YOU PAY HIS RENT AND THEN CUT CORNERS ON MY BABY'S SAFETY?

I am offering the "I am a Dumbass Award" to whoever made the choice to cut the crossing guard that crosses kids walking to school in my neighborhood. We live in a neighborhood which is located right off one of the busiest roads in the city. With the exception of the school zone it 45 miles per hour for the most part. The school zone also ends about 750 feet before the intersection in question! Trust me - people cross the school bar and then gun their gas guzzling SUVS baby!

Granted the kids walk the bike path - but still - there needs to be some one to help them cross the side street which dead ends into the main road. Not to mention that it is just another set of eyes and ears along the way. For what I pay in taxes and given the fact that my baby is walking to school - I want a crossing guard. (Please note I walk with her - but still......there are other kiddos going it solo and I want the guard for them!)

Furthermore the crossing guard helps to maintain the overall traffic flow in and out of the neighborhood and on the main road - which if traffic backs up when someone wants to make a left into the neighborhood - can be a huge headache.

It is absurd that the Distract, the School Board or management or whoever for a second thinks it is ok to cancel the guard and in the same month - agree to pay the superintendent's housing costs.

Wait I have a bright idea - The superintendent can earn his extra pay by BEING the crossing guard. Now that is a great way to kill 2 birds with one stone.

*** BTW after I wrote this - my neighbor called to informed me that the principal served as the guard after I crossed today and has assured everyone a crossing guard will be hired and ready to serve by Tuesday of next week. I still say the superintendent should have to do it and earn his EXTRA and totally unneeded pay! Maybe freezing his nuts off this winter will thaw his brain and he refrain for asking for money he is not entitled to... (or the school board could rotate thru as crossing guards - they agreed to pay him the money... mmm the short list of free crossing guard candidates is growing as I think...)

The Sex Lives of Canibals - A Book Review

My book club selected this as our summer reading book. I was not sold on the title and in general I am not a fan of the memoir exactly. It is a genre that to me authors either hit a home run or well they foul out rather quickly. I would say this book is triple - not exactly a home run but very close.

For starters it is a very thought provoking book and it certainly shows the perils of Western consumer culture. It made me totally love the fact that someone perfected indoor plumbing and city sanitation a bit over 100 years ago.

The author and his wife travel to some obscure chain of coral at toles in the South Pacific for his wife's job with a NGO.

I also like the way the author thinks. He thinks like me - his random tangents and his run away brain. I have one of those also. I spend a huge amount of time thinking about the strangest things.

Best of all - he wrote this book for those of us on the go-go-go. He had a summary of each chapter at the beginning of each chapter. Most of the chapters are little snippets - more so than connect thoughts linked by any sort of plot - so one can skip around. Which I did with reckless abandon and well I failed to keep track and then ended up trying to reread it from start to finish - to be prepared fro the book club meeting!

The perfect book for travel and commuting I think!

Simply the best cookies

These cookies are simply the best. They little, light and best of all crunchy. As is my complaint of late here on the Edge is they are a bit too sweet. If they cut the sugar a tiny bit these cookies would be perfect.

The irony is that my Whole Foods does not carry these cookies, but the Kroger by E's preschool does! The downside is I cannot stock up on these becasue I have zero will power where they are concerned and will eat them all in one setting if I do not pace myself.

It must be the crunch factor!

Bike Train

This is for I HATE TOAST! This is the train. I think it is a great solution to my desire to ride my bike more places - with two kids. Make one of the little people pull her own weight! We rode it to the school this morning for the first day of school and well I know my neighbors think I am fruit loops and I DO NOT CARE. There is no reason baring extremely cold temperatures and a monsoon that we should drive to the school! It is less than a quarter of a mile away.

My train is environmentally friendly and heart healthy! Not to mention both my kiddos love it!

So worth waiting for...

My new office space rocks. We have a finished attic and it has been for 5 years H and I's office space, my sewing and craft area and random dumping ground. It has no closet space nor storage space - it was one large room! H and I filled it with random bits of cast off furniture and boxes and piles and more piles. Every so often we would get on a freaky cleaning binge and try to create some order - but with no where to actually store anything or put it away, it was a pointless struggle.

Ah - enter California Closets. I actually called 3 such companies and they won my business with their down to earth sales rep and their quality yet affordable product. Today the guys were here for a long long time - but I am so happy with their efforts. I have a corner desk unit, L has her very own craft desk, I have a craft/sewing desk and H has built in book shelfs and a cabinet!

We are missing three drawers for L's craft station which will come next week, but all in all it is beautiful and I am going to thoughtfully move my stuff back and restock.

We are selling the hodgepodge of furniture and on the other side of the room, we plan to create a nice reading nook and sitting area, an adult space. It is exciting, after 5 years we bit the bullet and now have a space that is bright, inviting and hopefully organized!