The entire girl scouts organization is a bit of a mystery to me but now that I have a coworker who was a girl scout (is a girl scout?  is it a lifetime designation?), I’ve had the chance to get an exclusive glimpse in the world of scouting, trooping and badging.  It’s all very exciting.

I ordered 2 boxes of Thin Mints, 2 boxes of Thank U Berry Munch, and 1 box of Dulce de Leche.  Thin Mints are good as usual, and the Thank U Berry Munch & Dulce de Leche are surprisingly good for being crunchy cookies.  I usually prefer large, soft, chewy cookies but these are pretty great as small crunchy cookies go.

Have you ever wondered what’s the female equivalent of an eagle scout?  I have.  I asked the mom of the girls I bought my cookies from and apparently there’s a “Gold Award”.  Has anyone ever heard of this?  I haven’t.  Okay, I was going to write a whole post about character and value development at a young age and why that doesn’t seem to be valued as much as academic achievement but my brain isn’t thinking clearly anymore so we’ll end here.

I’m at a Big Picture Learning conference today and tomorrow in Sacramento and it’s been a really interesting glimpse at what a charter school can do if they think outside of the box.  I’m not thrilled about everything the school is doing but they are definitely doing a lot of things right.  They are incorporating project-based learning and work-based learning, two elements I think should be utilized a lot more in more public high schools.  They are also keeping classrooms small and requiring a lot of one-on-one contact between teachers and students.  I chatted with the Big Picture Learning founder, Elliot Washor, this morning and I thanked him for inviting us to his schools and sharing his ideas and materials.  He smiled and told me to steal whatever I wanted.  I wish all progressive organizations were so open.

We spent most of the day visiting different internships all over Sacramento that ranged from Bertolucci’s Body and Fender Shop (complete with a vintage car room!) to City Hall to a Horse Farm.  Tomorrow we’ll get to spend some time with the students and their advisories and ask them about their experience.  I’m really looking forward to it.

The school is located in a really old building that is a bit rickety but definitely has its charms.

I like photos for a lot of different reasons but one of the most common reasons is because it would make a nice wallpaper for my computer/laptop screen. This is my current wallpaper. There are cherry blossoms popping up all over the city and it’s been a delight to see them bloom so effortlessly and quietly. I don’t know why I thought that only D.C. and Japan had the unique rights to beautiful cherry blossoms but I now know I’ve been wrong this whole time. Most people from around here don’t seem to be as awestruck as I am about these flowers and I definitely got a few strange looks when I took this photo. Well, it might have also been because I was at the North Berkeley BART station parking lot.

Meet my coworkers. This isn’t all of them but these are the ones that have slowly introduced me to San Francisco, one delicious lunch at a time. Here we are in front of the Ferry Building where the nice “Save Our Parks” lady took a photo for us. We are full and happy!

Korean/Japanese foodstuffs from the Namu booth at the Thursday Ferry Building Farmers’ Market.  I can’t wait to go back and try the kimchi fried rice!  Top: Korean Tacos wrapped in seaweed.  Bottom: Kimchi Okonomiyaki with a egg on top (the yolk was still wonderfully runny).

3 bags of chamomile tea in a fancy Voss glass water bottle.

All of the news headlines I see about Toyota’s auto recalls are really upsetting to me.  Here’s an excerpt from the release:

On January 21, Toyota announced its intention to recall approximately 2.3 million select Toyota Division vehicles equipped with certain accelerator pedal mechanisms that may, in rare instances, mechanically stick in a partially depressed position or return slowly to the idle position. Toyota vehicles affected by the recall include:

• Certain 2009-2010 RAV4
• Certain 2009-2010 Corolla
• 2009-2010 Matrix
• 2005-2010 Avalon
• Certain 2007-2010 Camry
• Certain 2010 Highlander
• 2007-2010 Tundra
• 2008-2010 Sequoia

Click here to see the full official press release from Toyota’s website.

My family has faithfully bought Toyotas for as long as I can remember for their quality and reliability.  In one of my undergraduate business classes, I remember reading a compelling case study about Toyota’s “Kaizen” quality control and improvement philosophy which further cemented my loyalty to the car manufacturer.

When the husband and I were ready to buy a new car (my first new car ever), I knew I wanted a Toyota 4Runner.

We are probably going to be in the market for buying a new car soon and before the Toyota recalls, it was a pretty limited conversation because it felt irresponsible to buy something other than a Toyota.  But now that the Toyota isn’t as reliable, I feel like we’re liberated to consider other makes.  Is that weird?  Haha, I don’t know, it makes sense to me somehow.

As a fun side fact, my parents are the kind of people that go around checking VIN numbers on potential Toyota cars that they are interested in buying because if they start with a “J” then it means it was manufactured in Japan.  I’ve always humored them about this requirement but have never really bought into it.  But then I read this line on the Toyota press release:

“Further, Camry, RAV4, Corolla and Highlander vehicles with Vehicle Identification Numbers (VIN) that begin with “J” are not affected by the accelerator pedal recall.”

Sometimes I guess your parents do know best.

Waiting for the DCYF Request for Proposal pre-bidder’s conference to start in the Green Room at the War Memorial Building near Civic Center.  Beautiful chandelier and wonderful historic details in this place.

The plant babies are doing well, especially with all the rain lately.  To be completely honest, I haven’t watered them since I first planted them but I check on them every morning.  Gardening is pretty easy here.

Hard to believe such a beautiful creature sometimes resorts to chasing her own tail for entertainment.