It's okay to be a tourist

If there's one opinion I have that's going to get me side-eyed, it's this: I like going to "touristy" places and doing "touristy" things. Everyone is always praising the sights and sounds "off the beaten track" and scorning the "touristy" stuff, but for first-timers, I think it's great! They are "touristy" for a reason -- because they are big and beautiful and iconic representations of a place.  

Tips for renewing your child's passport

The Pea's current passport is set to expire next month, so we renewed her passport today. Since she is under 16, we had to renew it in person. Renewing US passports in person has always been a tedious process, but this time, somehow, it turned from tedious to almost nightmarish.

It certainly seems like the number of passport applicants has skyrocketed. If you need to apply for or renew your child's US passport (or if you need to do it for yourself, and need to do it in person), read about our experience and learn from our mistakes! Or just scroll through to the bottom and check out my tips for applying or renewing in person.

Women's March San Francisco

I've read right wingers' posts accusing liberals of being "special snowflakes" who can't handle losing the elections. The best rebuttal that I've read: Okay, so liberals are special snowflakes. Do you know what happens when a million snowflakes get together? You get A STORM. Watch out. Winter is Coming.

Yesterday, the first Winter Storm happened. I'm talking about the Women's March. On January 21, the day after Trump's inauguration, about half a million people marched in Washington DC to support women's rights, equality, diversity, and inclusion (and yes, to voice their opposition to Donald Trump). They were joined by millions more in hundreds of cities across the US and the world. In the Bay Area, where we live, there were 3 marches to choose from: Oakland, San Jose, and San Francisco. The Pea and I originally planned to attend the San Jose rally, but when it turned out she needed to go to San Francisco to buy pointe shoes, we decided to attend the San Francisco march instead. Armed with our pink pussycat hats, rain jackets, and rally posters, we headed up to the city to add ourselves to the headcount of people who wanted to be a part of something big. Boy, what a crazy, amazing, inspiring experience it was!

Thanks, Trump

Countdown to 2020 ElectionsCountdown

So the day I've been dreading since November 8 has arrived: Donald Trump's inauguration. It's going to be a long, frustrating 4 years. I've already begun the countdown to the 2020 elections. But what to do in the meantime? For starters, I'm attending tomorrow's Women's March in San Francisco.

A roller coaster of emotions

Two weeks ago, I mailed in my ballot. I was excited. The world was full of hope and change. The past 18 months had been a nightmare of homophobia, xenophobia, and misogyny. My mood rose and fell with Hilary Clinton's standing in the polls, but on the whole I felt confident. I meticulously researched every candidate and measure on the ballot because I wanted to do my civic duty. I was indifferent to a few measure and unsure of others, but I had no doubt that I was on the right side of history with my choice for president.

My favorite Super Bowl 50 Ads

It's kind of surprising that Super Bowl 50 would be the event that dragged me out of my blogging rut, given that it was probably the most boring Super Bowl I've watched in many years. I'm the first to admit that I don't watch many football games, but I don't think I've ever seen more uncompleted downs (is that the correct term?) in any game. This time around, I don't think anyone could argue that the highlights of the event were Lady Gaga singing the Star Spangled Banner (those nails! those eyes!), the halftime show (and all the Coldplay memes that followed!), and the ads.

Once again, this year's ads were a mix of good (funny! celebrities you don't usually see in ads! heartwarming!), bad (boring! everyday, run-of-the-mill!), and ugly (bad CG! dumb humor!). Here's a list of my best and worst:

Winners

Taco Bell: Bigger Than...

In this ad, Taco Bell compares their latest product, the Quesalupa, to some of the hottest trends around, like man buns, drones, and hoverboards. The best part is when they say the Quesalupa is going to be bigger than football.... then show Neymar kicking a soccer ball, closing with, "The Real Football". BURN! Neymar in an American football ad!

NFL: Super Bowl Babies

I thought it was adorable when the first ad showed babies presumably conceived on Super Bowl night (dressed in fan gear of the winning Superbowl team), but it got even better with their follow-up ads, where the "babies" got older and older, showing how fans "celebrated" Super Bowl wins over the past 50 years! The final ad was the best, because you got to see 50 years of Super Bowl Babies being serenaded by Seal.

Jeep: Portraits

I'm a sucker for a cool vehicle, gorgeous portraits, and a "through the years" theme! Jeep is celebrating their 75th year, so their ad tied in perfectly with Super Bowl 50's milestone celebration. The ad featured photos of Jeeps through history and the people who drove them (including famous faces like Marilyn Monroe, Jeff Goldblum, BB King and Aretha Franklin).

Heinz: Weiner Stampede

I'm not an animal lover, but even I couldn't help melting at the sight of all those daschunds dressed as hot dogs, scampering (is there anything cuter/funnier than daschunds running?) towards the Ketchup Family (a family dressed in Heinz products costumes). Best of all was the adorable little girl dressed as a ketcup packet!!  Aaaargh! Cuteness overload!!

Intuit: Never A Sellout

I thought it was brilliant that Intuit managed to get the great actor Anthony Hopkins to star in their ad, and even more brilliant that they got him to poke fun at himself for "selling out", by insisting that he wasn't selling out even as he plastered himself (and his dog) with Intuit ads!  

Funny story: when I took to Twitter praising the ad, they gave me a throw pillow! I swear, I liked the ad even before I won and that's not why I'm including it here. I don't even like the pillow, but I'm going to tell myself this pillow was one used in the Anthony Hopkins ad.

Honorable Mention:

Snickers: Marilyn

Because Willem Dafoe was dressed as Marilyn Monroe.

Hyundai: Ryanville

Because Ryan Reynolds was in it... playing pretty much everyone (#eyecandy). Actually, all the Hyundai ads were pretty good!

T-Mobile: Drop the Balls

Because  Steve Harvey poked fun at his Miss Universe announcement disaster.

Coca-Cola: Hulk vs Ant-Man

Because I'm a sucker for Marvel's Avengers. If only Mark Ruffalo and Paul Rudd were actually in it!

Audi: Commander

Because it was a tribute to fathers and sons, and to David Bowie.

Losers

Mountain Dew: Puppymonkeybaby

That Puppymonkeybaby was just hideous. Call me an old fogey, but it was just plain dumb. The CG was really bad, with the baby's legs looking all wrong. It looked like I could have done a better job pasting the creature together... with Microsoft Paint.

Acura, Quickenloans, BMW

I don't even remember what went on in these ads. You know why? Because they looked like ads we see on the TV every day.

Doritos: Ultrasound

The rest of the family loved this, but I thought it was horrible. Seeing a fetus acting like a trained dog, salivating over a Doritos chip -- and seeing the dad treating his kid like one -- was just distasteful.


Which Super Bowl 50 ads did you like? Which ones did you hate?

Dear Anti-Gay Person, you're not being a Good Christian. You're being a Bigot.

The anti-gay crowd -- especially the self-proclaimed educated, the intellectuals, the rational ones -- are always quick to defend themselves against comparisons with the black civil rights movement.   It's not the same, they say.  We're not like the racists.  African Americans can't help the color of their skin.  Homosexuals have a choice.

But with Arizona's SB 1062 passing both the state House and Senate, just a governor's signature away from becoming law, how can anyone deny the similarity between "No gay weddings" at the florist and  "Coloreds not welcome" at the lunch counter?  Supporters of this bill insist that all they want is religious freedom, the freedom for individuals in business to be able to express their so-called "sincerely held religious beliefs".

My favorite Superbowl XLVIII ads

The Super Bowl is probably the only show I ever watch where I don't fast forward through all the commercials.  In fact, I pay more attention to the ads than to the game!  The fact that it was such a one-sided contest this year (Well done, Seahawks!  If you had to beat the Forty-Niners, then I'm glad they lost to the Super Bowl Champs, not the Super Bowl Chumps) made the ads even more important as a source of entertainment. That being said, there were so many ads, I had a hard time keeping them straight!  By the time the game was over, I had forgotten many of them.  A few did make an impression, and I wanted to list them down.

This year's ads had the usual share of hotties (David Beckham!), humor (bodybuilders stampeding to a tanning salon!), and heartstring-pulling (full-blown parades for one guy!).  And they had their share of the Good (Budweiser Best Buds), the Bad (Soda Stream), and the Ugly (66 year-old Arnold Schwarzenegger in a 70's tennis outfit).  Here are my five favorite Super Bowl 2014 ads (along with three runners-up):

10 More Ways That America is Different From the Rest of the World

This morning a great travel article from the Huffington Post came up on my Facebook feed:  10 Ways America is Different From the Rest of the World.  While I'm not the most traveled person I know, I've been to enough countries to know that this list is slightly inaccurate (people eat pizza with their hands all over the world, and the US is hardly the only country that uses a 12-hour clock) and far too short.  In just 5 minutes I was able to come up with 10 more ways that America (technically, the USA: one of the most common complaints in the comments section was how "Americans" forget the fact that citizens of countries in North, Central, and South American are also "Americans") is different from the rest of the world:

Business trip or pleasure junket?

Bay Area mom bloggers from last year's Cars Land press event:  Techmama, SV Twin Mom, bonggamom, Xiaolinmama, The Silent I

This week I'm traveling to the Disneyland Resort for a press event: they want to make sure everyone knows about the newest section of Fantasyland, Fantasy Faire, and they're celebrating the debut of Disneyland Park's new live show, Mickey and the Magical Map.  Even though my time there will be filled with interviews and film tapings, there's going to be a press party and we do get lots of breaks to explore the parks.  And even though I'm going solo (the kids are outraged, but they've missed enough school to visit the Philippines last December), any visit to the Disneyland Resort is a great one, and I'm really looking forward to my trip.  Okay, I'm DYING to start my trip.  What with end-of-school activities, next year's PTA activities, the usual afterschool carpool runs and my regular work, life has gotten way too hectic, and this trip is starting to feel like my only chance to take a breather from everyday life and grab some time for myself.

Painting the town RED for Marriage Equality

Today was one of those rare IRL -- In Real Life -- days.  I spent the entire morning on a field trip, chaperoning The Pea's 6th grade class around Chinatown.  I spent lunchtime watching old episodes of Modern Family (after months of being on the library's waiting list for the Season 3 DVD, my turn had finally come up!).  I drove the boys to soccer practice, and while they were at the field I took The Pea to Home Depot to choose paint colors for her room.   I checked my email, Twitter and Instagram feeds throughout the day, but for some reason didn't get around to checking Facebook until almost 6PM.  So I was totally unprepared for the sea of red that covered Facebook today.

A Pope for the 21st Century: What should he do?

The cardinals have gathered. The doors of the Sistine Chapel have closed.  All eyes have swung to the roof and the chimney.  The process of electing the next pope has begun.

It's a big decision.  The new pope will be St. Peter's successor, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, the voice of God on earth, the spiritual leader of over 1 billion Catholics around the world.  He'll face an aging flock, a modernizing world and an organization rocked by scandals.  Catholics everywhere are praying that God guides those cardinals towards electing a pope that He intended.  The rest of the world is praying (or, if they don't pray, crossing their fingers) for a pope who will be able to reinvigorate and reform the church.

Only in the Philippines: Filipino sentenced to prison for offending religious feelings

photo courtesy of Carlos Celdran's Facebook page

For about a month now, I have been planning to write a post entitled "Only in the Philippines".  It was supposed to be a semi-satirical post, gently mocking some of the crazy stuff that you see in the Philippines.  For example....

Only in the Philippines do travelers pack their belongings in gigantic cardboard boxes instead of suitcases (a 20x20x20 box can fit the most bulky items and still stay within the linear-inch luggage requirement of most international flights).

To bike or not to bike?

When it comes to my kids' independence, I don't think I'm all that uptight . I have never been the type to hover over them at the playground; I preferred to sit on a bench and let them play on their own, and if they grazed their elbows or skinned a knee (or, during one memorable time, slipped, did a face plant on the metal stairs and got a black eye) themselves, well, all the better to learn their lesson the next time. As they grew older, I had no problem with drop-off parties, sleepovers or camping trips.

There's only area where I am completely paranoid, and that is letting them walk or bike to school by themselves.

Why don't our public schools have uniforms?

Today was the first day of school, and it's one of those milestone First Days of School, because The Pea is now a 6th grader. I feel like we've entered a whole new world, and in a sense, we have.  Now that she's in middle school, The Pea bikes to school on her own, she'll be moving from class to class, she has her own school locker, and she has to follow a dress code.  

Having to deal with The Pea's dress code has brought about a fresh wave of longing for school uniforms.  I wore uniforms as a schoolgirl, and all schoolchildren in the UK (where we spent 5 weeks of our summer vacation) wear uniforms as well.  Schoolwear in the UK can cost as little as £2 for a top, £3 for a pair of trousers, £4 for a cardigan, and £5 for a pinafore.  I honestly don't understand why US public schools haven't adopted the practice.  I dug out a post I wrote a few years back for the Silicon Valley Moms Blog, and I found that my post is just as relevant today as it was then.  

To celebrate the First Day of Middle School, I'm reprinting my post:

Too much pink?

October's colors are traditionally red, yellow, gold and brown, the warm tones of fall. But pink?

There are many people who dislike the wave of pink that engulfs the world in October. The pink ribbon is everywhere, from cat litter to bagels to g-strings. Many people feel that all these Pink Products for sale are an overcommercialization of a serious issue and a desperate attempt for companies to get on the cause marketing bandwagon.

Boo to Republican audience for booing gay soldier Stephen Hill

I knew there was a Republican debate last night, and deliberately did not tune in to watch it. I dislike presidential debates in general; the candidates seem to treat it as a campaign platform, never answering the questions, always sidestepping and going off on some other tangent, either to highlight their own successes or insult their opponents. Also, the previous Republican debate really disturbed me. It wasn't so much the candidates that bothered me so much as the audience. I didn't like the way they cheered like a bloodthirsty mob when Rick Perry spoke out in favor of the death penalty, nor the way they booed Ron Paul when he said that the US's high-handed foreign policy leads to unrest in the Middle East and was party responsible for the actions that the terrorists took on 9/11 (they like to think that the US was attacked "because they envy our freedom").

Candy Cigarettes -- Playing with Fire

Do you remember those bubble gum cigarettes that you chewed as a kid? No, I'm not talking about the sticks of gum that came in a pack made to look like a pack of cigarettes. I'm talking about the bubble gum that actually looked like a cigarette. It was shaped into a slim, cylindrical tube and wrapped in white paper with a slim tan band at one end. I remember how much my siblings and I loved those bubble gum cigarettes. Getting a pack in a party goody bag or being given one by an aunt or grandparent was an extremely rare treat, to be savored and enjoyed.

Are you Happy with the New Happy Meal?

By now, everyone knows that McDonald's will be changing their Happy Meals to make them healthier for kids. Starting in just a few days, here's what a Happy Meal is going to look like:

Italian Vogue features plus-size models on the cover

photo: Huffington post

I'm very impressed that Vogue, the ultimate fashion magazine, has bucked the trend of Photoshopping cover models to make them look thinner (remember Faith Hill on the cover or Redbook Magazine?) and actually featured three plus-sized models on their cover. Of course, the images might also have been Photoshopped, but they certainly didn't cut out the rolls or the curves -- and do I actually detect hints of cellulite in this photo?