If you saw the Not-Top-Plays on ESPN this week, you may have caught a glimpse of my son when the Nationals' Ball Girl fielded a ball that was NOT FOUL!!! This was something my son was probably screaming at her at the time:
That's my son in the blue shirt looking dumbfounded.
And look, he was trying to make the catch!
Di
Three teenagers. The first sunshine in days. What to do?
Adirondack chairs. Paint. Paintbrushes. Spray paint. Art.
Di
Happy nights and hungover mornings are in store for those who keep Kosher. Yes, Martin Silver of Star Industries has announced that Agave 99 will begin promotions on Cinco de Mayo, but it will be available in time for Passover! I can't wait for the promotions...Mexican songs sung in Yiddish! Somehow I don't think Raleigh, NC will exactly be in their promotion market. I'll have to find it on YouTube.
It's really not so crazy...tequila is fun. Hence, the catchphrase of our Mexican vacation, "Mas Tequila!"
Even my Mom, who isn't Jewish and doesn't drink tequila gave it a sip and learned about the correct process...salt, tequila, lime (try not to make squinchy face...it can give you wrinkles).
With this new product, Mom could be the hit of her Mah Jongg group. (Yes, my non-Jewish Mom plays Mah Jongg in several groups in two states!) All you need to go with the Kosher Tequila is:
How simple. And maybe your next dinner party will look like this:
Apologies to the non-irreverent of my readership. Oh, I forgot, I have no reverent readers.
Di
I guess everyone wants six-pack abs. I'm relieved that my son his this six-pack:
rather than this one:
Di
Besides re-introducing chartreuse (while looking fabulous in it, I might add), what were we expecting of our new First Lady during her first week? While every First Lady seems to pick various causes to support, Michelle Obama's first action was to align herself with mothers everywhere by extending her Mama Bear claws to protect her children.
TY is the company which was known for introducing Beanie Babies. Beanie Babies turned into collectors' items which left generous aunts aghast as their nieces immediately ripped the tags off their Princess Diana Beanies. (Can you tell that this actually happened in my family, my daughter being the ungrateful wretch who was more interested in playing with her toy than eventually profiting from it?) Collectors, determined to profit from their perfectly preserved, originally tagged, cutely named beanbags, were eventually left with tons of inventory and no demand.
TY has now decided to introduce its newest Girlz, "Marvelous Malia" and "Sweet Sasha." But Maternal Michelle isn't going for it! (If I were to become First Lady, my cause would be to eradicate the use of "Z" as a letter with which to make words plural in an effort to add a little "gangsta" panache to any word.)
Okay...maybe most of us don't have to worry about someone taking our children's names and likenesses and trying to profit from them. But we share a discomfort when someone we don't know is taking pictures at a kids' park. We cringe when we see 5-year olds made up like Vegas showgirls to compete in "Little Miss" pageants. Many bloggers use pseudonyms for their children for fear that using their real names might somehow allow them to be exploited. And many Moms avoid potentially limiting adjectives to describe their daughters, hoping that they don't miss the opportunity to be "marvelous" because they have been labeled "sweet."
Michelle, I'm sure that during your term(s) as First Lady you will make us proud by adopting issues and causes that are critical to our country and complementary to your husband's agenda. But I, for one, applaud your first action...to protect your family. Yes, you can! And yes, you will! And yes, we all can.
Di
Sorry that my blog has gone dark the last few days, but there is a good reason.
Some of you who have been reading my blog for a long time may remember Casey. Believe it or not, more than two years later, Casey's battle with Ulcerative Colitis continues, her ileostomy bag serving as a banner for her cause. On Sunday I got a rather pathetic text from my friend, Casey's Mom, Stacy saying that Casey was back in the hospital in New York City where earlier in the week they had hoped to reverse the colostomy only to find yet another complication to prevent the surgery from happening. Casey now had an obstruction which required that she endure an NG tube...something I understood from my extensive medical background...Grey's Anatomy, House, ER, etc. For two years, Stacy has slept in the hospital with Casey at three different hospitals every time she's been admitted...and there have been way too many admissions for a girl who just turned 13.
My amazing husband saw how much I wanted to be there for Stacy and knew how much my son Rory would want to be there for Casey and immediately booked us a flight. An hour and a half later, we were at the airport and on our way. So here is where we spent our time for two days. As you are looking at the pictures, try to visualize beautiful tufts of snow falling in them. It snowed almost the whole time we were there. Rory even made a snowball with his bare hands and carried it into the hospital, up the elevator 6 floors and delivered it to Casey!
Mostly we were here. Cornell Presbyterian, specifically the Greenberg Pavilion, where Casey was staying. This is where Rory made Casey laugh in spite of her NG tube, got her to do "laps" around the nurse's station and single-handedly cured her of her obstruction. But remember, part of the objective was to get Stacy out of there and get HER to smile and laugh.
Stacy's Mom (yes, we know about the song) needed an iPhone since she had lost her phone getting out of a cab, so a trip to Mecca the Apple flagship store, near Central Park, was essential. Just the process of watching Nana Judi buy and try to learn the iPhone brought smiles and laughter!
Then it was off to Nana Judi's Mecca, Bergdorf Goodman. I don't want to say I was out of my league here, but we were perusing handbags that cost as much as my first car and had security around them that would make President Obama look relatively unprotected!
Nana Judi wanted to treat us to a girls' lunch at Bergdorf's. Since they are known for the Gotham Salad, I had to have that. It was wonderful. Stacy and I had glasses of crisp Chardonnay while Nana Judi enjoyed a bloody Mary. It was definitely a New York moment that this small town girl had never imagined.
For us, the extra-special thing about a trip to NYC is that we get to see my niece Ashley who is living the life there. She is 25 and has been there since graduating from college. We went to Cilantro, a Southwestern restaurant, where I enjoyed a ten dollar Margarita that was so good that it was well worth it. Rory, Ashley and I talked and laughed over dinner before sending Ashley on her way back to the lower East side where she happily resides in a shoebox with three roommates. That's part of living the life in NYC when you are 25.
Just down the street from the hospital was what had become the "Cheers" of the Casey's hospital stay, Murphy's Law, an Irish pub where one could have a beer, get a good meal and watch a football game...and they have Stella on draft.
Casey's grandparents took me here the first night. Tuesday, as we were preparing to leave and half-hoping that the huge (6 inch) snowfall in Raleigh would result in the cancellation of our flight, Stacy and I went there for lunch and I had the best burger I have ever had in my life. I was kicking myself for ordering the portabello sandwich two nights before!
It was spontaneous. It may have been ridiculous. But our two days in NYC with our best friends were just what the doctor would have ordered if he had known the healing power of Rory and Casey just hanging out together and the fun, laughter, friendship and strength that me and Stacy being together revitalizes! And this is what made it all worthwhile:
Di
I forgot to mention that my weekly blog for the News & Observer's Triangle Mom2Mom site has now moved to Wednesdays. I'm excited about it because I think Wednesday probably gets a little more traffic than Saturday...because people will read it while they are goofing off at work!
Click on the fine piece of writing below to learn more about what it is to be a mother from my 3rd grade perspective.
I'm rethinking the second to last line now as I ponder how long it takes my husband to get ready to go out!
Di
FUQUAY-VARINA, NC --- After lengthy discussions and intense negotiations, one family in the small town of Fuquay-Varina, NC has announced that they will not petition the school district to make the day following the Florida Gators' win over Oklahoma in the BCS Championship a holiday nor consider it an excused absence.
Sponsor-friendly, but viewer unfriendly, networks chose to air the game at 8:30 which meant it did not end until after midnight on Thursday. Despite the late hour, the father (who has chosen that he and his family remain anonymous) insisted that the son report to school as usual the following morning. The father himself had to leave the house at 4:30 to catch a 6:00 a.m. flight. His decision was communicated to his wife, the child's mother, via text before he boarded his flight.
Wake County Public Schools supports this decision, with a representative stating, "If we give them this day off, pretty soon we will start having teacher work days every month, a day off for the NC State Fair, excused absences for the first day of the ACC basketball tournament and a day off for all of the high school kids who didn't miss an exam. Wait we already do all those things? Well, we're still not giving a day off for a team that isn't even in our state! We applaud the unnamed family for supporting educational values and helping to enforce our policies."
The family is aware that further discussion, peppered with excessive whining, will ensue. The mother is calmly drinking coffee and steeling herself to wake up her son who led the negotiations for the day off.
Di
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