Throwback Thursday

Last Thursday's blog post about the Flowbee commercial reminded me of another set of ads we really liked (for their silliness) during our grad school days in Madison, Wisconsin. Youtube has one of the Pizza Pit ads that we liked in the winter which you can see here. The children singing are way out of tune, but I like the little car.

I wish that I could see the Pizza Pit ad which featured Barbie and Ken dolls where you could see people holding the dolls by their ankles, and where Ken dialed the phone by smashing his face into the numbers.

New Year's Workouts

Last week at the CMC Ducey gym where I work out, I counted 10 students starting off the new semester getting their sweat on. This week I see 4-5 students. 

When I worked out at the YMCA in Evanston, the New Year's rush lasted until March. I was glad when it was easier to get a parking spot and had more space in the locker room.

I am at the point in my life where working out is not an option. I might miss a day or sometimes a week, but then I crave it, so it's back to the gym or yoga or brisk walk I go.

Rocco Raccoon

Today Rocco Raccoon is sitting on top of the tea section at the Claremont Trader Joe's. I've seen signs in the store telling kids to look for Rocco and when they find him they will get something (a sticker?). I never paid much attention to it since I don't think they would consider me a child, but the other day I went into TJs with C and asked her just what the raccoon was, and she told me that it is a stuffed animal. 

Today I made sure to take my camera into the store and found him right away. No sticker, but I did get some blog fodder.....

Lessons from a Dog

I have a college friend who is also my Facebook friend. She has recently started a blog about what lessons she learns from her dog, Bob, and how she can be more like Bob. You can read her blog here. Maybe I can learn dog lessons from reading her blog rather than from actually owning such a pet.

3rd Annual Women's Retreat

Just a photo from the Glen Ivy Retreat Center this morning just before we left our Women's Retreat. The air was clear, the clouds beautiful, but we had to find the right place for a photo since so many trees block the view of the mountains.

Song of the Coyote

On Tuesday I wrote that I would be leading a poetry-writing session with women from my church. Today was that day, and I was immensely pleased and impressed with the variety of poetry that the women in the group wrote and shared. Using some Walt Whitman as a prompt, the "assignment" was to write a poem where you invite someone to come with you to and to share your secret power.

In the wee hours last night while out at the women's retreat at the Oak Glen Retreat Center I heard coyotes, and they were the inspiration for my poem. Here it is:

Song of the Coyote

Listen to the howls of the coyotes.
The song is in them,
  the song is in me.
You do not know it yet, but if you come with me,
If you come with the coyotes into
  the dark of the night
  you will know the song of the
  coyote in you.

We will run with the dark mist
  in our faces as we
  howl a duet
Our tails behind us, rising and dipping

And when we reach the place ...
  we reach that sacred place
where voices and songs of all time
  and before time and voices
  from time yet to come
our song will entwine within
  and throughout
  the communion of
  all breath

Flowbee Anyone?

The other night when my folks were here along with C and B, something triggered my memory of a product we used to see advertised during our grad school days in the 1980s. Knowing that so much is now on the internet, I looked on youtube for a Flowbee commercial and found one plus a number of parodies. I played this commercial for my family, and we had a good chuckle about "This revolutionary  home haircutting system [that] cuts your hair evenly into the recessed blades and trims it precisely. The results are a refreshing vacuum haircut." Yes. A Vacuum Haircut. Attach these blades to a vacuum cleaner, drag it over your head, and voila! 

Apparently you can still buy this item. Just go flowbee.com and you are on your way!

Local Door-to-Door Scam

In the past several weeks we've had two scam artists come to the door. Nicely dressed young men claim to be trying to better themselves in one way or the other, and they have to get points from people. Of course, this involves buying books or magazines. If you don't have children, you can just donate these books to the local hospital or somewhere.

They claim to have talked to our neighbors, etc. Or maybe they are the son of a neighbor you've never heard of.

Well, last night when one of them came to our door, H was listening to the long-winded pitch, and pretty soon a policeman drove down the street and called to the young man, thus ending the conversation. Thank you, real neighbor, for alerting the authorities and taking care of this particular scam-guy.

Cloud Nine

Soon I am going to be leading a poetry-writing workshop for a group of church women. I have done these types of activities with my daughters and their friends when they were in jr high and high school, so it will be interesting and fun to see what it's like with adults of all ages.

We will be writing our drafts on regular lined paper, but I wanted to have some nice paper for our final draft, and it occurred to me that Claremont has not only Stamp Your Heart Out for scrapbooking, but also this upscale paper store in the Village. I decided to look into Cloud Nine on 2nd Street, and I came away with exactly what I was looking for. Small pages of a variety of colors (I hope no one fights over what color they get!) from pastels to rich hues.

 This Queen of Hearts in the window display has kind of a scary look in her eyes...

Reflections on Inaugural Arts

Four years ago, I was enchanted by the quartet of Air and Simple Gifts performed at Obama's first inauguration. The small kerfuffle about the musicians air-playing to their own prerecorded performance did not bother me (how can one play instruments in such freezing cold weather?). It certainly didn't hurt that I already enjoy the music of Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma and John Williams, as well as the Shaker hymn on which this piece was arranged.

This year I was taken with the poem (only the fifth inaugural poem in history). I did not know the poet, Richard Blanco (aside from the NPR piece on him I heard earlier this month), but the poem reminded me of Walt Whitman, a poet whose work I've known most of my life. Hector Tobar (author of recently mentioned The Barbarian Nurseries) wrote his reflections on the poem and poet for the LA Times here.

Giving the arts a prominent role in such events heightens the importance of any such occasion, and helps justify what I already firmly believe - the arts are not fluffy extras in education, but are part of the core.

Remembering the Ends of Books

This afternoon I am preparing for book club at our house tonight. This involves not only cleaning and making sure I have the food I want, but also rereading parts of the book.

Do you find that you remember a book you've read, but forgot the ending? I certainly do. Tonight we will be discussing The Barbarian Nurseries by Hector Tobar which I read a few months ago. I remember much of the plot, but when one of the book club members emailed me to say that she wanted me to discuss the ending, I realized I needed to remember what exactly happened. I remember that I was satisfied by the outcome, but could not recall anything specific.

I have also chosen this book for my other book club which when we meet in March, so I have hopes that with two discussions, I will have a good and complete memory of this great read.

Drill, Part 2

With my folks visiting for the long weekend, I thought they might like to see the third day of the shooter drill yesterday for a something a little different. We walked over to a different vantage point (in front of Honnold), so my photos are a little better than the previous days'. I also knew to expect the rappellers, so I was ready to photograph them.

I found out that the reason the drill lasted for three days was that the various agencies have different shifts of responders, and they wanted to train each group of people. 

Training Drill

Today is the middle day of three for rescue workers to practice drills for shooters on campus. "Expect a lot of police and fire dept. activity around campus this week. ... At least three helicopters will hover above campus. And the drill will involved the sounds of gunshots and screaming victims."

While my friend Judy avoided checking out this drill, I took my camera and long lens and went to Garrison Theater. I was not the only one with a camera. The most exciting thing was to watch two men rappell from a helicopter. You can see one of them near the top of the trees in the second photo on the left wire. That happened so quickly I almost missed getting a shot.

These people watched from Honnold.

Bossypants

Written comedy, spoken comedy. Not the same. Garrison Keillor on the radio way better than Garrison Keillor in a book. Tina Fey - really funny on 30 Rock (until we got bored of the show after 4 seasons and stopped watching...) and as a Sarah Palin impersonator.

I won this book in our book club book exchange (I haven't seemed to find a synonym for book in this sentence) last month, even though I am on the library waiting list for the audio version. So I read it.

Some was very funny, some not so much. I know she is actually a writer, but maybe not for parts of a memoir. I don't know.

I do know that I really liked the part of the book where she related about her first job out of college - at the Evanston, Illinois YMCA. Maybe the writing at that point is really good, but I also know that Y pretty well. The year we were on sabbatical in Evanston, I went to that Y 4-5 times every week. I could just imagine everything she was saying from the lycra moms to the preschool children who come in for their swim lessons.

I don't think I'll take my hold off of the audio version from the library queue. Tina Fey reading her own words may bring a new appreciation for the book. It may make a long car ride seem shorter.

Winter Garden

In Southern California, most of the vegetables grow in the winter months. The heat is best for tomatoes, squash and peppers. Right now we have lettuce, broccoli, snap peas, brussels sprouts and cucumbers in our little garden.

The broccoli is doing well.

The cucumbers succumbed to the night freezes. Poor things.

We've never before grown brussels sprouts, and we are rather excited by what we see!

Flu Shots

Today we went to get flu shots. Normally I do not get one. My doctor does not particularly recommend it, and I do not remember the last time I got one. However, I have been watching the news, and last night I talked to my friend, Susan, who is a nurse practitioner, and she recommends that everyone get one. She has seen a number of cases in the ER already, even though California is not on the list as a state with a severe outbreak (like Massachusetts).

I am working hard to remember to wash my hands frequently, especially after working with my students, and to try to keep my hands away from my face (hard to do!).

H called our pharmacy yesterday, and they were out of the vaccine. Today he called the CVS on Foothill and Towne, and they said they were out. Wait, no, they had two more, if we could come in right now. We came in "right now." After a long wait, and some paperwork, and lines of people for other things, etc., we came away with two shots. FYI, if you are local, CVS thinks they will have more of the vaccine on Wednesday.

I know that I might feel some reaction to the shot, but it would just be my immune system reacting to the virus. Also, I know that the vaccine is 60% effective. So, I will continue to be vigilant with the hand-washing and trying to keep the hands away from the face.

Good luck to us all!

Cable Airport Air Show

As we headed out this morning on errands, we saw some biplanes over Upland, and we figured it was time for another Cable Airport Air Show. We've never been to one, but we like to look up in the sky to see planes doing tricks, planes flying in formation and parachutes. This time we grabbed my camera, stuck on the long telephoto lens and headed up Benson Ave. We didn't really want to watch the whole show, so we thought we'd park across the street somewhere to watch for 10 minutes.

We were not alone. Many people had brought lawn chairs or were just standing in the field south of the Theater Company parking lot, on the east side of Benson. I took about 100 photos, some of which are posted here.

January Weather

What a difference a few days make. 

Tuesday late afternoon - 71 degrees

Yesterday late afternoon - 48 degrees

The Age of Insight

When I read about this book The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconcious in Art, Mind, and Brain: From Vienna 1900 to the Present, I think I just saw the Klimt painting on the cover and the words Vienna 1900. I particularly enjoy this period of history - the fin de siècle Vienna - with Klimt and Mahler and coffee with schlag (whipped cream), so I picked up the book with enthusiasm.

The first 200 pages were fun for me - discussions of how Freud, Klimt, Kokoshka and Shiele influenced the thinking of the age, with some discussions of various artworks. Then, the rest of the book started, and my eyes glazed over with all the neuroscience figures. This half of the book is for my daughter, the neurobiologist. Part Three is titled: Biology of the Beholder's Visual Response to Art. I am sorry to say that I will be returning this book to the library unfinished. Not because it isn't a good book, but I think I got out of it what my mind was able to.

Borscht

Tonight I reconnected with my Mennonite roots and made borscht for dinner. My ancestors were of the Russian Mennonite variety - the group who came from the Netherlands, through Prussia and into what is now the Ukraine. Although they tended not to integrate into the Russian culture, the Mennonites did pick up some of the local food, including red winter wheat and borscht.

I still have a slight stain on my hand from peeling and chopping the beets, but it was worth it. This recipe is not quite what I ate growing up since it is vegetarian, but with the beets and potatoes, cabbage and tomatoes, it was pretty hearty, and the sourdough roll on the side and the plain greek yogurt on the top were perfect complements.

Up and Running in the New Year

Today was the first day of school in 2013 for the CUSD. After two weeks off, it is always a little shock to the system to get back into the routine. However, this time of year is very sweet. Kids are generally in the groove, but since they've had a break, they are not worn out and I think they are generally happy to be back with their friends. Some even like the structure, but don't tell them that.

I really enjoyed all my classes today, although with the very first group we played a game where we had to sing louder and softer for the game hot and cold, and we had to sing very loudly at times to make sure the guesser could figure out where the hidden button was. My voice was a little strained after that class, but it slowly came back for the next 4.

I am working on presenting a lesson for teachers (music and classroom) next month, and I'm using the second graders as guinea pigs, and so far, what I envision is working. I'll spread the lesson over three weeks, in order to let the information sink in for the kids. This gets shortened to one 45-minute presentation for the teachers.

So, it was a good day, but now I'm tired...

Moonrise Kingdom

Moonrise Kingdom was one of those movies that I wanted to see in the theater this summer, but it was gone before we could get there. We finally watched it last night, and I really, really liked it. Now, Wes Anderson films are pretty quirky, and I'm not a particular fan of his at all, but this one's sense of a mythic 1960s childhood resonated with me. (Guess my age!) It felt like the kind of foreign film that I often enjoy without being able to pinpoint why.

I loved the music of the film - lots and lots of Benjamin Britten (who knew I was such a fan of his?), and the fact that the girl carried a portable record player with her. She also carried about six library books that I found out were made up for this movie.

If I had to chose books that I would have put in her hands, some would have been Harriet the Spy, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (I know it was published in 1966, a year too late for the movie, but, it would still fit), A Wrinkle in Time, The Phantom Tollbooth, The Prydian Chronicles, and any of the Narnia books.

I am also catching up on some TED talks, and I blogged about one of them in my music blog. This one is Stuart Brown's talk about the importance of play in human life.

Maybe I'll add that to my new year's resolution list - relearn German and play more.

Gandolfo's

Back online. The internet and phone spontaneously started this morning around 10:00. Hmmm...Anyway -

While out on a shopping spree in Rancho yesterday, C and I stopped for lunch at Gandolfo's - an New York deli on Millikan and 7th. After perusing the umpteen hundred sandwich choices, we zeroed in on the two vegetarian options and both chose the Ebbets Field half sandwich. It was probably one of the best vegetarian sandwiches I have ever had - great bread and whatever they smeared on it was chock full of flavor.

The only downside I found was that during your order they try to upsell you a variety of things, and we did go for the pickle - big and crunchy and cut in quarters. I said no to the extra cheese and was glad I did.

No Internet!

When I arrived home this afternoon from shopping, I found that my internet was not working. I did the usual thing of cycling the modem by unplugging it and replugging it, but the phone was also not working. After using the cell to call H at work, he contacted Time Warner who said that the machine that fixes the problem (and resides in India) is not working, so they have to send someone to our house tomorrow afternoon to fix it.

So, here I sit at my daughter's house using her internet for a few minutes before I try my life without a lifeline to the world. Well, to the webby web at least.

See you later, world!

Road Construction

When we lived in Minnesota the line was, "There are two seasons in Minnesota - winter and road construction." Well, it seems that winter break is a great time for road construction in Claremont. It seems as though I can hardly drive anywhere these days without running into it somewhere along the way.

Clearing Out

Perhaps in anticipation of going on sabbatical, perhaps because it's a new year, perhaps because we have a holiday, today we went into the garage to see what we could get rid of. I have been bugging H about the lumber in the corner for, oh, let's say many, many years now, and for some reason, he thought now might be a good time to clear out. I did not want to discourage him.

We are going to see if the Habitat Restore is interested in picking up these usable items to keep them from a landfill, and perhaps help someone out. We always look for the win-win-win situations.

Last week we took a pile of stuff to the LA County hazardous waste roundup in LaVerne, spurred on by the stuff we found on this blog post from October. It seems as though we never run out of things to get rid of. How can this be?

Looking Forward

It's a new year, a time when we like to look ahead to think about what the future may bring. Our future is starting to look quite exciting as we think about our next sabbatical year. Not next fall, but starting in the fall of 2014 we are planning to spend a year in Zurich, Switzerland.

About a month ago we heard back from a friend of ours at the ETH (The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology/Zurich) who answered H's request to be invited to do research for the year.

We have many questions about living in a foreign country, and we have been asking all of our friends who have done such what advice and knowledge they can impart for us. Most importantly, this far in advance, what we need to do is to revive the German that is hidden deep within our memories. Both of us took German in college, and I spent a term (3 months) in Graz, Austria during college studying the language over xxx years ago.

We have a copy of Roald Dahl's The Magic Finger, a short children's book, in German, and we are slowly working our way through it with the English translation at our side, trying to remember the sentence structures, the verb conjugations, some basic vocabulary and noun genders. I am surprised by how much and how little I remember. I don't generally make New Year's resolutions, but this might be a good one: practice German!