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Book-crazy. No, I mean it.
Well, here we are. The book is out. This is a picture of the cover (squee!). I’m excited, exhausted, elated, freaked out, nervous, very happy, terrified, anxious, pleased as punch, sick to my stomach… well, you get the idea. The weight of the pressure of success is enormous — which makes it like riding a big wave off Hawaii. Which I have never done, because I fear sharks and drowning, and also a long flight to Hawaii over miles of open water. But I digress. Anyhoo, the book is out, and if you like Doris and her diaries, hie thee to a bookstore and beg them to carry it. Especially…
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Woman of Mystery
Modern Muse Feb 20 04 Woman of Mystery By Julia Park I waited till I got out the door, across the parking lot and into my car before screaming. I had just left the book-signing from hell, held, appropriately, on Friday the 13th. I was supposed to participate in a “romance tableau” in honor of Valentine’s Day and was looking forward to reading a short, evocative excerpt from my contemporary novel at the event. Alas, it was not to be. Despite the foul weather and appalling traffic, I arrived on time at the bookstore, where the manager said they were expecting a big crowd. The other reader was a romance…
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sneeze: how to have a green cold
There’s no way to say that without sounding disgusting. Have a green virus? Suffer sickness in a green way? Gross. What I mean is, you can go ahead and have your summer cold and flu without damaging the environment. I just recovered from my de rigueur annual summer cold and it was no fun, but guess how many redwood trees or whales or monarch butterflies were harmed in the process? None. I came through this tedious summer malady with my eco-credentials intact. Gesundheit! We don’t use Kleenex in this house; we use handkerchiefs. As it happens, my mother-in-law thinks the ideal gift for Mr. Husband is a new package of white…
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a hazard to myself
I had a toxic relationship with my garage. It was ugly in there. Cans of half-used paint that were there when we moved in. Pesticide – which I never use. Old building supplies, like hardened bags of plaster and grout that had never been opened but had gotten damp. A bottle of chalk for marking lines at the soccer field (we don’t play soccer). And a rusting can of some kind of tar stuff for patching the roof – stick on the outside and too scary to actually open. Everyone knows (I hope) not to throw these things in the garbage – they will surely leak into the ecosystem –…
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10 green things
A friend recently blogged about how she spent her frugal day (hello, Katy Wolk-Stanly and the Non-Consumer Advocate) and all the cool things she did in just a typical day that saved money. Shamelessly riffing on her Frugal Day is this, my Green Day, or how I – without pain or needless suffering – make green choices every day. 1. Reheated yesterday’s coffee. I didn’t finish the pot of coffee yesterday, and sure, I could have thrown it out and made new fresh coffee. But where does coffee come from? Not Alameda County. No, it’s generally shipped from at least Central America or Hawaii, and at most, from Africa or farther…
