The Edge of Reason

BlogKeeping This Week

When I first signed up for TypePad, there were a few things that baffled me. Designing a banner being top on the list. At one point, I had something like 10 or 12 Post-It notes stuck to my computer as I jotted down dimensions and file names. There was a lot to learn and I wasn't able to keep all of that new information in my head. It didn't take long for me to figure out that I needed a place to assemble my notes, so I grabbed a notebook that I had designed and began using it for everything blog related. This notebook became my guide to TypePad. In the past months, it has become so much more. And every time I open it, I smile because it is filled with fun facts and handy information.

Yesterday, as I was looking over some of my old notes, I noticed that I have been jotting down entries that have made me laugh. Not entries that I write, but rather entries that I've read. These are the blogs that I read aloud to my kids; blogs that I return to again and again when I want a good chuckle. So I decided that I am going to add a "Best Entry of the Week" to my blogkeeping list. Some things are just too good not to share. At the end of this week's observations and ramblings, I'll announce the recipient of this honor.

• Lucky People of the Week: Many people wondered what kind of cars the Gould's won in the Master Card Give Away. I'm not positive, but I've been told that they won Chryslers. I think they were given one of each model that Chrysler makes. Alyssa is still hoping that they end up with an extra car to give her!
• Definition of the Week: Someone asked me what was the difference between teenage errands and regular errands. Good question, because there is a definite difference between the two types of errands. Teenage errands are those necessary after school trips that are required in order for the student to complete their assignments. In our case, it means driving to various locations so that Alyssa can drum up advertising for the school newspaper. When we run these errands, I stay in the car and she conducts business. There is a lot of stop and go. We are always rushed since she only has a short time to talk to the managers before the dinner rush (if it is a food establishment). So, basically, I am once again a taxi.
• Burning Question of the Week: Can a teenager live on pizza? Really, I want to know, because if John had his way, he would eat pizza every meal and then some more. Last week, I noticed that he had pizza for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and breakfast again. That just seems wrong to me. He mentioned that he was consuming most of the major food groups when he ate pizza, informing me that tomatoes are a veggie/fruit, the dough is bread, and the cheese is dairy. He presented a pretty good case.
• Best Project of the Week: After frying the carving knife motor and dulling the bread knife, the model of the human cell, designed by Alyssa, is the project of the week. She unveiled her creation tonight and it blew me away. Not only is it accurate, but it is also the prettiest cell I have ever seen. She used beads and glitter, along with marbles and super balls. The girl's got imagination, that's all I can say.
• My Favorite Texture of the Week: Faux Fur Yarn by Lion. I am having so much fun working with this yarn. Last week I went back to AC Moore and purchased a variety of colors so that I could make multiple scarves. I have no idea what the heck I'm going to do with these scarves, but I am definitely enjoying touching this fuzzy stuff. (Pictures will be posted soon.)
• Best Fragrance of the Week: Yankee Candle Harvest scent. I look forward to burning this particular candle all year long. My favorite time of the day is when I light the candles and let the aroma fill my home with the smells of autumn. For me, these candles signify the beginning of the holiday season.
• The What the Heck Observation of the Week: Who invents this stuff? I heard on the news today that there are now heated bras available at specialty stores in my area. I can't even imagine wearing a battery near my boobs. Just the thought of it makes me cringe. Wear a sweater people! That should keep your boobs warm.
• Photo of the Week: This picture of Alyssa. She is standing on our deck outside of my kitchen window and this is what I've been looking at for days - the beautiful fall foliage as the leaves have changed colors. I love autumn in Virginia!
• The Good News of the Week is that I actually attempted to scrap today. I didn't get any further than the journaling, but at least I made the effort. Hopefully, I'll be inspired to work on the page tomorrow.
• The Bad News of the Week is that I received John's test results today and it looks like his numbers are lower than they should be. So we will be going back for more shots next week to boost his immune system. He will be tested again in six weeks.
• Dare I mention my Comment of the Week? I love my TiVo so much that it borders on sinful. I am having a true love affair with the machine that has the little TV guy on the front of it. How, I ask, did I ever get by without this grand invention? Nothing has made me this happy in years. Years, I tell you.
• And the Best Entry of the Week is Move Over Dearfoams posted by Cathy on her blog Thoughts From The Deep Recesses. I laughed out loud when I read this story. I love it when people are funny when they write. I wish I could write with humor. Thanks for the laugh, Cathy! You made my day.

And that wraps up another week of blogkeeping for the House of Edge. Here's hoping that next week brings some good news by way of a Jaguar victory, an A on the model of the human cell, and some progress in the way of scrapbooking. I'll keep you posted on that.

Celebrating With Some BlogKeeping

This post will mark the 100th entry to The Edge of Reason. I have surprised myself with how consistent and diligent I've been with keeping this blog up to date. However, I can't take any of the credit - not when I know that the reason is not due to follow through on a personal commitment. It would certainly sound good if I could say that goal setting and personal growth were what spurred me on to write 100 entries, because in the beginning, that was my intent. However, that would be a misrepresentation of why I followed through. The real reason I've continued to journal in this manner is because of the reader comments and feedback. It's because I have discovered that I thrive on the interaction that goes on behind the scenes of blogging. I guess I am what Red Molly calls a "Blog Whore" because, to be honest, I live for the stats and the comments. That is the fuel that feeds my desire to write, because knowing there are people reading what I have to say is what keeps me going. I have chosen blogging as a form of journaling. Therefore, I am doing it for myself and for my children. However, without the feedback, I know that I would not be doing it at all. A sad, but true admission on my part.

Because of that, I want to sincerely thank all those who continue to stop by each day - those who leave comments (which is a surefire way to make sure I visit your own blog), and those who lurk behind the scenes (because I see you too). So, to celebrate 100 entries and over 1,000 comments (thank you, thank you for those wonderful comments), let's do some Monday evening blogkeeping. It was a busy week, so I have several mindless observations:

• Last week I received an email from my sister in law, Debbie. She is the one who lives in England and reads my blog every day. In her email, she teased me by saying, "gee, thanks, now I feel like a voyeur." That same day, I went to a local scrapbook store. When I walked in, the manager said to me, "I need to talk to you." She then proceeded to tell me that she reads my blog every day and that she feels like a voyeur. I had to laugh right out loud. First of all, I didn't even know that the manager knew my name because she manages more than one store. And secondly, the fact that two people would confess that to me on the same day made me feel like a Priest - which cracked me up. It totally made my week knowing that there were people out there who read my blog and felt the need to 'fess up. The one thing they both told me is that they read my friend's blogs too - I love knowing that! Snaps to Debbie and Jacquie for being so honest and for making me laugh.
• Speaking of Debbie - she is an American living in England. She's lived there for a long time and over the years she has picked up some British lingo. Some of the things she says make me smile. One term in particular is Gob Smacked. Why is it that the Brits, and those who live there, can say this and it sounds cool, but if an American were to use this term, we would sound like dorks? I would so like to say the words Gob Smacked one day.
• Remember the garage door incident... how I forgot to open it before backing out? Well, the door gave up the ghost and it wouldn't close the day following the crash. I never did tell my husband. Instead, I kept trying to kick in the door to force it to close. The second night, there was a four inch gap between the floor and the door. It was hanging by a thread because some of the screws from the hinges had ripped through the door and were on the outside of the garage instead of holding the door together - it was a big mess. I knew then that I was going to have to talk to Jeff about it. But before I got up the nerve to talk to him, I noticed on the third day that he was going from the house to the garage and back again carrying this great big giant mallet. I stopped what I was doing and listened - he was banging on the garage door! Sure enough, he noticed my mess and had to fix my goof. Kudos to him because he never said a word about it. The crushed garage door was the silent little mistake. Neither of us brought it up. The garage door is once again working. It's still a mess, but not nearly as bad as it was.
• The sweatshirt that I bought at Hollister - the one with the security tag still on it, the one that kept setting off the alarms? That sweatshirt. Well, the tag is still attached because on the day I was going to take it back, I decided to take a nap instead. I will take it back when I return the rejected homecoming dresses. I see a trip to the mall in the very near future. Nothing like a little procrastination to add to the never-ending list of everyday stresses in my life.
• The Homecoming Dance - Alyssa had a great time. She was exhausted the next day, but she had fun the night of the dance. She was especially happy because the principal, Dr. Brewer, was asked by the students and Vice Principals to stay out of the dance. His job was to patrol the halls. Apparently, Dr. Brewer won't let the kids dance close together when they are slow dancing and he ends up spending the entire dance making sure everyone is twelve inches apart. So, according to Alyssa, when he is chaperoning, it's not nearly as fun as when the "girl principals" chaperon. The other things that made me laugh was that Alyssa had been on the "dance diet" for one month. That meant no soda and no sweets so that her dress would not be too tight. The day after the dance, she ate a ton of candy and drank a 2 liter bottle of soda. Needless to say, she felt sick last night.
• BlogKeeping - based upon the comments made in regard to my first two blogkeeping entries, I think people like this format. Katrina even did some blogkeeping of her own, which tickled me pink. So that got me to thinking, if other people like the idea of blogkeeping - then go for it! It's great fun. And, just like housekeeping, it is an easy way to tidy things up and answer lingering questions. It works once a week, once a month, or even quarterly. I don't think it would work daily, however, because you need previous posts to refer to (giggle). Let me know if you do post any blogkeeping entries, I'd love to see how others approach it.
• TypePad is giving me nothing but grief these days. They say that they are working on an upgrade and that by mid-November things will be better than ever before. Let's hope so, because it's becoming annoying. Typo's make me insane, and I know that there have been some that I've not been able to fix recently. With my Type A Personality, it goes without saying that the obvious errors have been making me crazy.
• Tomorrow night is my monthly book club meeting. I've not read the book yet. This month's selection is titled Midwives by Chris Bohjalian. I read the first chapter today. I might be able to finish it by tomorrow night, but it's going to be close. I love my book club, but for some reason, I've not been motivated to read this month's selection.
• I've still not scrapbooked in over 2 weeks.
• I've not sewn either.
• I am attending an 80's party in 11 days and I need to make some Charlie's Angel pants to wear (thanks for the great idea Jana). Because of the need for the 80's style clothing, I may end up sewing this week. I haven't yet decided if that is a good thing. What is up with my lack of inspiration and motivation these days?
• The best news of the week is that we 4Edges will be going home for the holidays. We haven't been home for Christmas in seven years. I am out of my mind excited to make the trip to the Pacific Northwest so that I can spend Christmas at the beach.
• And finally, John's football team is in the division playoffs. Tonight was the first game. These playoffs are single elimination, so once the team loses, they are out of it. I didn't know if tonight would be the last game of the season or not. The Jags won and we move on to the next bracket. I didn't take pictures tonight because I still have 298 photos from the last game - I'm flush on football pictures. As it was, John was hurt during the game and only played one quarter, so I wouldn't have been able to take that many pictures. He's fine - it was a severe charlie horse in his leg muscle. He's soaking in the tub hoping to loosen it up. Anyways, they play again on Saturday. GO JAGS!
• Oh, one more final thing - I received this news from Alyssa today: no school on Monday or Tuesday, so I can plan on a four day weekend. HUH? I am not thrilled with this late breaking story.

And there we have another week of blogkeeping wrapped up all nice and tidy. I do so love the blogkeeping. Thanks for celebrating the 100th entry with me. It's been a fun ride and I look forward to continuing the journey by writing at least 100 times more. I only hope I can think of 100 more things to write about!

Monday: BlogKeeping II

Why is it that some days I have a ton of things on my mind and have a difficult time choosing what I want to write about; and other days I don't have a thing to say? It's one of those mysteries in life I suppose. Today is one of those days that my mind is jumping all over the place and I have a lot of little bits and pieces bouncing around in my brain. So, since it is Monday, and that is the day that I usually tidy things up a bit, I'm going to do some BlogKeeping.

Beware: random thoughts and observations to follow. I'll be using my favorite thing for this - the beloved bullet point. Why do those things make me happy? It's another mystery.

• I am having a love affair with my TiVo. I had no idea that I could love a box as much as I do the one with the cute little television guy on the front of it. For those who don't have TiVo, let it be known that this is not a system that one can just plug in and turn on. Nope. It needs to be programmed. And in our house, it needs to be rigged up for wireless connection. And somehow it needs to communicate with the computer for remote access. These things take time. Which is why last night was the first night I was actually able to use my new toy. Oh my word! Happy, happy, joy, joy. I was watching Grey's Anatomy with Alyssa and she decided that she was too tired to watch the whole show. So I said, "I'll just TiVo the rest of it for you." When the show was over, I checked to see how it taped. Get this: I hit the TiVo record button at 10:43. TiVo recorded the entire show from start to finish! How does that work? I don't know. I don't care. It just does. It's MAGIC! I am in heaven. Needless to say, I watched Grey's Anatomy again at 11:00 and then again at 12:00. Yes, I've now seen last night's episode three times. Heaven, I tell you, pure heaven.
• I received a lot of comments on the entry that I wrote about the pen pal I had when I was a girl. Most of the comments ended with the question, "Did you ever meet Linda Steele?" Sadly, I did not ever meet her. She was one year ahead of me in school and when she went away to college, we lost touch. I've never heard from her again.
• I've written about how I am enamored by the world of blogging. One of the things that I touched on in that entry was that I was pleasantly surprised by the friendships that I've made through blogging. During the past months, three women have reached out and touched my life in a way that has made a big difference in my world. My days are brighter because I know them through this thing we call blog. I want to publicly thank Cathy, Heather, and Katy for taking the time to become my friends. These three ladies "get me" and that makes me happy. Hugs and kisses to all three of you.
• Here's something I discovered last week: My sister in law, who lives in Oxford, England, reads my blog every day. That alone makes me feel good. But what I didn't know is that she also reads my friend's blogs. She finds the blogs through my links and via your comments (so if you want her to read your blog, leave a comment today [grin]). I had to giggle when I said something to Debbie about Sophia and Debbie responded with, "Is she the one who is so organized and has the rose and the wildflower daughters?" Okay... this blew my mind and I'm still giggling about it. Note to Debbie: if you hit the highlighted names in this entry, it will link you directly to my friends!
• Update on LoverBoy John: I was doing laundry today and reached in the pocket of his jeans to make sure there was no candy in there - he LOVES to keep candy and gum in his pockets and I've washed far too many sticks of gum to chance it. I didn't find any candy or gum, but I did find a full page, hand written, love note from "the girlfriend." ARGH. She even wrote those three little words that I don't want her to say to him. BLEK. Then, I reached in the other pocket, and what did I find? Yep, another love note. For crying out loud, is that all they do at school these days, pass love notes? So when I mentioned it to John, he didn't even seem bothered that I'd seen these full page love notes (more like letters, if you ask me). I asked him if he wrote notes to her, and his response was, "Way more than she writes to me." I then said, "Like how many have you written her?" He told me, "At least seven." HUH? This is the boy who skips the extra credit questions on a test because it would mean that he had to spend more time writing. GIMME A FREAKING BREAK. To sum this observation up, I freely admit that I am struggling with the concept of my son having a girlfriend.
• I have not scrapped for over two weeks.
• I have not sewn for over two months.
• I don't feel like scrapping or sewing at all.
• I do, however, feel like reading, and I've read four books in two weeks.
• One of my friends asked me why my sidebar was not updated. She has a point. The books on that list were pretty much read last summer - except for the new Harry Potter. I'm planning on re-reading the entire series over the holidays. As for the other things on the list - yeah, it's outdated. The Great Bloggers portion of the sidebar has grown and that will be the first thing I update because I'm all about sharing my friends. Until then, people can find links via the comments section (sorry, but that's the best I can do, I'm horrible with those TypeList thingies). Yep, one of these days I'm going to update the sidebar.
• I'm not ready for winter. I don't like winter. I am already longing for summer.
• There is NOTHING on television on Monday nights. Well, unless you like football, then Monday nights are something to look forward to. But I'm not a Jets or Falcons fan, so tonight's game makes me yawn.
• I slept in my cozy chair last night. Tonight, I'm hoping to make it to the bed.

That pretty much wraps up my random thoughts and comments for the day. I really like this BlogKeeping. It ties up loose ends and allows for me to tidy things up in my journaling. Maybe my house isn't so tidy today, because I am feeling very much like a slacker lately, but at least I've got things in order with my thoughts. BlogKeeping is also a way to ramble about nonsensical things without sounding like a disorganized writer. The thought of that makes me very happy.