Thought for the Day

"I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult."

E.B. White
US author & humorist (1899 - 1985)

WOOT!!!!!!!!!!

It's David Cook!!!



Click if it doesn't load.

VOTE TONIGHT: This is Really Important....

OKAY, so it's not important in a this-is-the-most-important-election-of-your-lifetime, pick-your-government kind of way, but important nevertheless, in a pop-music-needs-this-guy-BAD kind of way:



Click if it doesn't load.

David Cook. American Idol. Tonight. 1-866-IDOLS-01. Vote early and often.

Seriously.

Rules to Live By

Since Amanda's going to be studying in Italy this summer, I've been poking around on the internet to see what I could find about students, and Italy, and studying. I've happened on several interesting blogs by Americans who, for various reasons, have taken up residence in Italy. One of them, Allora, Aspetta! is by a young American woman living in Macerata, on Italy's Adriatic coast. She is teaching English to a group of young Italians, and they have their own blog, English No (Know) More, as a way of practicing the English they are learning. They have written a post entitled "Rules to Live By" with the list that their class has decided on, and they have asked for readers to come up with their own set, and then let the class know what they are. I have long had a set of guidelines I've thought everyone should follow, so I thought I'd write them down. Now, many of these are things I have adapted or stolen from my friends and other stuff I have read or seen, so please don't hang me on the copyright gallows, but here's what I think, in written form.

cruisermom's Rules for a Happy Life:

1. Flexibility is the key. Attitude is everything.

2. Read everything you can, whether it's the back of the cereal box, a cheap novel, or the New York Times. There is always something to learn.

3. Flush. Turn out the light when you leave the room. Clean up your own messes.

4. Don't eat junk.

5. Chocolate is NOT junk.

6. (a) No decision is irrevocable. (b) Don't marry a jerk. (c) If you do marry a jerk, remember - no decision is irrevocable. (credit Marilyn and Robert for that one!)

7. Travel as much as you can, to as many places as you can. You can't gain perspective if you never get off your beaten path.

8. Remember that everyone has a point of view. Just because it's not the same as yours doesn't mean it's wrong, it just means it's different.

9. Never say "it's too late," or "I'm too old." Even if you have only one more day, there's still time. Start somewhere.

10. You should always look for an opportunity to say "I love you."

So - that's my list. What's on yours?

The House Is Perfect. What Should We Change Next?

Every time I go to downtown Paris to shop or take care of business, I think how much fun it would be to live there. I think Randy and I would be good downtown loft-dwellers. I could ride my bike every day, to the post office, the farmer's market, the bank, the grocery store, the library, the wine bar.

But then I realize I'd be farther away from $tarbuck$. Oops.

And then I think about how much I love this house. And how we - and Sammie - would miss having a yard. And I'm growing vegetables this year! And I have a compost bin! And we just redid our bedroom, and the windows, and most of the front yard landscaping. And now we're about to start on the downstairs den.

Yep, the Summer Project is about to begin!

We're taking up the carpet and laying bamboo flooring. This will be our first time to lay flooring. We've done just about everything else I can think of - tile, wallpaper, plumbing, paint, drywall, faux stone, wiring, but we've never laid wood floors. Will be interesting. We...well, Randy...will scrape the ceiling, which will be a challenge, since it's so FAR FROM THE FLOOR. Then we'll paint, replace the French doors with a slider to match the one in the kitchen, rearrange the room to make it better for the new TV, and MAYBE replace the wood railing between the den and the kitchen with something a little more Mission style. That's still in discussion.

Randy said once that it's so odd that we keep saying how much we love this house, even as we have changed just about everything in it since we've lived here. Sometimes more than once.

I prefer to call it fine-tuning.

Because next? I want to stain the back patio, probably tile the front porch and stain the front walk, replace the trellis over the back deck, turn the greenhouse into a garden shed, build some raised planting beds for more vegetables, do that rain garden/dry creek bed thing Randy's been talking about for the marshy spots in the backyard...