Loved Twice

I want to give BIG ups to my neighbor and friend Lisa, whose efforts to provide clothes to newborns in need is getting recognition it deserves. The Oakland Tribune has this article, "Oakland mom a champion of newborns" today, and she's also this month's Comcast "Hometown Hero". You can support Lisa's non-profit Loved Twice Baby Clothing by donating on her website. On top of doing all this great stuff, Lisa is a cool woman and great mom, who will pour you a glass of wine just for walking by her house.

What Did I Missed While I Was Away?

The preliminary answer to that question is, not much. Our block did have its first Neighborhood Watch meeting while I was away, but I am not sure I would have attended that if I was here. The post-meeting email to the rest of the block did contain this advice, in the context of areas of concern:

Gas. I would also expect an increase in people siphoning gasoline from our cars as the price of fuel continually rises.

Really? I was skeptical, so I did a Google News search on this topic. It does appear to be a problem in York County, SC. How about here in CA? So far, its just a problem in Modesto. But Mo' is like the meth capital of the Central Valley, so it probably has some industrial use and isn't actually a widespread problem.

Here on Thomas Avenue, there don't appear to be any meth labs (knock wood), and the houses are literally less than 10 feet apart, and there are lots of them. It seems to me gas siphoning takes more than a few seconds, and requires some dubious, not to mention obvious, acrobatics to get it done. I promise that if I see anyone with a funnel and tubing and their car backed up to another, I will call the police. Til then, I am seriously not going to worry about this problem.

This reminds me of a joke that I knew when I was young. I left one part blank because I have heard at least three iterations of the joke, referring to different ethnicities.

Did you hear about the _______ who tried to blow up a car? He burned his lips on the tail pipe.

Funny stuff.

Oh, Wait, I Remembered

I was going to blog about how heated the campaign for the Rockridge Community Planning Commission board has gotten. I actually got a campaign email for one candidate. Instead I will add some pix of my dearies.






In this first one, Quinn shows off his babysitting skillz. The little guy is Antwwan, a daytime guest this week, who comes with Blanca each day. Liam pronounces his name "Entron", which makes about as much sense as the spelling of the little guy's name.





You can see for yourself what Liam is doing in this picture. That's right, he's building Mt. St. Helens' erupting over the state of Washington on a U.S. map placemat. My heart swells.


Because, in point of fact, the RCPC election is lamer than it even sounds. It's so NIMBY, so annoying, it makes me want to set myself on fire.*


*Okay, so that last link is a stretch. In the first episode of Arrested Development, Lucille Bluth looks off their yacht at a boat full of gay men, who are chanting "We're here, we're queer, we want to get married on the ocean" and she turns to Lindsay and says, "They're so dramatic, it makes me want to set myself on fire!" And ever since, that line completes probably 1 in 10 sentences that I think.

Does This Roll of Fat Make Me Look Fat?

As I near Q's nine-month anniversary of birth, I contemplate the jelly roll two kids have left behind. The adage on pregnancy weight is nine months up, nine months back, but it could take a little longer over here, even if I continue to say that this spare tire is composed entirely of excess skin. I took umbrage at a stranger asking me when I was due last week, but then tonight Liam asked, "Do you have a nudder baby in there?" Time to make an April Fool's Resolution to get a gym membership.

I need to address a couple of other issues as well. For those who are just joining St. Scobie's, here is my post on the origin of the name of the blog. I invite you to begin at the beginning, and partake of bed races, Jack Roberts and all the haggis in a can you can possibly eat.

Congratulations to rockstarjenny for winning St. Scobie's Mock Brackets. If I ever have Smile Rockridge! T-shirts printed, you'll get the first ringer off the screen press.

Finally, thanks to Pat for bringing the Hilltop Legos Interdiction to my attention. It seriously out-Berkeleys almost anything I have heard lately. Suddenly the confiscation of my kid's aircraft carrier photos by a Broccoli Montessori teacher, sans deprogramming efforts, seems reasonable. I don't have the mental power right now to process all the soul-crushing bullshit in that article; attacking its wrongheadedness would be like shooting monkeys in a barrel (metaphor intentionally mixed). Can you imagine the world we'd live in as conceived of by these teachers? This is why places like AZone and college exist; it keeps all the "thinkers" together, away from young children.

Ask and I Shall Receive

Just a few minutes after my call for news, I got this email from my fave cuz:

Fake novelist in your 'hood! according to the SFGate, the former JT Leroy is a waitress in Rockridge: "These days, she is out of the literary limelight and back pocketing tips on the night shift at Soi 4, a Thai restaurant in Oakland's Rockridge district." how exciting!

Which incarnation of JT Leroy, though? It's the person who was dressing as JT, not the person writing as JT. Something you can take from this article is that Savannah Knoop is almost as annoying as JT Leroy, which I didn't think was possible.

We get Soi4 take out all the time, and the owner's kid goes to Broccoli Montessori. I am annoyed that I have only 1 degree of separation from this twit.

Your Little Dose of Methadone

I've been getting some complaints about my absence from the blog. I didn't even realize it had been a week. One reader suggested that I get an assistant to handle things at work, to free me up to write. It's a great idea, but, really its an unfunded mandate. Plus, this week the blog could practically write itself. OJ? Kramer? Riot Grrl mothering? So very much to annoy me, so little time.

Brook and I will be unveiling our "Smile Rockridge" campaign any day now, so check back for updates. We welcome designs for T-shirts, bumper stickers (preferably along the lines of "I heart smiles and I heart Rockridge and I vote" or somesuch), etc. I was thinking maybe we could draw the library into it, make a read-a-thon part of the celebration. But that might just be because I love read-a-thons. For those of you who don't live in the neighborhood, here's the issue: We live in possibly the nicest place on the planet, in one of its nicest neighborhoods, and people on the street refuse to smile or make eye contact. They aggressive frown at you when you walk by them. It's a very walkable place too, so we get frowned at a lot. We cannot figure out what's going on. So in addition to a design contest and a read-a-thon, Smile Rockridge (tm) also welcomes psychoanalysis. A therapy- in, if you will. I think the kick-off week for this campaign is off to a great start and I welcome your comments and suggestions.