Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Once Upon A Time

take a back seat


not a car metaphor, this was originally a parliamentary expression derived from the relative low influence of persons and issues from the back benches (the bench-seats where members sit in the House of Commons), as opposed to the front benches, where the leaders of the government and opposition sit.


happily ever after (atleast til 2008)...


have little or only observational involvement in something

Thursday, February 21, 2008

To brighten up even your darkest nights...




Sometimes in life, you find a special friend;
Someone who changes your life just by being part of it.
Someone who makes you laugh until you can't stop;
Someone who makes you believe that there really is good in the world.
Someone who convinces you that there really is an unlocked door just waiting for you to open it.


The above was sent to me as an email this weekend. It made me reflect upon the girlfriends I have. I tell my kids "If you can count your "closest" friends on one hand you are very lucky." Through my life I've not only been lucky but I've been blessed by the influence and experience these women brought to my life.

Their diversity amazes me.

Some are older, some are younger;

a few been around for 40+ yrs, a few been around a couple of yrs;

some mentored me, some I mentored;

quite a few are related (for this I will always be grateful),

but all of them are family.


For I am a better person for sharing this journey with each of them.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Once Upon A Time.....



Baker's dozen

In times when bakers incurred a heavy fine for giving short weight they used to add an extra loaf to avoid the risk.

Happily ever after....(atleast til 2008)

Thirteen

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Fickle, Fickle Heart




You couldn't pay me to go back to my teen years.

I complain about living with teenagers, but I am not so old that I don't remember how emotionally challenging it was.


I fell in love easily. Going steady with a boy for a summer was like a lifetime. Looking back I see how careless it was, I was my own worse enemy.

PITA2 (middle daughter) recently met a boy at the mall. Both were with a friend who also seemed to hit it off. This budding relationship was a little over a week old when I found out about it. After asking the questions most parents ask, it was determined this young man was inappropriate for my daughter. Simply put; too old.

To my amazement, with very little fanfare, some tears, she ran up stairs to tell him she couldn't see him anymore. Over the next few days, I heard very little if anything about this young man.

One week later, about 9:30AM, PITA2 calls me at work from school. She is incoherent, crying and barely able to talk, requesting to have me excuse her from school. After several minutes I'm able to piece together - today she found out young man had replaced her and her friend had set them up. Remember this young man was in her life for a second.

Not known for my tact, I told her to go to the Ladies Room, get herself under control and head back to class. After school she could go home, lay on her bed and cry her eyes out if she wished but I could not condone getting out of school for such reason.

4PM I receive another call from PITA2 sounding quite chipper. She announces "I am over him. He is a jerk anyway."

I don't know if another caught her eye or she is becoming wiser where men are concerned.
I know she has a fickle heart.


Friday, February 15, 2008

Can We Talk?!

I would like this to be a recurring segment posing a question or two that open up a discussion in the comments section.



On the subject of teen dating:



Age to start; type of dating allowed; appropriate age differences; and curfew restrictions?


Does gender play a role in your answers?



Thursday, February 14, 2008

Which way did he go, Joe....

What is the deal with men and directions?

Not just driving direction, but how-to directions too.

My husband and I can't do household projects together.
It ends up in an argument everytime.

First thing he does is put the directions to the side (without looking at them). Next he takes out the parts as he thinks they should go together, while I would have taken all the parts out, laid them out in front of me, grabbed the directions and followed them step by step.

After much grumbling and cussing, he has a finished product along with a little pile of leftover parts. I comment on the pile and he tells me they are spare parts.
I don't know about you, but I have rarely heard of any manufacturer giving spare parts with their products. I know those parts go somewhere.

Later if the items starts to fall apart, his excuse is either it is a piece of junk, what do I expect?! or he didn't have the right tools to do it in the first place.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Once Upon A Time...


'Bottoms Up'


The expression origins are from the British historical press-ganging of unwary drinkers in dockside pubs into the armed services (mainly the navy) in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Men who 'took the King's shilling' were deemed to have contracted to serve in the armed forces, and this practice of offering the shilling inducement led to the use of the technique in rather less honest ways, notably by the navy press-gangs who would prey on drunks and unsuspecting drinkers close to port. Unscrupulous press-gangers would drop a shilling into a drinker's pint of ale, (which was then in a pewter or similar non-transparent vessel), and if the coin was undetected until the ale was consumed the press-gangers would claim that the payment had been accepted, whereupon the poor victim would be dragged away to spend years at sea. Pubs and drinkers became aware of this practice and the custom of drinking from glass-bottom tankards began. The 'bottoms up' expression then naturally referred to checking for the King's shilling at the bottom of the tankard. (Ack J Burbedge)


Happily ever after (atleast til 2008)...

A drinking expression, rather like cheers, good health, or skol

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?


Your guess is as good as mine.



I always tried to make dinner a family affair. It became the one time of the day that we all sat down together. The conversation wasn't always intellectual yet we rarely argued at the table (bad for the digestive tract and all). Even with sports and other activity schedules we managed to eat together. We might eat really early or really late yet for 16 years I managed to accomplish this feat.


Many a time I felt I ran, no that's not right, worked at a restaurant, no that's not right, a cafeteria. Yes, yes, much better, barring the hairnet and orthopedic shoes. The menu went something like Mon - beef, Tues - pasta, Wed - chicken, etc... What dish depended on the season, what was on sale that week, and a ziploc bag (not a box) of recipes.

When the PITAs were little dinner was easy. The rule was if they didn't clean their plate, they didn't get dessert. Dessert's great motivation. But over time it lost it's power over them. The last few years the table as grown larger while those sitting around it grew fewer. There are many different reasons for the decline in attendance: part-time jobs, social events, and of course


"I don't eat that!"

Did I mention I don't like to cook? Never did. But as a wife and mother I was expected to have the cooking gene. Well my mother didn't have it, her mother didn't have it so I don't have it. It, evidently, being a dormant gene in our family DNA. Still I fried, marinated, tossed, baked, grilled, boiled, broiled, sauteed, etc... more meals than I care to remember. Most were good, some superb and a few inedible. God forbid I hit upon a recipe everyone liked. I cooked it til they never wanted to eat it again.

The last several months I slowly realized that the challenge now becomes how to down-size my cooking. After all these years of cooking for a family of 5 which is like cooking for 7 or 8 it's difficult to condense recipes, atleast for me. I am not a pinch of this and a pat of that cook, I need to be told exactly how much, when to add, and how long to cook it.



Even that didn't solve the problem, I never know who's going to be home for dinner, except DH and myself. So I still cooked for 5 and set leftovers warming for those coming in at whatever time. More and more nobody wanted the leftovers because they grabbed something while out. I in turn threw out more and more food each week. Yet if someone didn't grab a bite to eat and there were no leftovers available they felt slighted.


What's a mom to do?


This mom decreed that everyone knows when dinner is, what their schedule is and if they are going to be joining us for dinner or not. I cook depending on this schedule and if their plans change then they make due with whatever is available because...


This is not a cafeteria or a restaurant.



Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Once Upon A Time...

Once upon a time ... will be a weekly feature of this blog.


I love cliches. I use them all the time (I know - bad habit). I find their origins interesting. The evolution of these phrases is usually fascinating. Today's version seldom resembles much of the original useage yet one can see how it evolved into it's modern definition.


Once Upon A Time...

A Rule of Thumb
In the 1400s a law was set forth in England that a man was allowed to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb.


Happily ever after (atleast til 2008)...

A good rule to live by, a good general principle.

Sunday, February 03, 2008

One Ringy Dingy, Two Ringy Dingy




Customer service help lines are the bane of the consumer's existence. Designed to make routine tasks convenient yet evolving into a quagmire pulling one further and further in. What should be a five minute phone call becomes a test in endurance and patience.


All you want is a simple answer to a simple question:


First you dial a toll free number,

Second you sit through several options (none of which help you),


Third you finally have a chance to talk to a "live" voice and explain your question, only to find yourself on hold and transferred to start all over again.

And that is a good call.



Today my mother wanted to pay her internet carrier online.


She logged into the site but encounters problems paying her bill. An error message kept appearing when she tried to submit payment that led her to believe there was a problem with the system. She decided to call and verify that there was a problem with the system and not her computer.


She dialed the general help line, got through all the options, and connected to a "live" cs rep. He told her she needed tech support and transferred her. Next a woman answered the call, after explaining her problem, the woman said she was the wrong dept and she needed the help line (which is where she started). The woman transferred her into dial tone space, disconnecting the call.

My mother immediately called back. While waiting to get through the menu a second time she decides to check her computer again. This time the carrier site is asking for a telephone number with area code to be entered. She does this, while still waiting to get through the automated menu. Error message pops up that the area code is unknown. She does this a couple more times with the same result each time. Gives up and logs off.


Meanwhile, she finally reaches another cs rep. Explains her problem, he asks if he can put her on hold. She says yes, waits 10 minutes, thinking the rep is seeing to her problem.


Noooooo, a woman picks up the line and asks if she can help her.


Dumbfounded, my mother explains her problem again after expressing her displeasure in the events that have transpired over the last 30 minutes of her time. The cs rep apologizes, explains they have been experiencing technical difficulties with the online system.


Finally answering my mother's question.


Punchline:


She'd happily take my mother's payment over the phone for a $15.00 fee.