Or at least after this weekend, I will be.

Do me a favor. Reach deep down into your amorous bag of tricks and tell me about the best gift that you hated giving your partner.

I really doubt anything you say will beat what I have in store for my husband this weekend but I love humoring you, so comment away.

After you show me yours, I’ll show you mine here. But shhhhhhh! It’s a surprise!

If you really love me, feed me in your reader!

Welcome to the August 2008 Perfect Post Awards!

In February of 2006, Lindsay and I launched the Perfect Post Awards in order to share personally captivating posts within a supportive community of talented bloggers like you.


If you’d like to present an award next month, e-mail me and I’ll send you the latest award button code a few days before the 1st. If you’re interested in looking through our past award posts, they can be found here. Thanks for participating!

And now without further adieu, my Perfect Post Award goes to…

Ladybug Crossing for Letter to the Editor




With the kids back to school this month, life has quickly morphed back into that frenzied buzz we call normal. Requests for your time and support begin making a regular appearance in your child’s back pack. Do you have the time to spare? Do I? Tough question.

There are those who always make the time There are those who used to, are tainted now and therefore don’t anymore. There are those who duck and run for cover. And there are those who lead like my friend, LBC.

LBC writes:
“Do NOT tell me that you work. We all work. Some of us work full time, some of us work part time, and some of us even work double time. Don’t assume that because you see me at school helping out that I don’t work. I do. I work 3 jobs. They don’t pay much, but they do indeed pay. I am highly educated. I’m not stupid. Most of us who volunteer at the school have a college education and a work history that would blow your socks off.”

I’ll let you go over and read the rest of her letter yourself. It make you grumble. It may make you roll your eyes. It make make you feel a twinge of guilt. Or, like me, it may just inspire you to fill out the next request for help flyer that comes home in your child’s book bag.

Here’s the list of this month’s winners:

Suburban Turmoil awarded Baby Bloomr
Charming and Delightful awarded One Plus Two
Niihaus awarded Mom 101
Tech Savvy Mama awarded Gossip Girl Report
Spit-Up and Stilettos and It’s A Schmitty Life awarded Her Bad Mother
Magpie Musing awarded Cacklin’ from Cackalackie
Something to Say awarded Lilac Colored Glasses
Write On, Yo awarded C Jane
Scheiss Weekly awarded Genuine
Everyday Adventures awarded Life’s Sweet Passions
Whitterer on Autism awarded Fully Caffeinated
Scientific Nature of the Whammy awarded Not That I Don’t Love My Kids
Fairly Odd Mother awarded The Cleaner Plate Club
R Cubed awarded Blogging for Sanity
PapaTV awarded Pretzel’s Place
Petroville awarded Ladybug Crossing

♥ Please let me know if you’d like to be on the Presenters List for September ♥

If you really love me, feed me in your reader!

Being the first day of the Labor Day Weekend, most people have plans to leave work early today, scoop up the kids and travel somewhere and do something to celebrate the last long weekend of the summer. Do I? Hell no. I’ve opted for a staycation this year.

Around the DC area, the majority of folks head to the beaches. You have a few choices here. There’s Virginia Beach, VA, Ocean City, MD or Bethany & Rehoboth Beaches in Delaware. Sounds lovely but there’s a catch. You have to cross a bridge to get there.

photo cred: delgaudm

Bridges are both beautiful and necessary, but increasing more so over the years, they scare the ever-lovin’ crap out of me. As a result, I do not drive over them. I’ll be in the car breathing shallow breaths into a leftover fast food bag, but I do not do the driving. Problem solved, right? Not always.

Imagine my terror when my husband announced last year that due to a work conflict, he’d have to meet us at the beach the following evening. I was in a near panic especially since it had only been a week or so since the tragic Minnesota bridge collapse.

For the sake of my children and non-refundable hotel rooms, I was determined to face my fears. With windows rolled down and seat beats unbuckled (in order to escape in case we went over and the gallons of water began pouring in), I approached the toll booth with clammy hands. The girls knew I was fearful but I tried my best to make light of it - as if the possibility of going off a massive bridge because your mother loses her shit is at all funny.

As we got to the highest part of the bridge, my eyes started to play tricks on me. I began feeling like the car was sliding sideways. I knew I needed help.

I yelled to the girls, “Quick! Talk about something! Tell me a story!”. My youngest and bravest shouted out, “Rainbows! Ice Cream! Puppies!” and bless her heart, I giggled. She then initiated a discussion about how our dogs must be feeling in the kennel. That conversation lasted us the entire span of the bridge and aside from some very white knuckles and butterflied bellies, there were no lasting effects of the crossing.

As I said, that was last year.

Two weeks ago, this happened on that very same bridge.



Needless to say, I won’t be driving over it again any time soon. Really, that’s all it takes, folks.

Now, it’s all over the news how these poor (and in my opinion reckless and possibly having a death wish) drivers who just want to get away for the weekend will end up sitting for a majority of it. Traffic is going to be even worse than normal because crews are still trying to fix the damage to the bridge.

Yes, you heard me. They are in the process of fixing the bridge and yet people are lining up to drive over it.

It’s times like these when I wonder why I ever question my own sanity.

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Your turn: How are you with bridges?
Besides the price of gas, what scares you into staycation?

If you really love me, feed me in your reader!

This post stems from a conversation I had with my 13 year old daughter last week. As you may glean from the title, it has to do with menstruation, slightly. Hang with me here, gentlemen, because I have a question for you at the end. I promise you won’t cringe…too much.

We were sitting by the pool enjoying one of her final days of summer. Finally, a topic that was unsettled in my head made its way to the surface.

Me: You know, you are going to have to keep some “supplies” in your locker or purse this year.
13: I know.
Me: Since it just happened, you can’t count on being on a regular cycle for a while. You’ll feel better if you know you’re prepared.
13: I know, Mom.
Me: You’re lucky. I didn’t have a locker until high school so I had to keep everything in my purse.
13: That stinks.
Me: Yeah, because of the boys. As soon as they noticed that a girl was taking her purse with her to the bathroom, they would try their best to steal it and find her tampons.
13: They do that here, too. That’s way I’ll never take the risk.

She went on to explain that in her school boys may tease you if they see a pad in your locker or purse but if they spot a tampon, they will take it. When I asked her what they would do with it, she said she didn’t know but she thought it was bad. Really bad.

Now, I feel like I remember being 13 as if it was yesterday. (Sometimes…alright., often times, I even behave as such.) But to me, that’s just plain crazy. I don’t understand why one product would garner more harassment than the other. Do you?

And what do they do with these tampons and pads once they steal them? Is there a Tampax/Always shrine somewhere in boy’s locker rooms across the country?

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Talk to me.
Ladies: Did boys steal your “products” in middle school?
Guys: Care to shed some light on this for me? Or give me back my tampons?
Thanks.

If you really love me, feed me in your reader!

The Hot Blogger Calendar contest is still going on and guess what? I’m losing terribly. I didn’t expect to win but I gotta be honest with you here, it sucks to lose terribly… or so my fragile ego tells me.

I’m feeling the whole “it’s not cool to pimp yourself for votes on your blog” vibe from twitter & elsewhere…and that’s fine. But I had to face the facts. I’m already not cool and it’s looking like I’m not hot either so what the hell do I care? I’m going to be room temperature and try and make that look good.

Or something.

If you really love me, feed me in your reader!