, and I think of people for whom life is merely a dangerous sojourn. Imagine spending your days, your years, decades gritting your teeth, glancing sideways through narrowed eyes, determined to make it "safely home." But then, I suppose, that for those people the journey is always a loop, no matter how short or long, no matter what one endures along the way, one will always wind up "safely home."

Telling Our Stories

2008-06-06T15:52:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about our personal narratives—the way each of us tells our own personal story to ourselves and to others. Two people walking paths that look similar can nonetheless see their journeys quite differently. Did I "drop out of high school" or did I "go to college early"?

Do you see yourself as the victim of circumstances? Or the beneficiary, or maybe the product? Or do you see yourself as the architect and builder of your life? Do you feel lucky or do you feel like you were dealt a bad hand of cards? Do you feel that you worked hard for what you've got? Do you feel guilty about what you have?

Do you trot out your blue collar credentials, your private school education, your activist past, or your international experience? Do you think of yourself as ordinary, a regular joe, one of the people? Or do you think of yourself as extraordinary, unconventional, apart from the masses? If you see yourself as middle class, do you think of that as a financial classification or a values classification?

What would be the most flattering thing a new acquaintance could say about you? What would be the most humiliating?

Along with these questions, I've been thinking about how we deal with our own evolving narrative. As we change (and we all do), we may be aware of those changes, embrace them, ignore them, feel slightly embarrassed by our past. I've noticed that some people seem able to completely shift their values without any reference to their past position, no apparent discomfort with holding an opinion opposite to what they once had.

I am one of those who feel a need to explain why my position has changed or at least to acknowledge that it has. For example, I can't mention my approbation for school uniforms without mentioning how horrified my younger self would have been by my taking that position. I suppose it's because I still like that young woman, I feel fond of her while still being quite happy to have outgrown her, or at least to have grown out of her.

Listen to the stories around you, the stories people tell about themselves. It's not about the plot, not about what happened, but about the characters, and particularly how they are situated in the world vis-a-vis other characters and vis-a-vis the circumstances of their lives. Keep listening.

Turtle Fish Life Death

2008-06-06T11:42:00.000-07:00

I took some students to San Francisco a few days ago to visit the Exploratorium. In the lake by the Palace of Fine Arts we saw several live turtles and several dead fish, including this charming pair. It seems like an image waiting for either a haiku or a satiric Onion caption.

Any takers?

The Wee Folks of Portland

2008-05-31T14:56:00.001-07:00

Portland is known for being whimsical (or "weird" according to the "Keep Portland Weird" bumberstickers). A few examples from our recent visit:

Miniature horses like this one can be seen around town tied to the metal rings still embedded in the curbs from days of yore.

This "fairy nest" features bits of treasure and a note to the forest fairy asking for a magical pet cat that only the letter writer and her friends could see. It is sitting on a stump not far off the path in Forest Park.

If you look carefully, you will see that there is a tiny chair on the tree. The chair is about three inches tall and the crotch of the tree is about six or so feet off the ground. Perhaps a fairy was sitting up there to enjoy the sunset in Hoyt Arboretum.

Justin Decided He Needed A Haircut

2008-05-31T14:48:00.000-07:00

The "before" and "after" shots. Or, "scruffy" vs. "punk."

One-sided (Cellphone) Conversation Overheard on Light Rail in Portland

2008-05-30T16:34:00.000-07:00

I'm getting married./
Ray is coming with me cuz he's going to be best man./
No, then Jason would know I talked to you./
No./
He doesn't even want me to talk to you. But he's getting better about it. I told him, "Well, I'm sorry you're not friends with your ex, but I'm gonna stay friends with mine." I mean, it was a long time before we got to this point./
I don't know if I'm gonna get a hotel or stay at Melanie's./
I hope Melanie will let me stay there. You know she lives up behind the mill./
Behind the mill on the way to the cemetery. She's lived there for like 30 years!/
You dropped me off there!/
You don't remember, do you?/
It was at the beginning of when we were going out. You dropped me off there./
It was right after you got outta jail and we were staying in that trailer./
We didn't stay long. You were like, "There's too many fuckin' tweakers around here." You didn't want to hang out with tweakers.

And that was the last thing we heard as she stepped off the Max.

Things We Did in Portland

2008-05-30T15:35:00.000-07:00

We got back from Portland on Tuesday, and I've got so many things to blog about they're falling through my fingers. Before more time goes by, here's a little laundry list of Things We Did In Portland (in no particular order):

spent time with great friends
baked bread
walked around the SE quite a bit
walked/hiked Mount Tabor
hiked in Forest Park
played kickball in the amphitheater in the Rose Test Garden
walked in Hoyt Arboretum
walked in the rain
stayed inside in the rain
played video games (mainly pinball, a driving game and air-hockey)
played hearts
played rummy
played chess (Justin & J, not me)
played upwords (me & E)
ate lots of good food, at the homes of our friends and at restaurants
shopped at a going-out-of-business junk-shop
visited three different natural foods stores, two of them co-ops
rode buses
rode light-rail (Max)
found the nearest p.o. branch
visited Powell's Books
had lots of great conversations

slept well
got very wet
enjoyed ourselves thoroughly

A Jaunt Down the Valley

2008-05-18T17:35:00.000-07:00

Justin and I and another 1st year ling grad, H, drove down to Bakersfield yesterday. You know, just to celebrate the heat in truly California style by spending the day in a car in the central valley. No, really we went to a fundraiser for the Kawaiisu Language and Cultural Center.

The valley is always flatter than I remember, and wider, and longer. We drove past many crops and one large (and very smelly and depressing-looking) cattle operation (if you've driven down I-5 you know the one). We passed cotton gins and food processing plants and occasional and isolated farmhouses. I really wish the farmers of California would sign their crops along the highways. It would be great advertising for California produce, raise people's awareness of varieties and also remind people of where food comes from. I could identify a few things, but only on a really broad level: fruit or nut trees over here, some kind of grapes there, looks like wheat here. Could wheat already be golden and looking ready for harvest? I was also surprised because it seemed kind of short: more knee-high than waist high. The plant looked like wheat as we whizzed past at 70 mph, but I'd have loved to see a sign telling me about it.

The edge of Bakersfield where we got off the freeway was as unlovely as its reputation. We stopped in a corner store for directions and one of the customers was wearing a true sombrero, the kind you see on mariachi musicians, but this guy was just a guy in jeans and a t-shirt buying beer. His friend, in a cowboy hat and apparently already fairly well into a beer-hydration project (hence the red, not-so-white, and blue eyes), gave me really excellent and detailed directions, repeated several times and including hand gestures (while Sombrero Man in the background was saying, "Okay, she gets it!")

A few minutes later we saw on the road in front of us in the camper of a small pickup truck two nubian goats (the ones with the floppy ears). That made me really happy. We wondered if they were on their way to become BBQ or if they were just moving house/pasture. Maybe they were being taken down to the community pool for a swim. Who knows?

Arriving at the ranch, we found it a bigger event than we had expected. There were tents and tables and port-a-pots (bañitos), a bounce-house for the kids, and an amplified band playing classic country music. One of the three musicians was a Kawaiisu elder, and one of the last language speakers.

People had come from pretty far away: L.A., Palm Springs, even Texas. Many people were related to each other, maybe most, but not all. Some of those who had come from far away were from different tribes.

It was hot, even for the locals, and everyone mostly sat around and sweated. It seemed to me a great place to be to appreciate the full valley summer experience. I was really happy to simply sit and watch people interacting, but also enjoying talking to some people. There was a big feed: potato salad, green salad, chili beans, rolls, a big pile of meat with bbq sauce. Sheet cake for dessert. Lots of bottled water (no alcohol).

Some guys got up and did traditional music, drums and songs in language. A couple of elders danced a slow and solemn dance. They were a brother and sister and they held hands and moved in a stately way across the space in front of the musicians, back and forth, many times. It was quite moving.

People were acknowledged to the group, including one elder in her 90s. There were lots of reminders to buy raffle tickets and fill out language surveys and feel free to go back for seconds, there's lots of food back there.

There was a raffle with many, many prizes. I had just told H about my lucky streak in Australia where I won movie tickets several times in raffles, although I'd never won anything at home, when suddenly they were calling one of our numbers! In the end, four of our ten tickets were winners! The nicest prize we got was a medicine bag. When we were leaving, one of the musicians came up and told us that it was made by his friend Sarita, a member of an Iowa tribe.

After the raffle, the three old men played again and enticed a couple of women (one was a sister) to come up and sing with them. It was all very sweet and warm and community-feeling.

A little girl named Raina, about 2 or 3, befriended me. She was talking to me during the raffle (which was amplified), so I couldn't always hear her, but she had a few phrases which were easily discernible: "I'll be right back." "I'm just checking on you. Are you okay?" She would go off and do something and then come back to me with these phrases. Very cute. She knew my name and I think when we were leaving she called me her cousin, which makes sense since probably most people there were her cousins!

Street Shrine #1

2008-05-16T15:55:00.000-07:00

This is the memorial at the end of my street where a young woman was killed last summer. She was a passenger in a car and was shot by someone in another car. I don't know much more than that. She didn't live on the street. She was about 21, I think.

On holidays (her birthday, valentine's day, etc.) this lightpost is decorated in her memory. Most recently it was decorated on mother's day, and I took this photo a few days later. The big mylar balloon has deflated, but you can see the handwritten notes, stuffed animals, photos and candles. There are stains on the sidewalk around the pole from the candles that were left there before and eventually melted.

The Secret Language of Academia

2008-05-14T21:09:00.000-07:00

Use as many of these words and phrases as possible:

It's not entirely clear that...
There's a sense in which...
...a way in which...
It becomes problematic...
...to essentialize...
...which effectively...
The lens through which...
problematize
dichotomy
contextualize
calque
mediated
notion
qua
meta- (metacognition, meta-analysis, meta-data)
-ness (on words that don't usually have it, eg., thirdness, back-and-forthness)

Question to investigate: Is this language particular to the humanities and social sciences, or are these phrases and words familiar to those of you in other areas?

Please write in with additions and comments.

Visitor and Visiting

2008-05-11T21:34:00.000-07:00

We had a brief but lovely visit with Steven last weekend. If anyone's looking for an excuse to go to Sweden, Steven and Ronald will be opening a B&B later this year and it's sure to be great! It's in the southwestern corner of Sweden, in a small village in the countryside, and not far from the beaches. (Yeah, we don't really think of going to Sweden for the beaches, but apparently the Norwegians do.)

Today I went on a Mother's Day walk along the Coastal Trail in San Francisco with F, C, and my parents. In the beginning it was a little cold and foggy, but was really beautiful and warm by the time we were walking back. We walked from above Sutro Baths to Eagle's Point (not far from China Beach in the Seacliff neighborhood), about 3.5 miles round trip, according to a site I just looked at. It's a really beautiful and easy walk, and I highly recommend it.

On their way out of town, I took my parents to check out the Albany Bulb, for a different type of walking along the bay. We just visited the main northern gallery, but also came across a small skate park that has been constructed on the Bulb which I hadn't seen before. It was just a simple bowl with a small hillock in the middle (I'm sure skateboarders have different names for these things), all concrete. We watched two skaters take turns. Both were in their twenties, one long-haired and loose-limbed with a graceful but kind of goofy style. The other was short-haired, with a more assertive style. Each would take the space to try a move, and then stop and let the other have the space. I love the politeness of turn taking among skaters, and how it's just unspoken. Obviously you'd want to keep going, but you don't because you understand that you have to share. I am always mesmerized by watching skaters, but soon we moved on to the sculptures.

I know I've posted a picture of this sculpture before, but this one has my cute parents in it, so I have to include it here.

We walked out, they drove me to El Cerrito BART, and we each headed in our opposite directions. Both the places we went today are so easy to get to, and so spectacular, it's really ridiculous that I don't go more often. It was nice to have Mother's Day as an impetus for a couple of nice outings!

Things That Should Be Available On Google Maps

2008-05-07T13:36:00.001-07:00

1. Google Bike Maps/directions
When google-mapping a location, we should be able to click a tab and illuminate the bike routes, bike paths, and bike boulevards (each designation would be in a different color).

1.b It would be extra cool if there was a wiki element to the bike maps, so that people could comment on the bikability of a stretch of road: whether it had a lot of potholes, was particularly narrow with a lot of parked cars, etc. It could be set up so that when you roll your cursor over the map, comments pop up (comments contributed by anyone). (This is similar to the feature on Google Earth where people can add their own photos.)

2. Google Walking Distance Maps
You'd be able to google-map a location and then click on the pedometer tab which would change your cursor. You'd click on a corner, then click on the next corner, etc. till you had traced your walking/running route. It might be very short and simple (around the block), or a more convoluted path including sometimes retracing one's footsteps. The distance of your route would then be calculated for you, to the tenth of a mile (just like we get for driving distances). I think lots of people who are trying to drive less and exercise more would love knowing how much extra walking they're doing by, for example, parking down the street from work, or walking to the video store.

Please circulate these ideas until they reach the right ears!

Blood

2008-05-06T21:19:00.000-07:00

I'm participating in a medical study, and today I made my second visit. The first visit consisted of a questionnaire, some body measurements, and a whole lot of paperwork wherein I agreed that I understood to whom the information would be released and the purposes for which it would be used. Really, really a lot of paperwork.

Today's visit started last night with a 12-hour fast, so that when they drew my blood, it would not be full of sugar and caffeine, I guess. The fellow who drew my blood was also the fellow who had weighed and measured me before. This time I found out that he was a medic in the army and was in Iraq from 2002-4. He said that taking blood in the army was quite different because everyone was muscular and had veins that pretty much stood out. Although he'd been drawing blood for over 5 years, he said he'd learned a lot since working at the university medical center because here he got to work with so many different kinds of people and because he often gets to see the same people more than once. He was very good and took a lot of my blood pretty much painlessly. He also managed to talk about his 'first casualty' without it seeming gruesome, maudlin, callous, or any number of other ways it might come out.

The next step involved going to another building and waiting in a--yes--waiting room while many other people came and went. While there, I overheard a young man talking about his time in the military, how, just after boot camp, he'd found himself drawing blood from a bunch of new recruits, even though he had no training. He was assigned to clean the clinic, but the clinic was short of medics and knew they had a huge group of new recruits coming in. So they asked this young man if he could draw blood. He said he could and they asked him to demonstrate--on himself! Apparently he did fine, as he then went on to draw blood from the new recruits. In response to a question I couldn't hear, he explained that he had just completed boot camp and was in the mindset of proving himself and besides he'd watched a lot of medical shows on the Discovery Channel.

In our Peace Corps training we had to prick our own fingers and make a microscope slide of our blood, something we might have to do if we suspected we had malaria and were too sick to travel (the idea being that you could send your malaria slide to the nearest clinic where someone could look for malaria parasites in your blood). It is a difficult thing to intentionally prick your own finger deeply enough to squeeze a few drops of blood out, especially if you are imagining having to do it at some future date when you are alone, shivery with fever, and weakened with diarrhea. It was clearly much more challenging for some than others. I wonder how we would have fared if we'd been asked to draw a vial of our own blood?

Best T-shirt I've seen all week:

2008-05-06T21:04:00.000-07:00

"Shakespeare hates your emo poems."

Worn by a young man, kind of emo-looking, coming out of Dwinelle Hall, a strange sprawling building that houses all the language departments and linguistics, among others.

The Lost Doll

2008-05-03T22:48:00.000-07:00

In an email exchange with a friend about an image in the poem I posted a few days ago (and I still feel weird about calling something a 'poem' that I don't consider complete, but there's no word for poem-to-be), I recalled a beloved poem from my childhood. A quick internet search offered up the title, author, and in fact the whole poem itself. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the illustration I remember so clearly. The poem is "The Lost Doll" by Charles Kingsley (bits of his biography on Wikipedia are amusing/appalling; check it out if you have a spare minute, but read the poem first).

The poem is kind of maudlin and sappy and not really anything special compared to much of the rest of the large quantity of poetry my parents read to me as a child, but for some reason I really liked it. I think the picture was important. It was sort of the reverse of the typical before-and-after shots: initially the doll is perfect, with a flouncy dress and a perky little matching blue bow in her perfect blond curls. In the larger "after" picture, she is dirty and bedraggled; not only is her hair ribbon missing, her arms are missing, her dress is muddied and ripped, etc. The message is that the doll is just as lovely to the little girl who lost and then found her in her ragged state as she was before. Maybe it provided a good counterpoint to all the beautiful princesses in the fairytales. Maybe I just related to the raggedy doll because I was a bit of a dirty outdoorsy girl myself. Maybe, at some level, I understood it as a message about the redemptive power of love.

Anyone else remember this poem from their own childhood? Any other favorite poems from childhood?

Toddler quilt

2008-05-03T11:50:00.000-07:00

I just finished this quilt for my nephew's 2nd birthday this morning (the party is this afternoon). I've been working on it for awhile. I had a lot of fun picking out the fabrics (African animal themed) and figuring out how I wanted to put them together.

I had trouble with the binding on the other quilt I made (a few months ago), but thought that it was just a matter of experience and that maybe this one would be easier. In fact it was more difficult and turned out more amateurish than the first. Anyway, you can sure tell it's handmade! I want a quilting mentor! Nevertheless, it was fun and I like the overall effect. I sure get a lot of satisfaction from making things. I should probably do it more often.

You meet some great people on Amtrak

2008-04-30T16:07:00.000-07:00

She's 67 and she's got 15 grandkids and five greats. The oldest grand is 35. She had seven kids but 14 pregnancies. It used to be that you could look at her and she'd get pregnant. The last one, though, he's got a different father and that man wasn't supposed to be able to have kids. He had mumps and the doctors said he was infertile. We coulda sued them doctors. All those kids were preemies and every one of 'em is over 6 feet tall now, and look at me--they call me shrimp. The oldest is 51, then 48, then 47... The oldest great grandkid is 15, so you figure if she has a baby in the next ten years, I'll be a great great grandmother. My youngest is 23, but she didn't come out of my belly. She's my sister's kid, but I raised her. She's my youngest. The youngest that came from me is my son. He's 35. He was reading at 2 years old. He was always advanced. When he was eleven, they wanted me to send him back east to a school for gifted kids, but I wouldn't do it. That's too far. Virginia, it was in Virginia. He went to college, but just before he was gonna be finished, he messed up and left there and came home. I told him, you go get your masters, your bachelors and any other degrees they're offering. Finally, he went back. He got his bachelors and his masters. He wants to be a sports commentator. One of my grands is in a group home in Sacramento. She's the only one I'm legally responsible for. I raised several of 'em because I didn't like the way my daughters was raising them. They said, "if you don't like they way we're doing it, why don't you do it," so I did. I believe in prevention, but not abortion.

Another First Draft Poem

2008-04-30T15:53:00.000-07:00

Alter Image

The idea of me

that you keep in an alcove

of your mind

bothers me.

I want to take her away

and carry her around,

whacking her carelessly

into tables, leaving her

for a time head down

in the toy chest; later,

buried feet to armpits

in the sandbox

in a rainstorm.

Then I think of that alcove

empty, two votives burning

(or, worse, not burning),

and I want to put me back—

the new me: chipped, ripped,

bruised, wet. Is there a place

for a creature like that

in your mind?

Would the revised me

be relegated to a dark

storage closet with other

damaged icons?

I imagine the idea of me,

no longer able to stand,

propped against an idea

of your mother,

once cherished, now tarnished

and gathering dust.

Who else is on those shelves?

Maybe it's better if I leave

your idea of me

alone,

glowing softly in the candlelight

unaware of her own

impossibility, of her distance

from me.

After all, she isn't mine,

she's yours.

A little old, a little new, something home-made, something blue

2008-04-28T09:59:00.000-07:00

Someone asked me recently about my workspace, so here's a picture of it. My laptop is on an old desk that belonged to some family member in the past, while my keyboard sits on a rolling pine table that I made to fit under the desk. I intended to stain it so that it wouldn't stand out so much against the darker desk, but I haven't got around to it yet, as I want a non-toxic and non-smelly stain.

In other news:

I went to Sacramento this weekend and had a good visit with friends and family. Got to meet one new person and got to introduce several people to each other. Lots of laughter, which is always a good thing. Incidentally, my mom recently went to a laughing yoga class (which sounds funny, yes, and that's a good thing). They said something like a minute of deep belly-laughing is like 10 minutes of exercise!

Many opportunities for laughter were available on Sunday when my friend R and I went to Grass Valley to see a matinee performance of The Philadelphia Story at the Center for the Arts. Before you think we were laughing at poor Tom Hanks dying of AIDS, please remember that that film was simply called "Philadelphia." The play we saw (originally seen on Broadway in 1939 and the following year made into a movie with Katherine Hepburn reprising her role from the stage) is a romantic comedy. It was funny and the a fine local performance, all the more fun because my friend, T.E. Wolfe, was one of the male leads (in the role for which Jimmy Stewart won his only Oscar). So, if you're looking for an excuse to go up to the hills, this is a good one. It plays for another couple of weekends.