Burke Lake Park - January 2012
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Burke Lake Park - January 2012
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I recently bought a new doormat for my front door. It is made from recycled rubber tires and feels very solid under my feet. For whatever reason, I absolutely love it - maybe it is the colors or the over-large size.
Whatever it is, I smile each time I see it. Even makes me think that I should get around to re-painting the door where the puppies have scratched it up.
It is nothing really that special and not a major change. But I like it.
I also got a new doormat for the door from the garage into the house (which is nothing quite so pretty as the front door, so I will just show you the mat.)
The garage door is the one we use most often and again, it brings a smile to my face when I see it. Which is everyday.
Sometimes just a little change can make an impact. And a few extra smiles each day are always a good thing.
Scott’s Run - Great Falls, Virginia
On blogs, once time goes by without a post, it gets harder and harder to jump back in. Mostly because it seems strange to just ignore the quiet days, especially when they unintentionally turn into quiet months.
I just wanted to post quickly to say, yes, I am still here. And yes, I do plan at some point to return to regular blogging. Life recently just seemed to catch up with me since we were run out of Ocean City at the end of the summer by Hurricane Irene (luckily no damage to our place there, just a bit of excitement as we had to pack up a bit earlier than expected).
For those who don’t know me in real life, one of the big things going on is the official ending of my twenty year marriage. We have been separated for over 2 years and have been working with a mediator over the past year to come up with an agreement (highly recommend the mediator route, for what it is worth). That process has finally reached its conclusion.
Needless to say, the process has not be easy, but luckily for us, it also has not been the typical horror story you usually hear with respect to divorce. Neither Jeff nor I like conflict and neither one of us hates the other, so I suppose that worked in our favor. It is more sad than anything else. The good news is that yes, I will be able to continue homeschooling and no, I won’t need to return to work. The boys have been adjusting along with us. I do feel that homeschooling has been a godsend in this situation, allowing each of us to have more time with them than we would have if we were limited to “after school hours” and weekends.
Other than that, I don’t plan on getting into it anymore here on the blog. Way too public of a space for something that private. I did want to at least mention it, however, because it was starting to feel like the elephant in the room to me.
Needless to say, I am actually feeling very grateful…for my terrific boys, for my friends and most of all for this journey I have been on. It’s been quite a ride.
It is probably not the smartest time to break my silence, just as we head into the holidays, as I doubt that I am going to have much “extra” time to write than I have in the previous months. But for whatever reason, the time did feel right to me, so I’ll give it a shot. We’ll see how it goes.
For those who are still here and reading after so much time away, thanks so much for hanging in there.
One of our favorite webcomics (we also own all of his books) is Dave Kellet. His webcomic, Sheldon, is my kids Peanuts. I also follow Dave’s blog as he truly loves what he does. His latest project is a feature length film called Stripped: The Comics Documentary:
For the last two years, I’ve been working on an incredible, feature-length documentary on cartooning. And guys… I need your help to finish it.
Working with my good friend, twice-Sundance-nominated film-maker Fred Schroeder, we’ve been flying around the US and Canada in a two-year labor of love, interviewing 60 cartoonists in their studios. We’ve sat down with creators to talk about how cartooning works, why it’s so loved, and how they’re navigating the painful decline of print, and the painful rise of digital. It’s our love-letter to the art form, but also an in-depth discussion of how artists — all artists — are practicing their art in an age where everything is changing.
I just watched the trailer and it was not only a wonderful “blast from the past” but an insiders look into an industry where the people honestly love what they do. Truly a labor of love. I recognized many of the participants as artists that we love (both old and the new): Jim Davis (Garfield), Jeff Keane (Family Circus), Jeff Smith (Bone), Kazu Kibuishi (Amulet), Tom Gammil (The Simpsons), Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum (Unshelved) and so many more.
They are looking for financial support to help complete the film and you can contribute at all levels. You can see the trailer and contribute here. There is also a good interview on the Washington Post’s Comic Riffs Blog.
Just thought that I would pass this on in case there are others out there who, like me, have incredibly fond memories of the “funny pages” and who would like to support this effort to document the history as well as further the discussion of the future of comics. Given how much enjoyment and pleasure comics and graphic novels have brought to my own, as well as my kids, lives, it seems like a great thing to do.
August 2011 ~ Ocean City, Maryland
]]>Our beach house is set up galley style…you walk in the door into a living area, then straight into the kitchen and then into another living area. There are two closets which flank the area next to the door (which means that you can see them from where ever you are). So when they look like this:
it is probably time to do something about it.
As you can see, there are many different types of things stored here…life jackets, coolers, otter boxes, phone books, blankets, beach bags, dust busters, you name it.
And here is where bins work so well. A stack of phone books or a pile of blankets just look messy on a shelf, but put them in a cloth bin and the mess is solved. The difference is amazing. So after finding new homes for some things (like the life jackets) and corralling the rest into bins, this is what the closet looked like:
Pretty amazing, huh? And much easier on the eyes. The striped and solid blue bins came from Bed, Bath and Beyond. The flowered bins came from The Container Store and add a fun touch. I really like them.
Things are still piled up, but since the piles are contained in bins, they are not an eyesore. Plus the bins keep everything from falling over. Such an easy and simple fix. Have no idea why it took me so long to realize this.
This summer the closet has filled up a bit more (the top shelf is where I keep some of my empty smaller bins until I need them and I now use one of the bins to keep our bike helmets and locks) but it still looks really nice and is incredibly functional.
It also brings a smile to my face when I look over at it. Little things can make a big difference.
I have been finding lately that I really enjoy watching people who are passionate about what they do. Their enthusiasm becomes very infectious and you can’t help but get a smile on your face.
The boys and I watched this video when it was being passed around Facebook and Google+ and really enjoyed it. Jason especially liked his thoughts on glass bottles and corn syrup, as he had come to very similar conclusions himself (he is always on the lookout for the “throw back” versions of soda (made with sugar instead of corn syrup and in glass bottles). He enjoys comparing and contrasting foods in this way and he tends to notice this type of thing (he also has been enjoying trying various local pizza places whenever we travel).
Watching this video got us curious to try some of the more unique colas and sodas. I decided that it would be fun to splurge (shipping made the per soda cost much higher than I ever would normally pay for a soda). I figure that we are paying for the “experience” rather than for the actual soda. And it has been a blast so far.
We spent a lot of time going through their website and choosing our sodas to try. Many of the ones we choose were ones that were highlighted in the video:
Our shipment just arrived yesterday. It took a little while to get here from California, so the excitment has been growing with the boys asking “is it here yet” on most days. We are splitting each soda between the three of us and plan on spreading the tastings out through the next several days.
We tried the Moxi yesterday afternoon…Jason liked it, Kyle was a little more unsure about he, but he did not “not like” it (he said that it had a different after taste). I found it different than most sodas…a bit milder. We tried the Curiosity Cola with dinner and each really liked this one. It was not near as sweet as most colas and it seemed to have a bit of a “bite” to it. Very bubbly and nice crisp cola flavor.
I have to admit that I am really getting a kick out of this, despite the fact that I am not a big soda person (rarely drink it myself). Probably because the boys are really enjoying it, and it is really fun to try new things. Just goes to show you how much you can excite others by sharing what you truly love.
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Wondering where I have been? Well, I have a good excuse for my blogging absence (besides the regular life stuff of making our way to Ocean City and the holiday weekend). I have been playing on Google+ (Google’s new social networking platform).
Now, joining a new social media site might not sound like it should be all that distracting..after all, I am already on Facebook, use Twitter occasionally, have my photos up at Smugmug, I post to my blog, read tons of blogs via my feedreader, and use tools for keeping track of information such as Evernote, Instapaper and Pinterest. I even just started logging my books over at Goodreads. I am fairly plugged in.
But I have to admit that I have really been sucked in by Google+. It is still in a “trial mode” and is not officially open to everyone (you have to get an invite to get in and they keep opening and closing the invite windows). There are still a few kinks that they are working out and some things have not been fully implemented (no businesses or organizations yet). Yet despite all this, I find that I have not been this excited about social media since I discovered how I could connect with my friends on Facebook.
Here are a few posts about what Google+ is.
What I find that is drawing me in is the flexibility and the comprehensiveness. Google+ is making it much easier to juggle my public online stuff and my more personal online stuff. The lines between Facebook, Twitter, blogging, sharing, status updates, email, public and personal seem to be getting easier to navigate and not quite so disjointed.
I can use Google+ to connect with friends like Facebook. I can follow interesting people I don’t know very well like on Twitter. Posts have no character limits, so in many ways it is like following blogs in your feed reader. But here is the kicker…I have complete control over who gets to read what I post. I can share publicly, to circles or individually. I have complete control over how I use circles and who gets to be in them (people only know if I have them in a circle, they don’t know what the circle is named or what I post or don’t post to to it).
The tricky thing for me about Facebook is that it is either all or nothing. If I accept a friend request, they get access to all my posts and other information. There is no (easy) way to filter things. Which for some friends, that is fine. But for others not so much. I have friends who may or may not want to hear my political ramblings. Or my homeschool ramblings. Or friends who I know little about who found me through my blog.
For the most part, I am fine with all this. There has been some interesting benefit of “mixing” all my friends…my non-homeschool friends have learned more about what we homeschoolers do, my more recent friends have been treated to pictures of me posted by my high school and college friends. And some of the folks I have met through my blog have become good friends.
But sometimes, it would be nice to have a bit more separation. Not complete separation, but maybe just a little more of an ability to fine tune things. To decide maybe this message should go to one group and this message can go to all. That is what Google+ gives you. Plus more.
Moving people in and out of circles is a not only a great way to manage what you share, but also a wonderful mechanism for meeting and getting to know people better. I can put someone in my “following” circle to get to know them a little bit better (they of course, only let me see what they want me to see by choosing what circles to put me in). As I get to know them better, I can move them to different circles as I want to. Much less commitment than on Facebook where you either have to “friend” or “defriend” people. Seems a bit gentler too.
And I have to admit that the left-brained, geeky side of me is loving the whole circle thing…you can make them as simple (friends, family, other) or as complicated (some folks are using numbers and decimals to order them and create pseudo-sub circles) as you want. Add as many circles as you want. Rename them any time. Add as many people as you want (ok, so there is a 5,000 person limit during the trial…I think I should be ok.) It really is a lot of fun.
So that is where i have been lately. If you are already on Google+, be sure and come find me!
Blogging will resume once unpacking is completed.
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