Hello!!! Goodbye!!!

No I wasn't kidnapped by aliens, I didn't move to Mongolia, and I didn't even forget my password (thank goodness). And no I haven't even been particularly busy. That isn't, of course, to say that I've been sitting around doing nothing. For example, I've had a very good time eating foods that come on sticks:

(frozen cheesecake drizzled with chocolate)

And I've been trying to find the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe (with some excellent help from friends and family):

(please send me your favorite recipe so I can try it too)

And while I must honestly say that it was really, a little bit, quite nice to have an unplanned break from blogging, I have missed it and missed you.

Sadly, though, this post is primarily being written to let you know that tomorrow I'm flying to Portland to help my sister move and I probably won't be doing much blogging for a little while longer. But when I get back, I'm going to be back big time!

Fantasy Be Gone

Okay, so it is possible that I may just be a little bit obsessed with Jordan and Gabrielle's blogs chronicling their separate but equally wonderful adventures living abroad in France for the next year. It is possible that I occasionally get lost in day dreams about what my sweet little Paris flat would look like if I followed them over there. And yes it is possible that I get lost thinking about how cute my kids (yes in my day dreams I have kids--3 perfect ones--and a wonderful husband who speaks flawless French) would be in their school uniforms speaking French. But really folks it is time to get back to my reality...at least it will be right after you watch this cute video that has me checking out the french language options at my local library:

spotted at Design Mom

Enough Already!

I know that is what you are saying about my recent blog design changes, right? I mean how many blog design changes can one person go through in a year? Apparently, if that person is me, many.

Well, let me explain/defend myself. Yesterday my 4 year old niece gave me a tutorial on how to use my Dad's iPad (she knows it all from the password to how to find her favorite videos on YouTube) and as part of the demonstration we got on the Internet and hit my blog. That is when I noticed that the green on my blog appeared to be a color very similar to a shade I recently wiped off the bottom of one of my nephews. I just couldn't stand the idea of what I had thought of as a very pretty color showing up as something that just doesn't smell right. Something had to be done! Hence the blog design changes.

I promise to not make anymore changes ever again...well, at least not until my sister convinces me it is too dark or my nephew's poop starts showing up as black with pink specks in it.

All Things British

Five things British that are occupying my time:

5. Jane Eyre (actually just finished it yesterday, but as it was the unabridged version it has been occupying quite a bit of my time of late--had to get it finished for Book Group).

4. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (happily felt that it needed to be read again following the finishing of Jane Eyre).

3. Jane Eyre the BBC movie with Timothy Dalton which fairly stinks but I was in the mood to watch Jane Eyre before Book Group--highly suspect one or more Book Group members of borrowing the good versions from the library.

2. Football (or soccer for the Amerosnobs--not sure if that is a real term but it is similar in structure to the term Eurosnob: someone who dislikes non-European club football/soccer). The English Premier League is up and running!

1. Doctor Who. The most recent season is over (it was quite brilliant) so now I am happily ensconced in watching Season 1 again.

And those are the reasons I have not been on the Internet very much of late.

La Vie En Rose

I thought I would just say a few words on my new blog title (hopefully the last one since I'm pretty sure changing blog titles is kind of frowned upon and this is my 3rd one--at least I'm not change blog addresses).

La Vie en Rose is both a favorite song of mine and a way of looking at life that I would like to be better at. The translation from French is something like "Life in Pink" that loosely means that life is beautiful (or at least that is what I am told). I just think that seeing life as beautiful--choosing to see life as beautiful because I do think it is a choice--is a wonderful thing and I would really like to be better at living my life like this. So maybe this one extra reminder will help me out a bit.

For those not familiar with the song, here it is (the trumpet just kills me--in a very, very good way):

Babysitting

I am babysitting for my sister at her house and have run out of things to do (as they do not have cable television and the book I brought is just not doing anything for me) and have been forced to find a distraction from the weird noises this house is making. Hence the new blog title and look. It is still very much in production but it has been a bit of fun to play with--it was either this or wake up one of the kids to play with me.

Very Bad

I've been a very bad blogger of late. To remedy this problem I resolve (cause lately I'm pretty good when I set a resolution) to:

1. Charge the battery in my camera (in the hopes that if I had a camera with a charged battery I might take pictures. and if I took pictures I might blog.).

2. Um, blog (even on a regular basis).

and

3. Leave you with this:

I know it is not much, but doesn't it just make you throw a fabulous party?

I love balloons!

image here

New Blog Title

I'm dissatisfied with my current blog title--have been from the beginning when I deleted my old one without having first come up with a new one and wrote in "Under Construction" as a filler. Only I still can't/haven't come up with a new one.

Ideas?

Since this blog is just a random collection of things I like, do, or am (very unfocused) I am thinking something with the word "diary" or "diaries" in it but that is as far as I've gotten.

Ideas?

I'm thinking of something 2 - 3 words long.

Ideas?

I'm also thinking it is probably a bit unfair of me to ask you to name my blog.

Ideas?

The Lovely Jenny

Is it Wednesday already? It can't possibly be! Right, so I had a fantastic Friday afternoon that normally I would have written up on Friday evening or Monday. However, somehow my week has gotten away from me so you are getting it now.

On Friday I met in person for the first time the lovely Jenny--who is just as lovely and wonderful as her blog. She was dropping her freshman son off at BYU and so we met up for a little ice cream and a lot of chatting. We talked family, sons going off to college, religion, and even delved into the political world of the Kennedy's.

The Kennedy's were a very good topic for both of us as we both admire so many of the things that family has done. One of the things we talked about was how very gracious they are. I could also say so very much about their commitment to public and private service or the many organizations created or acts passed, but what so often strikes me is their graciousness. For example, RFK jr. spent over 3 hours outside the JFK Library and Museum greeting members of the general public who had come to pay their respects to his uncle. And there are more acts of graciousness that I could mention and that Jenny and I discussed. But what strikes me and saddens me is that this graciousness (do I say from a bygone era?) stands out so much because it is currently so lacking in today's world.

It is so lovely when we do encounter gracious people why don't we try harder to emulate that? I should say why don't I try harder to emulate that? I want to be a more gracious person. I want to send letters and thank you cards and little notes just because. I want to arrive at friend's homes with hostess gifts. I want to know just what to say and how and when and for those words to be kind and uplifting regardless of the situation. And I want to wear dresses and pearls when I'm cooking (a la Julia Child). These are the things that I am going to begin to work on. Please feel free to call me on it when I fall short--really I mean that.

Just as we were finishing up our ice cream and preparing to leave Jenny told me that she had a gift for me and handed me the loveliest packet of cards (2 of which I have already framed) of Cape Cod--a place that I love as well as anyplace on the Earth--proving to me that the loveliest people really do reside in Massachusetts and they aren't all named Kennedy.

Attention Please

I would like to announce that

I would also like to announce that Segullah invited me to be a guest blogger.

You can read my post here.*

*please feel free to comment** so as to make me feel very positive about myself as it is a well known fact that self esteem is directly related to the number of comments one gets when one blogs

**also be kind as I opened myself up quite a bit more than I am used to doing on the Internet.

Trailers

I love movie trailers. I can't stand the commercials they play before a movie begins in the theaters, but I would be truly sad if I missed the movie trailers. I don't love them because they tell me what excellent movie selections I have in the coming months because, let's face it, far too often the trailer is better than the movie itself. I love them for the possibility of a great movie--or at least because they give me enough of a tease that I can recreate that great movie in my imagination.

It is best to see movie trailers in movie theaters because it is only in the theaters that the trailers are hand selected for the type of movie they will be preceding. For example: if you are going to see a romantic comedy you can expect to see trailers for other upcoming romantic comedies with a few family-friendly movies thrown into the mix. Watching trailers on a dvd before your movie begins is far less targeted because the movie company is trying to sell you on other films they have made not necessarily other movies that might appeal to you based on your current movie selection--not that you don't know all this for yourself of course I'm just trying to set you up for my most recent movie going experience.

Last week I went to the theaters to see Sandra Bullock's latest: The Proposal. Now this post could be about how I did enjoy (for the most part) the movie--if you liked While You Were Sleeping you will probably like this one as there are some strong similarities between the two movies. This post isn't about why Hollywood insists on placing crude scenes in otherwise enjoyable movies in an unnecessary attempt to be funny. This post isn't even about the elderly man sitting next to me who kept tossing a bag in his hand while giving play-by-play commentary to his wife who was presumably deaf and blind. No, as you, I'm sure, have guessed this post is about the teasers that were presented.

All was going along fine. The first 2 or 3 trailers provided me with the kind of trailers I was looking for: romantic comedies. And several of them looked rather promising. And then. Out of nowhere. Up popped the trailer for a movie called Shutter Island. Have you seen this trailer? It is not a romantic comedy. From the looks of it it is a creepy, suspenseful movie along the same lines of The Ring--only it appears to be of very good quality. This is not the type of trailer I want to see before a Sandra Bullock movie. This is not even the type of movie I will ever see. What followed afterward were a series of "comedic" movies that involved men getting hit by golf balls or lit on fire.

I have this one thing to say to movie theaters out there: do not take away my romantic comedy trailers when I am seeing a romantic comedy movie (or drama trailers when I am seeing a drama, etc). If I were interested in creepy movies I would be in a theater showing a creepy movie and could then hear and see upcoming previews of more creepy movies. Okay? Okay. And what will I do if you don't follow my directions on this matter you ask? Well, my friendly movie theater, there are these theaters popping up all over the place that sell assigned seating. This means that I can purchase my movie ticket in advance and wait until the very moment the movie is about to begin to take my seat thereby skipping all of those horrible commercials and your misguided trailers. I have power and you best remember that.

Okay, mini tirade done. There was one trailer shown that night that was particularly interesting: Julia and Julie. I've heard bits and pieces about this movie but all I thought of it before was why would I want to watch a movie about Julia Child. Well this trailer convinced me that I do:

I hope it is good.

I'm Back

Sadly, though, I didn't actually go anywhere. These are my top 3 reasons for not blogging in over a week:

1. I was so distraught over the death of Michael Jackson (and Farrah Faucett and that infomercial guy) that I was bedridden with grief. It is quite fortunate that places like Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan have ceased to exist since MJ's death so as to allow so-called news channels to devote all of their time to his passing, will, children, etc. Strangely NPR seems to think that Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan do still exist.

2. I was depressed by the US Men's soccer loss on Sunday against Brazil. I was sad and actually maybe this would be a valid enough reason for me not posting on Monday. Overall I was so pleased by their performance and am looking forward to increased coverage of men's soccer.

3. I was an excellent facebooker last week and can't figure out how to balance facebooking and blogging and sadly blogging fell by the wayside. However, I have only been on Facebook once this week so the excuse is not entirely valid.

The real reason: I had some kind of posting error that kept preventing me from posting and like the idiot that I am it took me quite some time to figure out how to make the simple, simple fix.

But now I am back.

Rainy Day Blues

It is raining today. Typically I love the rain--I even loved it in Ireland where it rained nearly every day (not an exaggeration). Today, though, it is making me tired. Making me want to curl up in bed with a good book. Making me want to sip hot chocolate and eat chocolate cake. None of these are things that I should be doing today.

In an attempt to pull myself out of this rain induced funk I searched other blogs for inspiration (only made me want to be in Paris or New York right now), I searched YouTube for inspiration (I miss The Vicar of Dibley and The Muppet Show), I searched my brain for inspiration (I've got nothing). All to no avail

So I am wondering what you turn to when you shouldn't be reading in bed, drinking hot chocolate, and eating chocolate cake. What are your favorite blogs that I might not know about. What should I be looking at on YouTube?

The Dark Side

Ok I did it. I succumbed. I joined Facebook.

In truth I didn't just join because everyone else is, but more particularly because I have a couple of friends who kept insisting that joining would help us keep in touch better. I wasn't entirely convinced by their argument and tried to convince them that blogging was a better way of keeping in tough but to no avail. So I decided that I would cross over and check it out--in partial hopes of strengthening my argument that they should cross over to blogging.

So I signed in and I've got to say that Facebook is creepy! At first I wasn't going to invite any friends until I had it figured out so I just skipped through that part of registration but even while skipping that part Facebook tried to suggest some friends and up popped one of Nemesis' sisters--who I only know vaguely. How???

Anyway, eventually I made it into my page on Facebook and found myself so confused at what to do (do I get to pick my own colors, layout--no? why? what do I do here then?) that I picked a couple friends so that I could see what they do on their pages. And may I just say that the speed with which some of you have accepted me as friends has frightened me--flattered as well but mostly frightened.

Then after perusing a few pages I settled in to work on my page. First off was to write something on my page so I clicked on the "what are you doing right now" bar and got ready to write. But then I didn't have anything to write. What was I doing right then? Obviously I was looking at my Facebook page. And pretty much that is what I will be doing every time I go to write something. If I ever get really connected I could see this option being a bit fun to add to via a mobile devise, but until then its literalistness doesn't work for me. Once I got myself through this conundrum I decided to create a few apps to show off my favorite movies, music, and books (only the lists aren't really complete because I got tired and bored--especially with the movies). And then I was done. What else do you do on Facebook?

Actually at this point I headed over to select a few friends and was again creeped out at how well Facebook could figure out who I might be friends with (I'm still working through all this so if I haven't invited you to be a friend come find me). But it was here that I faced the largest conundrum. It started with potential friends from high school. I stared at the page for a minute trying to decide if I wanted to reach out across the Internet and ask some person who I haven't seen or talked to in over 10 years to be my friend. I decided no. I mean really, if someone were to do this in real life we would just find it odd and a bit scary. Just imagine it: someone you vaguely recognize walks up to you and says "will you be my friend?" What do you say to that? Probably "sure." But then what? Do you make plans to get together everyday after work? If you can't imagine it look up 'Facebook in real life' on Youtube (thanks Science Teacher Mommy).

I eventually made it through that minefield, invited some friends, and sat back and watched in amazement as you accepted me as your friend. At first I was feeling pretty good about the number of friends I was amassing and then I checked out how many friends some of my friends had: 183; 248; etc. How on earth do you keep track of all those people? And if I am only 1 of 248 friends how will this system keep us in better touch?

So, in short, even though my involvement thus far as been brief, I am fully prepared to say blogging is way better. I get to choose my colors, my layout, write really rambling posts, and most of all check out your colors, layouts, and posts. All of these things inspire me. Facebook does not inspire me--but it might be a bit of fun.

U2

U2 is on David Letterman every night this week. Can't wait! I guess any thoughts of getting to bed at a decent time will have to wait until next week.

I'm also thinking about going on Facebook. Somehow it feels like crossing over to the dark side (not sure why) and really it is not like I need another place on the Internet to neglect...but everyone is doing it, right? Will let you know what I decide.

Cause I Was Asked

I've been asked to explain how to create the little reactions option that appears at the bottom of each of my posts so here you go:

To enable Reactions, log in to your dashboard, go to Layout > Page Elements and click the Edit link in the Blog Posts element to open the blog post configuration tool. Then, check the box next to Reactions, edit your reactions as a comma-separated list, and click Save.

If you have trouble getting it to work (like I did) you may need to go to Edit HTML from your Layout page, scroll to the bottom and click on Revert widget templates to default. When I did this I did not notice any change in the look of my blog, but as I am not very computer literate I do not promise that it will not change yours.

Hope this helps.

Sore Throat

I was reading the newspaper the other day (before moving on to work on the crossword as per resolution no. 8) and learned that having a sore throat is not a symptom of a cold it is a symptom of your body fighting a cold.

Well right now my body is putting up a strong fight.

Just wanted you to know so that you wouldn't think I was already breaking resolution no. 6 (will not neglect blog). There are also a couple of other resolutions that I have decided I am totally within my rights to break while sick: resolution no. 5 (will make bed--as there is no point if I just keep crawling back in) and resolution no. 7 (will not mindlessly watch tv. was watching CSI:NY last night and couldn't follow the story line--and let's face it CSI:NY is not rocket science so mindlessly watching tv is apparently all that I am capable of right now).

Fun, New Blogging Option

So sometimes I read a blog post and I think to myself 'that is so cool, or cute, or interesting, etc. but I'm not really feeling like leaving a comment' (not, mind you, because I don't think you are not worth my time to leave a comment but rather that I don't feel like my comment is good enough to leave on your excellent blogs). Blogger, though, as solved this problem for me in creating the Reactions option where you merely check the reaction you have toward the post without having to come up with the words necessary of a comment. I hope you'll take advantage of the option here (especially those who stalk my blog but never comment) and maybe consider making it available on your blogs so I can tell you how cool I think your posts are.

Blog Rolls

Have you tried the fairly new blogging option called blog list? I just did and I love it. Now I can quickly see who has updated and just go to those sites. Brilliant! I don't know why I didn't try it out sooner. (If you are looking for my blog list it is at the bottom of my blog's sidebar--it is very long because so many of you are brilliant.)

Another interesting thing about the blog list option is that it can give you some details about what someone has written before you even get to their site. I found this a bit interesting today because a couple of my favorite blogs showed that they are thinking about Fall. I too was thinking about Fall but had been trying to repress it since, you know, it is still July. I was shopping the other day and saw this totally cute fall outfit that I was totally tempted by but didn't even stop to really check it out because I figured it was far too soon to start thinking about warmer clothes. But now Internet blogs are telling me that it is ok! Must see if I can afford to start Fall shopping now. Bye.

Blog Slacking

So I've been a total slacker when it comes to blogging (I haven't even been on the Internet this week--which is totally liberating) but I have been doing some other good things such as:

I am nearly packed for my Boston vacation (which doesn't even start until Saturday). I usually wait until about 11 pm the night before I fly to do my packing which is just stressful and horrible so I decided to be good this time around--I think now I have gone a bit overboard on being prepared.

I am nearly finished reading Gilead which is a really, really well written book but has been a bit difficult to get into. I've found the last 200 pages of the book to be much more interesting and easy on my eyes. I also read Prisoner of Birth by Jeffery Archer and highly recommend that as a good beach read.

My afghan is coming along but is a bit more difficult to finish off than I thought it would be, but it was confirmed to me by our crochet group leader that it is a bit difficult to finish to I don't feel so bad.

I am nearly done organizing the Boston trip (I still need to input all of our Dunkin' Donuts preferences--very, very important).

And, my room is clean!!! The bed isn't made but the room is clean.