After yesterday’s announcement, I was pretty keyed up and had the absolute worst night of sleep in recent memory. It took me two hours to fall asleep in bed because I was thinkingthinkingthinking, and I was wide awake again after about two hours because I was thinkingthinkingthinking. I came downstairs at about 3:30 a.m., turned on the television and opened the ole’ laptop. I worked on a post, checked emails, and scrolled Facebook–but not for long because my friends were all sleeping at the time and there were few updates posted since I had gone to bed earlier. I finally went back to sleep on the couch and got about…
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Old Is Relative.
In celebration of my being the birthday girl today, I decided to take a year off from my usual “reflection route” and share with you some cold, hard facts about just how old I am. Here is a (partial) list of things that are younger than I am: ~Post-it notes ~Pong, the first video game ~Southwest Airlines ~Vince Vaughn ~Wendy’s fast food chain ~Saturday Night Live ~The Nasdaq ~Walt Disney World I’m younger than television and sliced bread, though, so at least I’ve got that going for me. Want to make this a long-term commitment? (Great birthday gift to me, by the way.) Please subscribe to my feed by clicking…
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Question of the Day: Got Gas?
I’m borrowing the “Question of the Day” format that my buddy Momo Fali uses on occasion, not only because it works in this case but because Momo often feels like bad/odd/embarrassing/uncomfortable situations seek her out somehow, and, well, just read this. You know how you go out of town for Parent Weekend at your kid’s college, and you have an awesome time taking him out to Target, and to eat, and to the football game, and to Casino Night, and then when you get up the next day you take him to breakfast and hug him goodbye and then go to fill up the gas tank before you get back…
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Vintage.
When I was a kid, I collected rocks. Just plain old rocks. I used to delight in the acquisition of a rock that was slightly sparkly, or a small stone that had a smooth side or an interesting shape. Heart-shaped rocks and stones were my favorites, as were “worry stones”, of which I owned several. (They were plentiful when I was a kid in the 70s!) When I grew up, I started collecting two things: menorahs and cobalt blue glass pieces. Menorahs these days are so much more than just the traditional “U” shape: they are available in all shapes, sizes, and themes. I have a New York City skyline…
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At Least I Didn’t Make Him Lick The Bowl.
Tonight I made my sixteen-year-old son J finish some chips and dip. He said he was finished, but I begged to differ. Normally I don’t police his meals, really. One of the benefits of having teenaged boys in the house is that they don’t need to be coerced to eat. I would even venture to say that the lack of need for Jim and me to be directly involved with making sure they eat their vegetables (they do) or try new things (they do) almost makes up for the fact that they eat us out of house and home, as the saying goes. Almost. The reason I stepped in to…
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On The Fringe
One of the most memorable pieces of my weekend in San Diego was the morning on which I took the ferry to Coronado Island along with Michelle, Sue, and Liz. We got up, made a stop at the Starbucks (conveniently located in the hotel) for those who needed cawfee (right, Liz?) and then headed to the marina. The ferry ride, which was all of six minutes, was beautiful. Skimming over the water from the hotel to Coronado was a little bit dreamy, the color of the water unbelievable. When we arrived on the other side, we walked up the pier towards the sidewalk…and that’s when we saw it. A surrey.…
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What Teenagers Will Do When Left Alone For The Weekend…
I’m back. You didn’t even really know I was gone, did you? That “rare opportunity to disconnect” that I wrote about on Sunday evening? That was me being away from home for five days, alone with my husband (that means no kids). Jim and I flew to New Mexico and stayed just south of Santa Fe for a much-needed break, and in fact when I wrote that post, I was still “sitting in my southwestern office” at our Bed and Breakfast: It is going to take me a couple of days to assemble a proper post (or two) with pictures (I took about 550, but don’t worry: I won’t share…
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A Penny Saved Is A Penny Earned
In addition to the traditional dinner out for D’s birthday this week, the birthday plans included something really special: the Opening of the Pig. My sister purchased a beautiful, white ceramic piggy bank either for my baby shower or when D turned one (I’m guessing it was for my baby shower because that’s what Julesie thinks and she usually remembers things better than I do). Ever since D knew what to do with a piggy bank, he’s been squirreling away money but never opening the pig to make a withdrawal. This was a separate savings plan from actually using his savings account at the bank, another method he actively uses.…
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Even *I* Didn’t See The End Of This Post Coming.
I have been using the same camera since 2005. It’s an Olympus Camedia C-60 Zoom, which I purchased on sale at Office Depot for, I think, approximately $225. If you asked Jim to describe it, he would say, “It’s a brick.” It is indeed chunky (and heavy) for its size, when you compare with what’s available today. I had a little giggle when I googled it a minute ago and found the 2004 review of it on CNET (click here). Oddly, not one user said, “I anticipate this camera to be the best camera I’ve owned in my life so far, and I bet it’ll last me AT LEAST six…
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Midwest Mania Wrap-Up 2010
I don’t know about you, but I’m still recovering from the weekend. Remember that picture I shared last week, in an attempt to describe to you how I’d feel after the weekend? Well, I was right. That’s not to say that the weekend wasn’t fun, though. I had a great time, but I worked SO, SO hard. Midwest Mania, for those of you who, like me, have been too busy to catch up on all of the blogs you read, is a fitness conference that is put on by SCW. Because I am an ACE-certified group fitness instructor, I need continuing education credits (CECs) to recertify, and going to a…