Sweet Yet Sour

My Favorite Christmas Shopping Carol

Thursday, December 10th, 2009 | The Daily Special | No Comments

I grew up with a dad who loved Tom Lehrer – a comic/singer popular in the 1950’s and ’60’s.  My father, being a chemistry professor, loves Lehrer’s “Elements” song, which is sung to the tune of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Major-General Song”.  If you haven’t heard his songs, but can deal with a little dark humor, go check him out…

Each year as I start my (always belated) Christmas shopping one of Lehrer’s songs begins to run in my head, his “Christmas Carol”.  The lyrics have some great lines, such as, “God rest ye merry merchants, may ye make the yuletide pay”.

I thought I’d share it with all of you for a little laugh as you do your Christmas shopping…

5 Years!

Saturday, November 14th, 2009 | The Daily Special | 4 Comments

As of yesterday (Friday the 13th) Mike and I have officially been married for 5 years.  Five years and 1.5 kids! (Seriously, I’m halfway through my pregnancy now, so I’m counting the new kid as the .5.)

Celebrations were low key this year as Anna and I are both getting over a cold and we had a lot of preparations to do for the indoor garage sale in our community that took place today.

However, I did roll out my wedding vows and bake my beloved a chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting for our anniversary.  The proof is in the picture:

Anniversary Cake

Mike took the day off and we headed to the Museum of Nature and Science where Anna had a grand time looking at all the animals (she doesn’t know they’re stuffed) and playing in the toddler Discovery Zone. And then we all went home and took a nap…

All in all it was a nice day where I appreciated all the more what a wonderful husband I have – Mike is as always kind, generous, thoughtful and he makes me laugh every day.  Happy 5 years to us!

Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival

Monday, November 9th, 2009 | The Daily Special | 2 Comments

Sunday (yesterday), I attended the Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival.  The Festival is an annual event that lasts for three days and is always in early November.  All of the films featured have either been produced or directed by women and most are documentaries.  The Festival has been going on for many years and I have attended in years past, but have not gone since 2006.  It was a great treat to be able to go this year.  Each day there are different movies, and some people (not me) attend all three days – and honestly that’s way too much sitting on my butt for me, but more power to them!

I always come away from the festival having learned lots, cried some and enjoyed myself immensely; this year was no different. Films are shown all day (with breaks about every two hours and for lunch) and in two separate theaters.  Different movies are played in each theater so you have a range of choices of films to see at each time slot.

This year I chose to see the following (this is the order in which I saw them):

Plastic: This was a charming 8 minute short about a girl (Anna) preparing for a date with a man (Henry) she has not seen for a while.  She struggles with her outfits, her jewelry, etc. and then discovers that she has (of course!) a zit on her nose.  In her frustration Anna presses her hands against her forehead and realizes that she can mold her body any way she likes.  So she does what we all would do and does a little body work; some things get pushed in, some shoved up, some lengthened, etc… It was lovely and heart-warming to see what finally showed up at the door when Henry arrived.

Bake Shop Ghost: Another charming short starring Kathryn Joosten (whom I loved as Mrs. Landingham on West Wing) and Marianne Jean-Baptiste.  Joosten plays a bake shop owner in a small town who haunts a succession of people who try to take over the shop after her death.  It was a sweet and amusing film that I will remember for a long time.

Daughters of Gardeners: A documentary about the causes, prevalence and affects of female infanticide in India.  The film was well done, explained the many reasons of why the aborting or killing of girls is so rampant in India, and explored the high crime rate, sex and human trafficking and bachelorhood problems that India faces because of this problem.  I’m definitely glad I saw the film, but was horrified by the opening scenes of dead baby girls floating in a river.  I found it frankly unnecessary and upsetting (worse because I am pregnant and the mother of a daughter).  The rest of the film was a great learning experience but I don’t think that those pictures were imperative to getting the point across.

Flying Lessons: A short film starring Dana Delaney about the struggles of a single mom with a teenage son who is autistic.  The film was informative and heart-breaking.  I was hoping for a happier ending, but I realized after thinking about it that the ending was as happy as it could be for the subject matter.

Sin by Silence:  This film was by far the most moving experience of the day.  In it you meet women in the California prison system who are members of Convicted Women Against Abuse (CWAA).  All of the women that are profiled have been in prison for many years, most sentenced to life in prison, for killing their abusers.  The stories of the abuse that they suffered are horrific and heart-rending.  All were convicted in the 1980’s when the courts would not allow testimony or evidence of previous abuse and the “Battered Woman’s Syndrome” was not admissible.  The center of the film focuses on a woman named Brenda, in jail since 1985, who killed her abusive husband.  During one 6 month period of their marriage there were 42 domestic violence calls from their home and Brenda endured multiple visits to the emergency room.  One night in prison, after learning that her son, whom she had to give up for adoption when she entered prison, was killed in a car accident, Brenda decided to either commit suicide or start a group for abused women.  Fortunately, Brenda started CWAA and has gone on to help many women, both inside and outside of prison, as well as change many laws regarding abuse testimony in court.  Spoiler alert!  One day in 2002, Brenda received a letter from her son, whose adoptive parents had lied about his death (this was the part where I really cried).  The following week Brenda was contacted by some attorneys who had determined that, in large part owing to the laws that Brenda helped to get passed in California, Brenda could be re-tried with the abuse evidence allowed.  Long story short, Brenda was released from prison and reunited with her son in 2008.  The best part of going to the Film Festival is that some filmmakers attend and answer questions after the film.  Olivia Klaus, the filmmaker of Sin by Silence, attended the festival and was met with rousing applause and a standing ovation when she came to the stage to answer our questions.  But, to our even greater surprise, Brenda appeared upon stage soon afterwards, to even greater applause and a longer standing ovation.  It was such a moving experience that even now it sends chills up my spine!

After a nice lunch break (which was highly needed after such a morning), we returned to the film festival for more films…

A’Mare: This was a short film about two young brothers who go fishing far out to sea and catch a drowning man instead of a fish.  It was okay, but really didn’t belong in the festival and I think it was mostly filler…

Speaking In Tongues: This documentary followed several children, all of different ages, who are all enrolled in language immersion schools in San Francisco.  The film details the best ages for children to learn language (before age 13) and studies how well they do in school.  The kids are all learning different languages, Spanish, Mandarin and Cantonese, and study subjects in both English and their immersion language.  The kids were amazing, bright and all doing at or above their grade levels in all subjects.  The film also covered the opposing “English Only” movement and how this affects America’s competitiveness in a global economy.  It was a great documentary and made me hope that I have the ability and opportunity to enroll my children in such a program.

Blessed is the Match: My film festival day ended with this documentary about the life and death of Hannah Senesh.  Hannah grew up in a middle class Jewish family in Budapest in pre-Nazi Hungary.  Upon the death of her father when Hannah was 6, Hannah began to write poetry and continued to do so throughout her life.  In her teen years antisemitism grew in Hungary and faced with this Hannah’s brother Giorg left to study in France and Hannah applied to agricultural college in the newly established Jewish lands in Palestine (soon to be Israel).  Hannah’s mother was left alone in Hungary to deal with the growing Nazi movement.  Upon realizing what was truly happening in Europe with the rise of Hitler, Hannah volunteered to be part of a rescue mission.  She was one of only 30 Jews from Israel who parachuted into Yugoslavia in an effort to save Jews from the death camps.  Unfortunately, Hannah was caught and I’m sure you can fill in the details of what eventually happened to her at the hands of the Gestapo.  Hannah’s bravery at such a young age (she was 22 when she volunteered), her heroism and her beautiful poetry all made for a moving film during which I was glad to have brought stores of tissues.

Here’s Tuna to You Simon

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 | The Daily Special | 3 Comments

It’s been a hard week here at our house; we all have a cold and our cat Simon died yesterday.

About fourteen years ago my sister adopted a pudgy, shy Simon from the humane society.  He had been in the humane society for a long time, more than month, and his previous owners had cut off his whiskers (why?) and had fed him to the point of weighing 26 lbs.

Simon turned out to be anything but shy and had some great personality quirks.  He loved to flop down on his side and have his tummy rubbed and would do so at the drop of a hat.  We decided that he was perhaps a mix of Siamese and Rag Doll, a breed known for it’s “floppiness”.

Simon was dexterous to the point of being able to open some doors. When he was upset would sometimes open and close a cabinet door until the banging brought someone who might be able to bring him some tuna.  When my sister had an answering machine Simon would sometimes knock the phone off and breathe heavily into the phone when her recorded message would start.  And he loved to sleep on your chest with his paws on your face, and when the alarm would go off, he’d pat you lightly to make sure you turned it off.  Simon was also a talker, always telling you about his day, and making sure you didn’t forget to feed him.

After my sister and I moved in together in 2000, Simon began to show signs of being ill.  My sister had tried desperately to get Simon to drop some weight, with some success, but he was still pretty big at that point.  After multiple visits and tests at the vet it was determined that Simon had feline diabetes.  It was then that our long odyssey with Simon’s health began, with insulin shots twice a day, pills twice a day and special diabetic feline food that was closely regulated.

After my sister married her husband, who is allergic to cats, I took Simon to live with me and maintained his health regime.  He lost weight, and his diabetes was well regulated, even to the point where he went for almost a year without needing insulin shots.

Simon was however, constantly hungry and really noisy about it when he wasn’t eating.  I had to go through three different trash cans until I finally found one that Simon was not able to get into for food.  Once I came home to find that he had gone through the trash, found a Ziploc bag with cheese covered Brussels sprouts in it and had eaten everything but the sprout centers. And I learned after Simon took a cookie off the cookie rack that nothing on the counter was safe either.

We estimated that Simon was about 18 years old this year (we never knew his exact age), and had spent almost 8 years as a diabetic.  Our vet tells me that the average lifespan for most diabetic cats is 3-5 years after their diagnosis, so I felt pretty good about how Simon was doing.  Over the past year however, his ability to maintain his insulin levels was not as it should be.  Simon would often go into hypoglycemic episodes where he was confused, couldn’t see, and was unable to determine where he was; he would get stuck in corners or behind the couch, unable to get himself out.  We tried lowering his insulin dose but Simon’s episodes continued, began to last longer and became more frequent.

I have had enough pets in my life to have seen them suffer and be in pain until their deaths.  It was a hard decision to make, but two weeks ago I decided to put Simon to sleep. I made an appointment and then tried my hardest to spoil him with milk, cheese and little extras that I knew he liked.  I could tell that he was uncomfortable these last few months, as he would jump up on my lap, yowl endlessly, and just stand there and knead me before leaping off again.  This was something my childhood cat, Charlie, did at the end of his life and it was a sign to me that Simon was in as much pain as Charlie was at 21 when he died.

I’m sure some pet lovers will disagree with me for my decision and I am not entirely comfortable with it myself.  But I wanted Simon to have a good life, and he was not living a good cat life for the past few months.  When I am old, unhappy and in a lot of pain, I may wish that someone will do the same for me as I have done for Simon.  I loved him dearly, will miss him always, but could no longer watch him suffer needlessly.

And so it was that yesterday I took Simon to the vet for the very last time.   I held him on my lap while he died, crying the entire time.  I hope that Simon forgives me and knows that what I did was for him.  I hope that there is some sort of cat heaven, where he can eat all of the tuna and cheese he wants and there are always sunny spots.

Simon and Gink sharing the cat bed

Simon and Cash in the sun

Simon flops for Anna

Anna and Simon trying to open the baby gate

The Best Airport Visit Ever!

Monday, August 31st, 2009 | The Daily Special | 3 Comments

On August 21st, I (and part of my family) experienced the best airport visit ever.  I know it’s a little late to blog about it, but now that I have a cold I can finally excuse myself from sitting on my butt and blogging while there is laundry to be done.

There is a small airport about 15 miles away from where I live that caters to small corporate jets and well-to-doers.  The airport has a restaurant that looks out on the runways that offers those of us not in that income grade a view of the high life.  It’s a great place to take kids, as long as you take your own booster seat for kids Anna’s size, since they don’t provide high chairs.

On the 21st I thought it would be nice if Anna, my sister Rhiannon, my nephew Brendan, and I all trooped out to the airport for a mid-morning snack and some plane viewing.

When we were seated, having learned from watching Anna wrench her neck the last time we were at the airport, I turned her to face the runway:

Anna facing out

Just after we ordered our French fries and fruit plate, a pair of pilots sat down at the table behind where we were seated.  One of the pilots was a very friendly woman who waved at the kids.  It was then that I heard her say to her co-pilot, “Should I take them on their tour now or wait until after breakfast?”

Long story short, our new friend Marita the pilot took us past security, out onto the tarmac and on a tour of the plane she was piloting that day.  It was a small private jet, with four huge leather seats, wood interior, a plate of chocolate covered fruit in the kitchen area and a pair of champagne glasses waiting for the passengers.

Here’s a view of the interior seating (with Anna and Rhiannon):

In the cabin

Brendan was invited to sit in the cockpit (Anna was too, but said “No” very firmly):

Brendan in the cockpit with Marita

I also got a great picture of Rhiannon and Brendan in front of the jet (Marita said it was a “Hawker”):

In front of the jet

Needless to say, this was by far the best airport visit ever!  Cold fries? Who cares! We got to go into a private jet!  Thank you Marita!

The 99% complete deck…

Sunday, August 2nd, 2009 | The Daily Special | 1 Comment

Our new deck is almost done, and honestly, since this odyssey began July 3rd, I am so ready for it to be done.

We knew when we moved in that the deck was in need of repair – it had several wonky boards, screws coming up out of it and it had never been stained or sealed by the previous owners.  It’s our only access to the backyard from the house, so we hoped we could live with it for a while until we had the money to repair or replace it.  But as time went on it became apparent that it was in worse shape than we had originally thought.  One post came completely out of the ground, the balusters had only been stapled on and came off in a light breeze and the deck sort of “shook” when you walked on it.  Not only that but it was giving everyone who walked on it it or touched it splinters.

The ugly before shot coming up:

Deck Before

The deck is huge by the way, 14′ x 30′, and we knew it would cost us a pretty penny to get it repaired.  But our neighbor was getting his deck done and he knew all the right people, so we got a loan and headed in.  The deck was demolished on July 3rd and the carpenter got to work on July 9th.  We left the frame thinking that it was okay, and that the carpenter could just replace a few posts and boards and be done.  Ha! Ha! I think it was the first or second day that he came into the house and said “Everything that could be wrong with this deck, is wrong!”  It took him two weeks just to get the frame to stop, as he said, “being like an ocean wave.”

Anyway, I’ll save you the long story of the many issues, problems with materials, etc.  We chose to replace the deck with Trex, since Mike and I don’t want to ever have to stain or seal this sucker (and it’s recycled!).

We chose to have the decking in “Saddle”, with the railings an artsy mix of “Woodland Brown” and “White’.  Amazing after pictures coming up:

Deck After

We had the carpenter put in a new set of stairs off the west side of the deck and the railings for that are all that remain to be finished. (Of course the lumber yard sent the wrong parts for the stair railings!)  Here’s a picture of the almost done west side of the deck.

Deck West

Once it’s not 90+ degrees outside, we’re really going to enjoy this thing!

The Recycled Garden

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 | The Daily Special | 3 Comments

I’m all about recycling as much as I can.  So when our trash company wouldn’t take our recycle bins back when we upgraded to the larger recycle bin I had an idea…

The Recycled Garden

After all, they’re large, plastic and come with drain holes.  I like green and blue pots anyway – I have lots of pretty blue pots for flowers already.  From the left I have a cherry tomato plant in one bin, a “Celebrity” tomato in another, and a bin that has strawberries, basil, tarragon and sage.  The last bin has parsley, chives, dill and rosemary.  I plan on using them all in the kitchen and hopefully enjoying the fruits of my recycling all summer long…

This will all be funny later

Monday, May 18th, 2009 | The Daily Special | 5 Comments

Later, much later, I will be able to laugh about what happened to us yesterday.  For right now, it was just a little scary…

Our poor beloved Cash has always been easily spooked.  Since he had a pretty sheltered life when he raced on the track, when we first got him he was spooked by things like our electric toothbrushes, leaves on trees, stop signs, glass doors, etc.  Anything new and especially something moving scared the crap out of him.  He’s gotten much better in the past two years but yesterday proved that he’s still capable of a major scare.

Mike was out of town most of this week and since I’ve been a single mom, I’ve been trying to combine the dog walk and a visit to the park.  I have been walking Cash with Anna in the stroller and then have been tying Cash to the stroller and leaving him in a shady spot while Anna and I play in the park.  This has worked really well all week; Cash sat calmly in the shade and ate a little grass while Anna and I played nearby.

Yesterday Mike and I did the same thing, we walked to a nearby park, left Cash tied up to the stroller in some shade and then we played with Anna in the grass.  Cash sat quietly for a while but then stood up, pulled a little too hard on his leash and pulled the stroller over.  And that’s when he freaked out.

Mike, who was walking with Anna with me behind him, watched as Cash took off trying to get away from the stroller.  Cash ran full bore (that’s almost 40 mph) with the stroller dragging behind him down the park path.  Mike let go of Anna (she fell gracefully into the grass) and took off after Cash.  I grabbed Anna, the things that had fallen out of the stroller and took off after them.

The park path that Cash was running down meanders in between the houses in our neighborhood.  It runs for a few miles and connects several parks.  It was a nice afternoon so plenty of people who have houses that face the greenbelt were out on their decks or in their backyards.  All of them got to see our Greyhound running down the path while dragging the stroller.

Apparently, although Mike and I were not there to see it, Cash ran down the path and turned and headed toward the park that is closest to our house. When he got close to the play equipment (where there were several children playing), the leash and the stroller got wrapped around a sign in the park.  I’m pretty sure this gave him whiplash and it definitely almost took the sign completely out of the ground.

This was where Mike found him, trying desperately to get away from the stroller and still attached to the leash wrapped around the sign.

Cash is relatively uninjured thankfully.  He has some minor cuts on his hind legs and is going to see the vet tomorrow – (of course I couldn’t get an appointment today!).  Otherwise, he seems a little slower and a little sore.  I gave him some cheese today and that did seem to make him happy.

The stroller, which I forgot to take pictures of before it was taken away with the trash this morning, is a total loss.  We’ll get a new stroller and I’m almost positive it will take a little while before Cash is willing to walk next to a stroller – but we’ll see.  He could totally prove me wrong since the new stroller will look and smell different.  I will never again tie him to anything other than a tree or really large post.  And don’t let me get started on what would have happened if Anna had been in the stroller…

My father put it all in perspective when I called to tell him the story.  After laughing and intermittently saying, “poor Cash”, he told me that as long as everyone was alright it was all good and that I would find the story funny later.  He’s right, I will – the thought of Cash dragging that stroller down the path scared me yesterday and even today, but in a few years when we’re all healed I know it will be funny.  In the meantime, after we put Anna to bed last night, Mike had a beer and I had a gin and tonic while we breathed a sigh of relief and said thanks that no one was badly injured.

Moving Again!

Saturday, May 2nd, 2009 | The Daily Special | 3 Comments

I’ve decided to move the blog to a different url – so prepare to redo any bookmarks or rss feeds you have…

I do hate to move and mess everyone up but I will feel better once it’s done and I’m more anonymous again.  For most of my life I was a Jones and frankly, the anonymity that came with such a common name was lovely.  I only once had to spell my last name and if I gave someone my full name that I didn’t like it would have been difficult for them to find me in the phone book.

My new married name is so uncommon that it would be easy to find me in the phone book.  Since I blog mostly about Anna I’ve decided to stop being so easy to find.  She’s really cute and even if I hate Oprah for making me afraid, there are creepy people out there.

So, I’ve decided to move to www.sweetyetsour.com.  Mike has a few things he needs to do to make it fully functional, but it should be ready soon.  If you want to know the logic on the name, here it is: a) sweetandsour.com is already taken; b) I make sweet desserts and have a sweet tooth, but am sort of a sour person.   It seemed logical for me to have a url that took in both my penchant for sweets and yet my sour attitude.

The old url will still work until it expires, but I’ll see you at the new url…

Sarah’s Key

Saturday, April 4th, 2009 | The Daily Special | 1 Comment

I have finished another book! Impressive, no?

For our book club this month, my friend Andrea picked “Sarah’s Key” by Tatiana De Rosnay. I finished it quickly, in about a week, which is pretty good considering how little time I have to read these days.  It was really engrossing, so I sped right through it.

The book is written in two voices, one of a little girl in France in 1942 and one of an American woman in Paris in 2002.  The subject is mostly about the “Vel d’Hiv“, a roundup of Jews by French police that took place in Paris in 1942.  I had never heard of the Vel d’Hiv and I can see why, since the French are rightfully ashamed of the role of the French police and government.

The book is truly enlightening and at the same time heart-wrenching.  The holocaust is never easy to read about, but from the perspective of a child it’s even worse.  The facts of the Vel d’Hiv in the book are true, as far as my research shows, and as usual the treatment of Jews during this time is truly disgusting.  It never ceases to amaze me the depths that people will go to when they have even a sniff of power over another human being.

The link between the girl in 1942 and the modern woman was a little predictable, but that did not diminish the book’s subject.  I read it knowing mostly how it would end, but that was okay.  For such a serious subject though, the author went a little “romantic” at the story’s end but it was a nice way to end such a depressing book.

I do recommend the book, mostly because I had never heard of the Vel d’Hiv and even if it is hard to read about.   The holocaust is one of those things that you must know about so that we never forget and hopefully never repeat.