Searching for a Match

We have a lovely friend here in Mill Valley who is just six years old and dealing with leukemia. She and her family are extremely cool and wonderful and they’re managing a tough situation with unbelievable grace. The thing is, she’s going to need a bone marrow transplant and they haven’t found a match yet.

Last weekend there was a donor drive at our elementary school, and we went for the last few hours to help out in any way we could. It was an incredible day; the good will and hope and encouragement were palpable. The last I heard, over 700 people registered in a 6 hour span. Phenomenal.

I wanted to put the word out – the National Marrow Donor Program has access to millions of donors worldwide, but they need more. I just read that the odds of finding a match outside a patient’s family are 1 in 20,000, and more for patients of minority heritage.

A number of people have asked me if I’m concerned about the discomfort of the donation process, and as you’ll see on the National Marrow Donor site – it’s not as simple as giving blood. But I do consider two things. First, I’ve been in the registry now for about 18 years, and I’ve never been called. When I consider that, in addition to the odds above, I feel the privilege of being someone’s match is great. Second, there’s no way my discomfort in donating could even remotely compare with what these patients have been through. I don’t treat the idea lightly, but it isn’t worrying.

Please consider being in the database. Our friend would have a slightly higher chance for a match with donors of Turkish descent, which I think rules out my readership, since you’re all pretty much related to me! But you have friends… I hope you’ll help us spread the word!                                                             

Coconut Soup

Hot Wheels has a deep and abiding love for coconut, and a deep and distrustful approach towards dinner. This week I thought we should make coconut soup together and take advantage of two great strategies for encouraging kids to eat; start with foods/flavors they love and get them to cook with you. (Of course it’s even better if they can grow them with you, but those pesky coconuts prefer warm tropical climates. Come to think of it… we might have to move.)

Originally I was picturing a milky Thai coconut soup, but then I found this recipe on a site called The World’s Healthiest Foods, and it looked like a wonderful blend. It’s actually a Carrot Coconut soup and it has such nice flavorings – ginger and curry and coconut – a perfect early fall soup. YUM. We all liked it. I threw in some chicken at the end for the kids, and for Tom some tofu. I added minced serrano chiles and basil to the grownup bowls as well. I’ve been working on getting the kids to love shredded basil, since I think it basically should go on or in every dish I make, but they’re still skeptical.

Family Files

File this one under Not Exactly What I Hoped To Hear:

 

Me: Hey Honey, you’ve been doing a great job remembering to brush your teeth in the morning.

She: Thanks! I think I like to do it because your toothbrush is nicer than mine.

Me: Ahh, so you’ve been using my toothbrush?

She: Yes! But don’t worry… I’ve been using your kind of toothpaste every time.

 

Paper Bouquet

There are certain catalogs that I just can’t bear to throw away because of the imagery and paper quality. We have a whole collection of stock photo company catalogs that I mine for images when I make cards and luggage tags, and I keep stacks of magazines that use nice heavy paper and great photography. So I’m always thinking about projects for my growing paper collection.

Friday was my lovely friend Satyam’s birthday, and seeing as she’s arty and environmentally focused, I figured a recycled paper bouquet might be right up her alley. It would have been better if I’d had a bit more time to dedicate to it, but I did like how some of the flowers turned out. I think with some effort these could even be wedding bouquets. My daughter got into the game with me and made one of the flowers for the bouquet – we had a great time working together.

 

In typical fashion, I finished them up just as I was heading out the door, so I just took a couple hasty shots of dubious quality. I do like the contrasting colors and patterns. The big lilly uses a photo of a pink and orange polka-dotted comforter as well as an interior shot of an office space filled with cubicles. I like how they’re nicely abstracted once you cut them up.

Right now my method is a little laborious – I’d love to know how designers at stores like Anthropologie take ideas like this and figure out how to roll them out in quantity. 

 

Sending My Egrets

 

Yes I know. I’m just too funny for words. I’m sorry. I just can’t help it.

Ok, tacky titles aside – Hot Wheels and I had the best, best, best bike ride home from ballet this morning. It’s bird heaven here these days. I just simply had to take a few mediocre photos.

The bike path was quieter than usual. We could spot about a dozen different birds, and the long, still egrets were nicely juxtaposed by fast packs of small birds flying in close formation. We could hear fish darting up against the surface of the bay, and we sat out on rocks for what seemed like a week and a half trying to get a good look at them. No luck, but it was divine. 

(Check these guys out. The one on the left was saying, “I’m not talking to you,” and the one on the right was like, “Fine. I’m not talking to you either.”)

 

 

I have to confess a bit of confusion regarding the egret, heron and crane families. They’re like keeping track of second cousins and first cousins once removed. It gets a bit blurry. But they’re beautiful!

We did see one gigantic blue heron, but not until it was too tricky to get a shot. (Of it, not at it – this ain’t Palin country, people.) When I was in Peru, Tom and the kids actually saw a blue heron dart down, grab a gopher and eat it in one gulp. Tom is now a blue heron devotee.

I’m still mad at that heron for completely disappearing from the bike path for the duration of my parents’ visit last winter. My parents were all, “Oh you have a humungous blue heron that hangs out along the path to school? What’s his name? Harvey??” I ought to give that heron a piece of my mind. He sure made me look bad. Although eating a gopher is a nice way to make up for it.

Make it Snappy

 

We made gingersnaps yesterday, and frankly they were a little melodramatic.

You should have seen the list of demands – the organic sugar, the extra dark molasses, the stark lighting – and they pitched a fit when we didn’t have the right stylist for them. (It was just me, and they were so totally not impressed.)

 

 

But even with all their attitude, somehow I couldn’t bring myself to tell them that they really just looked like munchkins.

 

Sausalito Sundays

There’s a wonderful bistro style restaurant in Sausalito called Le Garage – aptly named, it occupies the corner of one of the big old shipyard buildings along the marina, and its two exterior walls are each dominated by huge red garage doors. One is always open and the other gets rolled up when it’s sunny.

 

We’ve taken to biking down on a Sunday morning – their brunch starts at 10, and it’s quite tasty, but we just love getting there an hour earlier, when all they have is counter service with drinks and a couple of different pastries. Tom favors a latte that they serve in a big white bowl. We get hot chocolates and croissants and sit and watch the boats and the early morning passing parade. We’ve biked down a few times now with friends and it’s always been just a stunning start to weekend morning. C’est magnifique, I tell you.

This morning there was a nice old Yamaha at the bike racks. 


A couple of weekends ago, we stopped at the Bay Model on the ride home. This place is wicked cool, as we’d say back east. It’s a working model of the entire bay – it simulates currents and tides, and it’s over 1.5 acres in size. That’s just nuts.

 

Hey look! It’s a tiny Golden Gate Bridge.

Perhaps our favorite section of the Bay Model building is off to the side of the model itself, and it talks about the history of Marinship, the WWII Liberty Ship building unit that originally erected all the buildings along this stretch of the marina. The Marinship exhibit was spectacular. 

 

 

 

 

There were so many amazing stories behind these ships, from the logistics of getting the shipyard up and running in record time, to the individual stories of the workers themselves.

I was particularly fond of one original poster for female shipyard workers, instructing them on proper bandana-tying technique. It never occurred to me that the Rosie the Riveter bandana arrangement wasn’t just for safety – it preserved the hairdo! Here’s what I learned.

“A gay bandana, properly tied, means efficient charm on the job, undiminished allure after hours.”

Because there’s nothing worse than diminished allure, right sisters?

 

 

 

Don’t you just love how the woman in this photo is just rockin her bandana and goggle look? Fabulous.

My friend Joan pointed out a terrific story about a man who left the shipyards every night pushing a wheelbarrow full of hay. The security guard at the gate carefully looked through the hay each night to be sure the man wasn’t stealing anything, but there was never any contraband to be found.

Eventually the man was fired, and the day he left, the security guard asked him why – was he stealing something?

Yup – wheelbarrows.

My last two shots for today’s post are of some pelicans that we saw on the way home this morning. Pelicans!

I Would Like You To Dance

Birthday!

 

So last weekend I was leveled by a back-to-school virus. The nerve of it! On a long weekend! On my birthday! 

But lookee here – I didn’t just get a whopper of a cold for my birthday. I got flowers from my friend Alison. Gorgeous flowers that came in the mail. They’re stunning.

I also received the most spectacular assortment of gifts and cards and phone serenades (yes that’s plural) that could ever be imagined. It was awesome. I got new pajamas, people, and any mother can tell you that’s a really, really good thing. Because if they give you pajamas, it’s just rude not to use them, don’t you think? So I feel compelled to demonstrate exactly how much I love those pajamas by sleeping in them for long stretches of time.

This is my birthday toast. Heh heh.

It’s actually a tradition from Tom’s family and it usually ends up with everyone having a piece of birthday toast, since breakfast is better with a candle on it.

Thank you to all my incredible family and friends for a terrific, uplifting day. I think I’ll have to leave you with these poignant words from the card that my aunt Anne and uncle George sent me…

The older you get

The better you get

Unless you are a banana.