Black(top)

I've decided to go with a more unusual interpretation of the "Black" theme. Here's a photo of 3Po and Jammy playing in the school yard. It's more commonly known as The Blacktop, which is a term I had never heard until my kids started elementary school. I suppose it comes from the asphalt they used to give it a nice, smooth finish.


This photo was inspired by the Photo Hunt theme of the week. Feel free to leave links to your own Photo Hunt entries below. And for more black things, click here.

Things about Twitter I'd Like to Know

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to join BlogHer's street team, an informal group of people who like to share their own posts and links with the BlogHer community, share links to BlogHer posts that move them, and generally grow and strengthen the Blogger community. It's not a paid position and there is no obligation on anyone's part to promote or share any stories. I decided to join because I think there are a lot of great articles and posts on the BlogHer site that I might never get around to discovering (much less reading), and now I get a weekly email with links to a bunch of great BlogHer posts that I can read and share, and use as inspiration for my own blog posts.

For example, last week BlogHer had a post explaining some common Twitter terms like DM's and hashtags and twitter streams. It's a great post for people just starting to wade into the twitterverse (that's another term explained in the post). The blogger, Melanie, also has a follow-up Twitter post with more basic Twitter information, and even better, has links to more tutorials for people who want to learn more. Reading these posts made me think of some other Twitter-related questions I've always wanted to ask:


1) Is there anywhere in the blogosphere that lists down upcoming Twitter parties? You can go to sites like Amy's Resourceful Mommy and Jyl's Mom It Forward to see the Twitter parties they're hosting, and that probably takes care of 90% of the Twitter Parties that the mom blogging community cares about, but there are a lot of other parties being hosted by other bloggers (TwitterMoms, for instance) or by smaller bloggers (I've hosted several myself!). I wish there were a place where Twitter party hosts could list their parties so that partygoers like myself could get an idea of what parties they can attend that week.

2) Does anyone know of any twitter tool that counts how many tweets occurred with a certain hashtag between a specific start and end date? I've tried doing this with search.twitter.com, and it does return all the tweets with that hashtag, but it doesn't return a count, so I have to scroll through pages of tweets and count them by hand. Not fun!

3) If you don't have a smart phone, what are some good Twitter apps to use? I use a Samsung Reclaim with a Sprint Mobile service, and I can only manage to get a very basic Twitter app which doesn't do retweets and only lists about 10 tweets in my twitter timeline.

4) How do you insert all those special characters like notes and hearts and smileys into your tweets?

5) Is there any tool around for effectively managing your Twitter followers, i.e. be able to sort them alphabetically, by age, by location, be able to search for a specific follower, etc?

If anyone knows the answer, or knows where to find it, I'd love to hear from you! You can find me here, or where else? on Twitter.

Open MAKE: Inspiring young Makers everywhere

This weekend we were invited to the San Francisco Exploratorium to meet some amazing young inventors who will be showcasing their creations at the 2010 Bay Area Maker Faire. We thoroughly enjoyed last year's Maker Faire, so I knew it would be an event worth seeing, and great run-up to the main event on May 22 and 23.


Sure enough, we got a great sneak peek at some really cool inventions -- a marble run, a levitating machine, a fire breathing dragon and a rotating light sphere. We got to listen to several inventors explain how their inventions worked, what challenges they encountered and what they love most about their inventions. The Open MAKE exhibition area also had some great interactive exhibits like a marble run wall, where the boys could make their own marble run with wooden pegs, ramps, pipes, platforms and other doo-dads.

But their hands-down favorite activity was making these Scribbling Machines.



All you need is a small rotary motor, a hot glue gun stick, a box or plastic tub, some markers and tape. You stick the glue stick into the rotating shaft of the motor to make a propeller -- but you don't stick it in the middle, stick it slightly off-center so that your machine will actually travel instead of just vibrate. Attach one of the motor's wires to one end of an AA battery with a rubber band, and attach the motor to a plastic cup with tape. For legs, tape 4 or more markers, marker-side down, to the bottom of the cup. They also had bits of feathers and pipe cleaners and stickers so kids could decorate their contraptions.

To make the machine go, attach the motor's second wire to the other end of the battery. This turns the machine and the propeller, which makes the whole thing wiggle around. The markers will write on whatever surface you place your machine on, since it's vibrating so much.




The boys were absolutely entranced! We had to give the motors back so that another museum-goer could get the chance to try it out, but they had vending machines which sold the motors for just 50 cents. I bought one for each kid, and now they're have a wonderful time inventing all sorts of contraptions using the motor. What a great way to inspire future makers!



Disclosure: We received complimentary admission to the San Francisco Exploratorium to attend this event. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.

My Mother's Day Hi-Tech Present List

Here are five hi-tech presents I'd love to see on my bedside table when I wake up on Mother's Day! Hey, a girl can dream, can't she?


1) Retractable earphones. I'm still in love with the retractable convenience of ChicBuds earphones, but mine have fallen apart. I need a new pair!

2) A digital camera. Our Canon point-and-shoot is really on its last legs. Half the time, we need to manually pry apart the lens! I'm quite happy with the Canon interface, so I'd love any of the Canon Powershot A-series cameras.

3) A smart phone. Now that I have an internet data plan on my phone, I'm really feeling the limitations of my Samsung Reclaim. Sure, it's cute and it's made of corn, but it's hard to email and tweet and browse the web. I don't really want to switch from my Sprint plan, so unless Sprint starts offering the iPhone soon, I wouldn't mind an HTC Hero or EVO.

4) Virgin Mobile Broadband. I don't use my laptop on the road often enough to justify paying for a monthly mobile broadband contract, so Virgin's pay-as-you-go plan is perfect. You buy the USB device for $99 and you can pay for service only when you need it. The cheapest service is $10 for 100MB or 10 days, whichever you use up first.

5) An iPad. How can you not want one? It's an e-book and a netbook and game player all in one! That's why I’m participating in a contest at Best Kids Apps, a blog about iPhone apps for kids, for a chance to win an iPad. Wish me luck!


Disclosure: I did not receive a sample or monetary compensation for this post. By posting this, I gain an entry into a contest for the chance to win an Apple iPad. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.

Addiction

Addictions start early.... alas, for this little lady (my niece) it may already be too late.


This photo was inspired by this week's Photo Hunt theme. Feel free to leave links to your own Photo Hunt entries below. And for more addictions, click here.

Brainless, mindless things I've done

Yesterday I was skimming through Facebook when a friend's status update caught my eye:


That gave me a good laugh, but I was laughing with her, not at her, because that's only one of the absentminded things I've done. I tend to be, uh, forgetful in the best of circumstances, and when my mind is preoccupied or stressed, things can get pretty crazy. I'm not talking about minor incidents like leaving food out all night or leaving the car keys in the bathroom or laundering jeans with money or tissues still inside the pockets (tip: Do NOT do that. It clumps up and ruins all the other clothes in the same dryer load). I'm talking "What were you thinking??", "Why don't you lie down for a bit, you need a break" kind of stuff, like:

• Pumped gas, left the gas nozzle inside my car's gas tank, and driven away.


• Left papers up on the roof of my car, and driven away.


• Left the milk up on the roof of my van (Not a car. A van. Don't even ask me why I would put it all the up there), and driven away.


• Put the milk in the pantry (Miz B, you are not alone).


• Put the cereal in the fridge.


• Put the car keys in the fridge.


• Forgotten to pick up The Pea from school.


• Forgotten to take 3Po to soccer lessons (which is agony to me because there were no make-classes; such a waste of money!)
  


• Forgotten that I had arranged a playdate with The Pea's friend (her dad dropped her off and I had no idea why she was there. I'm just glad we were there).
  


• Thrown important papers in the recycling bin (Which is why, if you're in the neighborhood, you will occasionally see me foraging through our trash cans. Please don't call the police. I'm not a vagrant. I live there).


• Thrown Alfie's stash of gourmet nuts and chocolates into the trash.


• Left the stove on all night.


• Flushed my car keys down the toilet. Don't ask.
  

I probably have more stories, but I've forgotten them!

50% off Family Tickets to San Francisco's Aquarium of the Bay

Hey, Bay Area families: this week's Savvy Source deal is for the Aquarium of the Bay in San Francisco. You can purchase a Family Pack of tickets (2 adults, 2 children ages 3-11) for $20. That's 50% off the regular price of $40!

If you haven't been to the Aquarium of the Bay, check it out! We went there a couple of months ago and we all loved it. You get to walk through glass tunnels with fish and sharks and bat rays swimming beside you and above you!

The deal expires at midnight on Thursday April 22, so purchase it ASAP at:

http://www.savvysource.com/event/home_san-francisco-bay-area_ca/referrerCode=APB11

In addition, 5% of every purchase will go towards a Savvy Source preschool scholarship fund, and an additional 5% will go to the preschool of your choice (you choose from a list of preschools in CA when you sign up for the offer).

Disclosure: I did not receive a sample or monetary compensation for this post. I do receive a referral bonus if tickets are purchased from the link provided. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.

Greening our lifestyle

With Earth Day coming up next week, everyone is jumping on the green bandwagon -- so it's hard to close your eyes and ignore the small, easy changes you can make to reduce your carbon footprint. I don't remember when it was that I first started making changes to reduce our impact on the planet. I still remember buying (and lifting!) crates of water bottles from Costco when I was pregnant with the twins, so it can't have been that long ago. Maybe it was when we switched from paying for two garbage bin collections down to one, and I had to look more carefully about what can and can't be recycled. Maybe it was when Whole Foods started selling reusable grocery bags.

Whenever it was that we started, I'm happy to report that we've managed to maintain most of the eco-friendly practices we started, and over the years, we've become a much greener family than we used to be. Here are five small changes we made that have been no trouble at all to maintain:

1) Recycling
Our city has made it so easy for us to recycle; we don't even have to segregate our recyclables anymore! Our recycling bin is about twice as big as our garbage bin, and it's surprising how fast it can fill up.

2) Eating less meat
I am such a carnivore, but we've gradually cut down on our meat consumption, and now we have meat or chicken or fish or pork just one or two times a week. Many times it's not even the main part of the dish (such as split pea soup that's been flavored with ham). Eating less meat has a quadruple -whammy of benefits: it's better for your health, for your checkbook, for the earth and for the animals, so this is an easy one. Cut out meat entirely? Ummm.... that's harder. Alfie swears he could go vegetarian tomorrow if I agreed to it, but I'd miss the taste so much. Sorry, I'm celebrating the small victories where I can find them.

3) Washing clothes in cold water
It's true, washing clothes in cold water really don't make too much of a difference, especially when you have a front-loading machine like we do. I just keep the setting on cold and never notice the difference.

4) Buying eco-friendly, natural household cleaning products
There are so many eco-friendly, natural household cleaning products on the shelves these days. They don't cost any more (or much more) than chemical-based products, and they clean just as well so this is another easy change to maintain. And as a blogger, I was lucky enough to be given an Activeion cleaner to review -- it uses only water to clean and disinfect, which of course is as natural and chemical free as you can get!

5) Using cloth grocery bags
This has been a really easy change to maintain, and now I find plastic bags to be irritating waste of space. Even when I forget my bags, I just tell the checkout clerk that I have bags in the car, and put my groceries back into the grocery cart. I do have a small stash of plastic bags that I keep at home to put wet swimsuits in, wrap super-disgusting messes (like spoiled veggies or meat from the fridge, soiled clothes when any of the kids have a little potty accident, etc..), and when the stash gets low I do allow some of my shopping to be packed in plastic bags. And when Safeway delivers groceries to the house, I always unpack my groceries from the plastic bags as fast as the delivery guy carries them into the house, and send the plastic bags back.



But don't congratulate us yet; we're by no means the model green family. There are some green habits that have fallen by the wayside, and some areas we could (and should) probably do more. Here are five of them:

1) Line drying our clothes
Laundry is a tiresome bother even when I use the dryer, so it's all too easy to look at the sky and decide it's looking damp and drizzly. I do a much better job at this in the summer, obviously, and I have to admit my clothesline hasn't seen any use at all in months. Now that the weather is drying and heating up again, I'm running out of excuses.

2) Composting
I just don't like the thought of throwing food scraps and slimy bits into a ceramic pot and leaving them to rot, right beside my kitchen sink.

3) Ditching the plastic
This has been a real toughie. The only plastic habit I can say I've successfully and totally ditched is plastic water bottles (we use reusable water bottles now). I have cloth sandwich bags and reusable sandwich cases and containers, but I still find myself occasionally reaching for a plastic bag to put the kids' goldfish crackers in. And I still sometimes buy individually packaged snacks. What can I say, I get lazy in the mornings!

4) Ditching the paper
My addiction to disposable paper towels is still around. I've started using cloth towels to wipe spills up more and more, but I still buy paper towels and still use them half the time. And I still think disposable baby wipes are God's great gift to parents (I did find some eco-friendly disposable wipes at Walgreens -- they're made from bamboo!). And I will not switch from tampons to the Diva cup.

5) Driving less
Our morning walk to school is a firmly entrenched habit, but I'm ashamed that I can't say the same thing about my pickup routine. The trouble with living less than a mile from the kids' school is that I tend to delay leaving home to pick the kids up until the very last minute, and by then of course it's too late to walk, so I end up taking the car.


See, just like China, we've made a start but we still have a long way to go.


This post was inspired by Earth Day and by the Silicon Valley Moms' book of the month: National Geographic's Green Guide for Families (participating bloggers were given free copies of the book). Read how this book inspired other SV Moms on this month's SV Moms Club Book Club post.

Covered

Whenever we go out into the sun, we ask our kids to wear wide-brimmed hats so their face and shoulders are covered, and their skin is shielded from the sun's rays.

This photo was inspired by this week's Photo Hunt theme. Feel free to leave links to your own Photo Hunt entries below. And for more covered things, click here.

What are you eating on Earth Day?

Two days ago, while driving up I-5 on the way back home from our LA spring break trip, we passed a cattle farm. It was an amazing sight to see, but not in a good way -- there were hundreds of thousands of cows as far as the eye could see, but not a single blade of grass. All these cows were standing on something brown, and I don't think it was dirt. The stench was unbearable. And it lasted for miles. Long after the cattle farm had receded into the distance, we continued to hold our noses. I have no idea how people can work in that place, much less how cows can stay alive in that filth.