Hollandia in the 21st Century

After months of anticipation, and harried last minute packing, we left for Europe. I'd like to just float on the word Europe for a few moments. It sounds so big, so cosmopolitan, so diverse. Yet, we went to just one tiny country; Holland, the homeland of mijn maan. For two and a half weeks, I did not have to drive into work, turn on a computer, or grapple with questions about our lives in Santa Barbara, because I was completely immersed in my surroundings. Usually I find it hard to let travel take me in immediately. I attribute my newfound present state of mind to my buddha baby who constantly pulls me into the moment.

Highlights: introducing Ezra to the Dutch clan; Seeing Ezra wave for the first time; Cruising around Delft at night; playing a soprano saxophone in a small music shop; Dining at a fabulous Portuguese restaurant in Zierikzee--an ancient fishing village in Southern Holland; a fab hotel in Middelburg, also in Southern Holland in the Zeeland province; watching an 1850s strip show in a Middelburg museum; walking my old haunts in Amsterdam; friends & relatives; public transporation that works; bicycles, canals and lots of weed. Oh, well, not really. No coffee shops for mama! Ahh, and Ijburg, a Dutch polder where we stayed with friends who own a beautiful new 3 story flat in the midst of a contemporary enclave. Very hip.

Here's Ezra taking in the historic sites of his father's homeland:

Why we should Walk

Yesterday as I waited for a friend to come by in her car so we could drive to the beach to go for a walk, I read an article about the evil automobile in The New Yorker. (Yes, I see the irony here, if irony is indeed the correct word). It was written by one of my heroes, Elizabeth Kolbert. I bet you anything, if Bush could read, or let's just say that one of his aides or Laura or one of his daughters read it to him, he would make a strong suggestion to China and India that they 'not become automobile dependent societies.' Articles like this make me feel a tad shameful. I mean, what sort of air will Ezra be breathing 20 years from now? And, what about his kids? We'll be old geezers by then (some of us), and that toxic air will be a burden, part of the scarlet alphabet branded upon our conscience.

Here's an excerpt:


Consider what’s happening in India and China. As Carson and Vaitheeswaran point out, car ownership in both countries has been and still remains, by U.S. standards, almost absurdly low. There are nine personal vehicles per thousand eligible drivers in China and eleven for every thousand Indians, compared with 1,148 for every thousand Americans. But incomes in the two countries are rising so rapidly—the Chinese economy grew by eleven per cent last year and is expected to grow by the same amount this year—that millions of vehicleless families will soon be in a position to buy automobiles. Assuming that incomes continue to rise, in a few years tens of millions of families will be buying their first cars, and eventually hundreds of millions. (To satisfy increasing demand in India, the country’s second-largest auto manufacturer, Tata Motors, is set to start producing a four-door known as the one-lakh car—a lakh is a hundred thousand rupees—that will sell for the equivalent of twenty-five hundred dollars.) Were China and India to increase their rates of car ownership to the point where per-capita oil consumption reached just half of American levels, the two countries would burn through a hundred million additional barrels a day. (Currently, total global oil use is eighty-six million barrels a day.) Were they to match U.S. consumption levels, they would require an extra two hundred million barrels a day. It’s difficult to imagine how such enormous quantities of oil could be found, but, if they could, the result would be catastrophe. “Just consider the scale of the potential problem—for instance, the effect on global warming of seven hundred and fifty million more cars in India and China, belching carbon dioxide,” Carson and Vaitheeswaran write.

You can read the full article at this link.

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2007/11/05/071105crbo_books_kolbert

Meter maids smiling

While walking toward work on Friday, a meter maid saw me in her little tag car, stopped at an intersection without a crosswalk, smiled and waved for me to cross the street. A shocking experience and the first of its kind in my knowledge bank. How could this happen? Well, yes, as a matter of fact I did have a baby strapped to me kangaroo style and yes, I agree, he does have a terrific smile.

That same day, I was one of the lucky winners of the office Halloween contest, AND my baby slept through the night four nights in a row! (THat's all changed now, but damn, it was good while it lasted.).

Hollandia is calling AND I remembered the time change for the first time in three years.

Waters a wasting

In Architecture magazine this month, I came across an ad for an ultra luxury shower with five shower heads, allowing a 'spa' like treatment at home. THe lucky homeowners can have 22 gallons of water per minute flowing over them. Wow, how cool! Wow, how absolutely insane! How can the creators of this 5-headed medusa live with themselves? With a very fat pay check, I'm sure. This should be illegal. In fact, take this, randomly selected from a California city's water municipal code: "No later than January 1, 1992, every showerhead shall emit no more than 2.5 gallons of water per minute." We know drought. We take water seriously. Or do we?

Manufacturers of this insane 'daily spa experience' go around the law by installing multiple shower heads. Yet, Severe drought is gripping our nation in multiple areas. Water is a precious commodity. Georgia, Alabama and Florida are experiencing extreme drought and shutting off people's water taps because there's just no water left.

Anyway, love, peace and namaste!

Noelle

All Hallow's Eve

The big E had two costumes to choose from his first Halloween: cow or pumpkin. How does one get to a point, so quickly, of dressing up one's little human like a dolly? I suppose I knew it was in me, but I had no idea it was in my husband! He picked out the cow outfit, horns, tail and all. (At least there were no udders involved).

Out there, on the corridor between Ortega and Haley on State Street, adults and children in adult bodies are cruising the bars, wearing 'nefarious' clothing. In the neighborhoods, children are cruising for candy, and in a little apartment on the west side, a mom is feeding a baby a hand made meal in his high chair while husband is preparing dinner. I'd say that times have changed on many fronts for us. And we love it!

A shout out to Lilyana, who is also celebrating her first Halloween! I saw here in a get up earlier today, and she's one cute tiger!

And . . . if you want to see something scary, you must inquire about the mermaid doll knit by Queen Whackomole.

Does movie popcorn have GMOs?

Last night, my man and I had a wonderful sitter who loves our little guy, and we went out to a movie with a clear conscience knowing he was in good hands. My man agreed to see The Jane Austen Book Club. Since it's hard to coordinate getting out of the house, we arrived at the Riviera without dinner in our bellies, so we decided on some popcorn and a soda. I already know not to ask about the soda, but I asked the handsome, flirtatious boy man behind the counter a simple question about the popcorn that any sane person would ask.

"Is this popcorn made from genetically modified corn?" The smile left his face and he looked around for packaging, as if it would just give him the answer.
"Orville Redenbacher," he said. "I think that's a pretty good brand."
"Thanks!" I said. I decided, seeing as we were on date number 4 since the baby was born, that I'd take my chances. After watching a great movie, we went straight home to relieve the poor girl who sat with little E for a two and a half hour fuss session. the popcorn question had to be answered, so I did a search and according to an article entitled Pop Secrets by Amy Wmmer Schwarb, here's the scoop:

Popcorn has more going for it than a reputation as the most fun grain in the maize family. While some U.S. crops—soybeans, field corn and tomatoes come to mind—have been genetically altered with DNA from other living organisms, popcorn remains pure, its parentage selectively bred using techniques as old as Charles Darwin. The many improvements it has enjoyed over the decades are the result of good old-fashioned farming know-how—and lots of trial and error. Yet within the industry, breeders know there may come a day—five years from now? 10? 20?—when keeping up with the field production of genetically modified crops could challenge them to reconsider. Though the crop has ancient roots, the quest to breed a better popcorn is largely a 20th century phenomenon—one that might eventually be plagued by this even more modern question. No popcorn currently on the market is genetically modified (known in the breeding world as GMO), but Ken Ziegler, who retired last year as the popcorn-breeding agronomist at Iowa State University, says a nod of consumer acceptance could shift the future. “The big companies, for sure, have GMOs on their shelf, ready to go,” Ziegler says. “They have to, to be competitive.”

Lilyana Isabella 9 days new!

Yeah. I'm still here. I'm almost becoming a Prine, having not written in my blog for so long, but I can fit one more thing into my lunch break.

The most important announcement you all know by now.
On Sunday, September 23rd, 2007, the world was blessed by the entry of one Lilyana Isabella Poupoure Drummey among our personage. She is one of those babies who's eyes are already open, who gets the swing of things from the start, and who has made two of my favorite people parents. A huge congrats to mama Delilah and dada Jonathan. I look forward to meeting her in person.

Okay, now onto eating lunch and going for a walk with 24 minutes and counting.