I am confused by my relationship with the vacuum cleaner.
I hate having to use it, because I know that there is a definite time commitment that I'm making once I turn it on. I can't just vacuum " a rug", I have to do the entire room, furniture included. Having two shedding dogs creates a need for a wall to wall, floor to ceiling approach to hoovering. If we didn't vac, we'd be up to our ears in hair within a week. Seriously, it's awful...and gross. It's awfully gross.
Once I'm done vacuuming, I instantly feel better, lighter, more carefree. Minimal dog hair=maximum positive vibes from mom. Long term gains.
Today, however, I became aware of yet another gain in "pro" list of the house cleaning pro/con debate.
Everyone leaves you alone.
No one bothers you when you vacuum. In our house, both dogs and Hen seem to be afraid of the thing, Alice is still too young to be affected at all but she's not inclined to army crawl her way towards the noise and Mike knows to stay out of my way. Usually when I'm vacuuming it means that I'm totally stressed out and fed up with the dog hair tumbleweed rolling across our wood floors and gathering in the corners of our rugs. Mike is no dummy. He steers clear as soon as he hears the whoosh and whir of the vac.
I've just finished the living room and am feeling calm, cool, hair-free. Thank you vacuum cleaner. You are my ally, my counselor, my superhero grime-fightin' machine.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Your own personal Internet
I sent this message via email to a few of my co-workers last night but am now realizing that it's totally blogworthy. We should probably quote crazy politicians more often.
Email:
Greg made my life sunnier when he casually used the phrase "series of tubes" in our iPad meeting this morning. And so, since I feel it's been far too long since we first were touched by the wise words of former Sen. Ted Stevens (may he rest in peace). I am sharing the following in its (near) entirety:
| Ten movies streaming across that, that Internet, and what happens to your own personal Internet? I just the other day got… an Internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday. I got it yesterday [Tuesday]. Why? Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the Internet commercially. […] They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the Internet. And again, the Internet is not something that you just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes. And if you don't understand, those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it's going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material. Best.Thing.Ever. |
Monday, August 29, 2011
Ahem..hello?
Is this thing on? Helloo-oooo? Anyone still out there?
Radio silence for just under a month, and it's not that I haven't thought about the blog. I'd like to say (or, more aptly, I had prepared to say) that I've been so busy with my "40 bags in 40-ish days" project that I haven't had time for any other recreational activities.
False.
I have actually crossed a few things off the list, and am pleased with the progress of decluttering. It got a little overwhelming there in the beginning when husband, inspired by my commitment to organization, decided to purge all of the basement clutter into the living room/dining room/porch. Most of it has found its way to the Goodwill, or back to the basement, save for one lonely box of Kitten's 3-6 month clothing which just can't seem to get back to its home. (ha!)
I can't really recap a month of stuff. Mike completed his final of four summer classes. It still astounds me that he spent the past few months as both a full-time stay at home dad AND a full-time grad student. Amazingly we still got to go on a nice long vacation and he got straight A's (along with much praise from all of his professors). I couldn't be more proud of him!
Hen has been doing things that are decidedly "very Hen". He's still golfing, also playing baseball and making up a lot of really clever jokes. He's memorizing his favorite songs and books and asking us how to spell certain words (uh-oh). This week he moves into the next room at daycare--the room that you turn four in--I can hardly believe that my boy is this big. It's just not possible.
On to his sister. Oh sweet Alice. Alice is phenomenal. No, really, she is. She is phenomenally huge, phenomenally smart, phenomenally cute. We've changed her middle name to Phenom, that's how outrageously phenomenal this kid has become (or, arguably, always was). One fun development over the summer has been Alice's increasingly sassy attitude. She comes from sassy genes (long line of 'em), so this shouldn't surprise us at all. When a student recently asked me "How do Henry and Alice spend their day?" I thought for a moment and then said "Henry plays every sport known to man, stopping occasionally to request sustenance and Alice makes sassy faces and sounds while army crawling around the house looking for things to eat...not always edible things, just 'things' in general." This is still accurate.
As for me, life has been busy with increased numbers of visitors to campus and preparations for the fall. I'll be traveling, which I can't even talk about yet because it means that I'll be away from my kids and hubs for a period of time and I haven't yet come to terms with that reality. Aahh! Stop talking about it!! Since part of my job has involved social media and writing (a part that I absolutely adore) my excuse for being absent has to do with the "work-life" balance that I try so desperately to find. Writing/blogging was feeling very "work" to me for a while, and I just needed a break. I'll post more about that later, but will say quickly that I'm REALLY excited about new developments at work and am looking forward to doing more in the area of marketing and communications.
Well, that's it. Back to the kitchen to clean up dinner mess and gather things for tomorrow. Thanks for hanging in there while we were incognito! Good to be back.
Radio silence for just under a month, and it's not that I haven't thought about the blog. I'd like to say (or, more aptly, I had prepared to say) that I've been so busy with my "40 bags in 40-ish days" project that I haven't had time for any other recreational activities.
False.
I have actually crossed a few things off the list, and am pleased with the progress of decluttering. It got a little overwhelming there in the beginning when husband, inspired by my commitment to organization, decided to purge all of the basement clutter into the living room/dining room/porch. Most of it has found its way to the Goodwill, or back to the basement, save for one lonely box of Kitten's 3-6 month clothing which just can't seem to get back to its home. (ha!)
I can't really recap a month of stuff. Mike completed his final of four summer classes. It still astounds me that he spent the past few months as both a full-time stay at home dad AND a full-time grad student. Amazingly we still got to go on a nice long vacation and he got straight A's (along with much praise from all of his professors). I couldn't be more proud of him!
Hen has been doing things that are decidedly "very Hen". He's still golfing, also playing baseball and making up a lot of really clever jokes. He's memorizing his favorite songs and books and asking us how to spell certain words (uh-oh). This week he moves into the next room at daycare--the room that you turn four in--I can hardly believe that my boy is this big. It's just not possible.
On to his sister. Oh sweet Alice. Alice is phenomenal. No, really, she is. She is phenomenally huge, phenomenally smart, phenomenally cute. We've changed her middle name to Phenom, that's how outrageously phenomenal this kid has become (or, arguably, always was). One fun development over the summer has been Alice's increasingly sassy attitude. She comes from sassy genes (long line of 'em), so this shouldn't surprise us at all. When a student recently asked me "How do Henry and Alice spend their day?" I thought for a moment and then said "Henry plays every sport known to man, stopping occasionally to request sustenance and Alice makes sassy faces and sounds while army crawling around the house looking for things to eat...not always edible things, just 'things' in general." This is still accurate.
As for me, life has been busy with increased numbers of visitors to campus and preparations for the fall. I'll be traveling, which I can't even talk about yet because it means that I'll be away from my kids and hubs for a period of time and I haven't yet come to terms with that reality. Aahh! Stop talking about it!! Since part of my job has involved social media and writing (a part that I absolutely adore) my excuse for being absent has to do with the "work-life" balance that I try so desperately to find. Writing/blogging was feeling very "work" to me for a while, and I just needed a break. I'll post more about that later, but will say quickly that I'm REALLY excited about new developments at work and am looking forward to doing more in the area of marketing and communications.
Well, that's it. Back to the kitchen to clean up dinner mess and gather things for tomorrow. Thanks for hanging in there while we were incognito! Good to be back.
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