WHY CAN’T I SPELL?
I was just emailing and typed the word ‘similiar’. My spell check UNDERLINED it in red. I went to my dashboard and brought up my dictionary and thesaurus and found that ‘similiar’ is spelled ‘similar’, as in things ‘resembling each other but not identical’.
Did this spelling just change? I have been freelance writing, producing and reporting for about 15 years and I’ve always spelled similar- similiar… And I’ve never been corrected.
WOW! Good thing I was never in a Spelling Bee. How embarrassing would it be to get a simple word like ‘similar’ wrong in a Spelling Bee…
But really, how even more embarrassing that I am in my thirties and just now realized that I’ve been spelling this word wrong all my life!
This is embarrassing… why am I writing this? I’m ending this post.
Note: The word ‘similar’ originates from Northern India… who new knew?
The Pittsburgh Steelers Don’t Steal
Yes, I know those are Redskins colors, but I have to give some love to our home team… with that said:
The Pittsburgh Steelers were playing on TV a few days ago. My son asked my husband,
“Daddy, do they STEAL?” A logical question.
My Big Guy then explained to my Little Guy that the team is called the Pittsburgh Steelers because Pittsburgh is know for making steel, a metal… actually an alloy of iron (I just looked that up, but metal is good enough for a 4-year-old). He then explained to our son that Pittsburgh has a big steel industry and a lot of people in Pittsburgh work with steel.
My son was VERY relieved that their team did not steal because as he put it,
“That’s not nice.”
Can’t argue with that.
Was that ‘Hall & Oates’ at the World Series ??
We had the World Series on Monday night; the TV was muted. We do this in the beginning of the evening out of habit. Our Little Man goes to bed at 7:30 and although he has never heard the TV, again, we do it out of habit. No need to re-live those days of hard bedtimes.
So I’m walking through the living room, on the way to get my laptop and I see a guy who looks vaguely familiar… I know him, do I know him? Who is that? I un-muted the TV.
Lo and Behold, walking out on the field was… John Oates- half of the Hall & Oates team from the 80’s.
NOTE: If you have never heard of Hall & Oates, stop reading this and go to another blog. This blog is about MOMS and people who were alive in the 80’s. You are too young to be reading this blog… We have nothing in common. Now go.
So I’m a little excited to see John Oates and wonder what he’s been doing (like he’s an old friend or something).
He starts singing… and he’s pretty darn good. And then I immediately think to myself, “Well, duh, self, he did manage to be 1-half of a great rock and soul duo”.
He did a great job and then the cutest thing ever: the announcers said that Darryl Hall was supposed to sing but came down with a cold so he called up Oates, and he filled in for his other half. Isn’t that cool? I love that! They are still friends and collaborating!
Yey! See, you can come out of the 80’s okay. We all managed to do it.
And just a reminder, think about these Hall & Oates songs:
Rich Girl
Kiss on My List
Private Eyes
I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)
Maneater
Out of Touch
Sara Smile
and a favorite of mine: She’s Gone.
Hall & Oates had a total of 34 singles chart on the US Billboard Hot 100. They got me through many a cotillion dance. And they were voted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003… and good for them. Everybody can remember a time when they swayed along with Hall & Oates, of course, we were wearing neon over-sized jackets, but at least the music was good. Plus, there weren’t digital cameras back then so the odds of picture evidence of how ridiculous we looked- IS LOW.
It’s all good.
DC Metro Moms: The UN-ELECTION PARTY
What do you get when you bring together SUPER COOL MOMS,
a plethora of great food and drink,
no kids,
and even a ride home?
You get the DC METRO MOMS BLOG UN-ELECTION PARTY!
…of course.
What I love about being a DC Metro Mom contributor is exactly why I loved this party-
all us women are totally different,
have different takes on everything,
but yet, we are all concerned mothers, trying our best to do what is right,
learning every day how to be a better mom, while not scarring our children in the process 
Our party was at Clyde’s of Tyson’s Corner.
We had fantastic appetizers, great entrees of pasta dishes and cheeses and a delectable dessert selection toward the end of the evening.
The people at Clyde’s couldn’t have been nicer and made the planning of this party…easy.
What was even easier was working with Chevy, the sponsor of this party.
Chevy picked up DC Metro Moms for the party and then ALSO drove us all back to our cars and homes in Chevy Traverses.
I think the candidates and their political parties should…THROW A PARTY, get some wine mixed in,
and see what happens.
I think the result would be wonderful!
Cool moms, cool place, cool transportation, cool conversation:
I can’t wait until the next cool event for DC Metro Moms Blog!
MY PERFECT JEANS
I’ve found them. It took a long, long time. But I’ve found them!
The perfect pair of jeans.
Last year I started back into my love/hate relationship with jeans. I go through phases when I don’t like jeans and don’t wear jeans. But last winter I decided that I really needed some good jeans, so I started looking.
I have never been a ‘big’ jeans gal, no pun intended, because I’m 5-feet-tall. So getting jeans involves hemming them,
and this involves really liking them enough to motivate myself to take them to my tailor and try them on,
get them fitted and then go pick them back up.
And jeans aren’t supposed to be like that. Jeans are All-American casual pants. Cowboys wear jeans. I’ve always longed for the day that I just slip on a pair of jeans in a store, they fit perfectly, and I wear them that day. I’ve dreamed of waking up in the morning, going to my closet, seeing pairs of jeans and just sliding them on. I’ve dreamed of jeans being so inconsequential, so normal to my wardrobe, that I don’t even think about having cool jeans anymore.
These are the dreams of a 5-foot-mom… I’m sure most of you are scratching your heads right now; well stop scratching and thank your lucky stars that you are in the middle of the bell curve! You’re normal size! Jeans fit you, you don’t know your tailor on a first-name basis, he doesn’t ask about your kids… be thankful:
YOU ARE NORMAL.
So last winter I began my quest for not a perfect pair of jeans, but some nice, durable pairs of jeans… simple right?
I went first to a mom’s party at a local jeans store/boutique down the street from my home. There were great jeans there, but none of them fit me well. And these jeans were all over $100 a pair.
$100 for a pair of jeans? I know that people spend that on jeans nowadays, but why? However, my visit to this boutique was good because it made me focus and realize what I really wanted:
a cool pair of jeans that fit me well and that I could (GASP) possibly wear off the rack.
I went to many stores and bought a couple of pairs of jeans… that I then got hemmed.
But I didn’t LOVE them.
So then I thought. And thought some more… Who makes jeans? Who started making jeans a long, long time ago…
Hmmm…
But where do you find Levi’s? I didn’t even know. I googled it…
So I went to Sears. They had a lot of Levi’s. I found my size- cool! But then I saw a huge area devoted to petites- yey! I almost ran across the aisle, looking, looking, I found my size in a petite (meaning shorter). I started getting excited.
Then I saw the mother-load… the jackpot tag of jeans: petite AND short.
Are you kidding me?????!!!!!!!!! I didn’t even know they made petite AND short (even shorter than just petite). My heart was racing as I walked to the fitting rooms. I wanted to run, but that would have looked weird. I was so excited- the possibility of jeans that would fit me and wouldn’t need hemming… and I liked them!
I got to the fitting room and tried them on. I looked at myself in the mirror and they fit PERFECTLY! I just grinned at my reflection. I turned around, looked some more and just grinned, because I had reached the holy grail of jeans:
the jeans you just throw on and they fit.
Levi’s has me, they had me at ‘Hello’. Go back to basics and what do you find? You find what you want.
Now, I can even go online and buy my size and know that they will fit. This is jeans nirvana!
I’m wearing them right now
CELL PHONE HELP FOR MOMS
I actually have GOOD news for moms with cell phones.
If your daughter or son likes to play with your cell phone- LISTEN UP!
My son loves to ‘pretend’ to call people on my cell phone. He has his own play cell phone(S), yes, that’s plural. But I still occasionally let him ‘pretend’ with mine. He sometimes calls his grandparents for real, but they think it’s cute and fun and sometimes gives me 5 minutes of him being occupied while we are reeling around the grocery store.
BUT, I just got our Verizon Wireless bill and there was an additional charge for over $10… FOR DOWNLOADS. Then I looked closer at the bill:
my son had downloaded 3 games on my cell phone. He doesn’t have any video games, so I think he was just pressing buttons, plus he’s 4, but I didn’t want to pay for these games and I DON’T WANT THESE GAMES ON MY PHONE.
So, I called Verizon Wireless yesterday, told them what happened and they credited my account.
They then took me through the steps to close/delete these games from my phone, so I won’t be charged any more for them.
THE BEST PART: the helpful customer service rep on the line THEN suggested to me that she block certain applications from being downloaded, since my son does sometimes play with my phone.
I blocked all applications- games, etc. on my phone, so it can just be used for texting and calls- since those are the only things I have ever done on my phone.
I DIDN’T KNOW YOU COULD DO THIS! YEY! MAKING MY LIFE A LITTLE EASIER!
You can call Verizon Wireless and they can do this for you in literally -30 seconds. Then, if you ever want to ‘open’ applications up- just call them back.
Everyone reading this may be thinking, ‘Yeah, I knew that back in the 90’s, don’t you read your 200 page manual that comes with your phone from cover to cover??!!’
but this mom didn’t know, so I’m passing on the info!
Thank you Verizon Wireless!
A GREAT QUOTE FOR MOTHERS… AND EVERYONE ELSE
I forget where I read this quote, but it was somewhere on the internet. And I love Rumi.
“Let yourself be silently drawn
By the stronger pull
Of what you really love.”
-Rumi
This is easier said than done,
with kids, and dishes,
and field trips and laundry.
But it’s cool to remember, none the less.
Happy Weekend
A Messy House… ?… !
I was gone on Monday, from 8:00am til 8:00pm…
12 hours: not a long time in the span-of-a-life, but apparently TOO MUCH time for my 2 guys: ages 39 and 4, to be at home together with no supervision.
Disclaimer: I have an amazing husband. He’s a great guy, great dad, etc.
But how can 2 people displace so many things? And not big things, but little things that are so easy to put back into place, but were not. I have been picking things up for 2 days now and I still have some clutter left in the dining room…
And people need no reminders of how much I DISLIKE CLUTTER.
Wait, I’m just noticing a play train (I just crossed out play because that’s a bit redundant; you all are very intelligent and can guess that a full-size train cannot fit in my living room- nor would it look good, most importantly, it would ruin my carpet, but I digress…), there’s a train lying on the floor of the living room.
This is what I’m talking about: this is not a big train, and it’s lying NEXT TO the basket it is supposed to live in, but it’s lying there on the floor. PLUS, I just noticed this and I’ve been putting things away for 2 days.
But this isn’t a big train… or a big deal. I can hear Dan Zanes playing in the next room and know there will be a day when my son doesn’t want to play Memory, or do art projects, or do sing-a-longs with mom,
so I’ll take the 1,000 cars and the 1,000 trains and the 1,000 planes and the 10,000 legos:
for the hugs, Santa, and band-aids healing every hurt.
BlogHer DC ReCap
What a fun day! BlogHer DC 2008 is now history, but what a great day it was. I learned A LOT about blogging, saw online friends, and met some awesome new ones.
It’s so cool how everyone has a different story…
It’s more than cool that ‘this blogging thing’ I was just discovering this time last year has evolved into a part of my day and life. This medium is truly the future and it’s great how connected people and moms can be.
It was super cool to listen to Lesley Stahl talk about this blogging future, she’s even started a site, wowowow.com, Women On The Web, with a little help from some friends.
I want to do a shout-out to Andrea from Andrea’s Recipes and Sarah from Sarah and The Goon Squad for their great advice… They were both on panels that I attended yesterday.
The future is now. Just think, 20 years ago, no one had laptops or cell phones. What will the next 20 years bring? It’s exciting.
BLOGHER DC, 2008 !
I’m listening to the opening welcome here at BlogHer DC!
Do you realize that 43% of BlogHer Network readers report watching less TV to fit in reading online??!!
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I Was In The 2012 Show !
Check Out …
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Nicole’s Book
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