andrew's blog

All hail WD-40, the Miracle Wonder Substance! Not only does it stop those hinges from squeaking and help free up rusted-on nuts and bolts, but I just discovered that WD-40 handily removes crayon marks from furniture. Cool! I also love the smell of the stuff, although it's probably terribly carcinogenic. I wonder what else it can clean around here? I've heard of some guys who use it to glean their barbeque grills, and some swear it makes the food taste better, although I'm not going that far.

San Rafael plans to overhaul Northgate mall praised - Housing advocates, bicycle proponents and enthusiastic mall supporters turned out for a city hearing Tuesday to cheer on plans to reinvent the Mall at Northgate in [Marin News from the Marin IJ]

Unless you've been in outer space or maybe detained in Guantanamo Bay, you've probably been to at least one Easter egg hunt by now. Collectively, as a family, we've been to two so far, although we probably could have spent all day at various versions today if we'd wanted to. Although they're great fun for the children, they do something that we've been trying to avoid lately, namely accumulate more candy and/or stuff that can get caught in the vacuum cleaner, not to mention those plastic eggs.

Then there are the well meaning but misguided grandparents that give each child an additional easter basket to the one the Easter Bunny fills. With 3 sets of gp's (1 intact pair and one divorced=3 sets) giving out goodies, it gets quickly overwhelming. Personally, I think it's revenge of some sort, although I haven't figured out exactly for what yet. Maybe those vinyl barstools I punctured with a ball point pen back when I was in first grade?

After thinking about it for a long time, I decided that my ideal career is that of Househusband. Cleaning, laundry, cooking... all things that give me a certain satisfaction, and staying home and working in the house certainly beats getting up at the crack of dawn and battling the commute on the hell that is southbound 101.

At least 50 to get layoff notices in Novato school district - Students, teachers and staff made their voices heard Tuesday as the Novato Unified School District board of trustees outlined potential cuts, including layoffs, if [Marin News from the Marin IJ]

Now that I have a little boy who will be entering kindergarten within the year I'm paying a little more attention to this situation. As someone who grew up in Novato schools, I can vouch for the fact that they've always had funding problems, but this seems especially dire. Maybe it's time to start saving for private school...

I never thought I'd find myself admitting to this, but I think I'm finally sick and tired of Dr. Seuss. Our four-year-old has developed an obsession with the late Doctor's works and we've been indulging it in keeping with the theory of "Anything That Encourages Literacy Has to Be Good." As an adult, I think Dr. Seuss books are one of the pleasures of reading to your children. With so many dull children's books out there, especially those derived from TV shows (Elmo, or, even worse, Dora the Explorer) or derivatives of past-their-prime book series (Clifford, anyone?), Dr. Seuss books are a joy to read, with even the simpler ones like the seemingly basic Hop On Pop being at least fun to read, and seminal works like The Cat in the Hat and How the Grinch Stole Christmas coming off as high art.

If you've ever wondered if modern life is possible without a microwave oven, the answer is "yes." But it's not easy. Actually, I guess we lived without one for years back in the '70s, but back then there wasn't an industry of microwave-ready foods built up around them.

We had a microwave, or rather have one, but it's broken. We've decided with all the craziness and of course expense of Christmas to hold off buying a new one until after the holidays. Apparently Something Bad happened to it. Not sure what exactly, but it involved nasty-smelling gray smokie pouring out of the thing as I attempted to nuke some frozen broccoli for the children to eat for dinner. If there's one thing I'm paranoid about, it's fire, so I unplugged the thing from the wall and pronounced it officially dead.

With chilly weather upon us, classic, rib-sticking comfort food gets more and more appealing. Fortunately, the Internet is really one big cookbook, where you can pretty much find any conceivable recipe. During a search for something (I don't remember what), I stumbled across Bernhard's Austrian Cooking (www.bernhards.at), a great resource for traditional Austrian recipes. A little more sophisticated than German food, Austrian food bears influences from Hungary, the Balkans, and Italy, and it pretty darned good. Bernhard is a professional chef in Vienna, one of my favorite cities, and offers his recipes in English with American measurements, so no metric conversion is needed.