genuine genie

Babe's Gone

2011-09-22T16:15:00.000-07:00

I came into the living room last night looking for Charlie, "Babe, where's the..." only to be promptly informed, "Babe's gone." by little miss who, despite being entranced by her latest hearthrob prancing across the TV screen (Cinderella), somehow knows the latest whereabouts of the various family members (Lowes), and who also knows that "Babe" is interchangeable with "Daddy" and "Charlie Micka." Since when does a three year old call her daddy "Babe"?

Well, that whole thing got me thinking about who is gone and who is present in our lives today. Grandma and Grandpa (Shackelford) are gone. First Grandpa left and then Grandma departed four days later. I think she just checked out, knowing her time had come and hoping that she would be reunited with her husband of 65 years on the other side. Grandpa loved that sometimes difficult, often stubborn, lady so steadily for so long. I think (hope!) that's how Charlie will be with me. I miss Pockadooli and Chickabocka. See my photos of the (informal) memorial here. I actually had a really good week with everyone. Carrie flew in, and Courtney and Joey were there, and little Gia, and Kay and mom. For once we had what seemed like so much free time together. Usually when we come to town, everyone has to fit into a time slot. This time, everyone just cleared thier calendars and we had so much free-flowing time just to be together and support one another. The week did finally draw to a close- Charlie flew in on Friday; (Mina and I had driven over by ourselves since he had to work-- sadly, we were just 3 hours too late to say goodbye to Grandma- she passed quietly in her bedroom with Carol and Kay by her side while Mina and I were speeding through to the desert.) So our week in Tucson was over, but a new chapter in our lives was just begining: Grandma and Grandpa's dog, Allie Oops, was coming to live with us. Yes, a dog. In our house. For Real.

She's doing great. And I'm actually loving having a dog. Granted, she's a pretty easy pet. Charlie doesn't even think she's a real dog: she doesn't bark, doesn't wine, doesn't run after other animals. He says she's just a stomach on legs. Actually she is a tad (OK, more than a tad) overweight. Grandpa was prone to giving her short walks and frequent treats. But she's just very docile and sweet. She's good with Mina and Mina likes being able to boss her around. I guess our family is complete: One mom, one dad, one kid, one bird and one dog. Home Sweet Home.

Lunchtime Goodness

2011-08-12T13:27:00.000-07:00

Look at this! Life is good when you can mosey over to the fridge for a bite and come out with this kind of goodness. Fresh Torta bread drizzled with olive oil, draped with a big, fat, fresh basil leaf, topped by mounds of Prosciutto (Parma Ham)- accompanied by organic cherry tomatoes and a perfectly sweet & sour plum. None of this would be possible without our trusted CSA (Be Wise Ranch) and the unexplicably leery coworkers at Rockwell Collins, where my husband works. See, they had their annual international potluck lunch the other day and the engineering group was asked to bring something "European." Of course, I only learned of this continential cuisine requirement the afternoon prior to the event: "I need you to make some kind of European dish and bring it in by 11 AM tomorrow!" Excuse me? I was still wondering what was going to show up on our dinner plates that night, let alone lunch tomorrow. Anyway, long story short, I had a melon, a pound of good fresh mozzarella, LOTS of tomatoes, and a thriving basil plant. You know where this is going...So I made Caprese Salad and picked up some Prosciutto to put on the melon for a beautiful and rather common Itallian Antipasto- hors d'oeuvres that you may see on almost any Itallian menu; hors d'oeuvres that I ate a million times in France, anyway. Well, it turns out that the personnel at Rockwell Collins weren't so fond of the Prosciutto. The Caprese salad was familiar and therefore 'safe', and that went down without a hitch, but the melon and ham- well, that was just downright scary to some. Charlie overheard comments like: "Oh! That's just wrong- in so many ways" Nobody touched the stuff. I felt kind of bad for Charlie, like maybe it was embarassing that he was the one to bring in the offending ham (raw [salted] meat on sweet melon! My God!) He even admitted to me at this point, that it was kinda wierd. So the entire dish was a waste, but luckily for me, I bought a double pack of the Proscuitto and the other half has been waiting for me in the fridge. Until now. Buon Appetito!

Cutting Cutting Cutting!

2011-08-11T07:53:00.000-07:00

A trip to the dollar store yesterday yielded a number of fun items like tinkerbell sandwitch bags and princess brown paper bags, but most significantly, we picked up a pair of kid sissors for Mina. Oh was this a hit. In fact, her nap was entirely contingent on the promise of being able to use those shiney new clippers when she woke up. And use them she did. She slipped those things on like a born-again seamstress. And she was fast, like Edward Sissor Hands. Clip! Clip! Clip! Clip! Clip! In no time at all we had piles and piles of pink, and black, and white construction paper, newspaper, and old crayon drawings shredded to pieces. Good Job Mina! At one point, she sliced a bit of skin; the sensitive webbed part between the thumb and index finger. But she was so brave- didn't want to show it hurt, lest I take the dangerous new 'toy' from her.

The sissors seem a fitting seguay into her new life as a pre-schooler. A valuable skill that she will hone over the years. Don't they do alot of cutting and glueing in school? She starts school in a week and a half. The time has finally come- an impossible milestone in our lives together as mommy and daughter. OK OK, it's not kindergarten, it's only pre-school twice a week, but still! Our little home life will be forever changed. My constant shadow will now only be with me 'most' of the time...Still, I can't wait to see how she develops and am excited for the many new wonders she will encouter.

Starting to Soap

2011-08-06T15:06:00.000-07:00

So today is my first day soaping! Charlie took Mina sailing and I took this opportunity to start my soap project. I've been surfing the web for the basic supplies (molds, organic melt-and-pour base, colors and fragrances), not to mention WAY too many hours looking at really beautiful soap designs, and finally all of the stuff has come in the mail and I'm ready to start concocting. Luckily, I promised to be easy on myself and not have expectations of producing the world's most gorgeous soap on my very first attempt. Let's just say hurray for humble beginnings. These soaps were made with .5 lb organic clear and .5 lb organic white melt-and-pour (MP) soap base, using a 4-ovals silicone mold, sudan (Brown!) mica with the white, and sparkle pearl with the clear, and all frangranced with sandlewood frangrance oil. All products (except mold) from DIY cosmetics
Noteable issues that will need more research/work:

The sudan (DARK BROWN) mica turned a positively ugly dusty pink color with the white base. I do understand that mica works best with clear base, but I thought it would at least be brown. not so. I think I just need to get the liquid (oxide or other type) of colorant from Bramble Berry for the non-clear bases. Or possibly use more mica.

Fingerprints! I used a silicone glossy mold and boy, it does come out glossy. So much so that fingerprints and smudges are very visible on both the clear and opaque parts. I did spritz with rubbing alcohol and rubbed out the prints, which seemed to help a bit. I'm not sure I'm in love with gloss on opaque colors anyway. For the clear embed projects, gloss will be important, but I want to get some matte silicone molds.

Soap is indeed soft. This is a primary issue with MP soap base, but perhaps I will try leaving it in the mold for MUCH longer next time. I did 3 hours today, and it was ready to come out, but I would like it to be harder, if possible.

I kind of ran out of base. The bottom opaque layer divided up evenly, but I didn't have enough of the clear top to cover the fourth bar. Wierd- I measured out the base: 1/2 lb. each.

Successes:

I was able to do a two-color layer just fine. I tried to score the first layer with a fork after 15 min. of setting, but this was too long and it just made a big gouge in the soap- will have to score much earlier or not at all- seems the layers stuck together just fine; although maybe this is something that only time will tell.

Smells great! I just love working with frangrance.

Do Bloggers Have House Cleaners?

2009-06-24T12:04:00.000-07:00

Do all bloggers have house cleaners? I mean, how do you get it all done? I'm supposed to be keeping a running record of all the special times with my baby and also creating cute scrapbook/baby book pages to go along with my thoughts. When do most mom's do all this? Mina is down for her nap. I'm hoping for a good hour - but it could end up being closer to two. Here's all the things I have to do:

-call the doctor's office
-make and eat lunch
-put away the groceries I just bought
-write something deep and meaningful about motherhood and my sweet baby girl
-sweep the floor downstairs
-sweep and mop the kitchen
-vacume upstairs
-do a load of laundry
-call the painter back to figure out when he can start the cabinets, and coordinate this with the countertop installation
-figure out what to do with the plant that fell out of it's small pot
-prep for dinner (or else just wing it later, when I've finally put her down and am ready to relax)
-car registration renewal on-line. Shouldn't take long, but I already wasted precious time earlier as I got to the final step and thier server went down. (I can just imagine the whole state of California imploding soon. Once we're bankrupt, all the government workers will just walk out and chaos will ensue...)

Anyway, I guess I'll just choose the most immediate tasks, and if she keeps sleeping then maybe
I'll get even more done...

To Ferberize or Not To Ferberize

2009-04-13T08:50:00.001-07:00

That is the question. We let Merrina "cry it out" last night. Needless to say, it was a bit traumatic for all involved. My question really, is whether you think it's necessary if you already have a good sleeper. See, Merrina (6 months old) sleeps all night from about 6:45 PM until 6AM. What I'm trying to do is have her learn how to go to sleep on her own. The ritual is: nurse her at 6PM, then change her diaper and put on sleep sack (if she had fallen asleep during nursing, she totally wakes up at this point, which is good because I don't want to 'nurse her down'), then I rock her while singing some songs and then put her in her crib. It works beautifully if she falls asleep rocking, and it also works very well if she is just barely-barely awake when we stop rocking, but if she is still fairly conscious when I put her in her bed and walk out, she starts crying after 5-15 minutes (once she realizes she's alone and/or drops her binky). A few times she has stayed asleep or just stopped crying before I went back in, but usually, I go back in after 5 minutes of crying and if I hold her hand until she falls back asleep, we're good for the rest of the night. I guess I just wonder if she really needs to learn how to fall asleep without holding my hand (and maybe without the rocking???) Don't get me wrong, I love this night ritual- but I just wonder if I'm doing her a dis-service? On the other hand, maybe she'll just grow out of the need to hold hands/rocking to the brink of sleep...? What do you think? Last night seemed bad:she cried for 5 min, then I went back in very briefly to put her binky back in and when she saw me walk out, started bawling for another 10 min, and then when I went back in again, I may have stayed a little too long holding her hand (about 3 minute), but she finally fell asleep. Just wondering what you think...

Salvation

2009-04-02T12:53:00.000-07:00

I've been having a tough time lately. Unfortunately, this has been negatively effecting my husband as well. Nagging wife = bad feelings. Poor guy. And poor me too. I hate when I get in the spiral of negativity. My spiral has it's own gravity; it pulls everything along with it. I've been driving everybody nuts trying to get Merrina to take regular naps, and longer naps. Not only do all the books remind you that a bad nap day means a bad (non) sleeping night, but you find this out yourself easily enough, and on top of it, what the heck do you do with a infant for 12 hours a day!!?? She can't sit on her own yet, so I'm pretty much physically holding her or moving her from chair to swing to floor to car seat all day long. Dishes pile up, dust bunnies form, dinners and beds are left un-made.

But today I'm feeling so much better. The e-mail message below (written to Charlie) explains:

While I've decided to stop sharing all my baby chagrin with you, I thought you may enjoy hearing the good news that I found salvation today. It came in the form of a two-year old blog posting (http://www.askmoxie.org/2007/03/qa_babies_takin.html). Literally, reading this made me cry. I know I'm not alone! And not a freak. And not a bad mom. Thank God for the Internet.

Love,

xoxo

I think he'll be happy to hear something positive, but I don't think he'll really understand the depth of relief and appreciation I feel at hearing these words from other women in my situation. I know, I know...."just relax and go with the flow". That's obviously good advice for any mother, but sometimes , it just doesn't cut it until you hear it from someone who is going through exactly the same thing as you. And until your exhausted and desperate enough to believe it.

Big Girl Crib

2009-03-03T12:47:00.000-08:00

Last night was her last night sleeping in the bassinet in our room. She moves down to her “big girl” crib tonight in her own room. To be honest, I think it’s going to be harder for us than for her! I know I will miss her little grunts and sighs and whimpering (who would have ever thought I would miss that!!!) and it will be hard having her so far away- downstairs. It’s not that I fear for her safety- I will just miss having her right there with us. As I was feeding her last night at 3:30 AM , I got to thinking that even that dreaded task is going to be gone soon. I will really miss that. As hard as it was getting the breastfeeding going, I can’t bear to think that it too will be phased out. She can start solids anytime. The pediatrician says to start at 5 months- does that mean when she begins her 5th month (which has already happened – she’s 19 weeks), or does it mean when she’s got 5 months under her belt and is beginning the 6th month??? I suppose it doesn’t really matter. All I know is that my tiny little baby is growing up. When she first came home she was impossibly small. My mom was here and often put her on the sofa and when I would wake from a much-needed rest that first week, I would find her there - just a tiny bundle that was not even capable of rolling off. At her smallest point, she dropped down to 5 lbs something (just under 6 lbs) and now she’s a whopping 14 lbs (in the 50th percentile, making her exactly average for her age) One day (not too far from now, I suspect), I will look back on this period and think how small and young she was!

But for now, I miss the tiny little creature she used to be. Those were the times when she would be forever stretching; arms up and out, fingers fully extended; legs jetting out and feet flexed; back stretches so fully arched that her tiny body would form a question mark shape when you picked her up. I guess those last few months in the womb were really cramped quarters. Those were the times when I would put her over my shoulder and she would be driven by some kind of silent, primal directions to migrate towards my neck and nestle there under my chin. Those were the times when she learned to trust me while changing her diaper. At first, it was an ordeal for her. In a short space of time, however, she came to understand that it was better to have a dry diaper and she began to really enjoy our time together at the changing table. In fact, I believe that the diaper/clothes changing times were really where we began to bond- this is where she first smiled at me; made her first ‘coos’ and had her first giggle.

I’ll be dreaming of these early times tonight as I camp out on the nursery floor, helping her through one of many, many ‘next’ steps.

waiting on baby merrina

2008-10-21T18:08:00.000-07:00

Can you believe I haven't written all this time!? We're so close now. I'm scheduled to be induced on Saturday, Oct. 25th. 4 days to go! By the way, it's a GIRL!! Her name will be Merrina Lynn Micka, and we call her 'Mina'. We're all set. Cribs and sheets, and diapers and mobiles and breast pumps and hooded towels and tiny little clothes have all been bought, opened, washed and stored. Toppy comes in tomorrow and my mom comes in on Saturday. I still kind of feel like this is all happening to someone else. I'm hoping she'll come on her own before we have to do the induction, but it's not looking that way. Had a doctor's appointment today and I'm only about 1/2 cm dialated and 50% effaced. She's at a -2 station, so she's getting in position. Everything is going well. The gestational diabetes is under control and I'm not in too much pain at all, except for the random siatica and groin tweaks. Wow! They do hurt. I can't imagine how I'll handle the contractions. If I'm induced I'll be in the hospital bed when they start up- not at home. Either way, it's going to be an adventure.

election 2008

2008-10-21T18:06:00.000-07:00

See latest stories on Yahoo! News

Boy or a Girl?

2008-06-11T09:11:00.001-07:00

The day has finally come when we get to find out the sex of our baby. That is, if s/he cooperates! I'm to drink a liter of water and not empty my bladder so that we get a good, crisp image on the ultrasound. Apparently, they can get these things wrong! I suppose if the diagnosis is a boy, then it's pretty clear cut. Oh well. Good fun. Can't wait to see the little booger. I'm not really sure how I feel about it. Some ambivalence is creeping in. For the longest time, I wanted a boy - wanted to be the first one of us girls to bring a boy into the mix, and thought that it would be sublime to have another little Charlie running around. If that kid could be as mild-mannered and sweet as my husband, then I would be in good shape. But then, I started thinking how cute and fun little girls are... and how important her upbringing will be to set her in the right direction (though that's true for boys too, of course). But maybe I would understand her at a deeper level, whereas a boy could be a bit of a mystery. And how weird it would be to be outnumbered at home with 'the boys'. Growing up primarily in a 'girl' home, this would be different. In any case, it will be a surprise either way.

Food Network Fiend

2008-04-08T11:18:00.000-07:00

I pick up our CSA box of vegetables on Tuesday afternoons. Back in my working days this was somewhat of a problem because I didn't know what the box would contain until it's contents got posted on the CSA's website the day before - Monday. This means I couldn't really grocery shop intelligently on the weekend. Obviously, one needn't rely on perfect meat-vegetable pairings to have a satisfying meal, but it is nice to be able to do just a little bit of planning... Anyway, I'm over all that now. Since I'm basically home all the time, I can nip down to the store on a whim. What I usually do, is check out the vegetable box contents on-line on Tuesday morning and then spend, oh.. a few hours, perusing recipes on-line. My usual haunts are The Food Network and Epicurious. Once I have a meal in mind, I pick up my box of fruit & veggies, and then finally head to Trader Joe's. I was going through this very routine this morning, when I typed "food network" into Google and was temporarily sidetracked by a listing for a blog called Armchair Cook: A Food Network Addict. I felt an instant connection! You see, I too am a bit obsessed with the food network. I don't have cable television, so I can't watch the shows, but I certainly use the website to its fullest extent. Did you know they have video clips you can watch? All the famous faces: Rachael Ray, Giada, Paula Deen...right there on your computer. And a lot of unfamous people I've never seen before. Well, one day I watched these videos for 3 and 1/2 hours straight. I was in the throws of my morning-sickness-that-lasts-all-day and it really seemed to help. I think it would have the opposite effect for a lot of pregnant women, but for me it was so soothing. I hope the Armchair Cook blog is not defunct; she hasn't posted since the beginning of the year. If you watch any of the celebrity chefs, you would appreciate the blog as it makes fun of them all.

Sick is Good!

2008-03-31T09:13:00.001-07:00

"Sick is good" they tell me. I'm 10 weeks pregnant and have been sick for a good 5 weeks. This means everything is operating according to plan. Hormones, hormones, hormones pulsing through my veins, and boy, is my heart pumping. Often at 90 beats per minute. It's been very exciting sharing the news with family and daydreaming about our little bean, but I gotta tell ya- I'm ready to get off this couch and out into the world. I want to be big and fat and glowing. Instead, I'm skinny, bloated, and queasy. I can see the light at the end of this first trimester tunnel though. It's a mere two weeks away. I get the sense that this whole pregnancy thing is going to be a waiting game- intense anticipation for the next stage, the next appointment, the next test results. I probably give the impression that I'm a rather uptight, nervous sort of mother-to-be, but I really don't think so. It's just that this major event is taking place inside your body and your daily life is measured by it's progression. At the moment, tiny fingernails and wispy hair are on order. If that means a bit of fatigue and nausea for mom, so be it.

Graphic courtesy www.3dpregnancy.com

A Sustainable Christmas Dinner

2007-12-19T20:34:00.000-08:00

This year, I had the idea that we would try to make Christmas dinner a local, organic affair. Nobel, but not entirely doable. The vegetables were taken care of, thanks to our local CSA (Be Wise Ranch), but meat, the pièce de résistance, ended up being the cog in the wheel. Sure, you can get local pork, if you want the whole 250 lb. pig; and you can get chicken, if you sign up for 6 months of CSA chicken- that wasn't going to work in a hurry; and then there's fish...we are, after all, on the sea shore here. But Charlie didn't want fish for Christmas dinner and then there's the question of where exactly they were caught- how can you be so sure they didn't just swim all the way in from Baja or something! Not to mention the dicey decision of which type of fish is sustainably harvested and not over fished or endangered. (the Monterey Bay Aquarium offers a printable pocket-sized guide that identifies your best seafood choices, good alternatives and ones to avoid- very handy! Bring it to the store with you, because you will be confounded with all the choices.) Anyway, fish was out- too complicated and not enough enthusiasm from the person I most enjoy cooking for. CAFO beef was simply not an option. Charlie chimed in with the helpful, but gulp, kind of yucky idea of ostrich. ("...you know when we went to the wild animal park that day- we passed an ostrich farm...") This time, it was me who said no. No ostrich for Christmas, my dear.

The idea was for us to eat food harvested within a 100 mile radius of our Carlsbad home. I decided that we would just do the best we could, and that meant a pork crown roast from Tip Top Meats (a Carlsbad institution), some local wine, lots of fresh organic veggies from our CSA, and a few aberrant foodstuffs that are not local, not organic, not fair trade, and certainly not low fat.

This is the menu:

Hors d'oeuvres:
~Smoked Salmon and Toasted Pumpernickel Canapes
~Tapenade
~Roasted Cherry Tomatoes and Herb Bread. (bruschetta)
~Wine: Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc

Main:
~Crown Roast of Pork with Bread Stuffing
~Applesauce
~Braised Swiss Chard
~Braised Red Cabbage with wine
~Roasted Carrots and Potatoes
~Green Salad
~Wine: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot

Desert:
~ Peppermint Ice Cream
~Assorted Chocolate Truffles
~Coffee /Tea

I know, I could have planned (and still can) something more wholesome for desert. But Charlie's the baker in the family and he's not feeling well (sick with a cold). He makes a mean Rhubarb pie. We'll see how we go.

So, here's how the food shopping has turned out so far (mind you, it's only Wednesday- all kinds of last-minute shopping could occur between now and Tuesday) :

Local & Organic

Braised Swiss Chard. The chard will be organic and local.
Braised Red Cabbage with Wine. I found the cabbage at the farmer's market and it was a beautiful purple color.
Roasted Cherry Tomatoes and Herb Bread. A sort of roasted bruschetta. Our CSA excels at small, sweet tomatoes...we've been getting them since September with no end in site (it's Southern California!)

Applesauce. This will be the real deal, minus the sugar which is not local (I can get organic though)

Roasted Carrots and Potatoes. We got our first potatoes this week. I'm saving them and hoping for more next week(pick-up on 12/24). The carrots are beautiful with their petite frame and long green tops.
Green Salad. This will be a 'spring mix' of miniature varieties. It is another signature item from our CSA that we continue to get in late December.

Local

2005 Merlot from Orfila Vineyards in Escondido. I really should go out there and buy some of their estate wines, which means they grew the grapes on-site, whereas the Merlot probably contains grapes purchased further up the coast.

Some Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay bottles that are probably so-so from a Fallbrook Winery and from Temecula.

Black Olives for the Tapenade. They are estate grown in Santa Barbara (at approx. 180 miles away, they kind of break the 100-mile radius rule, but close enough). The anchovies definitely break the rule, being imported from Italy. I *might* be able to get local olive oil. At least, I know I can get California olive oil.
Bread (maybe organic too)

Organic

Garlic
Onions
Sauvignon Blanc from Mendocino.
Chocolate Truffles
Coffee
Tea

Neither Local nor Organic

Crown Roast of Pork. (This is, by the way, one of the most scary cuts of meat for vegetarians: the rib portions of the loins are joined to form a circle, and the bones stick up in the air. Only the whole roasting pig on the spit is worse for vegetarians...we did that one for our wedding.)

Smoked Salmon and Toasted Pumpernickel Canapes. There's nothing sustainable about these little bombs. The salmon is from the US, but farmed. Jeeze! Why did I do that. Maybe I still had my mind on trout, which you do want farmed (I was originally going to do smoked trout). And the pumpernickel! Oh boy- I bought imported Westphalian pumpernickel- full of petroleum, flying all the way in from Germany. And the capers are from Denmark. I haven't bought the cream cheese yet.
Peppermint Ice Cream

This list represents one Carlsbad woman's attempt to put healthy, sustainable, and festive food on the table for her family at Christmas. I had to do a bit more (investigating, researching) than most people do, and that's why I think it's a fair experiment. I wanted to see if it was easy enough for anyone to do. Ideally, it would be convenient to buy local, organic food- I mean, this is C-A-L-I-F-O-R-N-I-A. If I lived in San Diego proper, I probably would have had an easier time of it, but there's no point in scrambling down the freeway for 60 miles in order to get my local organics- that doesn't make sense. The experience taught me a lot. I can use this post as a baseline for next year, wherein I hope to have many more selections of sustainable food. Maybe next year I'll be able to write about how sustainable our entire Christmas was, including gift purchases, travel and all the associated entrapments of the holidays. I don't dare this year.

Many thanks, by the way, to Livin' La Vida Local blog. A smart, creative person must be behind that one. The "eat local directory to san diego" was the inspiration for my Christmas dinner experiment.

You Know Your Old When...

2007-10-28T20:49:00.000-07:00

1. Tina Yothers has had her first child and you haven't.

2. It's a real stretch to stay out past 11 PM.

3. You remember babysiting your little sisters during your mother's 30th b-day party...and she stayed out WAY past 11PM.

4. You get excited in the fertility doctor's office, when you momentarily loose track of how old you are, thinking that maybe you are, in fact, only turning 35, and don't yet qualify for the 'mature pregnancy' information packet.

5. When your teeth really do seem to be getting a little longer.

Dismantled Smoke Alarm

2007-10-25T11:22:00.001-07:00

As President George Bush arrives in San Diego today for photo-ops with the fire survivors, I sit in my living room where I have dismantled the smoke detector because I can't take the intermittent beeping warning me of the poor air quality (we're not in actual fire danger here in Carlsbad), and I am on-line getting the beegezus scared out of me as I read deeper and deeper into the various peak oil websites and reports. Nothing like a local disaster to shake me out of my complacency and help me re-focus on the larger problems at hand.

First is was acid rain (my high school report), then it was corporate environmentalism (my honors thesis in college), recently it has been 'environmental sustainability' issues in general, and now it's peak oil that I'm most concerned about. All the issues are interrelated of course, but peak oil is such an immediate problem. The idea that we are running out of cheap oil- the very thing relied upon by our entire existence as we know it- is scary. Is it an exaggeration that there will be major (ongoing) recessions and a possible collapse of the global monetary system within a 10 year time frame? I believe our lives will need to change in very substantial ways- from where we live (not in the suburbs) to where we produce our food (locally)- there's even talk about developing local currency. If you've got the time to read my blog, then you've got the time to become familiarized with the unprecedented issues that will be changing our lives in the very near term. The upshot of what is otherwise just gloom & doom is that that we could be headed towards a new type of community-based life wherein we are more closely bonded to our families and neighbors. Here's my quick-list of good links:

The Energy Bulletin Primer on Peak Oil
Our World is Finite: The implications of resource limitations - a good overview of potential impacts by the very fine publication The Oil Drum.
A 10-minute video clip from Local Future Network which is a good overview, but doesn't go into solutions too much.

While there may very well be some great technological solutions (alternative fuels etc.), technology alone will not be enough. We will have to consume less, conserve more and focus on localization as a immediate and long-term solution. Here's my pick-list for solution-based organizations:

All of these sites will have more references to books, articles and reports that are important to read. Thank god for links!

Happy Reading-

Big Fires

2007-10-23T17:07:00.000-07:00

This is not a sunset.

This morning was the longest afternoon I've ever experienced. Since 9 AM it has looked like one of those mid-summer late-afternoons when golden-red light streams into the windows casting long shadows and making you thirsty for a cold beer. This weird time-warp continued all day as the smoke from the wildfires obscured the sun's light rays. Along with the smell of distant smoke, reminiscent of campfires (or in my case, the romanticized memory of Vietnam, where they still burn agricultural waste) and a distinct dryness in the air- a condition that always sooths my desert soul, I was feeling downright groovy. If only it wasn't for all that destruction going on out there.

It's strange being in a secure area where everything around you is combusting. Just down the road at the mall, there's evacuees sprawled throughout the parking lot, living out of their RV's for an unspecified amount of time. Anyway, you've all seen everything there is to see on TV. I've never been so popular. I get all kinds of calls and e-mails now. I noticed especially high spikes of concern after CNN runs their San Diego Firestorm stories- the calls really start flooding in after those CNN dramatizations.

Our hygrometer is off the charts. Carlsbad has 3% humidity.

The only real visible effect to our property was the ash falling all over.

Mother's Doubts

2007-09-07T17:14:00.000-07:00

I was happy to see Mother Teresa waiting for me in the mailbox a few weeks ago. There she was, on the cover of Time Magazine, not looking all that spunky though. The headline, "The secret life of Mother Teresa" surprised me. The article itself floored me. She, apparently, had a major crisis of faith. An enduring crisis that began with her work in Calcutta with the Missionaries of Charity and never really left her, except for a brief period of a few weeks when, for some reason, she was carried off into rapture. This means over 50 years of questioning the existence of God. In a series of personal letters, soon to be published in a book entitled "Come Be My Light", she refers to God as "the absent one".

Why does this story pull me in so? I am not a religious person. I have met Mother Teresa though. I, like so many people across the world, have helped in some small way, to further her efforts to serve the 'poorest of the poor'. In Vietnam, I bought bicycles for the sisters to ride to and from the Orphanage and Church everyday because the walk was too long. I procured plastic sheeting (table cloths of sorts) that was needed to put under the mattress-less beds that the poor, retarded, forgotten children in the orphanage used (they could not control their bladders and the table cloths could be quickly and easily cleaned). This experience, together with meeting Mother, links me forever to her cause. She really had an effect on me. I love her. Her failing faith does not threaten me like it may threaten some religious people- what she has done with her life is not diminished by her confessions of 'darkness'.

The day after this came out, I heard a piece on NPR by an Indian now working in San Francisco who recounted meeting Mother in Calcutta during his youth. He described her in all the typical ways: her simple sari with the blue fringe, her busy and devoted demeanor and her 'impossibly old' face (it's true that her wrinkles are so pronounced- they certainly were when I met her in 1993/1994), but the take home message about her 'faith' was that regardless of her internal doubts, she was able to inspire so many; her gift was the gift of faith to millions of people who believed in God because of her work. She was 'a living saint'.

What we've been eating lately

2007-08-27T21:31:00.000-07:00

Since we started the CSA ('community supported agriculture'- we pay $20 a week into a local community farm and get a big box of fresh, organic vegetables each week), I've been cooking new things. Because it's late summer, we've had tomatoes and zucchini up the wazoo. I've made:

marinara spaghetti sauce a couple of times (thanks to Joey, carrots give my sauce the magic sweetness instead of sugar). Making the sauce would would be super easy if it wasn't for having to take out those friggin little seeds. That tip comes all the way from Nicole in France (Herve's mom). They're bitter so they've got to go.
heirloom tomato tart. Good recipe from Ann, which she fittingly calls 'Ann's tomato tart'. I'm confident the use of the heirloom tomatoes changes the content to the extent that I can now call it my own: 'tracy's heirloom tomato tart'
zucchini quiche. WAY too much cheese and cholesterol (eggs) for our diet. we're watching Charlie's cholesterol. That was a one-timer for our camping trip to colorado (we didn't end up eating much of it because it kept slipping down into the watery depths of our cooler)
Black-eyed peas with spicy greens and cornbread. I put the trader joe's chipotole chicken sausage in, which is pretty spicy. It's fun to cut the collard greens; they're such huge leaves.
White bean and dandelion greens soup. So far, this is my favorite new dish. Puree one can of white beans with chicken broth, brown onions and carrots and a small amount of garlic (being sure not to burn the garlic) and then throw in the other can of white beans, a bunch of dandelion greens, and about 4 cups of chicken broth. Grate fresh parm over the top upon serving. very good. very healthy.
stir-fry, stir-fry, stir-fry. a good way to use up a lot of different vegetables. my secret is adding cashews. I get the broken, 1/2 salted ones at trader joe's- they're cheaper and not so salty. I mean really, who needs perfectly whole cashews in their stir-fry?
lentil & bulgur wheat pilaf with tahini herb sauce. I found this great recipe on The Food Network. The tahini sauce is a real must with this. In fact, I highly recommend using tahini sauce wherever and whenever you can. The recipe from the food network calls for adding water, but you can make it thicker for different needs. This is a good, fresh, filling and pleasantly different dish- it can be a main course for your vegetarian friends.
plum crumble. This was yummy; I made it tonight. I never bake, but I really like the taste of hot plum. I also do a mean stewed plum dessert, which has a beautiful reduced wine, butter, sugar sauce.

Sustainable Communities & Train Friends

2007-08-26T12:23:00.000-07:00

The reason I started this blog is because I was asked to manage a blog for a grassroots organization I belong to called Sustainable Communities. The organizer of this group, Gar, is a 'train friend', one of several random people that for one reason or another, I have bonded with. Gar got it in his head that I should run the blog and since I knew almost nothing about blogs, I promptly got a library card, checked out "Blogging for Dummies", and began pecking away in cyberspace. I soon realized it would be pretty neat to have my own blog, free from any topical boundaries, so now I work with two blogs, with a total combined readership of approximately 3. What's good about managing a topical blog, like Sustainable Communities (which is concerned with raising awareness regarding energy and climate issues impacting North San Diego County cities, and to establish and prepare community guidelines to address these impacts proactively) is that you are forced to read and stay current. I need something that motivates me to stay in the loop. My natural tendency is wonder off, loose touch, fade in and out. I also like the fact that blogs are so immediate. I think writing on a topical blog will be good exercise for learning how to get my ideas down quickly and concisely. Unlike the never-ending research paper (picture me biting my nails down to the nub, all strung out from worrying that it just doesn't hang together, forcing in just one more perfectly appropriate term [I'm still convinced that my A+ papers were based on getting the 'tone' just right, having perfected the academic 'accent', never mind how many hours it added to my daily toil or how many potentially novel/original ideas it squelched]) topical blogging is all about quick-wit and connecting ideas- you get in and get out quickly.

Also, Sustainable Communities is about reclaiming the benefits of community life. A sense of community offers social identity, pride of place, and a sense that what you do individually has a true impact on others. I think a lot of people miss this. I feel like I miss it, but did I ever have it? Maybe it's just a romanticized idea- how can you miss something you never had? Living in France was certainly a good introduction to 'community'. Their infrastructure, from architecture, to tax policy to social mores encourages tighter-knit communities than we experience here in the United States (particularly in southern California). Ultimately, "community" starts at the level of the family unit. And some families are just better at facilitating community membership than others. If you remember what a drag Sunday night dinners with the family were- if not showing up was not an option- then you probably belonged to a tight-knit, community oriented family. If your parents were more relaxed about participation, responsibility and obligation then you probably skated by, not recognizing any social contract that you unwittingly signed onto. Anyway, none of that parent stuff matters because we're all grown up now and in charge of ourselves. My intent was not to discuss 'good' or 'bad' communities, but rather just to remark that the train offers a great entry into a 'community'. I feel more 'at home' on the train than I do walking down the street in Carlsbad village. The 'horizon of the future' (knowing you'll see that person again soon) plays a prominent role in predisposing us to make friends on the train. Since people tend to take the same train everyday and sit in the same spot, we know they'll be there again tomorrow, so we're cordial and then we get to talking and finally, strike up a friendship. Still, this doesn't explain why we strike up friendships with some of the regulars and not others- I'm simply saying that being thrown together in the same space, traveling on the same trajectory for similar purposes pre-disposes us to become friends when we otherwise may not have. I think convenience plays a lot into friendships. The repeated snippets of time we have with each other as part of our daily routine is largely responsible for maintaining the relationship. All of this seems to be missing at the city/neighborhood level (or at least in mine). There is no 'horizon of the future' to speak of (except maybe with those two families with whom we share a wall, and who sometimes pull up to the garage at the very moment that we are in front of our own) and there isn't any immediately discernible shared interests beyond maintaining neat yards and quiet children. I don't need my neighbors for anything vitally important, so they are more of an appendage to my life than an organ. If we needed our community more, we would have more of a community.

Barbara's Blog?

2007-08-24T09:22:00.000-07:00

I was first introduced to Barbara Ehrenreich in 1999, or so, in Sociology 101. Her work, that is, not her living breathing person. She's pretty fundamental to the discipline. You have to read your Marx, Weber, Comte, and Durkheim of course, but I do believe I read Ehrenreich's "For Her Own Good" before any of the founding fathers' essays. I find her compelling. I feel a little guarded when I read her work though, as if I might be getting duped or pulled into an unbalanced tirade. (Gasp! We wouldn't want anything too controversial now!) But what she says pretty much always resonates with me and her intelligence is a quiet one that sparkles in simple direct writing without the unnecessary accoutrement of overly complex sentences and concepts. Her sarcasm is good too. (Maureen Dowd takes the prize, however, for the most toxically enjoyable sarcasm). Anyway, the point of my entry today was to say that I've just bookmarked Barbara Ehrenreich's blog, 'Barbara's Blog', and I'm not sure if that pegs me as a socialist/feminist/working-poor-apologist, but then, who the heck cares if I'm pegged or not. Everyone's got everyone pegged for something anyway. genuine genie is all about coaxing the truth out. separating the real from the fake. the real deal. the gen-u-ine article. the bona-fide, honest-to-god truth. or at least the authentic.

Welcome

2007-08-23T19:49:00.000-07:00

Photography by: Sarah Prall Photography (www.sarahprall.com)
Welcome to genuine genie. Until I have something coherent to say, this blog will address a very targeted market: me, myself and I. Here I am. This is me on my wedding day. Not that I want to wax lyrical about my wedding, but I've got the photos handy on my laptop here, and the fact that I'm married is the most salient point about me right now. It's a strange thing being newly married: it is at once fitting and surprising. Speaking of being married, I have to go make dinner now. I'm going to make the most of the left over grilled lamb...had a crazy idea I would make fresh Vietnamese spring rolls with it (mint, basil, cilantro, bean sprouts, nuoc mam...) but I spent so much time looking up recipies, and wound up in a tangent, reading this cool blog called Vietnamese God; great reviews of local restaurants and sites-to-see in Vietnam. Have a look- it will make you hungry. And that's a genuine genie guarantee.