By Kevin

Today all the news outlets were running silly little summaries of a new Pew Center report called One in 100 that addresses the prison population in the US. The report itself is well worth a read as it's very well written and there are excellent graphics and charts throughout. The (currently popular) outrage over civil rights abuses in China is put in some context by the knowledge that there are 50% more people incarcerated in the US, despite China's vastly larger population. One in 100 US adults is behind bars, one in fifteen black men.

Oh wait, did I mention that California spent $8.8 billion last year on corrections? Texas took a distant number two in that regard at $3.3 billion. Governor Schwarzenegger wants us to spend $10.3bn in 2008 according to his January budget Proposal. For those who've been following the news, this is the same budget proposal where he suggested that it would be a good idea to cut $4bn from education. I can't imagine a better recipe for disaster.

I've read reams of literature on the increased effectiveness (not to mention vastly lower cost) of community-based reform for non-violent criminals. 48.4% of our prison population is incarcerated for non-violent offenses. There's something terribly wrong with these statistics and nobody is doing anything about it.

Labels: politics

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By Julie

A while back I tagged Rita with a meme called "7 weird/random things about yourself." Instead of answering that meme, she recently turned it into a new one called "7 weird/random things about your significant other" and tagged both me and Kevin. After struggling with it for a solid week I gave up for two really good reasons: 1) Kevin and I have been together too long for me to think anything he does is weird, and 2) hey, I tagged Rita for the original meme, so isn't it slightly illegal for her to tag me back? :)

I guess I've had a change of heart. In a few months Kevin and I will be celebrating 15 years of together-ness as we hit our first-date anniversary, and later this year we'll be celebrating our 14th wedding anniversary, so I'm doing this meme as a public service to all couples who haven't been together as long.

1. Kevin is a total guy. I know this one seems like a big duh, but it took me a few years to realize that. That's when I did our relationship a great service; I put aside my prejudices and read Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus. (I also learned to my surprise that I'm a total girl, but that's for another meme.)

2. At the same time, Kevin is completely disinterested in watching football, basketball, or baseball. He knows plenty about them to make small talk, but if you really want to be his friend, hand him an epee and join him on the fencing strip. Some other alternatives: billiards, snowboarding, or scuba diving.

3. Kevin makes amazing pasta. From scratch. No really, he takes semolina flour and turns it into fettuccine. This is one of the reasons I married him.

4. Kevin also gives amazing massages. This is another reason I married him, and as a result he's no longer allowed to give other people massages, only shoulders and neck.

5. Kevin's patience is Buddha-like. Case in point, before we got married, he taught me how to drive a stick shift using HIS car without cringing or yelling even once. (Need I say this was yet another reason I married him?)

6. Kevin wants to do EVERYTHING himself. John Gray might argue this is one of those Mars guy things, but I think it 's unique to his family. I mean, how many guys you know would take on home improvement projects that required a jackhammer, a welding torch, or a hammer drill?

7. Kevin lets me drag him out to all sorts of music and art events, and afterwards he tells me how much he enjoyed them. He even watches cheesy comedies with me even though I refuse to watch scary movies with him. In all the years we've been together he's only complained ONCE about the quality of my entertainment choices, and that was when I temporarily lost my mind and ordered Spice World via Netflix. What can I say? Darling, I know we'll never get those 93 minutes of our lives back, but I'll spend the rest of my life making it up to you.

Labels: memes

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By Julie

This weekend was Ana's birthday party. Friday night when we went to Costco to pick up her birthday cake, we stopped at a Taiwanese cafe called 三年２班 (Class 302) in Rowland Heights for dinner. It's an adorable little place decorated with school paraphernalia, down to the desks and chairs. One of the dishes we ordered even came in a stackable tin lunch box that I recognized from having spent some of my elementary school years in Taiwan. The food, though not the cheapest, was pretty good, but I didn't like sitting in those awkward wooden chairs. Maybe we can go back when I'm not so uncomfortably pregnant.


This year we rented facilities for both of the kids' birthdays because I got tired of worrying about it raining on their winter parties and because I'm too big and tired to host them at home. There are some downsides: the limited menus, the strict time limits, the restrictions on the number of guests, and related to that, the uncertainty over whether the people we do invite will come. I was utterly thrilled about the turnout at Ana's party though, especially when Peg brought Ashlyn and Summer!!! It's been ages since we've hung out with them, and I really appreciated them making the drive up from the OC.

Now we can relax until next year. With baby number 3 slated to show in late April, I wonder if we should have a joint birthday party at home for all three of them next spring, when the chance of rain is next to nil here in So Cal. We'll see...


Here's a picture of Kevin giving Daisy a bath. Being a straight haired dog, Daisy always looks pretty good even when she hasn't had a bath in *mumble mumble* months. What most people don't realize is how much basset hounds shed. Back in the day I used to be the main producer of the hairy tumbleweeds that we find around the house, but ever since Daisy joined the family, she's got me beat. We'd been wondering if she's been shedding even more due to lack of baths, but she proved that theory wrong. Immediately after her bath she shed enough hair to fill a Swiffer Cloth just by doing a few laps around the dining table.

So I'm now 31 weeks pregnant and +18 lbs. Only 9 weeks left, but it feels like an eternity. The bad: I've been sleeping very, very poorly. It's supposed to be normal during the 3rd trimester, but the last two times it didn't start this early. I'm also constantly congested, and my taste buds seem to have a mind of their own. Everything tastes off. The good: I've been keeping the horrid leg cramps at bay just by standing up regularly. Also, at my checkup last week I learned that my 3-hour glucose tolerance test came back negative. Hooray, I'm not diabetic!

Labels: chinese, food, kids, parenting, pets, pregnancy

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By Julie

This weekend we reached an important milestone in our financial life: we stuck to our credit card budget two statements in a roll! I haven't been this excited since we paid off all our student loans. Back then it was me wielding the whip that got us there, but I haven't shown much financial restraint since. Sure, I've gone through all the motions of making a budget, but it was just this number in an Excel spreadsheet. Every month I'd pay all the bills and tell Kevin, oh well, we've gone over again.

Finally Kevin got tired of hearing that we weren't putting as much into savings as I'd hoped, so he made it his personal challenge for 2008 to stick to the plan. He started logging into our accounts every week and coloring in a thermometer representing our budget, and during the final week of each billing cycle we've been finding ourselves going to extremes to keep from bursting the thermometer. Not that there's any real consequence to bursting the thermometer. It's just a fun game.



Speaking of games, Alex drew this impressively accurate representation of Pacman using the pattern editor in Animal Crossing. He has never played Pacman before. When we asked him where he'd seen it before, he said he noticed it on somebody's T-shirt. If the kid does not have a photographic memory, I'd say he has something close to it.

Over the 3-day weekend we had a Harry Potter movie marathon at home. By Monday night we'd watched all five movies, and when I went back to work today I was experiencing serious Harry Potter withdrawal. I don't know how I'm going to make it 'til November when the Half-Blood Prince finally comes out.

One thing I noticed was that Alex watched both Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets with rapt attention but barely paid attention to Prisoner of Azkaban, Goblet of Fire, and Order of the Phoenix. Kevin thought it was just short attention span, but I have a different theory. As a kid I never paid much attention to movies or TV shows unless they had at least one character who was my age, and I think that's what happening here. In movies 1 and 2, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were ages 11 and 12, older than Alex but still young enough for him to feel like they're not much older. By the 3rd movie, the characters are 13 years old and full of teenage sturm und drang, and I don't think Alex can relate to that just yet.

With all the lazing around this weekend I experienced the worst leg cramp ever Monday night. My first thought was blood clot (panic!!!) but Kevin assures me I had it this bad the last two pregnancies and rubbed my leg until the pain went away. Also I'm pretty sure my cold is gone and that my runny nose is just due to rhinitis of pregnancy, yet something else I'd experienced the last two times. And finally, I'm back up to +17 pounds, thanks to a huge batch of oatmeal cookies I baked and subsequently ate. (Hey, at least they were made of oatmeal.)

Labels: harry potter, kids, pregnancy, shopping, toys

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By Kevin

A lot of people at work brought up Valentine's Day this week. When they asked what I was planning I told them that we already had our Valentine's Day outing last Sunday. Some people seemed to think that celebrating V-day at the opera was a perfectly appropriate thing, but others didn't seem to get the concept. I know art in general and opera specifically is not for everyone but how could lovers not be touched by great singers, a fabulous orchestra, and luscious set-design telling a timeless story of tragic love? On top of all that, the audience was much younger than I expected. There were loads of twenty-something college students and hipster couples in attendance challenging any assumptions about the appeal of opera to the younger generation.

When I was getting blank stares at this point I segued briefly into the more material gifts like the lovely Merkur double-edge safety razor, badger hair brush and shave soap Julie got me.


It's hard to believe that from roughly the turn of the century until 1971 everyone used these razors and now there's not a single US manufacturer. It's too bad, because all the marketing and downstream revenue lock-in is costing everyone the chance to enjoy a closer, more comfortable, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly shave.



Today Alex came home with a Valentine's Day magnetic dart set given by a classmate to each of the kids in his second-grade class. We were *greatly* amused to see that it had items such as "clean the kitchen" and "breakfast in bed" printed in the various sections. Amused doesn't even begin to describe the reaction he got from us when he told us that two of the other items were "shave" and "wear a dress."

Labels: art, kids, toys

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By Julie

I came out of that awful weekend 3 pounds lighter. It was the most painful way to lose 3 pounds I've ever experienced. I'm still coughing, and every so often I get a little dizzy and nauseous. But otherwise I'm okay (fingers crossed). As far as the pregnancy goes, I'm now +14 lbs. I hate all my clothes.

The last few evenings I've spent every spare minute lying on the couch, typing on my laptop, trying to help Alex with his science project. It was hard going because the typing made me dizzy. I'm glad to say it's finally done! There's a big foldout poster board with his research question, conclusion, and everything in between, as well as an awesome video. I can't share it here because it's got too much personal identification all over it, but if you want to come to the science fair tomorrow night, it's going to playing on a loop in front of his poster board.

I nagged Kevin more than usual the last few days because I thought as Mr. Science, he should have done more to help Alex on this project. As it were, I set up the experiments, wrote the script, designed the visual aids, and edited the video. All the boys had to do was follow my instructions. Finally it was a confession on my part that made Kevin realize why I thought he should have done more of the work: I've never done a science project before.

This blew Kevin's mind. He had always thought of his wife as Ms. Academia, and it simply never occurred to him that I would have missed out on such a basic staple of the typical American childhood. I didn't know what to tell him. I remember thinking as a kid that I would like to do a science fair project, but I didn't know how, and I didn't have anyone to help me. Over the years it became one of many things that made me feel like an academic fraud. But now that I've done my first science fair project, I can safely put some of those feelings of inadequacy behind me.

Labels: parenting, pregnancy

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By Julie

This is how my new year is going so far. Friday after work I staggered home and collapsed on the couch. I didn't move again until bedtime, when I took massive doses of Sudafed, Robitussin DM, and Tylenol, then zonked out. I don't remember eating anything for dinner.

Saturday morning I woke up and still had no appetite. I forced myself to eat a piece of toast with peanut butter then lay on the couch until it was time to collect ourselves and go over to my parents' house for Chinese New Year dinner.



We took the combination hot pot/grill that my parents had given us for Christmas over to their house so we could use the grill feature alongside their hot pot. Unfortunately I couldn't eat anything, but I did drink a bowl of soup.

This morning I had another piece of toast with peanut butter. After dropping off the kids at my parents' house, we headed downtown for a matinee showing of Tristan und Isolde, Wagner's 5-hour operatic masterpiece. The tickets were part of our Valentine's Day gift to each other. It was the first time either of us had seen an opera live, and we both loved it. The music was complex and demanding, and the set, designed by David Hockney, was gorgeous. Unfortunately we had to leave before the final act because I was still feeling ill.

Since Thursday I've been waking up every night around 2 or 3 am when the drugs wear off, at which time I have to take another dose of everything or not be able to fall back asleep. I doubt it will be different tonight. Sigh. I just hope this time my cold doesn't turn into a sinus infection and also that Alex, as the lone healthy member of the family, doesn't catch it.

Needless to say I didn't have a chance to go buy 年糕 (nian gao / new year cake) from 99 Ranch this weekend. But I swear I WILL go sometime this week before they stop selling it, even if I'm still sick, just because I am that obsessive dedicated to celebrating my Chinese heritage.

Labels: art, chinese, food, meds

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By Julie

This morning I gave the kids each a 红包 (red envelope) after instructing them to say 恭喜發财 (gong xi fa cai / wishing you prosperity) and 新年快樂 (xin nian kuai le / happy new year). At daycare Ana's teacher gave her a 红包 and me another one to pass on to Alex. For dessert tonight I got us a few goodies from the Chinese bakery.

All day today my throat hurt and I kept coughing up loogies. This is probably not the best way to welcome the new year, but it couldn't be helped. First Kevin got sick. Then Ana caught it. After a couple of nights of her crawling into our bed and disrupting my sleep, I came down with it as well. Sigh.

At least it happened right at the same time as my monthly baby checkup. Today I was able to confirm with my doctor that I could take all the good stuff: Sudafed, Robitussin DM, Tylenol, etc. But I also got a stern lecture for asking whether I could skip the 3-hour glucose tolerance test. (Because I tested negative the last two pregnancies!!!) Oh well. It's not my fault the paperwork they sent me via USPS 2 weeks ago never arrived though. I picked up a copy today and made the appointment for next week.

Hopefully this weekend my cold will get better and we'll have time to go to 99 Ranch for some 年糕 (nian gao / new year cake).

Labels: chinese, food, meds, pregnancy

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By Kevin

I just found this interesting blog post by Swedish archaeologist and blogger, Dr Martin Rundkvist who thinks that our "entire bipartisan system maps onto the conservative half of European politics." Specific mention is made of the fact that all of the US candidates are pro death-penalty, none are strict gun control advocates, and all make frequent mention of their religious views in public. All of which would apparently be extremist views in Sweden.

In search of a more international view of the political spectrum I found The Political Compass. Apparently this is quite a popular test (even has a Facebook app!) but it was my first time coming across it. Six short pages of questions map your views onto separate economic and social axis. The four corresponding quadrants are liberal-left (Ghandi), liberal-right (Milton Friedman), authoritarian-left (Robert Mugabe), and authoritarian-right (Margaret Thatcher). Having gone through the survey and accompanying information I would tend to agree with Dr Rundkvist's assertion about our presidential hopefuls. Other than Ron Paul, who I would throw in the liberal-right quadrant, all of our candidates would seem to reside in the authoritarian-right.

High-minded political theory discussion aside, however, the real reason I loved his blog entry was this quote:

The Republican presidential candidates are really, really scary people in my view. So all of us in the world at large who live under the shadow of US political hegemony are holding our breaths, hoping that Clinton or Obama will make it into office. They're pretty bad, but the alternative would be unspeakably dreadful.

Fabulous.

On a slight tangent, does anybody know if the people working tables in the cosmetics/vitamins section at Costco are on commission? The lady handing out Ocean Mist Saline coupons got into a fight with me tonight over whether I had a cold or not!

authoritarian-right: mumble mumble mumble OCEAN MIST! mumble mumble.
me: No thanks.
authoritarian-right: I saw your red nose. It's allergies!
me: Actually I have a cold.
authoritarian-right: It's NOT a cold! It's ALLERGIES!
me: Uh... believe me, it's a cold.
authoritarian-right: No, it's allergies. mumble mumble (fades into the background noise)

Labels: meds, politics, shopping

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By Julie

Those of you who've only been reading this page are missing out. Over on our 365 page we've been blogging everyday. Admittedly it's more record-keeping for the 365 project than anything else, but it does push us to find something to say every single day.


The sandwich shop around the corner has a condiments counter with free pickles, and I run the risk of embarassing myself everytime I go there because I always take so many. Finally I decided it would be less embarassing if I just bought myself some from the store, but when we asked the employees what brand it was, they had no idea because it gets delivered to the store in a big unlabeled jar. So Kevin's been on a quest to find me pickles that taste exactly the same. He hit pay dirt on his third try. These Bubbies kosher dills are awesome!


It's been a big week for Ana. She had her first dental checkup. The appointment went very well, and her teeth looked great. We ran into a minor problem with the fluoride treatment, which caused her to gag and throw up afterwards in the car. I'll have to mention it next time and ask if there are any alternatives.


We also celebrated Ana's 4th birthday. That morning we removed her old car seat and installed Alex's old booster seat in its place. She was excited, and so was I! Her party will be later this month. Look in the mail for your invitation :)

In other news, the battery in the minivan died, so we have to go get a replacement at some point this weekend, except Kevin is sick with a really bad cold. I've already harangued him multiple times for not wearing a jacket on the day he came down with symptoms, and Ana's been doing the same, haha.

I'd better get back to work. I brought my work laptop home this weekend and will probably clock 50+ hours this week. Sigh. At least this kind of week is becoming less frequent.

Labels: food, kids, work

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