Signs of Home

Four signs along Silverado Drive, and then no more. As if you had to know now where to go, or miss it.

So we searched up the street, and down, finally picking the correct turn, into a cul-de-sac.
The signs reminded me of a United cross-country flight I once took to Dulles. My parents and I had agreed -- I'd take the shuttle bus. But they were waiting near baggage claim. I smiled -- home at last. It didn't matter that we still had another 25 minute car ride to go.

Christmas Crafted Cheer

I don't remember it looking so funky.



The twig tree craft was extra holiday insurance the year we traveled, eliminating tree-turned-fire-hazard house sitter risk.

Funky, yes. But politically correct "green" before its time thanks to recycled products. Plus... the big upside:

Stop to craft Christmas cheer and the craziness of holiday preparation slows to the pace of a bending wire, a warming glue gun, a pin attaching a pattern to a bit of felt. Traffic becomes passing fabric pens, scissors and fabric glue.

That, and stove-brewed hot chocolate? Priceless.

3 Nativities and a Camel

Nestled under the decorated corner pine, it's one family's tradition neighbors expect to share. Just try to find someone who remembers when it wasn't there.

Simple -- yet attractive -- molded-plastic design.

"It's surprising no one ever steals it," someone said a few days ago. And yet, I'm not surprised. Are you?


Meanwhile, a few miles away, another faux nativity greeted arrivals to the Methodist church's bi-annual "Bethlehem Market" production.


Groups flowed through the market vendors, winding towards that familiar scene, cast this time with teens.

The camel? Kazzy -- a therapeutic camel, manger moonlighting.

Miracle Humor @ Lafayette Town Hall

Risky, this long term fan of Maureen's O'Hara's 1947 Christmas classic taking in Lafayette Town Hall's Miracle on 34th Street production.



Surprise -- strong community theater cast delivering familiar lines brings back movie scene memories where simplistic props might fail.

Extra credit for ingenuity -- Alfred (Santa wannabe) is M.I.A., replaced by new vision of Doris Walker's office assistant, primed with hilarious one-liners.

So... let's forgive Doris' Christmas morning junior high sewing class disaster, ill-fitted sleeveless black bodice with Christmas plaid sateen Barbie-doll full skirt.

Just know... Hollywood heads would roll.

Not Everybody Eats Pie

Our New Thanksgiving, bookended by gospel music...




and trade show magic...

...produced sights, sounds and impressions -- family story fodder.

The Auto Show? 3 boys PLUS Dad. Mom with new camera. Oddly perfect.

Biggest "re-traditioning" lesson? Not everybody eats pie.

At least, not in the traditional holiday-at-home way. True in the suburbs, it's easiest to verify in the city.

People were everywhere -- playing, eating, volunteering, working. Perhaps, for some, a Thanksgiving time-out. So what. At that moment they were cast in San Francisco's Thanksgiving scene. So were we.

Expect repeat performances.

2 Days to a New Thanksgiving

Turkey Surprise is no longer just a Friday leftover.
While I've been focused on New, my husband has been studying Safeway's Thanksgiving brochure the way students scour Cliff Notes.

TIP C -- Foil mittens.

Planned, prepped, and even roasted -- we're ready for our first New Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving

Thursday: Serve turkey at Glide Memorial followed by a family walk through the Tommy's Joynt food line and a SF afternoon.

Tonight: Man vs. turkey.

Tomorrow: Dinner in the dining room with everyday dishes when Campo's gym lights go out, somewhere around 9:30 p.m.

Life lessons? Many.

Shirts, signs and cheap solutions

The hidden costs of varsity sports just begins with the apparel form. But I drew the line at expensive posters.

I spied the answer on my player's bedroom floor -- potential for colorful, cute, AND cheap.


The key was keeping the final design to tabloid size. Kinko's starts those sized color copies at less than $2. One inch bigger jumps you to the big color copier. Then you have to get out the calculator -- and your bigger bills. Pricing is per square foot.

Total cost? 4 for under $10.

Each a winner.

Beat those odds.

Musical Gym Rats

It always feels like we see the same people in the gym all the time. Not the same KIND of people. The EXACT SAME people. Basketball people. Doesn’t matter if we’re at Campolindo, Tice Valley, Diablo Valley Community College, Reno or San Diego.

Last night as we left DVC, though, a crowd of bus-weary Southern California high school kids with sleeping bags poured into the gym. Today, WBA 2008 band championships begin.



So, there it is. We’re not all the same. Some gym rats play instruments. Apparently, they come out at night.

The Promise, a movie

Craig Cooper's 1980's Peace Corps memory lodged in my heart, then morphed in my brain as trailer for would-be feature film titled, The Promise.

Do the chores. I won't pay you now. But if you stay in school and finish high school... I'll pay for college or help you build a house.

Two willing Bahn teens. One earnest college grad.

Zero war contingency.

Years pass. Decades of silence.

Liberian, googling. Surprised engineer. Third-world taxi. Wherever the script begins, it'll lead to three men, reconnected. $5,000. New homes. Satisfaction.

The Promise, fulfilled. Finally.

Knowing Pains -- Stories for all

I bought Knowing Pains, an essay anthology marketed as "by and for" women in their 40's, because of Maria Hjelm's essay about the loss of her mother, Just a Blip.

Hearing it reminded me of my mother's raw pain at the recent loss of her mother.

Love. Loss. Sex. Self-awareness. Friendships. These experiences transcend age.

Swap stories with women of varied generations and you'll see -- we are more alike than different.

Don't let the cover-hype age you out.

These are new voices worth hearing.

Helping support breast cancer education? An added bonus.

Digital Leaps

The hardest part of replacing my stolen point and shoot camera was circling Best Buy's digital camera island, deciphering pros and cons, needs versus wants. How much should -- could -- I spend beyond insurance proceeds to get camera technology I want (I mean... need) compared to the money USAA said would replace 4-year-old technology?



The Canon G10 was a leap of faith. Great features will work even better once I upgrade my computer. That's going to wait.

Welcome to IF YOU GIVE A MOUSE A NEW DIGITAL CAMERA in a TOUGH ECONOMY.

Carolina on my mind

Remember when I Photoshopped Stanford football game moments into Carolina memories? Well, the REAL THING arrived in my inbox yesterday.



A stadium blanket of Carolina blue against a canvas of matching sky, Bell Tower, and autumn trees. Perfect. Just like I remember.
Still... the picture falls short. It's hiding the #1 reason I would have flown in for the game. She's behind the camera.

Windy. College roommate. Bridesmaid. One son's Godmother. Friend for nearly 30 years.

To think it started in 403 Cobb Dorm, the result of a random Department of Housing lottery.

Monitor Survival

It happened overnight. I hit SEND, then went to bed. By morning, my in-box held the key.



Do you think April Austin, The Christian Science Monitor's then Homefront Editor, knew her email had opened the door -- my first published clip, a toe-dip into the world of national journalism, circa 2000? Back when print editions were king.

The century-old Monitor has just announced a strategic shift. Their future? Primarily on-line. Their daily paper? Gone mid-2009.

A defining moment, a bold attempt to hold on. To survive.

Brave, it might work. I hope so.

Putting it out there

"I really love homemade cards," I hinted not so subtly to my family earlier this week.

And it worked -- my 12-year-old went all out.

But when it came my turn to craft a card, I balked. I couldn't imagine what I could make -- or buy -- that would say what I wanted to say to our family's friend whose cancer has returned.

Instead, I reached for stationary.

No scissors. No glue stick. No markers.

Not a single sticker.

It was heart to pen to paper, just the truth:

Love and a prayer.

Bookmark Show and Tell

I’ve never been one to “own” lots of music -- LP’s or cassettes or CDs. Even my iPod holds mostly podcasts.

I prefer to let radio stations surprise me.

Now, though, I have a growing music collection "Bookmarked" on my iMAC. Low-budget YouTube.com videos. Original songs not yet on the radio, but – who knows – might be some day. I certainly wish the artists luck.

Anyway, here's my current favorite - Reina DelCid's Come Back Over.




Friendship. Love. Regret. Second chances. What's not to like?

So... what's caught your ear on Youtube? Anything worth bookmarking?

** twilight ** and the real teen trackers

Even if vampires aren't your thing, I defy you to ignore twilight, Hollywood's adaptation of Stephanie Meyer's New York Times Bestseller, scheduled for Thanksgiving week release amid already escalating hype.

I'm late on the scene of this 2005 teen read. I finished Twilight on Halloween, moments before 6 high school co-eds returned from trick-or-treating with my middle son. The girls nearly swooned at the book's cover.

"Don't you just looooove Edward Cullen?"

Vampires have nothing on marketers. Teenaged girls, though --- there's an economic force impossible to ignore.

But go ahead -- try.

One pirate's final story

It must have had its moments. Think of the stories, the children, the smiles.

Perhaps the person who put this pirate creature into the dumpster by the community center's preschool felt a twinge of remorse.

Why else would it be propped in full-regret, like it doesn't quite understand, shouldn't it be in the big basket near the picture book corner?

Or is it that, now resigned to walking this plank, its eyes are cast on the rest of us: Don't we see what's happening, it seems to ask, will we do nothing?

Lidge Seizes More than Series

I’ve aged out of claiming to know any current professional athlete because we went to college together.

I have to jump generations, to someone like my husband’s cousin’s son, a guy I met maybe once, more than a decade ago. Someone I’m confident can’t pick me out in the Safeway checkout line.

Still… when anyone says, “Brad’s pitching,” I tune in.
“I don’t care about that other crap,” said Lidge, after he clinched the World Series tonight. “This is it right here.”


And I smiled because he’s right –- in more ways than one.

Re-traditioning: 31 Days to a new Thanksgiving

There are probably 739 reasons why we’ve held tightly to celebrating Thanksgiving at Aunt Caroline’s house in Southern California, my Thanksgiving tradition since 1986.



Yet this tradition that survived marriage, children, even our relocation to the Bay Area in 1999, proved no match for high school sports. Already, we’ve celebrated two Thanksgivings without our oldest son.

This year? No family road trip.

We’re re-traditioning. Think re-decorating, only we’re considering Thanksgiving alternatives, everything from recipes to community service.

Having shaken the Thanksgiving Etch-a-Sketch clear, we’ve got 31 days to make a new picture.

Your ideas?

Burglary Math

Waiting for my turn to answer questions, I listened to the judge interview other prospective jurors: Is there anything about this? Is there anything about that? Anything about anything that impacts your ability to be impartial in this particular criminal proceeding?

That's when I realized something both obvious and humbling -- everything about September's burglary impacts my ability to be impartial right now. It's still too fresh.

I have been quantifying burglary costs in dollars lost and hours wasted.

There's more to the equation, a growing unknown I'm not sure yet how to measure.

Pre-election Shakes in Martinez

In a random sidebar to the Martinez beavers vs. Alhambra Creek construction controversy, a moving van stopped at the Election Department warehouse on Marina Vista today.

Good news: The beavers didn't seem to notice. Our furry friends remained hunkered down in their lodge, as expected.




Apparently the construction project is shaking the warehouse, not exactly standard handling procedure for sensitive voting equipment.



No one wants to wake up Election Day faced with a stack of repair orders and a newspaper headline.

Enter the truck, a busy fork lift and various signs to slow traffic.

To Be or Not to Be... The Guy

On. Off. On. Off. If not The Guy with the smooth dismount, the man seemed determined to at least be The Guy who didn’t fumble the hand-off.


Watching, it made me think of the Reluctant Guy I overheard on Saturday’s flag football field.

Overstaffed, the senior ref told the 15-year-old ref, “Make yourself useful. Pick-up trash. Be. The. Guy.”

“I don’t want to be The Guy,” retorted the younger ref, even as he left to hunt trash. “I don’t even know who The Guy is.”

If not now, I wanted to ask... When?

Second Chance Thanks

If at this very moment we were at one of those family dinners where everyone has to say one thing that they’re thankful for, I wouldn’t hesitate.

That’s because today I finally got tired of that box under my office desk and took a closer look at all the old disks in it.

Guess what I found?

Moments, large and small, casual and formal. Some random ones, too.
Photos I'd never printed. Photos I thought had fallen victim to long-ago computer crashes.

Today, I'm thankful for second chances.


What are you thankful for?

Alumni Clicks

Everything about these Stanford alums screams, "Wow, aren't we great!" And why not? They’ve just witnessed Zagory’s extra-point kick, giving Stanford a final-seconds lead over Arizona, clinching the Reunion Weekend win.

Still... that’s a lot of Cardinal pride for one pastel-wearing Tarheel with "Spouse" badge to swallow.

The big take-away?

Red tsunami. Tailgates to match. Remember-when stories. Even the die-hard fan, radio to ear and dressed in questionable plaid.

All that energy fueled something unexpected.




My own sentimental journey.

Back to a more familiar memory.

Go Heels!

Behind Friendly Lines

Look closely and you’ll see that Kay, who is turning 86 this month, has written her own name on her birthday calendar.


I love that Kay keeps this calendar close at hand, but I have from the start been a little spooked by the way she keeps it up to date: When a friend dies, Kay draws a line through his or her name.

Kay has a different take.

This way, Kay says, she thinks about each of her friends on their birthday.

A line simply reminds her not to send a card.

Digitally challenged Fleet Week

Dateline: San Francisco. Sunday, Fleet Week.


I missed my stolen camera more yesterday than any other day since the burglary.

I'm currently making do with several digital-camera-generations-ago technology.

My Coolpix775's slower reaction time means what I see isn't always what I get.

Sometimes, that's okay, because what I see lasts long enough that it doesn't matter, like this mother-pilot moment.


Sometimes I get something better, like this stranger's spontaneous salute that seemed to sum up how we all felt about the day.




The rest? Essence shots. Memory joggers only.