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.

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.

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?

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!

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!

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?!

Saddest Song Ever?

Well, I figured I made everybody wait long enough to hear my blog worthy words of wisdom. What a lucky day for everyone involved. I know that my mere presence is probably enough, but i'm going to jump right in with a question- what do you think is the saddest song ever written. My vote goes to Harry Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle." This one always gets me. Every time I hear I vow to be a better father, which was especially creepy before Hannah was born.

Educational Songs

SDB and I were talking about songs we learned as kids that we can use to rattle off facts some 20 (can it be??) years later. Of course, there is the ubiquitous alphabet song, and multiplication tables have a strange rhythm to them. SDB has this cute little song stuck in her head called "Fifty Nifty" that helps her remember all 50 states. So, that made me think of this little gem from the cartoon, Animaniacs:

Of course, I don't remember this song well enough to rattle it off, but I remember thinking it was the BEST.


PS - here the link in case the embedded video is giving you heck:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAII411eqPg

AHHHHH

Sorry about dominating the blog but I need to vent before I reply to my aunt who forwarded me an awful email. It is too long to cut and paste here so I will give you a link to snopes.com that debunked the email. http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/allah.asp. If you don't use it, I highly recommend the website.

Either way I am horrified that my aunt sent me the email which is filled with fear, hate and intolerance. I am waiting a few days before I reply. On one hand I think, why reply since I am not going to change her and her view points, on the other hand my silence implies that I agree with these emails that she forwards. In the past she has sent me political or religious emails that I disagree with but this is by far the worst.

Worst Movie Ever

We are having theme nights with some of our friends here where you invite everyone over and you watch the worst movie you have ever seen. Josh and I are going to host our night soon but can't seem to pick one. Our friend's who hosted the first night set the bar VERY high - we watched Flash Gordon. Good God it was awful in every way possible.

Here are the rules: 1) no NC 17 or porn 2) no sequels 3) it has to be a movie that was supposed to be good

So I am looking for your suggestions. What is the worst movie you have ever seen??

Mr. Rogers

This made me smile. Reading things like this makes me have grand hopes of being a better person than I am. Be more tolerant, complain less, not sweat the small stuff, yada yada yada. It usually lasts about an hour and then I say something mean about a co-worker......

Anyway, I thought this info on Mr. Rogers would make you smile too.....

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/5943

End of World

kat passed this on to me:

End of World

A creative little ditty about nuclear war. Isn't the internet wonderful?

Kaufman

Hey - saw this little tidbit in the paper today:

http://lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071014/GRANDLEDGE01/710140574/1198

I thought it was really cool of the MSU band to spell out "KAUFMAN" on the field. And, the whole story makes me *sniffle* proud to have been a part of the GL bands.

Foot in Mouth

Ok. I had a pretty classic foot in mouth situation today that relates to Classy, Tacky, or Stupid. I was walking over to the gas station that shares our parking lot. We're over there so often that we know all of the workers there. On my walk over, I saw a car with a fake leg sticking out under the door (you know, all scary like....like you're supposed to think someone's leg got chopped off by the door and the owner just drove away....). Of course, I thought, "Is that Tacky or Stupid?" Classy was not even an option. I debated those two choices the rest of the way to the gas station.

Anyway, I get inside the station and one of the workers told me to be sure to check out the vehicle with the leg sticking out the back. So, I said, "yeah, I was just trying to decide if that was tacky or stupid!" THEN, of course, she explained that her daughter wanted to do it for Halloween, etc, etc. I couldn't hear the rest because I was shrinking down to about 4 inches tall.

What's the lesson? Keep my mouth shut? Spend more time explaining the virtues of C, T, or S?
Anyway, I have to give MYSELF a STUPID vote for this incident.

I'm a hypocrite

We were all horrified about the lack of recycling by Kirsten's co-workers (remember her posting from a last month). Yet after saying how terrible her co-workers are, I happily pulled out my Clorox one use disinfecting wipes for cleaning the kitchen. When I am really into cleaning the whole kitchen I can go through a dozen of these things. Every time I use them I know they are terrible for the environment. Some plain old soap and a washcloth or sponge would do the trick, but these wipes are so much easier. Plus I think the kitchen is disinfected and germ free (important when Hannah is already on her second cold).

This made me start wondering about the little things we do everyday that we know we shouldn't for the environment's sake but we just can't give it up. Can someone make me feel less guilty here and admit they have a similar weakness?

One for the "Tacky" column

I swear I just saw this plate on a maroon mini-van on my way home:

GR8UNIT

Never Ending Tailgating

Scott was asked by the CMU marching band to conduct a tune during their KISS show- I think we can all guess why HE was asked to do such a thing. So, we made the trip to the football game so that a video of this event could be made for future viewings with the Rozzle. But his conducting is not really what I want to discuss today.

I fully understand that tailgating prior to a football game is a time honored American tradition. While I never did partake of such pre-game partying...wait, I never went to a game as a student at MSU...I can imagine that it would be, shall I say, fun. But here is what I witnessed at the CMU game. We pulled into the parking lot where hundreds of students, adults, and children surrounded their own vehicles that contained a variety of foods and beverages, which included beer. It was clear that everyone, except maybe the children, was plastered. By the looks of things, they had all been there for a few hours already. When the game started, the tailgators remained by their...tailgates. They did this until nearly the 2nd quarter! By this time in the game, Roz began to get fussy and I decided to go for a walk with her. So, behind the stands we went and by very drunk people we were met!!! I was actually scared to be surrounded by these students because of their behavior. When one of them screamed in a very hammered voice "Look, it's a baby!" I knew that I needed to find a safe place...FAST! We managed to get away from them, but I couldn't help but wonder if there isn't a better way.

NCAA rules state that alcohol must not be consumed IN the stadium. Hence the extra-long partying prior to the game. That way, people can get good and liquored up FOR the game so that there isn't that awkward pause in drinking before the post-game parties. But isn't this how we end of with things like violence and alcohol poisoning? I'm thinking that the scary behavior that I witnessed (including a scene where a young college girl had to be held up by her 2 friends because she couldn't control her own body) could be avoided by the following:

1.) Allow only 1 hour of tailgating prior to the game. When the game starts, everyone needs to be in the stadium. They are there for the game, right?! And if they aren't there for the game, I'm thinking they could host a smashing party of their own at home while pretending to watch a game on TV.

2.) Sell beer IN the stadium at such outrageous prices that people will be inclined to limit their intake! Trust me, people will still buy. If people will pay $4 for a 20 oz. bottle of Aquafina, then they will pay much more for a crummy Bud Light.

I know that the NCAA is worried about image, but from my stand point, the sight of people too drunk to stand, let alone watch a football game, is a pretty bad one. Therefore, to excessive tailgating, I vote: STUPID.

By popular demand...

THE ROZZLE

Rozzle and her Nuk.

FINALLY- a picture of Roz SMILING in the SMILE shirt.

Why oh WHY must Dad be such a freak?!

Today Show and Roz

Do we really need 4 - yes FOUR - hours of the Today show everyday????

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16673581/



What we definitely need more of is pictures of Roz! Please email or post them soon!

LAMAFEST!

This past weekend was my favorite event that I have no real business being at. That's right - LAMAFEST!

www.lamafest.com

My obsession with llamas (and to a MUCH lesser extent, alpacas...which make up the single 'l' lama family) began as a bit of a joke. I thought the animals were cute. They have very expressive ears, they make funny faces with their lips, they have split hooves, etc. You get the picture. Now I've hung out with them several years in a row, and gosh darn it, they are damn fine animals to be around. There. I've said it.

Anyway! New to lamafest this year were these beauties....MINI LLAMAS! When I got wind of miniature llamas, I insisted that I could not live another day without seeing a mini llama. Not wanting to be a widow, sdb took me, even on birthday weekend.

And here's a full-size llama - one of the friendlier ones. :)

And one of the main reasons to go to lamafest year after year....the llama obstacle course! In this photo, the llama is supposed to sort of sashe sideways over that stick. Apparently this isn't easy, as only a handful of truly exceptional llamas pulled this off. You should have heard the comments from the gallery when a llama (or more likely, the handler) would screw up. It was brutal!