11 Years!

It has been a LONG time since I have written. So much has happened and yet much is still the same. Life, right? I've been thinking about starting this up again. I think I miss the process of documenting. Maybe I will start again. Maybe this is me starting again. Let's see.
They say that one should write everyday, even just a little to get in the habit and get better at it.  They say that about reading, cooking, exercising, baking, sewing, crocheting and just about everything else. And then they say to sleep 8 hours. Do they realize, we aren't all independently wealthy and have to you know work for the man for a living to be able to do a few of those other things on any type of regular basis? There never seem to be enough hours for it all. Let's see what rhythm I can get into.
There are also places to go and things to do and people to see. And don't forget those roses that we have to stop and smell.
My husband always shakes his head at me complaining that I want to do it all and can't. I need to pick and choose. I'm not convinced. I think it can all get done just not at the same time. The picking and choosing is about when and how not what. So let's see if I get back into blogging and documenting some of these things I am choosing to do in all this free time. Let's see.
The new year is just around the corner. My calendar isn't very blank. Let's see.

A year later...

It's been over a year since I have posted but I have been thinking about it again lately. Coincidentally I have been running across articles and writing about 'listening to your inner voice' and 'going with the flow' and living the life you were meant to live' and all kinds of esoteric things like that.

The thing is every single time I read those kinds of things my mind wanders to my crafting, cooking, reading and writing. All creative things that I enjoy doing not that I particularly excel at any of it but it invariably brings me joy. Even when I the result ends up in the garbage that momentary frustration is still makes me feel good about me because I tried. I think I need to be creative. Seriously. I have precisely 1 bajillion projects in my head, I have started either literally or on paper approximately a ton of them and accomplished a handful of them. I think I need a little focus.

To that end I think blogging is a good place to start. It will help get the juices flowing again. So, I am jumping back on the band wagon and hopefully this time it will be more than just a journal of me. Maybe some short stories will pop out or an essay. Maybe you will just get a rant who knows. But I am going to dive in head first....tomorrow. Today, I sat on the edge and got my feet wet.

NABLOPOMO

It's that time of year again where bloggers everywhere are trying to blog daily. I'm technically not participating since I already missed a couple of days but I will be using this as an incentive to blog much more often.

So, check back often and hopefully you will see assorted ramblings that will hopefully be more interesting than...

I am eating the best starfruit I have ever had. I had forgotten all about it and left it out while I was in NY and last night I cut it up for lunch. I am munching on it now and it is the juiciest sweetest starfruit I have ever had. Its from a friend's tree and I hope that the season for her tree isn't over because it is oh so good.

I think I will call this BLOPOLOTS...HAHAHA!

Changes

I'm playing wiht my blog. The look...the lists that will be kept etc. You will see a few more changes and then I will go back to posting. Have patience... ;)

Technically...NOT

As I have mentioned before, I am not technically inclined. So, I laugh as I take stock in my techness.

I can write on 3 separate blogs, I am on MySpace, I am on Facebook and I am on Goodreads. I think that's a lot! Granted I never used the MySpace or the Facebook previously except to check up on my kids and their friends. Now I have started actually using Facebook. I'm learning...slowly.

Hmmm...I wonder can I link my blog(s) and Goodreads to the Facebook? I will have to play with that later.

Another thing I just learned how to do is how to transfer pictures from my computer to CDs. I made some for the dads for Father's Day. WooHoo!

I will take this moment to send a THANKS to The Mind Wobbles! She is the one who takes the time to deal with all of my tech-questions and has the patience to walk me through things like the little linky thing up there to her.
So, you CAN teach an old dog new tricks and I'm getting a little technical.....

Spring cleaning

I am forever spring cleaning at home. The idea is one drawer at a time, one closet at a time. I'll get there.
Yesterday it was the blog that got the spring cleaning. I'm not done. Later today I will work on my sidebar stuff. I finished that books months ago, read another one and am on yet another one. Gotta add to the blog roll and delete too. Just general organizing and culling to do.
Hope you like the fresh look for summer.
Here's wishing everyone a great long weekend and a toast to the beginning of summer.

The can't keep up so Dots it is...

Clearly, I am irregular in my blogging and so you get dots again to try and cover a few things all at once.


* My first food co-op was a sucess. It's all organic not necessarily locally grown but obtained through a local organic farmer. Anyway, I had star fruit which was delish! I had never had it before. It was YUMmy! 18 liked it too. I got: lettuce, apples, pears, bananas, carrots, potatoes, broccoli, mushrooms, tomatoes, and something else who's name I forgot but I didn't like it. I will find out again and blog about it later. Everything has been yummy except for that one fruit.


* 15 hit the streets this weekend. I have been taking him to the local community college to practice driving in their ample parking lots on the weekends. Well, this weekend he drove on "real streets" for the first time. We both survived. All I can say is I'm glad I don't have anymore kids, twice has been more than enough for me to teach someone to drive. Swallowing my nerves and not letting him see my nails gouging into my thighs is exhausting. A couple more weeks with just me and he's ready for dad and his brother. Then he will start doing the drving for most family outings to prepare to get his liscense in July. OMG! Hands down the hardest thing to do as a parent is hand them the keys. All control is gone then. Talk about severing the umbilical card!


* What did I see; I saw Jarhead and Fantastic Four. Both were what I expected. I don't know if I mentioned before but I found out that a childhood friend became an actor. My kids know of him. His Hollywood name is Laz Alonso. He has a supporting role in Jarhead and it's a big one. It was cool to see him and remember him as a little kid.


* I made chili for the superbowl. We went to some friends house and a bunch of us watched it together. Let's define together.... the diehard/true football fans watched in one room on a 60" screen TV, in the livivng room all our kids who were semi-interested in the game/commericals but mostly in hanging with their friends watched, and in yet another room, the wives who talked over the game and watched the commercials watched.


* My GMs ALF has called because she doesn't want to take her heart meds. She insists that she has no heart *issues*, wasn't operated and doesn't have a pacemaker. God grant me the serenity....


* Today is Monday! Best thing about Mondays....the cleaning lady is at my house. I will get home to that just cleaned smell! Love it!

Quick list

I haven't had time to properly blog but have things to put out there so here's a quick list of bullet points.

* Why am I busy? Because next week if the banquet for 18s football team and I am the coordinator and it's for like 200 people and I haven't got the food set yet and so far I really only have tablecloths and plates and we need to finish 30 scrapbooks for the Seniors and I don't even have all of the collages yet or enough refill pages for all the scrapbooks and and well you get the picture.

* After living in Miami since 1983 I finally went to Knauss Berry Farm. Friends took me on Saturday morning. It's a lovely ride to a fresh fruit, veggie, baked good stand open only for a short season run by what a friend endearingly calls quasi-Amish. I bought their famous and delicious sticky buns, key lime pie, cherry pie, raisin bread, 9-grain bread, strawberry jam, hot pepper guava jam, strawberries, tomatoes (red & green), scallions, zucchini, yellow squash, green & red peppers, oregano, cilantro and a bag of mixed salad greens. I think that's everything. It's all yummy! and I so enjoyed it and now I know where it is and can go whenever I want. YEAH!!

* I had to send my sewing machine back because it was missing some accessories and apparently its a bundled package and they can't just send me the missing parts but have to get this one back and resend a whole new one! Whatever, they are paying for the shipping since it was their mistake.

* I went to a book reading. The book was "The Geography of Bliss". The author is a friend of a friend. The subject sounds fascinating and I can't wait to read the book. I have been thinking about it a lot - being happy that is and I think it will be interesting. Granted he told us one of the things was to not over think it but I think I need to think about it. I'll let you know how that works out.

*18 has now been accepted at 3 universities, Xavier University in Cincinnati, Loyola in New Orleans and FIU in Miami. AND Union College in upstate NY is going to fly him up to see the school. They are interested in him playing football. Catholic University in DC is also interested in him playing football but they told him they didn't have budget to pay for a visit. We shall see what happens with all of that.

* I have talked about learning to cook Cuban food for a few years. I have wanted to learn all the home recipes from the moms and grandmas but it never happens. Well this year its going to. I've gathered a small group of friends and we are going to use our moms and inlaws to teach us their recipes to pass them on to the next generation. I am so looking forward to it. We are starting with croquettes. Trust me you will hear much more about this.

* I recently saw the movie "Zodiac". Obviously, the topic is uber-scary as it's about the Zodiac killer. The movie is very well done. The camera work is excellent. It starts in 1968 and goes well into the '80s and maybe even '90s I forgot already but it is really well done. They were never able to convict anyone or even arrest anyone for all those murders but it shows you how it haunted and affected so many how were investigating it. How they were convinced of a suspect but frustrated at not being able to prove it. I don't know what's up next on the Netflix queue.

* I'm excited about Masterpiece Theater airing all of Jane Austen's novels. I Tivod the first one Persuasion. Who knows when I will be able to sit and watch it but I'm looking forward to it.

That's all for now....

Here I am!

I guess I fell off the blogshpere for a while. I was busy being busy with the holidays. I hadn't even read another blog until today. I have quite a bit of catching up to do. Not that I'm not busy anymore, I mean. New Year's Eve is at my house and well, it's not ready at all!

I had a lovely Christmas...Eve was spend with the family at my in-laws... good food...good company...good fun! and Christmas day we spent a lazy morning at home and then headed to my SILs and visited my dad too as he lives near her. The nephews got a Wii, so we spent hours playing guitar hero and boxing and tennis and and I knocked out my 18 playing the boxing. It really is quite a workout! Lots of fun.

18 and SIL both bought my hubby the SAME pullover shirt. We thought that was a hoot because with ALL the stores in S.FLA. and all the pullovers how did the 2 of them pick the same one. But then SIL and I both bought her boys the same book, her 6 year old was very confused that Santa would duplicate like that but we told him that he's really old and sometimes old people forget stuff and make mistakes. He said it was ok, that he forgave him because he brought lots of other cool things.

I did lots of baking all season, lots of shopping, lots of wrapping, lots of visiting, lots of cooking, some scrapping and other things too. I can't write about it all now.

Oh, another fun thing happened. When we got home from MILs on Xmas eve, there was a white envelope sticking out of out mailbox. I asked 18 to get it since it had been raining off and on so that it wouldn't get wet. He pulled it out and I see that its a big 8x10 envelope.
ME: Where's it from?
18: Loyola
Me: Congratulations!
18: How do you know I got in? It could be a rejection letter.
Me: Rejections are short and sweet; acceptances are think with information.
He goes inside and opens it. He was accepted to Loyola in New Orleans.
Hubby: So Santa came by and you don't even believe!

I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays with their families. I will get back into the swing of things and post regularly. Many stories to tell...

Something had to blow...

We lost the playoff game Friday night. I saw we because after the game, I was as drained as if I had played. It was so exciting to be playing at that level, in that round, against that team, in that stadium. We got there at 3:30 for 7:30 kick-off. Tailgating was a blast and then it started pouring at halftime. The defense despite the 40-14 score played awesome. The offense just couldn't move the ball. It was so emotional at the end of the game because the coach lines up the seniors across the end zone and the rest of the team forms a line and goes down and says good-bye to each player because its his last game. Well, good thing it was raining so you couldn't tell they were my tears running down my face. We all went out after the game to a local tavern for drinks and wings and celebrating a great season.

Saturday was recuperate from Friday. We didn't go any further than the mailbox all day. WE didn't do much either. I think we may have loaded and started the dishwasher but maybe not. We did muster enough energy to shower and go to a friends house to watch yet more football Sat. night. It was nice to hang with friends and I actually didn't get home until 1am.

Sunday was recoup from Friday. I think I said that already. Can you tell we were all kind of drained. No one got up until noon! That's unheard of at my house but I think we all needed it. We did laundry because well apparently is inappropriate in my neck of the woods to go out in your birthday suit and we were down to that. My dad stopped by to give 18 his birthday present. I did prepare the yearbook page for 18 and have that ready to turn in at school. Other than that hubby and I bickered all day about nothing.

So something had to give, with all the no energy and all and what blew was NaBloPoMo. I didn't blog all weekend. So there you have it. I'm out. Oh, well. Life goes on. 18 is adjusting to being 18 and realizing that nothing has changed. He still lives in my house and has to follow my rules. Being 18 doesn't make him free to do what he wants, when he wants, how he wants. He still trying to wrap his head around the fact that "as long as you have to come to me to ask me for $5 for lunch, then you have to abide by my rules." He'll figure it out, he's a smart boy.

WaWaWhat am I supposed to write???

I'm freaking out over here. I was invited to be a contributor on another blog. What the heck am I supposed to write on another blog when I don't even have anything pithy to say on mine? I ask you? I mean really now. Gimme Patience! What was she thinking?

Bloggin' n' learnin'

Did you know, you probably did because y'all are such proficient bloggers and such technical people but I didn't know, that when you write a draft and then post it later after putting on your finishing touches that it publishes with the original date and time stamp of the first draft?

That happened to me yesterday. See it was after 11pm when I realized that I hadn't posted for the day and well NaBloPoMo just started how could I die out this early! So, dash to the computer and pick up a draft that I had started the day before (Friday). I added the last paragraph, did the spell check and quickly published the post. I made it! It's not midnight. Whew! I went to bed, after a few more hours of scrapping and watching Tivo, with no worries.

This morning my girlfriend calls me and tell me to change the time. I know it's daylight savings but that's not what she was talking about. She was talking about the time stamp on my post. She knows that it was late when I published it (how? I didn't ask. She just knows important things like that) but the time stamp is wrong. We conclude that it was because I picked up a draft and didn't do the post from scratch. Who knew? Not me. I do now. So, I fixed it now. Don't think I am cheating, it the time that I actually went in a posted on Saturday. Gimme patience!

Are you ready for NaBloPoMO?

It's coming! I did it last year. I still don't know how since I had just started blogging and didn't have a clue what I was doing. No that I have become skilled at this blogging stuff since then. But I eventually realized there is no right or wrong, it's my blog, I can write what I want- so there.

Anyway, last week I tried to sign-up and for whatever reason I couldn't. I don't even remember know what I couldn't get to work. But this weekend my friend and blog mentor over from The Mind Wobbles came over and helped me register and get the button that you see on the side there. She also taught me a couple of other tricks that I will use in the very near future. Plus she showed me how to Bold and Italicize something at the same time. So bring on those memes with those complicated instructions. I can handle it now. See? Cool! I actually remembered and it worked! Yeah for me! and THANKS Hilda!

Tune in daily starting on Thursday!

So much to do, so little time. This isn't letting me put a title for this entry! Start frustration! Moving on, tonight I will draft the blog entry of the books I've read. I will Dust (yeah, right). I will enter important dates in the new agenda I bought. I will answer emails. I will put together a package of stuff for someone at hubby's office for a Pampered Chef Bridal Shower. Yeah, I sell Pampered Chef products (read: its the part time job I have been NOT doing). Tonight I will gather the Confirmation Certificates and 8th grade diplomas of my kids to copy them at the office in a reduced size to use them in the scrapbooks. I was talking to someone at the store on my lunch hour and they suggested this and I think it's too cute! Can't wait.

Now, in reality I probably won't do much of any of that but I did call the microwave repairman today to ask about replacing the cover to the fax that fell off. Woo Hoo. I did something on the long list of things to do. I'm so proud of me. I also had a 40% off coupon and so I went and bought more scrapbook paper.

Rockin Girl Blog Tag

Oh my gosh! I was so excited that I got the badge thingy to appear, I forgot to tag people. Ok, now this will be a chore to make the links but I'll try.

The rules are: "If you get tagged, grab the pretty badge up top (because you deserve it!) and then list five women bloggers who are TOTALLY ROCKIN’."I have a lot more than five I can tag, but I didn't want to repeat someone already tagged by Sari, and I try to follow the rules! ;)

I'm tagging the following Rockin' Girl bloggers:

• Classical Bookworm
• Rocks In My Dryer
• Making Things Up
• Sunshine State of Mind
• Blog, Blah, Blah

Well , the fonts are wierd and I just don't have the patience to keep messing with it. I need to be satisfied for now that they are tagged! Ok, now I need to go tell them that I tagged them. Geesh, this is a lot of work.

ROCK ON GIRLS!

OMG- I DO ROCK!

I DID IT! I DID IT! Sorry, was I yelling? But LOOK! I DID IT!

Ok, last night my girlfriend, who tagged me as a Rockin' Girl Blogger, called me to berate try to explain to me how to add that lovely button you see there because well, read previous post and you'll know. I tried again. I still couldn't do it! I didn't call her back because she would only try to berate help me some more and I wasn't in the mood. So, I got to work early this morning and gave it another try. I have also been trying to add a picture of the book I am reading on the sidebar- yeah- well, that's not happening either.

So, now it's lunch time and since I'm determined to get this, I tried again and yaowsa! it worked. I am so proud of myself!

Now, I can actually tag some others and maybe I'll learn to add pictures to my sidebar eventually.

Woo hoo! I'm rockin' now!

Computer Illiterate

I AM SO COMPUTER ILLITERATE!!!! I am trying to put a button here but I can't I realyl can't I've been trying. I got tagged a Rockin' girl blog and right now it just ain't rockin! I am going to give up now because I am very frustrated. I have spend most of my lunch hour trying to do this. Go ahead- Laugh!
If you click of this here gobbledygook it will take you to another page and show you the lovely button that is supposed to be on my actual blog. AWHhh! Gimme a break and gimme patience!


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Bad Blogger

I've been a bad blogger. I didn't go anywhere. I just got lost in life and haven't blogged. I'm sure that my many (read 2) readers have given up on me. Oh, well. C'est la vie! I have lots of catching up to do and will work on that toute suite!

I have a bunch of memes to do and things to blog about. It was my birthday, yes I am a year wiser (BWAhaaahahahah!) I ran into an long time lost touch with friend. I started scrapbooking. GM has been in and out of the hospital refusing my help and declared that I am the devil incarnate. 17 pierced his ear. 14 has started cross-country training. I lost my agenda and that means I lost #s, birthday/anniversary info, lots of stuff and we will get to all of that I promise.

First mid-year resolution. I will be a better blogger. Stay tuned :)