I'm Not Giving Up My New Balance Shoes

Thanks to some idiot fringe of the alt-right, I know find myself in the awkward position of saying, "I'm not a racist, but..."

I'm keeping my New Balance running shoes.

A vice president at New Balance praised Trump's rejection of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders came out against TPP as well. Some white supremacist group took one sentence from a New Balance executive about supporting one sentence of Trump's platform, in an interview for the Wall Street Journal where it should be obvious it's a business discussion, and turned it into a symbol of their white-power group.

And without understanding the facts, people started burning their New Balance shoes in protest because they assume New Balance supports white supremacy.

New Balance still makes its shoes in the United States when other major shoe manufacturers have moved their business overseas. I fail to see how, by supporting American workers, I'm now a racist because some other white people, who are racist, have stated they will start wearing New Balance shoes. Either they don't understand the statement was made about trade policy or they don't care. They wanted to say something ridiculous so they could watch liberals overreact and laugh at us. So they could distract us from actual issues of civil rights and equality.

New Balance as denounced this hate group more vigorously than President-elect Trump has, by the way.

New Balance executives supported one part of Trump's economic plan, which many people believe makes sense for American workers. Whether I agree with the trade policy or not, or whether it's going to actually benefit workers or not, isn't important right now. I can't blame someone for voting for what they think will offer better job opportunities and business opportunities for Americans. And if Trump's plan doesn't work out, I'll be there to listen and to be a good friend to those who are disappointed.

We need to not let some of the worst idiots on the right take over the conversation and lead us away from facts and reason. New Balance shoes are the only ones that fit me properly. I've been running for over half my life, I've put in a lot of miles, and I've tried a lot of shoes. I can honestly say that ethically I have no problem continuing to buy them. Go ahead and protest and boycott, but do your homework first.

Sources:
Forbes: New Balance Gets Political
Washington Post: We live in crazy times: Neo-Nazis have declared New Balance the ‘Official Shoes of White People’
The Post Game: New Balances Support of Trump Win Triggers Sneaker Burnings

Book Review: Cautionary Tales by Emmanuelle de Maupassant

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Here's my review as it appears on Goodreads.

Cautionary Tales: Voices from the Edges by Emmanuelle de Maupassant
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If these stories were a movie, you would find that the old woman telling the tales is either one of the young, buxom protagonist of one of the stories, or one of the spirits that interjects throughout the narrative. And she would likely unwrap her babushka from her head and frighten you with some hideous demon feature. This isn’t a spoiler in any way, simply the image that came into my head as I was reading.

These are fairy tales that will keep you up at night, partly out of fear as you wonder if the spirits are watching your every action, partly due to the erotic voyeurism of watching others make mistakes. The reader follows the spirits as they show us the errors of many human ways. Lust and greed lead people down many paths and some people pay for their actions as a way to teach others not to follow them.

Cautionary Tales is quite different from de Maupassant’s novel, The Gentlemen’s Club, but equally rich in language that draws the reader into a frightening, lustful, and delightful experience.


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Book Review: Alchemy xii -- The Entire Year by Tamsin Flowers

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Here's my review as it appears on Goodreads.

Alchemy xii - The Entire Year: All 13 Alchemy xii novellas by Tamsin Flowers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I think the reason I haven’t enjoyed BDSM writing much is because most of what I’ve read of it has been bad.

Then in walked Harry Lomax, the “Prince of Kink.” I was intrigued by the book description and I was hooked from the very first pages. If you are into kink, then he is perfect book boyfriend material.

He’s not perfect, of course. He’s flawed like everyone else. But he’s oh-so-charming, too, and it’s easy to fall under his spell.

One of the joys of this book, and the touch of realism in relationships, is his romantic foil, Olivia Roux. They are drawn to each other. Harry wants to teach Olivia everything he knows about BDSM. Olivia says she wants to learn, but is her heart really in it? No matter how many times Harry says that falling in love is out of the question, and no matter how many times Olivia proves that she just can’t be a sub, you ache for them to figure out a happily-ever-after ending.

Alchemy iix is fantasy and romance. It’s boy-meets-girl-meets-kink. It’s so easy to get swept up into Harry’s and Olivia’s world.

I didn’t hear of the series until about halfway through the year and I decided to wait and read the whole thing at once rather than start up and have to wait each month. I was sick one weekend and stayed on the couch the entire time, glued to the adventures of Harry and Olivia. This is an extremely satisfying modern, kinky, romantic fairytale.

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Shopping Small

As everyone in the United States is gearing up for cold weather, parades, football games, turkey, and shopping, I’m watching my friends who are artists, writers, and small business owners gear up for their busy time of year. Here are some of the Rhode Island artists and small business owners that I know and love. Some of them have online stores, some of them you might just have to go meet in person and see how wonderful they really are.

Rick Devin
Thompson's Flowers and Antiques
Amy Kristin Photography
Spoonlove Bracelets

We can’t all shop local, I understand that. And I am among the zillions of people who do love the convenience of a site like Amazon. So consider books from indie authors and small presses. You’re still helping an individual. I’ve compiled a few of my favorites from this year at my Amazon store. (Amazon Affiliates link.) 

You don’t have to wait for Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, or Snooze in Your PJs All Day Sunday (that’s a thing). You can click over to Facebook or Etsy or Amazon right now if you want to. Check the hours of your local coffee shop and an independent gift shop and pop in any time to spread some holiday cheer. They will appreciate it and you’ll know exactly where your money is going.

Unpacking All Those Books

We are slowly but surely getting our household effects unpacked. We are down to half a dozen boxes of books that we do not have enough shelf space for. So we have to decide which go on shelves, which stay in boxes in hopes that our next home has more space, and which books we really have to get rid of now because we are unlikely to read them again. It hurts to get rid of books but I realized that books are meant to be read, not sit in boxes gathering dust.

So I dusted off my PaperBackSwap account. At PaperBackSwap, you list books that you want to get rid of. Someone says they want your book. You pack it up and pay for media mail shipping. When they receive your book you get a credit. With that credit you can request a book from someone else and they pay the shipping to send it to you. 

While we were overseas, I ordered a few books through the site because we had an American mailing address that our mail was forwarded through. I couldn't swap any books back from overseas, though, because the shipping takes too long. I got in the habit of bringing a few books back to the United States with me to post and send so I could have credits for requesting books once I was back overseas. 

Over the last few days I've listed fifty books and twenty of them have been requested so far. I have a big trip to the post office planned for Friday. (You can print postage from home and drop the package in any mailbox if it weighs less than thirteen ounces.) I updated my wish list and am waiting for a few books once my credits are approved, but mostly I'll be using the service to send cheap paperbacks to Mike while he's overseas. He can trade them or leave them behind for others to read. Fresh reading material for almost free is always a good thing, especially in a place where there's very little local entertainment.

To see my books and request them from me, click here. I think you can request from me as a friend without signing up for the site. If you do decide to join, please use the referral button:

If you're ordering through the pouch, they ask you to include an apartment number with the address. I used Apt. #1 and never had a problem. I have not tried sending to DPO/APO addresses yet. If someone else has, please let me know if it works.

Sure, sometimes you need the convenience of dropping off a box of books at the recycling center or library. But sometimes it's nice to get those books directly into the hands of someone who wants them, then get a few reward books for yourself.

How to R2-D2

This year for Halloween we had a three year old who wanted to be R2-D2, accompanied by a Princess Leia mommy and a Han Solo daddy. Leia and Han seemed easy. Buy, borrow, or steal appropriate clothing and get a fairly popular wig. R2 was going to be more of a challenge because I wanted something more charming than store bought. I searched Google Images and pinned to Pinterest. I came up with a plan:

We spent an afternoon at a craft store trying to find just the right materials: foam, felt, glue, and something to craft the headpiece from. For the headpiece we ended up with a plastic army helmet glued to the inside of a salad bowl, both from a dollar store.

We crafted.

I bought a full Princess Leia costume, complete with hair-buns wig and ended up hating everything about it. So I Freecycled it and started from scratch, changing my concept to Hoth Leia. White yoga pants on sale for $5 and a beautiful white vest and snow boots that I'll wear this winter anyway paired with a long-hair wig that my mom helped braid. Han had to buy a henley shirt and black vest, supplying his own pants and boots. We bought $5 blasters and decided to keep them fake looking by not painting them black.

Star Wars family complete!

This was Muffin's first Halloween in the United States so we had to go the extra mile for her. Although, she's only three so the extra mile didn't have to be too far. We drove to a nearby neighborhood where a friend of ours was having a small party. We trick-or-treated at about five houses then went to our friend's for pizza and "grown-up" treats. Muffin ate too much candy but she didn't have school the next day so we could have a later night than usual and manage her the next day without too much difficulty. (Friday night she slept for twelve hours.)

I'm going to skip over Thanksgiving this year -- dinner is at my aunt's house and Mike most likely won't be home for it anyway -- and jump right into Muffin's First U.S. Christmas.

We Didn't Move In

We didn't move in to our new house over the weekend and I am so tired, annoyed, spent, and tired again.

On Friday I stopped in to pick up the key, do a walk-through, and drop off a carload of stuff we'd been collecting from Target and Kohl's throughout the week -- new towels, shower curtains, that sort of stuff. I stopped in the leasing office, got the key, and drove over to our new parking space. I unlocked the door, admired the new flooring, and smelled a familiar, but unwelcome, smell. Cat pee. Pet odor, to put it politely. In the newly renovated condo we were leasing, they failed to rip up the old carpet and replace it with something less smelly. I went back to the leasing office. They said they'd clean the carpet that day and it would still be ready for moving in on Saturday. I wasn't optimistic. But I was tired of living in our hotel so I let myself believe that it would be possible to still move in on Saturday morning. And if it wasn't I'd stay at my dad's for a couple days and/or check into a different hotel if it looked like a long-term necessity, a hotel that was closer and more convenient to where we need to be.

On Saturday morning my mom came to the hotel to help Muffin and I finish packing our things and load them into our cars. Friends and family members gathered at my dad's house to await word from me as to whether they should start loading our stuff from his garage into their pick-up trucks.

We arrived at the condo and it still smelled. Back to the leasing office. There wasn't much they could do about it on a Saturday but they would rip up the carpets and we would be credited the rent for the days we're missing to next month. We drove to my dad's which is about ten minutes away. Muffin was riding with my mom so I took advantage of being alone to cry in my car. Mike was doing training all weekend and was out of touch. I felt horrible that I couldn't keep my promise to Muffin of finally having a real house to move into after about six weeks of transitory living. I imposed on friends and family members who had now wasted a Saturday morning. And I just wanted to unpack my suitcase and not have to pack it again for a long time.

Now, we have a cat, and while she's good about using the litter box, I can sympathize with having a cat who is not. Our cat is staying with my mom, not moving into the condo with us right away, and I refuse to move into a house that smells like someone else's pet. And when given the choice of a newly remodeled unit or a non-remodeled unit, we decided to pay the extra money per month for the remodeled one. I expected the carpet was going to be ripped up and replaced before the condo was deemed acceptable for us to move in to. I should not have found this problem the day before our move-in date. It's so frustrating.

I scrambled with phone calls on Saturday afternoon, rescheduling two deliveries and the cable guy that were due today. Today the leasing office should be calling me to say if they're starting on the carpet today or tomorrow. We should be able to move in within twenty-four hours of them starting; they do the job in one day. I'm hoping for Wednesday night in our new home, even if only our beds make it over there and we pick up the rest of the stuff from my dad's garage piece-meal over the course of the following days.

I wanted to be moved in this week. Muffin starts school next week and I wanted the time for her to adjust to a new home before starting a new school. She's being such a trouper and what makes me feel the worst over this whole experience is how much I'm asking of her to cope with things that most three-year-olds don't have to cope with. On the school questionnaire that asked if there are any issues the school should be aware of, I had a rather lengthy answer explaining our living situation and how she keeps talking about wanting to go home to Hyderabad. And when she's talking to herself she's started lapsing into Hindi. She has dentist and doctor's appointments this week and I still need to do some back-to-school shopping and plan lunches and snacks. This was supposed to be our back-to-school prep week and now I'm cheating Muffin of all that attention because I still have to focus on moving.

Mike will be home for the weekend and I am so looking forward to it.

Aloobari Monastery: Escaping Darjeeling to See Some Nature. And Losing a Shoe.

Day Three

Our host at Dekeling Resort finally understood that we wanted to take a nice walk rather than sit in the car. He suggested we take the Toy Train up the mountain to Ghum, then hike to Aloobari Monastery. We'd stopped by the train station the day before and the train was already sold out so we decided to take part in one of the Darjeeling travel traditions -- the taxi-share. We packed up Muffin, some snacks, and some dry clothes (because it was raining) in the backpacks and walked into town. We took a wrong turn, then ended up at the wrong taxi stand. A driver pointed us in the right direction. We passed another taxi stand and then another one. And a driver there pointed us back toward the last stand we'd passed. A driver there pointed across the street. It seemed like we'd been walking for nearly an hour and we'd finally found the right taxi. We decided to pay for four seats so we could have the large back seat to ourselves and have room for the backpack. We then had to wait for the taxi to fill up. Three more guys climbed into the front and a man and two women climbed into the wayback, and we were on our way up the mountain in a taxi-share!

The driver stopped a couple times to let off other passengers. No words were spoken; we were hoping we'd either see a sign or the driver would indicate to us when it was time to get out. We wanted to get out just after Ghum. We passed the Ghum train station and then saw a sign for the next town. And then we got stopped in pooja traffic again. More people celebrating the lunar holiday by parading through town with Buddhist texts on their heads. They were also tapping the heads of people on the sidelines so while we were stopped, Muffin stuck her head out the window and got herself blessed with a Buddhist text.

We inched along in traffic until a T-intersection came into view. The driver pointed to it and said "Aloobari," so we got out and walked from there.

Traffic

Taking a left at the intersection

The walk was great.

Every fifteen minutes or so we'd see someone and ask them if we were still going in the right direction. There had been a couple intersections; also, we had no idea how long the walk was going to be and if someone told us "short distance" or "long distance" it was completely irrelevant. We knew we were on the right path and we decided that if we were out there for six hours and still hadn't found the monastery or our way back to town, we'd flag down a car and pay any price they asked for a ride back to our hotel.

Luckily it didn't come to that. After maybe an hour of walking, some of it at Muffin's pace, we glimpsed this through the fog:

Aloobari was under renovation but the caretakers let us come in to take some photos.

From the monastery we could continue along the same road to return to Darjeeling. We were told "long distance," but we hoped that the man who told us that meant "long distance for tourists," which actually wouldn't be as long for us as it is for other people because we are hearty walkers. We were getting hungry and the weather was turning cool and rainy so we were ready for lunch.

Somewhere between this photo:

 and this photo:

Muffin fell asleep and when her foot relaxed one of her Crocs fell off and we never saw it. By the time I noticed it was gone, it was out of sight and none of the locals had seen it and picked it up for us (which often happens when one of her shoes fall off). We were too tired and hungry to back-track more than a couple meters so we wrote it off and figured we could find some fake Crocs in town.

The road brought us to Chowrasta, a pedestrian plaza in Darjeeling about two kilometers from our hotel. We stopped at a restaurant and ate some of the worst Indian food we've ever had. Muffin didn't even eat her dosa, and she loves dosa.

Chowrasta:

One of the roads off Chowrasta was a Cheap Chinese Plastic Mela so we browsed there for a new pair of shoes. Only one guy had fake Crocs and he didn't have a pair small enough for Muffin. On the way back to the hotel we stopped at every shop that looked promising but couldn't find anything appropriate. This meant a trip to the Western mall, as opposed to the Mall, a pedestrian walkway lined with shops and restaurants. So we went to the mall and not a single store sold children's shoes. We'd heard about a Thai restaurant and on the way we found a children's shoe store. The Crocs were all too big for Muffin and most of the sneakers were too but we finally found one pair that fit and, even though I thought they were ugly, Muffin thought they were cool so we bought them. (Two days later she announced they were too small and has refused to put them on since.)

We had an early dinner of terrible Thai food and took a taxi back to the hotel. We needed to get an early start the next day for our drive to Bhutan.

Day Four Coming Soon

Day One: 8 Days on the Road from Darjeeling to Bhutan. With a Preschooler
Day Two: Some Enforced Site-Seeing in Darjeeling

Coconut Water and Anti-Dreadmill

Muffin enjoys fresh coconut water after a hard workout.

I’ve heard that coconut water is all the rage for runners in the United States. It’s popular on the streets of India because it’s cheap and refreshing, what with all the electrolytes to help prevent dehydration. I buy small bottles of it at the grocery store (convenient to throw in my gym bag) and go to the roadside wallas with a 24-ounce CamelBak bottle to have them fill it up. It takes about three coconuts to fill the bottle and prices have gone up recently to 20 rupees per coconut so it now costs about 60 rupees, which is $1.10, or less than 5 cents per ounce. I checked on Amazon.com and coconut water prices were 13 to 14 cents per ounce. I checked Peapod.com for the Washington, D.C., area and the prices ranged from 15 to 20 cents per ounce. Yikes! How can I afford this habit once I'm back? I guess I should take advantage of it while I can. Fortunately, Muffin will only drink coconut water when it actually comes from a coconut with a straw stuck in it, more because she likes the novelty than she likes coconut water. She always asks for a sip from my bottle, but then says she doesn't like it.

I hate the term "dreadmill" even though I dislike running on a treadmill. It's so negative I feel like I've sabotaged the workout with a negative attitude before even starting. It's necessary sometimes but I'm cutting back on treadmill runs because I'm not having fun. After a rough few weeks, my alarm is set for 5 a.m. tomorrow morning. I would have done it for today but I spent Sunday night at a friend's birthday party and I wanted to enjoy myself, not set myself up for failure the next morning (not necessarily by drinking a lot and eating too much, but by staying up later than I normally would on a Sunday night). I don't really like using the treadmill in the afternoon so my only other option is to wake up early to run on the road before the heat of the day sets in. If I'm going to the gym anyway for my yoga class, then I'll run on the treadmill but using it otherwise has become tedious. And I'd rather use Muffin's nap time for eating and napping myself instead of running during that time, squeezing in time for a good meal later, and being so exhausted that I fall asleep before she does in the evening.

Image from Pinterest.

I need to get back on track and work on my base mileage for half-marathon training.

We Bought an Auto Rickshaw Today

The latest addition to our family.

I know it doesn't look like much, but Mike compares it Charlie Brown's Christmas tree. All it needs is a little love.

For the last few weeks we've been networking with various elements of Hyderabad's auto rickshaw and motorcycle world. (See my previous post about this.) We looked at quite a few; we made offers that were too low and rejected prices that were too high. When Mike mentioned the project to some friends of his who do custom motorcycle detailing, though, they got excited and jumped on the chance to do the work for us. They found us an auto for sale right around the corner from their shop and the seller accepted our offer -- a price that was the lowest of all those that had been on the table with other sellers. The bike detailers have a metal fabrication guy who happens to be an auto driver so they are confident they can get the project done. 

We'll be removing the canvas top and ripping out the seats and engine. The rust spots will be replaced and we'll buy new wheels. It will get a whole new paint job. The front steering is still in great condition and we envision Muffin sitting on the mattress to "drive." We're going to wire the instrument panel with switches, lights, and a horn. 

We can totally see it as a bed.

First Part of the Auto Rickshaw Bed Project: Finding A Place That Might Actually Sell Us an Auto Rickshaw

As I told one of my friends, it's like a race car bed only it's an auto rickshaw.

We have an idea for making an auto rickshaw bed for Muffin. She loves riding in autos. She talks all the time about how she's going to drive one some day. We think it will be a fantastic souvenir of Hyderabad. When we get tired of it being a bed, we can turn it into a bench or some kind of artwork.

Mike's office was closed for the American holiday on Monday, but it was a regular working day for Hyderabad, so we kept Muffin home from school and started searching for an auto to buy. We just want the body, with no engine. Mike had a lead on an auto rickshaw mechanic's district where it was rumored there were salvaged autos to buy. He tracked down a phone number, our driver tracked down a general location, and we hopped in the car and took off.

It took us over an hour to get across town and find the hospital that was the landmark we were looking for. Then our driver had to stop and ask for directions. We were directed to an auto detailer's shop, where you get the decals and stuff that go on autos. So we stopped again and asked. We were directed to a retailer selling new autos. But someone loitering around there knew of a mechanic nearby who sold used ones. So we drove there.

That mechanic only had an auto pickup truck for sale but said he'd let us know if he had any "4-in-alls" (four-person passenger autos). He was working on a couple autos, and one had the engine out of it, so he let us take some photos for our research and planning. Just imagine taking out the front and back seats, and, according to the measurements, a twin mattress should fit perfectly.

One of the guys at the mechanic shop said he had a 4-in-all auto for sale at his house, so we got back in the car and he directed us through a warren of dirt roads until we came to a field with this in it:

He was asking way too much for it, and a lot of the parts we want to salvage are rusted or missing, but he let us take a few more photos. We are having trouble figuring out how to take the front and back apart and modify the chassis so getting some photos of the undercarriage will be useful.

This is what the underside of an auto looks like, in case you've ever wondered:

Somehow I went the whole day without taking a single photo of Muffin.

We're kind of stuck now. There must be some place else we can go to shop for autos but Mike needs to work his contacts for some more information. No one can understand why we really want one and the lack of understanding is a roadblock to getting the information. 

Building a Climbing Wall

Muffin is a champion climber. Whether it's stairs, jungle gyms, boulders, or the grills on the windows, she is scrambling up everything faster than anyone can stop her. I don't know exactly when or how I got the idea but a few months ago I found myself at the Atomik climbing holds website, loving the photos of little kids on their rock-climbing walls. So we decided to build one for Muffin.

I studied the FAQs and how-to instructions and we decided on a simple outdoor plywood wall. We don't want to invest too much labor into it because we'll be moving soon. A framed piece of plywood with removable holds is perfect. It's sturdy enough for a toddler and when it's time to leave we can unscrew the holds, pack them up, and use them for a new wall at our next home. I ordered the set of 24 Kids Holds and for a little extra fun, some Garden Animals holds. I also ordered all the hardware through the Atomik site, to make sure it would be exactly what we needed. I don't trust India to sell me what I want; we tend to be sold what merchants think is best, even if they have no idea. I didn't want to take chances with this project, especially since safety is a concern. The package was heavy and I waited anxiously to see if our mail depot would accept it or not. (Our mail is sent to a U.S. mailing address and then forwarded to us overseas. There are some restrictions on what they won't ship.) Once I saw that the package was accepted we moved on to the construction phase.

While waiting for our holds to arrive we bought the plywood. We did this ourselves, in person, rather than give full responsibility to our driver or haggle with plywood sellers over the phone. We were first quoted prices as high as 5,000 rupees ($90!) but ended up paying 1,700 rupees plus 300 more for home delivery.

Muffin went to work sanding the board, saying all along, "It's for me to climb on!"

One afternoon when Muffin and I both passed out at nap time, Mike did the painting and texture. The instructions call for textured paint, in order to keep the holds from spinning, but layers of paint with sprinkles of sand worked just fine for us. We decided not to prime the board or weather seal it. It's not going to rain again between now and when we move and the wall's placement in the yard is an area that gets very little direct sunlight. It should last a few months.

Next came drilling and framing. We wanted the wall to lean against the side of the house rather than attach to the house. Framing the plywood gave it some structure and strength and also created a buffer space so the bolts wouldn't scratch the house. Again, this needed to be sturdy enough for a 28-pound toddler, not for adults.

The holds arrived and Muffin spent some time unwrapping them and admiring them in the living room.

Drilling and the frame. There are several 2x4s across the back for stability.

Mike put most of the holds on during nap time, so I didn't get any photos.

Voila! The finished product.

We have a tiny yard so this is a good way to add play space to it. Muffin hasn't gotten too far off the ground yet. I think she's getting used to it, plus the holds are little rough on bare feet but she hasn't wanted to put socks on for climbing. Mike and I have both gone up and down it a few times to show her how and it holds our weight remarkably well. The holds seem very sturdy. I'm sure Muffin will love it over time. And when we pack up in a few months we can unbolt the holds and start over again in our new home!

Note: If you make your own climbing wall, please, please, please read professional instructions and do not go simply by what you read on this blog. We mostly used the Atomik advice but made our own decisions based on our needs and the materials available to us. The Atomik FAQs give lots of great advice on making walls for children of different ages and adults of different capabilities. Their customer service was responsive; I posted questions on their Facebook page and they responded within 24 hours.