2009 Blog Improvement Project - Week 4 Blog Basics

This week's topic in the Blog Improvement Project is Blog Basics. Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness wrote: "...when a new reader gets to your site, how easy is it for them to find out basic information about you and what your blog is about?" She suggested we explore updating our "About Me" page, contact information, picture, blogroll, archives, or RSS feed subscription.

I did do much of this work this past week. I took a suggestion from Kim and added my email address to my blog. I learned how to use Feedburner to add a way to subscribe to my RSS feed via email. I explored ways to access my archives including a search box.

The only official suggestion I am still working on is a blogroll. I do like the idea, but I feel overwhelmed with locating all the blogs I read and putting them in one place. I think I will work on this project but it will take me a while to do so. I don't use any regular readers so I have no systematic way of finding them all easily. I do agree that just putting them on my blog in a blogroll might even help me visit my favorite blogs more regularly.

So that's my progress on Blog Basics and I promise to make continuous improvement my ongoing goal.

2009 Blog Improvement Project - Week 3 Blog Post Bingo

Week 3 of the 2009 Blog Improvement Project is a little something called Blog Post Bingo. Kim shared many references with descriptions of various types of blog posts. She then listed 10 types of blog posts and asked everyone to try to write as many of these different kinds of posts over the next two weeks. They even had a contest with prizes, which I missed since I only found the BIP this week. I thought about just skipping this week so I could move on to week 4, but on second thought, decided that to be fair, I should attempt the exercise anyway. I am going to amend the project a bit to include various blog posts I have already written as well as one I wrote primarily for this project week.

The 10 types of posts were:

A Link Post - share a series of links your readers might find interesting (I think my post on kid's television is a link post as I do provide links to associated info.) http://thementalmom.blogspot.com/2009/02/childrens-television-that-parents.html

A Short Post - less than 200 words
http://thementalmom.blogspot.com/2008/11/gratitude.html

A List Post - simple as it sounds, a list of some sort
http://thementalmom.blogspot.com/2008/11/suggestions-for-finding-that-elusive.html

An Opinion Post - take an event, news, or another blog post and share your opinion on it http://thementalmom.blogspot.com/2009/03/why-do-we-expect-reality-shows-to.html

A Poll or Question Post - post a poll or ask your readers a specific question for feedback (I have toyed with asking questions in a post, but no real polls. I will have to figure out how to do this over the next year.)

A How-To Post - You’re an expert in something; big or small, share how to do it (I think my recipe is a bit of a how to.)
http://thementalmom.blogspot.com/2009/02/great-weeknight-recipe-sausage-and.html

A Long Post - more than 700 words (I thought this one would be easy as I tend to write more than I need to at times, but guess I will need to work on this in the future.)

A Review Post - self-explanatory, I think :)
http://thementalmom.blogspot.com/2009/02/my-stroke-of-insight-brain-scientists.html

A Definition Post - show your expertise about a topic related to your blog (I am not sure I have put myself out as an expert in anything thus far on my blog. I tend to use this blog for self expression and shy away from aspects related to my career and any expertise. I know that is a cop out, but I can work on this type of post over the next year too.)

FREE SPACE - a type of post of your choice (that is not the same as one of the previous posts) (I am not sure what style this one is, perhaps self exploration of some type?)
http://thementalmom.blogspot.com/2008/11/easy-rider-or-how-to-face-your-fears.html

Why do We Expect Reality Shows to Follow Rules of Fairness and Real Life

I wanted to give my opinion on reality television. I have to admit I find myself drawn to reality television shows. Not all of them, but certainly many of them. I seem to love any of the reality cooking shows but my favorite is always The Amazing Race. I don’t follow The Bachelor but have noticed that everyone is discussing the recent drama related to that finale. I find watching a reality show, itself, is a bit like trying to avoid watching a car wreck. I don’t understand, however, why everyone seems to think that the outcome of reality shows should be based upon fairness or merit. Reality shows are unique unto themselves. They are not truly reality so why would they follow the same rules. I read a recent blog that seemed to address this very eloquently.

James Poniewozik in his Tuned In blog post, Why Top Chef Was Right to Pick the Wrong Winner, seemed to understand some of the ways reality television is not exactly reality. He points out the fact that many of us feel cheated that Hosea won during the recent finale of Top Chef. Frankly, I did not really like Stefan, but he dominated most of the challenges throughout the show and I really wanted Carla to win. However, both messed up their dishes in the finale and Hosea did better overall in that last challenge. I notice many people become unglued discussing outcomes of reality shows. Although we all seem to get emotionally involved in the outcome of reality shows, Poniewozik shared the following, which I do agree with heartily:

“Once you turn a competition into an entertainment, in other words, you have to leave in the possibility that the wrong guy will win sometime. Rewarding people on sheerly on the basis of their ability, and making sure that the most deserving come out on top all the time—that's what the rest of life is for. And if it doesn't always work out that way, that's our problem, not the Top Chef judges'.”

So what do you think? Are you still irritated with the outcome of Top Chef? Are you frustrated with the romantic decisions made by Jason on The Batchelor? Can you accept that it is really not reality but an entertaining game?

2009 Blog Improvement Project Week 2: Brainstorming and the Introduction of Well-Being Wednesdays

The second assignment for the 2009 Blog Improvement Project was about brainstorming, more specifically to brainstorm some ideas and then blog your ideas. We had several articles to read regarding brainstorming techniques and then the task of coming up with a new, regular feature for our blog.

For a while now, I have wanted a bit more structure for my blog. One reason I continue to blog is to exercise my creativity and spontaneity. I often live too much “in my head” and caught up with the future or the past. My blog is an exercise in enjoying life in the moment. I tend to blog about what is on my mind at the moment, life as I am living it, or things I am currently experiencing. However, I do believe that my blog is a reflection of my scattered consciousness and as such is quite disjointed and unpredictable. I also have little schedule to my blogging and you are not able to predict when I will have new content. I’d like to find some “happy medium” where I still exercise my creativity and spontaneity but add in a bit more structure.

I have noticed that I do like blogs where the author has a calendar of some sort that guides the style of posting on a weekly basis. After brainstorming on the types of topics I have blogged about in the past and on various ideas on topics of interest to me currently, I came up with a few editorial topics to explore. As my pilot project, I plan to introduce some structure into my future blog posts.

One major interest of mine is my own self-improvement project. The past few years I have been working on my own private happiness project. It is still a work in progress. However, I have been taking active steps toward my own well-being. A regular feature I would like to add to my blog to highlight this project is to institute every Wednesday be “Well-Being Wednesday.” Every Wednesday, I will work on blogging about my journey into the why’s and how’s of happiness.

Since today is Wednesday, I brainstormed a bit and thought I might discuss one of my favorite quotes. "Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action." -- Benjamin Disraeli. To me, this quote found in Disraeli’s novel Lothair, reminds me that you have to work at anything important or meaningful, including happiness. I also feel it points out that I may not always make the right choices, but failing to take a chance and try something, anything, is always better than doing nothing at all. I have mentioned several times to my patients that I can not guarantee the outcome of any change; however, it does seem reasonable to assume that doing nothing will usually yield nothing. If you are unhappy, doing nothing is more likely to keep you exactly where you are. Making a change, any change, does not guarantee happiness, but you have to be willing to try something different to be truly happy.

Now, I am no expert on happiness or its pursuit. I am merely a lowly student trying to find my way to enjoying life. What do you think? Do you agree with my interpretation of Mr. Disraeli’s statement? Do you have a favorite happiness quote to share? Please post a comment and let’s get it started!

The 2009 Blog Improvement Project and Week 1 Project (Setting Goals)

I have been feeling dissatisfied with my blog of late. I still feel this need to have a blog, but have felt that my blog is not living up to my aspirations in various ways. Yesterday which surfing the ‘net, I came across a button on this book blog while reading a book review. (If you must know, I am slowly making my way through One Fifth Avenue by Candace Bushnell and I do have this sad addiction to searching for reviews and even spoilers of books I am currently reading, especially books I am finding tedious, in the hopes I will discover motivation to actually finish the book.) Okay, back to my original topic, the 2009 Blog Improvement Project, which was the button I noticed. I quickly clicked on the button and arrived at Sophisticated Dorkiness, an interesting blog by Kim. I began to read about her project and I was hooked. I had found a community of people who were focused on improving their blogs. Accountability and structure! I decided whether or not I could be accepted into this project, I needed to jump on board the improvement project.

The 2009 Blog Improvement Project is a year-long challenge that will consist of twice-monthly activities to improve your blog. Every first and third Monday of the month an activity will be posted at Sophisticated Dorkiness that will be related in some way to making your blog better. Now, I am already behind my counterparts. I have missed the first 2 months of the project. However, being the anal compulsive person that I am, I plan to work on catching up with the rest of the group project by project, ideally finding a way to catch up long before the end of the year.

From Kim for the Week 1 Project - Setting Goals. What do you want to accomplish with your blog in 2009? Set some goals for your blog. Think about where you would like to be a year from now, and try to set clear and specific objectives that you’ll be able to measure in some way once we get to the end of 2009. Even before you set goals, it’s important to reflect back on what you’ve actually accomplished. Problogger suggests 69 questions (of various topics) that you could use to consider the things that are going well with your blog and the things that might need improvement. Using some of these questions could help you decide what blog areas you should set goals in.

Already, after spending some time on this first task, I am thinking quit, run away!! This task hits on some difficult issues for me. I tried to answer Problogger's 69 questions (whom I love, by the way, due to his fabulous advice on blogging and twitter) and came up with a whole lot of nothing. My blog seems to exist in isolation. I suspect only a few of my close friends actually read it. I am never quite sure what my focus is and because of that my posting is erratic and disjointed. So rather than run away, let’s set some realistic goals for the next year:

(1) Find a focus or center for my blog. I think my original purpose was to have a creative outlet, to find my own inner creativity and pleasure again, after having kids and losing my focus. I love so many things; I don’t think my blog can be narrowly focused. However, I need to find someway to keep a focus so I, and others, can have some consistent content here.

(2) Find some structure for posting that fits my needs but also leads to more consistent posting. Again, finding a way to post a certain number of posts in a week with some schedule seems a good idea and I am toying with the idea of having some sort of weekly schedule, i.e., Wednesday book reviews or happiness project musings on a particular day of the week? To quantify, perhaps set some weekly structure in posting by end of month and post at least 3 times per week?

(3) Content, content, content. By this, I would like to have some plan for my content that is consistent with my eventual focus. I would like to have some content that is planned, but still leave room for rambled musings. I do think I am usually too good at planning, and not so good at spontaneity. The blog is part of my life goal of being more spontaneous and living “in the moment.”

(4) Find a way to network and find a sense of community. Since I can’t control who comes to my blog, I would like to make more of an effort to visit other blogs on a regular basis and comment more frequently. Okay, I stole this one from many of the other BIP participants! But it seems like a great idea. Perhaps to measure progress, my goal would be to leave a comment 5 times in a week?

(5) Learn more about blog design and applications. I don’t need the most technical or beautiful blog, but I would like to understand more how to make my blog more user-friendly for me and also for those visiting. I would also like to learn more about tracking who is visiting my blog.

Okay, I could come up with many more goals, but I think those are enough for now. If I do achieve progress on these goals I can always come with more. If anyone is out there, please leave me any comments with your observations or suggestions. I would appreciate it!!

A Great Weeknight Recipe Sausage and Polenta Casserole

I mentioned on Facebook that I made this great casserole last night and had a few requests for the recipe, so thought I would share the recipe here. It does not take too much prep time and the end result is mouth-watering good! I'd post a picture, but we ate it all up for dinner the last 2 nights. We had enough for 4 for dinner for two different nights, so serves 8. So here it is...

Sausage and Polenta Casserole

16 oz. Italian sausage 2 cups cornmeal
1 tbls. olive oil 14.5 oz. chicken broth
1 large onion,chopped ¾ tsp salt
1 large stalk celery, chopped 4.5 cups boiling water
1 carrot, peeled and chopped ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 can (28 oz.) whole tomatoes 8 oz. Fontina or mozzarella cheese

First, sauté in your Dutch oven 1 pound of Italian sausage after removing the casings. Brown the sausage while breaking them up with your spoon. My original recipe called for 8 oz. of hot and 8 oz. of sweet sausage. I did do that the first time I made it and it was yummy, but I had to buy 2 packages of sausage and my kids picked out the hot sausage, so this last time I just used one package of sweet! Once the sausage is browned, remove from the Dutch oven and then add 1 tbls. of olive oil. Add 1 large onion, 1 large carrot, 1 stalk celery, all chopped fine, and brown. Takes about 5 minutes. Add sausage back in and one large can of whole tomatoes (original recipe calls for roma tomatoes in puree, but can never find in standard grocery store, so just used can of whole tomatoes in sauce this time and it worked fine). Bring to boil and then turn down and simmer, covered for 10 minutes and then opened for 10 minutes. This last time I added a little bit of white wine before the tomatoes and a little salt, pepper, and oregano (but tasted great without those things the last time I made it).

While tomatoes are simmering, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Also grate about 8 oz. of Fontina cheese and set aside. Start polenta, after you relax a bit, as it only takes about 5 minutes! For polenta, start water to boil (4.5 cups). In large saucepan, mix 2 cups of corn meal, 14.5 ounces of chicken broth, and salt together over medium low heat. Add 4.5 cups of boiling water and whisk together until smooth and starts to thicken. Once thickened, add ½ cup of Parmesan cheese and whisk together.

Now just layer all your ingredients in a 13 x 9 baking dish. Lightly grease the pan, put in half of polenta and spread across pan, cover with half of tomato mixture, sprinkle on half of cheese. Then repeat. Save the last half of cheese and bake casserole uncovered for 15 minutes, add the cheese, and put back in oven for another 15-20 minutes. Last night I screwed up and put the cheese on before I baked, so I just baked for 30 minutes and it was fine. Let sit for 10 minutes then serve.

The Facebook Generation

I have found myself being sucked into Facebook. Every day I make attempts to avoid going there, only to find I can't avoid it. Initially, I joined and then visited it rarely for more than a year. Then I discovered the Facebook application for my Treo and it slowly began to suck me in. Soon, I checked in at least once a day via my phone to see what my friends were saying in their status comments, to post pictures and see what my friends were posting, or just to share my own experiences. The tipping point for me appears to be the death of the dryer. The week I spent without the ability to do much laundry seemed to free up a lot of my evenings after the girls were in bed. I rediscovered my notebook computer and taking a lesson from my husband, began to play on my computer again right in front of the television. During this time, I realized that the real Facebook site is actually much more fun than my minimized phone version! My Facebook time severely increased and I find myself drawn to checking it multiple times per day.

Much of it is the social networking, but then there is that addictive game Mafia Wars. I need my fix daily and find myself returning again and again to do some criminal jobs, acquire dirty money, and fight other mafia families. Who knew the mafia life could be so fun or addictive? Well The Soprano's were a bit addictive too, but not quite as much fun with all the realistic violence and sex!

I find myself wondering how healthy my Facebook usage is. I have always had difficulty setting limits with my hobbies. I tend to obsessively pursue them and then finding myself quitting "cold turkey" to be able to attend back to "real life." I can read to obsession. I can watch television to obsession. I can play video games to obsession. Or I know I could and that is why I make sure that does not happen. Where does Facebook fit in this? Is it an escape to avoid the real world? Or is it truly a way to connect? I guess it really can be both. As with everything, it depends on how you use it. Do you use it to avoid having real relationships with people? Do you invest a lot of time and effort into people you are really not that close to?

I am not sure of my answers to these questions, although my gut feeling at the moment is that Facebook is kind of wonderful and is allowing me to grow in many ways. In a world where everyone is so busy and spread out, Facebook allows me to connect more with friends I truly miss but have no way to achieve face-to-face friendship due to geographical distance. It also allows me to connect more with friends who do live close by but are caught up in this day-to-day crazy experience of an over-scheduled life. It also allows me to explore the past a bit in many different ways. I can reconnect with friends from the past I lost touch with, or mere acquaintances from the past that I never took the time to explore, or even to approach people I may have made judgements about in high school and assumed would never have any interest in me.

Facebook is a social experience if you let it be. It is not easy and I still have to set my limits and continue to enjoy and live my non-virtual life. However, my goal is to truly connect with everyone I be-friend on Facebook. I vow not to friend someone blindly, but to make an effort to really connect with everyone. To post on their "wall," to comment on what they choose to share with the world, to learn more about everyone and to let them know who I really am. I vow not to be the person I have been for much of my life, afraid of being judged and therefore judging of others. Perhaps Facebook is one path towards my own self-discovery. We shall see.

What do you think about Facebook? Is it your friend or foe? Share a comment and let's discuss.

Why Don't We Accept the Answer, "No?"

I have been thinking about how difficult it is to say, “No.” I am fully aware that it is my responsibility to exercise this right and responsibility. I need to be constantly aware of my own limitations and boundaries and to refuse to take on new responsibilities as they are offered. I do not abdicate my responsibility in this. Do you hear a BUT coming on?

However, I noticed today that the world is filled with people who somehow seem to assume that when a person responds, ‘No!” to a question, they are merely waiting for someone to coax them into an affirmative response. Has this ever happed to you? My epiphany today occurred as I was making copies in the copy-room, which is of course the unofficial meeting place for my office. One of the nurses comes into the room to ask if anyone would like to adopt a cat. The room erupts with people denying interest in the cat. Instead of the conversation ending, one of the nay-sayers seeks to poll the room to find someone else to adopt this cat. I say clearly that I am not interested in another cat. I then spend the next 5 minutes being browbeaten by my co-workers as to why I should adopt this cat. “Your other cat is lonely.” “He clearly is missing other cats.” I waste my time responding to their inquiries and strong suggestions, even though I have already stated I do not want another cat and that I feel overwhelmed with the cat that I do have. Eventually, I leave the room, which is kind of silly since I was the only one in need of the copier at the moment.

I have some suspicions as to why people do not respect a negative answer. In this case, interestingly enough, the person who initiated the query respected my negative response. It was the other targets of the question who threw me, “under the bus.” I suspect many people do this to feel better about their own guilt over saying, “No.” I am not trying to be a mind-reader. I guess I just wanted to remind people that it is cool to respect your friends, co-workers, or even strangers, by allowing them to make their own decisions and to avoid questioning any decisions. Everyone has a right and a responsibility to say, “No,” when they need to but let’s try not to make this even harder for people by forcing then to defend their choices.

Children's Television That Parent's Actually Can Watch Without Dying of Boredom

I have been noticing that my kids seem to like a lot of shows that I do not fine vile and annoying. I am not sure if this is due to their inherent good taste, or if it is due to some subtle brainwashing over the years from their mother. We do love many PBS shows, but let's start with our favorite, not educational, favorites. So for my friends with kids, here are a few television suggestions for your kids that you might actually not mind watching:

(1) Pucca (http://disney.go.com/disneyxd/#/disneyxd/shows/pucca/) - This is one funny show from Jetix on Disney Channel. Pucca is a little girl who doesn't talk but is in love with Garu, a ninja boy. The show revolves around Pucca chasing Garu. Sounds a bit weird, but it is so funny. The characters are fantastic, from Santa, to Pucca's uncle's who run a noodle house, to the ninja who is always hunting Garu, to so many more. Some of the humor comes from the things spoofed in different shows. For example, in Sooga Size Me, a Texas couple comes to Sooga Village in their huge motorhome and with their horrible American tourist way, insult the culture and then build a restaurant to serve super-sized American versions of Japanese food. Lot's of good sarcastic fun for adults.

(2) Ben 10 and Ben 10: Alien Force (http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/tv_shows/promotion_landing_page/ben10/index.html): My daughter's love Ben 10 of any kind. It is always the first show they request from any backlog of DVR'd episodes. These are shows on Cartoon Network and Ben accidentally becomes the owner of the Omnitrix at age 10 which allows him to turn into 10 different aliens. Helped by his cousin Gwen and his grandfather, they fight evil and have a lot of fun. Ben and Gwen fight like siblings. Grandpa is a smart alien-fighting expert. Interesting aliens, fun, and plenty of sarcasm. Ben 10: Alien Force is a kind of sequel with Ben and Gwen older and still fighting bad guys as teenagers. Thanks to their friend Kevin, lots more sarcastic fun and fighting of bad guys.

(3) Johnny Test (http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/tv_shows/johnnytest/index.html): Another Cartoon Network show, Johnny Test is about a boy who always seems to get in trouble but almost always ends up saving the day too. Johnny is hyper and self-centered, and has two older genius sisters who can invent anything. Everything is against type. Mom works, dad stays-at-home. The sisters are brilliant. Johnny and his talking dog Dukey are lots of snarky fun.

My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey - Jill Bolte Taylor

There have been a few biographical books that have struck me with such force that I felt changed by them. Two I remember distinctly because I listened to the audio book versions. The first I remember was Tuesdays with Morrie, by Mitch Albom. I found the book fascinating, but what blew me away was hearing Morrie’s voice speaking some on his wisdom at the end of the book. Hearing an author read their own work or share their story seems to intensify the message. I felt this same way after listening to a more recent book by Jill Bolte Taylor, My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey.

Dr. Bolte Taylor woke up one morning in 1996 to discover that she was experiencing a rare form of stroke, an arteriovenous malformation (AVM). Three weeks later, she underwent major brain surgery at to remove a golf ball-sized hemorrhage that was placing pressure on the language centers in the left hemisphere of her brain. The first part of the book told who the author was prior to her stroke and then in great detail told what it felt like to have her stroke, made even more fascinating due to her training and career as a neuroanatomist. She watched her mind completely deteriorate to where she could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life. She than shared her experiences in recovery, from her initial time in the emergency room and eventual surgery to her years of rehabilitation. We learned the details of her recovery, designed primarily by her mother who basically repeated her childhood development. Finally, we heard some of her observations about right and left hemispheric differences.

I thought the book was very readable thanks to the compelling story and Dr. Bolte Taylor’s personality. I found something of value from every part of the book. The description of her stroke and deterioration was a profound explanation of the left and right brain functions. The tale of her rehabilitation highlighted ways we need to change our current methods of stroke rehabilitation. Her observation that her need for sleep was imperative in allowing her brain to heal really hit home how important sleep is to our brain functioning. I even found her observations of life without a left hemisphere made her a better person a good illustration for the benefits of cognitive behavioral therapy and used this in one of my recent discussions with my pain group. I highly recommend this book, and even recommend you try the audio book to hear the story in Dr. Bolte Taylor’s own voice.

Cafe Firenze or Chef Fabio and Top Chef

My husband and I went out to dinner tonight while my mom watched the girls. After much discussion, we drove over to Moorpark to check out Cafe Firenze which is the restaurant of Fabio Viviani from Top Chef.

The place looked like a zoo but we were given a table immediately. We were seated a few feet from the kitchen which turned out to be one of the best tables in the place. The kitchen was open and had two bars on either side for diners to sit watching the kitchen like dinner theatre. Our table was a small two top a few feet away so you had your own private table but had direct vision of all kitchen activity and Fabio as well as direct view of all food taken out.

The service was pretty good, which seems rare in Ventura County. The food was kind of average although my husband thought it was pretty good compared to typical Simi Valley restaurant options. We had the beef carpaccio for a starter and it was delicious. My husband had gnocchi, which is one of my favorites, but I thought the gnocchi, although light, were mealy and mushy. They came in a pesto, which my husband said was a bit bland. I had the chicken picata which was not bad, but rather average. The chicken was a bit dry too. Dessert was rather good as we shared cannoli, which was plenty for two and was quite yummy and fairly traditional with plent of pistachios for garnish.

All-in-all, we would give it another try but I thought that Fabio's food was a lot like him, more flash than substance.

Major Milestone Moment

I registered Sofia for kindergarten today! She will start kindergarten in the fall. This is another parenting bittersweet moment. I am so excited that my baby will be starting kindergarten and embarking on her primary education, but saddened that she really is not a baby anymore. It is hard not to be motivated by the decrease in childcare costs as well!

I do wonder how she will do in kindergarten. Sofia has a marvelous loving and joyful spirit. She is sweet and kind and creative. Alas, she is also full of energy and seems to have some focusing issues. She wants to focus on what she wants to when she wants to! I worry that this may be difficult for a kindergarten teacher to handle. She has been known to climb the shelving or the door frames during preschool. Luckily, her preschool just started her spending the morning in the kindergarten class and she seems to be doing well. During this years daily pickups from preschool, I have spent most days arriving with the fear of catching her teacher’s gaze only to find that sad little exasperated head shack, “Rough day today,” or “She did not have her listening ears on today.”

However, since she started half-day kindergarten, I have been noticing more days of, “She had a good day today mom!” or “Come look at her work it is amazing!” She can write her first name in cursive and she is reading books with one-syllable words! I think I am actually looking forward to kindergarten in the fall!

Whirlpool Calypso Dryer R.I.P.

The clothes dryer died a few days ago. Actually, it has been struggling for the past year, I just kept ignoring it. Clothes have taken longer and longer to dry. Currently, it runs but without any heat. Frankly, with two kids, I find a working washer and dryer to be a necessity. We seem to have tons of laundry daily. As usual, although I would love to have depended on the husband to fix it up, he was on another business trip. So I searched the internet and found a repairman who could come over in the evening and check it out. As I waited 3-4 days for my appointment, I frantically washed as much clothing as I could and hung the clothes but still kind of fluffed them up in my heat-free dryer.

So the repairman can the other night and spent an hour dismantling the dryer only to exclaim, “Oh no!” I called out to him, “That does not sound good?” He proceeded to show me the interior of my dryer, which was filled with black lint. Apparently, we have probably had several dryer fires over the years. The thing is apparently a fire hazard and could have flamed up at any time and we are probably lucky the previous fires did not burn the house down! (And frankly as a working mom, I do run the dryer as I head up to bed at night!) So he decommissioned the dryer and now I have to go shopping for a replacement this weekend. I hate shopping. Ugh. And the really crappy thing…the dryer is only 6 years old!!!!! And it was a fancy higher-end whirlpool model! And I can’t even blame Whirlpool since it seems the people who installed the dryer used a substandard too long vent which contributed to the fires and the people who built our house installed a convoluted venting system from the laundry room to the outside.

The Subtle Knife - Philip Pullman

The Subtle Knife is the second novel in the His Dark Materials series, written by Philip Pullman, and published in 1997. This is the book that tells the tale of what happens after The Golden Compass. We learn more about the witches, the nature of dust and the Authority (God), Lee Scoresby, and Stanislaus Grumman. In this book, Lyra's adventure continues as she travels from her own world into other worlds; especially one where she meets Will Parry, a boy from our world, and together they search for the boy's lost father. Will finds a passage to an alternate world to escape threats in his own world. Will and Lyra return to our world and meet Dr. Mary Malone who is researching dust in her own world. After exchanging information on dust or perhaps our equivalent, dark matter, Will and Lyra return to the other world and Will comes into possession of the Subtle Knife - a tool that can create portals between worlds and can cut easily through anything, matter or spirit - and he is the only one who can wield it. The children continue their journey together to learn more about dust and to find Will’s father.

I again read this book straight through so I have to say it was an exciting read. However, I did not find it as enchanting as the Golden Compass and I think that may be due to this book being a darker storyline and also less satisfying in plot as it seemed to be a bridge between books 1 and 2. I don’t want to spoil the ending, but I was disappointed in the ending because you know I love a happy ending where happy people end up together. I suspect this series is not going to provide me the ultimate happy ending as i am currently reading The Amber Spyglass, book 3.

Working the Holiday

There are many wonderful benefits for working for my employer. Unfortunately, the amount of holidays covered is not one of them. I am finding it difficult to concentrate today knowing much of America has the day off to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, but I am here working. Now before my readers thnk this is some racial slight, keep in mind my employer only offers 6 holidays each year and there are many other holidays that are slighted as well! Oh well, I love my job. I love my job. I love my job. Alas, I am still struggling with my gratitude.