tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-112451582024-03-07T10:37:14.342-08:00The Taco TruckMaria Dudleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12477162678031919868noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245158.post-65642359518685635872009-03-06T17:32:00.000-08:002009-03-06T17:55:40.767-08:00Fun with Craig's ListI never knew that giving away an air hockey table using Craig's List could be so entertaining. A couple of weeks ago I decided that my garage would be better off without that table (I'm not sure why I thought that since all the stuff that used to be piled on it is now on the floor.) <br /><br />As soon as I posted the free table, I was getting an email every 30 seconds or so. I was kind of overwhelmed, since I tend to be sort of a "pleaser" personality. I wanted ALL of those people to have the air hockey table and I could only give it to one person! :-( But before I could respond to any of those 40 emails that were already piling up, I had to frantically delete my listing. <br /><br />However, after I responded to the first five people who had emailed me and tried to set up "appointments," I discovered that they were imposters ... crank callers. Apparently most of those people had no interest in the free air hockey table -- they just wanted to mess with me.<br /><br />Annoyed, I wrote an email to everyone, telling them I had just put the table in my front yard and they could just take their chances and come get it if it was still there. <br /><br />One guy wrote back: "Thanks, but I'm not sure if want to get into a tugging match on your front porch with all those other freeloaders." <br /><br />Someone ended up picking up the table -- I think it was the woman with the email address "pinkyallstinky." Not sure how I feel about that. Hmmm.... Craig's List is an interesting place.Maria Dudleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12477162678031919868noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245158.post-4893946282136345262009-02-23T10:27:00.000-08:002009-02-23T11:00:58.480-08:00500 Pens!How does someone accumulate so many pens? (And to be fair, that includes assorted #1 pencils -- as in: #1 Teacher, #1 Kid, #1 Valentine, #1 6th grader, #1 soccer player, you get the picture.) I think I started my unintentional collection in 1973 since I found a faded ballpoint pen that says "Albright and Price" on it. That was my dad's graphic design firm way back then. It barely works, but I'm keeping it for nostalgia. <br /><br />So on Saturday morning I spent about an hour and a half cleaning them out, scribbling on all these sheets of paper. I'm not one to keep things forever, but 500 pens do not take up that much space. <br />I was oddly exhausted after doing all of that. I rewarded myself with a cup of tea and a nice rest on the couch.Maria Dudleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12477162678031919868noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245158.post-91802318230943738642008-11-05T11:47:00.000-08:002008-11-05T11:49:39.839-08:00Won one, lost oneWe won Obama, but lost our fight against Proposition 8. All I can say is that I tried to do my part. This fight is not over......Maria Dudleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12477162678031919868noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245158.post-53526272317390073122008-08-31T12:21:00.000-07:002008-08-31T12:24:24.951-07:00Maybe it could workI think I am going to order a "Republicans for Obama" bumper sticker. I saw that my friend Steve has one of those on his car. If he can do it, so can I. I think it's worth a try -- there are lots of Republicans in Walnut Creek. My only problem is that I'm cheap, and the shipping cost for that sticker is only five cents less than the actual sticker.Maria Dudleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12477162678031919868noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245158.post-46538792357912716372008-05-13T20:01:00.000-07:002008-05-13T21:56:40.297-07:00Chippendales for kidsWe saw a weird performance with the 5th graders the other day at the big theatre in Walnut Creek... It was a <span style="font-style: italic;">say no to drugs</span> theme and they had a drug dealer on stage (pothead type guy on a cell phone saying to this woman, "hey baby, wanna party?") Suddenly he's surrounded by eight motorcycles on a darkened stage, lights flashing, and then the swat team comes down from the ceiling. Music going, kids clapping -- everything but the stripping.<br /><br />I loved the part where Officer Wallace's 4 year daughter came onto stage during the show and kicked the drug dealer while he was on his stomach, handcuffed on the floor.<br /><br />It was all quite entertaining, but then gears were shifted, and kids were called on stage.... "character counts" essays were read, and so on....<br /><br />According to those sweet little eleven year olds, they will never be buying pot, or doing drugs, EVER....:-)Maria Dudleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12477162678031919868noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245158.post-10939796055520634422008-04-29T08:41:00.000-07:002008-04-29T09:05:17.055-07:00TaggedSo, I was "tagged" a while ago, but hadn't gotten around to posting my 6 random things about me:<br /><br />1. I was born in Germany. I always bragged about that when I was a little kid (as if I had anything to do with it.)<br /><br />2. I'm a sailor. Not the drunken swearing kind. I'm actually the kind that used to sail, but doesn't anymore and wishes she could. <br /><br />3. I wish that I liked goat cheese. I took my mom to Chez Panisse for her birthday and had to eliminate half the menu right off the bat. It really bugs me because I like everything, including Brussels sprouts.<br /><br />4. I just bought a cute little iron plaque to attach to a garden fence. It's the kind of thing that should say "welcome." But it actually says "Go Away." I laughed when I saw it, so bought it, but can't bring myself to put it up.<br /><br />5. I'm reading "Lord of the Flies" right now and really don't like it.<br /><br />6. I have been trying to knit the same scarf now for 2 years.Maria Dudleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12477162678031919868noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245158.post-26614787449391412972008-04-22T22:03:00.000-07:002008-04-22T22:09:11.891-07:00Ridiculously blandThis is my favorite phrase of the week. "There are always some clementines in the box that are ridiculously bland," says the cute funky Trader Joe's checker to me this evening.Maria Dudleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12477162678031919868noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245158.post-68833072696988839572008-04-21T16:01:00.000-07:002008-04-21T16:18:09.707-07:00car environmentalist?I was thinking today about what I personally am doing to help the environment. (I read an article yesterday in the NYT magazine about planting vegetable gardens to help stop global warming, which I'm going to try to do this week, but making it a little bigger than last year.)<br /><br />Are we being environmentally conscious if we keep cars for as long as possible? In fact, I've never actually owned a car by myself. I guess I married into my first car in 1990. Peter bought a little blue Mazda 323 in 1989, and we would still have that car if it didn't get smashed like a pancake by a falling tree branch on a windless night in 2005! But..... we still have our 16 year old Toyota 4-Runner. However, maybe the small oil leak that we haven't fixed negates the fact that the car isn't in a land fill somewhere? But it's an SUV, so maybe it should be in a land fill!! <br /><br />But our record has been destroyed anyway -- the Subaru (perfect and 3 years old!!) we bought to replace the pancaked car was totaled in an accident recently, and we bought a brand new car....<br /><br />I better get out to plant that garden! :-0Maria Dudleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12477162678031919868noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245158.post-65075355395450641962008-02-14T17:13:00.000-08:002008-02-14T17:18:17.916-08:00Grocery restraintsI'm still figuring out my "new" car. The other day I was pulling out of Trader Joe's (I'm there like twice a day) and my seatbelt alarm kept beeping. I couldn't figure it out since my seatbelt was on and secure. Then it occurred to be that maybe the groceries next to me needed their seatbelt too. So I seatbelted them in and the beeping stopped.Maria Dudleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12477162678031919868noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245158.post-40981105450657653302008-01-29T08:33:00.000-08:002008-01-29T08:35:40.252-08:00HispanishSo, I only watched about three minutes of the State of the Union speech last night, and I learned about a new minority group -- the Hispanish! Apparently their math scores or something are on the rise. :-)Maria Dudleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12477162678031919868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245158.post-1168018513680485552007-01-05T09:24:00.000-08:002007-01-17T13:28:04.953-08:0011 dysfuntional kidsNo,10 dysfuntional kids since the 11th never even comes to class. I'm teaching this after school math intervention for children who score at the bottom of the grid. We are hoping to improve their math skills by offering them an individualized Harcourt math program..... but it turns out they don't want to improve their math skills. They write things like "Freddy loves Jazmina" on their whiteboards instead of doing their work.<br /><br />I yelled at all of them except for one girl yesterday(who I let go to the prize box), and Peter pointed out that I might as well have fed her to the wolves. <br /><br />There's always Monday!Maria Dudleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12477162678031919868noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245158.post-1145057265208736292006-04-14T15:58:00.000-07:002006-04-14T16:27:45.216-07:002 quick poemsMe, a preschool teacher<br />little girl arms cling to me<br />a mother of only boys<br /><br /><br />Two "writers" in the park<br />exchange small talk<br />our emails seem more realMaria Dudleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12477162678031919868noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245158.post-1137196223019655802006-01-12T21:01:00.000-08:002007-01-05T10:11:41.306-08:00In Memory of Martin Luther King??I guess there is a time in every mother's life when she has to resort to bribery. I went to Safeway at 11:00 at night to buy fruit snacks. My choices weren't great--Barbie, Monster's Inc., Batman, and the Smurfs, trying to decide what a 9 year old boy wouldn't find embarassing on the school playground. Anyway, I decided on Batman and went on my way.<br /><br />My plan was to pay off a kid who has been bugging Ethan at school everyday. I guess he tells lies about Ethan to the yard duties and the kid just won't stop following him. And.... since Ethan is studying MLK this week, he thought maybe he should just try being nice to the enemy. Funny, cause a certain friend of mine would say Ethan should just forget the fruit snacks and justbeat the crap out of the kid.Maria Dudleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12477162678031919868noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245158.post-1123363736114424372005-08-06T13:31:00.000-07:002007-01-05T09:52:33.806-08:00500 Crazy WomenLast night I attended the "Cal Football Women's Huddle," an event held at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley for football wives. I think they called it Football 101. I initally agreed to sign up for this as a marital bonding sort of gesture (Peter LIVES for Cal Football), but I heard they were serving appetizers and wine so I figured how bad could it be?<br /><br />As I was walking onto to the football field with my plastic cup of red wine, a lady commented to me that it isn't very often that you can walk on to the field, let alone with wine.<br /><br />So first off, they divided us up into different groups to do some stations. I ended up as a Miami Dolphin, which is funny, since I used to love the Dolphins. When I was a kid, my brother loved football - football pencils, football cards, you name it. Since I had no other siblings I had no choice but to bond with him on some level. So, when he asked me to pick my favorite teams I chose the Miami Dolphins and the Baltimore Colts. Why? Well everyone knows that girls love horses and cute dolphins.... Anyhow, so I ran into the screaming mass of women (everyone had too much wine at this point) that would be my group for the next hour and a half.<br /><br />We proceeded along through our 17 stations, unfortunately not learning too much about football. We only had about 5 minutes to hear about, for example, an "offensive lineman," and then try to get 30 women to do what an offensive lineman does. I still actually have no idea!<br /><br />Some of the funny highlights for me: 1) Trying to first, stand a football upright (I never successfully did it by myself) onto that little football stand, and then next, trying to kick it thru the goalpost. Oh- did I mention I noticed Peter and the boys were in the stadium videotaping me? 2) Getting to see the Cal players' locker room, knowing that Peter, in his whole life, will never get to see that, and I get to just because I don't know anything about football. 3) I actually won something at the raffle drawing, but was too surprised about winning to consider kissing the head coach as some of the previous raffle winners did.<br /><br />So, all in all, it was a very fun evening. I still need to learn a bunch of stuff about football, but I did teach Peter something he didn't know! Something about it being illegal to leap onto your fellow teammate while trying to block a fieldgoal. Who would have figured that? :-)Maria Dudleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12477162678031919868noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11245158.post-1110698314120768552005-03-12T22:47:00.000-08:002007-01-05T09:48:21.106-08:00AlbondigasI suppose people might expect me to justify the title of my blog, "The Taco Truck." Well I won't write about tacos now, but I'll tell a short story about my albondigas.<br /><br />There is a fellow mom named Macy(more about her later) at my son's junior kindergarten class who has cancer. Some of us are bringing meals to her family since it's the least we can do.... Anyway, two weeks ago, my turn came around and I decided to make albondigas. My mother and my grandmother and my great-grandmother have all made this very simple Mexican meatball soup made with meatballs (really?!!), potatoes, carrots and zucchini. The broth is just water and a big spoonful of tomato paste. My aunt Teddy says it is kind of a poor man's "stone soup" sort of thing. Well, I really enjoy it, and it's simple enough to please most everyone. So I delivered the soup and hoped that they wouldn't have to end up ordering out for pizza.<br /><br />Just the other day I had my head down, signing my son into class, and I felt someone next to me. I looked up and it was Macy (also more later about the emotion of the physical touch from someone who is dying) smiling at me. She told me that they loved my meal, it was perhaps the best one she's received so far, and that it even tasted better the second day. It was a nice compliment that the meal that I put a lot of thought into (and greasy meatball hands) was so well received.<br /><br />I was driving home, sort of basking in the glory of my domestic acheivement,when it hit me. It was a MEAL. It is the sort of thing that my mother would do: wow everyone with her amazing cooking. Then I was depressed. I was the girl who said in high school that I would never be like my mom. I was going to have a good career -- not stay at home with the kids. Well here I am. Oh well. At least I am writing about it in my blog(!). I don't even think my mom knows what a blog is.Maria Dudleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12477162678031919868noreply@blogger.com2