Today was the second annual “Jew Help A Christian Day”, i.e. the second consecutive Christmas Eve I’ve driven across town to spend a few hours helping my friend Jen get ready for her big family dinner. (Last year’s recap is HERE.) I had a BLAST, which is something I don’t normally say when I’m cleaning and cooking in my own house. Something to work on. Anyway, last week I asked Jen what was on the menu for this year and it came up in conversation that, among other things, she was going to have me remove seeds from a pomegranate. I was clueless about the task: to be honest, I’ve…
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I’d Like To Thank The Academy (And Mari)
Back in the Golden Age of blogging (2008-09ish), blog awards were flying around like toasters on a screensaver in the early ’90s. It wasn’t unusual to be awarded multiple times in a month for being crafty, friendly, prolific, just plain awesome, or a myriad of other traits. The awards all “required” that, in order to accept them, you had to pass them on via tagging other bloggers and then jump through a series of hoops in a blog post. Awards made for great blog fodder and, after fulfilling the requirements on each one, we used to post them proudly in our sidebars. Over the past couple of years, I haven’t…
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Grand Theft Auto
See this guy? That’s my friend Fred, otherwise known all over the internet as Mocha Dad. (Totally famous, you guys.) Mocha Dad and I go way back. Well, in internet years, anyway. Even though he lives in Texas, I’ve been lucky enough to spend time with him on multiple occasions: at a couple of conferences, over breakfast when he was in Chicago for business a while back, and most recently, last month in Detroit at an immersion event with OnStar and a bunch of other awesome bloggers. While in Detroit, Mocha Dad and I did the following things: 1. Spent more time than the average driver/passenger combo in one of…
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OnStar Immersion!
I have used lots of words on this here blog talking (err, writing) about how much I love OnStar and all of the technology that goes with it. It’s always a treat when I get to borrow a car from General Motors and have a week or so to press that little blue OnStar button for directions and other assistance. That’s why I was thrilled to be invited, with a group of other bloggers, to experience an OnStar Immersion Experience in Detroit last month. (Disclosure: OnStar provided my transportation, food, and accommodations for the weekend trip without requiring anything from me: I’m writing this post because I want to, and,…
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Somebody’s Gotta Do It.
It’s probably not news to you, but I’m very extroverted. I can talk to just about anyone, I’m very comfortable in group situations, and I do tend to, as my sister calls it, “always choose the Fun Pass”. (My sister ORIGINATED the Fun Pass, by the way. We’re good at Fun.) A dear friend I’ve known since high school is not extroverted. (Nothing wrong with that!) In fact, we’ve had countless conversations over the years about how anti-social and introverted she is, in direct comparison to my place on the other end of the spectrum. If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard her say, “I’m just not…
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Monkey See, Monkey Draw
Every now and then, magic happens on Twitter. It’s more rare these days because just about everyone (myself included) is tweeting out lots of links and not always engaging as much as they (I) used to, but still, magic can happen. I have found that the best Twitter interactions for me are the ones that either stem from or lead to something that happens IRL (in real life). With that in mind, some examples of my favorite Twitter moments, in no particular order, are as follows: 1. The roadtrip known as Momo’s Meat Wagon played out in 2009 over Twitter with so many of our friends chiming in and having…
- Amazing People, Best Thing Ever, Blessings, Friends, My Friends Have Mad Skillz, Something That Could Change Your Life, We Are An Awesome Couple
My Favorite Things: The New Jersey Edition (Yo!)
Yesterday was my last day in New Jersey and, because she’s real smart like that, Liz thought we should go out to breakfast and do a little more local sightseeing in the area rather than sit around at her house, crying because we had to say goodbye in the afternoon, which totally would have happened. During a lovely walk in Thompson Park—which is NOT named after Liz or her husband Garth (Not His Real Name); I checked!!–we talked about our week and I told her that I didn’t even have a favorite part; the entire visit was my favorite. That was only a little true. I have some favorites, but…
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Concrete Jungle
New York City’s Central Park is amazing. I have been there several times and there’s always something new to see. I was looking forward to walking around there on Wednesday afternoon, and as Liz and I moseyed through the winding paths I took tons of pictures. All of the scenery is impressive, really. I mean, check out this gorgeous view of The Mall, the main walkway that runs down the center of the Park on its southern end. The beauty that nature provides was only half of it. I am, for some reason, drawn to concrete ornamentation. Central Park is full of it and I created quite a collection of…
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Having Fun, Wish You Were Here!
I’m sure it’s not surprising to you that I’m having a blast in New Jersey. Yesterday I saw some amazing sights, including the recently built “World’s Tallest Sandcastle” (officially, even!) at Point Pleasant Beach. It BLEW ME AWAY. Liz and I are out the door again in a bit, heading to Manhattan to see our sweet friend Patty from Enjoying This Life. I can’t wait! But I need to get ready to go so I have to keep this short and sweet. Don’t think I’m leaving you without something to read, though. Go read my highly entertaining (it is!) post about how I got to return to one of the…
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Greetings From New Jersey!
I have been waiting for this day for what seems like forever (amazing how three and a half months can feel like forever!): I’m back in the same state–the same room, even!–as my sistuh-from-anuthuh-mutha. I’m so excited to be here I might possibly cry at some point. It’s been interesting, telling people before today that I was going to New Jersey. I got questions like, “Why would you go there?” and funny looks ranging anywhere from scowling to nose crinkling to head shaking. New Jersey has a bad rap. In fact, I was going to embed a video of Fred Armisen portraying former New York governor David Paterson on SNL…