Length and Age...Oddly enough they're related.

I was driving my kid to school super early the other morning for some athletic team practice thingie.  We passed a man running.


Little guy:  "Why does that guy have on such short shorts?"

Me:  "I thought all guys ran in shorts like that."

Little guy:  "No, mom.  Mostly close to the knee."

Me:  "Really?"

Little guy:  "Think about my track shorts."

Me:  "Oh.  Well, let's see what other guy runners are wearing."


And we passed about ten or so runners on our path.  And it was very interesting.  If the runner was young, he wore longer shorts.  If he had gray hair, he wore those short shorts my kid finds appalling.


Me:  "I guess they wear those short shorts because that's what we wore in the seventies and they probably started running about then."

Little guy:  "But you don't wear short shorts."

Me:  "No, but that's just as a courtesy to others, darlin'."

Little guy:  "They should be more like you, mom."


P.S.  The painting below was another one of my left-handed challenges.  Good times!

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Waste Not, Want Not

I heard a little tip recently.  It was an artsy, fartsy painting tip.  What I heard was that you should never, ever rinse perfectly good paint off of your paintbrush.  Instead, find a piece of paper or a canvas or anything else that is paint-worthy, and just slap it on there.  So I started doing that...all the time.  And it's been so much fun creating stuff from the total random mishmash that is created from the leftovers.

This one I did some printing on top of and then embellished it just a bit.  SO MUCH FUN!

Guess my parents weren't all wrong about that old saying...I didn't waste, and I got what I wanted.  Good stuff!

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I love science!

My husband is very helpful.  Really it is.  Only sometimes I don't really want his help even if I need it.  Like last night.  I had the hiccups, you see.

So I'm going about my business, not liking the hiccups, but not totally being irritated by them either.  I was trying to make a small dent in the HUGE pile of laundry on our bed when..."BLAAAAAAGGAAAABAAAA!!!!"  Dave scared the living tar out of me.  And I slapped him silly as is my uncontrollable instinct...Whap!  Slap!  Whap-a-slap!

...and then I hiccuped.

So about thirty minutes later, when I was still hiccuping, I put on my jammies determined to go to sleep, hiccups or not.  And then "Wham!"  I was body slammed flat.


Dave:  "Wrestling gets rid of hiccups.  It's scientifically proven."


And about one minute later after hopefully not causing Dave any permanent damage as I fought back against my assailant...my hiccups were gone.

I love science!

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Can't make this up...or maybe I can.

I had the occasion to wear make-up for the first time in forever yesterday.  And I'm not counting the times I've worn make-up on Halloween or the very occasional dance performance.  Those don't count.  Anyway, I realized that morning that the only make-up I had was some very old Mary Kay I'd bought about fifteen years ago...it was still fine, but it was just blush and eye shadow.  I had an old, old mascara...a big no-no, right?  I mean aren't those things breeding grounds for bacteria over the years?  And I'd given all of my lipsticks to my mom when she was in the hospital not too long ago.  So, the mascara was tossed and the Mary Kay stuff set aside somewhere where I wouldn't forget for the next few hours, and I headed off to Target.

And I was clueless.

I meandered around the make-up section, both unsure of what I even needed and determined to find products that weren't tested on animals.  Not the best combo for a quest in a big ol' mainstream store.  But there it was, amongst the Revlon and L'Oreal, a brand made exclusively for Target that does not test on animals (Let me go on ahead and plug Sonia Kashuk since I mentioned those other guys).  I was half-way there, people.  And then the guesswork began.  I picked this and that, tossed them into my bag, and headed home.

Where I discovered a couple of new-to-me things.

1.  Eye liner comes sealed for my protection...so sealed that it took me about ten minutes to get all of the sealing off of the darn thing.

2.  Mascara (all of them?) comes with a little eyelash comb.  I had no idea that eyelashes ever tangled, but I went on ahead and combed mine, by golly.

3.  Lip coloring things have remarkably little sealed for my protection stuff.

4.  Wearing make-up is kinda fun.

I even did my hair and wore my contacts.  Had a real girly moment, people.  Might just be inclined to do it again sometime.

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Rocked my Children's Worlds Today

I rocked my children's worlds today...for under $4, no less!

While I don't usually jump on a trend, well, at least not for a year or two after the trend starts, today I jumped.  And only two months after it came to town.  Yup, I bought some Trader Joe's Crunchy Cookie Butter. I got it home, tasted it, fell in love, and briefly considered keeping it a secret just for myself.

Then kindness took over.


Me:  "Here, taste this."

Little guy:  "Why?"

Me:  "It's something I bought today...just taste it."

Little guy:  "Dang, that's good!"


Me:  "Here, taste this."

Big guy:  "What is it?"

Me:  "Something I'm pretty sure you'll love."

Big guy:  "Wow!  Did you get me my own container?"


So, yeah, pretty much rockin' the mom thang today fo sho!


P.S.  Dave hates it...what's wrong with that guy?!?!

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Learning Things the Hard Way

Sometimes you learn things the hard way.  That's what happened today.

The thing is this.  (Big reveal - stick with me ladies, you know we all do it, right?)  When it starts getting cold out, shaving goes on a great big decline.  If I remember the term correctly from that class I took a million years ago, there's an inverse relationship between hair length and temperature when it comes to me.

Anyway, tonight it was rather lovely out and instead of putting my longer pants on to go run, I put on my capris.  And since I don't want to scare anyone, I thought, "Hey, I'll just do a quick shave of my legs below the knees...a dry quick shave.  Here's what I learned.  When you do a dry shave on already dry skin, you get an awful case of itchy, rashy-looking bumps...that only get worse when you then go run.

So my big lesson?  Hairy is sometimes less scary.

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Looking for Inspiration

OK, full disclosure here.  Sometimes I get stumped.  I get stuck.  I can't think of one single thing to write about.  So of course I go into begging mode.


Me:  "Do something funny that I can write about in my blog."

Dave:  "I think you have to just let those things happen on their own."

Me:  sigh


Me:  "Do something funny that I can write about in my blog."

Big guy:  "Why would I do something like that on purpose?"

Me:  "Ugh!"


Me:  "Do something funny that I can write about in my blog."

Kitten:   passes gas


Thank goodness there's someone in my house willing to help me out!

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