By Donna Schwartz Mills on Nov 29, 2012 in Baby You Can Drive My Car, Mom Life | 0 comments

  I wrote this post over the course of a couple of hours on Day 2 of the LA Auto Show on Thursday, posted it and deleted it. I have since decided what the hell and have put it back up (with a few edits). Day two of the LA Auto Show. I arrived late, but thought I did OK, considering Thursday is my day to drive carpool AND it was raining lightly. I was craving...

The Los Angeles Auto Show

By Donna Schwartz Mills on Nov 28, 2012 in Baby You Can Drive My Car, Blather | 0 comments

Semi-Live Blog 6:15 pm I found the Nissan party easily at Katsuya, at LA Live. Some sprinkles but no real rain yet, and not so cold that I regretted not stopping at the car for my jacket. But a quick walk around the private party area confirmed the shy person’s nightmare: no one that I knew. I saw a lone Asian man sitting by himself, so I joined him, hoping he...

Give a Care for the Caregivers

By Donna Schwartz Mills on Nov 21, 2012 in Getting Old Sucks, Something Unselfish for a Change | 1 comment

Welcome to the blog carnival featuring some of the blogosphere’s most eloquent writers. We’ll be highlighting the work of 8 women who write about what it feels like to be a primary caregiver to someone who depends on you — whether you’re on vacation, it’s a holiday, it’s an emergency at three in the morning, or through all the highs and lows of sickness and...

Kids, Not Cuts for Public Schools

By Donna Schwartz Mills on Nov 20, 2012 in Education | 2 comments

My daughter has all of Thanksgiving week off this year. She’s delighted that we got to start our holiday a few days early, but the extra school vacation days are not really a gift. They’re the result of the continuing barrage of budget cuts that we’ve had to endure since she started kindergarten. That’s right: Year, after year, after year...

The Holiday Season Begins

By Donna Schwartz Mills on Nov 17, 2012 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

I’m listening to “Santa Baby” at our local tire store. “Jingle Bell Rock” just finished playing. I’ve been here for half an hour, long enough to start tiring of the relentless holiday music. It’s November 17. How am I going to feel by December? I don’t really think I’m a Scrooge. I love the winter holidays: the...

New Beginnings

By Donna Schwartz Mills on Nov 16, 2012 in Blather | 2 comments

Welcome to the new home of SoCal Mom! I did not plan to put up a new site today. But a funny thing happened when I fired up my email this morning: I saw my annual renewal notice from Network Solutions and balked. I’ve had this domain with NS since — well, almost since they were the only registrar in town. There are less expensive ones I could use...

A Good Week

By Donna Schwartz Mills on Nov 9, 2012 in Blather | 0 comments

I took the Obama-Biden magnet off my car on Wednesday morning. The election was over, I was happy, and there was no need to show my support via vehicle advertising any longer. Besides, there are a lot of Republicans in my neighborhood and I have no desire to rub their face in the election’s results. I know how I felt during the Bush Administration, whenever I...

Six More Days

By Donna Schwartz Mills on Oct 31, 2012 in MOMocrats | 0 comments

By this time next week, I’ll either be exulting — or depressed. Either way, the election will be over. Every Wednesday, I get to talk politics with some of my favorite people, and we record the conversations for posterity. Today, we talked about Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy, FEMA, and Mitt Romney’s botched disaster relief rally yesterday. We had 38...

Clocking In

By Donna Schwartz Mills on Oct 29, 2012 in Blather | 0 comments

Have you noticed how many clocks and devices with clocks you’ve got in your house? Just in my kitchen there are digital clocks on the oven, microwave, coffeemaker… and an analog wall clock way up high above my sink. And we won’t even talk about the digital clock in my car, which needs to be reset by a few minutes every few months. This is OK if...

Life Changing News

By Donna Schwartz Mills on Oct 25, 2012 in Food and Drink, In Quest Of | 1 comment

A couple of weeks ago, I took possession of a single serve coffeemaker. It is not 6:00 AM yet, and I’ve already had my first cup of coffee (espresso, actually). My kid’s lunch has been made and I have time to check my email and jot this down before our carpool arrives. This thing has literally changed my life. That sounds like I’m exaggerating. But...