Hey, book peeps, got any short story recommendations for me?
I have just worked my way through the entire short story collection of Sherlock Holmes while reading my Kindle at the gym. I've also recently read some stories by Kate Chopin, Isaac Asimov, Peter Tremayne and am currently reading the amazing Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri (highly recommended by me). Short stories really work for me at the gym and I need something that will keep me moving and not noticing the minutes going by. All suggestions welcome!
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
So What Are You Doing Today?
I should know that these words are often code for "Can you do me a favor?" Really, I should have it all figured out by now. But somehow, the last two days I've been caught out surprised.
Today, a friend called and asked me to pick up a hot lunch for her son and bring it to the school. It's his birthday and she wanted to surprise him. Yesterday, a different friend wanted me to go by her house, use her hideakey, and rummage around until I found her daughter's gymnastics leotard and bring it when I went to pick the kids up from school. These are not really isolated incidents. I find myself at times picking up forgotten medicine, driving kids other than my own to dance and art and music, picking up friends' sick kids from school, and running by the store for the snack for OM practice that someone else was supposed to bring.
That's part of the deal of when you're primarily a stay-at-home mom, I guess. Everyone thinks you're available to do all the errands and the carpool and whatever needs to be done during the day. To be fair, many of my friends are teachers and it is basically impossible for them to leave work if something has been forgotten that morning. And honestly, I don't really begrudge the time. I tried working full- and part- time after my kids were born and I never really found the balance that worked. Instead, my being at home and picking up occasional freelance writing projects works for my family. Life is less hectic and less crazy without both of us working. And, although we have to be careful and watch what we spend, we do have the means to live on one income and save a bit for retirement and college and still take the occasional vacation. We're lucky.
And that means I have enough time and energy for what needs to be done for my family and a little bit more to share. That's actually something I celebrate. One of my good friends is resigning her teaching job to stay home with her son and homeschool him next year. As I dropped off his lunch today, I said, "next year, you'll be the one getting these frantic calls instead of making them. You watch." She just laughed......and said she couldn't wait.
Today, a friend called and asked me to pick up a hot lunch for her son and bring it to the school. It's his birthday and she wanted to surprise him. Yesterday, a different friend wanted me to go by her house, use her hideakey, and rummage around until I found her daughter's gymnastics leotard and bring it when I went to pick the kids up from school. These are not really isolated incidents. I find myself at times picking up forgotten medicine, driving kids other than my own to dance and art and music, picking up friends' sick kids from school, and running by the store for the snack for OM practice that someone else was supposed to bring.
That's part of the deal of when you're primarily a stay-at-home mom, I guess. Everyone thinks you're available to do all the errands and the carpool and whatever needs to be done during the day. To be fair, many of my friends are teachers and it is basically impossible for them to leave work if something has been forgotten that morning. And honestly, I don't really begrudge the time. I tried working full- and part- time after my kids were born and I never really found the balance that worked. Instead, my being at home and picking up occasional freelance writing projects works for my family. Life is less hectic and less crazy without both of us working. And, although we have to be careful and watch what we spend, we do have the means to live on one income and save a bit for retirement and college and still take the occasional vacation. We're lucky.
And that means I have enough time and energy for what needs to be done for my family and a little bit more to share. That's actually something I celebrate. One of my good friends is resigning her teaching job to stay home with her son and homeschool him next year. As I dropped off his lunch today, I said, "next year, you'll be the one getting these frantic calls instead of making them. You watch." She just laughed......and said she couldn't wait.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Twitter my tweets
So I never really got into facebook or myspace, but I am playing with twitter a bit.
If you want to follow me, check me out here. That's one of my other aliases....because why not make it as confusing as possible? The irony of that handle is that I have since given up lattes, so I guess my truth in advertising should be princessdriproast, but it doesn't have the same ring, does it?
If you want to follow me, check me out here. That's one of my other aliases....because why not make it as confusing as possible? The irony of that handle is that I have since given up lattes, so I guess my truth in advertising should be princessdriproast, but it doesn't have the same ring, does it?
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
If It's Wednesday, There Must Be Kale
We joined a CSA, which stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Basically, you give a local farmer seed money up front, and then you share in his harvest. You also share in the risk of flood, drought, pestilence and assorted other natural disasters. Our reward? Farm-fresh produce, raised less than 75 miles away from my house. On Tuesday, it's in the fields, on Wednesday it's sitting in my kitchen. You really can't get any fresher than that. All organic, all locally-grown.
This is our fourth week of receiving produce. I thought it might be amusing to share what was in the basket this week. It's been changing weekly.
3 pounds of red potatoes
1 pound of button mushrooms
10 of the spiciest radishes ever
Bunch of kale
20 carrots
3 giant Texas sweet onions
a big bag of triple-washed baby salad mix (I am already addicted to this mix)
1 absolutely humongous cucumber
head of broccoli
one yellow squash, one zucchini
No beets this week, for which I am kind of grateful. One of the reasons I wanted to join was to force myself to try different foods, and beets have always been one of my yuck foods. So, I'm happy I tried it, but I still am not in love.
Last week, there was so much kale, I didn't know what to do. I made stir-fried kale with garlic; and a baked potato and kale dish and then I was about out of ideas. So, who knows what I'll try this week--there's a recipe on the internet for baked kale chips that apparently people eat like potato chips, but I'm (to quote Tim Gunn) dubious.
Anyway, if anyone has any absolutely to-die for kale recipes, please feel free to share them. My kids are likely to go on a no-veggie strike if I try to serve kale again too soon, but if it's a kid-friendly recipe, so much the better.
This is our fourth week of receiving produce. I thought it might be amusing to share what was in the basket this week. It's been changing weekly.
3 pounds of red potatoes
1 pound of button mushrooms
10 of the spiciest radishes ever
Bunch of kale
20 carrots
3 giant Texas sweet onions
a big bag of triple-washed baby salad mix (I am already addicted to this mix)
1 absolutely humongous cucumber
head of broccoli
one yellow squash, one zucchini
No beets this week, for which I am kind of grateful. One of the reasons I wanted to join was to force myself to try different foods, and beets have always been one of my yuck foods. So, I'm happy I tried it, but I still am not in love.
Last week, there was so much kale, I didn't know what to do. I made stir-fried kale with garlic; and a baked potato and kale dish and then I was about out of ideas. So, who knows what I'll try this week--there's a recipe on the internet for baked kale chips that apparently people eat like potato chips, but I'm (to quote Tim Gunn) dubious.
Anyway, if anyone has any absolutely to-die for kale recipes, please feel free to share them. My kids are likely to go on a no-veggie strike if I try to serve kale again too soon, but if it's a kid-friendly recipe, so much the better.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Facebook for Swine Flu
News this morning that they've closed two schools within 5 minutes of us due to suspected cases of the swine flu. This has me contemplating the interconnectedness of it all. There are schoolmates of my kids who have siblings at both the closed schools. And although of course a kid's closest contacts are with his or her classmates, they all play soccer or baseball or go to church youth group or scouts with kids from all over. It's like a giant connected real-life Facebook. We're all friends of friends of friends when it comes right down to it. And though thankfully cases seem mild, they're going to be popping up all over the city. It would be hard to keep track of which schools are closed, except for the fact that I believe they'll end up closing the whole district.
So when will my kids' school close? My money was on next week, but I'm now thinking tomorrow. My children of course are 'devastated' if by devastated you mean looking forward to watching cartoons and playing video games.
So when will my kids' school close? My money was on next week, but I'm now thinking tomorrow. My children of course are 'devastated' if by devastated you mean looking forward to watching cartoons and playing video games.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Swine Flu
When my youngest son was nineteen months old, he caught pneumonia. He had had a slight cold, but I didn't want him to miss a birthday party, so I took him to the party at the Children's Museum. It was typically crowded, and we spent a good hour playing in the Tot Spot, where the three-and-under crowd congregate. You know the ones that drool all over everything? I suspect that his immune system was slightly weakened from the cold, and the pneumonia-causing bacteria was then able to go straight to his lungs.
He seemed fairly sick. He had a high fever and I took him to the pediatrician. But I was surprised by the pneumonia diagnosis. He got an antibiotic shot. They called the next day to check on him and I told them he was no better, so he came back in for a second shot. Sometimes it takes more than one, they said. But, really, he didn't improve. We were giving him oral antibiotics and inhaled breathing meds too, but nothing seemed to be working. My pediatrician didn't want to hospitalize him, because the hospital was overcrowded and she'd had a couple of patients pick up other diseases in the hospital. So we were trying to manage him at home.
I remember listening to him breathe that Friday night and thinking he was just so ill....I almost took him to the hospital in the middle of the night, but we waited until the morning and took him to the dr.'s office. The pedi on call listened to him, checked his pulse-ox and sent us straight to the hospital. I still didn't think it was that serious, until when we were checking in and they didn't get all our insurance info--they sent us straight back to the respiratory unit and said they'd find us later. At 11:00 that night he had emergency surgery to drain his lung of the accumulated fluid. This operation saved his life and I am hugely grateful to everyone who was willing to open an operating suite in the middle of the night to save our son because he couldn't wait until the morning. After this, we spent a week in Texas Childrens Hospital and were released right before Christmas.
Each day he improved, although he was on five different spectrum antibiotics to knock out the superbug. He had somehow managed to pick up an antibiotic-resistant strain of bacteria, which is why he never responded to the original medication. My father, a practicing pulmonologist for over 35 years, had never seen a case himself, but his grandchild managed to pick up the wrong toy at the wrong time.
The news this morning that a 23 month old has died here in Texas from Swine Flu has stirred these memories. I've been that parent, watching your child struggle to breathe and feeling so helpless. Our story had a happy ending, but if we had waited any longer to go to the hospital, it might have been too late.
There's no real lesson here for swine flu, other than if you feel run down or sick, you probably should stay out of large crowds. I think you're just more vulnerable when your immune system is slightly repressed. And to seek medical help promptly.
He seemed fairly sick. He had a high fever and I took him to the pediatrician. But I was surprised by the pneumonia diagnosis. He got an antibiotic shot. They called the next day to check on him and I told them he was no better, so he came back in for a second shot. Sometimes it takes more than one, they said. But, really, he didn't improve. We were giving him oral antibiotics and inhaled breathing meds too, but nothing seemed to be working. My pediatrician didn't want to hospitalize him, because the hospital was overcrowded and she'd had a couple of patients pick up other diseases in the hospital. So we were trying to manage him at home.
I remember listening to him breathe that Friday night and thinking he was just so ill....I almost took him to the hospital in the middle of the night, but we waited until the morning and took him to the dr.'s office. The pedi on call listened to him, checked his pulse-ox and sent us straight to the hospital. I still didn't think it was that serious, until when we were checking in and they didn't get all our insurance info--they sent us straight back to the respiratory unit and said they'd find us later. At 11:00 that night he had emergency surgery to drain his lung of the accumulated fluid. This operation saved his life and I am hugely grateful to everyone who was willing to open an operating suite in the middle of the night to save our son because he couldn't wait until the morning. After this, we spent a week in Texas Childrens Hospital and were released right before Christmas.
Each day he improved, although he was on five different spectrum antibiotics to knock out the superbug. He had somehow managed to pick up an antibiotic-resistant strain of bacteria, which is why he never responded to the original medication. My father, a practicing pulmonologist for over 35 years, had never seen a case himself, but his grandchild managed to pick up the wrong toy at the wrong time.
The news this morning that a 23 month old has died here in Texas from Swine Flu has stirred these memories. I've been that parent, watching your child struggle to breathe and feeling so helpless. Our story had a happy ending, but if we had waited any longer to go to the hospital, it might have been too late.
There's no real lesson here for swine flu, other than if you feel run down or sick, you probably should stay out of large crowds. I think you're just more vulnerable when your immune system is slightly repressed. And to seek medical help promptly.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Gawdelpus!
I have a Kindle which I adore. I am absolutely not a ga-ga gadget person (cue theme music from Inspector Gadget). I like having a cell phone, because I like to be able to stay in contact and order take-out from the road. But I don't need a cell phone that can do anything other than dial and receive calls (of course, mine has a few more bells and whistles because the husband picked it out).
But the Kindle 2? I just love it (as does the gadget boy I'm married to). If I need something to read for a few minutes between when I arrive at the kids' school to pick them up (must get there early as parking is a mess) and when they get out, it remembers just where I am. There are all these little slots of time in my day that now can be filled with a good story. If I feel like reading something other than the book I have with me, I can quickly call up a different book.
I like to buy short stories, because I read them at the gym. One or two stories (depending on the author) is just about perfect and usually I keep up my workout to finish that story. Luckily, Amazon.com has some reasonable classic fiction--I've gotten books by Isaac Asimov and Kate Chopin for a mere $1.00. There are some really great classic works that somehow I've never gotten around to reading...so I'm enjoying sampling these books.
Today at the Y, I was reading a short story by Peter Tremayne, author of the Sister Fidelma series (which I really like). This particular set of stories feature other characters though. Sister Fidelma is Tremayne's bread-and-butter, and he knows it, but he mentions his great understanding of how Conan Doyle felt. Sometimes you just want to write about something else.
Anyway, in one of the stories, the lead detective is Charles Dickens. And he uses the phrase gawdelpus, which is a mishmash of god help us. I just love it and I think I'm going to be dropping it into my speech from here on out.
Aside: My son's team won the Texas tournament, so it means we're getting ready to go to Iowa at the end of school for the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals. It's a great achievement, and one they've been working towards for four years. The logistical prep has required a lot of time, and what with taxes due and other stuff, I've been swamped. Meaning, I'm not always in my regular haunts...so if you need me, gmail me. Gawdelpus.
But the Kindle 2? I just love it (as does the gadget boy I'm married to). If I need something to read for a few minutes between when I arrive at the kids' school to pick them up (must get there early as parking is a mess) and when they get out, it remembers just where I am. There are all these little slots of time in my day that now can be filled with a good story. If I feel like reading something other than the book I have with me, I can quickly call up a different book.
I like to buy short stories, because I read them at the gym. One or two stories (depending on the author) is just about perfect and usually I keep up my workout to finish that story. Luckily, Amazon.com has some reasonable classic fiction--I've gotten books by Isaac Asimov and Kate Chopin for a mere $1.00. There are some really great classic works that somehow I've never gotten around to reading...so I'm enjoying sampling these books.
Today at the Y, I was reading a short story by Peter Tremayne, author of the Sister Fidelma series (which I really like). This particular set of stories feature other characters though. Sister Fidelma is Tremayne's bread-and-butter, and he knows it, but he mentions his great understanding of how Conan Doyle felt. Sometimes you just want to write about something else.
Anyway, in one of the stories, the lead detective is Charles Dickens. And he uses the phrase gawdelpus, which is a mishmash of god help us. I just love it and I think I'm going to be dropping it into my speech from here on out.
Aside: My son's team won the Texas tournament, so it means we're getting ready to go to Iowa at the end of school for the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals. It's a great achievement, and one they've been working towards for four years. The logistical prep has required a lot of time, and what with taxes due and other stuff, I've been swamped. Meaning, I'm not always in my regular haunts...so if you need me, gmail me. Gawdelpus.
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