Schoolchild rite of passage committed 8:17 am PST

Son enters kitchen with a clean sheet of paper. "This assignment is due today. Will you help me?"

Also, this morning found 38% of drivers with headlights off travelling through dense fog. As a Canadian who is used to automatic headlights, and who habitually turns on her lights regardless of time of day, I do not understand the "win" behind reducing visibility in inclement weather conditions. Can someone, pardon the pun, enlighten me?

top city

The Top City

I haven't been to Denver, so I can't comment on its placement, but I'm scratching my head to figure out how Seattle can beat out San Francisco for desirability. I was talking with my spouse last night about cities and desirability: mostly asking him how Mrs. such-and-such could manage living in his hometown.

Spouse: "She's spent her whole life there."
Me: "What about your mom?"
Spouse: "She grew up in Indiana. Don't worry, I won't make you move back to my hometown."
Me: "I can't understand how people manage there."
Spouse: "They're not from Vancouver."

I don't hate Seattle. The jobs are easier to get, real estate is cheaper (yes, if you look at Vancouver BC -- it's quite possible to get a house based on INCOME, and not INHERITANCE/NET WORTH here. In fact, house prices have fallen to where one house on our street is valued at $297,000.). I'm not getting the "I need to bring my gun to a mall despite the no-guns-allowed sign" gestalt, nor the "who needs rapid transit? gridlock is fabulous!" mindset of Seattle, but other than those I like where I am. San Francisco, though: excellent restaurants, nifty wharves, history, cable car transit, very walkable. Good city!

Feel a wee bit o' self-loathing today

I must learn to be a better hostess to people who are afraid of animals.
Two of my three cats streak for downstairs when strange sounds/smells/bipeds enter the house, one of them measures the height/entertainment value of the intruder(s) and acts accordingly. He jumped on the PTA president. I need to remember to contain the cat. He's normally a very gentle sort, he just likes his heights.

I was listening to the "Misery Hour" podcast today, hours after I saw the thermometer in the morning read -5.5C, and heard "April 5th" and wept at both the beauty of the song and the ugliness of winter...

evening update: I was able to perform friend duty this evening to someone in need I care about, so perhaps I am not so awful after all...

Why can't IQ and character tests be administered upon prospective dog owners and homeowners?

Every night I hear the neighbor's dog outside barking for more than twenty minutes at a stretch because it's neglected and left alone without people I pray that our local home values by 15% go down in 2009. The neighbor is already underwater on his mortgage. I feel like a dork for borrowing for half of the kitchen costs but at least I have over 50% equity...

Podcasts 2008

I am in some ways a Luddite and have most recently learned of Podcasts. At the risk of self-disclosure:

CBC Radio 3 SuperFeed
CITR Misery Hour
CITR Sweet and Hot
NPR The Color of Money
Kiplinger's Money
Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips
Nutrition Diva's Quick and Dirty Tips
Money Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips
WFMU's Antique Phonograph Music Program

Ah me, another book list

I secretly thrill to book recommendations. In my city of frosty passive-aggression, I have found books to be effective at bridging connections between people.

On my list now from the past two weeks:
The Master and Margarita -- M. Bulgakov
I Was Told There'd Be Cake -- Sloane Crosley (cautioned, may get a library copy)
The Tummy Trilogy -- Calvin Trillin
No Logo -- Naomi Klein
The Shock Doctrine -- Naomi Klein
The Lesser Evil: Politics and Ethics in an Age of Terror -- Michael Ignatieff
Dry -- Augusten Burroughs

Another book list: Black fiction for White people

I read on a local periodical's blog a post by its Books Editor noting the segregation of African-American fiction in bookstores and audiences. Most of my friends have read Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God and we have a Chester Himes book at home, but now's as good a time as any to cross segregational lines. As one panelist put it at a Book Expo: "Books are the freest media we have—it's the only media where we're not advertising drivel."

Chester Himes
Edward P. Jones
Donald Goines
Nathan C. Heard
James Baldwin
Walter Mosley
Richard Wright
Colson Whitehead

Alice Walker
Zadie Smith
Zora Neale Hurston
Octavia Butler