Weekly Wrap-Up

As we begin a new week, let us take a glance back at the week just past, shall we?

Filed Under "Dad Only Gets to Stay Three Days, Kids" - The President is vacationing in the oh-so-tony island enclave of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, while the rest of the country is hearing more and more about the "R" word - recession - and every graph they show you on cable news looks like a really decent sledding hill in winter.  Why not Camp David, sir?  Go with the kids and wife for maybe three days, and then beg off, as every dad has had to do at one time or another, saying that you must get back to work.  Your work is getting us out of the toilet, so I would be comfortable with three days of vacation ONLY, annointed sir, and those three days only for the girls' sake.  (But while you are there, go to the Black Dog; it's an island "must.")

Filed Under "You Just Might Get What You Asked For" - Abercrombie and Fitch apparently is upset that The Jersey Shore cast wears their clothes, and reportedly paid one cast member NOT to wear their clothing (the company disputes this).  This is hysterical, people!  Have you been by an Abercrombie and Fitch lately in the mall?  Your ears pulsate with the loud, pounding rhythms as you innocently walk by, and if you enter inside, well...God help you.  The posters of half-naked kids are so blatently shouting "the dollar is our God, and we spend a lot on 'tween marketing surveys, too" that you would have to be recently lobotomized to not see that your kids are being played, and you are, too.  My kids were not allowed to shop there unless they got a gift certificate from a well-meaning relative - and then they had to wear ear muffs and eye blinders.  So...this is just hysterical to me, the Jersey Shore connection.  See, A&F, borderline porn ads don't attract just wealthy suburban kids - Jersey Shore is more your speed and taste...so, enjoy!!  Hysterical!!

And , in the "This Is Just Annoying" category - why do people pronounce the word "Pundits" as "Pundints"?  Interestingly, it's the "pundits" that mispronounce it the most, as it's not a word us regular folks need to use too much...kind of like hearing "for all intensive purposes"  (all intents and purposes) or "nucular" instead of "nuclear."  (I still love you, President Bush.)  Just random thoughts...

Have a great week!

Here I am today, writing to you from Cape Cod, Massachusetts; our 25th year in a row vacationing here. Gorgeous weather, nice surf, scenery that is more Martha's Vineyard than Cape (lots of wooden fences, beach roses)although we are on mainland, in Marston Mills.

I have had a ball with Fred's family (come on - after 25 years they are OUR family, in every way.) The beach was dicey for me this year; a seagull swooped down and ripped a turkey sandwich right out of my hand, and then I got stung by some fish or crab or monster under the water, and then we saw seals and I was worried about sharks...the list even goes on, but I'll stop there.

We are so lucky to even be away, when you think about the world today; riots in England, the dance of the stock market, the unemployment rates (the real ones.) Enjoy it while you can, prepare for the future as best you can, and try not to think about the sharks in the water too much.

We return home today, grateful and ready to begin again at home.

Who Is God?

I teach CCD ( I have the summer off, thank God - I am hoping I have a FastPass to Heaven for handling the 12 twelve-year old boys in my class, who are friends with each other) and I enjoy it, mostly because I teach with my good friend Susan, and we spend a lot of the hour laughing at the kids and their unique answers to questions.  (Ex: what is Advent?  Answer: it's a lot like Tylenol; you take it for a headache or a fever...)

Of course when we are not discussing Pee Wee hockey in CCD class,we discuss the nature of God.  If Susan and I do one thing for the boys, it is this: I hope we can leave them with a sense of not only the rules of respecting and observing God, but the adventure that is experiencing God.  I hope that they understand that when they are skating as fast as they can, or laughing until their sides hurt, or pointing their skis down a steep ski run and feeling the butterflies that come before flying, God is there, too.  And loving it for them, and with them.

There is a lot of language that comes with religion - blood of the lamb, being saved, and accepting Christ as your Savior.  These are all quite true, and familiar expressions of the experience of Christianity...but they make a lot of people itch, look at their watches and move on in conversation. 

Maybe if we started thinking about God, and introducing God by saying, particularly to kids: "You know when you saw that deer?  God was there with you."  Or, "you know when that kid on the other team got knocked down, got up, and scored the goal?  God was in that."  Many times we ditch our textbook in class, and talk this way, and it is here that we get the kids' attention (granted, not for long, but we do get it.)

I believe that God is with you in trouble, sorrow, and struggle.  But He is also just as present in excitement, adventure, and exuberance.  God is Good, in all it's forms.

Kristen Wiig - 7 Minutes in Heaven

I am a huge Kristen Wiig fan, and here she participates in "Closet Theater" with SNL writer Mike O'Brien, who asks stars into the closet for interviews and improv. Too funny!

Sheryl Crow - Now That You're Gone (Abbey Road Live 2008)

I am lovin this song by Sheryl Crow; she almost sounds like Bonnie Raitt on the chorus. Take a break, grab a beer or a glass of wine, and groove out to this for a few...

Housework is My Work...Finally

Okay, so you know how you start a new activity, or hobby, or sport, and you go through a sort of "honeymoon phase", where all you do is that thing? Well, I have been caught up in a phase with my new horse Nello.  And while I have been having a ball being a cowgirl out at the barn where I keep him - trail-riding, training him in the ring, giving him baths, caring for him, hanging with my like-minded horsie-friends, well....my house is falling apart.  It really is.

The first clue was when a plastic plant died.  The second clue was when guests opted for "jiggling around" instead of using our guest bathroom; I guess it has been awhile since I cleaned in there.  The third clue was when I bemoaned the dark stormclouds and bad weather we keep having, only to hear that it's been sunny every single day - my windows are just grey with dirt and dust.  The honeymoon has to end, and quick!

My only job right now is to keep this place humming.  It is not humming...it's coughing, or gagging.  I have to shape up!

Today is the day.  I am going to get on my housedress (see photo), get out the cleaning bucket, turn on the hot water, and get to work!  I may do some laundry too - my husband is perpetually hunched over in our room, looking through baskets muttering, "So are these clean, or what?"  (The only reason I can have this honeymoon phase, by the way, is that he totally understands it - he is addicted to golf.  We've lost him for days, too.)  Even his calm nature has it's tipping point, though - he wasn't buying my claim that "breakfast for dinner" is a happenin' new trend - at least not when it's cereal.  Old cereal.

So Nello, my friend, today is not going to happen for us.  I must grow up, and find that balance in my life that I am constantly seeking, and am now pretty doubtful about ever attaining.  But it's been real, boy.  (Psst: hey, it's okay, don't worry; maybe I'll sneak out tonight to see you!)

One Good Question for A Few Good Men

                                                                                   10:02 PM:  

Just relaxing tonight, watching a re-run of one of my favorite films, "A Few Good Men," and I have a question, and it is burning a hole in my brain, itching to be answered.  The question is not whether the common citizen understands military jurisprudence with all it's formalities, or whether or not relations with Cuba are as strained as they were at the time of this story.  My question is furthermore and heretofore also not what happens when a talented young man tries to live up to the legend his dead father became when he was alive, as Tom Cruise's character struggles with as he tries to find justice for the two enlisted men accused of murder and "Code Red-ing" a fellow enlisted man.

My question is this: what the heck hairstyle did Demi Moore have, exactly, in this film?  It looks like a "DA," a term popuar in the 1950's (and way before my time, by the way) that stood for, well, "duck's ass."  Is it a DA that she's sporting, or a 40's-style chignon, or what???  I need to know, now! 

This blog is dismissed, and will re-convene here tomorrow.

Amy Winehouse - Rehab

I would have loved to hear more...
Facebook and Google, it's a shame we have to endure a banner ad during this video; can we stop the ads for even one minute?? Money, money, money.  Go to Money Rehab.

Lucky to Have a Break, Yet Still Complaining...

Okay, quick post while I am near a computer...we are at the Jersey shore, and it is approximately 95,000,000 degrees here.  I just slid off a micro-suede couch due to sweaty legs.  My sunglasses fall off every time I bend over to pick up a discarded beach towel due to Sweaty Nose Syndrome.  We are all making excuses to go to our rooms in our rental, because they have AC. ("Hey, Hon, I'll just be in here for a few...I'd love to get another look at that caulking job the owners did on these windows!")

The ocean is absolutely stunningly beautiful - sparkly with small whitecaps, and today, everyone is in - old folks, kids, lifeguards, sea urchins, etc.  I was trying to read, but the words were blurring from sweat - a Civil War book may be too heavy of a choice - I keep getting befuddled by which side is Union, which is Confederate - that's how hot it is; can't remember simple Civil War terminology.  Should have chosen a cheesy romance.  The kids keep trying to play paddleball, only to groan when they miss one, and have to move two inches to retrieve the ball.

Tonight we are going to the boardwalk, where we can slump on benches and try to keep up with our melting ice creams.  God bless every single one of you who is working in this heat - so important to hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!  And check on the elderly neighbors - and the Reillys - if you are down at Cape May Point, NJ.

"Horrible Bosses" A Horrible Role for Jennifer Aniston

Well, my husband and I just got back from the movies, and I wish we had seen the new Winnie the Pooh or even Transformers 3 again - Horrible Bosses just made me sad.  It made me sad for two reasons:

1.  Jennifer Aniston is a good girl, whether she likes it or not.  To hear sentence after sentence of bad, sleazy dialogue coming from "Rachel" made me feel bad for her, bad for me, and bad for her fans.  She was unconvincing and dreary and, as always, beautiful.  But sadly lacking; mostly in project-choice here.

2.  Similar to "Superbad", "The Hangover" and other films of this new "crude-com" genre, the laughs in "Horrible Bosses" rely on male idiocy (which is funny, when it's done well), and crass, shocking dialogue.  So shocking (and usually involving body parts and animals or women) that after the joke, your brain goes, "Hey, wait...that is just sick!"  And that's if you are a guy.  I was just offended/bored by most of the crude comedy in both - and found parts of both riotously funny. But not funny enough to recommend, or see again.

I am not a prude, and I feel like I know humor, and comedy, and I think we just might be losing the art form.  Jennifer Anniston, you know funny, too - go back to it - and keep your clothes on!

Same Time Next Year - the answer is YES!

Now THIS is a movie. "Same Time Next Year."