Another reason I love Dooce. She knows the power of a good bribe. See the Elephant Clips post below the lovely photo.

I don’t believe it! I’m standing by the Greek philosopher Heraclitus who said, “The road uphill and the road downhill are one and the same!”

We had a wonderful time in Palm Springs for my 40th birthday this past weekend. Dave rented a gorgeous place with a pool and a hot tub, and we spent the weekend relaxing, sleeping in, going for coffee and yes, the three of us ate a whole birthday cake! It was mostly fruit and sponge cake, or so I keep telling myself.

Also, I have been wanting to buy a digital SLR camera for a long time now and with birthday contributions from various family members (thanks again all!), I was able to order my Canon Rebel XTi and a 50mm lens last week. It arrived in time to take away with us.

Thanks for your lovely cards, calls and flowers all!

Getting out of the car this morning at daycare.

“I wanna take turtle in?”

“Hmn. I don’t think so.”

“Wanna take turtle IN.”

“If you take turtle in, all the other kids will want to play with him.”

Silence.

“You want the other kids to play with turtle?”

Brief pause. “Yup.”

“You want the other kids to play with turtle? If you leave him in the car, right here on your seat, then he’ll be waiting for you when I come to pick you up. And then you can hold him in your carseat.”

Scrambling out, placing turtle in the bucket of his seat. “Bye turtle …”

… somebody told his first fib.

We were in our hotel room in Paihia with me trying to get him to nap. Tau hid his new Little People Christmas Flap Book behind the gauzy curtains. No idea that it was clearly visible through them.

“Tau, where’s your book?”

Poker faced response: “I dunno where is …”

Sigh.

Friday afternoon was cool and overcast. Perfect weather for staying home and watching a movie with a glass of wine and a bowl of comfort food.

I’d thawed ground lamb but wasn’t sure what to do with it. Spaghetti Bolognese? Lamb curry?

And then I remembered frikkadels — quintessential South-African meatballs and the perfect comfort food of our youth. I hadn’t eaten frikadelle in probably twenty years.

What I’d forgotten was how easy they are to make. And how they go with just about anything.

I didn’t feel like peeling potatoes to make mash, so substituted couscous, with a hearty gravy and some steamed veggies. Perfect!

Tau’s plate

Our plates, with grown-up veggies

If you’re interested, here’s the recipe — the bread and egg make for a very moist texture, and the flour and spices ensure the outsides are crispy and the gravy tasty! (more…)

We are home and all is well. No damage to our immediate neighborhood. We’ll add more news once we are settled and rested. Even though we are home, we have been told to be ready to evacuate in event things change drastically. Basically, it would take a new fire for our neighborhood to be affected.

This post is part of Blog Action Day, a day of environmental discussion and participation by bloggers around the world.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

No, it’s our laundry. Our humble jeans, shirts and towels hanging on a $9.99 clothes horse, saving us a bit of money and helping to fight global warming.

Did you know that dryers use five to ten percent of residential electricity in the United States? That cutting the number of times you use your dryer by just one load a week reduces CO2 emissions by 200 pounds a year? Hard to know what that means in the global scheme of things but every little bit helps, right?

Dave and I were both raised in South Africa, where the hot, mostly dry climate means that the vast majority of people dry ALL their laundry outdoors in the sunshine on washing lines. Our childhood memories are of folding crisp, bone-dry towels, of chasing our siblings through lines of flapping bedsheets and of learning to hang t-shirts so that they didn’t dry all pulled at the peg marks. (more…)

We all have our own versions of this. But today I think Heather Armstrong put it so well. The full version is here at Dooce.com.

“We spend years and years of our lives discovering who we are, and it’s not a sudden realization, but one day you figure out who you are, that you are the type of person who likes to be in charge, or you are the type of person who likes to be given a list of tasks. Maybe you’re the type of person who can’t have fun unless you know that the other people around you are having fun, or maybe you’re the type of person who has fun no matter what. And if you’ve had enough therapy you’re okay with that, you’re okay knowing that this? This is who I am.

… It wasn’t until Leta was about two years old that I grew into my identity as a mother, that I finally stopped feeling guilty and embraced my version of that role. I knew that I loved my child, that I would do anything for her, but that I don’t necessarily do this thing like many other women. And that’s okay.”

A couple weeks back now we saw UB40 at Humphrey’s, a wonderful outdoor arena that is more poster for the good life in San Diego than hardcore concert venue. Surrounded by the waters around Shelter Island, Humphrey’s is open to the marina on one side and fringed with up-lit palms around the 1,400 seat arena. As the sun sets over the ocean, the lights come up on the opening band.

Dave and I arrived early enough to stand in line for an $8 beer and an $11 mojito. But hey, we go out so seldom, for all I know that could be the going rate at every night spot in town. Before heading to our seats, we hung around the perimeter, nursing our drinks and listening to the opening act, a very energetic reggae artist called Elan who reminded me a bit of Ché Guevara (here’s his MySpace link).

We’re big people watchers at events like this — fascinated by the cross-section of locals who consider themselves fans, digging each other in the ribs every time someone talk-about-later-worthy passes by: The surgically enhanced, forty-something Barbies wearing way too much jewelry, cleavage, and not quite enough clothing. The fifty-something surfer dudes with natural highlights and leather flip-flops, casually dressed in expensive Tommy Bahama shirts.

I digress only to set the stage. The mojito was mostly ice and since Dave was driving, I wound my way through the crowd, back to the bar to get another drink — Ché was still well into his Marley-esque treatise on World Peace. The line up was by this stage ten or twelve deep and I happened to join it at the same time as a guy who looked to be about my age. We smiled and did the classic “Go ahead … no you … no, please, you go ahead.” So we ended up standing together, chatting, and I found out that he was from the Dominican Republic, had lived in New York for many years, had seen UB40 before and was now at the concert with his aunt.

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Still life with Handbag and Corporate Access Pass

Canadian blogger Her Bad Mother recently posted the contents of her handbag and invited readers to do likewise. Which got me thinking about the sad state of my bag and how I am not one of those women who carry pocket Kama Sutras or silk scarves or Japanese blotting tissue at all times.

Instead, I am one of a long line of women who carry a far more practical bag. With the bare essentials. And at least a year’s worth of gum wrappers, passed doctor’s appointment cards and old shopping lists scribbled on scrunched-up post-its.

Not much different from my mother’s or maternal grandmother’s handbags really. Except that Granny Sylvia always carried a roll of Triple-X mints and Mom’s bag weighed a bit heavier with that bunch of keys — a Fort Knox-like fistful of keys befitting the manageress of one of Durban’s larger branches of the Permanent Building Society.

Yes, our women folk believe in purses that are up to the job. Purses of solid brown or black with sturdy handles. And when my mother refers to her bag as “The Pantechnicon” she isn’t kidding.

Without further a do, the contents of my handbag:

1. Pile of doctor notes, post-its, and a monthly statement for the store card I’ve been meaning to cancel because I don’t use it.
2. Wad of calling cards we got made not too long after we moved here (free from Vista Print). Thought they would come in handy when we met new people but since then we’ve changed our web address and ISP, and my work phone number is no longer current. Why do I still carry these? (more…)

… a pair of Ryka shoes in Sk*rt’s Off and Running contest.

I could really do with a new pair of running shoes to use in the gym. My current runners are at least four years old (did I just admit that?) and even though they feel and look okay, I’ll bet the support in them is shot.

Waiting to hear from the folks at Ryka — I get to choose whatever I like! Leaning towards the N-Gage Run, shown above. Who-hoo!

Both garden watering cans had to be on the tray table, with the food and the juice, while he was eating.

Update: Wanted them in the car with him on the way to daycare this morning also.

Album Cover for Angelique Kidjo’s Djin Djin

We are not that big on lavish birthday gifts and such. Tend to buy what we need as we need it. And we both hate getting gifts that are not quite right or, worse yet, downright awful. Money and gift certificates are our best thing.

So a week or two ago I said to Dave, “Haven’t got anything for your birthday yet. Is there something you’re crying on your pillow over?”

My ever-so-subtle way of digging for suggestions.

“Not really. Let me think about it.”

(more…)

So it seems picking away at my air guitar over here in my little corner of the Internet is paying off, because while I was out taking a bloggy vacation last week, Aimee over at the stunningly redesigned Greeblemonkey bestowed on me the Rockin’ Girl Blogger award.

Ahem! (In my best California-Peace-Rocker Chick-ese)

“I’d like to thank my agent … and my mom and dad … and the fans … worldwide … and my wonderful support crew over at WordPress Studios. And of course my baby-child and my husband-and-partner-in-this-glorious-journey-called-life Dave, who gives me the daily strength to go on — LOVE YOU HONEY! Sniff! Excuse me — I don’t often break down like this. And who else? Oh! I should thank the critics, like The Bullog, who after a rocky start seems to be putting his blog to good journalistic use addressing pertinent topics instead of giving bloggers a hard time. This one’s for you, Mr. Bullard, and all the other newbies who stumble, fumbling and strumming their newly found Stratocasters into this fabulous arena. Consider yourself awarded with a Rockin’ Girl …”

Yes, I get to pass on this lovely award to others and since the bloggers I read are either way up there in the rarefied reaches of the blogosphere and therefore a bit above the grassrootsiness of this award or already recipients of a Rockin’ Girl, I’m going to tag some other folks you might not know.

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I am too close to this to blog objectively. One TN visa, two H1-Bs and six years later, we are still playing the Green Card waiting game.

And trust me, more than most I know that this is a complex issue. But this news is so big and feels so very surreal for folks like us (especially seeing that we moved here from British Columbia) that I couldn’t not touch on it.

From their press release yesterday:

“Microsoft Corp. today announced that it intends to expand its presence in Canada by opening a new software development center in the greater Vancouver, British Columbia, area. The Microsoft Canada Development Centre will open in the fall of 2007 and will be home to software developers from around the world.”

Bill Gates and Co. have long been lobbying government to make things more viable for the thousands of technical professionals working and living in the US on H1-B visas or standing in that ever-so-long line for a Green Card. I guess they know nothing’s going to change soon.

More in the National Post today:

“The company has long been pressuring U.S. immigration officials to increase the number of foreign workers it can employ in the United States. The U.S. government typically issues about 85,000 visas annually to foreign workers with specialized skills and warned in April there would be a shortage this year. Canada, meanwhile, does not impose similar quotas.

Microsoft and other companies have been saying for a long time, ‘If you make it so difficult for U.S. companies to bring in talented foreign nationals that they need, companies are going to fill those positions abroad’ said Ted Ruthizer of U.S. law firm Kramer Levin Naftalis and Frankel.

‘This is just the fulfillment of this promise,’ said Mr. Ruthizer, who runs [Microsoft's] business-immigration practice.”