One of the few, but worthy, benefits of waking before dawn every single day is the dawn itself. Our apartment is south-east facing, over the Bay Bridge and across the water to the Port of Oakland, and if you are seated in the polka-dot chair in the corner of livingroom, giving Babygirl her 5:30am bottle, you have a front row seat. The sun breaks over the South Bay hills and spreads its glow across the gray water, and the City comes to life underneath it; the first ferries arrive with the bankers and the teachers who need to be at work by 6:30 or 7, the garbage trucks begin their screeching ... [READ MORE]
Why do we do this, again?
April 2, 2012 by 1 Comment
Babyman's favorite YouTube clip was pulled off the internet last week for copyright violations. Which is ironic, actually, because every one of the shorts in the series (I think there were four, in total) made heavy reference to what a flagrant copyright violation they were. Babyman doesn't watch much YouTube: he likes the Wheels on the Bus bits and the occasional Cars promo, but he was really into this mashup of Transformers and Thomas the Tank Engine called Trains-Formers. My husband and I liked the shorts too: short, clever, subversive but kid-friendly, and overall sort of ... [READ MORE]
Laundry List
December 10, 2011 by 1 Comment
Here is a true story: it is approaching 11pm on a Friday night during the Christmas season. I am nursing a (very weak) eggnog and brandy, listening to my dad's "Chrismix Vol. II" on the CD player, basking in the glow of the tree...and folding three loads of laundry...and blogging about it. Here is another true story: it has been over a month since my last post. This is a new low. And believe me, I've written a hundred blog posts in my head. But there is simply NO TIME (as evidenced by the scene described above) to get them into the laptop. Such is life. To give credit where credit ... [READ MORE]
Statute of Limitations
September 28, 2011 by Leave a Comment
We live in a doorman building, fairly unusual in San Francisco, which allows us to do a great deal of retailing online because there is always someone to sign for packages. My favorite website on earth (and I'm totally serious, I can't say enough good things about it) is Diapers.com. Four words: free next-day delivery. Heck yeah! Oops, I'm almost out of diapers! Order by 6pm and by midday the next day, there's a case on my doorstep. I try not to abuse this service and order in bulk as much as possible for biological-footprint reasons, but it's nice to know it's there in a pinch. Well, ... [READ MORE]
Life Can Be So Sweet…
June 24, 2011 by Leave a Comment
It hasn't been the easiest of stretches, these past six months. Factors both inside and outside of my control have conspired to put me in one of those forests-versus-trees mindsets: you know the kind, where the daily details can start to overwhelm, and you lose perspective. When difficulty finding a parking space drives you to tears, something is out of whack. (Or maybe you're pregnant. Or a little of both.) Call it mental spring (summer?) cleaning, but I am resolved to turn this trend around and, as luck would have it, a few changes are afoot which are helping me along. 1) I am going ... [READ MORE]
