J's Thoughts and Musings

5 Ideas for Ruining a Holiday Party

2009-12-16T20:49:00.004-05:00

Or, How not to get another invite.....

1. If you are shy, then grab a plate and go to a corner of the room and eat like a rodent. Glance furtively around the room and avoid all eye contact.

2. Dieting? Then let everyone know and ask for the calorie count of each item on the table. If there is no calorie count from the hostess, offer your own suggestions.

3. Just had a recent surgical procedure or lab test? Describe in great detail with adjectives and sounds.

4. Does alcohol release your inner child? Then let that child out to dance, cry, throw a temper tantrum or sing the entire soundtrack to Mamma Mia.

5. Talk about yourself all the time, loudly.

To enjoy yourself and others at the party, don't follow any of the above rules.

5 Ways to Enjoy the Holidays

2009-12-11T13:28:00.002-05:00

Xmas tree2009
Originally uploaded by jennymcb

It was going to be another sarcastic post, but I am taking a page from Shelly at This Eclectic Life and look at the good today. (Head over to her site, comment and she will donate a can to her local food bank)

1. When out shopping, just add another staple or two to your cart and then put them in the food bank box on the way out. I know that One Gal does this year round and after the downturn in the economy last year, I switched my United Way bi-weekly donation to the Local Food bank.

2. Smile, don't go out in a rush expecting to get everything done in x amount of time just to get all upset when your plans are thrown off. That cashier, salesperson or bagger is somebody's child, mother, father, brother, or sister working to provide a service, a smile is always appreciated.

3. Pay it forward, keep that door open for the person behind you, let the Mom with less items and tired kids pop in front of you in the check out line, and just be nice.

4. Relax, take care of yourself and don't let yourself get over tired.

5. If you have time, make a gift. But don't get in over your head.

Happy Holidays and the Grinch will be back tomorrow!

5 Holiday Ideas for a Stressful Christmas Season

2009-12-09T11:58:00.003-05:00

Ignore your new credit card rate increase and just use your card. Isn't that why you have a credit card?
Love can be bought! If your child wants it, who are you to deny their happiness?
Food =Love, the more food you cook, the more your family will love you. So keep cooking and remember, tis the season for exotic, expensive desserts.
Send Christmas cards with a hand written, personalized note to everyone you know.
The appearance of the gift packaging is just as important as the gift itself. Don't chintz on the wrapping, foil preferred, hand tied bows and homemade gift tags are required for all gifts.

I Know Why Healthcare is Expensive

2009-12-01T19:59:00.003-05:00

I have a suggestion for reducing health costs in our country, and it's pretty simple. If the number of medication commercials was reduced, let's say from 8 in one newscast to 1, then maybe we wouldn't have people going to their doctor with dry eyes, heartburn or "going" problems. With all the studies that are funded by pharmaceutical companies, I know that my idea is destined to fail. But it would make an interesting study. By the way, I want to be in the group that gets to watch tv without the ads if you know of a possible study.

National health care controversies aside, it was pleasant watching tv in London without drug commercials. Maybe if we didn't publicize all the possible ailments out there, we may just have a healthier nation.

Midnight Owls have come home to Roost

2009-11-28T19:26:00.002-05:00

It's interesting to see that my sons have developed my sleep pattern- up all night, to bed around 2-3 am and if there is no work, sleep until Mom yells up the stairs. Now that would be fine if I was still able to maintain those hours, unfortunately most nights I am in bed by 11:30 and trying to get a few pages read before my eyes close. But the Mom in me still wakes up at noises in the night which means with all the boys home, sleep is a premium for me right now. Didn't help that at 7:30 am, our fattest cat decided that he needed me to pat him.

One is back to college tomorrow and the other is here for another five weeks...I think I may go back to naps for awhile. Glad that they are all home safe and healthy, definitely something to be thankful for this year.

Helicopter parent- who me?

2009-11-19T20:04:00.003-05:00

Can someone tell me if it ever becomes easier being a parent? Such a shame that the easiest part of parenting is when the kids are younger and you're so busy chasing after them and making them eat vegetables, that you don't realize how easy it is. (For example- this may be one of 10 times my son has worn a buttoned up shirt with a collar.-->)

It's when they are older and far from home that it becomes harder. Part of me just can't let the bossiness of being their mom let go of still trying to make sure that they do everything right.

Here's an example....son is in Georgia finishing up his first semester of college and will be coming home tomorrow:

Me: Now you only have about an hour between flights, so make sure you get to your next flight quickly.
Him: Yea, I know.
Me: You know how to find your gate with your flight number, right?
Him: (big sigh heard, perhaps he's banging his head on the wall and I can't hear it?) Mom, I'm not stupid, I have flown before and stop being a helicopter parent. I read CNN and I know about parents like you.

Well, I sure hope he enjoys that greyhound bus ride if he misses his flights tomorrow. Maybe I should call him tomorrow morning??

Butterfly Iphone photo fun

2009-11-13T16:24:00.002-05:00

Butterfly Iphone photo fun
Originally uploaded by jennymcb

Today I caved and bought Splashphoto on the Iphone. Another thing to play with. It's quite easy to do and it adds some pizazz to pictures. What do you think?

It's interesting that Laundromats now have wireless capabilities. Rather than read the book I brought with me, I instead spent some quality time with my iphone. It's sad being a geeky gal, my clothes are old, but my cell phone is new. With all the advances in the past ten years, I can't even begin to wonder what the future will bring.

A trip back to London?

2009-11-11T19:26:00.002-05:00

Saw this on my travels through the internet, Knit Nation to be held next July in London. After our trip to London this past Spring, my husband and I would love to go back and see more. It would be fun to meet other knitters from around the world. Just not sure I could justify the cost with two in college this year. That's a lot of extra shifts. May have to think about this for awhile.

There's more than just recipes out in Blog Land

2009-11-03T19:03:00.004-05:00

Blogs have become more than just newsy tidbits about peoples' lives, they have become a source of news; political, social and medical. I found a Science Based Medicine blog which details the extent of quackery that some people call medicine. The latest post has information regarding the Health care reform bill. There are too many pages for the common voter to read and digest, however, I do hope that someone in my representatives' offices have decided that prayer is not a medical treatment that should be paid for. I bet you didn't know that there is a provision in the bill for "require insurers to consider covering Christian Science prayer treatments as medical expenses."

I am a black and white person at heart, prove to me that something works and I will try it. People are too easily scared by what they read without taking the time to question miracle cures. Is the cure evidence based? Or is the fear based on hype or proven theory? Are there more than 1-2 studies completed by different research teams? Next time you read an article on healthcare, ask yourself these questions and take the time to research. You might be surprised by what isn't being said.

Candy and Food, Changing Taste Buds

2009-10-31T10:00:00.002-04:00

Another night of 1/2 sleep with too much time to think. Halloween is tonight and I still haven't bought candy yet. Thoughts of what to get the little goblins had me thinking about what I used to enjoy and now don't. For example, sticky taffy candy, loved them, but thoughts of the dentist chair keep me from eating them. Alas, a victim of the 1960s - 1970s dentistry era of taking a tiny cavity and filling it with a big honking filling that has since weakened my teeth. When all the baby boomers who can afford it, finish with their crowns...What will dentists do to keep busy? Perhaps it will be taking care of the all the rot from soda, energy drinks and lattes.

Better get back on track here, food. As a child I hated the mushiness of oatmeal, now I love it. Of course, since I can add apples and yogurt, the taste and mushiness is gone. Realizing that taste buds change with time, I try not to get "wigged" out when my kids won't try anything. Truth is, I didn't like asparagus when I was younger, even though it's a favorite.

My youngest developed a bad habit shared by his mother for a slight addiction to Hershey's full size chocolate bars. I bought them throughout the summer for the s'mores that never happened. The full size bars were our little secret that we kept hidden from his brothers and his dad. He suggested those for Halloween tonight and I think I just might splurge on the big size bars. Like some comedian once said, who the hell thought a tiny candy bar should be called a "fun" size? Happy Halloween all and have a sweet one on me!

If There's No Blog, who gets to hear me?

2009-10-28T20:37:00.002-04:00

This Gal had a good question about who got to hear me rant and rave when I took my blogging vacation. Well there's my poor co-workers who I tend to tease unmercifully, the hard worker is called the slacker, the quiet young tech becomes the mouth and the talkative tech becomes the quiet one. I get to work in another department for extra money with a nice group of young techs under the watchful eye of the supervisor who I have worked with before and teases me about my whining. It's so bad that there is a really new tech who started a month ago who just wants me to work with her, I will have to work a day to think up a name for her.

Then there's my poor family who get to hear me, however, ranting and raving is a family sport, so I have competition. After the second one went off to college, I guess I needed to come back to the blog to give my husband and remaining son a break. Listening to my youngest, I realized that his ranting is over the top and he needs to tone it down. He'll have to learn that honesty doesn't always equal nice, but that tempering one's words can keep friendships. But boy, he can be dead on about high school drama.

My thought for the day? How come I am the one that has to meet "guys" for roofing, siding and window estimates? Seriously? I would rather be meeting guys with better propositions....vacation in the sun, travel around the world or let me spend their money.

Internet Rant

2009-10-24T19:37:00.004-04:00

I have said it before, but it bears repeating, not all of us want to watch a news video. I can read a heck of a lot faster than the time it takes for any computer that I am on to load a story. Gee, guess I might miss that ad, but 9 times out of 10, I will click out of a story if it is a video.

My newest rant is when reading about the 10 uses for Toe Jam or some other interesting list I might find, I want to see it all on one page! Give me a long scroll over multiple clicks and page loads and you've got yourself a reader.

Changes, my google reader and Cnn.com have both changed their formats. CNN, I can live with, however my reader is causing me to skip stories in order to clean up my pages. The jury is still out, but it's not looking good for a positive vote.

Wow, feel somewhat better, off to play some Canasta to calm down.

Reality isn't Just Another Show

2009-10-22T19:41:00.002-04:00

Reality is can be more than another challenge with team mates on a television show. It can be worrying about your kid's future when the present economy is still a tad bleak. Today on ABC the Wall St. gurus were trying to tell us that companies bailed out by the government have to be able to pay their executives enough money to remain competitive and that we need to keep the good people. Excuse me, but if they were really that good, wouldn't they be able to succeed without a bailout? Not a guru here, but reality here, is that money doesn't equal quality. Not quite following their line of thought.

Another family in the news, will they ever leave?

2009-10-19T19:20:00.003-04:00

According to Kate Gosselin, her kids are struggling. Well my kids would be struggling also if all of a sudden those cool trips and front seats at events were taken away from them. Welcome to the real world Kate, now get off the media merry-go-round and be a real mother. There are many children struggling because their parents aren't working, or they went to bed hungry tonight. Missing your filming crew doesn't quite fit the word struggling.

News? Really? What is wrong with us?

2009-10-18T17:18:00.002-04:00

Why are we still being fed the crap out of a certain western state with people who want to be on a reality show? I won't even justify the existence of these idiots by describing the stunt, their names or the state. But given the amount of coverage that these idiots have polluted our news, don't you think our news media should be ashamed of themselves? Once it was evident that it was a hoax by Anderson Cooper, they should never have been on any further news show. And then we wonder why our kids don't know any current world events? Shame on all the news outlets, or should we just call them media entertainment outlets?

Girls just want to have fun

2009-10-15T19:59:00.002-04:00

What is it that you do to have fun? My blogging buddies all are very talented. There's photographers, writers, knitters, story tellers and bakers out there who read my blog occasionally. But what is your secret fun? Mine is technology and my computer, and occasionally there's some walking that I do that because I have been told it's good for me. However, give me an addicting game and I am happy for hours. The latest addiction is Crossword puzzles on my iphone and the app has many syndicated crosswords to choose from which just keeps my husband and I busy either in the car or even in post op recovery...don't ask, but we did raise some eyebrows. If you have an iphone, I recommend Crosswords by Standalone. There's hints and it's easy to use. Wonder what my next addiction will be? I hear the Ragdoll app is fun...

Hola

2009-10-13T18:30:00.002-04:00

I am just a tad bored right now, actually, it's more of a lack of motivation to finish an afghan or to read a book that is overdue. But this is what I just did for fun, on the top of my blog, there is a tab that has Next Blog written on it. I clicked on it seven times and got 6 Spanish blogs and 1 French blog. Alas, the last blog was creative on it's page design and did not have the next button. Blogging goes international and if I was really motivated I would use a translator like Shelly did once upon a time even though you might get something that's not real.

And am I the only one with a Chinese commenter? I wonder what they are saying or selling. Any ideas out there?

Change

2009-10-11T18:27:00.004-04:00

We always go into our seasons with changes occurring around us. But I think that it's the Autumn that brings us the most changes. Our children head back to school, we are now down to one son at home and it's a big change for us to have only one around the house. ( At some point I will figure out how much milk to buy)

In New Hampshire, we had a horrific crime in a small town that has changed the way a lot of people feel about their safety at home. Last Saturday night, 4 teenagers entered a house to rob it with intentions to kill whoever was inside. They killed a mother as she was in bed and her 11 year old daughter was attacked, but managed to call 911. I can't imagine the mother's thoughts as she was being brutally stabbed while she knew that her daughter was in the house. The next two days, the teenagers went about their business and two even attended High school on that Monday where they were arrested. Living in a small state, we aren't used to murder from unknown assailants and this crime has changed how people feel about their homes. It is my hope that parents will recognize when they have a child with a problem and make the necessary changes to bring them back to reality versus the sociopath behavior that led to this crime. It's not about violent video games or the media, it's about how you are taught to live by the golden rule...Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. If you miss that step with your children, then don't blame it on the media.

Just Apologize, Don't make Excuses

2009-10-02T08:02:00.003-04:00

When you do something bad or stupid that hurt others, I think an apology is in order and should be an apology without the reason. For example, Kanye West apologizes for jumping on the stage to interrupt an award presentation and then the next day says it was because he is still grieving his mother's death. Had me at sorry, lost me at the excuse. There is no excuse, admit it, stupid action, shouldn't have done it and leave it at that. The reason doesn't make it okay, it just cheapens the apology.

If you're underage and you get caught drinking, own up and don't make the excuse that everyone does it. (Because there are kids staying home on weekend nights not drinking)
If your husband beats you and you smoke pot, those are two exclusive actions, one doesn't become a reason for another.
If you can't sleep and use your celebrity status to obtain drugs, that makes you a drug addict, not a misunderstood celebrity.
If you are failing a class, it's not because the teacher doesn't like you, it's because you aren't doing the work. (Feel free to insert failing- not getting a raise, class = work, teacher =boss)

There's always a reason behind an action, but not an excuse. Bottom line, own up, admit your fault, learn from it and move on.

Sad Survey

2009-09-28T19:21:00.002-04:00

According to a Vanity Fair and Sixty minute survey, Walmart is the company that best symbolizes America. More poll information can be found here. What I find amusing about this poll, is that Vanity Fair does not say how many people did the poll but Googling it, I found out that only 1097 people participated. There was no error of margin noted. Don't you just find polls amusing? Unfortunately, there are those who believe everything they read or hear without getting the details. If only we could have more critical thinking in the world, instead of reactionary robots.

Sharing a Rainbow and a Drive

2009-09-27T10:51:00.004-04:00

Last Friday, I was able to catch a rainbow on my drive home from work. After a very short summer, the rain brought in a cool front and we have acorns and pine needles falling this week, along with Autumn color changes.

Now picture these trees covered in ice and leaning over the road, and this is what I had to drive through last December after our ice storm. It's still a vivid memory and one that I think about daily on this road. Ah, the seasons of New England, gotta love it.

I Just Can't Do It

2009-09-26T13:53:00.003-04:00

It's just not right that clothes should be put on dogs. In this contest, I guess a dog can't be cute unless they are dressed. And you just know those dogs aren't happy because it's not fair to cover up where they like to lick best. Those dressed up pups may be smiling on the outside, but you wouldn't want to know what they are really thinking!

What a Difference in a Year- Shopping

2009-09-25T19:03:00.004-04:00

Hi, my name is Jenny and I hate to shop. Really, I do and I only go when I absolutely have to. Today was one of those days, I did laundry this week and discovered that my youngest son's socks were gray and holey. Then on a phone call from #2 son, he asked if we could bring him some socks on a trip my husband is making down south next week. So off I went to JC Penny's where there was a lot of room to walk around the racks and shelves. Last year we were there to buy winter coats and there was hardly any room to walk. This year I had all kind of space and there was even a greeter at the door. The plus side to the downturn in the economy is the increase of customer service. I love good customer service, so please, come right on up and ask me if I need help and if I don't, I will thank you nicely. Let's hope that when the economy starts improving that stores will realize that shoppers like being able to move around a store and that we love customer service. All it takes is a smile and a willingness to help the customer. I ended up not hating my shopping excursion and even bought a dress shirt and tie along with the socks. It wasn't the end of the world.

Would you want another Chance?

2009-09-24T20:58:00.003-04:00

If you could go back in time, would any of us really want to be in High school again? Would you want to go back in time to when you were in high school knowing what you know now? Or would you just want to be a teenager again and attend high school now with all the technology? But then if you could just be a teenager, by going back physically, you wouldn't have the knowing what you know now? It's a conundrum I tell you, which explains why time travel will never happen.

But if you could go back, when would you go back to? I think I wouldn't mind the going back to high school, knowing what I know now. I sure would have had more fun and less worry, ending up in the same place.

Open Apology to the Young Driver I Irritated

2009-09-23T19:51:00.002-04:00

Dear Young Woman in the Buick, (Dear Chick with the butt hanging out of your mouth),
I am so sorry for going the speed limit. (Why the heck did you feel the need to ride my bumper?)
Perhaps it was the bass of the radio that was inspiring you to drive faster. ( If I liked to have my car vibrate, I would have signaled to you to play your music even louder.) I was so happy that the on ramp that we were going to share had two lanes. (I was psyched to see you pull up along side of me to see who you were, you were so much cooler than I, since you chose to smoke your butt instead of stealing a glance at me, that's right, the uncool mom in the minivan) It was even better that we were first in line at the light. ( I really wanted to see how fast you thought you needed to go to be in front of me at the merge.) Wasn't it fortunate for you that the lane was was empty so that you could be first on the highway? ( I enjoyed watching you speed up the lane all by yourself and looked behind me to see the traffic spread out normally). What a shame that when you got on the highway that there was traffic. ( Seeing you 1/2 mile ahead of me tailgating the oil truck kind of irritated me, b/c I here I thought I was special....) Obviously you had places to go. ( Seriously, I kind of feel bad, between the tailgating, smoking and really loud music, I figure you need to go fast since your life will be statistically shorter given your lifestyle.) I hope you arrived safely. ( I hope you realize that you are not the only one on the road.)
Sincerely,
Minivan Mom

(Does sarcasm work in parenthesis?)