This was my iPod until a few days ago.I was one of the first people with an iPod.I am normally not that trendsetting; my husband had heard about it at his high-tech workplace and got me one.
I remember, I kid you not, riding on Metro and people asking me what it was.Then Oprah featured it on her ‘Favorite Things’… and Poof!Magic!You gotta love Oprah…
The same week Oprah declared the iPod one of her favorite things – 2 different people actually
stopped me on the street to confirm that what I had was ‘the iPod that was on Oprah’.
That was many years ago and believe it or not, my IPod worked until about a month ago.
My husband got one a few years ago that was super-snazzy compared to mine, and much sleeker.
But his died around the same time mine did… like a sweet, old, married couple, or something.
So my husband surprised me with a brand new iPod Nano for Valentines Day (the smaller version of the iPod which only holds about 2,000 songs).I currently have 26 songs on my iPod so it’s plenty big.I know, I’m adding songs.
And when he found out that a new battery for his would cost almost the same amount as a new iPod nano- he got himself one too.
Look at the difference in these iPods.
And the instructions are a few sentences long.Pretty amazing, huh?
Reminds me of a trip to Best Buy last year to buy a new cordless home phone.Woops, sorry, no home phones have cords anymore, unless you get a ‘retro’ one from Pottery Barn… Back to Best Buy: I was disappointed with the size of their phones- they were all so
small.I wanted a bigger one so it wouldn’t get lostflushed misplaced.
It’s 2009.What an incredible world we live in… now if I could just figure out how to sync-up the remote for the TV and the one for the DVD player; now that would be incredible.
Ah, Bribery. I’ve never been a big fan, but sometimes you just gotta do it.
Case in point: my son going to the barber. Yes, I know he’s 5, I should have started taking him to the barber literally, years ago. And just made him ‘cry it out’.
But I didn’t. So now he’s 5 and I’ve been cutting his hair all his life. This did not start out as a whole ‘saving money’ thing, although that part is nice. This happened because my son refused to go to the barber. He has thick, wavy hair; he actually has great hair, Paul Newman hair, but people, strangers, have always brought attention to it and him,
“Look at that head of hair!”
“You’re so handsome.” And then people, strangers, have actually ran their fingers through his hair or patted him on the head= Result: my son doesn’t like anyone, except me, messing with his hair.
The only problem with me cutting his hair is that-
1) I’m not a barber or hair-stylist and he has a lot of hair, and he’s getting older
2) Sometimes he doesn’t completely sit still for me and makes a fuss and trimming his hair can become ‘an event’
So we had enough. My son has been wanting a Vtech camera, so you know what comes next-
The last time I trimmed my guy’s hair and he made a fuss, both my husband and I told him that WHENhe goes to the barber, he will get his Vtech camera. His immediate response-
“How soon will I need another haircut?”
Are you kidding me? This seemed too easy…
“In a couple of weeks,” I said. A couple of weeks went by and so we went to the barber. We planned out last week which day we would go, and we went.
We went to ‘Daddy’s barber’, a real barbershop. As we were walking around the block to the barbershop, my son held my hand and admitted,
“Mom, I’m a little scared.”
“That’s just because you’ve never done this before, but you’ve seen Daddy get his hair cut here, and these barbers ARE MUCH BETTER than me at cutting hair.”
“And I get a lollipop,” he chimed in.
We went in. Bobby, the barber who cuts my husband’s hair was sitting there- no wait. He was happy to see us (we’ve all been trying to convince my son for the past couple of years to come in for a haircut).
My guy got a haircut. He didn’t even wince. And that was it. No tears, no drama. We went back to our car, drove to Toys R Us and bought a Vtech camera. And my son ‘has decided’ that going to the barber is pretty cool, (and they do a better job than Mommy).
I’ll say it again- the weather is great here in DC right now…
On Sunday, my guys went to the park while I went to the grocery store… yeah, I’m not quite sure how that was worked out- lucky me.
So I shop, buy the week’s worth of groceries (while forgetting my reusable bags, like I always do). I come home and am putting groceries away when my phone rings, it’s my Little Guy,
“Hi Mom! How are ya?”
“Great.”
“Where are ya?”
“I’m at home, putting away the groceries.”
“Well stop! Dad and I are on our way home. We’ll help you!”
Why aren’t they called tea tables? Or rather, why didn’t they start out being known as tea tables? Tea was a lot more popular than coffee way back when. I went to Wikipedia and didn’t find a whole lot…
Basically, coffee tables were designed as low tables and this idea may have been introduced from the Ottoman Empire, based on the tables in use in tea gardens. See- tea gardens- so why weren’t they known as Tea Tables??
Coffee wasn’t even introduced into Europe until the mid-1600s…
And it didn’t become popular here in the States until after the War of 1812,
and that was due to the British temporarily cutting off access to tea imports.
So I understand why it is now known as a coffee table- people gather round and sit their coffee on it,
But why was it never known or referred to as a tea table?
I had a music channel on TV, as I typically do. I usually listen to the ‘light classical’ channel but now have switched to the ‘sounds of the season’ channel since it is holiday time. Our Verizon Fios music channels feature factoids on the screen relevant to the music playing…
well, kinda relevant, for instance, this just came up:
‘The Traditional Holiday Dish of Plum Pudding has no plums in it. ‘
Really? Are you kidding me? This hit me as a bit absurd…
So I investigated.
Plum pudding is made from milk, soft bread crumbs, shortening, molasses, raisins, flour, finely chopped candied citron, ground cinnamon, baking soda, salt, allspice and cloves.
And it’s not really pudding, it’s more like a cake.
So why is it called ‘Plum Pudding’?
In the 17th century, plums referred to raisins or other fruits.
And there you have it! Get a good night’s sleep tonight, no need to toss and turn over the plum pudding question anymore,
Who DOESN’T remember The Electric Company? It was awesome. Now, you can go on YOUTUBE and watch Electric Company songs. But I warn you, it can be hard to look away. I was given this knowledge by Tech Savvy Mama doing a guest post on A Parent In Silver Spring.
First of all- Morgan Freeman is introducing the band! Morgan Freeman, the Oscar-Winner, but more importantly- the famous ‘Easy Reader’ on The Electric Company He’s introducing ‘The Sweet, Sweet Sway’… I REMEMBER THIS SONG…CRAZY!
Is the main singer also the little girl that ate too many blueberries in the original Willie Wonka?
And why did everyone in the 70’s sing on top of boxes?
My son really loves this song and a lot of other electric company songs now, thanks to Tech Savvy Mama and A Parent In Silver Spring.
My thanks to them eventhough I’m ready to poke my eyes out because I can’t get this song out of my head !!! Both of these mom blogs are fantastic resources for moms and families… and they both are fun moms too!
Bill Gates is a nerd. Warren Buffet is a nerd. Mark Cuban tries not to be, but he’s a nerd. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were high school nerds. I can’t imagine any of the Supreme Court Justices are not nerds. And Drew Carey is a nerd.
I was watching the ‘Power of 10’ a while back and Drew Carey reminded a contestant that “nerds rule the world”. My husband turned to me and said,
“Let’s encourage our Little Man to be a nerd.”
“What, by example?” I replied.
Then we talked about letting our son decide what he wants to do with activities, stress that learning is fun and making sure he doesn’t top out in high school.
Drew Carey hosts ‘The Price Is Right’ and he is hilarious (I’ve always been a big fan)! He also strikes me as an intelligent investor and I know he made gobs of money from his long-running sitcom. And Drew Carey is a nerd… a funny nerd, but still, a nerd.
Nerds can communicate an idea effectively; they are just not the most popular kids in their class. And who really cares about being popular after you turn 18 anyway?
Embrace the nerd!
They run corporate America, the Government and your local toy store.
There are worse ways for your kid to turn out.
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?
Nerds rule the world.
