Once It Was Called Scrabble

My grandmother taught me how to play Scrabble. We would play on the beach, at home, pretty much anywhere we could. She was ruthless and would whip my ass repeatedly. She liked to win.

I taught the girls to play as soon as they could spell and we have a beautiful pink board.

Since they got iphones for Christmas, they have been hooked on Words With Friends. I have an older  non-touch screen blackberry that does not support this game (or really any games). However, I realized that I could play it on Facebook. It is fun, it makes me think and I can be playing 10 different people/games at once!

I have also been learning new words:

QAT: an African shrub that can make you high.
ZED: a slang term used for zombie

or sometimes I throw in a french word and it means something random in English like
VERT: green in french, some sort of forest vegetation in english.

The game is fun and I have my grandmother looking over me, putting high scoring words in my head. However, I still don't understand how this person got kicked off a plane because he was so into a game.

Once It Was Called Scrabble

My grandmother taught me how to play Scrabble. We would play on the beach, at home, pretty much anywhere we could. She was ruthless and would whip my ass repeatedly. She liked to win.

I taught the girls to play as soon as they could spell and we have a beautiful pink board.

Since they got iphones for Christmas, they have been hooked on Words With Friends. I have an older  non-touch screen blackberry that does not support this game (or really any games). However, I realized that I could play it on Facebook. It is fun, it makes me think and I can be playing 10 different people/games at once!

I have also been learning new words:

QAT: an African shrub that can make you high.
ZED: a slang term used for zombie

or sometimes I throw in a french word and it means something random in English like
VERT: green in french, some sort of forest vegetation in english.

The game is fun and I have my grandmother looking over me, putting high scoring words in my head. However, I still don't understand how this person got kicked off a plane because he was so into a game.

NYC In A Nutshell

Highlights from our 3 day NYC trip:

*The night before we left, K fell off her horse and we spent 3 hours in the ER learning that she broke her tailbone.

*Taking the bus was a great idea. The only scary part was when the bus driver pulled over on the highway and yelled at people for having their music too loud (in their headphones).

*The phrase "we are not on Cape Cod any more" went thru my head once an hour.

*I succeeded in leading my tribe on a subway from point A to point B.

*I highly recommend the Stardust Cafe as a fun place to eat. Figure the prices are a little high because you are paying for the entertainment, too. The waitstaff are all trying to get into Broadway shows and they sing Broadway songs throughout the night.

*The NBC tour is also very cool!

*My feet may never be the same. Elmo's might not ever be the same either.

*When they say it is going to be in the mid 40's in NYC, they must be talking about the tops of the buildings where the sun actually reaches.

*I could live with Blue in M&M world.

*The Statue of Liberty is not too heavy, actually.

*Dinosaurs were really, really big!

*Kids are never too old to play.

*It was totally worth getting up early to go see the Today Show! Of course only B and I were raring to go at 6:30AM.

*We had the most gracious hosts! Thank you David and Judith! And don't worry, once my feet and hip joints heal, we will be back!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Every year I take Valentine pictures of my girls. Maybe I started it because I like pink or because I needed another excuse to take pictures of them. Who knows? There are quite a few back years of pictures in this post.

These are my cuties in 2005...

They have grown up quite a bit! And this year, we added P to the mix.

K....

B....

Nana happened to show up at the house just as I was abusing the girls by sending them outside without jackets on when it was about 30 degrees to take their pictures.

And these are the delicious looking cake balls I made for B's class today.

Hope your day is filled with chocolate and love!

NYC or Bust

I know it is rather soon to be mentioning this with the loss of the Super Bowl fresh in our minds (and Gisele's stupid comments making headlines), but I am going to NYC for a few days over February vacation week. My girls have been there all of once about 5 years ago. I have had the pleasure of attending Blogher 2 years ago in the big Apple and was lead all over the place by my 2 trusty tour guides.

They look like they know what they are doing, right?

The last time the girls were there, it was for B's 8th birthday. She wore this hat all day long around the entire city.

We were in the American Girl store so long that Uncle David and I had to sit down and rest. Who knew it took so long to get a doll's hair done?!

Grandma tried to steal a woolly mammoth to bring home....

All in all, we had a great time, thanks to our host and hostess dragging us all over Times Square and Grandma taking us to the Rockettes.

We are lucky to be staying in Uncle David's appt near Times Square. We want to show P around NYC and a friend and her daughter are coming with us, too. Now's the time for your input....
what should we see and do? Think budget in your answer because there is nothing I would like better than to take them all to a Broadway show, but that is not going to happen until I win the lottery (perhaps I should actually start playing?).

I may also be subway challenged. We don't have subways (or really any taxis) in my little hamlet.

Huh?

Teen comes home from school complaining about how her back was hurting. (Pre-existing condition, her back has hurt on and off for quite awhile.)

Me: Maybe you should stretch more.
Teen: Whatever.
Me: Yeah....
Teen: 3 kids were in my gym class today.
Me: Ouch.
Teen: I went to the weight room.
Me: Oh, did someone teach you how to lift the weights properly because maybe that is why your back hurts.
Teen: Do you think I am an idiot?
Me: No. It's just important to lift correctly.
Teen: I also love the rowing machine.
Me: Oh, that could definitely hurt your back if you do it wrong.
Teen: I don't do it wrong!

30 minutes later...
Teen: I am mad at you.
Me: You are mad at me?
Teen: You hate me.
Me: What? Why?
Teen: You hate me exercising. You're mad that I have been in the weight room.
Me: (shaking head) Nooooo, I love that you are exercising in gym. I just want to protect your back.
Teen: I am not an idiot, you know.

Seriously, this conversation has had me shaking my head for the past 12 hours.

Matchmaker, Matchmaker....

Friends of mine have suggested that I try an online dating service. I think it's so they can live vicariously through the dating disasters that I am sure to have. It's been 20+ years since I have been on a date. Bringing him home to meet my parents takes on a whole'nother level when you have to introduce your kids, niece, brother-in-law... and the ex-husband who lives in town.

Curiosity got the better of me and I half signed up for a site. This means, I can check things out, but nobody can see me or what I wrote. I'm bound to get a date this way.

I instantly realized 2 things. The first one was that I could make a profession for myself taking photos for dating sites. I mean, how good can you look taking your own picture in the bathroom mirror? No one is smiling in this instance. They all have a serious or seriously confused look on their face because they are not sure the phone camera is actually focused on them or the toilet. Or many had their senior pictures from HS or college. I am not looking in the 20 year old age range, these are middle aged people. Or  there are the pictures of a person with a random arm in them. As in, I went to this wedding and had a picture taken with my friends, but I am going to cut them out so you just see me. Don't you have a friend that could take a quick shot of you outside or sitting on your couch or driving your Porsche? Look, I just dated myself. Do people even drive Porsches anymore?

The other thing was the monikers people give themselves. You are not suppose to use your real name (lest someone like me google you and find out you have a police rap sheet a mile long) and adding some sort of number is a good thing. If my brother were ever to enter a dating site, his name would include gr8 in it because he thinks he is great and clever.

Anyway, there is a pretty big difference in the boy monikers versus the girl monikers. (and yes, I looked at the girls for research people).

Boy monikers are very direct and confident:

thebrick
heylookatme
flirtosaurusrex
isLuigiforu
wilddancer
sketchy (hmm, not someone you would bring home to mom and dad just by the name!)
theone

The women on the other hand were less direct:

cuteandfunny
enjoyinglife
summerbluebell
happygirl

I picked my name before I checked out other names. Let's just say I fall securely into the girl category, plain and simple.

So, let's take a vote.

I should:

A. Make my profile public with my HS yearbook photo.

B. Make my profile public with a few recent pictures and never mention that I write a blog so I can talk about everything here for your amusement.

C. Get off the dating sites and live a peaceful life of celibacy.

D. Change my moniker to something like uknowulikemeIamgr8 and go public with some pictures of me when I last wore a bikini (I think I was about 25).

I will have a pie chart of the answers in a few days....