I See What You Meme

Happy Friday! What a busy few weeks it has been.  Considering today may be the end of the world...again...I guess everyone is just trying to make the most of it.  If you missed my Instructions for the Apocalypse the first time the world was supposed to end this year, you can catch a refresher. No reason to leave the Earth unprepared.   In case the world doesn't end today, here are a few books to add to your reading list: Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland My rating: 4 of 5 stars What a great read! I have always been fascinated by Louis Comfort Tiffany's artwork and I thoroughly enjoyed this novel of historical fiction. Told from the perspective of Clara Driscoll, one of the lead designers for Tiffany's windows and lamps, the story was built on the historical information left from the day (personal correspondence and other documents). I loved the author's meticulous detail in describing the methods by which the women created these amazing works of art. It...

Holy Crap, people! Where does the time go?  Ten short days ago, I was celebrating my birthday . I haven't blogged since then.  What's my excuse this time? I ' ve been super busy between my job, CJSTUF , and other assorted tasks.   My godson, Thor Thatcher I also got to make a weekend trip to Roanoke to celebrate my godson Thatcher's first birthday and baptism.  I'm a proud god-mama. Please don't make any surprise visits to my home. I think another hurricane may have hit the house.  I have wanted to write. I have needed to write.  The days have been long and time has been short. I haven't even had time to do much reading lately.   Can anyone relate? For this week's Follow Friday, I'm going to give you a few things to read.  If you're like me, you haven't got a lot of time, so here are some options: If you have a few minutes: Read this post from the Brave Girls Club . I found it through a friend on Facebook.  It spoke to ...

I love to read. I have always  loved to read.   I blame  credit my mother.  Either it's genetics or the fact that she read to me (even before I was born) every day until I was able to read by myself. Once I could read, I always had a book with me.   I read a little bit of everything: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Mysteries, Horror, Romance, Thrillers, Humor, the Classics.   Roger loves to read too.  One of the reasons we bought our house is because the living room had a huge wall with built in shelves.  They are filled to overflowing.   Did I mention that I love to read? So for this week's Follow Friday, I'm going to feature my favorite tools for the voracious reader: First, if you like to read, you should check out Goodreads .  This social networking site is Facebook for bookworms.  You can list the books that you're reading, list the books that you want to read, and write reviews of the books that you've read....

Ok, I know it's not Friday. I missed my deadline.  It's a long weekend. You have plenty of time to relax and read. Besides, life has been a little busy for me here.  I wrote another piece for Insert Eyeroll .  Plus, CJSTUF has been preparing for our Art Auction on September 30th .  Have you bought your ticket yet? It's shaping up to be an amazing event with art of all types .   Oh, yeah, and I do have a regular full-time job that keeps me kind of busy most days. And did I mention that I'm working on my book ? Editing continues.  I think I'm kind of busy.   But I digress. So it's September. For those of you who may be unaware, that means it is also Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month.   Did you know that every school day, 46 children are diagnosed with cancer?  While this is extremely unfortunate, there are some great organizations out there doing wonderful things in an effort to fight pediatric cancer. Cookies For Kids Cance...

What a week this is turning out to be! It started on Monday with Vance and Mark in surgery .  Both are doing well. At last report, Vance (the donor) had been released from the hospital.  Mark's body has taken the new kidney very well and he is on the road to recovery.  Thank you to everyone for the kind words and support for our family over the last few days. Of course, Tuesday saw a whole lot of shakin' going on.  The 5.9 earthquake that rocked Virginia (and much of the East Coast) seemed to cause some structural damage around the area but not a lot of injuries. As far as I know, there have been no reported deaths. All is well...for now.  While the quake was quite the jolt for all of us, I am reminded of how blessed we are when I think of those effected by the Japanese quake back in March. This was a minor inconvenience by comparison. There is no rest for the weary, though, because Irene is on her way.  There seemed to be much debate regarding the exact...

For this week's Follow Friday, I'm going to highlight a few of my favorite "mom" sites out there on the web.  You've already learned about Miss Britt .  She's still cruising up the east coast and getting ready to hit Boston in September.  One of my other favorite "mom-bloggers" is Alex at Late Enough . This talented Richmond mom is smart and funny. Her blogs are entertaining , insightful , and frequently touching . Plus we share a passion for Zombies and Angry Birds .   Her blog was one of my inspirations to start my own.   Speaking of Richmond, if you live in the Richmond area and you are a mom, you definitely need to know about RichmondMom .  Kate Hall is an amazing entrepreneur who has built a fabulous resource for all things related to parenting in the #RVA.  I recently wrote an article for her website so now you have even more reason to check it out.  Finally, check out the world of FreeAnissa. Anissa Mayhew is not just a mom blogger. S...

So my loyal fans (all 10's of you!) may have noticed that my typical Follow Friday was missing last week.  I apologize for the absence. It's been a busy week. I did want to take this time to make a big announcement, though.   ( drum roll please...) I am very excited to announce that as of this writing, I have a contract with a local company to publish my first book!  At the urging of many, I have collected my thoughts around the last two years of my life (specifically, our journey with Charlotte's cancer). The book has gone through multiple edits already but it was opted in its most recent form by Palari Publishing , a Richmond-based publishing house.   At this point, I am working with an editor on some final edits that will turn the piece into a polished work.  I'm not sure of the final publication date or even the title but I do have a deadline so I'm working like crazy in my "spare time" to get everything in order. Stay tuned! More excitement ...

For this week's Follow Friday, I am going to stoop to the shameless plug. I've been floating around the Internets making mischief in one way or another and I figured it was about time to tell on myself.   Firstly, I just got a writing gig on a new satirical news website called Insert Eyeroll .  There are some really funny writers on this site and I feel honored to be a part of the crew. Check out my first piece: some important advice for new parents.   I finally have an outlet for my slightly subversive side .   On a different note, my husband has nominated me for an Eagle Rare Life award and I need your help. Online voting takes place until January 2012. You can vote once a day and the top 7 vote recipients receive donations to their favorite charity. The overall winner gets to donate $20,000 and the 6 runners-up get $2000 apiece. I'm currently in the top 5 so with your help I can stay that way. Please bookmark this link and use the magic of socia...

In an effort to lighten the mood after that last post , this week's Follow Friday is going to focus on the funny side. We're not, however, going to talk about slapstick or dry wit or Smurfs.  No, folks, we're going to the darker side of funny. These bits of pop culture are most definitely Not Suitable for Work .  But they're hilarious. At least, I think they are. Roger and I recently discovered the cartoon Archer . It airs on FX and is currently in its second season. The first season is now streaming on Netflix. What is Archer? Imagine if a James Bond movie and The Office had a baby. Sterling Archer is secret agent for Isis. He's suave, handsome, and a bit of a letch. Ok, he's a HUGE letch. He's also not that great at his job. While he's off trying to save the world, the rest of the office crew from the comptroller to the tech geeks to the HR director get into the kind of office hi-jinks that only a spy agency could procure. There's sex, dru...

This week's Follow Friday arrives with only a few hours to spare. I will blame the heat. If you do not live somewhere that the weather reached 100+ today, consider yourself blessed.  This week we're going to talk about social media. I'm sure many of you have heard about Google's new platform, Google+ (or G+ for short).  I've been checking it out for about two weeks now so I'm going to offer my perspective on the newest Internet time-suck.  My first reaction when I heard about G+ was that I wasn't interested. I already spent plenty of time using Twitter and Facebook and it seemed that another distraction was the last thing I needed in my life. I never used the now defunct MySpace.  I've experimented with other social portals such as Foursquare, GetGlue, and LinkedIn. None of those seem to be worth a great deal of my time. After about a week of buzz, though, my curiousity was piqued about G+. I asked for an invite from a friend and joined the nerd her...

For this week's Follow Friday, my first inclination was to talk about Harry Potter.  Because...well...it's time for THE END. Then I changed my mind because if you're not already a fan of Harry at this point, I have 3 things to say: 1. What planet have you been living on for the past decade? 2. What's wrong with you? 3. If you haven't become a fan by now, there is no hope. Unless you're under the age of 10. So...moving on. The Emmy nominations were announced to day and I am beyond excited that my favorite TV show, Mad Men , has received 19 nominations! If you haven't checked out this show, now is your chance to catch up on 4 seasons of fabulous television. All 4 seasons are currently available on DVD. In addition, you can catch selected reruns on AMC or on many OnDemand cable systems. It's also available on iTunes. Season 5 should have started this month but some contract negotiations delayed the plans for the upcoming season. We'll get more Mad ...

My job requires me to drive quite a bit on a daily basis. My time in the car on a given day can range from 60 minutes to almost three hours. I don't mind the driving but I definitely need something to occupy my time. I've tried books on tape (or CD) and I find them distracting. I really just need to READ if I'm going to enjoy a book. I do, however, love listening to podcasts. If you haven't jumped on the podcast bandwagon, this week's Follow Friday is for you!  First of all, if you've never heard of podcasts, they're basically radio shows archived and available for download on iTunes or on various websites. Many podcasts are archived editions of radio shows heard elsewhere. Some have never hit the radio waves but are produced by everyone from celebrities to your average Joe or Jane with a microphone and some basic sound editing equipment. The best thing about subscribing to a podcast in iTunes is that new episodes will download automatically to your comput...

Yes, I know. It's SUNDAY.  I will justify my tardiness by citing a mixture of life's been way too busy and don't quite have the motivation . It's a long weekend so I figure I get a little leeway.  One of the reasons why this post is so late is because we had some houseguests from Thursday through Saturday. We were privileged to host Miss Britt and family on the Richmond leg of their cross-country tour. What? You've never heard of Miss Britt? Hey! I think we just found our topic for #FollowFriday.   (convenient, eh?) Britt is a blogger extraordinaire. She lends her writing and editing talents to several blogs (some of which she founded herself). I found her through a mutual friend's blog and have been following her personal blog for about a year. Here's what I love about Miss Britt: She's a good writer. She's positive without being schmaltzy or overdramatized.  She's real. She talks about the shit stuff we deal with every day.  ...

This week's Follow Friday is dedicated to one of my oldest friends. I am blessed with many dear people in my life so I hope that nobody feels offended or slighted by this post. Jamie has been my friend for as long as I can remember. In fact, I don't remember not knowing her. I think we met sometime around Kindergarten. We lived only a few blocks from each other and even though we were a year apart in school and only attended the same school for 2 years, we were constant companions in childhood.   This is not a childhood picture of me and Jamie...but it could be. This is actually a birthday card she sent to me years ago. It hangs on my bedroom mirror and constantly reminds me of our friendship. Summers were spent riding bikes, swimming together, pining over boys (both those in our school as well as impossible celebrities) , playing games, creating crafts (oh, the friendship bracelet obsession!) and making mischief (ask her about the Pepto Bismol story!) . ...

I'm not sure about anyone else, but I know that I'm suffering from penis fatigue. It's a sad day when the lead stories on the national news all seem to involve men and their  sexual escapades (DSK...Weiner...Edwards....Schwarzenegger...you get the drift).  Surely, there must be something else to talk about. It's hard to believe, considering the coverage that CNN (and other news organizations) gave to the Weiner story just yesterday. I was sitting in a diner with cable news playing in the background and I am pretty sure that 90% of the screen time during my hour (or so) at lunch revolved around the build-up of the lead-up to the announcement that Weiner was going to announce that he was planning to decide that he was announcing that his next big decision was to decide THAT HE WOULD RESIGN his office.* (* yes, that sentence was purposely rambling. No, I have not completely lost my ability to write a coherent sentence.) So in case you are finding it difficult stay...

The official calendar may say that it's still spring for a few weeks but most of us know the truth. School is out for many students around the country. The majority of the Eastern Seaboard has been melting in the 90+ degree heat this week. It's summertime. Aside from the heat, that other harbinger of summer is the summer movie.  As a kid, I have fond memories of balancing my time between outdoor activities such as the pool and the playground with the cool, dark indoor sanctuary of the movie theater.  For today's Follow Friday, I'm going to share four of my favorite movies from my childhood. In no particular order, I give you: ET: The Extra Terrestrial : This classic Steven Spielberg film released in the summer of 1982 is one of the first movies that I ever remember seeing in the theater. What's not to love about this classic? I still cry every time I watch it and I still marvel at the special effects.  They may seem simple now in the world of CGI but at the time...

For those of you who actually follow my blog, you may have noticed that things were a bit quiet after last Monday's post. I actually did get a comment from someone wondering why my regular Friday blog was missing.  Ok. So the comment was a text message from my mother. Does that count?  I told you that she reads my blog . Anyway...I suppose I could offer many excuses about why I didn't write much last week. I did have an additional post out there in the blog-o-sphere. (Thanks to Hey! That's My Hummus for publishing my guest-post.) I could tell you that I was busy.  I could tell you that I was tired.  I was feeling uninspired. ( wow. that's almost poetic.) In truth, it was all of those things. And none of them. In truth, television was my time-suck this weekend.  Oh, I did get some things done. I exercised and visited the Ashland Strawberry Faire . Roger and I attended a neighbor's graduation party on Saturday as well as a wine tasting at The Caboose on...