What's a billion?

My dad sends me these great little nuggets once in a while and I was amazed at this one....

At the government’s current spending rate, a billion dollars was 8 hours and 20 minutes ago!

Remember that:
A. A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
B. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.
C. A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.


Another one:
According to 2005 data:

1. The top 1% of US population (3M people) took in 22.2% of ALL US income.

2. The bottom 50% of the population took in 12.8% of ALL US income.


Yikes!

PS I don't vet these things, so if it's wrong I didn't make it up and I didn't stop to count. But feel free to correct anything - I won't be offended.

When you just need a really good sandwich ...

You gotta go to Grinders! It's a small place on Aurora in Shoreline, but the food is unbelievable!

Mitch is the owner - a really great guy. And he makes the most delicious food. You have to have the stomach for it, though. Lots of grilled onions, garlic, sauce ... they serve forks and knives with the grinders cause they can get messy, but you don't want to miss a bite! And you'll be tasting it for a few hours afterwards, too (just a warning)!

On some Saturday nights they have live jazz and they aren't open on Sundays. They have comfy tables and seating arrangements - some regular chairs around large square tables, some bar stools and bar tables and some sofas/upholstered seats around coffee tables for a more relaxed environment. They stock good wines and import beers, as well as juices. You'd probably never think to stop by just by driving by - they are right next to a muffler shop on the west side of the street. But you'd be missing some of the best grub in the north end if you decide to pass it by.

They are located on Aurora and about 199th (just a couple blocks south of Aurora Village Costco). Let us know if you're going to come up a try them out - we might join you!

Reminiscing

I just found some of the kid's baby pictures on my computer archives. Those days seem so far behind, but Juice just turned 5!

To every parent their child is most beautiful and I was completely breathless by mine as well. And just like many parents, I had thoughts that they could possibly start their famous careers early by being in commercials and advertising. So one day Myron and I did a photo shoot with Mac. These are just two of a hundred or so we took that day. And unbelievably, she had a great time almost the entire day.

I learned my lesson though and after one audition (which I can't even remember now) I determined I couldn't take being a stage mom. They rejected her! How could they?!?! So that was a short lived dream.

I didn't even try with Julian, but he was as spitting image of Mac when he was born. As as cute to me as she was.

My kids are still the perfect kids for me and they still make me laugh and smile as much as they did back then!

Postcard from the Ordinary: Fashion

This time of year never fails to bring on stirrings of feelings, questions about who I am and what I've done with my life and why I am who I am. Not in the great "what-is-life-all-about" way, but "how-did-I-turn-out-this-way" way. I get momentarily pulled into the belief that I should be one way, but recognize that I never will. And if I think I should, shouldn't I or am I OK just the way I am?

This thing is fashion. It's all because of the award shows. Now, I'm not much into TV. I don't even watch the award shows and I've never watched an episode of Sex and the City, so I've never been schooled about Blahnik Manolo or Jimmy Choo (I only know the latter is shoes, 'cause it rhymes with Choo). I couldn't tell a Valentino from a Wang from a Channel. I can't even wear the Channel I have (#5) - too smell sensitive! And those are just the designer's names I remember from reading magazines once upon a time.

I remember one year having to travel by car from Seattle to Spokane with Myron to see my family. He'd just been hired by Microsoft for a gig that required him to sing lyrics to Will Smith's new song "Gettin' Jiggy With It" and he had to learn Will's song by heart, right lyrics and all, so he could sing all the new lyrics written by Microsoft folks for their executives to lip synch to at some conference. Anyway, we listened to that song over and over all 5 hours there and all 5 hours back and one place we both got stuck was the line "You gotta Prada with a lotta stuff in it..." Neither of us had one clue what he was talking about. What in the world was "Prada"? Made no sense and we must have burned that tape out going back over that line again and again. That was pre-McKenna so at least 8 years ago and I can tell you that it was just in 2007 that I realized what he was saying. PRADA. Oh, right! Problem is, I still have never seen a Prada anything. No shoes, no bags, no nothing. Nada Prada.

I'm fashion deficient! I was traveling with my then boss when I worked in an industry considered fashionable to an industry conference where everyone was reasonably into fashion (everyone except me.) We were at the airport waiting to board when a group of gals gathered in the waiting area also boarding our plane. My boss remarked that there was "no way those pants could be real" beacuse the person wearing them didn't look like she could afford them. I had no idea what she was referring to. The pants she was talking about had the label Dolce & Gabbana in gold lettering either across the butt or down the side. I was quite sure that most people could afford something that looked that tacky - they couldn't possibly have cost that much since they looked like something from Mariposa or a teeny bopper shop. Well, I found out later from my Director of Finance who was traveling with us and who recognized my look of ignorance that D&G - regardless of how tacky they look - are really expensive. Who knew? Come to find out at the conference that the person wearing the pants was one of the keynote speakers, owner of several successful shops in Canada and that she really could afford anything she wanted. Never judge a book, right??

So back to my question - how did I get to be this way? Style is not my forte. I do wish that I had some sense if it though. Couldn't I possibly look better if sporting Kate Spade or Stella McCartney? Maybe, but that would require two things I hold dear: time and money. I have shopping attention span of a total of 30 minutes. Including parking the car. So unless the items physically jump out at me, in my size (which is another blog topic), then it's not realistically going to happen. Secondly, I have a family to feed, cloth and send off to multiple life-enrichment activities. The thought of spending $250 on a purse sends my brain into orbit. I didn't spend $250 on clothes and/or shoes for myself in the entire year of 2007! I spent that much on my daughter's entire school year wardrobe. In less than 30 minutes. Thankfully, she's not a clothes horse either.

But I do have moments of envy when I see how beautiful all the beautiful people look on the red carpets and in rag pix. Many of the dresses are gorgeous and I do wish that once in my life I had someplace to go where I'd need such a gown, enough patience to shop for it and the bankroll to buy the perfect one for me. But unless those lotto tickets pay off in this lifetime, its quite unlikely that I will ever look or feel like that.

That's what make me feel ordinary and it's that feeling, not the regret about any dress or shoe or bag, that makes me a bit melancholy - did I miss something wonderful? Did I take a wrong turn? Am I everything I will ever be?

I just lost a post

I was inspired to write - finally - after being busy and creatively challenged for a few weeks. I finally had a breakthrough, a topic that made sense and it felt good to write. It took me an hour to write the 5 paragraphs, but they sounded pretty cohesive. Something I'd be proud to publish. AND I LOST IT! My darned wifi crapped out on me and I lost the post!

I'm going to bed now - can't bear to try to re-create it tonight! Boo hoo:-(

Learning to spell

Julian just turned 5 and is in Pre-School. Someting happened a few months back that just seemed to click for him overnight. He started reading and spelling and doing simple addition and subtraction. It was a wonderful surprise!

This morning in the car on the way to school, he was happily talking a bit to himself. I could tell he was working out a spelling problem, but was only half paying attention. "B....R" I could hear him saying over and over. Then he asked what made the sound "Ah". "Mom, what says Ah?" So before I really put 2+2 together I helped him figure out the Ah and proudly he spelled his word: BRA! OK, well, that is a word, but out of the blue, on the way to school at 9am on a Thursday morning, "bra" isn't necessarily a word I'd figure my 5 year old would be trying to figure out. So I asked, trying not to laugh, why was he thinking about bra. "Daddy wears one, with a phone."

He was exactly right! But before you think my hubby is totally weird, Julian was referring to a picture in our office from our most recent cruise where our group was playing a game called Quest. Finding things and wearing them or showing them ... the first woman with two pairs of men's pants, not on the men, first man with a set of dentures, first woman with a tattoo, first man dressed as a woman with all the accessories, etc. That's when the picture was taken and it is a funny picture. But I think I have some 'splainin' to do with my son, huh?!?

Life Lesson: Death

One of the hardest lessons of life is handling death. There's the obvious about death: "there's no good time for it to happen", "it's part of the cycle of life", "time will heal all pain", etc. But really, until you have to go through it, there's so much that you realize you don't know about death and you're not sure you really want to know. But not knowing, of course, is worse.

My father-in-law passed on December 29th of throat cancer. He'd been through treatment once, but it came back aggressively and once diagnosed with the recurrence in November, it didn't take long for the disease to take over the rest of his body. He passed peacefully with his family surrounding him. He's in a better place. The rest of us, however, are in various states of grief, not knowing, confusion. We learned some things but still have questions.

Things I learned:

• How you'll deal with a family member's death isn't generally something you talk about with your future spouse before you get married - you figure it out only once it happens


• Sometimes, you don't deal with death of a family member the same as your spouse


• Sometimes you don't believe the same things as your spouse when it comes to death


• Sometimes you have to give in even when you think it's the wrong thing to do


• Support isn't easy to give when you're angry, but you have to do the best you can


• No one is there to help you when they are a group who are united in their own family issues


• You can get a veteran's ceremony for anyone who served in the military and there is a National Cemetery in Kent, WA


• Once a person dies, you can't ask for any clarification on what they meant to have done with their stuff


• No one really knows how things work once you die and you have to have lots of family meetings to figure it out


• Not all family members will act appropriately during the process


• It can be full of drama and outsiders may not understand or want to be a part of that


• No comment support isn't easy when people are reported to lack common sense


• You can look or sound like a heartless bitch as much as you try not to

But through the experience, I know that I need to understand and figure out way more than I currently know about the process of death for the sake of my own family. So one of my new year resolutions is to study up and get our affairs in order. Then I'll work on my parents to make sure that their affairs are all in order, becasue if they leave a mess, well ... who knows what I'd do!