I watched Rachel Ray today, and she had Gayle King on -- Oprah's best friend -- talking about Oprah's favorite things for Christmas this year. Gayle and Rachel raved about the tote bag, perfect for carrying to the market, so I decided to Amazon it as a possible gift for my daughter and my daughter-in-law.
Well, needless to say, I was aghast to find that the "market bag" is $298. Yes, that's $300 rounded up. Now, I agree that we all need to take our own bags to the market to save the planet from plastic, but carrying a $300 bag to go shopping seems a bit over the top.
Sorry, Oprah. I know it's one of your favorite things, but I'm on a much more restricted budget than you, so my two girls will have to settle for something a whole lot more affordable.
UPDATE: Well, now it looks like Oprah was offering a bargain bag as Ellen's 12 Days of Christmas featured a Michael Kors' tote for $400. Yes, a tote bag, and not a blinged out product. Very conservative, so no bells and whistles to justify the price. Sorry, girls, but it's still a no-go.
Tuesday, November 21, 2017
Saturday, November 18, 2017
Citizenship
Yesterday was the big day: Yucheng became a US citizen. The entire citizenship process took time, but was relatively easy to complete. He was worried about the test, but the questions asked were very basic and simple. So, the last step in the process was taking the Oath of Allegiance at a ceremony at the Convention Center in downtown LA. The drive was easy, with no accidents and/or slowdowns to add to the time, and we arrived by 12 noon as directed. We, and the 8,000 others who were there for the ceremony!
There were 4,217 people being admitted as citizens – and then all the guests and family members there to witness it. We did find a parking place in the underground garage system, but when we left, we had no idea how to find the car again … and had to ask one of the garage attendants for assistance. Had Y not remembered that the color in the garage was orange, we would have been out of luck. Once he provided the garage attendant with the color, he directed us down the block to another section of the garage where we found our car right where we had parked it.
The crowd was very well-behaved because the ceremony begins with the announcement that, for the purposes of administering the citizenship oath, we were now in a court of law. I was seated so far back in the auditorium that the judge, when he stood at the podium, looked about 3” tall! The “giant” screens that allowed the audience to see the ceremony looked to be about 1 foot by 2 feet from my distance, but I know they were much bigger than that the closer to the front of the auditorium one was seated. It also would have been easier to see what was going on if the chairs weren't arranged all on the floor level, so I had no chance to see anything that wasn't on the screen.
The good news is that the entire event was done by mass process, not individually, so once everyone did the swearing of allegiance and the court clerk banged the gavel to indicate the event was finished, we all got to leave. Needless to say, the 5,000 or so of us who exited became a huge crowd outside waiting for individuals to find their family members! I parked myself on a set of stairs at the back of the crowd and called Y on the phone to tell him how to find me.
Then, it was time to find food. Y said let’s go to Pasadena (where we were going to visit his cousin and the new baby) and we’ll eat at The Cheesecake Factory, which is one of Y’s favorite places to eat because they serve a Chinese Chicken Salad that he loves. Believe it or not, the gps sent us through the heart of LA on surface streets and it took us a full hour to get to the other side of LA and looking for the restaurant! Once we found it, we also found that there is no parking in some parts of Pasadena, so we went to a parking lot two blocks away that advertised Parking $3, but in small letters it clarified: $3 for each 20 minutes, with a total of $8 maximum. I guess no one ever told the owner that 3x20 minutes in an hour each would have been $9 total. Our dinner was excellent and then we were on to see the baby.
Trevor is adorable! He’s only 3 weeks old and he was getting a diaper change when we arrived. I asked if I could snuggle with him and spent a glorious 20 minutes or so cuddling. I have always loved babies and still do, so I was in heaven getting to hold him. We had taken a gift bag filled with little outfits, hats, and booties, along with some washcloths I had made, so Lian was thrilled. She returns home to China the end of the month. I don’t envy her traveling with a huge suitcase and a newborn.
Coming home via the freeway was a breeze as traffic had tapered off, and we arrived home safely to our little doggies, who were thrilled to have us back. More cuddling and then bedtime as I was pooped!
Great day and a special time for both of us.
There were 4,217 people being admitted as citizens – and then all the guests and family members there to witness it. We did find a parking place in the underground garage system, but when we left, we had no idea how to find the car again … and had to ask one of the garage attendants for assistance. Had Y not remembered that the color in the garage was orange, we would have been out of luck. Once he provided the garage attendant with the color, he directed us down the block to another section of the garage where we found our car right where we had parked it.
The crowd was very well-behaved because the ceremony begins with the announcement that, for the purposes of administering the citizenship oath, we were now in a court of law. I was seated so far back in the auditorium that the judge, when he stood at the podium, looked about 3” tall! The “giant” screens that allowed the audience to see the ceremony looked to be about 1 foot by 2 feet from my distance, but I know they were much bigger than that the closer to the front of the auditorium one was seated. It also would have been easier to see what was going on if the chairs weren't arranged all on the floor level, so I had no chance to see anything that wasn't on the screen.
The good news is that the entire event was done by mass process, not individually, so once everyone did the swearing of allegiance and the court clerk banged the gavel to indicate the event was finished, we all got to leave. Needless to say, the 5,000 or so of us who exited became a huge crowd outside waiting for individuals to find their family members! I parked myself on a set of stairs at the back of the crowd and called Y on the phone to tell him how to find me.
Then, it was time to find food. Y said let’s go to Pasadena (where we were going to visit his cousin and the new baby) and we’ll eat at The Cheesecake Factory, which is one of Y’s favorite places to eat because they serve a Chinese Chicken Salad that he loves. Believe it or not, the gps sent us through the heart of LA on surface streets and it took us a full hour to get to the other side of LA and looking for the restaurant! Once we found it, we also found that there is no parking in some parts of Pasadena, so we went to a parking lot two blocks away that advertised Parking $3, but in small letters it clarified: $3 for each 20 minutes, with a total of $8 maximum. I guess no one ever told the owner that 3x20 minutes in an hour each would have been $9 total. Our dinner was excellent and then we were on to see the baby.
Trevor is adorable! He’s only 3 weeks old and he was getting a diaper change when we arrived. I asked if I could snuggle with him and spent a glorious 20 minutes or so cuddling. I have always loved babies and still do, so I was in heaven getting to hold him. We had taken a gift bag filled with little outfits, hats, and booties, along with some washcloths I had made, so Lian was thrilled. She returns home to China the end of the month. I don’t envy her traveling with a huge suitcase and a newborn.
Coming home via the freeway was a breeze as traffic had tapered off, and we arrived home safely to our little doggies, who were thrilled to have us back. More cuddling and then bedtime as I was pooped!
Great day and a special time for both of us.
Tuesday, November 7, 2017
Only the Brave
It's challenging to make a good movie out of a story everyone already knows. There is no surprise ending, so how to make the story engaging, interesting, and effective becomes the challenge. The story of the brave fire-fighting Granite Mountain hotshot team whose members lost their lives while fighting a ferocious wildfire in Arizona has been around since that event happened several years ago. It was shocking that 19 men died in the fire, so what would be the purpose in retelling the story?
The film version of the story, Only the Brave, is very effective in building relationships with the 19 men involved in the incident. The viewer sees their humanity, their personal issues that all of us have, but that we leave at home when we report for work. A team is only as strong as its weakest link, so much of the hotshots' time is spent building a fast-moving, effective, dedicated fire-fighting unit. By the time the team earns its hotshot status, the viewer is completely inside the story being shown on the screen.
I did not know that the firefighters died as a result of the failure of the water drop on their location, but that seems to be what happened. The two sides of the out-of-control wildfire suddenly burst into flame and came together, trapping the 19 men, who quickly deployed their individual shelters to protect them from the flames. The water tanker flew directly over their position, but didn't drop the water--and there was nothing that would protect the men from the ferocity of the flames as the fire merged mercilessly at the one exact spot the men were sheltering in place. There was nowhere else for the men to go, so their fate was sealed.
I don't know if the waterdrop would have given them a chance at survival or if that point is moot in the face of the ferocious flames, but my tears and my sorrow for the men were unabated as the film drew to an end.
There is a memorial at a hundred-year-old desert shrub outside Prescott, AZ that the hotshot team saved during another fire. There is a picture of the hotshot crew, smiles wide across their faces as they climbed on top of one another to make a pyramid of them after saving the tree. It made the silent point about the joy these men felt from doing their job to the best of their ability, all the while knowing that any fire could be their last.
The film version of the story, Only the Brave, is very effective in building relationships with the 19 men involved in the incident. The viewer sees their humanity, their personal issues that all of us have, but that we leave at home when we report for work. A team is only as strong as its weakest link, so much of the hotshots' time is spent building a fast-moving, effective, dedicated fire-fighting unit. By the time the team earns its hotshot status, the viewer is completely inside the story being shown on the screen.
I did not know that the firefighters died as a result of the failure of the water drop on their location, but that seems to be what happened. The two sides of the out-of-control wildfire suddenly burst into flame and came together, trapping the 19 men, who quickly deployed their individual shelters to protect them from the flames. The water tanker flew directly over their position, but didn't drop the water--and there was nothing that would protect the men from the ferocity of the flames as the fire merged mercilessly at the one exact spot the men were sheltering in place. There was nowhere else for the men to go, so their fate was sealed.
I don't know if the waterdrop would have given them a chance at survival or if that point is moot in the face of the ferocious flames, but my tears and my sorrow for the men were unabated as the film drew to an end.
There is a memorial at a hundred-year-old desert shrub outside Prescott, AZ that the hotshot team saved during another fire. There is a picture of the hotshot crew, smiles wide across their faces as they climbed on top of one another to make a pyramid of them after saving the tree. It made the silent point about the joy these men felt from doing their job to the best of their ability, all the while knowing that any fire could be their last.
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