October 2007

Daily Dose of Cupcakes

Cupcake Toppers, Daily Dose /

Last week I had a frustrating talk with Liz about the dictionary. She doesn’t like it. When I suggested she use an actual dictionary, rather than an online dictionary, for one of her homework assignments, she made the most horrible face I’ve ever seen her make. For a second, I thought she might barf all over the dining room floor. How can you NOT like the dictionary? The kid is weird. Or maybe it’s a rebellion thing since I really like the dictionary and TW LOVES the dictionary. Whatever. Weird. Let’s celebrate Dictionary Day, which is the 16th, with cupcakes. Maybe that will help Liz develop a fondness for the great book of words.

dictionary.jpgMini dictionaries for dollhouses are nice. But, even better, look at these vintage dictionary buttons – buttons made from pages of dictionaries. Wow. Damn, sold out – and here I was about to order them. I’m going to have to write to the seller and ask her if she is making more. I wrote, she replied and there are buttons available! I need these. This dictionary button isn’t quite what I am interested in but it might be something you would like. A National Dictionary Day button would work, though the design is a wee bit boring. Of course we can always go with the basic I heart dictionaries button, though not me – I don’t do “I heart”.

Daily Dose of Cupcakes Read More »

National Coming Out Day

3 Comments / Daily Dose, GLBT /

I don’t really DO National Coming Out Day. I don’t like the concept. There seems to be an awful lot of pressure on people to do this “thing” – some “thing” related to “coming out”. And that pressure can weigh pretty heavily on people causing them to take some action, make some grand statement and “come out” when it isn’t really in their best interest TO come out.

Oh sure, some of you might think it’s always a good idea to be OUT, it isn’t. Not everyone has a support group, a safe working or educational environment, friends or family who will support them. Some people live in exactly the opposite situation where coming out means pain, suffering, physical violence and emotional violence.

It would be nice if this wasn’t the case – but then we wouldn’t really need a “Coming Out Day” because folks would just immediately BE out, wouldn’t they? It’s all so complicated and I am not a fan of complications.

Don’t come out if you aren’t in a good place. Don’t feel like you HAVE to come out or else someone may judge you as “not gay enough”. Don’t feel like you need to have some big event to be out, you really don’t. Just be yourself and do whatever you have to do to stay safe.

I wonder how many people came out today – and got teased at school, got beat up, got thrown out of their homes, got fired…. I’ll like National Coming Out Day a hell of a lot more when we don’t actually have to have it.

National Coming Out Day Read More »

What the heck happened?

2 Comments / Daily Dose, Day to Day, Work /

You know I started a new job a few months ago, right? And you also know that TW started a new job on Monday that brought her back to “work from home” status, right? I decided that I was going to need a new work day strategy, so I created one.

I decided I was going to create a mini list of three large things that needed to get finished every day. Three seemed perfectly doable, on top of all of the small things that need to be done every day – like 250 emails, a range of phone calls, reading blogs, leaving comments, etc…

So Monday, I finished everything on my to do list and had time to do some personal blogging, some personal blog clean up and do a wee bit of housework. And, I turned off the computer early.

Tuesday, same thing. I was really feeling good about this Three a Day thing.

Today, things went a little bit wrong. I’ve gotten my big three finished, well sort of – I’m having a coding issue that either will or won’t be resolved but there’s not much I can do about that. So I consider it finished. BUT I haven’t had any time to blog, read blog feeds or do any housework. And, I’m pretty sure I won’t be turning off the computer early tonight.

I’m not giving up on my Three a Day though. I think it works, mostly. I just need to leave a bit of wiggle room for things that go just a little wrong. Right?

What the heck happened? Read More »

Don’t drink the kool-aid

2 Comments / Daily Dose, Day to Day, Personality, Pet Peeves, Work /

I don’t care how much you want to, how good your boss swears it will taste. Don’t do it. Do NOT drink the kool-aid. And for you older folks, watch out for the Jell-o, too.

Image by nuthinfancy

Updated: I have not been asked to “drink the kool-aid” – all is well with me. Just wanted to provide a reminder for those of you who ARE being asked to “drink the kool-aid”. 🙂

Don’t drink the kool-aid Read More »

Being productive on my birthday

2 Comments / Daily Dose, Day to Day, Family Funk, Friends & Family, Holidays /

Well. I’m not sure anyone else would call what I’m doing today “productive” but it feels that way to me and since it is my birthday, humor me.

I have a troubling to TW habit – I save a lot of blog posts as “new” to read later or to save for possible blogging in the future. How many is a lot? This morning I started with 621 saved items.

TW constantly tells me to just get rid of them. She’s nuts. I saved them for a reason and I am NOT going to get rid of them without reading them, bookmarking them and blogging them.

So that’s what I’m doing today. Cleaning out my saved items. I’m down to 293. 115 of those are Queercents posts, heh. (The blog I most love to NOT read.)

Once I finish with the saved posts in my Bloglines, I’m moving to clean out my email boxes. I have hundreds of saved emails, most from TW on topics I’m no longer interested in (thank you new job!)

Go me.

Being productive on my birthday Read More »

iPod Touch, again

Family Funk, Kid Talk /

Last night, or was it the night before, we had a discussion about which kids I blog most about – undoubtedly Michelle takes the cake with Prince J running a distant second. At least that’s my feeling, though I don’t really keep track. I think I probably blog the least about Jenn. Did I recently blog about Liz and graphic novels? I think I mentioned it but the post I wanted to make just didn’t happen because life was busy. Anyway, this got me thinking about why I don’t often blog about RJ – I have no idea! There’s plenty of blog material coming from her every day. Like this little story…

Michelle was showing off her iPod touch to the little kids. Liz said “cool”. Prince J also said “cool”. Not a super amount of enthusiasm, though I believe if Prince J actually had been allowed to HOLD it, he’d have said more than “cool” since he’s the kid who most wants an iPhone (though probably the kid least likely to use it as a phone.)

RJ on the other hand covets the iPod touch. “I want one!” I said “uh nooooo I’m not made of money and Michelle really just got this one because her iRiver died a horrible death and I wanted my iRiver back.” The kid did not miss a beat and said “So all I have to do is borrow your iRiver and I can have an iPod!”

Err. Damn. I think I’m in trouble now, or will be if I leave my iRiver lying around where she can confiscate it. What’s worse is I almost handed it over to her so she could serenade her damn bird. Thankfully I realized that if I handed it over to her, I’d be buying another iPod Touch. The kid is smart. Too smart.

Also, regarding the iPod Touch. Michelle was disappointed that the calendar edit feature isn’t functional on the iPod Touch. Let’s hope this rumor is true. If it is – the device will be perfect.

Michelle uses the web surfing features more than I dreamed she would. She blogs from the thing! And, last night while she was at R’s for band practice, they used it by borrowing the neighbor’s wifi connection to surf guitar chords while learning a new song. Carrying a guitar and/or a sax around PLUS a laptop is a lot to carry – the iPod Touch in her pocket makes her life much easier.

She’s happy. I’m happy. RJ would like to be happy, heh.

iPod Touch, again Read More »

Stalked! (by coffee)

1 Comment / Coffee & Tea, Daily Dose, Day to Day, Diet and Exercise, Work /

Many years ago, at a dot com I used to live at, I was stalked by coffee. It wasn’t just me, the entire community was stalked by Millstone coffee. There was a great free offer from Millstone and everyone was thrilled by that ad. Until the ad banners turned into pop up ads. Then we were not so thrilled. The ad banners and pop up ads were on every page of the site – every time you changed pages, you’d get another one. We were STALKED by Millstone coffee and we did not like it. We quickly went from being in love with Millstone for the free offer to calling for a boycott of Millstone.

Flash forward 10 years and I’m being stalked by coffee. Again. But this time I’m not calling for a boycott.

Juan Valdez has a great contest being advertised on BlogHer. Cool. Besides being on BlogHer, the Juan Valdez ad is on blogs all over the internet because of the awesome folks at BlogHer Ads. Cool.

So I expect to see a lot of Juan Valdez when I’m reading blogs. I did not expect to see Juan Valdez when I read my Juno webmail (the account attached to my homeschool blog comments). Nor did I expect to see Juan Valdez when I checked out About.com’s brand new weight loss product, Calorie Count Plus (which by the way looks fantastic and could easily give some of the more popular – or less popular – diet tools a run for their money.) I also did not expect to see Juan Valdez when I was surfing online newspapers for women blogging health for said newspapers.

Juan Valdez is everywhere I am. Stalked. Again.

Stalked! (by coffee) Read More »

Fathers and Sons: Autobiography of a Family

2007, Books in Bed, Don't Read This, Non-Fiction, Queer /

OK. Well. I finished Fathers and Sons: Autobiography of a Family. I don’t really recommend it – unless you are a fan of one of the Waughs. I am not. Why I spent more than a week reading this is really beyond me.

I thought it would be interesting. And I guess it was. But it was also tiresome. The Waugh men – ugh. Just, UGH. That’s about all I can say. Some woman in their lives should have just shaken them – or shot them. (I should say that the author of the book I don’t necessarily include in the shaken or shot idea. He seems like a nice enough guy and he survived generations of Waugh fathering. I’ll reserve judgment though until his children write their books.)

Fathers and Sons: Autobiography of a Family Read More »