Is it imitation, or is it flattery? Is it theft, or is it coincidence? - August 2, 2004—
Last night I was going through my very comprehensive "baby and parenting" topic in Jyte. I use it for fun, and for writing posts for 
.
Up popped this little gem from The Oregonian's travel section. It was eerily reminiscent of my Blogging Baby post on the same topic.
Do what you can't help - July 29, 2004—
Ever since seeing Paul Graham speak yesterday at Powell's, I've been thinking about my favorite quote from the day: "If you don't know what to do with your life, do what you can't help."
So what is it that I can't help? It's a compelling question.
Cooperative is this week's mama buzzword, or, babysitting coops for overachievers - July 22, 2004—
All this buzz going on about cooperatives...Olivia, Leslie and Betsy got me thinking...
I've got a crazy plan. Let me outline it for you. I had a little idea about a co-operative babysitting network so that moms could get more involved in neighborhood associations, volunteering, and activism, that I talked about briefly on my oregonlive blog. ...
If you're interested in helping, let me know. Cooperative @ spamama.com.
Daycare? Preschools? In over your head? Let's get cooperative - July 21, 2004—
The mamas and I are fed up with what the world has to offer in the realm of daycare (for us working mamas) and preschool (for us at-home mamas). We have been talking cooperative this, cooperative that. We're thinking about starting a commune. But until we give up on all our beautiful houses, we'll have to stick with the distance co-ops.
I've been wanting to blog this for a while...
Blogging mama now found on Blogging Baby - July 20, 2004—
A couple of weeks ago, I shot a passionate email, on a whim, to a posting on the Manhattan craigslist writers' job board. I figured I wouldn't hear back - I've been shooting off the occasional passionate email to various places for a while now. I never get the call.
Imagine my surprise when I received an email back describing the job at Blogging Baby, a property of Weblogs, Inc.
The birth of my niece coincides with the birth of my stories - July 13, 2004—
My first niece, Nehalem Tsunami, was born around 11 p.m. July 10th. I spent the majority of the last 13 hours of my sister-in-law's 45-hour labor by her side, and as my brother and I were so close in childhood (we're 19 months apart, and look as alike as could be imagined), I felt an intimate connection to this birth.
Two Linux(s) releases in the same week - June 22, 2004—
I'd like to announce the second of two Linux releases in my company this week. Today's release is Jyte's Linux version - if you're working on Linux, please check it out! Sunday's release was Linus, the son of one of Jyte's creators, named after Linux' creator. Cute huh?
A story in my OregonLive blog - June 13, 2004—
I wrote about losing my second baby in this blog. I don't know why I decided to put it there, it just seemed to be the right place. You can read the whole story here. It's such a little thing to grieve. But it's such a big thing.
Going to see Clifford - May 23, 2004—
The Illusionaire posted a story about "handling" the Clifford character in her blog. She wasn't working Sunday when we went to see Clifford ourselves.
My son's reaction to Clifford is what you'd probably expect of a little guy suddenly faced with a large red dog - excitement mixed with terror.
My comprehensive pregnancy book review - May 15, 2004—
So, several of my mama friends are pregnant, and I've been going through my stack of pregnancy books, selecting some to loan out, some to keep, some to sell on eBay. The process reminds me that I meant to write a telling review of all these books. No time like the present!
What to Expect When You're Expecting: This is the first book anyone thinks of when pregnancy books come to mind, and is probably the all-time pregnancy best-seller. I can't argue with its many printings and revisions. This book covers all the basics, and looks comprehensively at what will happen during your pregnancy, and what might go wrong. Everything is covered, a little quickly, and with a big emphasis on what you should do while pregnant.
Make that heavy on the "should."
My take on the Portland mayoral race in my OregonLive blog - May 6, 2004—
For those of you Portland residents who read my blog, you should check out my discussion of today's OregonLive mayoral debate. I'm torn between Potter and Busse, and I think Francesconi is too much of an "insider" for his own good. He's resting on his laurels. Posey is an outsider with an outside chance...make your pick between Potter and Busse, please, for the good of the city.
Laughing Out Loud - wow, again? - May 4, 2004—
Has there been a new strain of email virus that contains laughing gas? Or, to quote The Princess Bride, is it that "I don't think that means what you think it means"? All I know is that people are LOL at things that are decidedly not laughable.
Create your day - May 2, 2004—
Yesterday, the track team was visited by a kinesiologist, hypno-therapist, and follower of the "psych-k" philosophy. It's all terribly new-age and would have never been permitted, or even considered, when I was in high school. Times have changed.
The basic philosophy behind psych-k has much in common with yoga, martial arts, quantum physics, and the mind-blowing movie, "What the BLEEP do you Know" (you haven't seen that yet? Go. Immediately. Tonight. I'm not kidding.). It says basically that your subconscious beliefs have great power over your conscious mind, and your physical body. He used some interesting techniques called muscle testing to convince the classroom full of dragged-out-of-bed-on-a-Saturday teenagers that this stuff was real.
Introducing the Kenilworth-Abernathy (Portland) neighborhood blog - April 23, 2004—
Today marks my foray into the OregonLive blog world with my Kenilworth-Abernathy neighborhood blog. I have introduced the neighborhood, with its boundaries of Holgate to the south, 26th Ave and the Willamette River to the west, Hawthorne to the north, and 50th, 52nd and Foster to the east.
It's a diverse neighborhood, full of lower-middle-class homes and coffee shops and strip clubs and schools and hip restaurants and check-cashing places and apartment complexes and good sushi and cheap beer. It's a neighborhood where life is lived wonderfully and well and barely scraping by. It's such a very Portland place, full of all the sorts of places and people that make Portland real. Come by and see me.
Cool tool for the mama-to-be - April 9, 2004—
I came across this cool application in one of my strange Google keyword searches (you know, the ones NO ONE has adwords for?). The trial version lasts 45 days and lets you input the important facts about your monthly schedule so you can predict ovulation (for taking advantage of, or avoiding, your choice!). The paid version ($29.95) helps you use timing to increase your chances of conceiving a girl, or a boy, depending on your hopes. The link, with their little blurb, is below. I'll keep a link on the 
page.
Ovulation Calendar - an ovulation prediction program that uses menstrual cycle information to generate your personal fertility calendar, and lets you choose the gender of your baby.
Fertility page - April 9, 2004—
I am starting to gather some of my fertility information to be housed on this page. I want to "protect" it from the business content of the rest of the site so the link will only be available from this parents page. You can find the link in the link list, and of course here 
.
Houseguests for Parents 101 - March 21, 2004—
This weekend we had houseguests, the parents of one of my husband's friends. Some of my most awestruck moments in my life have been thanks to the selfless and overwhelmingly generous hospitality of my coolest friends, so I totally aspire to be a wonderful, warm, perfect host, with soaps on pillows and a full tray of hot coffee and baked goodies on the table first thing in the morning. I have dreams of providing mobile guests with a little guide to Portland when they arrive, written by myself and my husband. Of dinners at our favorite restaurants and bottles of local wine.
Unfortunately, the dream is decidely NOT the reality.
A weekend away with the mamas - March 14, 2004—
I just returned from a fabulous weekend retreat with my mama friends. The eight of us have been meeting weekly for "book club" since September of last year. We have come to the point where we rely on each other on an almost daily basis to support one another and provide that community that mamas so desperately need. We all have children younger than five; several of us have two, and as of this weekend, three of the group have #3 on the way! Most of us have left great communities elsewhere (San Francisco, New York, the midwest) to live in Portland.
February 27, 2004—
This is the launch of Cafe Mama, future site of my blog (once I can figure out Moveable Type or find another option). It's not completely ready for primetime so all the links aren't working, yet. Really big things are happening in my personal and professional life, I feel simultaneously lucky and overwhelmed! Here are some of the cafe mama happenings:
- I just realized a life-long dream, to coach high school track - I'm the assistant coach at my alma mater Cleveland High School (here in Portland, Oregon), overseeing the high jumpers and hurdlers.
