Post Secret (June 29)

"Coffee Cup" - Jenniffer Kae

Miss Gold Bond

A few nights ago, we discovered that kitties go crazy for Gold Bond. My hubster was putting some Gold Bond on for his itch then our Tabatha starting going towards him to snuggle with him. We didn't think anything of it because she's such a daddy's girl. Then, she started getting all crazy like she does with catnip. She even tried to rub her pointy teeth against him. She just wouldn't stop. Finally, we made the connection between the response and the Gold Bond.

Later that night, stupid me tries to test Tabatha. While she's sleeping, I dangle the closed tube in front of her. No response. Then, I open the cap and dangle. No response. Uh oh, I suddenly saw a little bit coming out. I instantly closed it. Unknowingly, some had already dropped on the carpet next to her face. When she finally realized she had some of her new favorite treat available, we heard excited jingle jangle movements. To our surprise, she ATE the whole bit that was on the floor. We spent the remaining of the evening calling emergency animal clinics and watching for signs of poisoning. She made it through the evening perfectly, without any change in behavior. Good thing it wasn't the Gold Bond powder because that would have poisoned her since it has zinc oxide in it. Lesson learned. Keep Gold Bond anything away from Tabatha at all times.

Priorities

We just looked at our spending for the past month and realized that there's going to be some definite tightening of the purse strings. Not too long afterwards, we went to Costco. We bought the necessities and a big ol' box of snickerdoodles for $6.50. Good job us. But who could resist the cinnamon sugary goodness? Not me!

from flickr

He Cracks Me Up

A Classic Him Moment:

Him: "Ouch my eyes hurt..."
Me: (still looking away and unamused)
Him: (realizes he needs to further elaborate) "You're so hot that you dry out my eyes."

Cheese-tastic! So cheesy that it makes my heart smile. ^_^

Don't Wanna Mess With This

One of my favorite imagist poets is Ezra Pound. Yes, I know that he has a shady past, especially when the early 1940s rolled around. I'm still a fan of his poetry not that man. Does that make sense? Anyway, I just saw a picture of him on my iGoogle page that made him look p.i.m.p. Here it is:

He's even got that crazy look in his eye. Even though he had some troubled times, it's worth reading his poetry. What writer, especially poet, doesn't have a shady troubled life?

What Kind of Manuscripts?

After a rough week of school and getting all readjusted, I had a wonderful Friday with my hubster. We ventured into IV for lunch and ended up eating at IV Deli Mart. Super delicious! I had a savory falafel sandwich with extra spicy hummus and the works while my hubster had a chicken ciabatta sandwich. With a $1 Arizona tea added on, we only spent $10. The chicken for my hubster's sandwich came straight off the rotating spit, which made it super tender. The staff members were really nice even though we were total newbs.

Afterwards, we went downtown and stumbled across the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum. It is the coolest free museum in town. There's all sorts of manuscripts. For example, they had drafts from the Constitution, pages of the Gutenberg Bible, Nixon's resignation letter, a letter written by Helen Keller, and Truman's declaration of war for WWII. There was even random stuff like a buggy request from the famous Siamese twins Chang and Eng and Egyptian sandstone carvings. There's even sheets of music from major composers like Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, etc. It totally reminded me of all the times I spent in music with my kiddos learning about composers. My favorites were a draft of Emily Dickinson's I Came to Buy a Smile and a page of Einstein's Theory of Relativity. I love Dickinson's handwriting. After hearing about Einstein's theory, it's really neat to see how he wrote it out. I would love to go back again.

"Just Not Ready to Say Goodbye Yet"

Because I'm a sucker for romantic movies, we watched P.S. I Love You. Yes, I heard about the not-so-great reviews, but I chanced it anyway. Was it worth it? No, not really. The acting in it wasn't that great. How awkward was Harry Connick Jr as the swoop in friend? And Lisa Kudrow was just a friskier Phoebe in this movie. Most lines that Hilary Swank says ends with a little awkward giggle. Despite these major weaknesses, I did find Gerry's letters moving. The idea of how to sort out your life after a loved one dies is a good premise. Maybe, the book is better? I thought Gerard Butler did an awesome job. If you want a good chick flick that has Butler in it, watch Dear Frankie. It's another movie with letters but with an entirely different premise.

Belize It or Not

It's way too easy for me to come up with lame puns like the one I used for the title of this entry. Can you tell that I work with kids? lol

Anywho, Mark, one of my really close friends from high school (Yea, we go way back! All the way to middle school actually. lol) is in Belize doing some research. This isn't his first research trip abroad. He went to Nicaragua last year and brought me back some awesome guava jelly. :) He's with a group that's studying frogs, specifically the Hyla microcephala, which looks likes this:

I just wanted to mention him on my blog because I think it's so cool that he's in Belize doing what he loves. I'm so proud of him! I'm also very jealous that he gets to be a cool-globe-trotting-science researcher. Hopefully, when I finally become a teacher, I can persuade him to talk to my students. It's always a good idea to get kids excited about science, right?

What Does It Mean to Be a Friend?

One of the first questions that my hubster asked me on Monday, which was my first day back at school, was, "Do you have any friends yet?" Then, I talked to Hovaleen and she asked me the exact same question. How funny is that? Their inquiries totally made me feel like I was in school again. Remember, when your mom would ask about your friends when you were in elementary school?

Yep, I definitely think I'll need some friends during the program just to help keep everything in perspective and to swap complaints with. As for having any friends, not yet. In my case, friends aren't that easy to come by. I'm pleasant but also shy. Of course, I have acquaintances who I can have small talk with.

For me to call someone my friend means that I feel totally comfortable around them. I don't have to worry about not sounding smart enough or being judged. I can just be me. Whenever I get a new friend, I always wonder what was the moment when I finally felt that way. I can't always pinpoint that moment, but I'm so happy that it came by. I shall leave off with a quotation from Eleanor Roosevelt, a fountain of wonderful quotations.

"Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart."

Verbage

Yes, I just made up that word. Here's the formal definition of "verbage."

verbage n. (vûrb·ij) 1. verbal garbage. 2. stupid slang that has not died yet and you can't wait for it to die.

You may ask "What are some examples of verbage?" Boy, do I have answers for you. Here are my top 5.

1. Brah (a substitute for Bro)
2. Sick
3. Kickbacks
4. Whack
5. Fo sho.

After being in school for two days, I've totally reached my saturation point with these words. I don't hear them in my classes, but I do hear them EVERYWHERE once I leave class. Please don't use them around me. I could possibly be able to deal with "Fo Sho" in small doses. :)

Greetings from Japan

Actually, I'm not the one in Japan right now. Gosh, I wish I was. As previously mentioned, I have begun my tumultuous year at grad school. It's my friend Jenn who has been teaching in Japan for a little over a year now who brings us greetings. She just sent me some beautiful pictures of the cherry blossoms. It was so pretty that I just had to share it. Here's my favorite.

I know she's having fun, but I I hope she comes home soon though. I miss her a ton. :)

First Day of School

Today was my first day back at school with me as the student. Overall, it was an okay day. I have one class for two hours and another class for two and a half hours. Since it was the first day of school, I wanted to make sure that I knew where I was going, so I went to school really early. I thought I went entirely too early. To my surprise, there was already a handful of people already there! There's still a bunch of readjusting to do. For instance, I have to realize that my classes start on the hour rather than on Cal Poly time (instead of 10 minutes after the hour) and I have to purchase this supplement called a "reader." I hope everything will be okay. Maybe, I'll just have to keep reading that Emily Dickinson poem "Hope is The Thing with Feathers."

Post Secret (June 22)

"You're Like Princess Sh*t"

I'm a fan of off-beat love movies like Science of Sleep and Amelie. Dedication falls into that category. It's about a quirky complicated author, Henry, who has to get over his own hang ups in order to let love in. When the movie begins, you think that no one could ever love this guy and how can you watch entire movie with him as the main character.

Somehow, Henry does manage become endearing as he falls for Lucy. The best part of Henry is that he never uses this one secret to win Lucy back. Instead, he opts to persuade her with his honest admiration for her. Billy Crudup plays Henry. I've always really liked Billy Crudup ever since Inventing the Abbotts and even when he was in Big Fish. Mandy Moore, who plays Lucy, actually does some decent acting. Kudos to her. I definitely recommend watching this movie if you like not-so-cheesy-messed-up-antiheroes-as-leading-men love movies.

Life's a Beach

It's almost sunset time.

Hubster trying to avoid sea fleas.

At least, someone's doing some summer reading.

Me: "Look, it's a painted rock!"
Hubster: "Nope, it's an abalone."

Hubster: "And, it's ugly."
Me: "Poor abalone."

Little Old House

The story below reminds of the little house cartoon on Disney. Was the little old lady afraid of change or just too stubborn? Either way, she stuck to what she believed in and that's worth some admiration.

The Ballard woman who captured hearts and admirers around the world when she stubbornly turned down $1 million to sell her home to make way for a commercial development died Sunday of pancreatic cancer. She was 86.

"I don't want to move. I don't need the money. Money doesn't mean anything," she told the Seattle P-I in October. more >>>

Costco + Greensight = Easy Electronic Recycling for You

Did you know that you could recycle your electronics through Costco? You can't actually take it to a Costco store, but you can use their website to fill out the necessary forms and get a free shipping label. How cool is that? If your item has any trade-in value, you can also get a Costco cash card. Here are some items that they'll take:

• Notebook PCs
• MP3 Players
• Desktop PCs
• LCD Monitors
• Game Systems
• Camcorders
• Digital Cameras
• Smartphones/PDAs
• CRT Monitors
• Personal Printers
• Fax Machines
  

Happy 1st Day of Summer!

Thanks to Google's nifty icon, I know that it's officially summer now. I guess I could have put two and two together with the blazing heat outside. It feels like 87 degrees outside where we're at. In SLO, it's supposed to be 110 degrees. It never felt that hot when we were in school, not even during my one and only summer quarter there. As Henry James said, "Summer afternoon, summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language." In celebration of summer, here's a heat-inspired collage:

1. Out On Its Own, 2. Summer is almost here!, 3. Gorgeous, 4. Summer mood., 5. rainbow in sprinkler, 6. POPSICLE, 7. Flip Flops, 8. 19 Miami Vice and Sunblock, 9. Sunset Reflections

Modern Nature - Sondre Lerche

How Did I Get So Lucky?

Caution: Lovesick post lies ahead.

My hubster is coming home early today. Why? Because he misses me. Yipee. He know that the cabin fever has been too much for me this week. From workaholic to lazy-do-nothing in one week is not a good transition for anyone. Can't wait to see him.

View AllenandBea's map

Taken in a place with no name (See more photos or videos here)

(Taken November 2006)

View AllenandBea's map

Taken in a place with no name (See more photos or videos here)

Flickr MeMe

Here are the instructions for this neat Flickr MeMe. Just don't get the MeMe disease! :)

Step 1: Answer the following questions.

1. What is your first name? Beatrice
2. What is your favorite food? Salsa
3. What high school did you go to? San Marcos
4. What is your favorite color? Pink
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Johnny Depp
6. What is your favorite drink? Ginger Ale
7. What is your dream vacation? Provence
8. What is your favorite dessert? Cheesecake
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? Writer
10. What do you love most in life? My Husband
11. What is one word that describes you? Thoughtful
12. What is your Flickr name? beabijoubea

Step 2: Type your answer to each of the questions into Flickr search.

Step 3: Using only the first page of results, pick one image.

Step 4: Copy and paste URLs for the images into Big Huge Lab’s Mosaic Maker to create a mosaic of the picture answers.

Then voila! Here's my MeMe Mosaic:

1. Beatrice Cenci, transparency on glass, 19th cent., 2. Corn Salsa, 3. lockers, 4. vintage tea set with cupcake, 5. greetings from captain jack sparrow!! ^o^/, 6. Ginger Ale, 7. Bistrot*, 8. mango cheesecake, 9. Type writer illustration, 10. Husband Gnome sits & reads the afternoon away 02 August 2006 172, 11. Sam (Alone), 12. I Don't Want to Walk Anymore

Life Without Tomatoes

When I heard of the salmonella-tomato scare, I wasn't too bummed out. How bad could life be without tomatoes? Come to find out, terrible! Our meals feel empty without those little red juicy gems. Here's just a little list of meals that aren't just the same: sandwiches, pastas, salads, kabobs, burgers, tacos, quesadillas, enchiladas and salsas.

What are we to do? Well, we have a wee little tomato plant in our garden this year. It was a spare plant from the school that I just finished working at. I'm not exactly sure what kind of tomatoes we're going to get. Hopefully, we'll have some soon!

Found Dog

Yesterday, I found a huge black dog wandering around our neighborhood without a collar. I brought him home because we live near a main street where people drive 50+ mph. He was the sweetest dog when I brought him home. I was even able to let him in the house and he snuggled on our rug, insisting on frequent belly rubs. Then, my hubster got home and the dog went ballistic. Suddenly, we were terrified of this huge dog occupying our front patio. Even though the dog wasn't too pleased to see my hubster, my hubster still tried to befriend him by sitting next to the sliding door. My hubster is the sweetest. We called the humane society, but they said we would have to take him to animal control. Animal control? No way! We opted to put up found posters instead. In a couple of hours, his owners gave us a call. Yay!

Here's his back story. His name is Max and he lives across that main street. Somehow, he managed to cross the street without getting hit. Thank god! His mom and dad went for a morning run and decided not to take him because it's getting harder for him to go on runs. He wasn't too pleased to be left behind, so he decided to take himself for walk. Funny enough, he tried to follow his parents. Then, I ended up finding him. His parents tried to pay us for finding him. How silly is that? What kind of people take money from just-now-relieved pet parents? Yay for happy endings!

Ahoy!

Taken May 2007 at Santa Barbara Harbor. Caption below the circled boat reads:

1986 J24 "Fo' Shizzle Dizzle"
"Fo' Shizzle Dizzle" is an incredibly fast J 24. Her hull, keel, and rudder have been professionally faired by Wm. J Matson Company. She comes with a single axle Triad trailer. Windward sheeting traveler. Lewmar self tailing winches with striper machined off. New floorboards. A truly turn key boat. Tow this boat away and immediately win some races.
$14,500

What Is It Like Being Big Bird?

NEW YORK - On the street, Caroll Spinney is a 74-year-old of modest proportions. On the job, transformed into Big Bird, he stands 8 feet 2 inches tall and is 6 years old.

Being Big Bird is sweaty, physical work. But Spinney, who has worked on Sesame Street for nearly four decades playing both Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, has no wish to be anywhere else.

“I can’t imagine willingly walking away from Big Bird and Oscar,” he said. more>>

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day!
Actually, that's still a little too formal for me.
Happy Daddy's Day!

Thank you for always telling me that everything will be okay and all I have to do is think positive.
You're right. Love you daddy.

Rock a Bye Baby

Hubster: (singing) Rock a bye baby on the tree top... (thinking) How does the rest go?
Me: (singing) When the wind blows the cradle will rock. When the bough breaks the cradle will fall and down will come baby, cradle and all.
Hubster: Really? The baby goes splat? That's messed up. Don't ever sing that to our baby.

My hubster is right. It is a messed up lullaby. I'm more of a "Hush Little Baby" lullaby person anyway, so it all works out okay.

"The Only Constant is Change."

I've been looking forward to watching Half Nelson for some time. Ryan Gosling's performance is awesome, and he really did deserve his Oscar nomination. However, the plot left me wanting more. You want Mr. Dunne to get better because he is a good teacher who gets his students. There's this bit where he admits that rehab didn't work for him. There's the point where he and Drey can't sink any lower. Then, there's the end. The end doesn't illustrate a substantial change to prove to the audience that these two will make it somehow. I'm not asking for a hokey-happily-ever-after ending. C'mon, the joke and the no-beard, that's it? After hoping throughout the whole movie that these two will figure out their lives, that last scene is so unfulfilling.

My Bookshelf

As I was personalizing my very cool new bookshelf widget, my hubster peeked over at my laptop.

Hubster: Hey that looks like your bookshelf!
Me: Yea that's the point. (laughs)
Hubster: Oh. (laughs) Sad that I know what books are on your bookshelf.

Today, we went to Chaucer's to use my gift card. I was browsing through the Michael Chabon section when my hubster finally came to retrieve me.

Hubster: I know that book. It's on your shelf. (pointing to Chabon's Yiddish Policeman's Union)
Me: Nope but close. I have this one, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.

I know why he got the two books mixed up. They're equally as thick as each other. I'm just happy that he knows little things like that about me. :)

White

What is White?


White is a dove
And lily of the valley
And a puddle of milk
Spilled in an alley---
A ship's sail
A kite's tail
A wedding Veil
Hailstones and
Halibut bones
And some people's
Telephones.
The hottest and most blinding light
Is white
And breath is white
When you blow it out on a frosty night.
White is the shining absence of all color
Then absence is white

Out of touch
Out of sight.
White is marshmallow
And vanilla ice cream
And the part you can't remember
In a dream.
White is the sound
Of a light foot walking
White is a pair of
Whispers talking.
White is the beautiful
Broken lace
Of snowflakes falling
On your face.
You can smell white
In a country room
Toward the end of May
In the cherry bloom.

by Mary O'Neill
from Hailstones and Halibut Bones

My Mom the Bookworm

I heart my mom to the end of the world. Every once in awhile, she gets on these book binges and devours books. She just picks up one after the other after the other. She's in one right now. Before I was able to gather a bunch of books from my current library, she searched through my old library at home. That's how excited she was! For that reason, I love her even more. Here are some of the books she's read:

The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Fox Woman
The Giver

Currently, she's working on Tuck Everlasting. Yay for my mom!

p.s.
If you haven't read the Invention of Hugo Cabret, I highly recommend it. It is a beautiful book with a great pace.

I Want to Be Like...

from flickr

Have you ever seen someone do something and yearn to be just like them? Well, I've always wanted to be a writer, which is exactly why I became an English major in college. I finally developed my own writing voice after many endless nights revising expository essays. I'm not doing much with it now, but that's okay too. Sometimes, I'll read something, a book or an article, and think I want to write just like that! Recently, I read this article from GQ and fell in love with Adam Sachs' wit, perspective, and sincerity. Here's part of the beginning of his article:

We are in the basement of the building we moved into six years ago. The ad in the paper compared the tiny space in a wobbly old carriage house in the West Village to a "Parisian tree house" (whatever the hell that meant), and we liked the sound of it and rushed in to buy it, though we weren't even engaged. Behind a heavy gate, at the back of a green courtyard shaded by a lucky Japanese maple, our home lay outside the grasp of the world. Inside we chirped and whistled to each other in some made-up bird language that said nothing could ever go wrong. We baked salmon in puff pastry. We drank old Armagnac and laughed our asses off. We were warmly affectionate in that discreet but evident way that made other couples quarrel when they left our dinner parties. more>>>

Appreciation

I got this bouquet as a token of appreciation at our last assembly. What was more rewarding? Hearing my kiddos clap and cheer for me. :)

Wrapping Things Up

Last Friday was our last official full day of school for this school year. This year has gone by entirely too quickly. I remember thinking it'll never be time for me to go to UCSB. Now, I'll be going there in about two weeks! Anyway, back to last Friday, my kiddos were entirely too cute. I will miss them so much. Each of them is unique in his/her own way, but they all have wonderful hearts. Here's a little conversation I had with Miss I-.

Miss I-: Mrs. T---, I will miss you so much.
Me: Me too.
Miss I-: Will you come and visit us?
Me: I'll try, but I'll definitely try to make it to the winter performance.
Miss I-: Yay! Mrs. T---?
Me: Yes?
Miss I-: I hope you have fun in school. (They know that I'm going back to school to become a teacher.)

They just warm my heart. I hope they will all continue to pursue their intellectual interests, treasure the world around them, and have all the happiness possible in the world.

"Whatever It Takes"

I got Danny Deckchair from Netflix this week. When my hubster saw it, he laughed and said, "That is something you would want to watch." Since he's such a good sport, we watched it yesterday. What happened? He liked it. ha! I win once again. Danny Deckchair is one of the better chick flicks that I've see lately. It's a sweet movie about a unambitious dreamer who becomes who he wants to be. While he's undergoing this transformation, he meets the love of his life. If you watch this movie, you have to watch the making-of extra. It's really neat to see how well the actors knew their characters. My favorite part of the movie was the fireworks scene. :)

I <3 Vintage Disney

Some of my all time favorite cartoons are Disney shorts from the '50s. Gosh, I'm so old inside. Well, the cartoon below is one of my top picks. It's a love story about Johnny Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet. Of course, it has a happy ending.

Everyone Likes Boys on Bikes

Darn Motorists!

I've been watching Disney ever since I was a wee one. I loved the vintage cartoons with Ludwig Von Drake that talked about how people behaved. The cartoon that really stuck with me is the crazy motorist one. I've recently realized that my hubster is totally this kind of motorist, sweet mild mannered when not in the car. BAM! Once he's behind the wheel, his patience is non-existent. So, I dedicate this video to my hubster:

Quiet Moment

Today, I had a wonderful quiet moment. I looked out at my kiddos from my desk and everything in my mind was clear. For that moment, I thought how neat each of them are and how great it is to watch them learn. In that moment, I knew for sure that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. What a relief!

Oh Indy!

For our weekend date, we went to watch Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. For the record, I grew up on Indiana Jones movies. My parents loved them. We even saw bits of the not-so-successful Young Indiana Jones TV series. When we go to Disneyland, we always make it a point to ride on the Indiana Jones ride.

With all that said, I must say that I was completely disappointed with the latest Indy saga. There's nothing worse than watching your one time hero run like an old man across the screen. It totally reminded of the episodes of Spongebob with Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy. Who casted Cate Blanchett as the evil Russian villan? She's too pretty and not tough enough. She was like Natasha from Rocky and Bullwinkle. The whole bit with the alien skull was too far fetched. The action scenes were unimpressive. How about Shia's whole Tarzan scene? Would I recommend this movie? Nope. You're better off watching Raiders of the Lost Ark at home.

p.s.

Who brings their toddler to watch a movie that involves machine guns and eyes being burned?