A Sweet Mail Delivery

I arrived home last night from a long weekend with LMH & Timid Daughter in New York City (more on that to come in a later post). We crammed in a quick rundown of our weekend during the car ride home with AmusingDad and the Uber-Princess. We followed that with a swift distribution of gifts - from us to the two left behind and from Uber-Princess to me for Mother's Day. Finally, once the exhausted travelers and their sister were snug in bed I set to sorting through the things that had accumulated in my absence. Among them was a mystery box sent priority mail. I hadn't been expecting anything, so it piqued my curiosity. Turns out, it's one of the sweetest packages I've ever received. Wanna see?


Yes, that's really a carefully wrapped, styrofoam-protected bottle of syrup. Funny, isn't it? I mean, how many people get bottles of syrup sent to them from the manufacturer? Turns out that this one came because I'd called some months ago about a defective cap. It had been threaded wrong so that the opening/pour spout ended up on the side toward the handle. It wouldn't go on any other way. Which made it impossible to use. It was probably due to a glitch in manufacturing, but I thought they should know. I wasn't complaining since I'd been able to switch the bad cap with one from another bottle. I just wanted to pass on what I'd discovered in case they need to fix the glitch.

So now I'm on their list - the list of people they send free bottles of syrup with newly designed caps and ask for feedback. I don't mind. I happen to really like this brand of syrup. And if the new cap is drip-proof like they say, then I'll like it even more.

That's all for now. I have to get back to the loads of laundry and backlog of emails. But tell me, have you ever gotten an interesting mystery box in your mail? If so, what was it?

It's, Um...Me!

I was tagged today by everydaymom, who apparently has not picked up on the unwritten code of amusingmom to keep her identity a tip-top internet secret. But since I'm in need of some creative prompts for blog posts, I decided to take her up on the game.

Here are the rules for "Keeping it Real": Take a picture of yourself right now.
No primping or preparing.
Just snap a picture.
Load the picture onto your blog.
Tag some people to play.
That's it, easy as PIE
So here I am, as I was upon reading that tag. Sitting in Panera, just minding my own little business. No primping or preparing. No regular camera either. Thank goodness for Photo Booth (which, incidentally, I have used to take regular photographs when my husband was out with the regular camera. It does do a pretty decent job and lets you choose special effects before shooting your photo (like the one I used here).

Now who to tag?
Llama Momma
WilyHacker
Beast Mom
Michelle Gregory

Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh! (Blessings of St. Patrick's Day Upon You!)

Every year at this time, I find myself proud to be able to trace some of my ancestry to Ireland. And it's nice to see that I'm not the only one. Even our president has some Irish in him. If you don't believe me, watch the video - he explains it himself. Actually, watch the video anyway. YouTube wouldn't allow me to post it here. Trust me, your St. Patrick's Day isn't complete until you've seen this.

Shadow Play

GPS for Real Moms

I got a great gift for my birthday from A Musing Dad: a GPS. How awesome is that? No more getting turned around and having to backtrack when I'm trying to find a new place. No more trying to read the MapQuest printout while scanning street signs and wishing my perfectly able-bodied nine-year-old could sit in the front seat and help me navigate. But even better: no more wondering where exactly the nearest gas station would be. I do this even in my own stomping grounds.

I love, love, love the long list of "nearby points of interest" that are available at my fingertips: banks, libraries, police stations (very, very important from a safety standpoint), places of worship... Yet already I find that the makers of the Garmin Nuvi have neglected the item of utmost importance to every mom of preschoolers...the restroom!

Could you imagine how much better life would be if, in that moment of panic when your child realizes they've waited too long, you could respond calmly to the desperate plea of "I have to go potty. Nooooowww!"? Imagine your poise as you deftly tap your GPS screen and select under the "nearby places of interest", the words "public restroom", then select the best option and peacefully guide your child (with the help of the pleasant GPS navigator voice) to the absolute closest public restroom.

Yep, the GPS market, which is already on fire, would fairly explode were they to make that simple modification and market it as a mommy map. Add in places for nursing in privacy, or places to hide a toddler having a meltdown...

You think Garmin will be calling me soon to ask me to consult on this new project? 'Cuz I have a few more ideas. Now if only they'd create an option for locating your GPS device. Where did I put that thing, anyway?

More Than You Ever Wanted to Know

Ed Gilbreath at Reconciliation Blog tagged me for this meme. And since it's Summer and I'm on vacation, I figured I'm game to go with it.

Here are the rules:

* Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
* Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
* Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
* Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Seven Facts About Me:

1. I'm sitting in my pop-up camper right now in Coloma, Michigan. Because you know, camping is all about getting away from it all and enjoying the wide outdoors. The RV across the road has a satellite dish set up. Yep, we are all roughing it here!

2. Weird fact: two of my toes are permanently curved. To straighten them would require breaking of bones. Therefore they remain forever curled under.

3. As I kid I preferred soft serve ice cream to hard. So when we scooped ice cream at home (preferably chocolate) I would mush and stir 'til it reach soft serve consistency. These days? Who has the patience?!

4. I don't watch TV, except for The Simpsons (with my husband, because it's his thing) and Ugly Betty, which I watch online while folding laundry.

5. I once worked for my hometown weekly newspaper as a receptionist/classified ad taker. The best day of the week was Wednesday when the week's paper was put to rest. The owner would give me the keys to his fancy Lincoln so I could get lunch for the staff. It was always a big celebration.

6. I have never played in a curling match. This probably comes as no surprise to my American readers, but when I worked for a Canadian company, my co-workers were just aghast at this. I later learned that there actually is a curling club in Chicago, so there may be hope for me yet.

7. I'm an incredibly indecisive person. And I'm learning from a book on character that I'm using with my children, that indecisiveness is a vice (not a virtue). I can't decide if I agree with that or not. I also can't decide which seven bloggers I'd like to hear from. So...I've probably done this before, but I'm doing it again: if you'd like to be tagged, consider it done and leave a link in the comments below. And if you don't want to be tagged, tell me what you think about indecisiveness - is it a shortcoming character-wise or not?

Random Meme

Last week Llama Momma tagged me with a "6 Random Things" meme. And since I'm feeling a bit random today, I thought I'd answer it. So here you have six random things about me:

1. The first rock concert I saw was Kool & the Gang. My dad was kind enough to take my best friend and I. His hearing has never been the same.

2. Prior to that I'd been to multiple folk concerts. I remember being so bored sitting through those with my parents - mainly a series held at the YMCA. These days I actually choose to listen to folk music. So something must have worked!

3. I sew one Halloween costume each year. I have three daughters, but only one gets a new homemade one. The others either have to shop our costume closet or convince me to get one at the store (that isn't totally cheapy-cheapy).

4. I wear long underwear from October to April (or May, depending on the weather. Last week I was actually wearing my fleece lined jeans for the third grade field day outdoors at school - and I needed them).

5. I played the flute for nearly ten years before taking private lessons. Today LMH starts learning to play on that very same flute. If she sticks with it we won't make her wait quite that long to get private lessons.

6. I have never been out West besides a ski trip to Colorado and a few visits to California. One of these years we'll take the kids so I can see what I've been missing.

There ya have it. I'm not tagging anyone, but if you feel so led to do this meme - then consider yourself tagged.

Awkward Situations

Newbie. We're all there many times in our lives. And some of those times are more awkward than others. That's when it helps to have the advice of someone who has gone before you, who has more experience. I witnessed two people in the last week go through this in circumstances with which I was totally unfamiliar. I don't know which is worse, being the newbie or watching a newbie and not being able to help. So, in light of these two people's situations in particular, I'd like to learn. Somehow though, I don't think I'm going to learn by firsthand experience. That's where you come in. If you know the answers to these dilemmas, please share.

Awkward Situation #1:
You have a cleaning person in your house. Do you follow them around? Do you work ahead of them picking up and putting away? Or do you retire to your couch with a cup of tea and some bonbons and snuggle up to the remote to watch daytime tv?

Awkward Situation #2:
You're spending a day at a spa. What do you wear to get there? Do you really wear those foam flip-flops to drive home? Should you try to make conversation with the nail technician? What about your masseuse?

Clearly I am not going to be struggling with any of these issues any time in the near future. But I hope I have friends who will. And wouldn't it be nice to be able to tell them that "I'm pretty sure you shouldn't chat on your cell phone while getting a facial"?

Thanks for your help.

A Little Mid-Week Fun

I've been having fun playing my husband's new PS2 game: Guitar Hero Rocks the 80's. And while I'm not a superstar yet, I've managed to move up from Easy to Medium in the last month. Beast Mom & the Battered Ham posted something that has me thinking I should start planning my career in a rock band. I've dreamed up a band name and a cover for our first album. What do you think?


(cover photo by Mônica Fadul)

Wanna try it for yourself? Here's how it works:
1. The first title on this page is the name of your band.
2. The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album. Click the "New Random Quotations" button for more.
3. The third picture on this page will be your album cover. You then take the photo and add your band name and the album title to it, then post your picture. Please don't forget to give credit.