Wackyloonies

So I recently discovered Kaboodle, before we bought this domain name in May and went about making Kaboodle pages, it’s an extension for Mozilla Firefox web browser and allows you to collect information on separate pages by category by simply clicking a “Add to Kaboodle” button on your toolbar if you come across a website, article, sale item, vacation location, recipe or whatever on the web you want to note.

I found this remarkably simpler and wish that posting links were as easy for this website. But currently Kaki’s hard at work figuring out how Tomo and I can post separately to our own branches of this site and jointly to a common thread and also how to well, have such by theme pages. SO in the meantime, whether you blog or not or whether or not you havea  website, I highly recommend Kaboodle as a tool.

“Children of authoritarian parents had five times the risk of being overweight compared to children of authoritative [a more diplomatic style] mothers,” said Dr. Kyung Rhee, a clinical instructor and research fellow at Boston University School of Medicine and the study’s lead author. Read the rest of this entry »

Short piece on LEED (Leadership in energy and environmental design) certification in India. Planetizen poster Abhijeet Chavan editorializes that “The ‘green building’concept is gradually gaining momentum in India. Already, there are five green buildings certified as per the rating system of LEED (Leadership in energy and environmental design), developed by the US Green Building Council. Around 25 other buildings in the country are now registered for such certification. Read more

What do you think is appropriate cause for invoking eminent domain? Any? Blighted areas only? Anything for the greater good?
This article updates us on what’s happening in the homes in question in this polarizing eminent domain case.

This is The Planning Report’s interview with the head of California’s CRA regarding its implications for our state.  It’s pretty bitter about public opinion interesting for a public agency. but he makes reasoned good points and seems rational and moderate.

My mother sent me Dan Burton of Indiana’s informtation on the government investigation on this subject.

I always carry Z on the escalators but tonight Tomo took her up and down letting her walk on and off with help about a BILLION times. I did it once as well and Bernard got in on the action after dinner. Woohoo!

I should mention that doing things herself has been BIG lately in toddler land. Pushing, pulling, carrying things, getting up and down stairs, beds etc. by herself. Trying to put on and take off her clothes. (funny film clip of that if I figure out how to post it). Favorites include clasping the safety harness for her carseat (something untrained adults can barely do), she can now ALMOST do the top part of the 5 point harness. Doing adult things is even better. She wants to wear our shoes (VERY cute if not asking for a broken nose), and she wants to DRIVE. She LOVES to sit in the front seat and DRIVE. Car off, but she insists all doors be closed no matter how stifling. It’s funny to see which things she perceived as “grown up”. Using the toilet? Nah.

Falling asleep on her own, perhaps in her own space? No WAY! Trus I suppose we show no example of that…it’s not as though Tomo and I sleep apart in our separate spaces, why should she?

Summary: it was fun, I’d take her again to see kid’s shows. The length was good (90 minutes including 15 minute intermission) although perhaps because we arrived a half hour late. When it ended it was about 5 minutes after her attention span was starting to wander to watch other children. But then maybe if she were 3-5 years old the more likely target audience it would have been perfect.

Detail: The show was a lot of fun for Z and to see her tv pals Elmo, Grover, Big Bird etc. live, large and dancing and singing on stage was pretty exciting. It might also have been confusing because today in discussing the show she said something about having enjoyed the tv show…maybe reality and fantasy are more closely entwined when you grow up in a multi-media world and have watched short videos of yourself since being a few months old. I tried to capture her amazement on film, but she was dancing on my mother’s legs and just watching with such awe it wasn’t possible to get a clear shot, let alone from the side. The show itself was well…I loved Avenue Q…but I guess that would have been inappropriate for Z. The plot was tough to follow for anyone younger than I don’t know 6? In that there were several interwoven stories and a song for every scene in which the lyrics were part of the storytelling and it was hard to piece together until the end when you realize the message is that if you eat right, sleep well, bathe, and exercise you’ll be able to achieve everything you set out to. The real stars were Grover and Elmo although all popular monsters get at least one solo.

Classic Sesame Street songs were mixed with (per)versions of known songs from the “real” world. Some worked perfectly. I felt badly for James Brown who’s “I Feel Good” sex anthem became something like “I feel good. I knew that I would. I feel good. Eating health food!” Sigh. I can’t wait for the Sesame version of NIN’s “closer” in a future show.
ok, nuff said.

Shout out to Elspeth & Heather!

(Not that either of them know this exists)Most schoolkids interviewed in this survey think you are essential to their learning - yay! recognition from your clients!!
See the whole article 13,000 Kids Can’t Be Wrong Of course I just noticed the article is 2 years old, but hey I find it encouraging.

I have ripped this off completely from an awesome thread on friend Mark Nau’s blog. I am an avid albeit sporadic reader (he blogs infrequently enough that I can catch up a few at a time as I do with Big Love and Sopranos episodes on HBO On Demand watching on mute when Zelda falls asleep on my arm too early for me to go to sleep). Anyhow, this website offers a simple experiment to ascertain whether the iron in cereal is the same as the metal iron IronInCereal

this is from some guy named Gustavo Lacerda’s comment on Mark’s blog, am I breaching blog etiquette? Stay tuned to find out!

Hey, Kaki I am getting the hang of the link thing you explained to me …see teach me to fish and I’ll just fish until depletion!

Through one of the mothers in my wonderful parenting class at LA County’s Emerson School (we will miss this over the summer!) we got tickets to see Sesame Street Live! SO Zelda will experience live theater for the first time tonight, I don’t know about her, but I am excited! I’ve seen the commercials, looks like fun, I love Grover!

My playwright friend Alan Berks emailed me and as I responded to him about the serendipity that brought us opening night tickets in Long Beach without even a day’s pre-planning and then babbled on about how lovely everything is, and I thought I’d plagiarize myself here since it summarizes how easy it is to get involved in ones’ geography, community, and city-region with children:

“[With a kid…] talk about the human experience it is this amazing razor’s edge of just like everybody else and completely unique at the same time. Some stay at home mothers complain of isolation and lack of intellectual stimulation but I have learned more about language, the human mind, child development, psychology and patiIence since she was born, not bored at all and reading a lot whenever I can. As far as isolation we’re spoiled with lots of family and friends nearby but also in seeking out fun places to go and things to see and do, I’ve gone to more museums, parks, zoos, aquariums, outdoor festivals, farmer’s markets etc. in the last 19 months ( really mostly in the last 9) than I had in teh previous 8 years combined. Of course the not working in an office job helps the excursion count.”

So that’s it for me, the luckiest girl in the world. Apparantly I say it a lot because 2 days ago in the car Zelda kept repeating to her Dad and I “Maman - lucky!” “Lucky! Maman!”

I love it, I love her, life is great

Off to get Z’s moveable feast ready to prepare for the show tonight.

Shana