Graco Stoller Recall

Here is a link to read about this recall.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39750625/ns/health-kids_and_parenting/?GT1=43001

Two thoughts:

(1) The deaths occurred between 2003 and 2005. It's already 2010! It took them that long to issue a recall??? Why even bother? Are there a lot of protocol to follow and/or red tape to cut through? If so, they have to get rid of all that and take more immediate action.

(2) Entrapment and strangulation can occur if babies are not strapped in properly. Put another way, if parents DO THEIR JOB and strap their babies in properly this will not occur. This is another case of irresponsible parenting leading to disastrous outcomes. I feel sorry for Graco for having to take accountability for bad parents who don’t pay attention to the safety of their own kids.

Preschool

Preschool? Really? Do I have to start the process of looking and applying for a preschool for Chloe already? I have no idea where to start! I have never felt so lost before. Should I look in our city? Should I look in SF? Do I HAVE TO look in our city? Is there a list I can look into? What should I look for when I go on a tour? What questions should I ask?

Does anyone have any tips to offer? Please!

A poor man's house addition

We did a poor man's home addition. Well, sort of. The idea was to add covered space to our house for Chloe's upcoming 1st birthday party. We have a lot of guests to invite but we have a dinky little house. If her birthday was in a warmer season our guests can simply hangout in the backyard. But being in late November, we are destined to deal with unfavorable weather.

The options we have for her birthday party are:

(1) have it at some restaurant with the venue and food all taken care of. But this can be impersonal and expensive.

(2) rent an indoor space somewhere and bring in the food. Space rental is a big one-time charge. We will have to pay this money again next time we have another party.

(3) have the party at our house and somehow increase covered space to enhance the comfort of our guests in case the weather doesn't cooperate.

We are opting for option 3. If we find a good solution to adding covered space for people to gather, we can reuse it every time we have any sort of party. Let's face it, just Chloe's birthdays itself will forever be during fringe weather season.

So we set out to look for a canopy to turn a portion of our abundant outdoor space into pseudo indoor space to shield people from the elements. At first we had in mind a temporary canopy to put up when we need it and take down when we don't. But while shopping at Costco, Randy came upon this steel frame canopy meant for long term use. As you can see in the picture of the packaging, it is sturdy enough to use as a long term carport. It comes with heavy duty steel frame and coverage on all 4 sides in addition to the roof. This looked much more appealing than the temporary ones with aluminum frame and no "walls". Our area can get really windy so the 4 walls will be useful to block out the wind. This seemed like the perfect solution for our needs.


The only thing we had to consider was the rather permanent nature of this addition. Do we want this huge 10'x20' structure to be added to our backyard on a long term basis? How obtrusive will it be? How much natural lighting will it block off from our house? After some consideration, we decided to give it a try. We can always return it if it doesn't work out.

I am happy to report we do not plan on returning it. It turned out even better than we imagined. The design of the product is impeccable. We were more than amazed as we were assembling it. The ingenuity, the design, the quality, the ease of assembly all exceeded expectations. It's been up 3 days now and it is standing strong. It definitely fulfills all of our needs.

In addition, the dimensions of the canopy are so perfect it is as if it was custom made for our house. Because of it's perfect size, it does not feel nor look obtrusive at all. Since the roof is at a triangular slope, even though it butts up right next to our kitchen and bathroom windows, it still manages to funnel a good amount of sunlight into the house. Hence our concern of it blocking off natural lighting to our house is a non-concern.

On top of that, the cost of the canopy is a mere $200. $250 if you add the cement blocks we added to anchor it down. A $250 poor man's house addition. That's something worth blogging about.


Exterior view with awning closed.

Interior view from the garage.

Too early for punishment?

I punished Chloe this morning. She refused to finish her milk so I sat her in her highchair and confined her in it without toys while we got ready for work.

Lately she hasn’t been drinking all her milk. She would gobble up all her solid meals but would always leave an ounce or two in the bottle. I grew up with a mother who made me eat all my food before I was allowed to leave the dinner table and attended an elementary school whose cafeteria staff didn’t allow any student out to the yard to play until they finished their lunch. Not finishing your food was a big no no in my childhood. And don’t forget the cliché “with so many people starving in this world, it is a sin to waste food”. All this shaped me into a parent who will make sure her kid finishes her meals.

During her 10+ minutes of confinement, she never cried but she did moan and groan to be let out. She raised her arms and pleaded for freedom each time Randy or I walked passed but ignored her. When I finally freed her, I picked her up and told her in a warm voice, “Mommy had to punish you for not eating all your milk. You need to be a good girl and finish your milk okay?” She babbled her usual “dah dah wah wah” in response.

That led me to wonder…does she understand punishment at this age? Are my efforts to impose a punishment and follow with a verbal explanation still too advanced for a 10-month-old infant without language capabilities? Is it cruel to punish a 10-month-old who doesn’t know right from wrong? Does she know right from wrong?

Comparison Photos

It's not that we need to prove she is our child. Neither is it that we need to verify the hospital gave us the correct child to go home with. Comparison photos like these just melt your heart and amaze your mind that you indeed brought an offshoot of yourselves into this world.

Here I Am Once Again

My abandoned blog...I am so sorry. I abandoned you after I became pregnant with my now 10 month old baby. One would think I would report to you more often during my pregnancy to document the progress. What with the fatigue associated with pregnancy and all the things you have to do to prepare for the arrival of the most wonderful gift ever bestowed upon you that took away all the time and energy to keep a blog active. Here I am, returning 1 year and 7 months after my last post.

A Proposal That Went Awry

Have to share this article I read about a proposal that went awry. As cute as it is, I'm glad it didn't happen to me. :P

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29462344?GT1=43001

A Good Review

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/06/DD9915MEGE.DTL&type=movies

This is a review of the animated film "Coraline" I read on SFGate. This writer can write! I am more intrigued by his writing than by the film itself. But because of his exceptional writing, I now want to watch the film to confirm or disconfirm his thoughts.

Bravo to good writing.

The Human Race

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28873370/?GT1=43001

Things like this make me want to cancel my membership with the human race. A company wants to sell a doll named and modeled after 2-year-old slained Caylee Anthony. How can anyone want to profit from a poor little girl's murder?

The company defended the doll, saying "in addition to raising money for a national missing and exploited children's organization, the doll would help promote awareness. We want to give … we're not trying to get rich. We're putting ourselves at a whole lot of risk... She'll be a banner for missing and exploited children, and people will know and have a better idea how to handle those situations or stop those situations from happening."

That's a bunch of BS. Money, not social awareness, is what they're after. They've suspended the sale of this doll for now. I hope they downright take it off the market for good.

On top of that, this company has been rated with an "F" by the BBB. This pretty much sums up the poor business practice and/or ethics this company has. If this doll does end up getting back on the market for sale, I truly hope no one buys it. The idea is just disgusting and disgraceful.

BATS Improv
Last night we went to see the BATS Improv show at Fort Mason. The tickets were one of my two anniversary gifts to RF. Since the 1st anniversary is symbolized by paper, my paper gift to him was the tickets to the Improv show.

RF had told me about BATS Improv a long time ago. He had watched it once before many years ago and he really enjoyed it. We’ve been talking about catching a show for quite some time now. At one point we even asked our friends if anyone was interested. But we didn’t have any takers. I figured we would go on our own this time on a date.

BATS has been performing in SF since 1986. Besides improvised performances, they also offer improv workshops training improvisational performance to individual or groups. The current run is from January through February and have performances every Friday and Saturday nights. Called the Rock & Roll Theatresports, it divides the BATS cast into six Rock & Roll-themed teams to compete for the Theatresports championship. Each night, two teams compete in performing improvised games, songs, and scenes inspired by audience suggestions. At the end of each challenge, judges award points to each team and the audience screams out the name of the team they think did better in that challenge. That team gets to throw a big dice for extra points. The team with the most points wins and moves on to the championship round at the end of the run. The teams lastnight were Rockness Monster and The Swensen 5. The winning team was Rockness Monster, who won by a score of 100 to 83.

We both really enjoyed the show. It was very much like “Whose Line Is It Anyway” but a tad bit more amateurish. But that’s exactly what we expected. These are local actors doing a small intimate show for the local audience. The theater itself is small, which was perfect for the small audience of about 50. But the atmosphere was intimate, as if everyone knew everyone else. The cast asked members of the audience to participate on stage in a couple of skits and people were eager to volunteer. At $15 per ticket, this is an affordable show for two hours of fun and laughs. I will definitely be back for more. I highly recommend it to others as well.

Their website is www.improv.org

Mystery Solved?
My husband has been sick the last 4 days. A very bad case of the flu knocked him out for 3 days and finally today he was able to get up and go to work. I've been trying very hard not to catch it from him. But we all know how hard that is when you are living in the same house and sleeping on the same bed.

I'm not sure if I'm just paranoid, but this afternoon my head felt a little woozy. It's been like this on and off since about 2pm. About an hour ago I felt my forehead to see if it's warm. It did feel a little warm to the touch. Again I may just be paranoid but to be safe, I took out the thermometer to take my temperature. It read 97.9. That's lower than normal. I think I'm ok...right?

Yeah, I think I'm ok. I think that's my body's core temperature. Several times in the past, at times when I was sick and took my temperature, I often got these below-normal readings. In fact this might explain why I'm always cold. It takes a very warm day to get me to wear a t-shirt. Even hotter to get me to wear a skirt or shorts. If there is any science to this, I believe that due to the fact that my core temperature is lower than usual, I tend to get cold easier than most people. That explains why I can be in a long sleeve shirt and a sweatshirt when my husband has only a t-shirt on. Mystery solved.

Nisei
After MOMA we went to Sakanabune for dinner. We haven’t had sushi in awhile and were both craving it. Again Sakanabune lived up to its “cheap and good sushi” name.

After dinner we went to a nearby aquarium to buy more fish food. (Yes, after we ate fish for food, we went to buy food for our fishes. Ironic? Yes.) Well, besides fish food, we walked out of there with a new Betta fish and a new fish tank for me. That was not in the agenda at all but I saw the tank, liked it, bought it, and bought a fish to go in it. Impulsive buy? Totally. So ladies and gents, introducing Nisei, my 2nd fish. Nisei means 2nd generation in Japanese. Since this is my second fish since Hikari, I named this one Nisei.

MOMA
RF and I went to the Museum of Modern Arts otday. We talked about visiting the MOMA for a long time. Randy had never been there before. I had been there once about 6 years ago. To be honest, I think we may NOT revisit MOMA again. No disrespect to the artists and people who appreciate their work, but frankly, they were too abstract for us. We didn’t appreciate/understand most of the “arts” we saw today. We understand modern art tends to be abstract but this was too much. We scratched our heads to most of the pieces and asked often “how is this art?” The exhibit we appreciated the most was probably the collections of microscopic and telescopic photography. Those at least were things (1) we understood and (2) we thought were hard for the normal person to do. Unlike some of the other abstract pieces which frankly could’ve been done by anyone but because a certain artist did it, it’s art. The one I found most ridiculous was one of 4 black bolts bolted onto a white canvas to form a square. Where’s the art in that??? If I bolted 4 bolts to a white canvas to make a square and submitted it to the museum, would they have taken it and displayed it as “Modern Art by ITF”? I think not. So where’s the art in that???

2.69
$2.69. That’s the price I paid per gallon of gas last night at Costco. I don’t remember the last time I saw/paid a price so low for gas. It must be more than 2 years ago that prices were at this level. Similarly I don’t remember the last time I paid less than $50 for a full tank. Last night my total came out to $44. Compared to just last month when I paid $3.65 per gallon for a total of $58, the numbers last night were like music to my ears.

The question next is will this last?

Happy Article
There was a very good article in Saturday’s Chronicle/SFGate.

Class surprises lesbian teacher on wedding day

This is one of those rare happy stories you wished you see more of on the newspaper. It brought a smile to my face after I read it. Congratulations to the happy couple.

I’ve been in the habit of reading comments by fellow readers to gauge how everyone else feels about things happening around us. This article drew more than 2500 comments. I’m not surprised as Prop 8 is a hot topic lately. I couldn’t read all 2500+ comments of course, but here are a few that either I agree with or I think deserve a mention.


“At first, I was a bit conflicted about the actual term 'marriage'. My confusion was rooted in what I felt that the actual term 'marriage' was at heart an originally religious term signifying commitment between a man and a woman. But that simple term 'marriage' imparts many rights in this country too. So after a bit of thought I've come to the conclusion that 'marriage' means more about 'rights' as far as taxes, inheritance, visitation rights, adoption, etc. than the strict religious meaning, at least according to current Federal and most states laws. So just logically for me* it seems that same sex couples should have the same 'rights' heterosexual couples have. Equal rights under the law would seem to dictate that. I'm voting 'NO' on prop 8....”

“This class field trip is not parents or administrators advancing their own ideologies. It is not a waste of time or indoctrination. It IS an opportunity for these children to get a hands-on experience with a real current event. A good education goes beyond the classroom to the world that kids actually live in.”

"’How many days in school are they going to remember?’ asked parent Marc Lipsett. ‘This is a day they'll definitely remember.’ Totally agree with this quote. I'm happy that the kids got to take part in this event.”

"i am studying early childhood education and we are taught in our abti biased curriculum class that same sex coupleing should be taught/adressed because otherwise you are teaching the children to be biased or discriminatory just like not teaching children about other cultures teaches them bias and racism etc."

“Hey! That's great! Congratulations to the happy couple! But...get those kids back to school! There's plenty of reading and arithmetic to be learned. They're definitely not going to learn any good math in City Hall!”

Two new Yelp reviews by yours truly:

Xyclo (Asian Fusion/Vietnamese - Piedmont, Oakland)
As long as you don't go with a preconception of what Vietnamese food should be, you will enjoy your meal at Xyclo. Authenticity aside, the flavors are full & robust. Overall, good.

Notable dishes are the Beef Carpaccio, Bun Hanoi, and Garlic Herb Noodles. The Bun Hanoi resembles the authentic Vietnamese version the most. The Carpaccio, while nowhere near authentic (capers?), is very tasty nonetheless. I actually enjoy what the capers do to the dish. The Garlic Herb Noodles is a must do to add to the experience.

Dishes that disappoint are the Xyclo Rolls, the Tumbling Dice, and Butterfly Prawns. The Xyclo Rolls are too bland, even with the fish sauce. I think this is mainly due to the lack of meat and over abundance of veggies in them. The Tumbling Dice, while the meat is decent, should not be served with the balsamic vinegarette salad. That's just wrong. But here I violate my own rule of not having a preconception of Vietnamese food. But I can't help it. I would be happier having it with a salad with fish sauce, like green papaya salad. The Butterfly Prawns are almost there. Just a dash more seasoning for flavor would complete it.

Overall this is a chic fusionized restaurant with a nice atmosphere and tasty food.

Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars


Zanze's Cheesecake (Bakery - Ocean Ave, SF)
I don't eat anything with cheese...but I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS CHEESECAKE. That says it all.

Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

Eric Benet vs Double Chin
*Sigh* When I first looked at this picture, I didn’t see Eric Benet. I didn’t see the celebrity singer that came by our station this morning. Instead, I see my double chin! Yes, that’s the one thing that stick outs (literally) at me (or on me) in the picture. Since when has this crept up on me?? My guess is since January as that was the last time I went to the gym. I need to snap back into shape. But…easier said than done. *Sigh*

Boyfriend du Jour
Yes, I’m married. I know. But my boyfriend of the day is Robin Thicke. He came by our station for a live interview this morning. He is so so nice. No attitude whatsoever. No arrogance. Just down to earth and friendly. When I went into the studio, HE came up to ME to shake MY hand and to ask for MY name. Then after we took this picture, HE thanked ME. Oh, I melted. Heehee. And of course, he is so so cute also.

Black Hole
I grew up in SF. Lived practically all my life here. I can say I know the city in and out...except for one area. That's the woodsy area by Glen Park. This is the one "black hole" in my knowledge of this wonderful city. Everytime I drive by on O'Shaughnessy Boulevard I look over to the canyon and wonder what's there. This green and woodsy patch seem so far removed from the metropolis city, but yet, it's smack in the middle of the city. I've always wanted to wander into this black hole and explore. Today there's an article on SFGate.com featuring this rare jewel of the city. It offers information on how to get to the area, how to navigate the canyon, and even where to stop and eat afterwards. Armed with this information, I'm determined to finally pay this gap in my geographical knowledge of SF a visit.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/07/NSJM1238B1.DTL

Gee, this just sucks all the romance out of an engagement doesn’t it?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25846393

I’m not siding with either party here, but the precedence this legal case sets turns the whole notion of an engagement being based on the desire of a couple in love to live the remaining of their lives together into some sort of contract. That’s just wrong.