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| Hey Austin folks, I need a volunteer! As I've mentioned before, I'm heading up the kid area at the Austin cake show on the weekend of February 27 and 28 at the Crockett center in North-ish Austin. I've said before that I'd really appreciate help at the table and that, in exchange, you can come hang with me for a day while I work on my show cake and I'll do my best to teach you whatever techniques I'm working on that day (note: due to allergies I can't have smokers in my home, or pets, sorry, and for my own safety I have to at least vaguely know who you are or you have to be vouched for by someone I know...oh, and no photos please). A lot of people have asked to watch me work or for free lessons, so this is your big chance to get that. But now I have an even more specific need for which I'll exchange extra days/lessons: I really want to go to the Mike McCarey demo on the Sunday morning of the show, so I need someone who is reliable and responsible to run the table for me from 9am to noon that day. It's not that much more than general volunteering at the kid area other than keeping an eye on the money pouch and being in charge enough to keep things going. I'd be right in the next room in case of any emergency, and there are supposed to be other volunteers around anyway, so it shouldn't be that much of a big deal (there's a great kid who will be there and knows the ropes but she's also teaching a class for a half hour somewhere in that time and I don't want to put too much responsibility on a kid). I'll even be there early beforehand to make sure everything is set up and ready to go. It's really pretty easy stuff: kids come and for $1 they get either a cupcake or a cookie (there will probably be a couple of varieties, hopefully listed on a sign), a bag of icing, a cup of sprinkles, and if we get donated fondant as expected, a few balls of that too. 90% of the work is saying, "What would you like?" and then getting it for them and putting their money in the bag, making change where necessary. The other 10% is keeping icing bags/sprinkle cups/etc filled and keeping the place vaguely tidy. You do NOT have to do any decorating. The kids are supposed to do it themselves. You can show them how to squeeze the bag if necessary, but mostly the parents are there and it's obvious (squeeze downward, icing comes out, that's all). Last year, Sunday morning was mostly low-key. The big mad rushes were all on Saturday. I think we had a couple of waves of people but it wasn't bad at all. I expect it to be about the same this year. So as before, anyone who promises to volunteer at least a couple of hours at the table any time can come spend a day watching me make stuff and get lessons. Anyone who promises to come and be my reliable stand-in for Sunday morning can get FIVE days of watching/free lessons, PLUS I will be indebted to you for volunteer time at a later date (must be after the show and not two weeks before Peo's birthday in early October...and we might be gone spring break this year...I think otherwise I should be available). Plus I'll be your best friend, I'll shower you with praise, I'll bake you some cookies after the show...um, anything else? I guess I could potentially offer a free cake for you or your kid or something but that'll depend on when you want it and what you want, but I'm willing to discuss it. For the record, it's totally awesome if more than one person steps up! Pretty please? | ||||||
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Blatherings
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January 2nd, 2010
December 25th, 2009
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| It's near to freezing outside now, but two days ago it was 23 C at midday. But before those of you in cold climates get jealous, keep this in mind: there's also a higher-than-usual pollen count for the cedars around here, and almost everyone I know in Austin is at least mildly allergic with many very allergic. Like me. My eyes are so itchy and gooey that one of them has started swelling and it feels like I've got a black eye. I'm getting a headache from the eye pain. I might even actually get a black eye out of it. Part of it is my own stupid fault for stopping the Claritin a couple of days ago because I was getting sick of being tired all day (yeah, it's "non-drowsy" in the sense that I stay awake but too tired to feel like doing anything and if I do try to do stuff, it's done badly or slowly and I get frustrated). I felt fine yesterday and full of energy, but today I'm literally getting smacked in the face with it. I took one this morning but it takes about 24 hours to kick in. Oh, and Merry Christmas...it hasn't felt very Christmasy here since Corran's still in Oz. Peo had fun, though. I gave her the last season of Fraggle Rock DVDs, a tube with candy and a toy on top, and a package from ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} nightxade that won the day for having both sticker crafts *and* Kai Lan figures. Our neighbours had us over for a Christmas meal and gave Peo a gorgeous and soft teddy bear. So it was a nice day (except for the allergies) but not very much like Christmas without Corran. | ||||||
| comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment |
December 9th, 2009
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| Meh, Maker has announced their 2010 Faire schedule (came to me in email because I requested to know about Austin): Bay Area May 22nd and 23rd, 2010 San Mateo County Event Center San Mateo, Calif. Detroit July 31st and August 1st, 2010 Henry Ford Museum Dearborn, Mich. New York September 25th and 26th, 2010 New York Hall of Science Flushing Meadow Corona Park Queens, NY So I guess Austin is out for next year too. :( | ||||||
| comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
November 6th, 2009
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| More drama on the disabled parking front today. Last week when I took Peo to her music class, as I pulled into the tiny lot of the music school, there was a great big truck in the middle, blocking everyone from getting around. It's a one-way driveway around, so it was keeping people from leaving at the end of the previous class, and it was completely blocking off all three disabled spots. I stuck my head out the window and shouted in case there was a driver there to hear me. There wasn't but another parent with a kid in the same class as Peo recognized me and knew about my walking problem, so she went and got the school's director. Long story short, the director took care of the problem, I was able to park, I spoke politely but firmly about the rights of the disabled versus the convenience of the production company doing the loading into the truck, and the director agreed and was apologetic. So today when I got there, two of the three disabled spots were taken, which was unusual. There was an SUV with a disabled plate and I've seen that before, but there was also a sedan without a disabled plate. As I parked I noticed it didn't have a hanging placard up either, and there was a woman sitting in there reading. I figured she's probably come to pick up her kid and figures she'll "only be there a few minutes" and therefore it's okay. As I got Peo out of our car, a man came up to the sedan with a wheeled table-trolley thing and started unloading things out of the sedan's trunk. I asked them if they had a disabled parking pass. The man said, "No, but I work here." I said, "Well that doesn't matter. It's not an unloading spot, it's a disabled spot." The woman opened the car door and said, "Oh, it's okay, I totally understand because my mom is an amputee. We're just here for a few minutes." I said, "Well then you should know that the spot is reserved for actual disabled people, not for unloading." She showed me that her foot was in a brace and said, "Oh believe me, I really do understand." I said, "Okay, then hang your disabled pass so there's no confusion." She said, "Well I don't have one." I said, "Then you can't park there." The guy repeated that he worked there and was just unloading some stuff for a few minutes. I sighed and said, "You have until I get into the lobby where I can sit down and get my cell phone out. Then I'm calling the police." Then the guy started getting uppity and telling me more about his right to be there, so I said over him, "Look, I'm getting really sick of constantly having to battle assholes who think they have the right to use these spots when they don't!" He flips out with, "WHOA WHOA WHOA! You can't talk like that!" I said, "Sure I can!" He points to Peo and says, "Not in front of her you can't!" I said, "I can swear in front of my own kid if I want to, and besides, she's smart enough to know that you're not supposed to be parking here!" Peo said in a very calm and eerily neutral tone, "Yeah." I repeated my warning about calling the police and started heading for the lobby. The guy said something else about working there so I shouted back, "Well then I'll go talk to your boss about it." As we were approaching the lobby, Peo said, "They're really really wrong. They can't park there." I told her she was right. Then she said, "That's bad behaviour. They're doing bad behaviour. That's not nice." I agreed again. As I went into the lobby, I could hear them peeling out of the lot fast enough to scatter gravel. Nice, given the number of kids in that lot at any given time! So I went right up to the desk and as soon as I started ranting about it, the director came out. We had a lengthy conversation about it including identifying the employee involved. She was extremely apologetic and understanding, even offering at one point to reimburse us the entire cost of Peo's class either for the one that's almost done or the one I've already signed her up for in January. I said I appreciated that but didn't want any money, that we had actually separately donated more than the cost of a class so that others without money could ensure their kids got to go to classes as well (because the school has a sliding scale for those who qualify). Of course, as soon as she realized I was donating beyond the class cost the apologies got bigger and more emphatic, which wasn't what I was after but now that I think about it, when I was doing non-profit work I'd have worried more about pleasing a donor too. Anyway, I said the point wasn't that I was personally inconvenienced either time, that my placard only has a month left on it so for the January class, I'll be parking in the back lot and walking around the long way as I did before my surgery. I reiterated what I'd said the previous week about it being less of an issue for me with a cane than for someone permanently in a wheelchair (last week I mentioned how I could cross the grass now to avoid the furniture being loaded on the truck, but that a month before I could not have walked on grass with just the cane). I said it was about wider disabled rights and ADA requirements, and that the staff need better education on why these are important issues of barriers and access. I said someone with a wheelchair doesn't have the option to step around stuff in the way or park in the unpaved back lot. She agreed and apologized more and promised to take care of it. So I took Peo back over to the kid area, read her part of a story, then took her to her class. When I came back into the lobby to knit and wait during her class, I saw the director's door closed, but through the window I could see the jerk employee standing in a shoulder-slumped kind of way in front of her desk, so I'm sure he was getting told. I must say, while I'd find it annoying if anyone did this sort of thing and I'm glad the employee got told off, the excuses of having an amputee mother and a foot brace really pissed me off more than anything else. It's like those people who think it's okay to say something racist because they've got a black friend. If you or someone you know is in the same situation, shouldn't you know BETTER? I had a leg brace much bigger than that woman's, and that whole time I parked in the back lot because I didn't have a disabled pass and therefore had no right to be parked in a disabled spot. Plus, her amputee mother was clearly not there, so even if she had a placard for her mother (which apparently she did not or I'm sure she would have whipped it out), she still had no right to be in that spot today. Even if her mother WAS there, if the mother doesn't have a plate or placard, then she too has no right to park in the spot. That's like saying that because someone turns 16 and could have a driver's license, it's okay for them to drive without one. Nope! It doesn't matter what your condition is or the condition of your passengers: you either have a pass or you don't, and if you don't, either get one or don't park in the disabled spot. It's usually free or very cheap to do it; in Austin it's free if you're permanently disabled, $5 for six months if you're temporarily disabled. So anyone who can afford to put gas in a car here can bloody well afford to get the pass. I'm also amused/irritated that apparently it's a much bigger crime to swear in front of my own kid than it is to actually break the law. Sheesh. Also, for a supposedly liberal town, Austin is far and away the worst city in which I've ever lived in terms of this attitude towards disabled parking. I'm increasingly appalled at the total lack of shame. It's pathetic that people in Las Vegas - a town whose slogan emphasizes a lack of personal responsibility - had far, far, far fewer people violating those reserved spaces than Austin. And for the record, over the last week or so I've been using them less myself at places like the library or other short-walk situations where there are wide spots where I'm unlikely to be boxed in. If I don't have the need, I don't use it despite having the legal right to do so. No more excuses, please. | ||||||
| comments: 5 comments or Leave a comment |
November 4th, 2009
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| You know those dreams where you're in a class you either would never take, or appear to have forgotten about, and all of a sudden it's exam day or there's some other factor that you're not ready for, and it's all super-stressful? I had one of those last night, but under fairly unusual circumstances... Yesterday I put in my registration for February's cake show in Austin, including paying for the Sunday demo session featuring Lauren Kitchens, Kathy Scott, and OMG *swoonforthecakeGOD* Mike McCarey (you can sign up for this and other classes/events too!). I considered taking one of McCarey's longer classes, but I really need that second one about structures NOW, and will have to learn that stuff myself in the next few weeks for my show cake. Plus since I'm not selling cakes, I can't cost-justify it, but oh man oh man I really wanna... Anyway, I decided to be responsible and settle for the demo during the show. But last night I dreamed that I had signed up for one of the other classes somehow by mistake or something, and when I showed up a couple of days before the show to help do setup (as I will be doing), I saw the people going into the class and someone told me I'd better hurry or I'd be late. I had the sinking feeling of having spent the money I didn't mean to spend, but it was too late to get it back at that point, so I then had the giddy rush of getting to go to the class. But then another sinking feeling because I hadn't brought whatever we were supposed to bring along (which isn't actually much for those classes, but for some of the others I considered, you need to bring a cake dummy with fondant and/or other things). So then in the dream one of the nice people from the cake club (I.H., waving at you if you read this which you probably don't) started giving me her extra supplies, which saved the day even though I still felt like a dork. And then, of course, just as the class was about to begin, I woke up. Damn, almost had free-dream-class with Mike McCarey, Cake God. How cake-nerdy is that? PS The show still needs volunteers and there are perks for putting in lots of hours. There's a meeting tonight at All in One Bakeshop (8566 Research Blvd Austin, TX 78758) at 6 pm. The announcement on the Meetup Group says, "Please make plans to attend the next meeting of the 2010 That Takes the Cake Show planning meeting for Committee chairs, members, and Volunteers. The group will be reviewing current plans for the show, discuss the budget, and potential classes. Anyone interested in participating in this planning process is encouraged to attend." So if you're interested in volunteering, come on by. Plus, my previous offer of potential time sitting in my kitchen watching me make stuff for those who promise to volunteer at the kiddie table with me still applies. | ||||||
| comments: 6 comments or Leave a comment |
October 30th, 2009
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| Hey Biscuit Brothers fans...Tiny Scarecrow has started his own blog: http://tinyscarecrow.com/ | ||||||
| comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
October 8th, 2009
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| The Cake Wrecks tour has been rescheduled for this Saturday at 2 pm, right in the middle of Peo's birthday party. So obviously, I can't go. If there's anyone in town going and who would be willing to take my cupcake wreck in for the competition, I'll let you keep any prize that's won...I just want the fame and glory! So far it seems everyone I know who is interested is busy and not going. :( | ||||||
| comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
October 4th, 2009
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| *headdesk* I spent the last three days making a Cupcake Wreckplica of epic proportions for the booksigning tour of the Cake Wrecks blog. But Jen and her husband have gotten really seriously sick (he's in the ICU!) so they had to cancel the Austin trip. The poor things are no doubt run ragged. I feel awful for them. But selfishly, I feel awful for me too because I really really really put a lot into my Wreckplica and I doubt it'll survive long enough for a potential reschedule, since it's got actual cupcake in it, and much of it is exposed as part of what it is emulating. And I doubt I can find time for another one what with Peo's birthday party, then holiday stuff, plus I really need to get going on stuff for my show cake soon. I'll take lots of photos and post them later. eta pics up here: http://kimberlychapman.livejournal.c | ||||||
| comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment |
August 18th, 2009
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| I give up on finding soccer stuff for Peo this fall. It looks like the YMCA - whose brochure emphasizes the C more than I'd like - requires kids to be 4 before the season starts, which conflicts what other parents had told me. Hmph. Then there are a gazillion other for-profit things that seem to be big-time competitive. Nope, no thanks. (Plus a lot of those require kids to be 4 by September too). And the city's pages are useless for finding actual information for little kids' stuff. I can find plenty of info on baseball and football for older kids. So unless someone reading this has better info on preschooler soccer in South Austin for the fall, I give up. On the better side, I've just registered Peo for her fall music classes. Unfortunately the teacher she likes is only available on Fridays, so we'll have to change her school schedule to accommodate that. But it's worth it, because that teacher is awesome and already gets Peo's strengths and oddities (ie Peo does not often join the group in singing or dancing, because she prefers to study the others intently). | ||||||
| comments: 5 comments or Leave a comment |
August 3rd, 2009
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| I finally got email back from the Maker people, and there is officially NO Austin Maker Faire this year. Bummer. We promised Peo last year that we'd go back. :( They said: "Unfortunately, we do not have plans for Maker Faire Austin this year - primarily due to a weak economy and lack of sponsor interest and support. Hopefully, things will change for the future - but that is where we are at right now." | ||||||
| comments: 10 comments or Leave a comment |
July 25th, 2009
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| Our Austin Children's Museum family pass expires at the end of July, so we decided to risk the relative inaccessibility and go with Peo today so she could do some of the stuff at the much-touted MakerKids exhibit (which does not appear to have any specific O'Reilly branding, but the logos and artwork match Maker magazine style, so...?). As we suspected, accessibility is very limited. If there was nobody else there, I could have squeezed into a couple more places, but I do mean squeeze; the upper level entrance to the construction zone is about an inch wider than the wheelchair, the Global Market/milk/vet/play food area was far too narrow to risk entering with other people coming through, and I'm not sure I could have negotiated the turns necessary to get around in there. The "My Family" exhibit is mostly wide enough to get in and around, except for several raised false-floors that don't have enough bevel on the edges to allow for wheelchairs to get up onto them. For pity's sake, a half hour with a power tool could make that exhibit more accessible and they just didn't bother! And as always, the train area (which was not working; the train is currently dead) is barely accessible to those who can walk because of it's extremely narrow and steep metal staircase, and 100% inaccessible to the disabled. It is telling that I noticed a kid-size wheelchair parked with the strollers...someone nice was obviously carrying a disabled kid around because the wheelchair simply couldn't go to half of the places. MakerKids was sorta vaguely accessible, insofar as it was mostly tables with supplies and I could get up along broadside and kinda do stuff. Except as soon as a few people are seated at the tables, there's no room to get a wheelchair in and out, and they've put garbage and recycling bins between tables so it becomes a bit of a maze. They've also moved the penny vortex thingy to a place that makes the entrance to the main area about two people wide, so this was a choke point for all coming in and out, and I could only get through when nice people cleared out of my way entirely. Then I finally convinced Peo to try a sewing activity and intended to help her, only to find out that you have to sign out sewing needles (this is a good thing that prevents them from lying around dangerously) and they were out (this is a totally stupid thing, for crying out loud you can get a multipack of the damned things for a buck or two at Hobby Lobby!). Gahh. I felt justified in bringing the cloth she'd chosen home and promised I'd help her sew it another day. As for getting there, we had some fun with uneven sidewalks (although nothing so bad as in other parts of downtown, where sidewalks abruptly end and become grass or stairs), and there was one vehicle whose owner was damned lucky she was leaving as we approached, because she was totally illegally parked in a non-spot in such a way as to block the ramp. The people with her were working very hard to not see me waiting and glaring. As Corran put it later, they parked there thinking it wouldn't hurt anybody and when it was clearly a problem, they were all "um...whoops...heh...". Grr. On the nicer side, two cars who had gone too far into the crosswalk when stopping at lights backed out of the way so I could use the ramp, and the first one did it before I even had to look at her. The second required a bit of a glare to back up, but at least they did. For clarification, they were both over the stop line. Anyway, Peo had fun at the museum and Corran got stuck with chasing duty. I was able to do some things with her, but spent a lot of time lonely and bored, off to the side waiting while they did something I simply couldn't get to. During one of those times, I filled in a comment card to say that I'd come more frequently if it wasn't so inaccessible. We aren't renewing our membership for now. We'll go with Corran's parents when they come out but frankly, between non-preschooler-friendly exhibits (MakerKids at least put some thought into that age range, the previous CapMetro bus thing was STUPID for little ones because everything was on high stools and required comprehensive reading skills) and inaccessibility, we won't be going often enough anymore to justify a year's pass. However, we're inspired ever the more to get ourselves to Toronto soon for a trip to the Ontario Science Centre. But here's a very nice and literally cool thing: last month the museum had a survey and if you did it, you got a page to print for a coupon for a free gelato down the street. So we brought in the page and they gave us three coupons, and we went for it afterwards. It was so delicious that I have to give them mention: the place was Paciugo, www.paciugo.com, 241 West 2nd Street. It's not cheap stuff, but it was very good and not obscenely expensive ($3.99 for the small size we were having, except ours was free with the coupon) so I'd happily go again after a museum trip. I had the chocolate-chocolate-chip and it was DARK and rich and glorious. Lovely lovely. Peo had the same flavour and when I asked if it was just okay or delicious, she grunted, "YUM." I would definitely recommend it. We also appreciated the small spoons, because stuff of this quality should be savoured, not shovelled. Corran and I noted that it was more of European-style eating experience than a typical wanton calorie binge, and we liked that very much. | ||||||
| comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
July 1st, 2009
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| 1) Happy Canada Day! Woohoo! 2) This also marks our first full year in Austin. 3) Got the cast off today. I'm supposed to now wear support hose to minimize swelling, plus back to the black boot of doom (which is at least removable and so I won't have to wear it when I sleep). But after doing all of that for a couple of hours today, I noticed some drainage from one of the incisions on the support hose, so I called and now they want the hose off and Corran has to go buy some iodine solution stuff so I can put wet dressings on it for awhile. Yay. And there's enough pain when I try to step that I'm not really walking yet. Plus they couldn't x-ray today because their machine needs repair, so I'm holding off on full pressure until an x-ray says it's okay even if it hurts. 4) While there, we discussed the ultrasound machine non-covered-by-insurance issue. I think the doc intends to argue that, but other than that, he said if the rep said they wouldn't bill me, they won't, but just to be sure he's putting a call in to remind the rep of that. Also, the other billing nonsense has been distilled down to this: I paid the remainder of my deductible to the hospital, but somehow the doctor's office got its billing into the insurance before the hospital did even though the hospital's bill is dated the day before, so the hospital now has to refund me the $837.37 so I can then pay it to the doctor's office. And yes, it's too much to ask that the insurance do so...they told me I have to do it myself. Been waiting all day for a call back from the hospital's billing department. Oh, and the double-billing thing from the doc's office...they said his associate assisted in the procedure, hence the double-billing, and if insurance isn't covering it that's weird, but at least for that the doc's office is going to work it out with insurance themselves. Hopefully it doesn't turn into a bill for us but the lady there didn't seem to think it would. Fun. | ||||||
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June 24th, 2009
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| When we get time and money sufficient for it, we want to take Peo to the Toronto area to see and do all of the cool kid activities I grew up with, like the Ontario Science Centre, Ontario Place and Centre Island, etc. We planned also to go out to Whitby twice, once for my all-time favourite nature area (I have even instructed Corran that I want my ashes put there when I die), Heber Downs, and secondly for Cullen Gardens and Miniature Village. This morning I had a horrific nightmare that Heber Downs had been taken over by a mall-apartment-housing master planned complex thing, and all that was left was a small park of trees and a bit of a pond. When I woke up, I figured that sure, I bet a lot of what was farmland around it has been turned into more suburbs, but that hopefully the conservation area would still indeed be conserved. I checked, and it is, now managed by a government-established authority overseeing several similar areas in Durham. However, the news isn't so good for the other attraction. Cullen Gardens and Miniature Village was sold off by the next generation of owners. It closed in 2006. Major bummer. :( At least I know the Science Centre is still up and running...I cited its website recently in an online argument about accessibility and children's museums when some folks thought I was being unfair to the Austin Children's Museum for its relative non-accessibility. The Science Centre boasts that it is entirely barrier-free; the Austin museum has entire exhibits that require stair use (and bad stairs at that...tiny, skinny metal stairs that I hear parents complain about all the time, with good reason). I haven't looked into Ontario Place and Centre Island...I assume they're still going and still have tons of awesome kid things to do? I loved that area full of big padded foam cylinders (basically punching bags) where you'd get bounced all around as they swayed. PS Speaking of accessibility, I'm a bit sad this morning as an aside, because I had wanted to take Peo to Children's Art Day Park for a Biscuit Brothers concert. But it's effectively non-accessible. When I called to talk to the symphony people about it (they run the event and own the property), they said there was a path around the back of one of the buildings that was their wheelchair ramp in, since the primary entrance is by stairs. But the whole thing is cobblestone, and I remember the end of that path from last year as being quite steep; too steep for me to safely get myself up, especially with the frequent lack of purchase the wheels get on uneven surfaces. The guy on the phone also warned me that it'd be very crowded and did so in a tone that told me he didn't think I should go, even though the official line is that it's accessible. Children's Art Day Park is a great event for kids, and it's really sad that it, like pretty much everything else for families in Austin, is barely or non-accessible to the disabled. This is hands-down the least accessible place I've ever lived (the state Attorney General has even declared that state-owned buildings are ADA-exempt). | ||||||
| comments: 9 comments or Leave a comment |
June 19th, 2009
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| *sigh* I wish we could go to this, but between accessibility issues and babysitting issues, it's just not feasible. But other Austin area Whedon fans should take note: Austin's Can't Stop The Serenity 2009
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| comments: 7 comments or Leave a comment |
April 29th, 2009
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| I keep getting emails from various GLBT lists asking me to do all kinds of stunts to spread the gay rights messages to people who are not yet on board with the idea. The problem is, everyone I know well enough with whom I could discuss such things already is on board with gay rights. I may have had time and energy in my youth to hang out with all kinds of bigots just enough to try to educate them (and I did educate and turn around a few), but these days, I just don't. If I find out someone hates anyone else solely on the basis of race, ethnicity, country of origin, sexuality, religion, or any of the other obviously stupid things to judge someone on, I pretty much just exclude that person from my life. Plus, I live in Austin now, a town that's known as a little blue dot in a big red sea (with all this talk of Texas seceding, jokes abound about airlifting Austin out first). The people I randomly encounter tend to be pretty polarized, either pretty deeply liberal on everything or hardcore conservative, and the latter frequently don't want anything to do with me since I wear my liberalisms on my sleeve. Or chest...I have a lot of t-shirts that make it pretty obvious that, at the very least, I'm one of those pinko Canadian socialist types. So again, who am I going to have cause to talk to about gay rights? I'm all for protests and we've done those, but in my social circles, gay rights is a "yeah, duh, of course they should have them" issue. There's little awareness left to be raised amongst my friends. I mean, really...is anyone reading this actually still pig-headed enough to believe that gay couples shouldn't be allowed to marry and to parent? I absolutely know that such idiocy still exists, but I'd be surprised if it's on the part of anyone who gives a crap about what I have to say about it or anything else. | ||||||
| comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
March 27th, 2009
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| Know what I forgot about, living in the desert too long? The way all the greenery GLOWS with vibrant life after a few days of solid rain, when the clouds are still there but brightening so there's a diffuse white light over everything. Yesterday, Peo was offended that it was "raining on MY roof!" This is the child who didn't believe water could come out of the sky until she was almost two and saw it in NZ. Let's hope there's enough regular rain in Austin this year to make her used to it. | ||||||
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March 15th, 2009
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| 1) Took Peo to a birthday party at a park this morning. She had a lot of fun at times, but because she refused to let us dress her appropriately (it was fairly cold for the area), she got cold and cranky. I think at least one of the other parents there thinks I'm not dressing her right because I got more than one tsk-tsk look and some veiled lectures. I tried to defend myself insofar as Peo's hardline personality, talking about how it took Corran and I half an hour this morning, including opening the back door for her to feel the cold, just to talk her into tights (she wanted to go bare-legged with a dress). I also mentioned that part of the problem was Pi Day, and Peo wanted her Pi shirt showing, so although we'd talked her into a sweater under the Pi t-shirt, she was refusing any kind of jacket over it. Some understood that some kids just need to figure things out themselves because you can't really duct tape the clothes to them. But there were still a couple who kept shaking their heads at me. I did eventually talk Peo into her knitted poncho (I got lightly scolded for that by a parent, saying that that kind of yarn isn't warm enough), and after that, it was easier to talk her into the emergency jacket I keep in the back of the car (which is why I started with the poncho but hey, it's not like I know my own kid best or anything). Plus the more other parents gave her pity, the more she played up being cold because she likes attention from other parents. I mean, she did get cold, but I can tell it's played up when her attention is distracted and she forgets to maintain the dramatic level of shivering. But her acting made me look even more negligent, I'm sure. *sigh* I know I shouldn't care what other people think of me as a parent and mostly I don't, but it does bug me when Peo won't let me help her and then I end up looking like I don't take care of her. At a park playdate last month, she kept going up to other moms to ask for help getting on the swing when I was standing RIGHT BEHIND HER saying, "Peo, I'll help you! Come on!" At least then it was more apparent that it wasn't my fault. Today just looked like I didn't care if my kid was cold. On the upside, the awesome mom of the birthday boy (who wasn't judging me at all, for the record, and was one of the first people to be super-nice in welcoming us to Austin before we even moved here) had tons of great stuff for the kids to do, mostly stuff she made herself out of found objects or inexpensive stuff, like parachutes made out of old bags and bits of yarn with foil-covered cups as weights (the kids tossed them off of the playground equipment and had a blast, pure genius!). She also had pvc pipes linked up with one end stuck on an empty 2L pop bottle, and then the kids could slide little tube rockets on the other end, squeeze the bottle (with adult help to get a good puff), and the rockets would go flying. Totally awesome! There was also some amusing drama when Peo went to the park's horizontal tire swing and another kid ran up at the same time. It's horizontal so three kids can sit on it at the same time (and not really a tire, btw, but tire-like). Well, Peo wanted none of that, despite having run around singing about how great she was at sharing five minutes previously with the rockets. I and the other girl's mum sat the kids on the swing and tried to convince Peo that it was more fun with friends. She cried, cried, cried and the other kid was looking at her with a total, "What's your problem?" expression. Then another boy comes over and his mom helped him on. Oh, NOW it was awesome, as far as Peo was concerned. All three kids giggling, singing, so happy. Yay! Half hour later, Peo decides she wants to use this swing again. You see where this is going, right? Despite her protests of wanting to use it alone before, now she CANNOT POSSIBLY use it alone. Well, the boy has gone home and the girl is busy with the rockets. So I told Peo she could ask if others wanted to swing with her, but all she would do is wander past the kids whining, and guhhh, none of them stopped what they were doing to follow her to the swing. *headdesk* Someone please tell me that they figure this sharing-social thing out soon... Oh well, a big thanks to the birthday boy's mom for the great goodie bags, though, because Peo was quiet and happy the whole drive home with those outer space stickers! 2) Freaky tangential thing...so on Friday I was volunteering for post-cake-show stuff, sorting the judging comments from the tasting competition and matching their numbers with the contestant forms (for fair judging, contestant names aren't on the forms that go with their cakes) so they could be mailed out to the contestants. Well I got to one address and it was...well obviously I can't put it on a blog so I'll fake it... 1234 WEIRDSTREETNAME Rd. But WEIRDSTREETNAME, the actual name, is the exact same weird street name that one of Corran's sisters lives on in Australia. Let me be clear: this is a weird street name. It's not like one that every town would have. I just googled it and it's a geographical place in Europe, but not one I'd heard of. And freakier still, this was the one and only form I saw where the check-in person had accidentally put the number sticker over part of the address. So I pick it up from the pile and see something like: 1234 WEIRDSTREETNAME Rd. AU And for a second I thought, "Holy crap, not only did someone come all the way from Australia with a cake, but they live on the same street as my sister in law!" Then I realized no, AU was the start of AUSTIN, and the sticker was covering up the rest. Okay, I got a chuckle, moved on. But on the way back from the party today, I missed my turn onto the road that went back to the highway, so I had to go to the next street and turn onto it to pull a u-turn and go back. Just as I go onto this street, I notice that it is, in fact, WEIRDSTREETNAME Rd! And this is the opposite end of town from where we live, somewhere we never would have gone if not for this party, and it's just a little residential street, not one I ever should have had reason to be on. Freaky, huh? (PS Icon chosen to illustrate that in the past, I have successfully dressed my child for cold weather. Back before she learned to resist.) | ||||||
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February 11th, 2009
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| Attention Austin folks who've heard about the new Newflower market opening in South Austin today (aka Sunflower market elsewhere, but since there's already a store here called that, they're calling their Texas stores Newflower): I went to Newflower today (insane waits, even for parking, but Peo was happy with the free ice cream...until it dribbled all over her dress and the floor, aiiee) and wrote down some prices: Bulk rolled oats, non-organic: 0.99 / lb Bulk rolled oats, organic: 1.49 / lb (I believe that's the same as HEB on Slaughter/Escarpment, but that Central Market is a dime cheaper) Orrowheat breads: 4.99 (they're $3.99 at HEB) Bulk Dried Apples, sulphured, non-organic: 3.99 / lb Bulk Dried Apples, non-sulphured, organic: 8.99 / lb Bulk Tabouli mix: 3.99 /lb Bulk pastry flour: 1.29 / lb Bulk whole wheat flour: 0.99 / lb Bulk AP flour: 0.99 / lb Seventh Generation diapers, size 4, 30 pack: 12.99 Boneless beef rump roast: 4.99 / lb Organic milk: The cheapest that day was Horizon, regular 5.59, but on sale for 4.99. CM Organics milk is always 4.99, at CM or HEB. And extra notes from my receipt: Garlic cloves: 4 / $1 Bananas on sale for 0.47 per lb but I believe that's the regular price, or close to it, at HEB 16 oz strawberries on special for 0.88, regular price is $2.99 Earth's best Honey or Apple Cinnamon snack crackers: 3.29 per box (it's just nice to see them in stock, although too bad they don't have the whole grain/multigrain cereal mixes, just the rice one) Organic applesauce, including regular and mixed with other fruits: on sale for $1.99, regular $2.49 Organic mushroom spaghetti sauce: on sale for 2.79, regular price 3.79, I think the CM Organic equivalent sauce is $2.99 at HEB 8 oz bag of Neti pot salt (hard to find elsewhere): 2.59 But oddly, a 10 oz jar was over 6 dollars. That's a lot for the jar! I also wanted ground cloves, but they didn't appear to have bulk spices as CM/HEB does, and while they had some store-branded spices for really good prices, the selection was limited. Their other spices were natural/organic, depending on the spice, and too expensive for my budget (I think the ground cloves were something like $7ish, forgot to write it down, sorry). I wanted ground pork but they didn't have any. Meat selection is fairly limited compared to HEB. Overall I'd say the selection is somewhat comparable to Central Market, albeit smaller, and the prices are similar or a bit more than Central Market/HEB. Probably useful if it's closer to you than Central Market and if you shop sales, but I personally wouldn't go again for price savings unless there was a specific and awesome sale. PS They're giving out a free reuseable bag all day today, with purchase. | ||||||
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February 2nd, 2009
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| The funniest thing about living in Austin so far is not just the zombies, but that the news site has a "guide to the undead". | ||||||
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January 13th, 2009
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Passing this on from a friend, with permission:
I just sent the following by email to the City Manager:
I encourage everyone in Austin to do something similar. Politicians do pay attention to massive outcry! And for those outside of Austin, your libraries are probably under threat as well in this economic climate. Contact your officials to make sure your libraries stay open! | ||||||
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Blatherings
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