Saturn In The Night Sky

Paulo's hobby is looking at the sky with telescopes. He buys them, fixes them and we roll them onto our patio and look at the sky. We also invite friends to come over on clear nights to share the joy. Here's a photo taken April 17, 2008 from our telescope. You can really see it this clear - except it's white. Cutie get so excited looking at the moon and planets. Isn't that what it's all about.

Gotta Love It

The Obama campaign is selling limited edition $15 Vote for Change car magnets. His campaign is brilliant. But do you vote for the campaign or the person. I stopped liking him a few months ago when I realized he wanted to tax middle class people who worked their way through school, work more than they play, and saved all their lives only to give it to lower income folks who like to have children they can't afford, buy expensive things that make them fat, sick and don't believe in constant learning.

Don't get me started.

Not A Fan of Holidays

I always seem to get sick around holiday time. I've had this cold for several weeks and Paulo tore his achilles. Cutie fell on her chin, but not enough for stitches.

I'm very happy that Passover is over. It's basically a holiday about religious freedom. "Let my people go" so they can walk into the forest and celebrate their holiday for a week. We're happy to come back - but right now we need a break. After 10 plaques - Pharoh said "go already" - the squeaky wheel gets what they want.

But wait - life in the desert is no picnic. That's in a few holidays from now.

All these holidays can make someone who likes life boring - stressed.

Thought This Was Interesting But change my mind After Reading It Again

Without a clear identity, many Americans suffer from an inability to ever completely assimilate. To make matters worse, we are torn between competing impulses to fit in and stand out. To deal with this tension, psychological research suggests that we seek out social sub-groups within larger communities as a way to achieve "optimal distinctiveness." In other words, we try to blend into the larger community around us by the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, and other symbols of assimilation, but maintain our individuality by finding smaller social groups defined by a particular characteristic.*

This is crapola. Or maybe it's for Gen Y. I haven't yet told you how scared I am with what Gen Z will be.


Brewer, Marilynn. "The Social Self: On Being the Same and Different at the Same Time." Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 17 No. 5, October 1991, 475-482.

Our Magnificent Forest

The trees are a blooming. We have Star Magnolias that shed all over the patio and the dogwoods are coming in. On the lawn there's a regular Magnolia. There's a Japanese Maple at our front door. We have many daffodils and wildflowers. Forthesia sp? and some pink flower trees. The kitchen window view is amazing.
We are very fortunate. We just found out that one of the early owners to the house was an orchid farmer and owned llama. The property is landscaped to perfection.
I love this house.

More Medicine?

I'm sick. I've been sick for 2 weeks. It's not allergies. It's a big cold. By the end of the day I'm wiped. While I was lying in bed, Cutie said take some of this and brought me my medicine.

This picture cheered me up.

Life Is Lovely

A few minutes ago I said something like "Life is not always fair" she countered with "Life is Lovely". OK it is for her. We are on Spring break and I'm starting to go batty. First I got sick last Wed. She doesn't have school on Thursday. Friday break began. Her cousins slept over on Friday night. Her grandfather came on Sat. We had Passover Sedar and cutie sang most of the 4 questions and told the story of Passover starting with baby Moses. She also sang all the songs and some new ones like Bang Bang Bang goes the hammer... Webkinz frogs where on the agenda as afikomon bribes.
Monday was visit a friend day. Tuesday was bike riding day and grandpa leaving day. Paulo watched Idol at his sisters house and cutie had no intention of going to sleep. Wednesday was visit from the other cousins (picture shown here) and a trip to the Nyack twins. One of the Nyack twins is going to be an artist. Her work is fabulous.

World Food Program

When will someone start handing out food and education on how and why not to have children. The world food crisis can be stopped if poor people only have 1 or 2 children.
Oh right - THAT'S not PC.

POM Wonderful in Pink

While I was shopping I bought some POM Light Green Tea. When I needed a treat I used to buy POM tea when I was working on Madison Ave. I love the bottle it comes in. It's really a drinking glass. The shape makes everything you put in it taste great. It's like an old fashion jelly glass that turns into a drinking glass - Just sexier.

Like I did in my working in the city days, I recycled the POM Tea glass by using it many times over. I put on own decaf green tea and juice in it cover it with the pink top and store it for easy access in the fridge. Cutie saw it and wanted to know what it was. I told her and she said it must have been made by a girl. Why? Because it has a pink cover.

Of course she was right. I read an article in the New Yorker last month about Lynda Resnick who is responsible for POM Tea. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/03/31/080331fa_fact_fortini

It's a must read article.

The other thing that was interesting was the use of the ingredient erythritol. Erythritol came into my field of vision while at the Madison Ave. shop. We were working on Sweet Simplicity Sweetener and it was made with the stuff. It's really a sugar alcohol with less calories than sugar and diabetics can use it. Stoneyfield farms is using it in their yogurt.

Pharohs in Egypt

Cutie and I were watching the Wizard of Oz. There's a line that mentions the Pharohs in Egypt. Cutie got very excited and said "He said Pharohs in Egypt he must know the Passover story"

I remember once while watching Jeopardy I new many answers in a category. For that day forward I understood the purpose of school and started liking Social Studies.

3 Cavities, No No No and The Pledge

Cutie is doing some lovely coloring these days. Good sense of color. And she keeps asking for markers in skin colors. Since flesh in no longer a color and we only have brown, she's choosing brown. People and fairies are brown in her mind. The funny thing is that she doesn't color in everything. There's always something missing. When asked she says it's finished. I'm reminded of Jackson Pollock when asked whether a child could do his drip paintings he said "I know when it's done." So does a 3-1/2 year old.

(I like abstract paintings BTW)

Today, I managed to get all my passover shopping done. All it took was one day. Back in the city I had to plan for weeks.

9:30 - Drop Cutie at school

10:00 - at Wesley Kosher. (They even have vegetarian stuffed cabbage for pesach - I have a vegetarian coming for sedar)
Chatted with a lady who said if I had any questions I could call her. - I'm guessing she hopes to make me more religious. If anything - I'll make her less. I asked her if she knew of an upholstery fabric store. She told me Tillim in West Nyack.

11:00 - 2 cases of wine at Grapevine
chatted with salesperson for a while. He has a son who just got married and a daughter who's getting married.

12:00 at Sears to buy a canopy top - had to order online with free shipping, new passover pots & pans (I now have storage for real passover stuff) and a few casserole dishes. Passover will be very easy this year. Too bad I'm not a fan of holidays.

12:45 at Tillim for fabric. Can't believe I found such an out-of-the-way place. It's just like the place in the city on Amsterdam and 91st that I think went out of business. Bought fabric.

1:30 at school to pick up cutie. After Pesach it's back to 2:30 on Fridays

1:45 get gas

2:00 at Dentist. 3 cavities filled. Cutie was a pro. The dentist actually checked her age. Yes she's very mature for her age. Is it me or the school. Well, I choose the school.

Songs she sings in the car. "No No No I will no let them go."
Songs in the bathtub. "One morning Pharoh woke up with frogs on his head, frogs on his bed, Frogs on his nose. Frogs on his toes. Frogs here, frogs there, frogs are jumping everywhere." I didn't know the words till now. I'm going to let them shine. Something about Shabbot. All around the neighborhood. I'm going to let them shine. All the time I'm going to let them shine.
Song while coloring - "Ma nishtana". All the words and I can make out the verses (help!)
And they just started the Pledge of Allegiance. I couldn't make out if they say it with One nation under God or not. Under God was added in 1954. Whatever. I can always remove it from the curriculum.

7pm - Call from Visa - There's unusual activity on my card. It was all me.

Oops I Did It Again

I'm happy to say I got another bowling turkey. My final score was 149. I should be happy with that - but noooo. My friend bowled a 150 and my other friend bowled a 181. You could say I'm a little competitive.

That brings me to my dad's boxes. I found a book in one of the three boxes my mom brought over last week. It was a library book that was supposed to be returned in 1963. The book is Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution" by Peter Kropotkin. It's sort of a treatise on finding groups of people to help you progress. The unsociable are doomed. The school of Cooperative Individualism was born. I’m buying it. It came out around the same time as Darwin’s “Survival of the Fittest” and T.H. Huxley’s “Struggle for Existence

I think I found my group and I can still be competitive in sports. I think that will keep me young. I already noticed some suburban sprawl around my middle section. Walking in the city keeps people healthy. Not much reason to walk on our mountain.

I love it when streams of consciousness collide.

Cup of Tea Economic Theory with Honey

At first I thought that Cutie was a genius. She was writing her name at 3. At 3-1/2 she can write all the letters. It turns out that most, maybe all can write their names. But there's a difference with the children in her class and children going to other schools. I'm finding out that most schools don't teach writing in a 3s program. I remember learning that on the 3yo birthday you are required to teach the letters and give your child a taste of honey -so they will know that learning is sweet. Some schools missed the memo.

I remember in India I was travelling alone in second class on the train. I was sitting next to about 9 men. We were scoping out each other and my heart was beating fast. Finally one of them broke the ice.
"Are you Christian?"
"No, I'm Jewish (I thought if I'm going down - let it be as a Jew.)"
Every question and response was followed by a translation to the rest of the guys in the local language.
"Where are you from?"
"USA - New York City"
"The Jews are very rich"
"If I was rich would I be travelling second class on the train"
Translation - Laughter.
The Jews in India are rich.
"Only some Jews are rich and some Indians are rich
"It may appear that Jews are rich because they know how to read and write. If you can read and write you will have a good job. When a Jewish child is 3 they are given a book and a taste of honey and are told learning is sweet. All Jews are not rich - they just know how to read and write."
"How much do you make?"
"What I make may seem like a lot to you once you convert into rupees. But the average salary in America is $12/hr (it was in the early 90's and that was what I was making after taxes). It costs $1 to buy a cup of coffee. It takes 5mins to make $1. In India a good job you make 60 rupees. It costs 5 rupees for a cup of chai. It's the same. "
Translation and an epiphany sigh from the group.

From that moment on, I felt safe on the train. This is now known as my "cup of coffee/tea" economic theory. When I travel Ijust translate everything into the number of cups of coffees it would cost back home and figure out how many cups it should cost in the country I'm visiting. The euro is killing us.

You Can't Go Up

Cutie and I were in the car today and she saw a sign with an arrow pointing up. In her cute "that's funny" voice she said "that sign is silly - you can drive your car up".

We also went to the dentist today. She has 3 cavities. No more juice at bedtime.

The Castle I Never Saw

You Just Know How To Make Me Smile

The Supermarket, Judaica store, Toys R Us, and Two Turkeys

I had a busy day. First, we dropped off Cutie at School. Then I did errands before managing to get to bowling on time. Yes, I'm going to be sanctioned by the bowling league. I really enjoy bowling. Today was a special bowling day. My average is 105/game. Today I bowled a 152 and 154. Both games I got a turkey. (3 strikes in a row). I'm posting my scores for posterity. I think it's time to buy more stuff - like a bowling ball and some shoes.

The Green Balloon

Weird things are happening at our house. People are accidently driving up our long driveway thinking it's a road. I found a few cigarette butts - Newports smoked down to the filter and a popped green balloon that probably escaped from a child's hand, flew up to the sky, broke and landed on our tree.

On Sunday a man by the name of Pedro stopped by. He just got back from Georgia. He was looking for the previous owner. Apparently he used to do work for them. He was driving a Laredo SUV. I'm always a little uncomfortable with people who want to do work for me and drive a better car than I do.

Paulo is busy fixing up the house. I was wondering why everything was coming out warm when moving my clothes from the washer to the dryer. The washing machine had the hot and cold water mixed up. The electrical is all wacky. The water pipes first go to China before coming into our house. And the list goes on. But I love this house.