Living in 15-Minute Increments

Globe-trotting mother of four Eileen Wacker checks in with Patch on this Mother's Day.

I am the mother of four kids, aged eight to 14, and am trying to launch a business. I live life in 15-minute increments. Our house wakes up at 6:00 a.m. during the week. Getting everyone to eat something is a challenge, so I let them eat whatever they want – leftover pasta, soup, mac and cheese, cereal, bagels, whatever. Then I either drive them to school, leaving at 6:45 a.m. or go to my office and start to work. I usually have appointments racked and stacked as I work with a team located across Korea, India, Vancouver, San Francisco, Mexico City and Honolulu. I’m also trying to keep fish from dying. My son went to a birthday party and the party favor was a beta fish. I groaned when I saw it and secretly vowed to get even with the mom. …

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More Tasty Recipes for Mother's Day

Surprise Mom by making one of these delicious meals.

Mother's Day is this Sunday... so what do you have planned? Why not surprise her with a homemade brunch. Nothing says "I love you, Mom" like taking the time to make her a special meal on her special day. If you've decided on making our Mind Over Platter Mother's Day omelette but need something to go with it, below are four recipes that are easy to make and allow the kids to join in the fun. Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 20 minutes Total Time: 30 minutes Ingredients: Preparation: Peel and chop onion with the help of your assistant. Pour oil into Dutch oven or large saucepan. Place pot on burner. Turn heat to medium. Heat oil for 1 minute. Add onions to hot oil. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally with wooden spoon, for 5 minutes…

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Mind Over Platter

Make Mamma Happy With This Easy Omelette

It's mom's special day. When Mom's happy, we're all happy.

So my darling husband asked me yesterday, a scant three days before Mother's Day, what I wanted to honor my awesomeness. For those of you who think it might be cutting it a bit close, this is a vast improvement over past years, as he usually asks me at about 10:30 p.m. the night before. As I pondered the question, so many options ran through my mind. World harmony, inner peace, the sudden and miraculous loss of 50 extra pounds. Yeah, that would be sweet! On a more practical level, I'd like a new camera body, the Canon EOS 60D or the 7D, but I won't be picky, either one would make me very happy.   Those all sound like really great gifts in my mind, but I think I want what every mom wants on Mother's Day. I want to know that I'm loved and …

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3 Common Dog Rescue Mistakes (and 3 Solutions)

Dog rescues in our neighborhood highlight common mistakes made by recent owners.

Three of my neighbors have adopted dogs recently, and I've noticed they could use some guidance on how to handle their new pets. First, rescuing is an important act of social heroism! The world is better, and pain is lessened when you offer a pet your home and family. If you adopt or rescue an animal—a bunny, cat, or dog—you have done a great thing, provided you have thought through pet ownership and looked at this as a process with a long-term goal. On the other hand, after a few weeks or months, it may be time to find out how to stop making some of these common mistakes. A close friend invited me to join her dog walk. (She asked to remain anonymous —as did my other examples.) On our way out of her house, the dog led the way. 1. Don't let…

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A New Version of 'Julius Caesar' Suggests Similarities to U.S. Politics

The Shakespearian tragedy, performed by The Acting Company at CSUN, aims to make the Bard relevant to a new generation of playgoers.

Friends, Romans, countrymen, this is not your father's Julius Caesar. Not the production performed at CSUN's Plaza del Sol Performance Hall Tuesday night. With business suits instead of togas, letter openers instead of daggers and rap music covering the pause between acts. This version by The Acting Company is, as the announcer says at the outset, "Shakespeare for a new generation." It's definitely Shakespeare. Though director Rob Melrose changes the garb and the setting, his characters utter the words Shakespeare wrote, at least most of them. That means  the language is still archaic but the meaning is comprehensible, thanks in no small part to the inflections, expressions and gestures of Melrose's players. It's an open question as to …

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Watching the City Burn from the Rooftops—the L.A. Riots 20 Years Later

A personal remembrance of a low point of Los Angeles history.

We had a balcony seat to the Los Angeles Riots of 1992.  My housemate snaked a TV up to the second floor rooftop of the historic Craftsman in West Hollywood 20 years ago today and we watched—live all around us and on TV—our beloved Los Angeles burn. It was a weird bit of sensurround. Not only were we watching live TV, but helicopters swooped overhead, we heard gunshots in a distance, and we could smell the smoke. Within hours, we watched the plume of smoke get closer and closer, coming up LaBrea Avenue, and eventually skipping past Santa Monica and going north to Hollywood Boulevard. It did erupt into the Valley, but only in certain areas. Studio City was spared. Today, looking back, it amazes me more not that it happened, but how many …

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Life Is Seriously Funny in CSUN's Likable Presentation of 'Avenue Q'

Adult themes and youthful idealism are all part of this Tony-winning musical filled with adorable puppets and no-holds-barred lyrics.

There are many lessons to be learned from the naughty-yet-endearing Avenue Q but the main one is that, regardless of how much you are told as a child that you are special and you can make your dreams come true, that's not the way life is. It's a jarring message for the residents of rundown Avenue Q, most of them Sesame-Street style puppets. While the transition from college to adult life is fraught with disappointment, the production that began Thursday night at CSUN is not one of them. Even allowing for a few minor opening night glitches, this is a show teeming with charm, energy and performances that, under the smart direction of Shad Willingham, go well beyond what might be expected of a college performance. Also, because it has only …

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LETTER: Why Is the V.A. Spending Our Taxes on a Solar Farm?

"Can you imagine trying sell a home across the street from such a monstrosity."

Editor, Attached is a cartoon depicting a solar farm that appeared in  the L.A. Daily News on 4/19/12.  I don't know if the author  has visited the Sepulveda VA lately but it is an exact replica of  what the VA has done there and is a perfect example of how the Veterans  Administration wastes our tax dollars.  If you have visited or driven by the Sepulveda VA on Plummer St.  between Haskell  and Woodley lately you probably wondered what the Hell that monstrosity is on the Plummer and Haskell side?   Well, friends, it's an atrocious solar farm!  The VVA  Greater Los Angeles Health Care System (GLAHS) spent hundreds of thousands of our tax dollars to bulldoze down the beautiful orchard that used to grace that side of the property (and …

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Linda Coburn

12:00 pm on Thursday, April 26, 2012

Hmmmm, a solar farm that is generating electricity, probably for the VA, which will mean they have to spend less money buying energy from the DWP, which means they will have more money to put into programs to help Vets. Sounds like a winner to me! I do think they could have done more to make it aesthetically pleasing -- perhaps like CSUN has done where the solar collectors are placed above …   more ›

Geena Davis Pushes Gender Equality at CSUN Show

After breezy anecdotes on her acting career, Davis details inequalities in roles for girls and women in TV and film; also laments lack of women in power positions.

More than a lecture but less than a one-woman show, Geena Davis reminisced about career highlights and pushed for gender equality Thursday night at CSUN's Valley Performing Arts Center. The 56-year-old acting student-turned model-turned actor won over a sparse audience with a friendly style and self-deprecating anecdotes sprinkled with humor. Here's how to be a movie star, she said: "First get big parts in major motion pictures. That's basically it." OK, she was just warming up. Davis described her metamorphosis from being a tall, gangly girl ("My fondest dream was to take up less space in this world.") to becoming a confident athlete with Olympic aspirations in the archery event. She discovered her athletic prowess at age 36, while …

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