denise

Daily Dose of Kids – Teens – Hair

1 Comment / Day to Day, Kid Talk /

Hairtimelinenew_1

Everytime I download pictures from my digital camera I see photos of Michelle (who is the almost 16 year old) and her latest hair style. The child has her own digital camera but she either can’t find it or the batteries are dead, so she uses mine to photograph her latest hair design. I’ve saved these all year long and I’ve been saying I was going to do a “Year In Michelle” feature … well Michelle beat me to it! I’m not 100% sure she captured every hair change over the year, if she didn’t, we’ll update it. Until then – Enjoy! And tell us which “hair” you like best!

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Daily Dose of Knowledge – And Power?

Day to Day /

Here are some things I’ve learned this week…

1) My ex husband is not nearly the dirtbag I thought he was, or that he thought he was for that matter.
2) I would pay extra for an MP3 player that came with the little felty covery thingies already attached to the earbuds.
3) That my dislike of the Peanuts Christmas Special could be causing some cultural illiteracy.
4) You get what you pay for (I didn’t learn this directly from Dr Lloyd. I learned it from the tree service who was here taking down some dead trees. But, I had the pleasure of discussing the idea with Dr Lloyd a few months ago so…)
5) Traffic on Archer Rd is, in fact, bad. (For quite some time I’ve insisted that it’s just not as bad as TW always says it is)
6) There are not enough hours in the day to do stuff you like to do but there are too many hours in the day to do stuff you hate.
7) 2.7 million is the average net worth of the wealthiest 10% of the population. This is important, to me specifically for personal reasons. (And no, not because I have a net worth of 2.7 million or any million for that matter).
8) My daughter is grown up and responsible and appreciates me and asking for tattoos for her 16th birthday has absolutely nothing to do with why she appreciates me.
9) My son pays his debts, eventually.
10) Unitarian Universalists are very quick to make sure they have not committed some social blunder when it comes to lesbian mommies.

It’s been quite a productive week and it’s only Tuesday!

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Prime is also not spooky!

3 Comments / 2005, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Mystery /

So Poppy Z Brite doesn’t want to be called horror writer. That’s fine with me. It’s more than fine with me because I’ve liked her last two NON HORROR books better than I ever liked her horror writing.

First Liquor and then Prime, both quite enjoyable. Surprisingly enjoyable. I’m anxiously awaiting the next installment of the Rickey and G-man saga (there is going to be another, isn’t there???).

I suppose though the real test would be to hand these over to my son, the huge Poppy Z Brite – horror writer – fan. Maybe for some people “once a horror writer, always a horror writer”? I would encourage those folks to expand their horizons a bit. They will be pleasantly surprised.

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Daily Dose of Friends – Search

Friends & Family, Pet Peeves /

Earlier today, Brenda buzzed me to ask me for blogging information and ideas. A few hours later, Snead buzzed me with “What’s a doppio?” I wouldn’t be surprised if someone buzzes me before the end of the day to ask me how many calories are in some food or another. This is what my friends and coworkers do. This is how they see me.

Blogger. Coffee Freak. Diet Guru.

None of their questions are all that difficult. I’m not generally so darn busy that I can’t answer a simple question. I can’t say I’ve been tempted (very often) to respond with “I’m not your darn search engine”. I just find it amusing when folks do this. It makes me wonder how often I might do that to people.

It takes all of thirty seconds to type “doppio” into google and find the definition. It takes just a moment to pull up some nice calorie counting website and find out how many calories are in green bean casserole. So what leads people to buzz me to ask those questions rather than run a search? What leads me to ask people questions rather than pop open a search?

I’m not complaining, ladies, I’m just pondering the idea out loud. Wondering when and why I choose to ask someone and when and why I simply open a search and find the info myself.

I wonder if there’s some sort of study about this…

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Awwwwe – Pandas!

1 Comment / 2005, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

I’m not sure why “The Lady and the Panda” appeared on my library pick up list but I’m really glad that it did.

I don’t have a thing for pandas the way some people do. They’re ok as far as animals go. Jenn (my oldest child) liked them for a few years but she gave them up in favor of Garfield pretty quickly. I have seen the Pandas at the National Zoo. They’re ok. No big deal really.

I’ve never thought a lot about the zoos. How they came to be. What it must have been like a hundred or more years ago to have some new creature discovered and appear in zoos. Maybe because it’s a hunting thing and I’m anti-hunter? I’ve never really been anti-zoo though. I don’t know, whatever, I’ve just never thought much about the subject.

Now, it seems that I’m thinking a lot about it. I even dreamed about doggone pandas the other night. The book, needless to say, left an impression on me. Interesting woman, interesting subject. Good book.

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Spook Wasn’t Spooky

3 Comments / 2005, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

I was really excited to get Spook, by Mary Roach because I so enjoyed Stiff. I giggled quite a few times during the first 50 pages and then put it down. For two days. Long enough for TW to pick it up and laugh non-stop through it. I picked it back up and I finished it but I didn’t find much to laugh about. And I didn’t find it all that interesting either.

Maybe it’s because I don’t have some burning desire to KNOW what happens after I die. I don’t particularly care. And I don’t particularly want the rest of the world to KNOW what happens either. I guess this is one surprise I’d rather keep as a surprise or something?

TW and I have spent some time pondering what Roach’s next subject will be…. hopefully it’s something better than the after-life.

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Bloomin Ya-Yas

2 Comments / 2005, Books in Bed, Favorites /

OK OK so the title is Ya-Yas in Bloom, I like my version better, don’t you? Other than the title, which I thought was kind of dumb, I loved the latest Ya-Ya installment. Can I really call it an installment since these aren’t the sort of books that pick up where the others left off? Whatever, I liked it.

I hated Little Altars and spent a lot of time thinking Rebecca Wells should have quit while she was ahead. Well I’ve changed my mind, she should have written in Bloom and skipped the darn Altars instead! The Ya-Ya’s are a dysfunctional group of women and that stems from dysfunctional family life and leads to dysfunctional family life – we know that, we don’t need the darkness of a book like Little Altars Everywhere to tell us that.

Oops, I’ve rambled off into a rant about the Altars – that happens anytime someone mentions the Ya-Yas to me. I need to practice rambling about how much I loved Ya-Yas in Bloom instead. Because I did. Love it.

(And I loved that Wells including my pal Brenda in her acknowledgements. Cool.)

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Lesbian Pulp Fiction

2005, Books in Bed, Fiction, GLBT /

Doesn’t everyone love pulp fiction now and then? I definitely do. And nothing is better on a stressful day than a wee bit of lesbian pulp fiction.

The Girls in 3-B was just a LITTLE lesbian pulp. Generally this genre focuses on a couple of young women and their sapphic explorations. This one included three 18 year old girls and only one dabbled in lesbianism – the one who had been abused as a child, of course. And not the one I expected at first to be the lesbian. Not the rough girl, not the poet… the beautiful femme instead. Yea!

Other than that little switch, it was typical of lesbian pulp written in the 50’s.

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Fat Girl

2 Comments / 2005, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

Fat Girl by Judith Moore was totally depressing. Thank goodness it was short. It also came close to making me physically ill.

I don’t really like food very much. I don’t really like detailed descriptions of food. Moore is very good at the graphic descriptions I so very much hate. I almost put the book down before the end of the introduction.

I’m glad I stuck it out. As graphic as the food and fat body descriptions were, it was worth reading. As depressing and unappealing as all of the characters were, including Judith herself, it was worth reading.

It was worth reading because I have no idea what it is like to be a fat girl, yet I talk to people everyday who are “fat girls”. I have no idea what it is like to love food the way some people seem to, yet I talk to those types of people everyday. Anytime I find a book that gives me some insight into how some people might feel or behave or react, it’s worth reading. Even if it was disgusting. And depressing.

Thank goodness it was short.

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