Rocks in the Dryer

There Goes the Neighborhood

A new family moved in to our hood last fall.  Not just any ole run of the mill basic American style type.  They are Belgian, like the kind actually from Belgium.  What do they do to earn a living here in our great land you ask?  They import Belgium Chocolate.  Thank you very much for your service to our country and welcome to the neighborhood!

As any self respecting Belgian Chocolatiers would do, they hosted a neighborhood Easter chocolate hunt. I am not sure where all my neighbors were 'cause we were just about the only locals present.  This is to say we were the only soil born Americans at the event (the neighborhood Australians were there as well, just none of the American variety neighbors).  What a dream, we felt like we were in Europe if just for a moment.  All the men had on sassy glasses, pants and shoes, yes that was the first tip off, the swirling accents, the other obvious trait.  My average 'ole american family had a fine time being the token locals and sucked down the wine, the amazing food, the great company and of course the chocolate.

There was so much chocolate, it was a bit more fantasy than reality.  They explained how all the unsold holiday themed chocolates usually end up at a pig farm in Maine, this season they thought to put it to use for human consumption - consume we did, sorry pigs.

This little nugget, may have just consumed the most . . .

The day, beautiful. The scene, set....

Did I mention the chocolate?

There was a mighty hunt...

The resources were plentiful...

One child was lucky enough to find the mac daddy of all hidden chocolates . . . guess who?

That's my boy!  It goes without saying that he may contradict our friend Charlie Sheen on who it is that is actually "winning"......

'Til the Advent Calendar Reaches Double Digits

There is no need to panic people.  Time is still on our side.  Each morning as the children tear off a window of the advent calendar my heart seems to step it up a bit.   Honestly, I feel like I have this season under moderate control, historically and generally speaking.  In years past I've found myself too far behind, too late for recovery and mad for not being able to do what I intended.

I love Christmas, I love a Christmas when I can actually enjoy the hustle.  I rather like to hustle, when the hustle was my own to create, not imposed upon me by poor planning and over committing and, well, paralyzing ADD.

Let's see where we stand on this the 7th of December:

Christmas card photo taken, cards ordered & received:    Check

Christmas cards stamped, addressed and mailed:    no sign of a check

Indoor Christmas Decor:     7/8th's of a check

Outdoor Christmas Decor:   3/4th's of a check (Big daddy has requested some changes . .)

All timers illuminating in synchronization:  Impossible notion, no check, ever.

Christmas shopping:  12/15th's of a check

Wrapping & mailing:   damn, not a check in sight.

Holiday baking:   1/2 of a check (dough is made and frozen . . . high five)

Preparation for next weeks party:   1/20th of a check.  whoops.

Preparation for Christmas Eve party:  0/100's of a check, plenty of time, plenty of time.

Children's festive wardrobe:  check!

My festive wardrobe:  yeah, right

Water tree daily, so it's not dead by the 10th:   4 days in, Check.

hmm, doesn't look so good after all, but I remind myself no panic until we hit the double digits.  3 more days, then panic.

Poolside Privacy Policy

I was so excited when my 7 year old finally got up the nerve to launch himself off the diving board at our swim club today.  This was a first. This was a big. 

Finding myself disappointed with the fact that I didn't have my camera (no mother of the year points today) I swiftly decided a phone photo would have to do.  I had to capture this, we haven't had a first in a while.

Positioned appropriately, phone held high, son on diving board ready to take the plunge, I was approached by a life guard.  Apparently it is against the pool's privacy policy to take photos ............  I had to have her repeat this concept.  Pardon me? It is what?  It is against your privacy policy for me take take a photo of my kid jumping off the diving board?  For clarity, it's against policy for me take take any photos on the property.  No photos of my kids swimming this summer.  A privacy policy enforced black hole in our summer excursion documentation.

It's a bit hard to fathom really that this overly tech-ed space age world we live in has come to this (look at me I am blogging & tweeting about it).  But really?  What did some freak show do, to whom and where that has brought upon this result?  Some days more than ever I wish I were a pilgrim, at very least I wish I was Betty Draper.  It's a give and take I know.  I would have to give up a lot, but at least it would be acceptable to take photos of my kids swimming the summer away (well, then the pilgrim thing wouldn't work now would it).  Whatever.  Now I will just have to invest a lot of time in figuring out how to be really sneaky with my poolside photo taking.  I have always been a firm believer that plenty of rules do not really apply, they certainly don't apply to me and they clearly do not need be followed. 

Batteries are charged, tomorrow is going to be a scorcher again.  Say cheese boys!

Melting

I am melting, and I am not the only one. 

The pillar candles on our porch chandelier are none too pleased.  I would argue that they have nothing to complain about.  They didn't move to Boston from steaming hot Tennessee 18 years ago to escape the inhumane summers,  I did.  This is not what I signed up for, so they can melt away in silence.  I, on the contrary, am going to be a bit more vocal about the matter.     Beaches by the plenty are seeing lots of me and much more to come.  I will adorn my vehicle with over-sand permits like badges of courage and will not take this dreadful heat sitting down (unless of course, I am sitting down under an umbrella with my feet buried in the sand ) . . . Where are the cool New England evening breezes that dreams are made of?  I hear Canada is nice this time of year . . .

Hanging with My Best Friend Jane

Just when I said I wouldn't be posting this week . . . look at me go.   I got to take part of something rather magical last night and I can't control myself.   I attended "An Evening with Jane Goodall" at Harvard University's Saunders Theater.  Lucky duck.

First of all if you have yet to attend an event at Saunders Theater (pronounced by Bostonians as "Saahn-ders"  not "Sand-ers" as you may want to say) you may want to add it to your list.  It is a magnificent place.  Clearly I was not lucky wicked smaaht enough to actually attend Harvard, but let it be known I will jump at any opportunity to attend an event there.  I have enjoyed many a marvelous shows inside its walls and last night did not fall short.

I was invited to attend the event through my work with Barefoot Books. Barefoot is supporter of Jane Goodall's organization Roots and Shoots (YEAH Barefoot!) and I, the lucky recipient of one of Barefoot's tickets. 

How wonderful to get the tiniest glimpse inside the work of this extraordinary woman.  It was hard, at least for me, to keep my mind clear, to just listen.  My inner dialog was reaching it's own tipping point; "have to do more, I want to be her, I want to hang out with her, work for her, If only I didn't have children..., why is my life so lame, can't believe I spent the whole day at IKEA, I hate myself, I am the source of global warming, I want to go study the chimpanzee's in Gombe, I like chimpanzee's as much as Jane, I even had a chimpanzee birthday party when I turned 7, She's so lucky, it's too late now, too many people want to study chimpanzee's .... bliddy bloddy on and on. 

Then Jane started talking about how the little things each of us do make a difference.  "Coffee" she said, you can make a difference with the coffee you drink.  Then I remembered.

There was a great article in Hiefer International's publication World Ark (I think I wanted to blog about it and never did) about the work Green Mountain Coffee Roasters is doing with Heifer and elsewhere (I know now directly with the Jane Goodall Institute) Promoting natural, organic coffee growing, ie: shade grown.  Teach, help, aid farmers to grow coffee in shade, to grow trees too.  Trees are good for coffee farming and you go ahead and guess the by product.  Habitat for chimps and and all of their forest friends.

I have a Keurig single serve coffee maker.  Keurig is a wholly owned subsidiary of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters owns the patent on the "k cups", single serve coffee pod things.  I own the machine, I buy the coffee....Ahhhhhhhhhh, my work is done.

There were so many great little factoids {Did you know that a human can receive a blood transfusion from a chimp?  Our blood is that similar}, so much inspiration, humor, insight and of course; call to action.  There were so many books by and about Jane for sale and I wanted them ALL.  Problem was everyone there wanted them too and I couldn't commit to the line.  I plan to read her biography, grab a couple of the children's books and was rather intrigued by her stage companion, Prof. Richard Wrangham's new book:  Catching Fire: How cooking made us human. 

And to think I thought my week was already over-committed now I have 1000's of pages to read and 300,000 chimpanzees to save...

Big Apple Circus Comes to Boston :: 30% discount code

I must have hit the big time.  A rep for the Big Apple Circus, or the company that promotes it, contacted little ole me to publicize the event in Boston.  I can hardly stand it.

So here you go, a little treat for you  "readers of Rocks in the Dryer" get 30% off!  I must be dreaming.  Seriously, we are totally going - who doesn't LOVE the Big Apple Circus?

Big Apple Circus performance running in Boston from April 3rd – May 16th.   

Time Magazine calls him, "America's Best Clown" and now, Bello is Back! under the Big Apple Big Top performing breathtaking feats of humor in the theatrical focus of one ring with no seat more than 50 feet away!  Bello is joined by a world of stellar circus stars and the Big Apple Circus’ very own clown – Grandma!

Performances of Bello is Back! begin Saturday, April 3rd and run through Sunday, May 16th, 2010, under the Big Top at City Hall Plaza, the fifth stop on the Big Apple Circus's 11–month, 7–city tour.

For more info, make sure to check out the Big Apple Circus on Facebook (http://facebook.com/bigapplecircus) and Twitter (http://twitter.com/bigapple_circus).

To purchase your discounted tickets to the Big Apple Circus:

Online: http://bigapplecircus.org/bostonpop.aspx  and submit the code POP10 in the Promotional Codes box

By Phone: CALL 888-541-3750 and mention code POP10

In Person:  Big Top Box Office  10AM–6PM daily. No service fee. Bring a copy of this blog post

*Offer good on select seat locations and performances. Must present this blog post to receive discount at the box office. Performance schedule subject to change. Offer is subject to availability; not valid on prior purchases; cannot be combined with other discounts or promotions. This offer can be revoked at any time. Discount amount varies. Limit 8 tickets per order. No refunds or exchanges. Telephone and Internet orders are subject to standard service fees.

Ode to a Sump Pump

Is it poetry friday?  Not yet, so plenty of time to being a new bit of prose.  I would like to write a poem and dedicate it to my sump pump.   Do you know what a sump pump is or do you have one?  I had never heard of or seen one of these contraptions until I moved to New England and now my sump pump is the love of my life.

It rained here in Massachusetts for what felt like 40 days and 40 nights. Our own little town received nearly 10 inches of rain in 3 days.  The town sewer system is in such overload that there is a town wide ban on laundry for a few more days.  That's right, we are prohibited, by the government, from doing laundry.  Be still my beating heart, it's the stuff dreams are made of.

IF you are not familiar with the workings of a sump pump I explain.  All homes in New England have cellars, it's required code.  It's the only way to keep the pipes from freezing in the winter and only place to house the massive heating systems . . .  cellars unfortunately have the tendency to flood, some more than others.  Homes that have a tendency to flood are usually outfitted with a french drain and/or sump pump,  a thing of beauty.

This is how it works in our home.  In the back corner of our cellar there is a big hole in the floor, It's a deep concrete rectangle with little hole/spouts to let water in.  When it rains (and when snow melts) said big hole fills with water, when the water reaches a certain level, floater thingy turns pump on, water is pumped out  . . . {to neighbors yard}.

It works like a charm.  Though it is bothersome.  My poor, dear husband has been standing over the pump hole for the last week (or calling me hourly from work) watching each cycle of the pump, certain each pump is it's last . . .pump. If the pump were to crap out, our cellar would flood in a matter of hours and my husband lives in complete fear of this catastrophe occurring.

The rain season has taken an toll on my productivity in ways I could have never expected.  The contents of our basement (which happens to be world headquarters of all of my many endeavors) is piled high in the dining room.  I have attempted to maintain order . . . but have failed. 

So, I just wrote 6 paragraphs explaining why I have not updated this blog in 5 days.  No better excuse than the truth.  It's been raining, a lot.

Sadly I did have to cancel my planned St. Patrick's Day Feast.  I made the meal, but did so only for my children who we realize, and go figure, LOVE corn beef brisket prepared 1960's style.  The table and decor was nothing special and no, I didn't get to be-ribbon any pipes -  ahhhhhhh there is always next year.

I did manage to find an old shamrock streamer thing, pulled out the green ikea dishes and squirted some green food coloring in their lemonade.  My guests were wildly impressed, tis all that matters.

Erin go bragh!

News Hub: Consumers Crazy for Coupons - WSJ.com

Front cover, below the fold of the Wall Street Journal yesterday?  Coupon clipping on the rise, coupon clipping as an extreme sport that is.  The full article is here. 

My husband called me mid-day yesterday to let me know of the front page story.  If you read here often you know I have gotten rather hooked on the Grocery Game (see here and here).  The GG is a site that makes extreme coupon clipping rather easy, and highly addictive.  Through my efforts our family is saving roughly $600 a month on household essentials (laundry detergent, cleaning supplies, personal care and basic grocery staples).  I have spent a decent amount of time on coupon-ing web sites to know that I am a true rookie in their midst.  There are some people out there who are hard-core, efficient couponing and discounting machines.  I am only soft-core at this point, and don't want to awaken the hoarder within me - so I must proceed with caution. 

The article was pretty much dead on to what I have found - though when I visited some of the referenced websites I realize I am not at all in the category.  (The man who got 1600 boxes of jell-o for free, the woman with a palate of cottonelle toilet paper in her basement)  I want to beat the system a bit, save a little money - but not run companies out of business . . .

The following WSJ market watch video was interesting as well, though I had to take a bit of offense to host Simon Constable's choice of vocabulary. To describe the extreme coupon users in the interview he passionately used the words:  Crazy, obsession, weird, insane, extreme, counter productive . . . He kept trying to get the article's author to jump in and join with the insults, but the reporter kept his cool, perhaps he seemed a bit impressed with what he had uncovered.

I found myself taking a little offense.  Perhaps Mr. Constable could acknowledge that of all of the hobbies one might choose to pick up, extreme couponing is rather harmless, if not beneficial in some way.  Or maybe he is just a judgmental meanie.  Whatever the case - you can watch it here:

News Hub: Consumers Crazy for Coupons 3/8/2010 12:09:43 PM The redemption of coupons spiked 27% from 2008 to 2009. WSJ's Timothy Martin has more insight on the craze, which appears to be about more than just saving money.

via online.wsj.com

Other sites mentioned in the article:

Slickdeals.net

TheKrazyCouponLady.com

HotCouponWorld.com

snip snip.

Olympic Moment

I arranged a little meeting for my boys, in an attempt, to not only see some old friends, but also in hopes that gold and silver might, you know, get into their blood stream.

My little darlings were awarded the chance to hang gold and silver medals around their necks (for Hockey no less)  The fact that my 5 year old is wearing gold in the photos is not an instance of luck. He refused the silver.

they were told that snow boarders bite their medals upon receiving them . . .might as well try that.

The only problem from this little meeting came from DH's questions to Tara (Tara Mounsey, US Women's  Hockey: Nagano, gold and Salt Lake, silver).  He was attempting to uncover how one would go about creating a gold medal Olympic hockey player out of his own off-spring.  Tara was generous and explicit in explaining her father's dedication and commitment to her training, his role was undeniably integral. 

Tara told us about 5 AM morning practice. Her father would take her and her brother pond skating every single morning before school in the winter (they grew up in NH).  She also told us about family workouts:  daily weighted runs up and down the cellar stairs among many.  She can laugh now, with all that bling to show for it, but wasn't always cheerfully wiling to participate at the time.

We kissed Tara good-bye and thanked her so much for sharing her medals and the cards and autographs but I have one regret.  I didn't have Tara clarify one fact: was her father implementing these programs when she was in preschool?  How much of role did her mother play in all of this? (fingers crossed for very little)

I really should give her a call so I have a leg to stand on when my DH starts having my 5 year old do weighted drills up and down the cellar stairs and before he requires me to take them to the pond at 5:00am before we head off to Montessori school . . . I was hoping some of the magic would just rub off.

 

GoodGuide : Ratings of Natural, Green and Healthy Products

©2010 GoodGuide, Inc. All rights reserved by GoodGuide and its licensors and data providers. All marks, brands, and names belong to the respective companies and manufacturers and are used solely to identify the companies and products.

via www.goodguide.com

I love it when my copy of Word Ark arrives.  Not only is it great, inspirational reading without a doubt I learn much from each issue.  I have given to Heifer much over the years (usually gifting friends Heifer animals for Christmas) and the gift gives back to me is a subscription to World Ark, nice perk.

This month there was a little blurb about The GoodGuide, and it's accompanying IPhone App.  I must admit that I am not much of a product researcher - but this I really thought cool.  You can search products and brands (and now scan the bar code from your phone when at the store!) and get a rating not only on their safety and nutrition as it may apply, but also on the environmental impact, social values of the company who produces the product or service.  How cool is that!

As always I learn, I have much to do to change the world, one little carbon footprint at a time.

People Magazine Bookclub: Emergency Meeting

As you may know I am in a book club, of the People Magazine variety.  There was not a club meeting planned for December - too much falalala-ing - HOWEVER - with the breaking news and excitement associated with Tiger Woods - we decided we had to have an emergency meeting.  This is just too important.

The Menu:  Swedish Meatballs (for her),  Pigs in a blanket (for him), Vodka Cranberries (for me, unfortunately one too many - but I digress)

There was much heated discussion that lead to a unanimous consensus: 

Yes, we too would beat our husbands with golf clubs if they committed the same, numerous infractions.

Thanks for the laughs ladies - now back to the business of holiday preparedness . . .

Veterinarian's Day

(photo credit: FLICKR )

Spoken from the mouths of babes.  A friends daughter thought we were to celebrate all of the veterinarians of the world today, and while that is would be a nice thing to honor, she was a bit off.

My older son was born as the current Iraq conflict had just begun.  I remember so vividly nesting in with him on a winter morning watching the Today show.  We were cuddling, snuggling and I am sure nursing, all warm, snug and sleepy on the sofa.  Tom Brokaw was interviewing a mother.  The mother of one of the first US soldiers killed on duty in Iraq. 

He spoke the words: "Thank you for the service of your son" and as he completed the sentence I was over-come.  I had been a mother only a few weeks, but all of the sudden I could see life and tragedy through a whole new set of eyes, from a different heart.  She lost her son and the grief I felt for her was bigger and graver than any emotion I had ever known.

There I sat recovering from a brutal, freak show of a labor and delivery, struggling with nursing and loss of sleep.  I was lost in the new world of "mommy hood" that was all but slowly, physically killing me, or so I thought. It was all on behalf of a new tiny creature that I loved so much and had such a strong need to protect that it felt un-human, or at least felt like nothing I had ever known.  This was my first glimpse of the rest of my life as his mother.  It would be that, a lifelong devotion to protect and keep him safe.  He would be my son, my baby, long after he was weaned and potty trained and, finally, a time would come when I no longer had the power to protect him. 

Never since that time have I thought of soldiers the same way and thankfully, never will.  I too, am intensely grateful for their service and so wish that service was not needed. . . .ever.  Though isn't my ability to "wish" for this completely built on the fact that we, in this country, are so free.  We are actually free enough to believe it could or should be possible to not know or have war.  We know freedoms that are so far reaching, so ingrained in our every day and for that we are nothing short of blessed.

From the depth of my soul, I extend sincere gratitude for the millions who have served and given so much so that we might have so very much more.

Let's Be Honest

The whole "Book Club" thing has never really worked for me.  I have tried a few, made a few good friends, but the book part was always a drag.  I like picking my own books and reading them (or not) on my own schedule.  I have all but given up on book clubs, until now. . . .

My neighbor Laura has had a stroke of suburban genius.  Starting a new book club: A People Magazine Book Club.  Sign me up!  Last night was our inaugural meeting.  Invited for cheap booze and fondue, 10 women showed up to discuss the "news" of the day.

As "book clubs" go, this one was pretty standard.  We continued to get off topic.  Many had not read the assignment and of course there was one (isn't there always) who was aggravated that we continued to allow the conversation to stray and worse yet, break off into smaller, private conversations.

The one topic that did pull everyone together was a vote of who would . . . ahem . . . "go out with" the new "Bachelor":

It was pretty unanimous and some were rather passionate about their votes.  We talked about all the normal stuff, boob size, amount of boob showing, "what were they thinking" and all the rest of the titillating conversation a few issues of People can produce . . .

The trouble with a "People Magazine Book Club" is that it is a weekly publication.  How often do we meet?  Can we just watch DVR-d episodes of Chelsea Lately to get caught up?  Is a subscription required or can we buy at "Rochey" (our grocery store)?  Can we share copies?  So much to iron out in this new model.  We look forward to opening charters - regional chapters if you will, once the standards have been set, we think it's going to be a hit!  A sensation!

For now it's all good.  We had some good hard laughs and are all waiting with baited breath for our next meeting.  Even "bugsy" enjoyed the ride. 

Pop In Proceeds

Miss Susie, my Martha's Vineyard host, just popped in to drop off a few things left behind on our journey to the island.  As I mentioned she and I enjoyed reading the paper and all of the eloquently well written articles about the President and his family enjoying their vacation.  Susie included this article in my bag of remainders - and it so perfectly puts into better words (that is apparently what a Harvard degree can do for you) and thoughtfulness just how it did feel sharing the island with this, our new (and what I find to be, improved) president.

Thanks Miss. Susie for having the mind about you to bring it safely off island to me, Thanks Mr. Ben W. Heineman Jr. for putting into words exactly what I wanted to say - but couldn't.