This week's questions plus a bunch of other semi-related nonsense

Who else hates it when they mistakenly hit publish instead of save while creating posts in Blogger? I do that about once a week and its super annoying.

Hubs and I went to see the film Unknown yesterday and I've decided that should I have any run-ins with foreign or domestic intelligence agencies I'd like to have Liam Neeson watching my back. It was intense. And if you need someone to drive you a fair distance in reverse he's your guy.

While I'm on the subject of intelligence agencies, last week I had my fingerprints and FBI background check done as part of the process for obtaining my sub certificate in this state. I haven't been fingerprinted since I worked back in the 90's and may I just say the procedure is much improved. First of all-no ink. You just lay your fingertips on the computer screen and voila, your prints are captured.

When I was last fingerprinted, many moons ago in another state, I had to actually go into the police station to have them done. While I was mid-fingerprint, with ink I might add, a criminal was brought into the station house and began creating quite the ruckus. Technically he hadn't been labeled 'criminal' at that point, but he behaved like one. Anyway, the officer taking my prints informed me he'd be right back, that his assistance was needed with the ruckus, and in the meantime he would need to lock me in the fingerprinting room until they managed to get the 'alleged perpetrator' under control.

They definitely could have used Liam Neesen.

Just sayin'-

And now, here are the questions for this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge....see you back here tomorrow to link answers.

1. Did you know there is a National Day of pretty much everything in the universe? February 23 happens to be National Inconvenience Yourself Day...when was the last time you were inconvenienced?

2. When a room in your house needs painting who does the job?

3. Are you friends with your cousins?

4. Do you use an alarm clock? If yes-is it an actual alarm, music, or something else?

5. What do you put ketchup on?

6. What smells make you nostalgic?

7. Have you heard about the high school English teacher recently suspended as a result of some things she wrote in her personal blog? You can read the story here but in a nutshell she vented a lot of frustration onto her blog. She didn't mention individual students by name but she did make some harsh comments about kids in general and their parents.

What are your thoughts-If you're a parent is your child's teacher online and are you 'friend' or 'follower' there? If you're a teacher are you on facebook and do you accept or friend students on fb? How about their parents? If you're a student are you friends with your current or former teachers online? Do any of them have blogs you read? If you're a teacher or a parent do you ever use your blog as a place to vent your frustrations with our educational system? So much to discuss...

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Sorry Charlie...

So how are you celebrating the birthdays of two American presidents?

We celebrated by painting our guest room this weekend.

You need to remember that on this blog when I use the pronoun 'we' in reference to home maintenance chores 99% of the time I'm referring to hubs.

I cheered him on though.

And stayed out of the way.

Mostly.

My preferred method of staying out of the way is to leave town when he paints.

Truthfully I think this is his preferred method too because I just can't help but check up on him and offer food and drinks and cleanup assistance.

I also like to chatter and he likes to focus and it's possible he finds my chatter distracting.

Not in a good way either.

Hubs is an excellent painter.

He doesn't enjoy the job but he's super particular and also super neat.

The same cannot be said of some of the professional painters we've used in the past and fyi-hubs is not a professional painter, he just plays one at home.

'We' painted the guest room a Benjamin Moore color called Ladyfinger.

We already have this color in our hallways and sun room and I really like it...

subtle, warm and very livable.

I had been looking for a 'Poppy painting' ever since we moved into this house and I finally found one while visiting my mom a while back.

It's a little hard to tell from this stellar photo but the colors do match the bedding we have in this room.

When I see poppies I think of our back garden in the UK and the amazing poppies that bloomed there every year.

Makes me happy...

Makes her happy too.

We still need to sort out the night stands and lighting and hang a mirror and blah blah blah...is a room ever completely finished?

In other exciting Presidential Birthday Weekend celebrating, I continued my attempts at preparing healthy lower fat meals.

Raise your hand if you're tired of eating the same old thing?

If you're not eating beef or pasta and your hubs doesn't like the smell of fish cooked indoors then you're pretty much eating a whole lotta chicken and a whole lotta salads.

Chicken is okay and I love salads but even I'm getting a little bit tired of them.

We both like seafood and I can't wait until the snow melts enough for us to get back to grilling. We use the grill when its cold but we draw the line at buried under snow.

Guess what?

It's snowing.

I'm in complete denial though so we won't talk about that.

Except to say we had just begun to melt a teensy tiny bit and only two days ago I commented to hubs that this was the first weekend we could actually see some grass on the golf course and some wood on the deck.

Oh bother.

While I'm on the exciting topic of seafood (yes, I was) has anyone else noticed how much the contents of a can of tuna have shrunk?

A few years ago I'm pretty sure you could make more than two sandwiches from one can and now there is barely enough for one.

The cans look the same but the contents are definitely less than they used to be.

Sigh.

This is what happens when you're cooped up in the house too much during a too long too snowy winter.

You notice stuff like how much tuna is not packed into a can.

And then you share that observation with the world wide web.

Who gets my post title?

Actually our weekend was not dull...only the recap is.

It feels good to have another room painted and I love the way fresh paint makes a room look like new...only three more rooms to go!

Hubs will be super excited to read that.

It's February.

It's frigid and windy and shhhh....it's s-n-o-w-i-n-g.

It's pretty...

But it's not spring.

If George were here today he wouldn't be chopping down a cherry tree because he'd have to hike thru feet of snow to get to it and then he'd have to figure out which tree was the cherry because they all look remarkably alike dressed in white.

I cannot tell a lie.

I am ready for spring.

The nineties are so last century

After posting the video yesterday of the Today show circa 1994 and thinking a lot about Katie Couric's hairdo I thought it would be fun to see what we were doing in 1994. I mean if we weren't on the internet how in the world were we filling up all those many minutes in our day?

1994 was the year Seinfeld first aired,

the year OJ Simpson drove a White Bronco,

and the year Sheryl Crow had the #1 song-

All I Wanna Do is Have Some Fun.

So what was going on with my little family way back when?

For starters, we moved that year.

Shocking!

We started out the year living in NJ and ended the year living in Maryland.

You're impressed with our landscaping, aren't you?

Actually, it was a brand new house and we did landscape once we were settled.

We did a good job too.

And by 'we' you know I mean the hubs, right?

Except for my crazy impatiens.

I can grow some impatiens y'all.

And no this is not 1994 but that bed was full of impatiens like this every year once we moved in.

Judging from our photos I guess not a lot happened between January and May of 1994 or if it did we didn't take pictures.

Daughter1 was a sweet kindergartner and before we moved out of NJ we had a birthday party with her friends there....here she is with her bestest buddy back in the day-

And here they are today...

Life is sometimes oh so funny.

I was reminded of a few things as I looked thru our photos.

For one, daughter1's birthday was at least a month long.

Apparently turning six was a big deal in our house that year...

Here are daughters 1 and 2 with #1 cousin in between.

Which brings me to something else I remembered about 1994...

Do you see that stinker on the end wearing the cute blue dress and the cheeky grin?

Yeah, her.

Well back in '94 let's just say there were more than a few days I questioned whether or not I'd survive to tell the tale of her toddlerhood.

Positively too adorable for words but oh my word-the mischief and the hijinks and the have no fear that child brought into our everyday life...

And the laughter...

Can't forget the laughter.

Of course I know what you're really interested in is whether or not I had a hairdo that rocked like Katie's and I'm happy to report that I did not.

But I had some hair, didn't I?

This is hubs and I (on the right) in Aruba with our 'teammates'.

We were there for a work thing and had to do a photo scavenger hunt around the island..

Oh hubs.

Rest assured some things never change.

You should know we totally dominated that scavenger hunt which is why we were awarded those awesome trophies you see in the picture.

My competitive side was fully engaged back in 1994.

How about hubs mustache?

Holy moly.

I'll get back to that in a minute.

First let's discuss this picture which was taken the day of my sister in laws December wedding.

1. My hair! There's alot of it!

2. Shoulder pads. Oh dear.

3. Now I remember...hubs is a red head.

4. And he hadn't gotten wise to the mustache yet.

5. Daughter1 is on the right...six years old and looking appropriately serious to attend her very first wedding.

6. Daughter2 is on the left... four years old and fresh as a daisy after a 12 hour car ride the day before.

7. A car ride in which she managed to vomit every hour on the hour all the way from Northern NJ to Tennessee. Good times!

8. Some things are etched in your brain without a photograph.

9. Little girls in matching dresses make my heart go mush.

10. Dear 1994-I think I left my waistline there.

Could you return it please?

Shortly after this picture was taken hubs shaved that mustache right off.

We were at my moms for Christmas and when he

walked into the room with his naked upper lip both little girls burst into tears.

He had to dress a Barbie doll so they'd forgive him.

We'd been together approximately 14 years at that point and I'd never seen him without it.

He looked younger.

Much younger.

Better actually.

Thus concludes the year that was.

Now...where were you in 1994?

Because we know for sure you weren't wasting time on the internet.

edited to say I'm linking this post to Flashback Friday over at Mylestones today...

hop over and read some of her fabulous writing

I cannot tell a lie...its time for the Wednesday Hodgepodge-Vol 14

So glad you joined the fun today!

Add a link to your post at the bottom of mine and do be sure to visit your neighbors.

1. Your favorite chocolate treat?

Such a hard question right off the bat...I am going to say German Chocolate cake which combines my love of chocolate with my love of coconut.

2. What more than anything else makes you feel loved?

Being treated with kindness and respect. Having my strengths acknowledged and encouraged and my weaknesses forgiven.

3. Cherries or blueberries?

Why are the food questions so hard for me?

I love them both and I eat a lot of blueberries. I have them on my cereal almost every morning. And I love blueberry pancakes except hold the pancake and just give me the blueberries. Sadly pancakes aren't on my diet. It seems like we get blueberries practically year round now but we don't get fresh cherries very often. I'm picturing a bowl of fresh cherries eaten outside on a sunny day and I like that picture. And dried cherries are my newest obsession so I think I'm going to say cherries.

4. What is the one trait you most want the leader of your country to posses?

Integrity-I want that person to have a moral core. I can disagree with a leader's politics yet be supportive if I feel like they are a man/woman of integrity. I have no respect for those who bend whichever way the political wind blows.

5. Are you a saver or a spender?

Here's the thing-it's hard to be a spender when you are paying university tuition. Unless of course you count buying an education as 'spending'. Here's the other thing-it's hard to be a saver when you are paying university tuition. Unless you count putting all your pennies in the bank to pay for your children's education as 'saving'. I'm kidding. Kind of. When kids go off to uni it's like someone turns on the money tap and forgets to turn it off.

I think we have a good balance between saving and spending. We plan for the future, we don't make large impulse purchases and we live within our means so overall we're a good team in this department.

6. If you gave a party for all of your friends would they already know each other?

No. There would be some overlap, kind of like that 6 degrees of separation thing, but when you've moved around as much as we have your friends are scattered far and wide. Paths cross more often than you might imagine so some of our friends know some of our friends but essentially a party with all of our friends in one place would mean lots of strangers together. Lots of really fun strangers. Sounds fantastic...we'd like to host that party!

7. Are you interested in antiques?

Yes. I like traditional furniture mixed with a few carefully chosen antiques. I would not want a house filled with only antiques but I love the way they add character and depth to a room. We have several pieces that I love but I suppose our grandfather clock is my favorite.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

I think you all know I sometimes struggle with all things technical, ahem, and I'm wondering if you've seen this? My daughter showed it to me when she was home. It's a clip of the then hosts of the Today show discussing 'What is the internet?" during a commercial break. Hard to believe it was only 1994.

But first...a story

I'm posting this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge questions at the bottom of this post but before I do that I thought I'd share a little story. I know you are interested in every detail of my life so here is a little peek into something my kids will have zero trouble picturing.

I had an errand to run yesterday and as usual I let the dog out into the backyard before I left the house. Now, it might be 70+ degrees where you live but in my little corner of the world we still can't see the grass. Yesterday it got up into the 40's so the snow that has been frozen solid in our backyard since before Christmas is softening a bit...enough so that if you step on it now you fall thru to solid ground.

Well, almost.

And when you fall thru you are up to your kneecaps in snow but hey, it's a step in the right direction so we'll take it.

This is Daughter1 looking adorable last week in front of the nasty pile of snow plowed all the way up to the fence.

You can't see the fence because its behind that nasty pile of snow.

I dislike dirty snow and when I say snow mountain this is what I mean.

Up until yesterday this snow mountain was frozen so solid it felt like granite.

Anyway, I had my car running in the driveway and I called the dog but once she discovered that she was no longer slipping and sliding across the yard she decided to run all the way around to the far side of the house where I can't see her unless I walk around there too.

I was not dressed appropriately for traipsing thru deep snow so I just continued calling and calling and she pretended not to hear me and remained on the other side of the yard.

I was annoyed.

Did I need to say that?

We have a door in our garage that leads to the backyard so I stepped thru that door to see if I could coax her inside when all of a sudden a huge gust of wind came out of nowhere and slammed the door shut.

The door that is locked from inside the garage.

On the surface this is not a big deal.

I'm just in the backyard and my keys are in my car right over there.

On the other side of the fence.

The fence with five+ feet of snow piled high on either side.

Any other season of the year I'd just open the fence gate and let myself back out onto the driveway but in February 2011 those gates aren't going anywhere.

Oh bother.

I was left with no choice but to climb up onto the mountain of snow on the backside of the fence and then ever so gracefully hoist myself over the fence and onto the mountain of snow on the front side of the fence and then down onto the driveway.

And the reason I know the snow is no longer frozen as solid as a sheet of granite is because when I stepped onto the mountain I sunk all the way down to my thigh in the lovely white stuff.

While wearing dress pants.

And heels.

Spring cannot get here soon enough people!

Now onto this week's Hodgepodge questions....

I'll see you back here tomorrow (Wednesday) to share our answers via McLinky.

1. Your favorite chocolate treat?

2. What more than anything else makes you feel loved?

3. Cherries or blueberries?

4. What is the one trait you most want the leader of your country to posess?

5. Are you a saver or a spender?

6. If you gave a party for all of your friends would they already know each other?

7. Are you interested in antiques?

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Your love is like a red red rose

...or a dozen sunny yellow roses if you're me. Hubs brought these home on Friday afternoon~

I have always loved yellow roses and these really started to open up over the weekend. I don't think there is anything else quite like fresh flowers to make me smile when I enter a room and see them in all their glory.

We awoke this morning to a sky that, in keeping with today's theme, was pretty in pink....

Hubs is heading out of town this afternoon (shocking I know) but he was home all morning so I made him his favorite oatmeal for breakfast...it's all about the 'heart' on Valentine's Day, right? I like Ina Garten's Sunday Morning Oatmeal recipe because she adds bananas and golden raisins and my favorite, dried cherries, to the pot. So delicious! I use skim milk and omit the

salt and the maple syrup...with all that fruit you just need a pinch of brown sugar on top and you're good.

We had one of those weekends that just sort of unfolds and we enjoyed relaxing and doing a little bit of shopping for the house. We still need a few bits and pieces for the bedrooms so we hit some nice shops and antique stores over the weekend and came home with a pretty chair and ottoman for Daughter2's bedroom and an antique table for our upstairs hallway. Now to find the right accessories to display and of course the chair will need a small table and lamp to go with and then of course we need to update the paint and isn't this the way it goes with a house? You tick one item off the home improvement list and three more appear to take its place.

We were in a nice mall on Saturday so we ended up having a Valentine lunch at Legal Seafood. So yummy! I had a Caesar salad topped with lobster and a glass of champagne because what is Valentine's Day without champagne? And no, champagne is not my normal lunchtime drink but we were pretending this was dinner. Hubs ordered a dozen oysters as a starter and the presentation was nice. I took a picture with my phone but for some reason when I put pics from my phone onto my computer they look blurry. This surprises you I know.

We had take out Italian food last night and watched the Grammys. Well, actually we flipped back and forth between channels because when the Grammys got too weird or felt the need to break for a commercial every 3 minutes we flipped over to the Baftas which are like the British Oscars. Needless to say we saw a lot of the Baftas. Seriously, the advertising during the Grammys was ridiculous. And who else thought Lady Gaga=total ripoff of Madonna's Express Yourself? One thing is for sure...Martina McBride-Miranda Lambert-Lady Antebellum...country music fans should feel proud today.

So, how are you celebrating the day? Who out there is baking something wonderful? And by wonderful I don't mean oatmeal. I mean, it was good and all but let's be honest and state for the record that oatmeal isn't chocolate cake.

Sigh.

I think I'll go admire my roses now.

Happy Valentine's Day

Like Peas and Carrots

Daughter1 has been home for a few days and we are relaxing right now in the office. We needed to recover from our day which included breakfast out at a favorite local spot, shopping, Starbucks and finally pedicures. I thought it would be fun to write a joint post. She is not sure if that will actually be fun but she will humor me because I'm her mama and she loves me and I just bought her a super cute skirt and top and dress and had pink polish applied to her toenails.

Since it's the 10th day of the month we thought we'd make a list of ten things we've loved about the past few days together... well I thought of this and she is going along with it. My thoughts are in purple and her thoughts are in green...

1. She smiles a lot. She has a beautiful smile.

She hugs me a lot. A lot a lot.

2. I like going to bed knowing my daughter is just down the hall.

I like watching my parents fall asleep on the couch....

just knowing they're in the house is enough for me.

3. We have talked and giggled and discussed The Bachelor in minute detail.

I liked my parents not so subtle marriage advice given while we all watched The Bachelor together.

4. I like the fact that my daughter is finishing off the chocolate cake we had left over from the Super Bowl so I don't have to do the job myself.

I like finishing off my mom's chocolate cake left over from the Super Bowl.

5. I loved sitting side by side in pedicure chairs.

I loved feeling ridiculous with my mom as we made a run for the car in our flip flops in 25 degree weather.

6. We both agree it is worth it to have nice feet.

7. She tried not to roll her eyes when I couldn't remember the computer shortcuts she has shown me at least three or thirty times.

I helped my mom figure out her Google Address book and translated an email written in French for my dad and I didn't roll my eyes once.

8. We've lingered over breakfasts, lunches, and dinners eaten out.

I love being treated to breakfast, lunch, and dinner out.

9. We talk.

The joy that comes from a long talk with a 20-something daughter cannot be overstated.

Long talks with my mom make my heart happy.

10. A house feels more like a home when there's a daughter in it.

There's no place like home.