First of all, I lost a bunch of my widgets when I changed layout, so I'll have to put those back in. Boo. But I do like the new look.
Second, and more importantly, my sister E. and her boyfriend J. are FAMOUS. OK, well, they have an article that J. wrote on the Slow Food Nation blog, and I hope it gets them lots of publicity and work. They're trying to make creating small vegetable gardens in people's homes a business, and frankly, I think it's a good idea that will hopefully take on. Click here to go directly to their website. Just look at the pictures if you want. I think I'm going to ask E. to help me can a bunch of stuff--it's one way I can think of to keep this great local produce around for the winter and utilize it, and it won't take up all the room in the freezer.
Oh, and another green tip: I found a stapler that doesn't use staples. Cool.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Monday, August 18, 2008
What do you think of the new layout?, Part II
My dad said it was way too green, so I'll try this.
And be honest. I think it might look too green. Also, if anyone has tips on how to get a picture to stretch out (like yours, Scarlet), that would be great. Princess Powerless, thanks for your help from last time!
And be honest. I think it might look too green. Also, if anyone has tips on how to get a picture to stretch out (like yours, Scarlet), that would be great. Princess Powerless, thanks for your help from last time!
Sunday, August 17, 2008
One more reason why my husband is cool
Well, we had the Masonic picnic this weekend and it went quite well, due in large to my lovely parents lending us two gigantic coolers and a 20x20 tent, the kind you pay about $100 to rent. Thanks, Mom and R! We had nice weather, the dog was good with the little girls, nobody got hurt, and no toilets overflowed. To me, that's success. Next year: more tables. We didn't have enough.
Here's the cool part, with a little background: T's friend M. has lymphoma and had to shave his head for the chemo. In a move of solidarity, T. and his friend E. both shaved their heads so they could look like M. Admittedly, T. did not have long hair to start with, but I still love that he did it and I know that he would've no matter how luxuriant his tresses. I do have to give serious points to E., who had been growing his hair for seven years; it was about as long as mine. He donated the majority to Locks for Love, and the rest will line various bird nests, I guess. I'll post pictures tomorrow. In a funny side note, he didn't tell his girlfriend [of three years] of his plan and freaked her out when he came home. As he said, "I can grow my hair; I can't grow another M." Well put.
In other news, today Penny got her cone off and got her staples out. Sigh. After tomorrow I think we should start asking for Frequent Flyer discounts.
Here's the cool part, with a little background: T's friend M. has lymphoma and had to shave his head for the chemo. In a move of solidarity, T. and his friend E. both shaved their heads so they could look like M. Admittedly, T. did not have long hair to start with, but I still love that he did it and I know that he would've no matter how luxuriant his tresses. I do have to give serious points to E., who had been growing his hair for seven years; it was about as long as mine. He donated the majority to Locks for Love, and the rest will line various bird nests, I guess. I'll post pictures tomorrow. In a funny side note, he didn't tell his girlfriend [of three years] of his plan and freaked her out when he came home. As he said, "I can grow my hair; I can't grow another M." Well put.
In other news, today Penny got her cone off and got her staples out. Sigh. After tomorrow I think we should start asking for Frequent Flyer discounts.
Friday, August 15, 2008
I just realized something
I mentioned Penny's in the cone again and had to get staples because her surgery incision opened up. Now I think I know why: It was already a little shaky and then, THEN, the other day I had the Scary Neighbor Dog Walk:
We were almost home from a walk when the Airedale on the corner comes running at Penny. She's always been a little afraid of this dog; he's bigger, barks aggressively, and Penny's a beta if I ever saw one. Well, this time the dog keeps coming and I realize not only does the invisible fence not seem to work, the dog has no collar on. My first thought is to grab this other dog before he runs into the street, but there's nothing to hold on to. Next thing I know he's got Penny on her back, she's making this horrible, high-pitched squeal-bark which I now interpret as, "I'm terrified! Get away from me!", I panic and try to pick her up, and the owner comes running over and finally gets her canine menace away. She's asking, "Oh, is she ok?" over and over again, truly feeling terrible about this (and I don't care about her feeling bad, I am shaken and angry, and she better feel bad), and fortunately Penny is unharmed. I say, "You know, usually when we walk by here the invisible fence is on. And he has a collar of some kind," and she responds with something about them showing the house and the fence must've been turned off and your dog is so cute, and I just want to get away from her and get home. So I get Penny out of there, even crossing the street because she's still so scared. She had no visible cuts or scrapes, but I bet all that thrashing around caused her incision to open further. That's my realization.
When I told T about our walk, he got very quietly angry: I could see his body tense up and I felt this tangible fury come out of him. Uncanny, really. He only said in a low voice, "Boy, was that dog lucky that I wasn't there." Yikes. If there's a next time, I'm sorry, I will grab the other dog's tail and bodily pull the animal off my dog. In a somewhat delayed reaction, I also burst into tears an hour after it happened as I realized what might have transpired. But we gave her lots of treats and love, and she seems fine, except for staples and that dumb collar she now has to wear AGAIN. Good thing these people are moving and taking their mongrel cur with them.
People, please, PLEASE train your dogs and keep them leashed if needed. I'm doing the best to train mine so these things don't happen to other dogs or people, so please do the same. Now I'm going to pet my girl and prepare for the Mason picnic, which should be lots of good, clean fun.
Have a good weekend, folks! Play nicely!
We were almost home from a walk when the Airedale on the corner comes running at Penny. She's always been a little afraid of this dog; he's bigger, barks aggressively, and Penny's a beta if I ever saw one. Well, this time the dog keeps coming and I realize not only does the invisible fence not seem to work, the dog has no collar on. My first thought is to grab this other dog before he runs into the street, but there's nothing to hold on to. Next thing I know he's got Penny on her back, she's making this horrible, high-pitched squeal-bark which I now interpret as, "I'm terrified! Get away from me!", I panic and try to pick her up, and the owner comes running over and finally gets her canine menace away. She's asking, "Oh, is she ok?" over and over again, truly feeling terrible about this (and I don't care about her feeling bad, I am shaken and angry, and she better feel bad), and fortunately Penny is unharmed. I say, "You know, usually when we walk by here the invisible fence is on. And he has a collar of some kind," and she responds with something about them showing the house and the fence must've been turned off and your dog is so cute, and I just want to get away from her and get home. So I get Penny out of there, even crossing the street because she's still so scared. She had no visible cuts or scrapes, but I bet all that thrashing around caused her incision to open further. That's my realization.
When I told T about our walk, he got very quietly angry: I could see his body tense up and I felt this tangible fury come out of him. Uncanny, really. He only said in a low voice, "Boy, was that dog lucky that I wasn't there." Yikes. If there's a next time, I'm sorry, I will grab the other dog's tail and bodily pull the animal off my dog. In a somewhat delayed reaction, I also burst into tears an hour after it happened as I realized what might have transpired. But we gave her lots of treats and love, and she seems fine, except for staples and that dumb collar she now has to wear AGAIN. Good thing these people are moving and taking their mongrel cur with them.
People, please, PLEASE train your dogs and keep them leashed if needed. I'm doing the best to train mine so these things don't happen to other dogs or people, so please do the same. Now I'm going to pet my girl and prepare for the Mason picnic, which should be lots of good, clean fun.
Have a good weekend, folks! Play nicely!
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Seven Things About Me, Part 2
Although first I have to tell you all that poor Penny had to get staples in her little spayed area because the stitches reopened (yuck) and she has to wear The Cone again. Poor wee pumpkin. Plus we're having T's annual Masonic picnic at our house this weekend, so everyone gets to meet Her Elizabethan Collarness while she's not quite her sweet, perky self. We'll get her a lot of sympathy petting.
All right, I did 1-4, so now it's time for 5-7.
5. I love words, wordplay, etymology, all of that stuff. Words fascinate me. How can authors put words together in such beautiful, interesting, funny, awful, puzzling, enthralling ways? Aside from that, I love knowing facts like the word disaster literally means "a bad alignment of the stars", from dis-, meaning "not" or "bad", and -aster, meaning "star". Isn't that cool? The word sinister comes from the same Latin word, which meant "left-handed" or "unlucky" because left-handedness was considered unlucky or evil. I also love other languages and accents--connecting English to other languages gives me such a kick. I should have taken Latin. I speak Spanish and German, plan to learn French, and would like to learn a non-romance language such as Chinese. Now I just have to find places to speak my languages so I don't lose them completely. As always, suggestions welcome. I think my passion for words extends to all parts of my life: I teach English, I sing, I do accents, I admonish my students for using the same words in their writing over and over again when so many others exist. My favorite word I taught my husband?
Defenestrate: To throw something out a window. Think about it: The word for window in three different languages is ventana (Spanish), fenetre (French), and fenster (German). It all adds up! Isn't that thrilling? I think so.
6. No matter how old I get, no matter how many places I go, I still find simple joys the best. Jaded, utterly sophisticated people must live such sad lives because it takes so much to make them interested or happy, if they even allow themselves to feel those emotions. I've had people laugh at me because I got excited about something they found ridiculous or unimportant: What do I care? I see it as me getting a lot more out of life than they do. The sound of wind in the trees, the curve of a shell, the emotion of a beautiful song with my choir, the feel of eight people rowing totally in synch, my puppy's wagging tail, the weight of my husband's hand on mine, the feeling of euphoria as I laugh with friends....Those joys fill me with life and make me whole.
7. I procrastinate. A lot. And I often feel like I'm faking it, and that it's just a matter of time until everyone finds out. I've started to figure out why I do this: At one point in my life, when things were rocky at home and I was away at school, I made a point to be "fine" so nobody worried about me. I was smart enough in school and life to get by, often doing things last minute but pulling it all out in the end. I didn't want to ask for help because of the previous point of appearing to deal with everything and because some part of me thought, "Well, you should know how to do this, so don't ask or you'll look foolish or feel ashamed." This of course led to a shame spiral, I now see. I think the procrastination has to do with avoidance, a technique that probably shielded me from some tough stuff at one point but that now sabotages me. The part of me that learned to deal with everyday life never asked for help and never learned to deal with things as an adult does. I have the little voice inside me that says not to open the mail, to play one more game of Solitaire, that I have plenty of time to grade those papers and doesn't stop to think that I have to get 100 of them graded by the end of the quarter. Then I pay the bill late or don't cash a check, stay up late doing lesson plans, and grade 100 papers in two days. So I've started listening to that voice and responding with a better way of doing things, or ignoring the child voice altogether. It's hard. She's been there a long, long time and she has a lot of say, but I think I can drown her out or at least turn her down. I've also realized that I'm not alone, I don't have to be perfect, and I have to forgive myself for being human. I have remind myself of that a lot, but I have wonderful people who do it for me when I forget.
Whoa, I didn't know I was going to let that last one out right there, though I'd been planning to write about it at some point. So now you know something about me, and maybe I made you realize something about yourselves. I tag any of you out there who blog to do this although, as Scarlet Lily pointed out, I think we all know the same bloggers, more or less.
I'm going to go check on Penny and grab a nap; that took more out of me than I'd thought. Happy Wednesday, dears.
All right, I did 1-4, so now it's time for 5-7.
5. I love words, wordplay, etymology, all of that stuff. Words fascinate me. How can authors put words together in such beautiful, interesting, funny, awful, puzzling, enthralling ways? Aside from that, I love knowing facts like the word disaster literally means "a bad alignment of the stars", from dis-, meaning "not" or "bad", and -aster, meaning "star". Isn't that cool? The word sinister comes from the same Latin word, which meant "left-handed" or "unlucky" because left-handedness was considered unlucky or evil. I also love other languages and accents--connecting English to other languages gives me such a kick. I should have taken Latin. I speak Spanish and German, plan to learn French, and would like to learn a non-romance language such as Chinese. Now I just have to find places to speak my languages so I don't lose them completely. As always, suggestions welcome. I think my passion for words extends to all parts of my life: I teach English, I sing, I do accents, I admonish my students for using the same words in their writing over and over again when so many others exist. My favorite word I taught my husband?
Defenestrate: To throw something out a window. Think about it: The word for window in three different languages is ventana (Spanish), fenetre (French), and fenster (German). It all adds up! Isn't that thrilling? I think so.
6. No matter how old I get, no matter how many places I go, I still find simple joys the best. Jaded, utterly sophisticated people must live such sad lives because it takes so much to make them interested or happy, if they even allow themselves to feel those emotions. I've had people laugh at me because I got excited about something they found ridiculous or unimportant: What do I care? I see it as me getting a lot more out of life than they do. The sound of wind in the trees, the curve of a shell, the emotion of a beautiful song with my choir, the feel of eight people rowing totally in synch, my puppy's wagging tail, the weight of my husband's hand on mine, the feeling of euphoria as I laugh with friends....Those joys fill me with life and make me whole.
7. I procrastinate. A lot. And I often feel like I'm faking it, and that it's just a matter of time until everyone finds out. I've started to figure out why I do this: At one point in my life, when things were rocky at home and I was away at school, I made a point to be "fine" so nobody worried about me. I was smart enough in school and life to get by, often doing things last minute but pulling it all out in the end. I didn't want to ask for help because of the previous point of appearing to deal with everything and because some part of me thought, "Well, you should know how to do this, so don't ask or you'll look foolish or feel ashamed." This of course led to a shame spiral, I now see. I think the procrastination has to do with avoidance, a technique that probably shielded me from some tough stuff at one point but that now sabotages me. The part of me that learned to deal with everyday life never asked for help and never learned to deal with things as an adult does. I have the little voice inside me that says not to open the mail, to play one more game of Solitaire, that I have plenty of time to grade those papers and doesn't stop to think that I have to get 100 of them graded by the end of the quarter. Then I pay the bill late or don't cash a check, stay up late doing lesson plans, and grade 100 papers in two days. So I've started listening to that voice and responding with a better way of doing things, or ignoring the child voice altogether. It's hard. She's been there a long, long time and she has a lot of say, but I think I can drown her out or at least turn her down. I've also realized that I'm not alone, I don't have to be perfect, and I have to forgive myself for being human. I have remind myself of that a lot, but I have wonderful people who do it for me when I forget.
Whoa, I didn't know I was going to let that last one out right there, though I'd been planning to write about it at some point. So now you know something about me, and maybe I made you realize something about yourselves. I tag any of you out there who blog to do this although, as Scarlet Lily pointed out, I think we all know the same bloggers, more or less.
I'm going to go check on Penny and grab a nap; that took more out of me than I'd thought. Happy Wednesday, dears.
Time for change
I'm bored with the look of this blog. How do I make it look like the rest of your cool blogs out there without taking a tech course? I can change the template, blah, etc., but how do I add fun pictures and things?
Help!
Help!
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
"That's worse than Murphy's Law!"
So I actually copied Scarlet Lily and got The Shoes. Quite comfortable, I will attest, very attractive. I wore them for the first time tonight. Walking back to the car, I caught one heel in a sidewalk crack and the bottom cover part came right off. Upon calling Scarlet to tell her this story, she replied with the above statement. I could not disagree.
Fortunately I know of a cobbler to fix the problem, but, come on. Well, as I say to my students, "If that's the worst thing that happens to you all day, you've had an excellent day." Again, I cannot disagree: I did have an excellent day. Yay.
Fortunately I know of a cobbler to fix the problem, but, come on. Well, as I say to my students, "If that's the worst thing that happens to you all day, you've had an excellent day." Again, I cannot disagree: I did have an excellent day. Yay.
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