I have a new cover story in the Pacific Sun. It’s about a group of moms starting an “EcoMom” movement–an attempt to get moms from all over to share tips on what they can do to help Global Warming. The group has EcoMom Parties, where they encourage moms to get together and talk about the environment, kind of like a Book Club or Tupperware Party. Here’s a snippet:

“When I saw Al Gore’s movie An Inconvenient Truth, I lay awake all night worrying about it,” Katie Tuttle tells a group of Marin moms. “When I woke up the next morning, I had my first gray hair. Then my husband said that instead of complaining so much about it, I should do something.”

Tuttle is speaking at an EcoMom Alliance meeting. The group wants moms all over the country to become more environmentally aware and is working to give them the tools to live a greener lifestyle. The meeting is at founder Kimberly Danek Pinkson’s San Anselmo home—a small, rented bungalow. Sitting around her cozy living room are “EcoMom Leaders,” women who have volunteered to help with the burgeoning movement.

Also at the meeting is Peter Bick, a filmmaker who is making a documentary on global warming. Bick, whose films have won awards at festivals like South by Southwest in Austin, is part of a wave of interest in EcoMom Alliance. Since The New York Times wrote a piece on the organization in February, Pinkson has been contacted by everyone from The Today Show to 20/20.

More here.

Kyle was interviewed for an article published in Linux Insider. In it, Kyle talks about the next distribution of Ubuntu, which is coming out in the near future. After all, Kyle co-wrote Ubuntu Hacks.

Famous husband!

A zillion years ago, my great grandmother came to Canada from Scotland. With her, she brought her china set: fine green plates with white snowdrops painted on the front. She gave the set to my grandmother, who brought it with her to California. Then, she gave it to my mom. This weekend, it went to me.

I am happy to get a family heirloom. It’s a huge set complete with plates, demitasse, salt and pepper, coffee pot, etc. But I’m concerned about breaking it. I’m bad with antiques. I think my subconscious hates fancy stuff, if you want to know the truth. In every situation, I manage to break the most expensive thing around. This is why I never want to hold my friends’ babies.

My “new” china

My parents visited this weekend for Easter. We made a lot of food–BBQ ribs, lamb, Brussels sprouts, fresh scrambled eggs, a lemon cheesecake. We talked to relatives on the phone, went to the antique and art stores downtown, and examined my garden. The only thing we didn’t do was go to church. Oops.

Table set for Easter dinner (still haven’t gotten rid of the ugly wallpaper).

I made lemon cheesecake for dessert. I had never made a cheesecake before, and it came out pretty well, all things considered. I got the recipe from here. It’s good, except it has you make too much filling for the cheesecake. I have enough extra cheesecake filling to make a whole other cheesecake. And I will, too.

(ETA: I didn’t use the fat-free cream cheese that the recipe recommends. Fat-free cheese = barf. I used part reduced-fat cream cheese and part regular cream cheese.)

How was your Easter?

The New York Times is reporting that Borders, the second largest bookstore chain in the country, is being shopped around. Who might want to buy Borders? Why, Barnes & Noble, of course–the largest bookstore chain in the country.

For more than a year, there has been speculation on Wall Street that Borders Group might be sold, possibly to its larger rival, Barnes & Noble.

A combination of Barnes & Noble and Borders, the No. 1 and No. 2 bookstore chains in the United States, respectively, would surely get the attention of antitrust regulators.

But the recent merger between Whole Foods Market and Wild Oats Markets, the two largest sellers of organic and natural foods, has given some analysts hope that a deal between Borders and Barnes & Noble might pass muster.

I, for one, think this is a great idea. In fact, I think that Barnes & Noble should purchase all the publishing houses as well. That way, they can completely control what gets published, what gets promoted, and receive 100% of the profits to boot! Maybe we could just have one editor in charge of it all. Of course he would have to delegate his workload a bit, but still… One editor, one bookstore, one cover design, one printing press (in China, of course), and maybe, ohhhhhh… 15 writers? Imagine how low the overhead would be! Doesn’t that just sound so efficient?

There are many wonderful artists out there. I discover at least two or three a week. They can be visual, literary, or musical. I especially love the musical one. I am finding new bands all. the. time.

Here are a few I like this week. It’s a pretty representative sample except they are all girls. That part is not on purpose.

Guitar virtuoso Kaki King:

Avant-garde indie musician St Vincent:

My wonderful, weird, Leslie Hall:

Ok! I know Leslie Hall is strange but I love her. She is just my kind of strange. She’s from Iowa. She came to Internet fame with her Gem Sweater Collection. The natural follow up to that? Record a hop-hop album of course. I don’t know why, but I love it. If you agree, here’s the remix.

I found these in a thrift store.

Would I like them so much if I weren’t reading Anna Karenina right now?

In any case, I shall call them Anna and Vronsky.

I’ve been keeping track of my reading using an application on Facebook. It has been interesting to watch how many books I’ve read (only 10 so far this year) and how long it has taken me to read them.

I realized I have an strange pattern when it comes to reading. After thinking about it, I realized that I have always read this way, even when I was a kid. Here it is:

Start Book A: This is usually a book that for whatever reason I’m having trouble getting into, but that I really do want to read. I will usually get about two chapters into the book. Then I will:

Start Book B: This is more informational, like a reference book or a famous journal. For instance, two recent Book Bs were a book on four-season gardening and all of John Donne’s poetry. I will read half of the book and then I will:

Start Book C: Book C is a book I am excited about reading. It can be anything from a novel to a biography to a history book. I will start reading Book C, become obsessed and read all of it very quickly. (This also applies for books I have to read, like books I’m reviewing or using as research for an article.) Next, I’ll:

Finish Book C.

Alternate between Book B and Book A.

Finish Book B.

Finish Book A.

Yes, I really do finish Book A. I meant to do it all along, you see. Book B and Book C were distractions from the book I was really reading–which is Book A, of course.

I have no idea why I do this.

We are still remodeling our house over here. It’s going slowly, but it’s going. The most exciting thing that happened lately is that Kyle put in our dishwasher!! I can’t tell you how wonderful dishwashers are. They are the best invention ever. I had the dishwasher and the Roomba (robot vacuum cleaner) and my clothes washer running all at once yesterday. I felt so luxurious. Go give your dishwasher a hug.

Putting in the dishwasher was an ordeal. Kyle had to cut a hole in the cabinet, wire a new outlet to plug it in, and plumb the whole thing. It was way more involved than I realized, and he did a great job. He probably saved us hundred by installing it himself.

The dishwasher when it was first installed. I will take a final picture of it once he does the cosmetic work and gets it all spiffed up. (It is not purple–this was taken before we removed the plastic shield from the front. It is stainless steel and black.)

Kyle also put in two security cameras. We aren’t worried about being robbed, but they are cool to have.

I, on the other hand, have been concentrating on landscaping. Kyle’s Dad gave us a lawnmower for Christmas, so we gave the yard its first mow a couple of weeks ago. It made a huge difference! I also pulled up the trash and ugly ground cover from the side and front of the house, cut down all the ivy in the backyard, and put in my vegetable garden:

I was pleased with the quality of the soil in my garden. It is swimming with worms, rich and loamy, and high in nutrients. It only needed some nitrogen and organic material, and it was ready to go. (At least as far as I could tell. I’m still a novice at this.) I wanted to use bricks as a border for the garden, but didn’t have the extra cash that would take, so we used the old baseboards from the house instead. This weekend, I planted the early spring crops: peas, beans, spinach, carrots, beets, radishes, and raspberries.

We also planted three fruit trees: a grafted cherry, an apricot, and a pomegranate. They seem to be doing well so far. I plan to plant a dwarf orange tree sometime this month, and that will be the end of the fruit trees for 2008. (In the future, though, I want to put in a fig, kumquat, and possibly an olive tree.)

Blossoms on our baby apricot tree

Still to come in the immediate future: remove some unwanted stumps, plant the citrus bushes, put in an herb garden, remove all signs of ivy from my backyard, and paint the hallway. That’s just me. Kyle is going to put in an irrigation system to save us water and keep me from having to water every day. Then we will focus on tiling the half-bath.

So there’s a remodeling update for you. Eventually the house will be at a place where I can have a house-warming party, but not quite yet.

Ladies and Gentlemen Writers (Writers and Writeresses?), introducing the Gender Guesser. (More from me about this application after the link.)

Since I bought a dishwasher this month (!), I ran out of re-modeling money–and what money I have left must be spent on plants for my garden–so I resorted to making the things that will decorate my house.

For example, I made another pillow. This time, it’s a tube pillow for my office chair. I didn’t really know how to make a tube pillow, so I kind of winged it, but it seems to have worked out:

The fabric is from some upholstery samples I have had lying around for awhile. (My chair is missing one of its buttons because it is a thrift store find and I haven’t gotten around to fixing it.)

I also made a clock for my living room. Well, Kyle helped a little. We drilled a hole in a plastic plate from Target and put the clock mechanism through it.

I am especially pleased with this one because I hated all the clocks I saw in the store. There are some ugly clocks out there, people.