Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Wonderkath's LiveJournal:

[ << Previous 20 ]

Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008
3:49 pm	Another reason why I love Oakland... J's best friend moved over the summer from Oakland up to Albany (Albany, California, that is -- north of Berkeley)(for access to better public schools) -- and Josie decided that the perfect Christmas present for her would be an "I Hella (heart) Oakland" T-shirt. To get this, she went to a store near her Dad's house: Santa's Crib. (This is usually a gift shop for Everette and Jones Barbecue, renamed for the season.) But wait, as if I Hella Heart Oakland and Santa's Crib weren't enough, there's more: arriving at the shop yesterday the kids were greeted by an African-American Santa who gave them candy canes -- and they got a photo with him (and with a cutout of Barack Obama -- of which you can only see the torso in the picture but somehow I still knew) for free. I hella heart Oakland. (Comment on this)
Thursday, December 18th, 2008
9:12 am	Highlights of 2008! Before I get to hopes/resolutions for next year, here are the highlights for this one: 1. Our two week trip to Italy in August (some pictures up here:http://www.flickr.com/photos/kathask/collections/72157608115858808/ -- I'm getting them up bit by bit) 2. Josie's new kitten Chi. (Someday I'll get up some pictures of her, too.) 3. Season 4 of So You Think You Can Dance. (Comment on this)
Thursday, November 20th, 2008
11:26 am	Birthday Birthday! Yup, today is. 44 years young. And a good one so far (life and day, actually). Back story: the day before my 19th birthday, I was in my junior year at Reed. I played rugby, and that day played the best rugby game of my life. (I found the ball available, grabbed it, and ran, which just didn't happen all that much in my rugby career.) I went home (the Bourgeois Palace, if anyone remembers it by that name -- Reed owns it now) to shower after the game and before the party -- and found a plate of chocolate chip cookies and a bouquet of balloons, sent by my mom for my birthday! (I think she couldn't get Sunday delivery for the actual day of.) Then I went to the post-game party which was awesome -- terrific food and drink, people telling me how well I'd played, dancing to David Bowie (Modern Love -- still one of my favorite songs). And then 19, the year of being 19, totally rocked. Since then, I've sort of had the superstition that as goes the day before my birthday, so goes my year. (All you empiricists out there are asking if I have other confirming examples. Well no, not really, but I don't let that stop me. Give me long enough and I'll twist some facts around to confirm the theory.) I told Joe this story last weekend. And yesterday I got home from work and found in my living room, on a glitter-covered coffee table (J's touch) a bouquet of balloons (purple! my favorite) and a basket of goodies -- chocolate chip cookies, goat cheese and nice crackers, almonds, a jar of brandied peaches (oh, *yum*! although I haven't tried them yet -- need ice cream to go with). So it's looking to be a good one this year ... and did I mention that I have the most awesome boyfriend on the face of the planet? (And today is shaping up pretty nicely, too.) Current Mood: happy (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, October 23rd, 2008
10:53 am	fun quiz This really was fun to take: Your result for What Your Taste in Art Says About You Test... Conscientious, Fulfilled, and Spiritual 15 Renaissance, 9 Islamic, 4 Ukiyo-e, -19 Cubist, -20 Abstract and -5 Impressionist! The Renaissance was a cultural movement that profoundly affected European intellectual life. Beginning in Italy, and spreading to the rest of Europe by the 16th century, its influence affected literature, philosopy, religion, art, politics, science, and all other aspects of intellectual enquiry. Renaissance artists looked at the human aspect of life in their art. They did not reject religion but tended to look at it in it's purest form to create visions they thought depicted the ideals of religion. Painters of this time had their own style and created works based on morality, religion, and human nature. Many of the paintings depicted what they believed to be the corrupt nature of man. People that like Renaissance paintings like things that are more challenging. They tend to have a high emotional stability. They also tend to be more concientious then average. They have a basic understanding of human nature and therefore are not easily surprised by anything that people may do. They enjoy life and enjoy living. They are very aware of their own mortality but do not dwell on the end but what they are doing in the present. They enjoy learning, but may tend to be a bit more closed minded to new ideas as they feel that the viewpoint they have has been well researched and considered. These people are more old fashioned and not quite as progressive. They enjoy the finer things in life like comfort, a good meal, and homelife. They tend to be more spiritual or religious by nature. They are open to new aesthetic experiences. Take What Your Taste in Art Says About You Test at HelloQuizzy (Comment on this)
Thursday, July 31st, 2008
11:14 am	Jif Jif I am the choosy mother who chooses Jif. Desperate in 7-11, at ten o’clock on Wednesday night, because I need to get the dog to take his meds. (Choosy himself, he’s learned to pick the pills out of a gourmet sausage, rejects outright the cheap hot dogs he used to gobble down.) Yes, I am a choosy mother, one who makes choices every day, every minute, choices that have led me here, to stare at the last, dusty jar of peanut butter on the fluorescent lit shelf amidst the cups o’ noodles and boxes of mac ‘n cheese. Here with no choice but to buy, and go home. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 4th, 2008
11:05 am	Thank you. One of the stupid things I do in my life is periodically to get mad at my friends for not paying attention to me.  I'll go months and months and not hear from people who are important to me and I'll dig in my heels and refuse to call them (or e-mail, or whatever) because it's always me calling them, never the reverse.  Then eventually I realize I'm being stupid and I call. I'm going through that realization right now, and thinking of how much I owe to all the people who stand by me in my life, in real life and on line, how much they all -- you all -- deserve to have me make the effort to say hello, check in, and offer my support as best I can. So, to all of you who read my livejournal (and whose journals I read):  Thank you.  Thank you for caring.  Thank you for offering your support and sometimes advice.  Thank you for amusing me and bringing me useful information and reminding me that so much of what I go through, others also are going through -- I am not alone.  You matter to me.  Thank you.   (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 20th, 2008
2:14 pm	Meme What were you doing five years ago? Working for the State Assembly Judiciary Committee, taking care of my kids (then ages 6 and 3!).  That summer was when I began to make plans to move to the Bay Area.  What are five things on your to-do list for today (not in any particular order)? Conference call on insurance coverage issues (check) Call to discuss filing of Case Management Statement (check) Scoop dog poo from yard, water garden. Wrap Joe's birthday gift. Do back exercises and yoga. What are five snacks you enjoy? Ritter Alpine milk chocolate Chile-lime cheetos (don't have them very often, though) Tortilla chips with salsa Cherries! Fuji apples What five things would you do if you were a billionaire? Set up my own foundation and spend time deciding what projects to fund Buy and furnish a really really nice house with lovely garden.  Hire help to keep the house clean and the garden tended Explore running for office Buy an apartment in NYC. What are five of your bad habits? Biting my nails On-line time wasters (like this!) Putting off making phone calls Eating in response to stress. Bad posture at my desk.  What are five places where you have lived? Brooklyn, NY Portland, OR New Haven, CT Sacramento, CA Oakland, CA (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, May 8th, 2008
12:19 pm	Book Meme These are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing's users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you've read; underline the ones you read for school; italicize the ones you started but didn't finish; and place an asterisk beside the ones you liked and would (or did) read again or recommend, even if you read them for school in the first place. ( Read more... ) Current Mood: well read (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, May 2nd, 2008
8:16 pm	A pretty good day I didn't think I was going to like today, but most of the way through it, I'm thinking it was a good day in the way I want my days to be good. Up with the kids and got them out the door and off to school. Showered and dressed and went off to the grocery store, came home and put away groceries (mostly, some fruit awaits washing) and started some chicken soup with leftover chicken I couldn't bear to throw away. Heated up leftover brisket and made a salad for lunch. Changed into my suit (my purple suit! but really, it looks quite professional) and stopped by the office, got ready to go to court for a "case management conference" (judge sits down with both sides to set up what's happening for the next few months). Went in, and yay, the settlement we thought wasn't going to happen is almost certainly going to happen. (As the judge set the next conference, I looked at my datebook and realized, oops, completely spaced the parent-teacher conference I had yesterday. Called teacher and left message on way back, hope I can do a make-up.) Back to office to drop off the file, home, brief check of e-mail, go get older daughter and her friend, take to softball, pick up dog's medication refill, home. Now I have to get younger daughter, and take her over to the softball field -- their Dad is picking up from there, it's his weekend with the kids. And then dinner: I'm planning pork chops, collard greens, cornbread. Yesterday, my younger daughter, responding to a cover of a local magazine that had an article about "work-life balance," asked me whether I would rather have an amazing career (making a million dollars a day!) or whether I'd rather be the most amazing mom, "making really good decisions" (I love that at 9 she gets that that's what's hard) and having my kids turn out fantastic. I told her, no contest, all I'd want the million dollars a day for anyhow was to help my kids. (Yeah, that leaves out the other things I get from working.) Kind of clarified things for me, as to why I've made some of the choices that right now I'm feeling uncertain about. But today is a day I can say: I'm glad to have both the career and the family. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 12th, 2008
11:10 am	Checkup Went for my annual physical. I love my doctor. She pays attention. She remembers what we've talked about in the past. She actually seems to ... gasp! care. Basically, bottom line is -- I'm fine. Of course, that's pending me going in for the mammogram, and the cholesterol test, and getting back the pap smear results. On the achy knees issue (the reason I've recently given up running) she acknowledged the benefit of exercising outside and said said, if you want to run sometimes, take ibuprofen first, and run on a soft surface (she suggested the track at UC Berkeley, open on weekends, she says). (She's my age, roughly -- we ruefully discussed the fact that you just get achier as you get older.) She gave me a referral to a physical therapist for my current chronic but low level one side low back pain, after I said yeah, I think it would be worth it to go and take care of this. She noted, looking up my nose, that I seem to have some allergies going on (post nasal drip) but respected my statement that the symptoms were barely noticeable and therefore I did not want to take anything for them. I got my ten year tetanus booster -- arm is a little achy but not too bad; I took some aspirin. (Comment on this)
Thursday, February 14th, 2008
10:30 am	Happy Valentine's Day! We've already had the Valentine making frenzy, followed by the Valentine finishing frenzy (involving hot glue and Hershey's kisses), and the Valentine's morning dog-gets-at-Valentine-with-hot-glued-kisses, and a box of chocolates for me! and roses, for Joe! and more to come, all very festive. And here's my box, come say hi! ( my valentine postbox ) Current Mood: festive (Comment on this)
Monday, January 7th, 2008
10:56 am	Resolved: My resolutions this year are in a different direction -- I actually feel like I'm doing what I need to on the exercise/healthy eating/getting organized etc. etc. fronts -- it's a process, but I'm getting into /continuing/extending some good habits. So I have two resolutions this year. One is simple: use less plastic. Mostly, I intend to do this by bringing my own bags everywhere -- I already do for groceries, but am starting to do it for drug store runs and the like. The other is more complicated. It boils down to "Do more to help others." But it's more complicated than that. I've been spending a lot of time thinking about my career and my idea that I'll get some job that will be the wonderful public-interest thing that I really really want to do, and I'm coming around to thinking, well, maybe I will change jobs and maybe I won't but in the meantime I need to put more time (and more money, in the way of donations) towards helping others: probably through some form of pro bono work (volunteer legal work for people who need but can't afford attorneys -- there are many programs through which I can do this). (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, December 27th, 2007
11:05 am	Christmas This Year I kind of loved this Christmas. It just never got into the over-the-top, too much stuff, too much running around after stuff, etc. kind of thing. Early Hannukah helped -- the stuff was more spread out over time, and Hannukah was more mellow. As December progressed I got the pleasure of outside lights (courtesy Joe) and a big beautiful tree (ditto) and we had our party which was busy-making but a big success with yummy things to eat (mostly Joe again). Friends and neighbors not only came, but brought gifts -- post party we had many bottles of wine and a big box of really good chocolates and a few other things I'm forgetting. One neighbor was so taken by the gingerbread cookies Joe made (straight out of Fanny Farmer) she asked for the recipe and then baked us a pecan pie (which arrived a couple of days before Christmas). Two weekends before Christmas, without my kids, I baked chocolate-mint snaps which turned out very pretty and yummy and were put in little treat bags to hand around to various people at school (with Peet's gift certificates). I coordinated all the parents in my older daughter's class to contribute to one big gift (Amazon gift card) for her teacher (I'm the "room parent") -- and it worked, we gave her quite a significant amount! Weekend before Christmas, I did cookie baking with the kids (and one of D's friends who was with us). I've posted here before that this is not my favorite activity, but it gets less-annoying every year; now we have Christmas cookies in the house, and we had some to set out for Santa. My kids, who no longer believe in Santa, nonetheless assured me that he likes our cookies best because he knows how much fun we have making them. We also hit the big Thrift Town (in the process winding up getting excellent barbecue ribs for lunch) and they did some shopping there. The kids were with their Dad Christmas eve/morning. Joe and I had Christmas eve dinner at his brother's house -- yummy duck enchiladas (for some reason they always serve duck at Christmas; the enchiladas were an attempt to get creative) and Joe made dessert: gingerbread-pear trifle out of the current Sunset magazine, which was one of the best desserts I've ever eaten. They also had quenelles from a bakery and we got leftovers of both to take home. A quiet Christmas morning; I gave Joe a big fuzzy bathrobe and he gave me earrings. Then early afternoon the kids came home and opened their gifts: We actually had a Wii under the tree for J (kudos to her Dad, who scored it from a coworker) and a Nintendo DS Lite for D (and some other small gifts). The kids spent most of the day playing with these. I was proud of my kids for their thrift shopping: I got four lovely sweaters (pullover type). Joe made a pork roast for Christmas dinner which was indescribably delicious and of which we have lots left. So, it's good. Now I just have to survive a week and a half of my kids home from school -- day after Xmas was filled with much squabbling. (Comment on this)
Friday, November 9th, 2007
8:50 am	The Starlight Night Shamelessly taken from a friend's blog: LOOK at the stars! look, look up at the skies! O look at all the fire-folk sitting in the air! The bright boroughs, the circle-citadels there! Down in dim woods the diamond delves! the elves'-eyes! The grey lawns cold where gold, where quickgold lies! Wind-beat whitebeam! airy abeles set on a flare! Flake-doves sent floating forth at a farmyard scare!-- Ah well! it is all a purchase, all is a prize. Buy then! bid then!--What?--Prayer, patience, alms, vows. Look, look: a May-mess, like on orchard boughs! Look! March-bloom, like on mealed-with-yellow sallows! These are indeed the barn, withindoors house The shocks. This piece-bright paling shuts the spouse Christ home, Christ and his mother and all his hallows. --Gerard Manley Hopkins (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 12th, 2007
10:44 am	Concert Meme Copy this list. Leave in the bands you've seen perform live, delete the ones you haven't, and add new ones that you have seen until you reach 25. An asterisk means the previous person had it on their list, two asterisks means the last two people who did this before you had that band on their list, and so on. 1. The Grateful Dead **** 2. Jane's Addiction 3. Nine Inch Nails 4. Ice T 5. Siouxsie and the Banshees 6. Living Colour 7. Butthole Surfers 8. Rollins Band 9. Elvis Costello* 10. David Bromberg Band 11. Plasmatics 12. Duran Duran 13. Tom Rigney & Flambeau 14. Funkengruven 15. Tito Puente 16. Lavay Smith and the Red Hot Skillet Lickers 17. Sun Ra * 18. Fred Frith 19. Dumi 20. Jonathan Richman ** 21. Johnny Winter* 22. Benny Goodman 23. San Francisco Symphony 24. Eroica Trio 25. Four Day Creepers My notes: one, bands 2-8 were all at the first Lollapalooza and that's where I saw them. Two, I saw this in several people's LJs and starred for anyone who listed that band. Three, note that I've stretched this by including classical (and in fact I saw the Eroica Trio *with* the SF Symphony, so maybe that's cheating) but there's lots and lots of bands I've seen that I just don't remember the names of -- in Sacramento I went to tons of free outdoor concerts by good local bands, but I don't remember most of the band names; similarly, I saw lots of bands at socials when I was at Reed but don't remember who they were. I have listed a few memorable local bands. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007
3:10 pm	Borscht on the Fourth of July I was going to say that I really have nothing to say about that, except I might make some and I thought it was funny. (I've been meaning to make it, I've got the ingredients, and then I've got a day off, right?) But then I realized that tomorrow is also the fifteenth anniversary of my mother's death, and she loved cold borscht. (This particular cold borscht -- it's my grandmother's recipe.) So if I do make it, it can be memorial borscht. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, May 11th, 2007
4:16 pm	In honor of Mother's Day... Three things that remind me of my (late) mother: 1. Twilight walks. I usually go for a half hour walk when my older daughter has her piano lesson at 7 p.m. Her teacher lives in a lovely neighborhood, and as the days have grown longer the walk has gone from being right at and after sunset to being just before. The sky darkens to the deep and gemlike blue you see at that time of day; the streets are quiet. My mother loved that time of the evening and the color of the sky then. She, like me, was a dutiful woman whose enjoyment of the evening would have been heightened by the knowledge that the walk was a healthy thing to do. I often find myself imagining, on my walks, that she is in Oakland visiting and is walking beside me. It's a wonderful thing to imagine my mother alive and well and walking at age 74; this Fourth of July it will be 15 years since she died. 2. Prairies. My mother grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and while I was growing up we went there every summer to visit my grandparents. We'd make the hour long drive up to my grandparents' summer cottage in Gimli, a little town on the Western shore of Lake Winnipeg. We'd play "counting cows" and watch for the five creeks between Winnipeg and Gimli. Every year my mother would look out across the endless fields and sky and she'd sigh and say how beautiful it was, how much she loved the prairie. 3. Medical dramas on TV. My mother was a pathologist (and clinical professor of pathology); her favorite TV show ever was Quincy, M.E. Nowadays there seem to be a lot of TV shows that have pathologists in some kind of prominent role; back then Quincy was the only one. My mother loved to watch any medical show and make the diagnosis before anyone on the show did; she took after her general practitioner father in being a talented diagnostician. She read murder mysteries for fun and I think it was a deep pleasure to her to watch mysteries that her own particular expertise could solve. I watched House the other day and thought how much she would have liked to figure out the diagnosis. I of course had no clue until he explained it all at the end and even then didn't know if the details had been right; I wish I could have been watching with her. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, April 30th, 2007
1:17 pm	I'm Nobody I'm Nobody! Who are you? by Emily Dickinson I'm Nobody! Who are you? Are you—Nobody—Too? Then there's a pair of us! Don't tell! they'd advertise—you know! How dreary—to be—Somebody! How public—like a Frog— To tell one's name—the livelong June— To an admiring Bog! (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 17th, 2007
10:13 am	Who do you like in '08? So, if I want to give some early money to a Democratic presidential candidate, which one should I give to, and why? My own take: I'm thinking either Edwards or Obama. (And yes, I need to find out more about what all of the candidates are saying.) I feel like Edwards has put forward a bit more substantive of a platform, and I like his emphasis on addressing our country's growing economic divide, but on the other hand Obama does seem to be pulling support and getting people excited, which is good. (No, I can't quite see giving to Hillary -- less liberal, and sometimes off-putting. Although I've warmed to her somewhat since the run for the primaries began.) Here's your chance to garner some cash support for your candidate of choice -- let me know what you think. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 17th, 2007
9:43 am	Second Grade Spelling Words Three sheep moan -- wait, dread beast. Deaf peas read. Sheet, cheek, throat: Coast mail meant thread, cream, wheel. (1 Comment |Comment on this)