Oh Happy Day! Last week I received a package from my favorite German Evil Twin, Kat! (I love surprise packages, don’t you?) Further confirmation that we are indeed long-lost evil twins came as I opened up all of the goodies that filled the box: all perfectly chosen. She sent me (okay, US…I shared with the family) some German chocolates from the area in Eastern Germany where she was born and raised (can I just say “YUM!”?). My favorite was the chocolate with Hazelnuts in it, which is a pretty common find in German chocolate: FOR A REASON. It’s delicious! Lucky for me, my family liked the other two candy varieties…
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The Best Thing Ever When You’re Celebrating Your 200th Post
It’s also the best thing ever when you have kids who drink up all of the Coca Cola in the house before you get a chance to have the Jack & Coke you were looking forward to*! Yum. Happy 200th Post to me! *Drink responsibly, and for goodness sakes, DON’T drink and drive! Thank you!
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He Always Makes Us Proud, But This Is Ridiculous…
Dear P.E. Teacher, Just wanted to drop you a quick note, thanking you for giving our son the highest grade he’s ever had–no–the highest grade ANY high school sophomore has ever had. We’re not sure what the assignments were that got him to this point, but when we got our automatic grade report tonight, we were beyond thrilled. Unfortunately we are going to have to find out why he can’t get a 598% in all of his classes, as this has set the bar pretty darn high. If you need anything from us (though I can’t imagine that happening), don’t hesitate to call. Thanks very much. Sincerely,Two Beaming Parents of…
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Passing Down the Passover 4-1-1
Hello again, my little Jew Stuff students…it’s time to talk a little bit about the Jewish holiday that begins at sundown this evening: Passover. If you would like to read more detail than I will post here, go to this place and you can learn all about it. I am more interested today in writing about one of our favorite Passover foods than the historical significance of the holiday. But since I’m here and you are all usually pretty receptive about learning, I’ll summarize. To make a long story short, Passover celebrates the Exodus of the Jewish people from Egypt, led by Moses. The name of the holiday comes from…
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Pretty Is As Pretty Does
So there’s a new book coming out in the next couple of weeks. I’m not going to mention its name because I don’t really want the millions of people who see it on the news searching for it and ending up here, but I will put the photo of the cover here so you can see what I’m talking about. A doctor wrote this book to explain to children the changes that their mother was making during cosmetic surgery. The following passage, according to this article, is actually part of the book: The girl asks: “Why are you going to look different?”Mom responds: “Not just different, my dear — prettier!”…
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Earthquake in Illinois This Morning!
You know, I woke up at around 4:30 a.m. and felt the bed shaking, as if a train was going by. Roxie’s little bed is parked at the foot of ours and for a second I thought she was having a vigorous scratch, but I heard her give a sleepy sigh and I knew that wasn’t it. I was only half awake so I thought, “Ehhh…whatever.” Then I got up 90 minutes later to get my day going and saw this on the news. How bizarre! I’ve always loved San Francisco…
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Hip Replacement
I have a love-hate relationship with the voice recognition feature on my cell phone. When I first brought home my adorable Project Red Motorola RAZR almost two years ago, I was quite excited to graduate to a big-girl phone. My old phone did not have a camera on it. My old phone was not sleek. My old phone was not cherry-red. My old phone was not “hip*”. My old phone did not have voice recognition. I had to call people the old-fashioned way, by pressing the buttons. (The horror!) Using the Voice Recognition feature was fun at first. I would say, “Call-Jim-work” and then the lady in my phone would…
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The Wind Whipped Through My Hair…and I Didn’t Care
FINALLY, spring is really here after a couple of false starts. I was driving around this morning and noticed that the temperature outside was a fabulous 66 degrees! That meant only one thing at that moment: Time to open up the sunroof for the very first time this year! Yippee! Naturally I needed a soundtrack, and luckily I had some of my favorite “warm weather driving” songs readily available. I started with this one: I then went to this one: And then this one: I took my time running my errands…what a glorious drive around town! One of my all-time favorite summery songs came on shortly before I got home,…
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All Better Now!
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The Two of Us Were Up ALL Night Long. It Was Horrible.
And Jim was sleeping soundly. That’s right, Roxie and I had quite the night. I ended up having to rush her to the vet this morning. She’s okay now, but a little out of it: The sedation is still wearing off. By the end of this post you can trust that you will be wondering why in the world I would write about this; in fact, I was wondering that myself as I was trying to think of a clever, interest-provoking title. But part of the reason people blog is to document the “ordinary”, and part of the reason people read blogs is to learn about what other people spend…