Monday, December 31, 2007

Resolutions

I thought I would share my thoughts on resolutions and the ones I have made.....I have learned not to make big resolutions each year. Inevitably I don't keep them because they are too drastic of a change. And if I do want to make a drastic change it needs to be done in small steps (giving up deserts entirely and exercising everyday doesn't start from scratch). I also remember the one year my mom decided that we should make resolutions for each other. Basically we would write down the bad habits we thought everyone else should give up. Can you imagine?? Thankfully none of us followed through on her suggestion and subsequently we all still like each other.

Since I like the small resolutions here are the three I have come up with:
No longer open forwarded emails from my aunt - they only make me mad.
Brush Buster more regularly
Try to read for 15 minutes before going to bed.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Holiday songs

I am quasi-obsessed with holiday music. My favorite thing about Thanksgiving weekend was that it marked the start of the all-holiday, all-the-time music on a local radio station. It went from its boring soft rock format to the sounds of the season 24/7. Now with my XM radio, I have 6 stations to listen to whenever I am in my car. Fabulous!

I love holiday music that isn't traditional and especially when you stumble upon "winter time" music that doesn't mention any Christmas theme, being a not particularly religious person. Here's my question: what holiday/non-holiday tunes are your favorites?

Some examples of mine - Sarah McLachlan's version of "Song for a Winter's Night"; "Baby, It's Cold Outside" by any number of great duets.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Winter Pics

Hi all - the sun was out, and I needed some wintry photos for our website at work, so I went out to get some winter pics. So, here's some selections from the lovely area around my workplace.

The classic "snow on pine tree":

Here we cheated by stealing some berries from another tree, and added them to this thorny bush:

And this is from under a berry tree:


Which pic gets your vote?

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Christmas get together

We need to get some plans made here......Josh and I want to make sure we get plenty of Tess, Scott, Roz, Kirsten and Stephene time when we are in MI. How about a dinner one night and then a baby free night out at a bar? I will be perfectly honest and say that our drinking boots aren't too sturdy - it will not be a late night with 3 drinks tops.

I would love to see Lisa and Sara while we are there but I have no contact info for them. Maybe they could come to the bar or dinner as well? The only plans we have are on Friday afternoon / early evening where my parents are hosting a big family party.

See you next week!

Thursday, December 06, 2007

The Good Sleeper!

Let the record show that, on the night of Wednesday December 5th, 2007, Roslyn Harding Miller officially slept through the night.  Absolutely PANICKING her parents, of course, when Dad's alarm clock went off at 6:00!  Except for a brief crying jag around 10:30pm, she didn't make a peep...prompting us to ease her door open to make sure she was still alive when we woke up.

CLASSY sleeper!  Yay!

Monday, December 03, 2007

Why does that ALWAYS happen?!

Remember that annoying Allanis Morisette song "Ironic" that really is more about things that are a coincidence as opposed to things that are truly ironic? Well, what is the DEAL with those little life experiences that always have us saying things like "I KNEW that was going to happen" or "I shoulda known!"

For instance, as a college instructor, we are asked to hold on to the previous semester's papers for at least 4 weeks into the following semester, just in case any of our students are dying to learn from the mistakes they may have made on papers, tests, etc. I always e=mail a reminder to my students that I have their graded papers, but I rarely get students who want these papers back. I even hold on to these papers LONG after the 4 week requirement, usually because I never have time for my post-semester clean-out until AFTER the semester has ended.

Because I do not have an office of my own at work, I have to store all of these stacks and stacks of unwanted papers in my own cramped home. We decided to host Thanksgiving this year, and in an attempt to tidy our shelves, I had the brilliant idea of recycling last year's papers (finally) as it was really close to the end of the semester, thus WAY past the 4 week requirement, as I have stated. There's no chance that any of my students even remember taking my class, I thought. And my next thought was inevitably, "just wait...someone will want their papers..."

Sure enough, I received an e=mail TODAY from a student asking for his papers back. It's exam week, a full 7 months after his class with me ended, and I only rid myself of the papers a week and a half ago. Grrr.

So, what kinds if "ironies" have happened to y'all lately?!