Lookie, lookie - my musical boy has a new toy to play with. Let's see if you can guess what it is. He already has a recorder, trumpet, keyboard and guitar, in addition to the FOUR guitars, plus the bass that Matt has. I just realized that we have twice as many musical instruments in this house as we have people.


Here's another hint - here's how you play it. Another hint - it's not from America - comes from clear on the other side of the earth! Australia mate!

Yep, you guess it, it's a Didgeridoo. Ain't it cool? I was going to get him one at the Scottish games. Our favorite Scottish band, The Wicked Tinkers, has a didgeridoo in their band and they sell them sometimes, but they were out. You wouldn't think a didge would sound good with bagpipes and drums, but it actually sounds great with them.

He was so disappointed that the Tinkers didn't have them, so I went out to Ebay and found this one. It's actually made out of black PVC pipe and it has some authentic aborigine dot art on it. Pretty reasonable too - about $20 bucks. Not bad if it makes your kid happy.

I'll tell ya, this kid is a musical genius. Five minutes on the Internet and he was playing away on it. Sounds great. I just hope he doesn't want a bagpipe next!

Remember HERE when I was having all kinds of anxiety about whether or not to get a tattoo? Well, I finally did it!


I tell you, I am SO pleased with it. It came out just exactly how I wanted it. The size and the shading are exactly what I had in mind. This is my right ankle, if you can't tell. I just got it a couple of hours ago, so it's still a little red and a bit ouchy, but I think he did a marvelous job with it.

The guy who did it is actually my friend's son-in-law. I found him on Facebook - of course! He is setting up a new mobile tattoo studio in a van he has and it showed up in her profile. I contacted him, explained what I wanted and after a few E-mails back and forth and one short planning session, we were all set. Originally, I wanted this:


This is a ring I've had for years and I just love it. It would have made a great tattoo, but in order to get all the detail in it, he would have had to make it about 2" in diameter and that's bigger than I wanted.

So, two weeks ago when I went to the Scottish Games, I found this necklace. Isn't that cool? I thought it would make a great tattoo design. And since it had so much less detail, it could be made a lot smaller and so was only half the price! Plus I liked it because it's kind of unique.



I was so nervous about it, I hardly slept last night. I was so worried that he'd get it crooked, or turn out to be a terrible artist or something, or worse, that it would hurt so much that I wouldn't be able to stand it, but it really wasn't that bad. The lines hurt quite a bit, but it was never that bad and he was really gentle with it. He'd do 5 or 10 seconds and then he'd stop and give me a little breather before he'd start another section of line, so it never got that bad. The shading part wasn't actually bad at all. I sat there and read my book and listened to some music and it was all over in about an hour.

Now I'm wondering what I made all that fuss about. But on the other hand, I'm glad I took my time and really thought it through to make sure that I got exactly what I wanted. After all, I'm going to be living with this baby for a good long time.

Did I ever mention that I am totally techo-girl? Seriously. I have been using computers for 8 to 12 hours a day for more than 30 years and I can do just about anything that a computer can do. All different kinds of computers, all different types of programs, all different websites. On one job, I literally had three different models of computers on my desk and I used them all at once sometimes - I looked like Captain Nemo with that crazy pipe organ.

I was thinking about that today as I was at work having my usual technology fest. I was E-mailing, faxing, IM-ing, texting, spreadsheeting, databasing, and using two different custom software packages to do my invoices not to mention jumping back and forth through half a dozen websites, all while taking multiple calls on both my desk phone and my cell phone. Then I go home to my blogs and my Facebook and my Twitter. Not to mention my Gmail, Google Reader, Calendar and the occasional computer game. Oh and I just discovered iGoogle (sigh).

No wonder I'm exhausted! With all this technology in my face almost 24 hours a day, it's a wonder I'm not psychotic. Oh.my.gosh! I think I need to go and spend about a month in the woods somewhere, far, far away from any technology whatsoever.

Yeah, like that's going to happen.

Fortunately, I do enjoy it, especially working with spreadsheets. I was telling someone the other day, I've literally been using Excel since BEFORE it was even invented. Yes, I am THAT old! I started out using an early ancestor of Excel called Visicalc. That was back in the day when there wasn't any such thing as a "personal" computer - you had one or two for the whole office and you had to reserve time to use it. Isn't it amazing how the technology has changed so drastically in just a generation or two? I think I had Blake using a computer before he was even two years old and now he Googles with the best of them. Really makes you wonder what things are going to be like when our kids and grandkids grow up? I don't think we can even imagine it.

Anyway, I'm going to go back and wallow in my technology some more. I just needed to whine about it for a while. On my blog - of course.





By TwitterButtons.com

Some of my friends were teasing me because I said HERE that I argue with my cat. It's true though - I argue with him all the time. No, I'm not crazy (well, not entirely crazy, anyway!) he's just a super smart cat and damned ornery too.



You know that we just got a new Saint Bernard, well Nike is not about to let any dog push him around, no matter that the dog is more than four times his size! He stood right up to Jojo and let him know who was boss! He's always been that way - he doesn't take any guff from anyone and if anyone comes into our house, he doesn't hide under the bed with the other cats, he comes right up to them and asks them their business.


I've had 20-something cats starting when I was 6 years old, but I've never had one as smart as Nike. For starters, he knows his name without doubt. Even if he is sound asleep, I just have to say his name and he'll look right at me like - what? 

He also understands some other simple words such as food, out, up, down, treat, etc. I can ask him if he wants to go outside and he will move unfailingly to the door - if he wants to go out, that is.

He knows how to speak his mind too - typically he meows just once and then shows me what he wants. Here is a typical conversation:

"Meow" looking mournfully at the front door.
"Nike Sneakers, you don't want to go out there -it's raining"
He continues to sit there stubbornly looking at the front door.
"OK, but you're not going to like it." I open the door.

He sticks his neck out far enough to tell that it's raining, but not far enough that I can close the door. He gives me a disgusted look.

Meow = "Why'd you make it rain?"
"I didn't make it rain, you dumb cat"
"Well, you're in charge of everything else around here"
And he saunters back in the house with a sulky meow.

I'm watching the Dog Whisperer and I have to say, this show really gives me hope as a parent. Do you know why? At the beginning of the program, they show these dogs with all these issues - barking, biting, misbehavior of all types. And these dogs just seem so out of control and completely hopeless, you wonder how Cesar is ever going to be able to get them under control.

I heard something on the radio yesterday that reminded me of my college days. When I first started college, I was a Performing Arts Major. Then I wised up and switched to a more boring, but more marketable Computer Science Major. The lady on the radio was in some kind of outdoor theater production and was upstaged by a raccoon. Can you imagine? Yes, well I could, but my nemesis was a mouse.

I was in my very first production with an actual speaking part. I had been in the chorus on a couple of productions, and done a lot of behind the scenes work as a Stage Manager and a Lighting Designer, but I had finally auditioned for a show and had been accepted. It was a different kind of show - 80's experimental theater at it's best. One of our student teachers pulled the show together using a series of monologues from our actual childhoods - some serious, some funny, some pretty off-the-wall. It was called The Circle Game and I was one of eight people in the show.

My first monologue was one of the serious ones and it was early in the show. I forget what it was about, but as I was delivering this big speech, the audience just started laughing! I was freaking out. I'm trying to maintain my character and remember my lines, all the while sneaking peeks at the audience, including my parents who were both laughing, but trying not to. I had a feeling that something was going on, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out what was going on. Was my zipper down? Were my boobs showing through my costume? Was someone behind me making faces at me? I had NO clue!

I finished up my speech and the audience settled down. Because we were all on stage in full view of the audience for the whole show, no one could clue me in on what was going on. I made it through the rest of the show, but my confidence was shot and I was terrified that people would start laughing again, but everything went fine. Finally, when the show was over, someone was able to clue me in on what was going on.

While I was doing my monologue, a little mouse came out and perched on a piece of scenery behind me in full view of the audience. Apparently, he was quite the theater buff, because he sat up on his little hindquarters and cocked his head and just sat there listening to me through my whole speech. It was hilarious - to everyone but me!

OK, I'm going to brag about my kids a little.  We're all parents and we get to do that sometimes. It's payback for all those diapers and sleepless nights.  I do like them - they're fun to be around - most of the time.  But I also admire them.  One of the things we do a lot as a family is volunteer.  I think that's just a very important part of raising responsible kids.

It's a mixed bag, we have all sorts of things that we do and both boys have their little "niche" that they fit into.  Blake helps the Sunday school teachers wrangle the little kids and likes to go to the retirement home to play Bingo with the residents.  

Last week, he helped fit kids with bike helmets at a bike giveaway for 1,000 kids.  He is in a great Scout troop now and they are very active in volunteer work as well.  



Matt plays in the rock band at church, helps make and serve sandwiches to the homeless every month, and has made four week-long trips out of state to help low-income families with various things, partially at his own expense.  

I think that's pretty cool stuff for them to do.  Amazingly enough I can honestly say that not one time have they balked or complained - even if it's hot or tiring or boring.  They get that even though they are just kids (well a young adult for Matt), they are doing something significant and something that helps other people.  

When your kids have gone somewhere and sweated in the hot sun to build a house for someone, or raked leaves for a disabled person, or seen the gratitude of homeless kids getting a big box of their cast-off toys and books, I think that really changes their whole outlook in a big way.  

The nice part of this is that people usually show them a lot of appreciation for the work that they do.  People usually make a big point of thanking them and praising them for showing up and helping.  If you want your kid to really feel like a hero, this is a great self-esteem builder.  Kids these days are so self-centered and have access to so many material riches, I think it's a great balance for them to see that other people have challenges and struggles that we don't have and I want them to have an awareness and a compassion for them to want to help other people.  

OK, bragging session over - we now return you to our regularly scheduled programming.  

PS:  If you think my little angels are getting a little too perfect, I'll be happy to post some scary pictures of Matt's messy bedroom, or Blake's report card - ugh!   

This was originally titled A New Addition to the Family, but If you are thinking I'm announcing I'm preggers, think again. Believe me, you would have heard the screams from whereever you are! Could you imagine? I'm almost 50. If I had a baby now, I'd be in a nursing home by the time he or she graduated from College - literally! Yikes! Doesn't even bear thinking about. Change-of-life babies are God's idea of a practical joke.

Anyway, to get back to the main subject, we do have a new member of our family - a new dog! Meet Jojo:



As you can see, he's already found a friend:




So far, we're really enjoying him. He's three years old and we bought him from a guy on Craigslist. He had a new baby and really couldn't afford to keep him. We did end up having to take him to the vet right off, but the guy told us he had an ear infection. However, he didn't tell us how bad it was. It was $200 worth of bad, actually (wince). But once we get him all fixed up, he should be just fine.

Why a Saint Bernard, you ask? Well, we like Saints. They are great dogs. They're mellow, playful, great with kids, get along well with just about anybody or any other pet, and are generally pretty easy to get along with. 

Here's our previous dog - Sasha. We lost her about 3 years ago to a gastric torsion (also called bloat), but she was our best girl ever!  And isn't she gorgeous?  They are such pretty dogs!  



I personally would have liked something a little bit smaller, say Cocker Spaniel or Shih-tsu sized, but Tony has a definite idea about dogs - bigger is always better! So far, we've had a Rottweiler, a Malamute, 3 German Shepherd mixes, a Golden Retriever and two Saints. And I can't count the times he's tried to talk me into a Great Dane or a Mastiff. He just loves the big dogs.

I don't mind them so much, but I made it clear that I'm not having anything to do with another damned puppy, so I was happy enough to settle for a giant dog as long as he's got good manners. Joe needs a bit of obedience and leash training and he's a little skittery in the house, but he doesn't jump up, bark, or tear stuff up and that's a big improvement over our last puppy, the Ghastly Golden Retriever.

Welcome to the family Jojo!