Garden --Day One--Planting.

I feel soooo much better now that the seeds and plants are in the ground. This weekend should have been one in which I got all prepared for my next summer school week, so I wouldn't feel quite so stressed out each morning, but I knew that it would be far easier to do the garden this weekend rather than in fits and starts all week when I had time.

Check out how lumpy, rock hard chunky the soil is. Even after the soil was tilled twice (by my mom and my uncle, aren't they darling?) it was still full of rock hard chunks of soil. "We" tilled it on Saturday evening.

And despite the rainfall Sunday morning, which threatened my plans for planting, I managed to get my whole garden planted in 4.5 hours. Of course, I had help. My pal, Sean, decided he was up for some adventures in gardening and so we planted seeds and sad, wilty-looking plants and 23 rows later, I have something resembling a garden! Now I just hope those little seeds figure out how it all works and manage to make their way to the light. I can't wait.

New in Town

New in Town with Harry Connick, Jr. and Renee Zellweger, was exactly what I expected it to be. I watched it with Pam who would periodically tell me what was going to happen next, only to have it unfold just as she said. It was cute and sweet and funny in parts, relying on physical humor, and the idea of a highly competent corporate girl in Miami being completely out of her element and mostly incompetent in the ways of Minnesota. She was a gung ho girl, however and was willing to try to get out there and do what needed to be done to bond with the natives. What she thought would be all sewed up by Christmas took more like six months and by then, well, things had changed. A criticism--I've never been to New Ulm, but I'm pretty sure no one (well, maybe one person?) let alone a whole town speaks that way. These people were portrayed as caricatures rather than as people.It's one thing to give the viewer the flavor of the community, quite another to exaggerate it past recognition. This is a renter, if that. If you are in the mood for light predictable fare, this could be your two star movie.

Don't Stop Believing.

Just watched the Glee pilot on hulu--a new show for fall.
Joyous, inspirational, and quirky--with choreography.

It's a little high school musical-ish, but in a good way, I think.

Doorway Puppet Shows.

I love this idea.
And I have a feeling I could actually CREATE one of these myself.
via Black Eiffel, from Country Living.

Brideshead Revisited.

Having never read Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, I have nothing to compare the film to. Sad but true, I was mostly watching it to see if I should bother with the book. The trailer looked so lovely and enchanting and haunting and good. I love Emma Thompson. I like period pieces. I expected to love it. Instead I am ambivalent. I didn't expect the homosexual bits, I felt that it needed some bits to be more developed. I like Matthew Goode as an actor and he was "okay" in this role, but as I felt with The Reader, I was left wanting more of the inner thoughts and turmoil of this mostly quiet reactive character. I read another blogger's review just now and discovered if I want a true Brideshead Revisited cinematic experience I need to watch the nearly perfect 1981 mini-series version. You can read her review here.

Wordless Wednesday--Ben Newman style

via Share Some Candy

The Women

The Women (1939)

I loved the 1939 version of this film for a million little reasons. One of the main reasons was the wonderful actresses featured. Joan Crawford is deliciously evil in her role as Crystal Allen--skanky, husband-stealing, perfume counter girl. It was fun to see Joan Fontaine in a comedy rather than a Hitchcock suspense thriller. She's lovely and plays the sweet character of Peggy, married to a poor, proud man. Sylvia Fowler, (Rosaline Russell) is meant to be a friend to Mary Haines (Norma Shearer) but one has to wonder at the joy she gets in having "one up" on her friend who they all seem to think of as an idealist when it comes to love and marriage.

As the film opens, Mary is portrayed as a woman very content and secure in her life. She's riding with her young daughter in sporty clothes, fooling around with a camera in a playful way, then lovingly talking to her daughter about her honeymoon and love and how she and daddy were going away to Canada on a trip like they did so long ago. It's a sweet scene and it's clear how close the Mary and her daughter are and how much she does adore her husband Stephen.

Quickly she dresses for her luncheon with the women come pouring in--Sylvia, Peggy, Nancy Blake (Florence Nash), an "old maid" author, and Edith Potter (Phyllis Povah) who has what feels like a million children. Prior to the luncheon Sylvia discovers the gossip about Stephen Haines and his perfume counter tryst from her manicurist and she wastes no time in spilling everything to Edith. They can barely contain themselves and their news at Mary's house. We also meet the Haines maid and nanny who share a fun little scene later in the film.

The film, based on a play by Clara Booth Luce, features an all female cast. The cattiness of women is showcased quite nicely and friendships are brought into question. As is the issue of how to deal with infidelity, when Mary's mother offers advice about what SHE did in the same situation years earlier. Mary's not quite able to look the other way and she spends a miserable month in Reno with several young women awaiting their divorces, including two memorable characters she met on the train--Countess DeLave and Miriam Aaron. Marjorie Main (known for her role as Ma Kettle) plays Lucy, the dude ranch operator whose seen it all. These were some of my favorite scenes.

In addition to the witty exchanges, the drama of a marriage falling apart, the Reno divorce process, we also get to see great clothing, on the women throughout the film, but also in a fashion show the women attend. Also notable is the salon where the women get their facials, massages, exercise, mud baths, manicures and so forth. Supposedly that was modeled after the actual Elizabeth Arden salon.

The Women (2008)

This version of The Women was a nice attempt that seemed to miss the mark. For starters, Meg Ryan didn't seem to be the sort of woman Mary Haines was. Sure, she's mucking about in the garden and being all one with the earth in a carefree way, but she's also sort of oblivious and not very doting or aware of her husband. It's not clear she even really cares about him much. She's estranged from her daughter who is going through an awful preteen stage. She doesn't garner the same kind of sympathy as Norma Shearer. In this version Sylvia Fowler (Annette Bening) is single and dedicated to her career; she's also meant to be Mary's best friend. Some of the women characters are stripped away in this version and others are beefed up. The role of Edith/Edie is played by Debra Messing who is meant to be some artsy, hippy-esque, mother of 6 or something like that. The role of the old maid author, Nancy Blake, becomes a character called Alex Fisher (Jada Pinkett Smith) who is also a writer but in this case a lesbian. The lesbian element was actually part of the original play but was downplayed by MGM in the film. Eva Medes is perfect for the role of Crystal Allen, however.

The ultimate mistake this film makes is in changing the whole message to one of "friendship." They softened Sylvia's cattiness and all three women are concerned about Meg, rather than gleefully standing by and watching as the mighty tumble and fall. Of course, setting this in modern day eliminates the need for the Reno stay, which was too bad. They substitute that bit with a sort of week long retreat Mary goes on after everything falls apart in her marriage. There she meets, not the countess, but a woman named Leah Miller who is an agent aptly played by Bette Midler. There are shades of the original story happening here, but it's not nearly much rolicking good fun as it was in the 1939 version.

I particularly liked how the original film had two "bad guys." One, the mistress who we are all meant to despise. And two, her friend Sylvia, who is determined her friend discovers Stephen's betrayal. It's hard to know who is worse, but then I've seen this played out in life in a variety of ways, so to see that element stripped from the 2008 version as if somehow women had changed, seemed like a step back from reality.

Someone might enjoy The Women (2008) if they'd not seen the original film. After all, it could just be another film about friendships ala Sex and the City. But if you want to really see something entertaining, I'd watch the dear old 1939 black and white bit of fun.

Wit and Wisdom from 30 Rock.

Ahhh... Liz Lemon-- gotta love her.

Quotes from Season 3 Episode 4 "Gavin Volure"

After being asked out, or "in," by agoraphobic, eccentric Gavin Volure...
Liz: I’m still tired from that dinner. And meeting someone new, ugh, all the nodding and smiling and sibling listing. And what’s the upside? It works and you have to have a bunch of sex?

Jack: Lemon, what do you want? Do you want to be alone for the rest of your life?

Liz: No. I just wish I could start a relationship about 12 years in where you don’t really have to try anymore and you can just sit around together and goof on TV shows and go to bed without anybody trying any funny business.

-----
For some reason this just really cracked me up!

Dreaming Green.

A few months ago I learned that my town still has community garden plots for rent. Some of my college friends will recall my adventures in gardening in the early 90s. For little to no weeding, I actually managed to get a lot of produce from that garden.

One reason I've always wanted my own home was for a yard and a garden plot. However, it turns out that containers work pretty well in the apartment too. And with a 20 x 40 foot plot available for rent, I am hoping I can grow a few more things to keep me in veggies and fresh flowers for a time.

Because Memorial Day is early and because our spring is late, it's probably okay that I've not planted anything yet. The garden plots aren't ready yet anyway. I'm a leetle teensy bit nervous that they won't be all that great because it's already been admitted that the soil isn't as good as it was in the location I once used (where a ginormous hockey arena now sits). So, fingers crossed, the soil will be good enough. I was going to do all seeds except for tomato plants and suddenly I found myself buying far more little plants than planned.

I haven't worked it all out yet, but the plans are to plant potatoes, corn, onions, green beans, carrots, lettuce, arugula, spinach, cauliflower, broccoli, cilantro, lemon basil, chives, rosemary, oregano, dill, sage, genovese basil, sweet basil, tomatoes, red peppers, golden peppers, banana peppers, jalapeno peppers, cabbage, spaghetti squash, cucumbers and some flowers: zinnias, dahlias, shasta daisies, gladiolas, and snapdragons.

I may need TWO plots! :)

Wordless Wednesday -- New York Ballet Edition

Photo by Kyle Froman via Sheila Variations

To Boldly Go....

Star Trek (2009)

While I'm not a Trekkie, I do love Sci Fi films and books. I've always been more of a Star Wars fan, but I've seen a couple of the Star Trek films and watched my share of the original Star Trek series with William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. I really enjoyed all two hours and ten minutes of this film. Usually my preference is for a standard 90 minute film and when two hours nears I'm squirming in my seat. This film moved so quickly I wondered if, perhaps, I'd fallen victim to some glitch in the time-space continuum.

There were Top Gun moments in the early bits of the film and Empire Strikes Back and even some shades of LOST in there, but really it was Star Trek all the way. It was tons of fun to see each of the familiar cast members appear in their young versions and as was always the case, Spock is my favorite. Good work J. J. Abrams, I look forward to the next Star Trek film.

My First Bike Ride of the Season

May is Biking Month and this is the first time I've managed to get out there. It's hard to believe my bike even works with a chain that rusty. She's resilient, that old gal. It might have helped if I'd brought my bike inside for the winter.

Today also marks my day one in a new round of "The 30 Day Shred." I've been inspired by some Facebook friends and so here I go again. I am afraid the combination of my DVD workout and about 5 miles of bike riding may be enough to make me sore tomorrow, but it's a good "sore" so I'm not going to complain. I promise.

I can't buzz around on my bike without my camera and so I managed to get a few shots of some lovely spring tulips. Mother Nature is slow to wake up this year. But things are just now greening up quite nicely.

These remind me of some Sci Fi creatures...
slowly unfurling ready to take over the world.

Tulips in love.

Buttery, sunshine-y joy.
They just seem happy, don't they?

This Looks Delightful.

Wordless Wednesday -- Spring in the Cities-- Conference Center Style

Masters of Guitar Series -- Al Petteway and Amy White

This award-winning husband and wife duo reside in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina just outside of Asheville, NC. They've been playing together since 1995 and their sound is an acoustic, celtic, traditional, appalacian-inspried, old-timey blend of goodness. I'm not typically drawn to instrumental music and so many of my favorite songs were the ones with lyrics. Amy's voice is lovely. I loved how they would often play looking at each other. There is something tender and endearing in the gesture.


Their music was very warm and many of their songs were done with Amy on Mandolin and Al on guitar, though throughout the evening they played African drums, the piano and a variety of different guitars (some were dedicated guitars to specific tunings that would be difficult to achieve quickly on stage). Because traveling with that many instruments would be difficult, many of the ones they played with were loans from local musicians which I thought was a nice touch.


They played 20 songs plus an encore and one of my favorites was a song they described as a "christmas song" called "Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabelle" and that one featured Amy on piano. I just loved the melody and the energy of the song. Another favorite from the show was a version of the Edna St. Vincent Millay poem "What Lips My Lips Have Kissed."

Here's the full poem:
What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
Under my head till morning; but the rain
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
Upon the glass and listen for reply;
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain
For unremembered lads that not again
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.
Thus in the winter stands a lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
Yet know its boughs more silent than before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone;
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more.

Their music is featured in The National Parks: America's Best Idea,a six-part series from Ken Burns and Florentine Films which is scheduled to air on PBS this September.

See How Much We've Grown!

Gone for a week and my babies are all grown up!

Wordless Wednesday -- IRA Convention Center Style

Tuesday Afternoon -- Vocabulary

Learning Words Inside and Out
by Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey

The powerpoint for this session can be found on their website under resources -- it's called ira_vocab-blog. And it was excellent, or the presentation was. An action packed hour, I left with my brain heavy with ideas. Overwhelmed thinking about what I need to do with vocabulary in my classroom, in my school.

One of the things that left a big impression on me was a video clip they played of a history teacher doing a think aloud with his students showing them how to navigate the text and unfamiliar words in their book. I thought it was entertaining AND helpful. The clip for this is on the Heinemann site and the particular video clip is in chapter three "Making it Transparent."

Beacause I teach at an alternative school, I am constantly struggling with how to deliver mini-lessons and directions in a consistent manner to ALL students especially when I have new students in my classroom every Monday and Wednesday, with our rolling enrollment. However, it occurs to me that I could record myself doing a think aloud activity, for example and I could have it available on a class website OR on a disc for students to watch at various points in the course. I could do this same technique with key lessons that I want all students to hear and could also do live mini-lessons that supplement those too.

But I digress.

This vocab session was most excellent. I'm not even sure I can sum it up.

Fisher began with an anecdote about his experience taking a college class on the brain. He wanted to drop the class after his first reading assignment but pride prevented it. He showed us a sample of the textbook and it was crazy hard. He challenged us to use our comprehension strategies on the text... try to visualize what we were reading... how about make a connection... an inference? Here's a prediction. "I am not going to pass this class."

No amount of comprehension strategies can help if the student lacks the vocabulary and background knowledge. And vocabulary IS background knowledge. If you have a word for it, that shows you understand it.

In order to understand his brain textbook, Doug bought other books in an effort to build up his background knowledge. "Clinical Neuroanatomy Made Ridiculously Simple, the Interactive Edition." He watched over 100 you tube videos , watched a PBS special on the secret life of the brain, and he talked with peers. He took a wig stand, painted a brain on it, and used push pins to try to learn the parts of the brain.

You can't learn from books you can't read. But you CAN learn. He never did read the assigned book but he read widely from other resources and he relied on strategies.

Intentional Vocabulary Initiative -- 5 Priorities
1. Make it Intentional through word selection and intentional instruction
2. Make it Transparent through teacher modeling of word-solving and word learning
3. Make it Usable with collaborative learning
4. Make it Personal by fostering student ownership
5. Make it a Priority with school wide practices

Now to break that down:

1. Making it Intentional
Begin by assessing where you are as a school. There's a rubric for this on the Heinemann site.

Use gradual release of responsibility:
I do it (focused lesson), We do it (guided instruction), You do it together(collaboratively), You do it alone (independent practice)

But what words do we choose?
Consider the influence of background knowledge.
Types of vocab

• tier 1 general (commonplace; learned from interactions with people)
• tier 2 specialized (change meaning due to context)
• tier 3 technical (specific to discipline)

Questions for selecting Vocab
1. representative -- Is it critical to understanding?
2. repeatable -- Will it be used again?
3. transportable -- Is it needed for discussiosn or writing?
4. contextual analysis -- Can they use context to figure it out?
5. structural analysis --Can they use structure?
6. cognitive load --Have I exceeded the number they can learn?

2. Make it Transparent -- Modeling
Show students how WE solve for unknown words. Don' t just tell them what words mean. Show students how to look inside (morphology and structure) and outside (context clues and resources) words (this is the point at which they showed us the think aloud video)

What to model?

• Comprehension
• Word Solving
• Text Structure
• Text Features
• Context Clues
• Morphology
• Resources
  

Teach kids to go inside a word, then outside a word, THEN go to resources.

Context Clues

• Definition/Explanation --Access to clean water would ameliorate, and improve upon, living conditions within the village.
  

• Restatement/Synonym --Access to clean water would ameliorate living conditions within the village such that life would be tolerable for the people who live there.

• Contrast/Antonym --Access to clean water would ameliorate living conditions within the village whereas continued reliance on a polluted river will exacerbate a bad situation.

• Inference/General Context --Access to clean water would ameliorate living conditions within the village. Clean water would make life tolerable as residents could focus on other pressing needs such as finding food and shelter.

• Punctuation-- Access to clean water would ameliorate--make tolerable--living conditions within the village.

Resources: peers, dictionaries, internet resources, phone a friend etc.

3. Make it Usable -- Collaborate with Peers

• Partner and small-group discussions
• Jigsaws
• Student think-alouds
• Reciprocal teaching
• Co-constructed graphic organizers
• Semantic feature analysis

Because of the nature of our school it is more challenging to collaborate since few students are ever doing the same assigment at the same time. One slide they used showed shades of meaning using a paint strip. I liked this idea and thought it could help teaching connotations of words which is something I teach in a poetry unit.

4. Make it Personal: Individual Activities

This section showed a variety of ways teachers could do individual assignments and this chart is just one example.

5. Make it a Priority: Creating a Schoolwide Focus

One emphasis was simply on silent sustained reading. The more kids read, the more words they are exposed to.

Another idea was to do WOW words -- Words of the Week. One school focused on SAT words and grouped their words by affix or derivation and featured five words a week (Fid, Fi: to trust -- affidavit, confidant, defiant, fidelity, infidel) Departments proposed words and they were introduced in English classes. One school's art and technology students made posters to hang around the school. I loved these and could really see how they'd attract attention, combine skills for the technology students and also support the learning of the words. Here are a few examples:

The Exhibits -- The Authors

Katherine Paterson, author of Bridge to Terabithia,
signing at Scholastic

Laurie Halse Anderson, author of Speak,
signing at Simon and Schuster

Patricia Polacco, a personal favorite,
drew the biggest crowds at Penguin

Skippyjon Jones at Penguin
He was on hand for pictures!

I got a ton of books signed by wonderful authors: John Green (Looking for Alaska, Paper Towns), Jaime Adoff (Jimi and Me, Names will Never Hurt Me), Elise Broach (Masterpiece, Shakespeare's Secret), Jerry Pallotta (The Ocean Alphabet Book, The Icky Bug Alphabet Book), Paul B. Janeczko (A Poke in the I, A Kick in the Head, A Foot in the Mouth) and more that I'm probably not remembering... Yikes.

The exhibits are great fun when it comes to discovering the latest children's book titles and getting advance reader copies. One of my favorite moments is when Disney Hyperion pressed a free brand new hardcover copy of Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian into my hands. Of course, I bought plenty books too. I think I left the conference with approximately 120 new books & advance reader copies.

Tuesday Morning -- Teaching for Social Responsibility

Books + Inquiry: Teaching for Social Responsibility with Young Adult Literature
Presented by Steven Wolk

He started with homework: Read The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie. And for the next hour not only did he share some must read titles and how they could be used in the classroom he explored the WHYs of teaching.

Why read?
When we ask students this the response is sometimes what they think we want to hear. Some actually answer "to improve my vocabulary or my fluency." Seriously. I have many answers to that question... to escape, to explore, to relate to others, to understand people who are not like me, to be entertained, to learn about something I didn't know before, to have a shared experience with other readers... there are so many more reasons.

Wolk said too many kids fail to see a valid reason for reading and Cris Tovani, author of I Read it But I Don't Get It reminds us that purpose is everything.

Some purposes for reading our presenter suggested:

• to nurture the civic mission of our schools
• to grow and improve democracy
• to question the status quo
• as a form of debate with self and society
• to think and to nurture independent thinking
• as counter socialization
• to take an active role in making a better world
• to become better people

"The heart and final guarantee of democracy is in free gatherings of neighbors on the street corner to discuss back and forth what is read in uncensored news of the day, and in gatherings of friends in the living rooms of houses and apartments to converse freely with one another." --John Dewey (1939)

Wolk claims that schools are failing kids because kids don't vote.

So,why go to School?
Ask kids... "to get a good job."

Wolk believes we need to stop viewing schools as job preparation and as a job factory. And begin to really examine "what it means to be educated?" Where does social responsibility come in?

Sheldon Berman (1997) defines social responsibility as "a personal investment in people and the planet."

Teaching for social responsibility might mean addressing and developing these: caring, global awareness, common good, intellectual curiosity, multicultural, media literacy, multiple perspectives, war, peace, nonviolence

Wolk challenged us: Look up the term "peace" in a social studies textbook. You're likely to find a column or a short blurb about it. Look up "war" and you'll find pages and pages and pages. If we want to achieve peace we need to start teaching more about that.

"We must remember that the purpose of education is not mastery of knowledge but mastery of self through knowledge." -- David Orr

This is where "inquiry" needs to play a role. School, by and large, is an artificial environment.

Teaching with an inquiry model requires...
asking questions, authentic, investigating, collaboration, ownership of the process, constructivist thinking, project based, social progress, creating new knowledge.

Then Wolk provided us with a list of books that might aid in the process. Fresh books, not the same tired classics or even overdone YA books, ones that aren't necessarily on the "bestseller lists."

He guided us through how he might create a literature unit.
Begin with a theme or question
or
Begin with a genre
or
Begin with a specific curricular topic
or
Begin with a specific book

He used Paul Volponi's Black and White as an example:

1. He develops an inquiry question:

• How are race and class factors in America's criminal justice system.
• How far does responsibility and loyalty go in friendship?

2. He creates subquestions around the "big ideas"

3. Then he seeks out connected short texts (some examples)

• excerpts from True Notebooks by Mark Salzman
• article from NY Times "How Race is Lived in America: Growing Up, Growing Apart."
• short stories by Don Gallo
• poetry from You Hear Me

4. He uses a graphic organizer to plan his unit which includes before reading, drama role play, themes, mini lessons, small activities, journal discussion questions, writing prompts, and reading strategies. He does these WHILE he reads a book, when he's first thinking the ideas because he knows he won't remember after the book is done.

Wolk winds things up by telling us about his new love for the book Fahrenheit 451 and how stunned he is to realize it was written in 1953. He ends with this quote:

"Maybe books can get us half out of the cave." -- Ray Bradbury

I sure hope so. His presentation is not yet up on the IRA site, but his email is s-wolk@neiu.edu if you have questions or would like a copy of the book lists he provided.

More Monday Goodness from the IRA

Adolescent Literacy: What Teachers and Students Need and Want
It was a symposia which meant it was LONG, but with four presenters it flew by.

Nancy Steineke did an interactive activity with us that examined perspectives surrounding the issue "what is the difference between a terrorist and a martyr." Her focus was on the value of social interaction in learning.

Laura Robb emphasized the importance of "choice and access" when it comes to reading.

Jim Blasingame is coeditor of The ALAN Review, a journal devoted entirely to young adult literature and sponsored by NCTE. He also creates the Books for Adolescents pages of the Journal of Adult and Adolescent Literacy, sponsored by IRA. He did a series of book talks introducing us to a ton of adolescent books--this was one of my favorite parts. I fully intend to access his resources on his website. His powerpoint is available for download on his site.

Lastly, Jaime Adoff, author, spoke about realistic fiction and the books he's written. Jaime began with his story of how he became a writer which was a long roundabout journey that stemmed from "failure" as he described it. Adoff hails from notable author parents, Virginia Hamilton and Arnold Adoff and he never intended to write, but here he is. His frustration with his "failed" music career prompted him to write as a kind of therapy and what emerged was healing. Writing heals, and reading can too. He also read excerpts from several of his books. Jimi and Me, The Death of Jayson Porter, Names Will Never Hurt Me.

International Reading Association Annual Conference -- Opening Session

So far the conference has been great. I'm exhausted at the end of the day and my brain is bursting. So are my bags from the exhibits free books! Gotta love free books. Even if many of them are just advance reader copies.

I'll try to do a few posts on my favorite bits:

The Khaled Hosseini portion of the opening session.

His talk was about his journey toward becoming a writer. He said it was never a "choice" for him, like Jessica Rabbit, "It's how he was drawn."

Hosseini told us the story of his family's move from his happy childhood home in Kabul to Paris in 1976 for his dad's work and finally to San Jose, CA in 1980, because to return to Kabul meant certain death for his father and possibly all of them-- he told us California stories about the things his parents did to provide for them.

He told us specifically about the five steps he took to becoming a writer which included things like learning English in grade 9, working a variety of jobs, one of which was a security guard that had cameras on him so he couldn't do much other than sit... no reading etc. But he could write and write he did. Finally he became a doctor.

In the spring of 1999 he heard that kite flying, a central image from his childhood, was banned in Afghanistan and it prompted him to write a short story which he expected would be a pleasant story of kite flying. What emerged was a short story of betrayal, loss, friendship and forgiveness.

In March of 2001, he finally finished an expanded version of the short story. This was the novel The Kite Runner. Refused to believe he was a "success" until he heard a question about his book on Jeopardy. If Alex Trebek says so, I guess I am was his rationale!

He never claimed to be an expert on Afganistan and really felt inadequate when people would ask him to be such. Yet, in response to that expectation he's begun to learn. He shared with us the state of things in Afghanistan today and went on to explain where things went wrong. This was all very interesting and could probably be an entirely separate blog post. In September of 2007 he took a trip to Afghanistan and it was a life altering experience for Hossieni and it prompted him to create a foundation to fund projects for Afghan women and children which partners with the UN refugee organization HCR.

His bottom line in his talk: Apathy is the most dangerous thing in our world today. We've become lulled in our self-centered lives of comfort and we do nothing. Though that might seem cynical, the reality is so many of us realize suffering is inevitable and pervasive. Thus we are defeated and overwhelmed by it. We become fatalistic. But we are not helpless and we need to break the shackles of apathy. He doesn't want his kids to have an insular existence--he wants them to understand the world has suffering, but that we are NOT helpless and we can always DO something. It was an inspiring talk.

Goodies on Grand.

One of my favorite shops in the Twin Cities area is Bibelot. This gift shop has several locations, but I've only been to the St. Paul location on Grand. Since I certainly can't be buying everything that tweaks the heart strings, I am virtually shopping here. These are a few of the sweet little things I liked in the store.

(Shhhh.... I actually bought the Wonder Woman mug.)

Book Hungry People.

On Sunday, after I left my pal Rebecca's place I made my way to Roseville to check out the Half Price Books Warehouse sale. It was day two and I wasn't all that impressed with what was left. It's more or less just an extended clearance rack sale. That's the first section I always check out when I hit a Half Price Books store because one can find books for $1.00 or $2.00. THAT is the way to shop. Usually the books I want cost more.

After finding lone book I wanted I looked at the checkout line and immediately returned it to a box and headed to the Roseville store--one that is new since the last time I was in the Twin Cities and book shopping! This was already my second Half Price Books stop of the weekend (I went to St. Louis Park on Saturday) and I will say each store has different strengths. They each have their own character and slight emphasis. They had a really nice children's section in Roseville and I found a wonderful selection of goodies.

Next I tried my hand at Cheapo Discs but my heart wasn't in it. I quickly looked for some used Weepies or The Shins and when I came up empty I tried to hit some shops on Grand in St. Paul, before they closed. I made a record purchase at The Red Balloon moments before they closed. Record, as in, I can't BELIEVE I spent that much money! But I've been waiting to get my hands on the Lauren Child version of Pippi Longstocking and they had a copy. I also picked up to picture books I've been wanting:

That Book Woman by Heather Henson, illustrated by David Small
and
The Best Pet of All by David LaRochelle, illustrated by Hanako Wakikyama

A sane person would stop there but I didn't. I went straight to the St. Paul Half Price books on Ford Parkway (one of my favorites) and found even more. After three book shops I think I managed to pick up close to 50 books. Gulp. Good thing I still have a little bookshelf space.

Ecopolitan: A Delicious Adventure

On Saturday I drove to Minneapolis to shop and to visit my pal Rebecca before I moved in to my downtown hotel for four days of action packed IRA goodness. We went out to one of Rebecca's favorite restaurants for our Saturday night meal. Ecopolitan is a raw food restaurant and since I'd never tried that route before I was intrigued. I was not disappointed.

Eating should make sense and be simple. It should bring health and wellness to your mind, body, spirit, and your community. Believe that people can change and improve their conditions of life. Be gentle with yourself, and those around you. Commit to making a difference, even if it's only a small one to begin with. This is the mission of Ecopolitan.

Ecopolitan is 100% Organic, vegan, and raw. So no dairy which is perfect for Rebecca with her gluten-free, dairy-free diet. It's quite liberating to be able to order anything off the menu and know it's going to be "safe" to eat. I'd highly recommend this sweet little restaurant. It's small in a cozy way & reservations are recommended (though we didn't make any). I'll be going back, maybe even later this week!

my meal--delicious.

Marinara Pasta -- Sweet sun-dried tomato marinara sauce on zucchini noodles with strawberries, red onion, olives, walnuts, and fresh herbs. Served on balsamic-vinaigrette-dressed spinach.

the menu

Rebecca's meal

Flaxseed Tostadas -- Two flaxseed-sunflower shells with lentil "taco meat," greens, marinated mushrooms, onions, olives, cilantro, cashew "sour cream," and hot sauce. Served with salsa and guacamole. Rebecca also added some not-cho "cheese" as a side.

Dessert number one -- divided we conquer?
Always eat your dessert first.

This one was a pistachio crusted, pie, cake? I'm not sure what it was called. The caramel looking sauce is made from dates. The center of the cake had a clove-y, pumpkin-y taste.

... and again at the end. :)
Why have one dessert when we can have TWO!

We also split one of their "ice cream" parfaits--Whipped frozen fruits served with coconut-date spread & nuts. This was to die for! Mmmmm....