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Thursday Ten: Did You PhotoHunt YET? Edition

April 15, 2010 by sarah 1 Comment

1. You probably know that TODAY is the deadline for the photoscavenger hunt to raise moohlah for fighting breast cancer and kicking it in the bootay. Have you entered yet? No? Why not? Read more about it HERE.

2. New music for the week: Um, stuff from Glee. Yeah. I’m unashamed of my love for this show. I am also not at all embarassed that I now have at least three different versions of “Hello” in iTunes – including Lionel Richie’s original. I love that song and remember vaguely the video from way back when – wasn’t he blind in that video? Or the girl was? Whatever, I was too busy singing along.

3. The Princess lost another tooth over spring break. These two teeth falling out have left her with that adorable gap in the front of her mouth. I love it. I wonder if her dentist will give me a discount at her cleaning in a few weeks – clearly she has less teeth for him to check.

4. Project Runway night TONIGHT. I’m kinda curious which of the two-tied-designers ends up going to Bryant Park (I hope it’s not Mila). Oh, the suspense. Also, I’m pretty pleased with the other two who are definitely heading to Fashion Week – I’ve been pretty impressed with them all season. While this season is better than last season, I think Lifetime still has a way to go until it’s up to par with what the show was on Bravo.

5. Today is tax day. Are your taxes all done? Were you pulling your hair out getting things wrapped up last night so you could get ’em in today?

6. Today was my first guitar lesson in two weeks (due to spring break and what not). Admittedly, I have hardly picked up my guitar in that span of time and was more than a little concerned how badly it would go today. BUT… it didn’t! In fact, it went pretty well and I somehow managed to have made some progress. Things were fine til Pumpkin decided to smack my (very surprised) guitar teacher on the butt on the way out of the studio. Whoops.

7. My guitar teacher also let me know it was about time to pick more songs I wanted to learn to play – so if you have any ideas (NOT Freebird), drop me a comment. The request line is now open.

8. It’s 80 degrees in Michigan today. The sun is shining. The flowers are blooming. The air outside smells like cow manure. Michigan spring in full effect.

9. I went to book club last night and we had a pretty decent discussion stemming from the reading of Irreplaceable* – mostly regarding the topic of organ donation which was a primary theme in this novel. Then we chose next month’s selection out of the jar, and, DANG. It sounds like not my cup of tea. A non-fiction book about the oppression of women. GRANTED – I know the topic is important, and it actually has excellent reviews on both Amazon and Good Reads – but heavy lifting is not why I’m in a book club. I’m more than a little “meh” about that selection.

10. And in what is my most exciting news of the week: I finally got a big girl camera. I’ve been drooling over the Canon DSLRs for a long time and finally took the leap and got one. I’m kind of excited. I love it and I think it needs a name so that I can pat my camera lovingly and murmur sweet nothings to it. And if you’re gonna murmur sweet nothings to your camera it should totally have a name.

*affiliate link like whoa

Filed Under: Books and Stuff, Do Good Feel Good, Photography, Thursday Ten Tagged With: Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, book club, Bryant Park, Canon, Glee, guitar, Irreplaceable, photo scavenger hunt, Project Runway

Thursday Ten: Spring Break And Expecting Snow?! Edition

April 8, 2010 by sarah 4 Comments

1. The kids are on spring break this week. It was beautiful Monday. Then it rained Tuesday. It rained yesterday. Today the skies are heavy with clouds, the air outside is cold and there’s a chance of snow in the forecast. Yuck. Also, it would have been a good idea to venture towards warmer weather over break.

2. Of course, as luck would have it – Spring Break happens to have fallen during an incredibly busy week for work. Crappy weather and being wicked busy? DOUBLE WHAMMY.

3. Yesterday, I baked a cheesecake – a turtle cheesecake. I’ve never made one before, but it involves peeling plastic wrappers off an entire bag of caramels so you can melt the caramel down to make a sauce to pour over the Oreo crust and then over the cheesecake before serving. I think actually making caramel from scratch would have been easier than unwrapping all those candies. And as I opened them, I kept flashing on the dialogue between Will and Skylar in Good Will Hunting. LOVE that movie.

Just as arbitrary as drinking coffee.

4. No guitar lesson this week which is probably a good thing because I haven’t even picked up my guitar this week to practice. I can tell when I haven’t practiced enough – the calluses on my fingertips are softer, almost like they used to be. Maybe I better write “PRACTICE GUITAR” on my to do list in big print, and then UNDERLINE IT. I like to write things on my to do list, because I like to cross things off my to do list (Like this: Eat breakfast).

5. I’ve been reading a lot lately. Last week, I polished off The Art of Racing in the Rain, which I adored so much. This week, I have started digging in to The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society*. Admittedly, this is not normally a kind of book I enjoy, but I am liking it so far. I haven’t slammed the cover shut and thrown it across the room yet and I’m a third of the way through, so that’s a good sign.

6. New music of the week? Jack Johnson’s new single You And Your Heart*, which actually sounds like classic Jack, though I’ve read that his new album coming out soon is going to be more “rock-flavored”. Meh. I’m a lil bit nervous about that. I like beachy-acoustic Jack. Will I like rock Jack? I dunno. But, this single isn’t really a departure from the sound I expect from him. And I like it.

7. Apparently tomorrow is “NAME YOURSELF DAY”. If you were gonna choose YOUR name, what would you pick? Would you stick with the name that you were given or would you choose something totally different?

8. Have you joined our Photo Scavenger Hunt yet? Raising money for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer – so if you have bewbs, or know of someone who does – you should probably enter and maybe win some awesome prizes -some of which will be given randomly and THAT MEANS, even if your every shot is photo-bombed by your thumb, you could still win things. Cool, right?

9. We took the kids to see “How to Train Your Dragon” last weekend – and they loved it. I don’t normally like stuff like that – dragons and whatnot, but it was pretty cute. Not cute? The cost of admission and snacks to take a whole family to a movie. Oy.

10. So, the iPad. Did you get one? Do you want one? Despite being a total Apple fan girl, I’m holding off for now. Perhaps it’s because I’m currently crushing on a Canon DSLR, and that is where my next big gadget expenditure will be. Don’t get me wrong, if someone handed me an iPad today and said, “Here! Take it! It’s YOURS!”, I’d take it and be happy. But I don’t want to spend my money on one just yet.

*Yes, affiliate links. I’m saving up to buy a pony.

Filed Under: Books and Stuff, Do Good Feel Good, Mom Shtuff, music, Photography, Thursday Ten Tagged With: Canon, guitar, How to Train a Dragon, iPad, jack johnson

Thursday Ten: It’s Iced Latte Weather Edition

April 1, 2010 by sarah Leave a Comment

1. Awwww yeah. After guitar lesson every week, Pumpkin and I hit the Starbucks drivethru. You see, I bribe her with chocolate milk if she can hang tight during my lesson. She sits in the practice room with me and my teacher and sometimes gets a little bored (totally understandable). Today, instead of my usual cappuccino I got an iced latte because – WHOA – this weather definitely called for it.

2. Still working on “Falling Slowly” in guitar – every time I hear it, I get kind of giddy – it’s one of my favorites (and the top most played song in my iTunes).

3. And with warmer weather comes… SKINNED KNEES. Pumpkin just wiped out wearing shorts for the first time in 2010. Guess I’d better stock up on bandaids.

4. HEY, Have you read about the PHOTO SCAVENGER HUNT yet? Definitely a fun way to raise money for a great cause.

5. This season of American Idol? It’s really boring. I said that last week too. Though, I did love the acoustic version of Chris Brown’s “Forever” this week.

6. Song of the week? Someone posted an audio of “La Mar” by The Beautiful Girls which is really got a mellow Jack Johnson-y flavor to it. I love Jack Johnson, so yeah, I’m loving this one too – and look at that beautiful ocean.

7. That video reminds me that I really want to learn to surf. Know what bothers me most about the thought of surfing? Getting water up my nose. And I’m sure that would happen – maybe even more than once.

8. The iPeriod app for the iPhone is pretty freakin’ accurate. Which is fabulous. *Sob* Can someone give me some Cheetos, please?

9. Do you ever get on a food kick? I made french bread the other day and since have been wanting these fabulous oven roasted turkey sandwiches on slices of warm french bread with just a smidge of spicy mustard. And I just want sandwiches. Lots of them. (Sigh. See number 8).

10. Warmer weather means it’s shorts weather. I hate shorts. I wonder when I stopped loving shorts – because I remember being so excited when the weather broke, the sun came out and I could uncover my knees, but now? Bleh. Shorts? Yuck. Last summer, I decided to skip the whole shorts hooey and wear summery dresses – it was a nice alternative, but not necessarily very practical. So, capris it is.T

Filed Under: Do Good Feel Good, Mom Shtuff, music, Thursday Ten Tagged With: Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, breast cancer, guitar, iPeriod, iPhone, photo scavenger hunt, Photography, The Beautiful Girls

Thursday Ten: New Strings Edition

March 25, 2010 by sarah 3 Comments

1. My guitar has new strings. I was lazy and I just had the music store put them on – it took them four days and the cost? Excessive for strings (my teacher’s eyes bugged out real big when I showed her the receipt). Yes, lesson learned – I’ll do it myself next time. But wow, my strings DO sound great.

2. Began working on two songs today – Jack Johnson’s “Sittin’ Waitin’ Wishing” (for its use of bar, major, minor, and seventh chords) and “Falling Slowly” because it’s one of my favorite songs of all time. I was one of the few who wasn’t totally enamored by the movie “Once” – but I sure do love this song.

3. Did y’all watch Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution on Sunday night? What did you think? I was STUNNED. I guess not entirely surprised – but yeah, stunned. Expect more from me about this topic. The next episode airs on Friday night. Watch it, and we’ll talk about it next week. {Also, I really hope the lunch ladies/cooks at my daughter’s school aren’t that cranky!}

4. Thank you so much to everyone who gave me feedback about The Princess and things I could do moving forward in absence of a gifted program in her school. Good news – we do have an appointment with her principal to sit down and talk about how we can keep her challenged in third grade and beyond — as well as pairing her with a teacher who doesn’t mind doing the extra work to keep her loving education.

5. That wasn’t the ONLY parent-teacher conference for the week. Oh yeah. Yesterday was my first conference with Pumpkin’s new preschool and I was pleasantly surprised. I think what surprised me most was how social my daughter is – not to the extent where the teacher says she’s a chatterbox – but that she’s friendly with all the kids. The teacher said, “You’d never know she hasn’t been here since September. She just found her place here.” Awesome.

6. Last week I had lots of extra fun social stuff planned – including dinner out with a former coworker/friend and my good friend. TWO NIGHTS OUT. That also means two meals I got to eat that weren’t cooked by yours truly. You can see, I’m sure, why I am mourning last week a lil bit, right? Tonight I’ll be cooking Cuban black beans and rice which means that I fully anticipate getting to hear from my children what a rotten cook I am. It’s inspiring, really.

7. I caved in to the inexplicable urge I had to buy matching dresses for my daughters so they can dress alike for fun spring pictures on the beach. Yeah, I don’t know what I was thinking either but I think it will be cute. I also think they’ll hate me for this in ten years.

8. In just over 70 days, I’ll be walking in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer – I’m VERY excited. I’m also hoping that it doesn’t rain. Rain would be bad.

9. American Idol this week… So… They could choose from Billboard Top 100s and they all chose crap songs? What was THAT all about? You have all that amazing music at your disposal and whut? Not impressed. At this point, I have no favorites – but several people who annoy me severely (Didi, I’m talkin’ to you).

10. According to the preschool’s calendar, Saturday is Photography Day. I plan to celebrate by taking some pictures (DUH). MAAAAAAAAAYBE I should celebrate by asking the Photography Elves to leave a new camera for me. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were really Photography Elves?

Filed Under: Do Good Feel Good, Mom Shtuff, music, Photography, Thursday Ten Tagged With: American Idol, Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, camera, guitar, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution

Thursday Ten: Since When Does The Word Suck Have to Be Censored?

January 22, 2009 by sarah 6 Comments

1. For starters and in new music of the week, I heard Kelly Clarkson’s new song “My Life Would Suck Without You” – only it’s listed on iTunes as “My Life Would S**k Without You”. Which is lame. Almost as lame as the song itself which features generic lyrics and a wanna-be P!nk vibe. And not in a good way. The song? It s**ks.

2. Spent a full guitar lesson today working on “Fur Elise” (Where’s mah doohickey for the u!?). Spent the whole time talking legato versus staccato and how to “arpeggiate” as much as you can. So how is it coming along? Better than last week, for sure, but a long way to go. Actually the whole concept of “legato” (smooth, connected notes) made a lot of sense and if I can just get my brain used to thinking a few notes ahead of my fingers, I’ll be doing that much better.

3. Within thirty minutes today, I got hit with not one, but TWO donations for my Avon Two Day Walk for Breast Cancer. I’m 21% of the way for my fundraising goal – which is awesome – as y’all know, the fundraising part has been scarier to me than the walking nearly forty miles part. Yeah, I don’t get it either.

4. I remain inspired and so moved by the new President and all the festivities on Tuesday. Yesterday’s paper and its coverage of the inaugural events made me cry. I know it’s partly because I’m a mush, but partly because it’s nice to feel hope about the direction in which we’re going. Hope is good.

5. This cold has quite certainly morphed into a sinus infection and my doctor is out of the office for the next two weeks. SUPER. Here’s hoping one of the fabulous nurses will just call in antibiotics for me rather than make me come in and see the Dr. McCreepy. And I don’t want that. I’ve managed to avoid the man for a year and I don’t think it’s time to break that streak yet.

6. Daily, I am amazed by the sheer amount of paper The Princess brings home from school. I am quite certain that not all the families in our school district are as crazy about hugging their trees as ours is, but dang – at least five sheets of paper daily. Multiply that by 24 kids in her class? That’s a whole lot of paper. It frustrates me.

7. I’ve fallen out of my workout routine from being sick and it’s been a slow road trying to get back into it.

8. Watching my kids play Wii is the funniest freakin’ thing ever. The Princess makes it a full body sport. She was playing a paper airplane game in EA Playground last night. I had to video her because it was hilarious how she kept leaning and ducking as she moved the Wii-mote. Then she got irked when I laughed. It was funny. I couldn’t help it.

9. I’m still paused on reading Catch-22. Waiting to start again. That book is sitting at my desk and I swear it’s staring at me saying, “YOU WUSSBABY: JUST READ ME!!!”

10. If you have yet to weigh in on giving me recommendations for songs for my workout playlist, you should do that. Really. I have received FIFTY suggestions so far. I’ve listened to a lot of them. I’ve only outright ruled a handful out for my playlist, but the rest? Most of the rest of it is awesome.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: guitar, music, Thursday Ten

Thursday Ten: The Who Said It Was Allowed To Be This Cold? Edition

January 15, 2009 by sarah 4 Comments

1. Oh. My. God. It was -7 this morning when I got the girls ready to get in the car to get to school. MINUS SEVEN. That wasn’t windchill. That was the straight up temperature. Too cold. This is too cold. I don’t like it and it can stop now.

2. I went shopping with my sister and her maid of honor today to pick out bridesmaid dresses. We all fell in love with the same dress, a long sleeveless jersey dress that was so comfortable it was like wearing a nightgown. In a good way. (Is there a bad way to feel like you’re wearing a nightgown? I dunno. It was comfy and will be awesome for a night on the dance floor).

3. I have a horrid, rotten, miserable cold. I can’t breathe, I’m coughing like crazy, my throat hurts, I can’t taste anything, my muscles ache, my skin HURTS. I hate being sick. I hate that Pumpkin is bringing home every preschool cootie, and I hate that I catch every preschool cootie she coughs in my face. This could be a very long winter.

4. In guitar lesson today, I started learning Fur Elise (where’s the little doohickey to put the funky whosy-whatsit’s over the u ?). I have tried four notes of it and then we ran out of time, so we’ll see if I can handle it. I look forward to being able to play it, sounding like the ice cream truck and messing my kids up.

5. The Princess finally has her VERY FIRST LOOSE TOOTH. She’s thrilled. It’s not that loose, but she can’t get her fingers off that sucker. Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle.

6. Every time I’m sick, I think of “The Devil Wears Prada” when the chick says she’s just one stomach flu away from her goal weight. I’ve had two bites of toast with butter for dinner, and gave the rest to Pumpkin. I’m quite sure that I’m hungry on top of feeling pukey, but nothing sounds even remotely good. So, today I’m running on a bowl of cereal, two slices of toast, a latte, a bagel (in a rare moment of feelin’ good, I scarfed it down before guitar) and then two more bites of toast. Yes, I stick to carbs when I feel yucky.

7. This week, a friend of mine suggested our daughters become email penpals. And thus began The Princess getting HER VERY FIRST email address (there’s one for the memory book, right?) and she has a friend she loves to write to. It’s very cool. The downside? It takes her about thirty minutes to type two sentences.

8. Hmm. Maybe I’ll see if I can drink a Coke Zero without feeling nasty. Not that that even remotely helps the whole nourishment thing, but… (Yeah, I have no idea why I’m not drinking more water.)… maybe it will help settle my stomach. [Note: Wow. Even Coke Zero is a big loser today. UGH!]

9. Do you guys remember when I was this sick last year? Looks like I’m a little ahead of schedule this year. Poor Pumpkin has been sick too – but I don’t think she has the queasiness (because she hasn’t stopped eating in days). Her cough, though? It’s gruesome.

10. I took a break from “Catch-22” and am now reading “Lord of the Flies”. It always amazes me the sheer number of books I haven’t read. These “classics” that supposedly everyone has read – I haven’t. I’m a voracious reader – but apparently, I still have a lot of work to do.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: guitar, sick, Thursday Ten

Thursday Ten: Buried In The Classics Edition

January 8, 2009 by sarah 2 Comments

1. First – some Blissfully Domestic stuff. BD is up for a WEBLOG award for Best Parenting Blog. You can vote once per day. One vote per computer… so,
9. FINALLY! Guitar lesson today! It’s been far too long. Felt good to be back.

10. Procrastinate much? I am now nearly 6 months late in getting Pumpkin’s 3 year pictures done. Guess I better get myself together.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Blissfully Domestic, guitar, Thursday Ten

Old Dog –> New Tricks

November 21, 2008 by sarah Leave a Comment

Every Thursday in my Thursday Ten post, I tend to blab a bit about my guitar lesson, what I’m learning – Bach, Beethoven, Lynrd Skynrd (That totally looks spelled wrong – but you know who I mean), Blue Oyster Cult, blah blah blah. Then sometimes maybe I talk a little bit about chords, or about strumming or strings. I think I have yet to talk about the fact that I am getting calluses on my finger tips, or my quest to find the perfect thickness of guitar pick (and it really DOES matter).

Having said that, I really am enjoying my guitar lessons. Thursdays are a good day for me anyway – both daughters at school, able to get work done, able to pick up around the house somewhat, able to hear myself think. But the highlight of my day is usually my guitar lesson. Though my lesson is only 30 minutes and I spend longer driving to and from, and longer wishing I hadn’t forgotten to eat lunch (yet again!), I really enjoy the time that I’m there. I like learning something new, and I love the way it challenges my brain and my hands to do something different.

I already knew how to read music, but reading music for guitar is different – instead of using the five-lined staff for treble or bass, guitar involves reading tablature. It’s different, and sometimes it’s hard to wrap my mind around. Then sometimes I figure something out and it sounds less like choking cats and I’m so proud of myself. And I love having something to be proud about.

I am a words and music person. Those are the things that appeal to me most of all, and so I love that I’m giving that part of my brain a chance to work some magic and taking some time for myself. I love that even though I hate not instantly being able to grasp something, and I get frustrated by learning curves, and frustrated by not just BEING GOOD from the very first time I put the guitar in my hands, despite all that, I still am enjoying myself. Even when I can’t play an F chord I’m still happy to even try.

So while I won’t be going on tour any time soon (REALLY), and while I’m certainly not the prodigy I would have hoped to be, I am absolutely enjoying myself and am going to keep up with taking the lessons. It’s been a long time since I’ve challenged myself to do anything, and a long time since I felt like I was doing something just for myself. But I’m so so glad I did.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: guitar

Thursday Ten: Big Fat Orange Moon Edition

November 13, 2008 by sarah 1 Comment

1. I hate that it gets dark so early now, but as I left the house this evening to take some DVDs back to the movie rental place (“Baby Mama”, in case you were curious – but man, I can’t look at Tina Fey now without seeing Sarah Palin) and to go to Pumpkin’s preschool parent/teacher conferences (Seriously – more later) I looked up and the moon was rising and it was this huge big nearly perfectly round ball in the sky. I looked several times, not sure at first it was really the moon. I’m not sure what else I thought it might be, but it was just too perfect looking. As I drove, I kept looking up and the moon became more and more orange. Now it’s just obscured behind clouds (it IS Michigan, you know), but man, how beautiful.

2. And YES. Parent/Teacher conferences for Pumpkin’s preschool/daycare program. It was excruciating actually. When The Princess was this young, they didn’t do this kind of hooey, and though I’m relieved about that, I’m sure it would have been different because The Princess is this freakishly brilliant kid. Not saying Pumpkin’s not – she’s just…different. One of the things they assessed Pumpkin on is her knowledge of the alphabet – knowing the letter name, the Zoophonic animal representation, the Zoophonic “signal”, and if she could recognize the letter by sight. According to her assessment, she didn’t recognize any of the letters – a fact I know to be complete crap, because I’ve seen her identify letters. It’s really dumb to test kids like that – especially since three year olds tend to be free-wheeling, stubborn, controlling beasts who seem to like to do what THEY want to do WHEN they want to do it.

3. My grandfather seems to be doing well. He’s a little hoarse, but he’s home. I’m so relieved he spent less than 24 hours in the hospital this time. Whew. For those who extended positive thoughts towards my family – THANK YOU.

4. Music for the week: I have been listening to Seal’s “Soul” nonstop all day and I’ll be writing more about it soon, but OH MY GOD it’s incredible. So incredible. While I was all, “Oh Seal!” a friend sent me “I Wish”, a song by DMX featuring Seal, and I LOVE THAT ONE TOO. Also jamming to, “It’s a New Day” (Will.i.am), and “White Horse” (Taylor Swift). All good tunes. All of them. Not a rotten apple in the bunch this week.

5. In guitar today, my teacher taught me “Jesu, The Joy Of Man’s Desiring” (? Is that right?) by Bach. I told her I’d never heard the song before and she said, “What?! It’s in weddings all the time!” Well, not MY wedding (my dad wrote my music). Am I just an idiot?

6. My cousin rocks – he gave me free passes to see an early screening of “Four Christmases” next Wednesday. I’m so excited. I like Reese Witherspoon and I adore Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau. And it’s FREE. Wheeee!

7. New season of Top Chef started last night. My goodness, I love that show and it always blows my mind what they do with food and yet I remain a fantastically unenthusiastic cook. Go figure.

8. Three days a week, I pack a lunch for The Princess. I got this cool book of little note card dealies to put in her lunch (I bought the book from Target). I had no idea that she even liked getting the notes from me until Monday morning. She packed her own lunch and then came tearing through the house looking for me so that I could write her a note to put in her lunch bag. The past few days, she’s been waiting for me to put the note in. I’m glad that she appreciates the something special I do for her. I was doing it to make myself happy. Added bonus that she likes it too.

9. The closer we get to the holidays the more my calendar fills up – and not just with kid related activities, but things that might be fun for ME too. I keep meaning to pester my BFF about plans for this weekend, but next weekend we’ve got a massive day of baking on our horizon (Seriously, my best friend’s sister-in-law tallied up the ingredients we need and we’re looking at 22 cups of powdered sugar in use. 22. 22. Let me say that again: 22 cups of powdered sugar — oh and TWELVE sticks of butter). But, how much fun is that gonna be? So much fun.

10. I need to get a new treadmill. Or an elliptical. I am getting VERY SICK of Turbo Jam.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: guitar, Pumpkin, schools, The Princess, Thursday Ten