Egg and Tomato

Our exchange students made dinner on Monday night. One dish they made was egg and tomato (or egg and Bobs). I took a big helping thinking it was chicken with the tomatoes. Nope it was egg. I have a temperamental relationship with eggs. Sometimes I really love them, other times they make me feel queasy. I guess it depends on how they are cooked. But I sucked it up, I had to be a good sport, they eat whatever I make, after all. I opened my mouth, took a bite and...wow. Delicious. Who knew that eggs cooked with tomatoes was so amazing? Well, people in Beijing know. I guess this is a very typical dish there. It may just become a typical dish here. Yummy! I found this site that tells how to make it. What I ate looked exactly like the picture on that link. Easy and delicious. And, yes, we did eat it with chop sticks.

Just My Opinion: Breast Cancer Awareness

I was in a Wal-Mart parking lot today looking for a parking spot when I saw a bumper sticker. It said, "Feel Your Boobies" and had a breast cancer awareness symbol on it. Wink-wink, nod-nod, chuckle, how clever. Well, not really. Not in my opinion anyway.

I remember awhile back seeing the "Save the ta-tas" bumper stickers. The web site is complete with Hooters-ish tank tops and a number of bumper stickers such as "ta-tas are awesome." I won't quote any more. The first bumper sticker I saw caught my attention, and I thought to myself, "Well it is for breast cancer, so alright." But after giving some thought to the topic, I don't think "alright." Not anymore.

Why is it justified to sexualize a woman's body in the name of cancer awareness? Cancer is not sexy. Why is cancer an excuse to highlight the feminine body in a objectifying way? So, we can highlight our breasts because we are really "discussing cancer." No, we aren't just discussing cancer, we are highlighting our chests "for a cure!" As if sharing the color of our bra on facebook for all to see advances medical research. It just doesn't work that way.

Not only are much of the breast cancer ad campaigns objectifying to women, but they are sexist and seem to be more about breasts than they are about cancer. Yes, men get breast cancer too, but that is waayyy unsexy to think about. Speaking of unsexy, I haven't recently (ever?) seen any stickers for creating awareness for cancers such as bladder, colon and rectal, skin, lung, pancreatic or any of the other more common cancers. Why? Because those cancers don't impact a body part that we can sexualize as easily? Thankfully, I haven't ever seen bumper stickers for testicular cancer, but again, it seems a little sexist that we just want to highlight the bodies of women.

This post is certainly not meant to be insensitive. I have been impacted by breast cancer in the lives of woman that I dearly love. But I have also had friends and family members that have been affected by other types of cancer. Awareness is fine, even good, when we are aware of the right things. We need to be more aware and diligent in making healthy lifestyle choices and we need to encourage science in finding cures to cancers, all cancers, not just a cancer that could mean the loss of a body part that our culture uses to define the sexual appeal of women.

Bob Is An Answer to International Communication

This is Bob. We all know that. But our exchange students did not know that, until this last Saturday. On Saturday, I introduced them to Bob and Larry. There were many questions, such as, "A tomato is Bob?" How do I explain it? It really is quirky.

A day later we were driving and one of the girls (one of our exchange students) was telling me about her plans to make dinner for our family. She told me that she needed something that sounded like potatoes or tomatoes. I couldn't decipher the word she was trying to say. We went back and forth a bit trying to figure out what she needed and finally she exclaimed, "Bob! I need some Bobs!" To which I replied, "Oh, you need tomatoes!" And she nodded enthusiastically.

Today when she went to the store she came out and held up her bag of tomatoes and proclaimed, "Bobs!" I have a feeling that in our house tomatoes will now be referred to as "Bobs."

Making Valentine Cards

I typically don't think about Valentine's Day until at least February, but a friend was making Valentine cards with her kids a week ago and she inspired me. Plus, these need to be in the mail soon in order to arrive on time.

What we did on a Wednesay in CA

Thanks again to my parents. Each year, as a Christmas gift, they buy our family a membership to some place, such as a zoo or museum or aquarium. This year was a membership to a science museum. With the membership came free admission to other ASTC museums. We found two museums in San Diego that we were able to visit-free to us. It was great! Thank you, Mom and Dad for your thoughtful gift. It is way better than a bunch of toys that soon loose their appeal.

Is it legal to do this in January?

Hollywood

Two weeks ago we headed to California, or "Cow-ifornia" as my boys called it when we drove through Stockton and smelled the cattle crammed in the feed lots. We made great time on our drive and that left us with a little extra time. With our extra time, we went to Hollywood for the morning. It was dirtier, grittier and not nearly as impressive as I had expected. The photographs make it look better than it seemed being there in real life. Imagine that...Hollywood photographs well. It was fun, though, to take the time for a short visit. My younger kids, who aren't so up on pop culture, didn't know what Hollywood even was. C didn't really care too much, but she was a good sport and is always up for an adventure. We spent the morning poking around and ate lunch in an Italian restaurant that was fabulous. My boys had pizza and proclaimed it, "even better than Little Caesars!" They meant that as a sincere compliment. I passed their sentiments on to our waiter to pass to the chef. Truly, the food was delicious!