• Confessions,  Do I Really Want My Readers To Know This?,  Family Fun,  I'm Apparently Old.,  My Kid Has Mad Skillz,  Queen of Denial

    Six Of One, Half Dozen Of The Other

    February 24, 2014

    I have always been very proud of the way I can remember things. From dates to pop culture factoids to details about all kinds of things, remembering is one of my greatest skills. Well, it was. As I’ve grown older (and frankly, more dependent on Google Calendar), my memory bank is shutting down a little more often than it used to. I like to justify it by saying that since I’m older I have more information that has to be held in there and so it’s only natural that some of the little things would fall through the cracks, but I don’t necessarily believe that. It’s just my way of…

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  • Family Fun,  Reflections on Parenting

    Hakuna Matata Means “No Worries As Long As You Get Those Old VHS Tapes Transferred To Digital Files”.

    January 22, 2014

    Jim and I have hours and hours (and hours) (and hours) of VHS tape recordings of the boys from the time D was born until J was about four. That’s about when our old video camera, which was about the size of the ones they use for reporters in the field these days, conked out. We never replaced it. The first two or three tapes are full of coverage that consists only of newborn D just laying there while I talk to him: really exciting stuff. The last time we had a VCR and I was able to watch, about five years ago, I found it extremely obnoxious and annoying…

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  • Best Thing Ever,  Family Fun,  Fun in Chicago

    Blue Man Groupie

    January 10, 2014

    Let me just get this out of the way: I have seen Blue Man Group Chicago more times than any other show in my life. Jim and I have been in the audience so many times that I honestly cannot remember how many times that has been anymore. To say that we love the show would be a vast understatement. Now that you know that little bit of trivia, it should be no surprise to you that when the Marketing Manager for Blue Man Group Chicago contacted me to ask whether I would be interested in some free tickets in exchange for a blog post about the show, I wasted…

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  • Best Thing Ever,  Family Fun,  Fun in Chicago,  Review

    Blue Man Group Chicago: Indescribably Fun

    January 10, 2014

    Let me just get this out of the way: I have seen Blue Man Group Chicago more times than any other show in my life. Jim and I have been in the audience so many times that I honestly cannot remember how many times that has been anymore. To say that we love the show would be a vast understatement. Now that you know that little bit of trivia, it should be no surprise to you that when the Marketing Manager for Blue Man Group Chicago contacted me to ask whether I would be interested in some free tickets in exchange for a blog post about the show, I wasted…

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  • Family Fun,  My Kid Has Mad Skillz

    New Phone, Old Phone, Smart Phone, Dumb Phone

    December 28, 2013

    Today is my dream day. I’m finally able to get a new cell phone with a new cell phone carrier. The last two years have mostly been a cell phone nightmare (ask any of my family members and close friends), and I’m relieved it’s about to be over. For the last couple of months I’ve been using what I call my “bridge phone”: it’s an unlocked phone I bought on eBay just to get me through to today, when I go and pick up an iPhone 5s. Whee! The boys are pretty excited about today, too. (Jim’s phone is company-provided so the only thing he’s excited about regarding today is…

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  • Amazing People,  Family Fun,  My Kids Have Mad Skillz

    Truly Thankful.

    November 28, 2013

    After all of the grumbling I’ve done about getting the Hanukkah decorations up and how I just couldn’t manage to get it done in a timely manner—and before the holiday actually started, even—because a whole chain of events had to take place first, like dusting and vacuuming, getting my work done, blogging, laundry, coloring my hair, grocery shopping, and procrastinating in every other way possible, I had a revelation. Granted, I didn’t see the light until we were in the midst of placing each of the menorahs of our family collection in their own special places around the house, but I saw it. Jim had driven to Wisconsin to retrieve…

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  • Family Fun,  Favorite Things,  Friends,  Travels

    California Dreaming

    April 16, 2013

    I just returned from a long weekend, a glorious weekend, in southern California. The reason for my visit was my cousin’s wedding on Saturday, but I flew out there (alone) early Thursday morning so I could see a couple of friends and spend some time “doing my own thing”. I had an amazing time. I mean, truly amazing. I felt so purely happy for the duration of the trip: I loved it. So many good things. (I have since decided that I need to figure out a way to travel regularly. Really.) Though the four days were chock full of goodness, here are some of my favorite things about the…

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  • Childhood Memories,  Family Fun

    Cousins

    February 12, 2013

    I have a smaller family than most people I know. I have one sister–as you know–and our parents each only have one sibling. Between our uncle on mom’s side and our aunt on dad’s side, we have six cousins. When we were kids, we all lived in the Chicago area and we saw a lot of the four cousins on our mom’s side. Some of my favorite childhood memories include those four boys. When we were at Grandma and Grandpa’s house together, we rode bikes and messed around in the yard, and we also played with the cases full of Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars that were kept there for…

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  • Confessions,  Do I Really Want My Readers To Know This?,  Family Fun,  Food,  My Kid Has Mad Skillz,  Too Funny To Ignore

    It Runs In The Family

    February 5, 2013

    The big birthday celebration on Sunday was pretty awesome: J had a really great day overall, which makes me happy. The one thing that didn’t go as planned was that Jim didn’t join us for lunch due to the fact that he was really sick. It was not only a bummer because it was J’s eighteenth, but also because we had reservations at our favorite, only-eat-there-on-special-occasions Brazilian steakhouse. For those of you who aren’t familiar, what makes this kind of restaurant unique is that there is no menu; rather everyone gets to enjoy the “salad bar” first, which is huge and actually has very little salad on it. It’s got…

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  • Childhood Memories,  Family Fun

    Disney Magical Moments

    January 28, 2013

    I went to see “Disney On Ice” with my sister over the weekend. The advantage of attending a show like that without bringing children along–besides the lack of pressure to buy overpriced souvenirs and being among the first people out of the parking lot when it’s over because you don’t have to worry about getting anybody into a carseat–is that it’s the perfect environment for people-watching and taking in the magical moments of total strangers. We saw countless little girls dressed as Disney princesses, all sparkly from head to toe and brimming with excitement over, well, everything. Two sisters, about four and six years old, were leaning on the guardrail…

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