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I know we're supposed to kill our blogs, but I'm gonna try to resurrect this one. And while I'm at it, here are two new ones:

One for little Gabriel Arvo, born 12/28/08: Tabula Rasa

and one for Columbus adventures: 10x40 Columbus
posted by cricket at 7:21 PM

 
I want to learn and teach here someday.
posted by cricket at 11:18 PM

 
A new name for the blog!
posted by cricket at 3:50 PM

 
Only two more weeks left to finish while forty!
posted by cricket at 11:03 AM

 
How'd it get to be August already?
posted by cricket at 10:23 PM

 




posted by cricket at 2:41 PM

 





posted by cricket at 11:16 AM

 
For today, a recycled blog entry from 2002 (can't believe I've been blogging for 6 years!) in honor of my G'ma who died 4 years ago this week:

11/9/02

I had a good conversation with my grandma today. She has dementia, so our phone calls can be a bit hit or miss but today was definitely a hit. It was a short conversation and in the middle of it she stopped all of a sudden and told me to listen. “Did you hear that?” she asked after about a minute of me listening to what sounded to me to be just the banging of dishes, my aunts chatting, and cats meowing in the background.
“What is it Grandma?”
“That’s the sound of everything going my way!”
posted by cricket at 2:20 PM

 
Who needs soap operas when you have pre-school friendship drama?! And who knew this sort of stuff would happen so soon?

From M's friend's mom:

Hi Ladies,

C asked me to let you know if there were any other conflicts between
M and A like the last one involving K. On Friday there was a
new one with K that I thought you might want to know about. I guess
K didn't like it when M said she wasn't going to give up A
for K, so K said she would be friends with A, but not M
(in my opinion this is in retribution for the rejection.) K did not
tell A that she had to choose, so A has continued to keep M
as a friend. I asked A how did M feel about this, and she said
M was very upset, but A saw it as a problem between M and
K since A wasn't asked to choose. We talked about supporting the
people we love and standing up for what is right, and A decided that
if K continued to be friends with Ariana today but not M, that
A would tell K she and M were a package deal and K had to
choose - all or nothing. Let me know if you hear anything.
posted by cricket at 12:13 PM

 
Good Sri Lankan Egg Curry Recipe

3 t paprika
1/2 t cumin
1/4 t turmeric
2 t coriander
2 t curry powder
1-3 green chillies (depending on how spicy you like it)
6 eggs
1 onion
4 cloves garlic
a few curry or bay leaves
a stick cinnamon
a piece of ginger
1 lemon
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup milk
salt to taste

Hard boil the eggs, peel, and fork them. Toss eggs in a mixture of salt and turmeric and fry until golden brown, then set aside. Fry the chopped onion, garlic, and green chillies together with curry leaves and cinnamon. Add the rest of the ingredients, along with the eggs. Bring it to a boil. Add milk and simmer for about 10 minutes.
posted by cricket at 3:17 PM

 
Maddie has several categories of “from your mouth” stories that she likes to choose from at night before she goes to bed (many of which run strangely towards the macabre): hurt stories (as in broken arm, bee sting in a particularly painful place etc), sick stories, getting in trouble stories, taking a trip stories, ghost stories, bad weather stories. She has an ace memory and doesn’t much like to hear a story twice so I’m running out of tales from my own life. She is equally enthralled with stories from my friends’ and family’s lives-- do you all have any juicy ones from any of the above categories that I can tell her?
posted by cricket at 2:05 PM

 
Here are the pictures I'm still blown away by.




posted by cricket at 10:38 AM

 


Saku and Anu
posted by cricket at 10:35 AM

 
Live blogging from the lemonade stand

Business is bustling right now. The location right next to the post office plus M's signage and aggressive sales tactics are bringing in lots of customers. Maddie has definitely been to the Trader Joe's school of business-- she's offering free samples of jelly beans to lure people.


First customers!
posted by cricket at 12:58 PM

 
Plane in Vain

Skybust! Oh well, it was good while it while it lasted-- the direct flights to Columbus from western mass. at @$30 a pop, the buffalo wings and the iced coffee, the other passengers all delighted to be on board.

I just learned about this, though, the ugly underbelly of it all:

Skybus was one of the few 100% non-union airlines in the United States at the time of its shutdown. It was facing a union organizing campaign from its pilots, who had collected enough signatures to hold a union referendum. The pilots were seeking to join Local 747 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, based in Houston, Texas. Because of the number of signatures collected it was presumed that the campaign would be successful. The election would have most likely occurred sometime in April 2008. Successful unionization could have severely undermined Skybus's below-market compensation philosophy and laid the framework for union activity among other Skybus employee groups.

*&@# unionbusters!
posted by cricket at 1:12 PM

 
Me (in San Diego): My new dream in life is to become a surfer.
L: I'm glad to hear that you have gotten so ambitious at your professional conference.



Here are Susan and Hawley, my partners in conference-surfing-crime (we stole away in between our presentations!)
posted by cricket at 5:29 PM

 
It's been fun to be at the center of the political storm (lots of rallies, concerts, and conversations), now that it has moved to Ohio for the past couple of weeks. I wonder what tomorrow will bring.
posted by cricket at 11:44 PM

 

posted by cricket at 11:57 PM

 
I'm looking forward to going here tomorrow-- let's see how it will compare to the beloved Olympus spa in Tacoma!
posted by cricket at 11:16 AM

 
I just heard the terrible news that my old friend from Carleton and then later the UW died in an avalanche. I'll cherish the memories of all our fun times together listening to music, hunting for edible mushrooms, sailing on Lake Washington, rafting down the skagit river, and just hanging out. He and my friend broke up a few years ago and we fell out of touch but I still think of him often (e.g. whenever I go rollerblading-- he moved with such grace and speed on rollerblades). Wow, I can't believe it. RIP, Morgan, dear old friend.
posted by cricket at 2:45 PM

 
This week was “M” week for show and tell at Maddie's school. Each week is a different letter and we search the house looking for an appropriate object that she can bring into school to display. We were searching for an M thing early in the week when she had an idea: “I know—I can bring in you—M for Mama!”

So Friday was the big day. She had it all planned. I would come in with her in the morning and would “write my book” in the lobby. Then when the time was right, she’d come out and get me. Sure enough, after about an hour, she ran out with her teacher and brought me into the classroom where all the kids were sitting in a circle. One by one the, the kids displayed their M items (some were real stretches-- “Batman & Robin dolls… hmmm, says the teacher—I guess they are both “m”en! There was no getting the “Diego car” into the M box though). Anyway, Maddie was getting more and more excited as it came closer to her turn, flashing me conspiratorial smiles and giving me the thumbs up sign as if to let me know that her plan was coming together just as she imagined. And then sure enough, when her turn came around, she jumped up, yelled “M is for my Mama,” and pulled me into the circle. I was a little sheepish at the center of the show and tell action, having no real kid-pleasing, show-stopping skills (juggling, for example, or a magic trick or two) to speak of. Luckily, though, just the fact of me seemed to be enough (would that it be always so). Then to top it all off, her little friend next to her announced that her M was for Maddie, which prompted a kid pile-on. It was a huge love fest all around. I got to stay a little afterwards as well and things got even wilder after gingerbread. Here’s a pic of her and her friend carousing it up:



posted by cricket at 11:07 PM

 
More over JonBenet, here comes punk Maddie! (Snow day activity #56)
posted by cricket at 9:25 AM

 
Wow, it is hard to believe that it has been 8 years already since the WTO protests in Seattle. I feel very lucky to have been at the right place in the right time for that one. I showed This is What Democracy Looks Like to my class yesterday in commemoration of the protests. My eyes were welling up with tears at the point in the film when everyone was shouting "courage, courage" (good thing that the lights were off in the classroom).
posted by cricket at 5:04 PM

 
Here's a mesmerizing geography of wikipedia site for your procrastination enjoyment.
posted by cricket at 11:38 AM

 
Madscooter's Halloween costume ideas so far: magician, fence, window, cell phone, beanstalk (w/ me or L as Jack).
posted by cricket at 8:07 AM

 
I like Hardt & Negri's critique and alternative definition of love:

Critique: The modern concept of love is almost exclusively limited to the bourgeois couple and the claustrophobic confines of the nuclear family. Love has become a strictly private affair. We need a more generous and more unrestrained conception of love…

Alternative definition: Love means that our expansive encounters and continuous collaborations bring us joy.
Hardt & Negri, Multitude, 351.

Speaking of the multitude, I’m working on my book right now within earshot of the OSU football game today. I can hear the roar of the crowd in the football stadium 2 miles away as if they were right next door. I’m trying to imagine that the crowds are cheering to egg me on to concentrate, think harder, and write faster!
posted by cricket at 4:16 PM

 
All eyes on Burma.
posted by cricket at 1:23 PM

 
A very dapper June learns to talk like an American in her big screen debut

and finally gets proof for her long-standing claim that her resemblance to Dykes To Watch Out For's Mo is more than just coincidence (take that all you Doubting June Thomases!)
posted by cricket at 10:42 AM

 
*B*ack to school

In the backseat of the car, Larin hears Maddie making sounds of concentration and intense effort:

“Okay… here…hmmmm… b."

Then, surprised: “I made a b! Is this a b? It’s a b! Mama Larin, is this a b?”

A little later, she’s still stunned at her accomplishment:
“A few days ago I tried to make a b. I couldn’t make a b. I didn’t know how. Now I can make a b. I need to practice my b!"

(as reported to me by L)
posted by cricket at 12:38 PM

 


Spent the week at the beach last week. Saku couldn't make it to NY so she took a parallel trip to a beach in SL instead. The water looks much more blue and inviting there, though the waves were pretty darn good here-- rough and strong.
posted by cricket at 2:30 PM