When I was seven years old, I ate nine extra-large, perfectly unspotted, starchy sweet bananas in the space of ten minutes.  I’m not sure why I kept methodically eating banana after banana after banana as if I was in some kind of food challenge for kindergarteners, or why my mother made no move to stop me going down what was surely the path to utter self-destruction, but I soon learned a very important and painful lesson, a lesson that has not lost its turgid, sweaty immediacy twenty five years later:  Too many bananas will block you up big time. They will seriously mess you up. At seven I was doubled over in pain, bargaining with god, that’s how bad it was. Maybe it was my abhorrence of any spots on my bananas that made me feel as if I had to eat every one of those beautiful golden bananas in the bunch as soon as they lost the greenish tint and before anything marred their perfect yellow peels. I was, like many children, suspicious of adults who claimed that brown, mottled bananas were “just as good,” even sweeter than the unblemished and firm bananas that I preferred. Spots of gushy rot greeted me when I peeled back the flecked outer covering of a forlorn banana, and my seven year old self found this abhorrent.  Years later, I still find blemished bananas less than appealing. (Ha! Ha! And Ha!) But grown-up Roya has accepted the fact that brown spots happen, that life is too hectic to simply sit and wait for that perfect banana moment, and that sometimes you have to eat the bananas you’ve been dealt and simply scoop out the rotten bits with a spoon.  Banana Bread (Courtesy of Food network) Ingredients 1 cup granulated sugar 8 tablespoons...

This was supposed to be part II of my rant against the current state of customer service in California.  I wanted to share with you some sweet tips for saving money and getting the service you deserve.  Part of my rise to guru status was the new and FREE wireless router I got from AT&T.  However, my step by step guide to getting what you want, when you want fell apart when said router failed to meet minimum operating standards.  The big issue: it doesn’t connect to the server.  (In case you are wondering, yes, it is a Gateway 2Wire.)  I will put my proven methods to the test once more and be back in two weeks with my foolproof method for getting the customer service you deserve. Until then, I will ask you for your thoughts on something I’ve been ruminating on for the past few months and that’s memories.  We all have them.  If you’re following the beating of Brian Stow story then you know how unreliable eyewitness testimony of a crime is.  But, what about simply being an eyewitness to an event that only holds significance for you and you alone? I ask this because this past weekend my wife and I took our son to a Huntington Library Members event.  The event included live music and the option of picnicking on their lavish grounds during sunset after regular hours.  It was beautiful, but that’s not what I’m going to remember. My wife, mother-in-law, and I set a blanket down and had fruit, sandwiches, chips, and cold pasta salad, unfortunately forgetting the wine and dessert at home.  My blue-eyed, blonde-haired son grabbed a peeled banana, one of his favorite fruits, and simply walked away.  After about ten feet he dropped his...