• I've Got Mad Skillz,  Reflections on Parenting

    Date Night

    Last night, the younger boy took his girlfriend to a movie. Actually, I took them both to a movie, since they are fourteen and need a chauffeur in order to go anywhere further than the edge of their respective neighborhoods. I asked him which movie they were going to see, and he replied, “New Moon.” I marveled out loud at how nice a boyfriend he is, to agree to take her to see that, and he replied something along the lines of “I know.” I dropped them off, and as they walked away from the car towards the ticket office, my mind traveled back to a movie date I had…

  • Do I Really Want My Readers To Know This?,  I've Got Mad Skillz,  Music,  Roxie

    Hey, That’s No Lady!

    Every year, I get a Halloween costume for Roxie. Yes, she’s a dog. Yes, I know that this is bizarre behavior. Do you know what else is bizarre? I get the costume ONLY for a photo shoot. She doesn’t actually wear it for longer than about a ten-minute period. So maybe I’m bizarre, but not completely weird. (RIGHT?) Anyway, in the past, Roxie has been a devil (that one lasted two years: the puppy years!), a hot dog, and a princess. This year? I had a stroke of genius. I put my dog in a costume that is not only unique, but timely. And way more hip than that stupid…

  • I've Got Mad Skillz,  Random Thoughts

    She Bop(ped It)

    Jim and I took a couple of hours today to clean up the basement and our crawl space area a little bit. Though we had a mighty mess going on, it didn’t take us as long as one would think to get it done, and I’m not saying AT ALL that it’s probably because we didn’t ask the boys to “help” us. At all. Not saying that. At all. We have a small, finished basement and what ends up happening is this: ~The work area, which looks FABULOUS when it’s clean, gradually gets piled up with papers, packing supplies, photographs, CDs, and all kinds of other crap, to the point…

  • Confessions,  I've Got Mad Skillz,  Something That Could Change Your Life

    How To Buy A Car (Or, Yet Something ELSE That Took Me Forever To Learn, But Now I Rock At It), Part Three

    Shew! You made it to the final installment! Congratulations! What? You didn’t read the first two? Oh my, you’ve got some catching up to do. How to buy a car, lessons 1-3 can be found here, and lessons 4-5 can be found here. Start at the beginning, and then come back. Don’t worry; we’ll wait. Let’s jump right into it: Lesson #6: Let Melisa handle the deal, and be ready to walk out. And walk out again. And walk out a third time, if necessary. After the tumultuous beginning we had in our car-buying career, we were finally hitting our stride. In 2003, it was time to find a car…