Semi-homemade cooking fits our family

Posted on 30. Oct, 2008 by kchristieh in books, feminism, food, local news, things that bug me

On Monday I took a break from work to listen to cookbook author / tv personality Sandra Lee speak at the bookstore around the corner. I’ve never seen her on tv, but in person she was bright, warm and fun. I really liked her, and enjoyed hearing about why she decided to start writing cookbooks.

I purchased her “” cookbook. I need to get some new, easy meals into our repertoire. So far I’ve made two recipes from the book, and both have been a hit with everyone in our family. I won’t copy the recipes here, since I don’t want to infringe upon her copyright. However, I’ll recount them to the best of my memory, and recommend that if you want the exact proportions and ingredients you purchase her cookbook.

Island Chicken:

• Slather thin-sliced chicken breasts with olive oil and jerk chicken seasoning. Grill.
• Sprinkle jerk chicken seasoning on canned pineapple slices. Grill.
• Mix pineapple juice with a little bit of brown sugar. Boil until reduced. Serve atop the aforementioned chicken and pineapple.

Turkey Meatballs:

• Mix 1.5 lb. ground turkey meat with egg, breadcrumbs, onion, garlic, parsley, ground pepper. Form into 1″ meatballs.
• Mix a jar of spaghetti sauce with two medium cans of diced tomatoes with basil, garlic and oregano with basil.
• Put the sauce and the meatballs in the crockpot on low for about 8 hours.

Speaking of cooking, I was disturbed by the cover of the November, 2008 Arroyo Monthly. Why are all of Metro Pasadena’s Top Chefs pictured men? At least when you read the article you discover that one that isn’t pictured is a woman. Is there a problem with the system or the selection process?

Link:

• Sandra Lee’s official website. She didn’t look anything like this in person. She looked far hipper.

Two great posters: United / Change & In this country

Posted on 29. Oct, 2008 by kchristieh in art, politics

I was going to stay apolitical for awhile, but these two posters are too beautiful not to share. At I Love Typography, we see United / Change:

And from Font Feed’s Artists for Obama posting, there’s “For as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on earth is my story even possible.”

Click on the links above to see more cool posters. Typography is amazing when used effectively.

It’s much easier to read Pedro Paramo with this character chart as a study guide

Posted on 28. Oct, 2008 by kchristieh in books, international

When Salon.com called the classic Mexican novel “The Perfect Novel You’ve Never Heard Of,” I knew I had to read it. Here’s a quote from one of the great reviews on :

Juan Preciado comes to Comala looking for his estranged father, Pedro Paramo. In this town, the dead and the alive mingle together and talk, the epochs overlap. Bit by bit we are told a violent and dark story, with somber and convoluted characters. In the end it is a tale of war, perversion, solitude and other themes common to Latin American literature, but seen from a very unusual perspective. And Rulfo reveals as an extremely self-demanding author: every sentence is worked and reworked to utter perfection. Read it, it’s magical.

Since the book is about a man seeking his father in Mexico, I gave it to my husband for Father’s Day. He enjoyed it, but said that it was confusing, especially if you read it a few pages at a time. Even the Salon.com article agrees:

Peculiar things start to happen on the page, things I’ve never seen in a book. The tenses switch back and forth, past to present and back again, sometime in the space of a single paragraph, until time itself becomes senseless. The stories begin to refract, shatter, and rebuild; pronouns multiply—I, he, she, you, stumbling over each other. Dialogue and thoughts are left unattributed. The perspectives shift from internal to external and back again, from Preciado to Paramo to Paramo’s childhood love, Susana San Juan. “This town is full of echoes,” one character says.

On Sunday afternoon I read the whole book, and every time a new character appeared, I added it to my chart. It got pretty complicated, but my husband was right: charting it made the story and its meaning much, much clearer, and helped me to enjoy the story much more. Click here or on the picture below to see the pdf version of the chart, which was created in Microsoft Publisher.

Pray for Obama and write that check to the Southern Poverty Law Center

Posted on 27. Oct, 2008 by kchristieh in politics, religion

The current breaking news is that authorities have foiled a white supremacist plot to kill Barack Obama and African-American schoolchildren and adults.

I cried when I heard this. It’s times like this when I’m completely ashamed of some of my fellow Americans. I’ll keep praying that no plot like this ever comes to pass.

I also just signed up to be an automatic monthly donor to the Southern Poverty Law Center. They do great work building cases against people who perpetuate hate crimes, and have developed incredible classroom resources as part of their Teaching Tolerance project, which helps teach kids to appreciate people different from themselves.

Proposition 8 proponents / opponents out in force

Posted on 26. Oct, 2008 by kchristieh in local news, politics

Proponents and opponents of Proposition 8, which would eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry, touted their beliefs on opposite corners of Angeles Crest Highway and Foothill Blvd. yesterday:

Do other California towns have pro- and anti- forces out at the same time so close to each other?

Between the presidential election and Prop. 8, this is the tensest election I remember. It’s even spread to the students: kids are joining and groups on Facebook, and having some pretty intense political discussions. It’s a mirror of the many letters to the editor about the issue in our local paper. It’s no surprise that I’ve yet to see a No on Prop. 8 sign on the same lawn as a McCain sign, or a Yes on Prop. 8 sign next to an Obama sign.

I can’t wait until this is all over. I think that what bugs me most is when people say I should vote a certain way because I’m a Christian. I’m grateful that my pastors preach God’s word and then let the parishioners decide how to vote. Our congregation has people of opposing political beliefs who get along quite nicely. It allows us to focus on the mission of the church, not politics.

The fastest parade in the world

Posted on 24. Oct, 2008 by kchristieh in animals, education, local news, my life

It’s homecoming weekend here in Small Town, USA La Canada Flintridge. The high school kids put on a great pep rally this morning, and this afternoon they gathered in the park to get psyched up for this evening’s game. The football players and cheerleaders then boarded firetrucks, the homecoming court hopped into nice cars with banners, and the student body kids boarded their pirate-themed homecoming floats. It was a crisp fall day about 90 degrees with a perfectly blue sky, but we decided not to complain since it was amazingly beautiful.

If you blinked, you’d miss the parade. The local sheriff’s deputies led the caravan down Foothill Blvd. at about 25 miles per hour. I think they didn’t want to tie up traffic too much on a Friday afternoon. We save our slow parade for Memorial Day. Although the football team subsequently lost, a good time was had by all.

I’d been out most of the day, so I decided to bring the dog with me to the park. He loves people, so he had a great time making new friends of all ages. Unfortunately, he growls and barks at other dogs, so it got a little dicey at times. We’re working on that.

Here’s a new picture of him. Perhaps I should have let this sleeping dog lie, but he’s so cute!!

Barack Obama loses by one vote: mine

Posted on 23. Oct, 2008 by kchristieh in politics, technical, videos

Just kidding. I’d laugh if this brilliant video from MoveOn.org weren’t so scary. I received a link to a video about McCain winning by one vote that was personalized so that the one person who didn’t vote was…ME!

Oversleeping. Getting the car fixed. Having to pick up the second-cousin’s stepkids on the other side of town. These are just a few of the reasons millions of Americans won’t vote on November 4th.

It’s not like they hate voting. They want to do it. They know they should. And mostly, they intend to. But some of your friends won’t get around to actually voting because they haven’t been reminded vividly enough.

That’s why we developed this funny, scary video. It shows people what it might look like if we lose the election by a single vote: theirs.

Here’s a version we prepared for you. You’re in it—seriously, you, Kathryn. Check it out—and if you like it, send it to your friends:

This has motivated me to finish filling out my absentee ballot right now!

Don’t forget to check the List of Non-Partisan California Voter Guides to the right. I’m going to refer to it when I decide how to vote.

Here’s how Sarah Palin could dress well for far less than $150,000 a month

Posted on 22. Oct, 2008 by kchristieh in politics, shopping, startling statistics, things that bug me

When I first heard that Sarah Palin spent over $150,000 on clothing, grooming and accessories for herself and her family in September, I was skeptical. That’s over $5,000 a day. But a multitude of media outlets (even Fox!) are now reporting that Palin spent that much Republican money at Neiman Marcus ($75,063), Saks Fifth Avenue ($49,426), Macy’s ($9,448), Bloomingdale’s ($5,103) and others.

I dress well, but even if I tried, I couldn’t spend that much money. Palin should have had a fair amount of nice clothing already since she’s a governor, but let’s assume she needed to freshen things up.

Here are some nice outfits from some of my favorite retailers that I think would look lovely on her:

Instead of shopping at designer stores, she could have purchased these CAbi outfits:

[CAbi asked me to remove the pictures. Too bad you'll miss seeing their wonderful clothes!]

Here’s one from J.Jill. It’s a little more casual, but I think it would look stunning on her:

And don’t forget Ann Taylor. They probably even have Ann Taylor stores in Alaska.

So there. Even if she got a brand-new outfit or two a day, she could still look terrific for way under $5000 / day.

As for the reported $4,716.49 on hair and makeup, that’s insane. I can’t even braid my own hair, let alone put it up in a granny bun, so maybe she needs help with that. But she could get her hair cut and styled for under $100 at some very high quality places here in the Los Angeles area. If she needs to go every day, she’s wasting her time!

All of this aside, I’d feel incredibly guilty spending this much on clothes when so many people are starving around the world and struggling financially in this country.

Equal opportunity sign-stealing

Posted on 20. Oct, 2008 by kchristieh in politics, things that bug me

I think that everyone on our street who had campaign signs out has had at least one of them stolen. Both Republican and Democratic signs are in jeopardy. I have a friend whose kids count the McCain and Obama signs on the way to elementary school each morning, and each day they get a different count. There’s a house a few blocks away that’s had so many signs stolen that they attached “No Trespassing” signs to the bottom of their campaign signs and take them in at night.

Do signs really matter? I hope not. I hope that people are voting after researching the issues, not because they see lots of certain signs. I recently heard that people who are currently Undecided about which presidential candidate to vote for are more likely to be uninformed. Perhaps that’s why the ads can seem superficial and are often negative: that’s as much “research” as some voters are going to give to the candidates. If they hear that someone’s palling around with terrorists, that’s enough for them. They won’t take the time to read the facts.

Speaking of impressions, I saw Oliver Stone’s movie “W” this weekend. I know that much of the movie is imagined, since no one but the people involved will really know what words were said in conversations, but it sounds like the writers tried hard to keep it factual. It was a sad movie. It depicts George W. Bush as a pathetic soul who’s in over his head and is taking direction from puppeteers named Karl Rove and Dick Cheney.
I can’t wait until November 5th.

I think I know who stole my Obama sign

Posted on 19. Oct, 2008 by kchristieh in politics

About 15 hours after I posted the last three digits of the license plate number on Facebook, a friend spotted a car fitting that description with that license plate information in his neighborhood.

Alas, the evidence is circumstantial. Maybe I’ll write a note reminding them that sign-stealing is illegal.
I have a new sign, and a backup.

Who drives the silver minivan with license plate ending in “354″ who just stole my Obama sign?

Posted on 17. Oct, 2008 by kchristieh in politics

At 11:40 p.m. tonight, I was working at my desk in the front of my house when I noticed a silver minivan drive slowly to the front of our house and turn off its headlights. I turned off my monitor and desk lamp and peered out the window. We’ve been tp’d before, and I don’t want it to happen again.

The minivan backed up, and someone got out of the car near our Obama sign. They got back into the car and drove off. Being the crazy lady I am, I ran outside in my bare feet to see if they’d taken the sign. They had. But they were stupid enough to turn around and drive back past me.

So if you see a silver minivan with a license plate ending in “354″, please ask them if they have my sign. I’d like it back.

Hopefully the Sheriff’s deputies will get them first. I just called them.

President Palin remakes the Oval Office

Posted on 17. Oct, 2008 by kchristieh in politics

I wish I’d thought of this myself. Click on everything you can in the office. Make sure to click on the door four times, and the left window a few times.

Greed vs. fear

Posted on 17. Oct, 2008 by kchristieh in politics

Quote of the day from Warren Buffet:

“Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.”

It’s why he’s buying American stocks right now.

But he doesn’t need to save for two college educations in the next two years, and he has a lot to fall back on until stocks go up again.

Local news: fire shuts freeway

Posted on 13. Oct, 2008 by kchristieh in local news

Here’s what the 2 Freeway north looks like when the ramp to the westbound 210 is closed. This picture was taken around 11:30 am today.

Here’s why it was closed: the Marek Fire is burning about 15 miles to the west, near the 210 / 118 intersection.

It’s too far for us to worry about now, but it is the same forest. Hopefully they’ll get it contained soon. Click to see a map of where it is.

California voter guides for propositions and judges

Posted on 12. Oct, 2008 by kchristieh in politics

I wish I didn’t have to vote for propositions and judges. I do my best to research pros and cons before I vote, but I have other work to do. Isn’t this what our elected officials should be doing? Enough venting – it is what it is.

Here are some resources to help Californians decide how to vote in the November, 2008 elections. Other than the official party positions, I’m trying to include non-partisan sites that include pros and cons for each position. Please let me know if you have any to add to the list.

Propositions:

• Official California Voter Information Guide
• Easy Voter Guide
• The California Voter Foundation (calvoter.org)
• California League of Women Voters
• Los Angeles Times
• California’s propositions:
  Stories behind the November ballot initiatives that you won’t find in an official voter guide. (LA Times)
• Party positions:
  • California Democratic party
  • California Republican party

Judges:

• Los Angeles Times
• Judge Voter Guide

The best resource for learning about the financial crisis

Posted on 12. Oct, 2008 by kchristieh in politics

I took Economics in high school and college, but I freely admit that some aspects of the current financial crisis have utterly confused me. Just when I was starting to think that maybe it’s because I’m more of a micro gal than a macro gal, along came This American Life to explain everything from what caused the crisis to what the bailout entails. I may even be able to discuss “credit default swaps” now, but please don’t test me on that. In any case, this is the best summary I’ve heard or read of what’s happening to our economy.

Check out Episode 365: Another Frightening Show About the Economy. I’ve linked to the This American Life website, but I actually listened to the free podcast I downloaded from iTunes.

Now I feel (slightly) better about not having more money at risk. I’m still refusing to look at my financial status…we’ll ride this one out…resist the urge to panic…stay in the game…

It’s much better than a text message

Posted on 08. Oct, 2008 by kchristieh in education, parenting

It still bugs me that the kids at our local high school feel they need to make a big production out of asking each other to dances. They’re not content to merely say, “Would you please go to the dance with me?” No way! Instead, they make big signs to display at football games, write poems, bake treats, and so, so much more. It’s tough when the person being invited doesn’t want to go, and feels pressure to say “yes” since the person asking went to such an effort, and it’s devastating when a person goes to a big effort only to be shut down. It’s also tough to be one of the people who doesn’t get asked when it’s such a big deal when people do get asked.

But I’m softening in that position. I thought back to my high school years, and even when I wasn’t 100% enthused about going to a dance with someone, I would say “yes” and make sure to have a good time. I also read a newspaper article recently that lamented that kids still ask each other to homecoming via text message, and I don’t think that shows as much respect and enthusiasm as doing something special.

From now on, I won’t complain as much about the effort that our local kids go to when asking each other to dances. I just hope they have a good idea of how the person will respond before they ask. I also hope they do just as much someday when it’s their anniversary or their spouse’s birthday.
Besides, it’s really cute when the invitee responds by doing something special, like this:

Those are rose petals. Awww!!!

On the other hand, perhaps the easiest solution is just to go to a dance without a date. It frees you up to dance with whomever you want!

Top computer tips I need to remember or share

Posted on 07. Oct, 2008 by kchristieh in technical

When ever I get a new gadget or software program, I always read the manual or learn the tutorial. I find that whenever I do, I discover ways to do things I never even imagined I could do.

That’s why I loved David Pogue’s recent blog article about Tech Tips for the Basic Computer User. I won’t even try to argue whether or not I’m a “basic” computer user, but I did learn a few new things. Here are a few tips he shared that I want to remember. I figure that putting them in my blog will mean that I’ll always have a way to find them, and if I didn’t know them, you might not either.

• Windows key + D takes you straight to your desktop. Or back.
• Press Ctrl and the + key to enlarge text on a web page. Use Ctrl and – to make it small again.
• Tap the spacebar to scroll down a page on a website, and the shift key to go back up. (NOTE: The shift key doesn’t do that on my computer. But I did discover that either the Tab key or the Home key takes me to the top of the page, the End key takes me to the bottom of the page and the Backspace key takes me to the previous web page I had visited.)

I also recently read a great summary of computer care tips in Reader’s Digest titled “Thirteen Things Your Computer Person Won’t Tell You.” Here’s the one I keep quoting to my family:

Give it a rest. Turning off your computer when it’s not in use saves energy and clears out the RAM, or temporary memory, which would otherwise slow your machine over time.

I don’t think they believe me.

I also need to remember to defragment my hard drive more often. I can do that by clicking Start, pointing to Programs, pointing to Accessories, pointing to System Tools, and then clicking Disk Defragmenter. Of course, I’ll back up my computer first and not do anything else while it’s defragmenting.

If you don’t already have a great computer repair person, you might check out Dial A Geek. I’ve never used their services, but I’m impressed by their business concept and testimonials. For a monthly fee, you can place a phone call at any time of any day to a technician who can access your computer remotely, if you choose. Please let me know if you try it. I had an HP technician access my computer remotely from India once, and he fixed way more than just my printer problem. I just sat and watched!

And finally, if there’s something you think you might be able to do, you probably can. I recently decided to find out if I could disable the reverse beep in my Prius, and a Google search quickly found a wikiHow page with nine easy steps for how to stop that annoying noise. It worked like a charm! (Dave, have you done this already?)

I’ll always be Young at Heart

Posted on 06. Oct, 2008 by kchristieh in cool websites, inspirational people, movies, music, my life

I figure that at 45, I’m theoretically halfway to retirement. I say “theoretically” because I don’t ever see myself “retiring.” I like what I do, so I can’t imagine wanting to stop. Hopefully at some point I’ll slow down a little and put together a few photo albums, however.

Maybe some day I’ll reprise my high school choir training and sing in a chorus like the stars of the wonderful documentary “Young @ Heart.” The average age of their chorus members is 80, and instead of singing old standbys, they conquer the works of artists such as Sonic Youth and David Bowie. Three generations of our family sat down together and watched this movie this weekend, and we all loved it. I loved the spirit and energy that the chorus members had, and I admired how they’d found a group of like minded people to have fun with. Their music videos were hilarious, but there were some very poignant moments also. It comes with the territory, I suppose. I also admired the group’s director, Bob Cilman. He was incredibly patient and persistent, and had a real gift for leading the chorus. He’s a true hero.

I wonder/fear what it will be like some day if I don’t die before all the people I love. I’ll probably become an expert at attending funerals and mourning people.  Maybe I really should take up the bagpipes, so I can at least participate in the ceremonies. Death will be certain for all of us, but the living must go on with their lives. It’ll be hard to strike the right balance. Hopefully I’ll have the same good attitude that the “Young @ Heart” singers do.

One more thing: besides singing, I still hope to be blogging. Like Margaret and Helen. Best Friends for Sixty Years and Counting…. (or is it The Blog As Performance Art? Who cares? I love it!!)

PS – When I’m old, don’t call me “Dear” or “Sweetie.” It’s demeaning. See this great NY Times article about the topic, “In Sweetie and Dear, a Hurt for the Elderly.”

How much of this presidential race is about race?

Posted on 05. Oct, 2008 by kchristieh in politics

What if the background and qualifications of our current presidential and vice presidential candidates were reversed? Tim Wise’s insightful essay, “This is Your Nation on White Privilege,” takes a stab at how much race may be affecting peoples’ view of the race. Here are a few of the points it makes:

• White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don’t all piss on themselves with laughter,  while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you’re “untested.”
• White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a “trick question,”  – while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O’Reilly means you’re dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.
• White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you.
• White privilege is being able to dump your first wife after she’s disfigured in a car crash so you can take up with a multi-millionaire beauty queen (who you then go on to call the c-word in public) and still be thought of as a man of strong family values, while if you’re black and married for nearly 20 years to the same woman, your family is viewed as un-American and your gestures of affection for each other are called “terrorist fist bumps.”

Nicholas Kristof examines America’s racial attitudes in his column, “Racism Without Racists.” He notes that avowed racists aren’t likely to consider ever voting for a Democratic candidate, but it’s the aversive racists who may be swayed to vote a different way by someone’s race.

“In the U.S., there’s a small percentage of people who in nationwide surveys say they won’t vote for a qualified black presidential candidate,” Professor Dovidio said. “But a bigger factor is the aversive racists, those who don’t think that they’re racist.”

Faced with a complex decision, he said, aversive racists feel doubts about a black person that they don’t feel about an identical white. “These doubts tend to be attributed not to the person’s race” because that would be racism — but deflected to other areas that can be talked about, such as lack of experience,” he added.

Some people believe that everyone’s racist at some level. Perhaps that’s true. Also, racism can work both ways: for example, some people assume that Asian students are naturally smarter than Whites. I think it’s good when we’re aware of how our opinion of someone may be affected by their race. Recognition is the first step to recovery, and I hope that most people would at least believe that they should try not to be racist.

The easiest way to find a mutually agreeable meeting time: TimeBridge

Posted on 04. Oct, 2008 by kchristieh in cool websites

Scheduling meetings can take just as long as attending meetings. I recently found a great website that makes scheduling easy: TimeBridge. This free website allows you to enter up to five potential meeting dates/times, and then email people to see which work for them. People click on the link in the email and enter whether each meeting time is Best, OK, or Bad. TimeBridge adds their responses to a grid that makes it easy for everyone to see which date will work best. It also includes a map to the event, can import from and export to Google Calendar and other programs if you wish, and allows people to comment.

I’ve used it for two meetings so far, and it’s saved me from near endless email exchanges. I highly recommend it!

Here’s a screenshot of an upcoming meeting I’m trying to schedule:

Thank goodness at least one date is looking good for everyone so far!

I’m baaaack! The return of the busy blogger, and all that I’ve done this week

Posted on 03. Oct, 2008 by kchristieh in education, local news, movies, music, my life, non-profits, social networking

T’was such a busy week that – gasp! – I didn’t even blog. It was all I could do to eat and sleep, but now that I’ve survived, here’s a summary of what I’ve been up to since the last post:

On Saturday, we saw the Angel City Classic at the Los Angeles Coliseum. This annual event features two historically Black colleges or universities (HBCU) who not only play football, but compete in a Battle of the Bands. This year, we got to see Morehouse compete against Prairie View A&M. I was there for the bands: I LOVE innovative and energetic marching bands. Prairie View clearly won the Battle of the Bands, IMHO. It’s hard to beat a band that does :

That evening, we attended the annual fundraiser at the Community Center. I was tapped to roll the dice for the Pinata Race. Seriously. I got pretty good at it, but if I ever get to do it again I have a few more ideas up my sleeve.

On Sunday we attended the premiere screening of the documentary “Viva la Causa.” It depicts the events that led up to the grape boycott, and shows how much of an impact Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta and Bobby Kennedy all had during that time period. I was really young and on the other side of the country when these events unfolded (late 60’s), so I never realized that the women had to hold up blankets in front of each other since there weren’t bathrooms, and that everyone shared a tin can to drink from the same bucket of water. I’m really glad we brought the kids, and it just confirms our support for the sponsor, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and its Teaching Tolerance project.

Earlier this week, I lived on Facebook as I trolled for class notes. My column was due on Wednesday. I also wrote a speech for accepting my award last night, and bored my dog to tears practicing it. It went well, and I really appreciated all the nice things people said last night.  :)