Mendo Lake Family Life February 2015

mendo lake February 2015

Teens & Digital Love Advice from an expert

Guide to Local Birds

Discover these winged wonders

Online Dating How to do it right

6 Valentine’s Day Hot dates

Sarah is a single mom on a mission...

...to make sure that 3-year old Connor can thrive. From the time he was born, Sarah has been Connor’s most important advocate. Connor faces a few extra challenges because he was born with Cystic Fibrosis.

Sarah decided early on to be the hero of their story instead of the victim. She has specific goals for Connor and for her family. She takes steps every day to reach those goals for Connor and for herself. She is relentless in her commitment to be Connor’s advocate – his hero. We all face challenges as parents, and every single child needs an adult to stand for them, support them and be their hero, so they can be happy, healthy and successful. Take the Action Hero Challenge this month and commit or recommit to being your child’s number one hero, no matter what challenges you face.

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February 2015

8

Feature Stories 8 Cyber Dating

How to navigate the ups and downs of looking for romance on the Internet.

14 Help! My Teenager Fell In Love Online

Psychologist Winifred Lloyds Lender offers advice.

16 You & Your Budding Birder Have fun getting acquainted with our area’s feathered friends.

14

20 Valentine’s Day Delights Wine and dine your sweetie at these great local events.

Every Issue 6

Dear Reader

22 Calendar of Events

7

Bits and Pieces

It’s Mardi Gras!

West African Meets Americana Taste the World’s Best Wines

28 4 MendoLakeFamilyLife

Celebrate the Chinese New Year

24 Anne Frank Comes to Life on Stage

26 Top-notch Kid

Musicians Perform

28 Cooking with Kids

Cupid’s Calzone 30 Humor Break

MendoLakeFamilyLife.com February 2015 www.mendolakefamilylife.com

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Dear Reader

F Sharon Gowan Publisher/Editor Sharon@family-life.us

ebruary is the month we celebrate love— both romantic and familial.

If you’re looking for some place nice to take your sweetie, check out “Valentine’s Day Delights” (page 20) for some fabulous options, including beautiful local wineries. Or be a little different, and go on a birding expedition. Grab a pair of binoculars and check out “You & Your Budding Birder” (page 16) for a list of top places to capture a glimpse of our feathered friends in action.

way to meet someone. Our article “Cyber Dating” (page 8) will help you avoid the pitfalls of online dating and make it work for you. (Look for special tips for single parents on page 13.)

Patricia Ramos patty@family-life.us

While your first love was probably the boy or girl you sat next to in math class, your teen’s first crush may be someone he or she meets on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. In “Help! My Teenager Fell in Love Online” (page 14), psychologist Winifred Lloyds Lender, Ph.D., talks about how to handle your kids’ digital affairs of the heart.

Business Marketing Renee Nutcher renee@family-life.us Jolie Cook jolie@family-life.us

Features Editor Melissa Chianta melissa@family-life.us

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Production Manager Donna Bogener production@family-life.us

If you are single, the idea of looking for love online has probably crossed your mind. Internet dating is becoming more and more popular, and it can be a great

Marketing Jordan Lewis jordan@family-life.us

o f r s a s e Day c n i !

Pr

Calendar Patricia Ramos

Contributing Writers

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February 2015 www.mendolakefamilylife.com

Bits & Pieces

It’s Mardi Gras!

N

eed a little fun and frolicking to take the edge off the winter workaday grind?

Celebrate a New Orleans–style mardi gras on February 7 at the Greenwood Community Center in Elk. Don a costume, throw on the holiday’s characteristic colorful beads, and bring a dish to share at the Cajun and Creole–inspired potluck. The event runs from 11:30 a.m.–3 p.m. with a parade in downtown Elk at noon. Call 877-1788 or go to elkweb.org for details. ¶

Taste the World’s Best Wines

I

ndulge your palate. Taste some of the most exemplary wines on the globe at the 2015 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition Public Tasting at the Festival Pavilion, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, on February 14, 1:30–5 p.m.

This year’s competition, which was held at the Cloverdale Citrus Fair in January, garnered more than 6,300 entries from independent winemakers, boutique wineries, and large-scale producers. Join thousands of people, including national celebrities, as they enjoy the winners at this public tasting event. Advanced tickets are $65 and may be purchased at winejudging.com. Door tickets are $85, but since last year’s event sold out, they are not expected to be available. ¶

S

West African Meets Americana

ometimes seemingly dissimilar things end up complementing each other. Take the band Mamajowali’s kamale ngon i (African hunter’s harp). It grooves amazingly well with congas, guitar, and fiddle.

Find out for yourself at the band’s February 7 concert at Holy Trinity Church in Ukiah at 7:30 p.m. Let musicians Joe Craven, Mamadou Sidibe, and Walter Strauss tickle your ear drums with their melange of African and Americana sounds. Tickets are $20 for adults and $15 for students and seniors. Call 462-8042 or log on to facebook.com/Mamajowali for more information. ¶

www.mendolakefamilylife.com

February 2015

MendoLakeFamilyLife 7

Cyber L Dating

By Jane Barteau

Will You Find Romance Online?

8 MendoLakeFamilyLife

oneliness is part of the human condition. We all “want somebody to love,” to quote Jefferson Airplane. And for lots of people friendship doesn’t cut it. They want a mate. But where to find one if bars and parties just aren’t your thing? Well if you’re like 38 percent of what the Pew Research Center calls “single and looking Americans,” you’ve posted a profile online or have used a dating app.

February 2015 www.mendolakefamilylife.com

Like it or not, digital romance is here to stay. The stigma that was once attached to it has passed. Fifty-nine percent of Americans have decided that online dating is a good way to meet people. One quarter of online daters have entered into a marriage or long-term relationship with someone they met on online. You probably know some of them. I myself have been seeing for more than a year a

Fifty-nine percent of Americans have decided that online dating is a good way to meet people. man I met on OKCupid. And I know of a handful of other people who are either married or committed to someone they first met in cyberspace.

Among my friends (names have been changed), writer Sally met her new wife, Barb, a web designer, on Match.com.

Graphic designer Dan met his partner, Joni, a therapist, on OkCupid, and now they are planning to have children together. And my favorite example, Bridget, met her now husband in an online game of poetry tag.

Google “stories of couples who met online” and you’ll find many more such examples.

So if you’re looking for a mate, maybe it’s not such a bad idea to try the online world of romance. But as my mom always told me, you’ve gotta take the bad with the good. And, trust me, there’s plenty of bad.

For a preview, read Salon.com blogger Victoria Carlson’s August 2011 post “OKCupid, I’m Done” in which the Los Angeles writer and single mom www.mendolakefamilylife.com

details some colossally wretched dates, like the unemployed man who lived with his mother and used unspeakably derogatory language to describe women, or the guy who admitted he occasionally beat his dog, or the one who chain-smoked and went on and on about how much he couldn’t stand his ex-wife. Her experiences fall in line with a Marin County woman I spoke with, I’ll call her Helen, who had endured many a man behaving inappropriately.

Men have their horror stories, too.

A Sonoma County man (I’ll name him Ben) who’s been online dating on and off since 2004 shared several tales with me. There was the time that a woman he’d spent the day hiking with and then took out for a drink told him bluntly, not five seconds after he paid what had become her $120 bar bill, “I want you to know that at no time during this day have I ever thought there was February 2015

any chemistry between us.” And he never saw her again. Or the woman who sent him an excessively vitriolic communication simply because, after a few brief friendly e-mail exchanges, he’d politely declined her request to go out on a date.

“There’s no etiquette. People act in ways they would never act in the real world.”—Ben “There’s no etiquette. People act in ways they would never act in the real world. And it can be very hurtful, especially for newbies,” he says.

While these kinds of stories abound, there are plenty of online dating experiences that aren’t awful, just perplexing. I put those in what I call my “Say What?” file. For example, the No Show-ers, such as the woman with whom Ben spent several months MendoLakeFamilyLife 9

Vanisher was a man she describes as a “creative venture capitalist” who was familiar with her writing. They had great conversations and a few really nice dates, with texts and e-mails in between.

And then he fell off the face of the Earth.

“If I wanted to go for five days without hearing from a man with whom I had chemistry and three almost perfect dates, I would repeat junior high,” the 58-year-old Lamott quipped.

And it kept on happening. “This pattern repeated,” she wrote, “a flurry of dates, followed by radio silence on the man’s part.”

Helen said that she’d experienced the Disappearing Act on multiple occasions, too. So has my single-mother friend engaged in an extensive e-mail exchange, but who never wanted to meet for an actual date.

However frustrating, Ben’s experience is not unusual. Lots of people who meet online never actually meet each other face-to-face.

They are like the digital dating version of armchair anthropologists: They thoroughly enjoy learning all about the natives, but from a safe distance. (And given the experiences of Victoria, Helen, and Ben, we can understand why.) The numbers of people who do get up the courage to meet someone is growing, though.

According to the Pew Research Center, 66 percent of online daters meet up with someone at least once.

But meeting up with someone is just half the battle. You also have to be interested enough in each other to continue connecting, which 10 MendoLakeFamilyLife

brings me to the second, and more upsetting, addition to the “Say What?” file: the Vanishers. Anyone who has online dated for more than a month has been through one of their Disappearing Acts.

It looks something like this: You meet a fantastic person. You both seem to be totally into each other; you love talking and spending time together; the chemistry is palpable. You go on one, two, even three or four dates. And then, bam, Mr. or Ms. Right never calls again. He or she doesn’t respond to texts or calls or e-mails. Your new person is just flat out gone.

Anne Lamott, Bay Area author of the popular parenting memoir Operating Instructions: A Diary of My Son’s First Year (Anchor, 2005), describes this phenomenon in her humorous 2013 Salon.com essay “My Year on Match.com.” Her first

Maybe what makes you click with another person is ineffable, a mystery. in Denver, and Ben, and, yes, me. I had several wonderful dates with a psychologist I seriously liked who just simply went away.

What’s going on with the Vanishers?

A 2012 Psychological Science in the Public Interest report, which analyzed 400 studies on online dating, points to a reasonable cause: an over-abundance of choices.

While you might not necessarily assume that the guy you met at the grocery store is seeing several other women, you can bet that the guy you met online is. He may have gone out on a date with you, but the pictures from 100 other profiles are floating

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said, because often what we think we want, and what we end up being attracted to, can be very different.

Hirschman’s experience, as both someone who has online dated and who works with clients who use online dating sites, reflects this. She says that meeting up with a person based on information in a profile doesn’t have a lot to do with real chemistry. People end up going after what they “think they want with their heads rather than what they want with their hearts and bodies,” she says. The result may be having a drink with someone who looks great on paper but in person doesn’t do a thing for you.

through his head. Indeed, my psychologist friend finally mentioned there was someone else he was interested in.

dating choices isn’t even that good for us. It may seem fun at first, but it can be overwhelming. And, what’s more, those two-dimensional profiles (in which people often lie about age, weight, and height) can lead to the objectification of potential romantic partners. We don’t see the other person as a human being, but as an option—and one we’re not happy with at that.

Ukiah therapist Lesley Osman, MFT, said that she thought, with so many profiles to choose from, people “may very well have an ‘on to the next one’ mentality.” And she would be right. It’s a mindset that leads to what Bay Area sex and relationship coach Celeste Hirschman, M.A., calls “disposable dating.” If you don’t get instantly what you want from someone, there’s another choice on the next screen. It’s “very dehumanizing,” Hirschman and her colleague Dr. Danielle Harel wrote in a March 2014 Huffington Post article, which suggests ways to online date with kindness.

“You end up a bit less satisfied with the thing you choose… ,” he said. “And you’re less likely to commit to that option. It’s like, ‘Eh, there’s something better out there,’ or ‘I’m overloaded.’”

According to the Psychological Science study, the plethora of online

So having a lot of choices isn’t very helpful. Neither are profiles, Finkel

12 MendoLakeFamilyLife

Eli J. Finkel, wvnow a professor of social psychology at Northwestern University and the study’s lead author, explained to the Washington Post the problem of having too many choices.

What about those scientific algorithms that online dating sites such as Chemistry.com and eHarmony promise will connect you with your ideal partner? The Psychological Science study found that they don’t really work either.

They match people based on similar

Think about what you want— and then be open to what pops up in your inbox. or complementary traits, neither of which were found to determine long-term relationship success.

Still, online dating services pull you in with the idea that they can hook you up with your soul mate (or at least a boyfriend or girlfriend). But maybe what it comes down to is that what makes you click with another person is ineffable, a mystery. And who says finding a soul mate is all it’s cracked up to be anyway? It

February 2015 www.mendolakefamilylife.com

seems that it’s better to think of your partner as a best friend than as a soul mate. Research shows that people who see their partners as someone they are destined to be with, as in soul mates, are more dissatisfied with their relationship during times of inevitable conflict than people who see their partners as someone with whom they are on a journey of growth and learning. It’s the people who value the friendship aspect of their relationship who end up feeling in love and committed, and having great sex, in the long run.

So if you are single, and you do decide to try online dating, think about what you want—and then

be open to what pops up in your inbox. Be aware that you won’t always be relating to the nicest of people, so be sure your thick skin is firmly in place. When you meet someone you like, maybe give him or her a chance before flying off to the next opportunity. And if you find yourself still looking after way too long, ask yourself if your relationship ideal is getting in the way of you being with someone who can really be your friend, as well as your lover. If you are patient, discriminating, and willing to be pleasantly surprised you may just find somebody to love. ¶ Jane Barteau is the pseudonym of a Sonoma County freelance writer.

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Digital Dating Savvy for Single Parents Online dating for the single parent is a little more complex than for the childless. There are many questions: Do you mention that you have kids in your profile? Do you talk about them on a first date? Will anybody even be interested in you? (Yes they will! More on that later.)

Most of the experts think you should mention that you have children (“You teach your kids not to lie, right?,” they say), but mention them only briefly.

Then use your profile to talk about yourself. Same goes for the date itself.

Don’t pull out the wallet of adorable baby photos just yet—give your full attention to the one-on-one connection with your date.

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He is a cat that needs an indoor-only home. He was injured years ago, and his hind leg sticks out. Even though he is handicapped, this guy is full of energy and craves attention.

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Of course, as a relationship progresses there will be issues to address. Your girlfriend or boyfriend may not agree with your parenting style, or may not get along with your co-parent or ex. She or he might not understand that the role of mom or dad is already taken. The list goes on.

Despite these kinds of complexities, the stats show that single parents are successful in the dating world. A recent Match.com study found that 67 percent of men and 59 percent of women would date a single parent. And more than half of single parents prefer dating other single parents. All in all, those are some pretty good odds.

Even better, think about this: A Kinsey Institute study found that single parents of kids under the age of five have just as much sex as singles without children.

So whether or not you see yourself as “dateable,” the data say that you are.

—J. B.

www.mendolakefamilylife.com

February 2015

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Help! My Teenager Fell In Love Online Family Life Talks to an Expert

G

one are the days of kids passing notes in class. Now teens send texts and e-mails across school corridors—and continents. Your child’s first crush could be someone who lives in England, a person she or he has never met, except on Facebook or some other social media venue. Of course, it’s important to talk to your child’s friend or romantic interest, and his or her parents, to establish that these people actually exist and that they aren’t predators. But after you’ve done this, then what? How can you

14 MendoLakeFamilyLife

help your child navigate his or her online relationships? To find out, we asked psychologist Winifred Lloyds Lender, Ph.D., author of A Practical Guide to Parenting in the Digital Age: How to Nurture Safe, Balanced, and Connected Children and Teens

(CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014).

FL: Some children can feel that they have actually fallen in love through texts, Skype calls, and other forms of digital interaction. How should a parent respond to this?

WLL: Parents should take online teen

romances seriously. Teens can develop very strong feelings for those they have relationships with online. They can feel that online relationships are more meaningful to them than any face-to face relationships. Part of this may be due to the fact that they feel less anxious or threatened, and more accepted, by virtual relationships.

Parents should not assume these relationships are not real, and they can provide structure around them.

FL: To what extent should parents support online relationships? Allow phone and Skype calls? Buy tickets to see a friend or romantic interest?

WLL: Parents should strive to create balance for their teens. A balance of real and virtual relationships is important. Limits can be set around the amount of time, and time of day, virtual communication can occur and this can be contingent on maintaining face-to-face relationships and contacts with friends. Parents need to do their

February 2015 www.mendolakefamilylife.com

due diligence around any planned visit of a virtual romantic partner and determine carefully what limits and structure they will set for such a visit. In addition, parents need to have information about the virtual friend and should consider learning more about the friend and contacting their parents.

FL: If a real-time visit happens between two teens who meet online, what kind of guidance can parents give their kids about how to approach it?

WLL: Parents need to know their teen and work with them to explore their teen’s expectations or fantasies about meeting a virtual friend in real life. They should also talk to teens about the structure and limits of such an encounter and what supervision parents will provide.

Role-playing an exit strategy—a way for a teen to remove him or herself from an uncomfortable meeting—is important.

FL: What kinds of expectations do you find teens have of their online interests?

WLL: Some teens believe that online interests will understand them better than their real friends as they can be more open with virtual friends without risking embarrassment they might feel with real world friends. Teens who are socially isolated might feel a quicker and more intense connection to a virtual friend.

FL: What kind of advice can you give to parents who are worried their kids will keep their online romances secret?

WLL: Open communication with teens is key. Parents need to cultivate their relationship with their teens and show interest in all parts of their lives in a supportive way that shows unconditional love. Parents should tell teens that they shouldn’t be afraid to tell them anything and that they want to be helpful and supportive.

FL: Should you have a sex talk with a teen before they meet an online interest? www.mendolakefamilylife.com

WLL: It is important that parents educate their teens about sex before any contact with potential romantic partners, real or virtual. Even though there has been no physical contact, virtual friends can quickly become romantic partners.

Parents need to talk with their teens about this and ensure that they are knowledgeable and safe.

FL: What role does sexting play in teen dating?

WLL: Sexting—the sending of sexually provocative texts, photos, or videos—has become popular among teens and young adults. Recent studies report that 28–54 percent of teens engage in sexting. Drexel University found that 54 percent of teens reported sexting prior to age 18, with some starting as early as 13; and a study at Temple University reported that 25 percent of respondents sexted.

Most often sexting occurs within the context of a romantic relationship. Teens sext often due to peer pressure, and the desire to appear “mature” and to please their romantic partners. While only 8 percent of the respondents in the Drexel study reported experiencing negative consequences as a result of sexting, the consequences of sexting can be severe and life-long. Although sexts are typically meant for a romantic partner, they can be shared with others via forwarding the photo or message, or taking a screen shot of the image and then sending it to others. Twenty-six of the respondents in the Drexel study reported sharing with others sexts that they had received. Anecdotal reports of sexts being shared with an entire school or on social media abound and have led to suicide attempts. Most teens are not aware that sexting between minors is illegal as it can be considered the sending or receiving of child pornography. Educating teens about the illegality of sexting and consequences such as jail time and being registered as a sex offender have been shown to impact teens sexting behavior. ¶ February 2015

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Green Heron See more pictures of birds you’ll find in the North Bay at mendolakefamilylife.com.

You & Your

Budding Birder

Hermit Thrush

Get Friendly with BayArea Winged Ones

By Sara Barry

W

ho hasn’t looked up at a flock of birds flying in perfect synchrony over a lake, and felt a sense of wonder? Kids, especially, are thoroughly charmed by fluttering wings and mellifluent calls. Winter, when other outdoor activities may be limited, is a great time to put up a feeder and have your family get to know these creatures that wander the sky and sit atop trees (and the occasional telephone pole).

If you can’t tell a sparrow from a swallow, don’t worry. Part of the fun is learning—and you and your family can do it together.

16 MendoLakeFamilyLife

Getting Started. You don’t need much to start bird watching.

The first thing to do is easy as pie: Just let your little feathered friends capture your attention— notice them wherever you go. The best time to see them is early morning or late afternoon.

Look right in your backyard, or get fancy and go to wilder places like ponds, marshes, meadows, and wildlife preserves. Both Mendocino and Lake Counties is a great place with some fantastic birding locations. Check out mendolakefamilylife.com for suggestions.

Northern Flicker

Take note of one or two that you spot often and then look them up in a field guide or use an app like Audubon Birds or Merlin from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

February 2015 www.mendolakefamilylife.com

Photos by David Bogener • naturescapes.net

Sonoma County Airport

Your eyes may be the most obvious tool to track birds, but ornithologists use their ears, too, identifying winged ones by sounds as well as sight. Check out allaboutbirds.org, the website of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, to www.mendolakefamilylife.com

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listen to recordings that showcase the different pitches, tones, and rhythms of bird calls and songs.

TS

Once you’ve found a nice pair of binoculars, use a small notebook to track the birds you see.

Encourage your kids to draw pictures or note details: colors of the bird’s body, wings, feet, and beak as well as any distinctive markings; the general shape of the bird, including any unique features such as long legs, long neck, or a large bill or beak; the shape of the wings (pointed or rounded?) and the tail (forked or not?). Lastly, you and the kids can have fun figuring out the size of the bird compared to objects in the house.

Is it smaller than the toothpaste tube?

Bigger than your iPod?

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If you can’t quite identify markings with a naked eye, pick up a pair of binoculars. The website bestbinocularsreviews. com advises that kids do well with low-powered binoculars (a maximum of 8x), which produce brighter images in poor light. A high field of view (FOV), which makes it easier for kids to locate and focus on a distant object, is also helpful. The most important thing, however, is that the binoculars are light, and small enough for your kids to carry and use.

www.sonomacountyairport.org 707.565.7240 Follow STS on

Special “in-house” feeders rest inside your window and have birds pecking at feed practically in your lap.

If You Feed Them, They Will Come. Have you been on the lookout, but have seen nary a feathered critter? Put out the universal welcome sign for animals— food. You can buy a wooden bird feeder, build your own from scratch or a kit, or make a simple one from materials you likely have on hand. (You can even find special “in-house” feeders that rest inside your window and have birds pecking at feed practically in your lap.) The National Museum of Animals and Society suggests spreading peanut butter on toast or a bagel, sprinkling the whole thing with dried fruit or February 2015

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MendoLakeFamilyLife 17

seeds, and then hanging it outside.

You can also try mixing peanut butter with cornmeal and spreading it on a large pinecone.

Birds have a broader palate than you might think; don’t limit their menu to just seeds and peanut butter.

For instance, robins and bluebirds

Anna’s Hummingbird

Birding Hot Spots

House Finch

Bush Creek from Bristol Road, Manchester Caspar Pond, Fort Bragg Glass Beach, Fort Bragg Hunter’s Lagoon, Manchester Highway 1 from Point Arena to Elk Lighthouse Road, Point Arena Mendocino Headlands State Park, Mendocino Navarro River Redwoods State Park & Beach, Elk Stoneboro Road, Manchester Van Damme State Park, Little River

Your Backyard Visitors

What to Look For

So what kinds of birds can you expect to see from your kitchen window? It depends on the kind of feeder and food you use, and what trees and sources of water are in your yard. To find out more about what attracts different kinds of birds, go to Santa Rosa’s Wild Birds Unlimited’s website at santarosa. wbu.com, where you’ll also find a list of birds that frequent our neck of the woods. To find out more about these birds, go to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s terrific Online Bird Guide at birds.cornell.edu/ onlineguide. For the best Sonoma County places to go find them, see colintalcroft.com. Here are a few of our area’s feathered friends to get your family started with bird-watching.

American Goldfinch Anna’s Hummingbird Black-headed Grosbeak California Quail California Towhee Chestnut-back Chickadee Dark-eyed Junco Gold-crowned Sparrow House Finch House Sparrow Lesser Goldfinch Mourning Dove Oak Titmouse Pileated Woodpecker Pine Siskin Purple Finch Spotted Towhee Stellar’s Jay White-breasted Nuthatch White-crowned Sparrow

18 MendoLakeFamilyLife

Acorn Woodpecker

like fruit. The National Audubon Society recommends soaking raisins or currants and then putting them in a table feeder, or hanging orange halves near your feeders.

Seed and fruit don’t just feed your bird-watching habit, they also provide birds much needed sustenance during winter’s

Birds have a broader palate than you might think; don’t limit their menu to just seeds and peanut butter. scarcity. Remember to place your feeder in a safe place away from predators. You don’t want your feathered friends to hang out where they are easy prey for the neighborhood cat.

Build a Home Sweet Home.

Besides food, birds also need a place to rest and birth their young. A well-ventilated box made of untreated wood will do. Pay particular attention to the size of the entrance hole: If it’s too small, it will keep out the birds you may

February 2015 www.mendolakefamilylife.com

hope to attract; if it’s too big, it will let in aggressive birds and predators.

Also make sure to include a baffle to keep away predators.

The Right Bird, Right House tool at allaboutbirds.org will help you build a house suitable for birds likely to nest in your area. You can even find instructions on the site for installing a nest-box camera. However, you don’t have to have your own camera set up to see birds in action. There are web cams all over the world that let viewers in on the day-to-day activities of nesting birds, even those hatching eggs. For a list of cams, see Avibase: The World Bird Database at avibase.bsc-eoc.org/avibase. jsp?lang=EN&pg=home.

Crunch Your Numbers. After you’ve set up your feeder or box, have some fun and count the birds you’ve drawn in. Submit your numbers to the Great Backyard Bird Count, which runs February 13–16 and is sponsored by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society. It takes as little as 15 minutes a day to participate. Check out gbbc.birdcount. org for more details and to sign up.

LAKE COUNTY ACADEMIC DECATHLON

SUPER QUIZ & AWARDS

Theme: New Alternatives in Energy Open to the public

Saturday, February 7

2–5pm Kelseyville High School Competing schools include Clear Lake, Kelseyville and Upper Lake Highs.

Contact Career & College Readiness Department 994-9001

Love Working with Kids?

WORK AT HOME • CHOOSE YOUR OWN HOURS • WORK WITH CHILDREN

Birding is an easy way to hang out with your clan and get to know some of the winged beauties that inhabit the scenic Bay Area. Who knows? Maybe this winter, your new family bird-watching hobby will take flight. ¶ Sara Barry is a writer in Massachusetts who loves seeing the flash of a red cardinal dart across a winter sky.

www.mendolakefamilylife.com

Own Your Own Business • Free Training and other great incentives for attending fun workshops.

• Child Care Assistance for low income eligible families.

• Free Child Care Referrals.

1-800-606-5550 ext. 211 February 2015

Rural Communities Child Care

MendoLakeFamilyLife 19

Family Fun

Valentine’s Day Delights Sweet Ways to Celebrate with Your Honey

H

ire a sitter or bribe a family member and get ready for Valentine’s Day date night. Parents have so many responsibilities that they can forget to pay attention to each other. Now is the time to raise a glass and toast your love for and dedication for one another. Here are some local events to help you do just that (plus a bit of entertainment for the little ones).

Tallman Hotel Treat you and your love’s ears to the sounds of roots-and-folk duo Alisa Fineman and Kimball Hurd at the renovated 19th-century Tallman Hotel in Upper Lake. The duo will give an intimate performance on February 15, 7:30–9 p.m., in the acoustically inviting Riffe’s Meeting House next to the hotel.

Coffee and cookies will be served.

Tickets are $25 and can be purchased by calling 275-2244 ext. 0.

Kimball Hurd and Alisa Fineman

Rosa d’Oro Vineyards Add some frivolity and mystery to your romance at the annual Venetian Masquerade Party in the Rosa d’Oro Vineyards Tasting Room in Kelseyville on February 13, 6–8 p.m. Be serenaded by the music of female vocal ensemble My Divas while you revel in the tastes of four distinctive wines and their accompanying appetizers. Be sure to dress up in a creative costume—you might win a prize for it! Tickets are $20. Call 279-0483 for information and reservations.

20 MendoLakeFamilyLife

Patrona Restaurant and Lounge Rather than go out for drinks, learn to make your own at the Patrona Valentine’s Cocktail Class on February 14, 3–4:30 p.m., at Patrona Restaurant and Lounge in Ukiah. Get recipes for Heart Throb, Fig Smash, Autumn in India, and other concoctions served at the restaurant. Besides the ABCs of cocktail-conjuring, instruction on how to make simple syrups and infuse liqueurs with fresh ingredients will also be offered. To register, call 462-4778 or follow the link at ukiahcoop.com.

February 2015 www.mendolakefamilylife.com

Bob Rider

Charles M. Schulz Museum If you are looking for a family-oriented Valentine’s Day, go to this well-loved Santa Rosa museum. In honor of the object of Charlie Brown’s affection—the Little Red-Haired Girl—all redheaded girls and boys will get free admission into the museum on February 14. The Mad Hatter Valentine’s Day Tea Party will be held from 10 a.m.–12:30 p.m. on the same day. Celebrate the 150th anniversary of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by making your own Cheshire cat-smile, Mad Hatter hats, and cuddly caterpillars. (Redheads get into this event for free, too. It’s $10 for everyone else.) Log on to schulzmuseum.org for details.

Langtry Estate and Vineyards For a little post V-day fun, enjoy nibbles of tasty treats and sips of newly unveiled vino at a Valentine’s Release Party hosted by Langtry Estate and Vineyards in Middletown on February 15, 1–4 p.m.

The winery is located on a picturesque 23,000-acre estate in Lake County’s Guenoc Valley so the eyes, as well as the palate, will be pleased. RSVP

by February 8 by calling 995-7521 or e-mailing info@langtryestate.com.

The event is complimentary to Foley Family Wine Club members and $10 for everyone else.

photography

Family Portraits Individuals • Families • Events BobRiderPhotography.com • (707)245-5321

Community Acupuncture accessible affordable effective Ukiah Start your healthy resolutions today!

Sliding Scale $30-40 - Gift Certificates Available Now 203 S. School St., Ukiah • www.acupunctureukiah.com • 391-9995

Gift Boutique

Ukiah Natural Foods Co-op Take the kids to the Ukiah Natural Foods Co-op in Ukiah on February 10 for some pre-Valentine’s Day craft-making and cooking. Five- to 12-year-olds will make a special art project and then whip up a heart-y treat. Two sessions of the class will be offered: 4–5 p.m. or 5:30–6:30 p.m. The cost for each session is $7 for co-op members, $12 nonmembers.

Parents do not have to be present at the class, so you can go shop for a gift for your sweetheart or take some time for yourself while the kids are being entertained. To register, call 462-4778 or go to ukiahcoop.com. ¶ www.mendolakefamilylife.com

FINE & FASHION JEWELRY Clothing • Cards • Crystals • Coloring Books Unique Local and Imported Gifts

February 1-14 Spin the Wheel for an Extra Gift!

101 S. Main St. • Ukiah • 462-4010 February 2015

MendoLakeFamilyLife 21

February Calendar of Events

Celebrate the Chinese New Year

U

nlike westerners who devote only one day to celebrating the New Year, China celebrates the event for 15 days. Lantern festivals, featuring glowing paper lights, happen on the last day of festivities. The Instilling Goodness and Developing Virtue School, affiliated with the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, will host its version of a lantern festival on February 28, 2–5 p.m., at the Alex Thomas Plaza in Ukiah. The festival will feature performances, games, food, and cultural booths. See visitmendocino. com/lantern-festival for more information. ¶

Sunday 1

Tuesday 3

FREE First Fiddlers’ Jam. Listen to

FREE Music Together. Take part

some terrific fiddle tunes played by members of the Northern California Old Time Fiddlers Group. Noon–2 p.m. Ely Stage Stop. 9921 Soda Bay Rd. (Hwy. 128), Kelseyville.

in this internationally recognized early childhood enrichment program.

Tuesdays. 9:45–10:30 a.m. Action Network. 198 Main St., Point Arena.

Fridays. 10–10:45 a.m. 39144 Ocean Dr., Suites 3 & 4, Gualala. 884-5413. actionnetwork.info.

FREE Kids Fun Day! Sports, skateboarding, inline skating, snack shop, Bible time & more. Grades 1–12.

Adult supervision. Parental permission slips required. Sundays. 4–6 p.m.

Lucerne Community Church. 5870 East Hwy. 20, Lucerne. 274-8326. lucernecommunitychurch.com.

Monday 2 Groundhog Day Fundraiser Dinner.

All profits go to the Mendocino Outdoor Science School for much-needed medical equipment & wilderness first aid training.

Reservations recommended. 5:30–8 p.m. MacCallum House. 45020 Albion St., Mendocino. 937-0289. maccallumhouse.com.

FREE Beading Class. Mondays.

6-8 p.m. Family Resource Center.

76450 Airport Rd., Covelo. 983-6262. mendochildren.org.

22 MendoLakeFamilyLife

FREE AWANA Kids Club. For kids from 3 years to sixth grade. It’s a great night of games, Bible & fun. Tuesdays.

6:30–8 p.m. Clear Lake Baptist Church. 555 N. Forbes St., Lakeport.

263-3256. clearlakebaptistchurch.org.

FREE Lego Hour. Tuesdays. 3–4 p.m.

Ukiah Library. 105 N. Main St., Ukiah.

463-4153. co.mendocino.ca.us.

Wednesday 4 FREE Bilingual Preschool Story Hour. Wednesdays. 11 a.m.–noon.

Ukiah Library. 105 N. Main St., Ukiah.

463-4153. co.mendocino.ca.us.

FREE Mendocino Museum.

Free first Wednesday of each month. 10 a.m.– 4:30 p.m. 400 E. Commercial St., Willits. 459-2736. mendocinomuseum.org.

FREE Play Group. Kids 5 & under.

Parents welcome, too! Wednesdays.

10 a.m.–noon. Action Network. 39144 Ocean Dr., Suites 3 & 4, Gualala.

884-5413. actionnetwork.info.

FREE Building Fun with Blocks & Pipes. Wednesdays. 3–4 p.m. Ukiah Library. 105 N. Main St., Ukiah.

463-4153. co.mendocino.ca.us.

Thursday 5 FREE Story Time at Redbud Library.

Pre-school story time with stories, crafts & fun. Older children & babies are welcome, too. Thursdays.

11 a.m.–noon. 14785 Burns Valley Rd., Clearlake. 994-5115. library. co.lake.ca.us.

FREE Middletown Chess Club. All ages/skill levels. Some extra sets available. Got chess gear? Bring it!

Thursdays. 1–5 p.m. Middletown Library. Community Room. 21256 Washington St., Middletown. 987-0166.

Friday 6 FREE Grace Hudson Museum. First

Friday of each month. 10 a.m.– 4:30 p.m. 400 E. Commercial St., Willits.

467.2836. mendocinomuseum.org.

February 2015 www.mendolakefamilylife.com

FREE Story Time at Lakeport Library. Fridays. 10:15 a.m. & 3 p.m.

1425 N. High St., Lakeport. 263-8817. library.co.lake.ca.us.

FREE Tax Time! Hosted by

Mother-Wise. We will have some general good info, help on who in our area you can call, & tips on getting organized for tax time! Join us & share your knowledge or maybe learn something new. 10 a.m.–noon.

St. John’s Lutheran Church. 14310 Memory Ln., Clearlake. (No religious affiliation.) To reserve your spot today, call 245-4335. facebook.com/ MotherWiseLakeCounty.

FREE Children’s Story Hour at Round Valley Library. Fridays. 11

a.m.–noon. 23925 Howard St., Covelo.

983-6736. mendochildren.org.

FREE Crochet for Kids. Kids are asked to bring a crochet hook & a small amount of yarn. Some extra supplies will be available for those who aren’t able to bring their own.

Participants will start with a simple project & progress. Ages 5–13. Lake County Library. 310 2nd St., Upper Lake. Fridays 3 p.m. 275-2049. library.co.lake.ca.us.

Saturday 7 FREE Family Story Time. Saturdays.

1–2 p.m. Ukiah Library. 105 N. Main St., Ukiah. 463-4153. co.mendocino.ca.us.

FREE Saturday Morning Matinee.

Family-friendly movies first Saturday of each month. Current releases & old favorites; animated & live-action films.

Children must be accompanied by an

RIVER OAK CHARTER SCHOOL

adult. 10:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Lakeport Library. 1425 N. High St., Lakeport.

263-8817. library.co.lake.ca.us.

Miss Mendocino County 2015 Scholarship Pageant. Come support

the 2015 contestants. Tickets $20. Feel free to invite family & friends. The program is a part of the Miss America Organization, one of the largest providers of scholarships for young women. 7 p.m. Ukiah High School.

1000 Low Gap Rd., Ukiah.

Salvage Shop. The resale shop offers

a wide range of used (& some new) merchandise that has been salvaged at the transfer station (aka, the dump) at very affordable prices. Open first Saturday of the month. 9 a.m.–2 p.m.

Ukiah Transfer Station. 3151 Taylor Dr., Ukiah. 234-6400. candswaste.com.

Now Accepting Kindergarten Registration

Kindergarten – 8 Grade A Free Public School – Established in 1999 th

Open Enrollment Feb. 2-26 Steiner-methods/common core standards, Foreign language, Instrumental music, Art, Woodwork, Drama, Leadership

555 Leslie St., Ukiah, CA 95482 (707) 467-1855 www.riveroakcharterschool.org www.mendolakefamilylife.com

Ukiah Independent Study Academy Serving K-12

Flex Time & Days • Tailored Learning Eligible for UHS Sports • Middle College Opportunity College & Career Readiness • WASC Accredited

UKIAH UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

1000 Low Gap Rd., Ukiah • 707-472-5906 February 2015

MendoLakeFamilyLife 23

FREE Whale Watching at MacKerricher State Park. Docents

talk about the annual gray whale migration & about other marine mammals seen along the Mendocino coast. Saturdays & Sundays. 11 a.m.

Park located 3 miles north of Fort Bragg on Hwy. 1, near the town of Cleone. 961-0471. fortbragg.com.

Celebration of the Heart. In support

of the American Heart Association & National Heart Month, enjoy an afternoon of wine, chocolate & wellness. Complimentary wine tasting, healthy food & chocolate

sampling, vendors, massages & helpful tips on taking good care of your heart. Wine sale & door prizes.

Don’t forget to wear red! 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Barra of Mendocino. 7051 N. State St., Redwood Valley. 485.0322. visitmendocino.com.

FREE Mardi Gras Celebration.

Parade downtown at noon. Cajun & Creole–inspired potluck following the parade. Bring a dish to share. All ages welcome. Children should be attended by an adult. Beads & costumes encouraged (some available at the event). 11:30 a.m.–3 p.m. Greenwood

Community Center. 6129 S. Hwy. 1, Elk. 877-1788. elkweb.org.

FREE Queen of Hearts Party at Ukiah Library. Includes puppet

show, circle games, valentine crafts, story time & treats. All ages welcome.

Parents are requested to stay with their children. 10–11:30 a.m. Ukiah Library.

105 N. Main St., Ukiah. 463-4153. co.mendocino.ca.us.

West Africa Meets Americana.

Mamajowali will blend the sounds of kamale ngoni (African hunter’s harp) with six-string guitar, percussion, fiddle, mandolin & voices. Adults $20.

Students & seniors $15. 7:30 p.m. Holy Trinity Church. 640 S. Orchard Ave., Ukiah. 462-8042. holytrinityukiah.org.

Ninth Annual Wine & Chocolate.

Join us for an afternoon of wine & food tasting while supporting the programs & services of Lake Family Resource Center. Tickets $40 advance. $50 at the door. Mt. Konocti Winery & Event Center. 2550 Big Valley Rd., Kelseyville. Noon–4 p.m. 279-0563. bethb@lakefrc.org. lakefrc.org.

Sunday 8 Anne Frank Comes to Life on Stage

M

ore than one million children died in the Holocaust. The diary of Anne Frank, a Jewish girl who died in a Nazi prison camp in 1945, became a voice for all of them. The play The Diary of Anne Frank, which is based on Frank’s reflective adolescent writings, tells the story of how she and seven others lived in a secret storage attic for two years before eventually being found by the Nazis in 1944. Wendy Kesselman’s new adaptation of the play will be performed at the Ukiah Players Theatre in Ukiah from February 19 to March 15; Thursdays at 7 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. To purchase tickets, which are $12–$20, go to ukiahplayerstheatre.org or call 462-9226. ¶

24 MendoLakeFamilyLife

Crab & Tri-tip Feast. Hosted by the Redwood Empire Lions Club. Adults $40. Ages 10 & under $20. $5 more at the door. Tickets at DFM Auto Repair.

Redwood Empire Fairgrounds. 1055 N. State St., Ukiah. Doors open at noon.

Serving 12:30–2:30 p.m. 463-2238.

Benefit Breakfast. Includes sausage, eggs, pancakes & drinks. Supports the Lake County Sheriff’s Activity League, including Jr. Giants, boxing, theatre arts & more. $7. Kelseyville Lions Club. 4335 Sylar Ln., Kelseyville. 8–11 a.m. lakeconews.com.

February 2015 www.mendolakefamilylife.com

FREE Free Monthly Movie.

Community gathering for documentaries, vital issues & empowering movies. United Methodist Church. 3810 Main St., Kelseyville. 3–5 p.m. 889-7355. visitkelseyville.com.

Tuesday 10 FREE Be Mine! Hosted by

Mother-Wise. This week we will be doing Valentine’s Day crafts.

Join us & give your baby an opportunity to get a little messy!

Tuesdays. 1–3 p.m. 1950 Parallel Dr., Lakeport. 349-2873. facebook.com/ MotherWiseLakeCounty.

FREE Poetry Outloud Finals & Poetry Slam. High school poets

from Ukiah, Point Arena, Mendocino & Fort Bragg will compete for the

chance to become the Mendocino County representative at the Poetry Outloud State Finals in Sacramento. 4 p.m. Coast High School Poetry Slam featuring original work follows at 4:45 p.m. Arena Theater. 214 Main St., Point Arena. blake@snakelyone.com. mendonoma.com.

FREE Valentine’s Kids Class.

Your children will create a great Valentine’s Day art project & enjoy creating a special treat to share with family & friends. Ages 5–12.

Drop-off class. $12 nonmembers/$7 members. 4–5 p.m. Ukiah Natural Foods. 749 C South State St., Ukiah.

462-4778. ukiahcoop.com.

FREE The Pink Panther. Enjoy your favorite classic movie on the big screen.

Donations graciously accepted at

the box office. Soper-Reese Theatre.

275 S. Main St., Lakeport. Movie begins 1 p.m. & 6 p.m. 263-0577. soperreesetheatre.com.

Wednesday 11 FREE Accessory Party. Fundraiser

featuring a silent auction, live cake auction & refreshments. If available, bring a piece of jewelry, purse/ handbag, scarf, hat, etc. of new or almost new quality to donate.

Proceeds benefit Laytonville Healthy Start Family Resource Center. Harwood Hall. 44400 Willis Ave., Laytonville. 5:30–7:30 p.m.

984-8089. laytonville.org.

Thursday 12 Children’s Chinese New Year’s

Celebration Parade. Join us in School Offices Open for Enrollment August 6

Now Accepting Kindergarten Registration

Parents Count

You can have a voice in your child's education Family health care for all of Lake County.

HOSPITAL SERVICES 707-262-5000 COMMUNITY CLINIC 707-263-6885 AFTER HOURS CARE 707-262-5088

Here's how: • Attend monthly School Site Council Meetings.

• Support your school Parent/Teacher Association.

• Volunteer for school and/or classroom activities.

• Attend Back to School Nights in the fall and Open House in the spring.

• Visit the district's website and learn about current events (www.uusd.net).

UKIAH UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

sutterlakeside.org

www.mendolakefamilylife.com

511 S. ORCHARD AVE., UKIAH • 707-472-5000

February 2015

MendoLakeFamilyLife 25

celebration of the Chinese New Year. Parade begins at 10:30 a.m. at the corners of Ukiah & Lansing Streets and ends at the Temple of Kwan Tai. Special banquet & no-host bar at 6:30 p.m. $40 per person. Seating limited. Crown Hall. 45285 Ukiah St., Mendocino.

937-5123. visitmendocino.com.

Friday 13 Venetian Masquerade at Rosa d’Oro. Enjoy

distinctive wines paired with appetizers, a costume contest & entertainment. $20. Main

St., Kelseyville. 6–8 p.m. 279-0483. visitkelseyville.com.

Saturday 14 FREE Friends of Boggs Mountain Trail Maintenance. Bring water, work

gloves & hand tools, such as loppers or clippers. 9–11 a.m. Boggs Mountain State Park. Forestry Rd., Middletown.

928-0465. boggsmountain.net.

Center (formerly the Sons of Italy hall). 2817 E. Hwy. 20, Nice. 5–11 p.m.

349-4226. lakeconews.com.

FREE Decades Concert. Music from

the 1950s to modern sounds. Come join the fun! Konocti Vista Casino.

2755 Rancheria Rd., Lakeport. 8 p.m.

262-1900. konocti-vista-casino.com.

Tuesday 17

Seventh Annual Lights of Love

FREE Smile Bright. When those

Fundraiser. Hosted by the Upper Lake High School Booster Club.

Happy hour, buffet-style dinner & live dance music. $25. North Shore Event

little teeth start popping through, it’s hard to know how to care for them. Join us & get the right info. Pick up some teething tips & tricks. 1–3 p.m. 1950 Parallel Dr., Lakeport. 349-2873. facebook.com/ MotherWiseLakeCounty.

Thursday 19 The Diary of Anne Frank. An

impassioned drama about the lives of eight people hiding from the Nazis in a concealed storage attic, seen through the eyes of a young girl. This is a new adaptation for a new generation.

Ukiah Players Theatre. 1041 Low Gap Rd., Ukiah. Thursdays. 7 p.m. Fridays & Saturdays. 8 p.m. Sundays. 2 p.m.

Show runs thru March 15. 462-9226. ukiahplayerstheatre.org.

Top-notch Kid Musicians Perform

L

isten to the sound of young talent blooming at the Young People’s Chamber Orchestra concert on February 24, 7:30–8:30 p.m., at Cloverdale Performing Arts Center in Cloverdale. The orchestra, which is a group of young string players trained to give nuanced performances without a conductor, has collaborated with such soloists as Midori and Lindsay Deutsch, and is the past winner of the Berkeley Junior Bach Festival. The Young People’s Chamber Orchestra is modeled after the renowned New Century Chamber Orchestra, and is the first youth ensemble of its kind in northern California. Tickets for the event are $7 and can be purchased at cloverdaleperformingarts.com or at the Mail Center in Cloverdale. ¶

26 MendoLakeFamilyLife

Saturday 21 FREE Know Lake County.

Family-friendly series. Third Saturday of each month. February thru December. Topics include many facets of Lake County, including human & natural history, outdoor recreation, science & performing arts & programs for children. 2 p.m. Lakeport Library.

1425 N. High St., Lakeport. 263-8817. co.lake.ca.us.

February 2015 www.mendolakefamilylife.com

Polar Plunge. A unique opportunity for individuals, organizations & businesses to support local Special Olympics athletes by jumping or running into a chilly body of water in the middle of winter! Lakeside County Park, Kelseyville. 11:45 a.m.: costume judging. Noon: plunge.

12:30–3 p.m.: plunge festivities. (925) 944-8801 ext. 204. JeffH@sonc.org. kelseyville.kintera.org.

FREE Redbud Audubon Society Guided Bird & Nature Walk. Bring

binoculars, water, snacks, or lunch.

Winter months may be very cold, so be sure to dress appropriately. 9 a.m. Clear Lake State Park, 5300 Soda Bay Rd., Kelseyville. 263-4977. redbudaudubon.org.

Sunday 22 St. Mary’s Mardi Gras. Family fun New Orleans–style. Children’s carnival, live & silent auction, food. Free admission. Redwood Empire Fairgrounds. 1055 N. State St., Ukiah. 11 a.m.–3 p.m. 462-3338. stmarysukiah.org.

(No religious affiliation.) St. John’s Lutheran Church. 14310 Memory Ln., Clearlake. 245-4335. facebook. com/MotherWiseLakeCounty.

Saturday 28 FREE Technology Petting Zoo. Try

out an iPad, Galaxy Tab, Kindle Fire & Nexus 7 tablet. Bring in your own devices to get help. Library staff will demonstrate how to download free e-books from the library. 1–3 p.m. Lake County Library. 310 2nd St., Upper Lake.

275-2049. co.lake.ca.us.

FREE Annual Lantern Festival.

Hosted by the Instilling Goodness & Developing Virtue School (City of Ten Thousand Buddhas).

Performances, games, food & cultural booths. 2–5 p.m. Alex Thomas Plaza. 300 State St., Ukiah.

462-6789. downtownukiah.com.

Young People’s Chamber Orchestra.

Friday 27 FREE Babysitting 101. It

is so hard to trust someone with your little one.

We will be discussing some good questions to ask a new babysitter & red flags to look for. 10 a.m.–noon. www.mendolakefamilylife.com

Seafood Boil Auction. Includes

tri-tip, lobster tail & traditional seafood, two drink tickets, bottomless soft drinks, water, & complimentary wine tasting. $75.

5:30–9 p.m. Highlands Senior Service Center. 3245 Bowers Ave., Clearlake. 490-5681.

Window to the Universe. Includes

classroom presentation, planetarium experience & telescope viewing of the night skies. Taylor Observatory.

5725 Oak Hills Ln., Kelseyville. 8–11 p.m. Adults $5. Children under 12 $3. 262-4121. taylorobservatory.org.

Annual Crab Feed. Dinner, live & silent auction, raffle prizes. $60. Benefits the Boys & Girls Club of Ukiah. Redwood Empire Fairgrounds. 1055 N. State St.,

Tuesday 24 These young musicians will amaze you! This orchestra has performed in Europe, Carnegie Hall & San Francisco. $7. 7:30–8:30 p.m.

Cloverdale Performing Arts Center.

209 N. Cloverdale Blvd., Cloverdale.

894-2214. cloverdaleperformingarts.com.

Ukiah. Doors open at 5 p.m.

467-4900. ukiahbgc.org.

Windshields

$

Starting at

99

Price Less Auto Glass

Our mobile unit comes to you

plus installation

Chip Repair

$

39

95

February 2015

707-463-1638

2350 North State St. Ukiah Same location as Warranty Motors

MendoLakeFamilyLife 27

Cooking with Kids

Cupid’s Calzone

By John Corippo

A Dad’s Recipe for Love W

ho needs heart-shaped candies and over-priced roses? Leave those trappings for the less creative. A meal made by the hands of the people Mom loves will please her more than anything that Cupid or Hallmark could cook up.

This recipe for homemade calzone is easy to prepare and doesn’t create much of a mess. The more daring can make the dough from scratch, but I have had great luck with the freshly prepared dough found in

Easy Calzone

Directions

Ingredients

Preheat oven to 400°F.

• 2 fresh pizza dough balls • Marinara sauce • Mozzarella cheese • Parmesan cheese, grated • Pepperoni, fresh basil, olives, or favorite fillings • Dipping sauces such as marinara or ranch dressing

Give Mom dinner, made from scratch.

most supermarkets. Your little ones can help with everything from rolling out the dough and cutting out the heart shapes to picking out and using their (or Mom’s) favorite fillings. The more involved the kids are in making the dish, the more pride and love they will feel when they present it to Mom. Serve the calzone with a green salad and a heart-shaped dessert—and don’t forget to do the dishes. A clean kitchen will make your masterpiece taste that much better to Mom.

Roll out the pizza dough and cut out four heart shapes of equal size, two hearts from each ball of dough. It’s helpful to cut out a heart from an old aluminum pie tin, and use it as a form for cutting out the dough. (If it’s not Valentine’s Day, roll out two circles from each ball to make one big calzone instead of two heart-shaped ones.) Place hearts or circles onto a floured surface to prevent sticking. Place a thin layer of marinara sauce, Mozzarella cheese, and desired fillings on top of one piece of dough. Don’t use too much as the filling could bubble over while cooking and create a mess. Top with the matching piece of dough and crimp the edges together with a fork. Brush a light coat of olive oil on the top and dust with grated Parmesan cheese. If making a heart-shaped calzone, repeat with the second pair of dough pieces. Bake calzones on pizza stone or baking tray for 10–15 minutes, until the crust is lightly browned but cooked through. Serve with desired dipping sauce. Serves 4.

Pizza Dough

Directions

Ingredients • 1 package yeast

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 tablespoon sugar

• 3 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 cup warm water

• 3 cups flour

Combine yeast, sugar, and warm water in a large bowl.

Let sit for 5 minutes. In a separate bowl, combine salt, olive oil, and flour. Add flour mixture to yeast mixture. Put dough in a warm place and let rise for 1–2 hours. When dough has doubled in size, it is ready to use.

John Corippo lives in Ukiah, where he is a husband and father to two sons as well as a fire captain, paramedic, hazmat specialist, journalist, college instructor, avid sports fan, and stand-up paddleboard representative.

28 MendoLakeFamilyLife

February 2015 www.mendolakefamilylife.com

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Call for Free Consultation 462-8098 245 E Perkins St. Ukiah • 707-462-8098 Business Hours: Mon-Fri 8am-6pm www.mendolakefamilylife.com

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February 2015

MendoLakeFamilyLife 29

Humor Break

Puppy Love Who Has Mom’s Heart— Dad, Daughter, or Dog?

By Patrick Hempfing

“M

attie, will you be my valentine?”

On February 1, I’ll pose this question to my wife of almost 30 years. She’ll be noncommittal. Over the 14 days that follow, I’ll continue to romance Mattie with poems, small gifts, and various acts of service in an effort to convince her that I’m the valentine for her. Finally, late in the evening on Valentine’s Day, Mattie will say, “Yes, I’ll be your valentine this year.”

We started playing this game before we were married. It’s not easy to come up with fresh rhymes 14 times each February, even for a writer. A wiser man would have quit years ago. Things got a little easier when my ten-year-old daughter, Jessie, was younger and joined in the efforts to convince her mom to select me.

Unfortunately, over the last few years my proponent turned into my opponent as Jessie started lobbying for Mattie to choose her instead of me.

Could Valentine’s Day get any more challenging? Surprisingly, yes.

Jessie is now also campaigning on behalf of our dog, Sadie, who joined in the competition to be Mattie’s valentine. She sends e-mails and hand-written notes signed by the 30 MendoLakeFamilyLife

dog. They often come with drawings or cut-out hearts, and some are even stamped with an inked dog paw. How can I compete with dog love?

Recently, though, I witnessed a beautiful display of love that didn’t involve poetry, flowers, chocolate, or removing ink from a dog’s paw. It did, however, involve hair. Jessie had nine inches of her locks cut off so that she

Thank goodness dogs can’t talk—unless, of course, they are competing to be my wife’s sweetheart. could donate them to an organization that makes wigs for women fighting cancer. The whole family came to watch the big event. The beauty salon should have sold tickets.

As the hairdresser formed two tight ponytails to prepare Jessie’s hair for the big chop, my mind wandered back to a scene in our kitchen years ago when Mattie gave Jessie her first haircut. At the time, I highly questioned Mattie’s decision to cut Jessie’s hair as her haircutting experience was limited to our first dog, which she left with barely enough

fur to cover its behind. Thank goodness dogs can’t talk—unless, of course, they are competing to be my wife’s sweetheart.

The hairdresser cut off Jessie’s two ponytails and carefully placed them in a plastic bag, then posed with our pretty, short-haired girl for some pictures. At home, we addressed a padded envelope and then slid in the bag containing Jessie’s lovely locks.

Many times, I’ve left the post office feeling happy knowing that a card, letter, or photo I had mailed would make someone’s day, but nothing compares to the feeling I felt when I sent off my daughter’s hair to help someone with cancer. I won’t soon forget it. We were raising a daughter who knew that love could be expressed in many ways.

I’m confident that in the days ahead, I’ll overcome the rivalry of my dog and win Mattie’s heart for another year. But the real winner of this friendly Valentine’s Day competition will be a generous ten-year-old girl with a very cute new do. She showed all of us what true love looks like. ¶ Editor’s note: To learn more about hair donation, see pantene.com/en-us/ experience-main-section2/beautiful-lengths and locksoflove.org.

Patrick Hempfing is a stay-at-home dad and writer. Follow him at www. facebook.com/patricklhempfing.

February 2015 www.mendolakefamilylife.com

Ukiah Unified School District

Ukiah Unified Kindergarten Enrolling Now

2015-16 Kindergarten Registration and Transitional Kindergarten Registration Students age 5 by September 1, 2015 will be enrolled in Kindergarten Students turning 5 between Sept. 2 and Dec. 2, 2015 are eligible to enroll in our Transitional Kindergarten Program Estudiantes de 5 años de edad para el 1 de septiembre del 2015 serán inscritos en el Kinder.

Estudiantes de 5 años de edad entre el 2 de septiembre y el 2 de diciembre del 2015 son elegibles para inscribir en nuestro programa de Kinder Transicional.

Registration forms available at school offices and at www.uusd.net WHY ENROLL IN A UUSD SCHOOL?

• Class size reduction in grade K-3 (24-1) • Fully credentialed teachers • After-school programs • Transportation available • Intervention in reading and math available at all schools • Healthy snack provided during break • Neighborhood schools • Dual Immersion Magnet School – Grace Hudson School • Common Core State Standards • Latest State approved textbooks and curriculum in Language Arts and Math

Calpella Elementary 151 Moore Street 472-5630

Nokomis Elementary 495 Washington Ave. 472-5550

Oak Manor Elementary Grace Hudson Elementary 400 Oak Manor Dr. 251 Jefferson Lane 472-5180 472-5460

Frank Zeek Elementary 1060 Bush St. 472-5100 Yokayo Elementary 790 S. Dora 472-5690

Ukiah Independent Study Academy 1000 Low Gap Rd. 472-5906

When Feeling Better Can’t Wait ...

Rapid Care is here.

Rapid Care is Open After-Hours & Weekends Rapid Care is designed for urgent, but non-life-threatening conditions. Our staff of highly trained medical professionals are ready to care for your urgent need. We treat cuts, bumps and sprains, minor skin rash, ear infections, mild asthma, flu and pneumonia, animal bites, fever, sinus infections and other minor illnesses and injuries.

Pediatrics 707.463.7459

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Walk-Ins Welcome.

Open After-Hours and Weekends.

Accepting Medicare, Medi-Cal and all forms of insurance.

Family Practice 707.463.7488