Oh, Bama!!!

OK, I know that much of the content was either fluff or horribly frightening, but man can that guy deliver a speech or what!? He could be reading a recipe for Bran muffins and I would sit on the couch enraptured...and his wacko followers would probably cry. [Although, Aly can tell you what happens if you put in too much baking soda...so pay attention to the recipe].

I thought that Obama was fantastic, but I didn't love the speech (does that make sense?). His actual policy talk seems to rotate between scattered (all of a sudden he wants to invade Pakistan, an ally with Nuclear weapons? Say what?) and cookie cutter (capitalism bad, big government programs good, rich bad, unions good). And I still find him sort of naive at times...any idea that Iran is going to respond to someone asking nicely is just ludicrous.

I still like that he doesn't view this as a zero sum game. My big issue with politicians of the Clinton-Bush era (and, I guess, the Biden-McCain era) is that everything is a battle and the other side can't win without you losing. I think having grown up after the culture wars of the 60's has helped Obama to see it is less of a battle. Sometimes the other guys are right, and it is OK to admit that.

So, anyway, I think his speech will provide him the poll bump that he was looking for, even if the rest of the convention failed to deliver for him. Then that bump will be eroded next week when the Republicans get done, and we should be back about where we were last week...with Obama holding maybe a very slight lead. McCain will not be nearly as dynamic next week as Obama was, but I expect that the entire convention will be more effective...Republicans seem, for better or worse, to just be better at this stuff than Democrats are.

Today we will get McCain's VP...and the hot name this morning is Sarah Palin (literally, the hot name...) I don't know a lot about her, but it seems that she is a pretty consistent conservative, and is even younger than Obama is. That would be interesting (and, combined with Obama picking Biden, would make it harder for each of them to hit the other on their most common criticisms: experience vs. outsiderness).

As for me, I am looking forward to the long weekend:-). The whole crew is coming down today...The Boy, Smoking Hot Roommate and the Rocket Scientist, The Brain Surgeon and Big Sis, Papa Bear and some other friends. Tinkerbelle is going home Sunday, and I think I am going to cry when she leaves...but that is just what I do, I cry. That's how I roll, bitches;-)

More Conventioning

Anyone else think that CNN is trying really hard to root for a good result for Obama? I understand that they have to have some partisans on, but I just don't feel like they are making any efforts at impartiality.

This gets to a major criticism that I have of political commentary...where is the unbiased analysis? Why does everyone have to be in someone's camp? In a sporting event, for example, there are announcers that just tell you what happens and what it means, even if they are rooting for one team or another. Even the Red Sox announcers can tell when someone is doing bad and it might hurt the team.

So, why can't you find political commentators who can just...independent of who they hope wins...say what something means? Even if you are a Democrat, you should be able to objectively tell when something is good or bad for you. Joe Scarborough, who is on MSNBC and is a VERY conservative guy, is actually pretty good at this. He is clearly a biased commentator, but he has the ability to step back and say, essentially "Sure I hate the guy, but this will help him get more votes," or "I want this guy to win, I think he is the right guy and I will vote for him, but this thing will cost him votes."

Why is that so hard? They should make an effort to get more people onto TV who understand the "sport" of politics and can make a judgement on who did the best to help their election cause, not just people who are in favor of one particular partisan agenda.

Moving on...last night's recap: I was disappointed.

After Hillary Clinton was so strong on Tuesday, I felt like Bill would tear the house down (like he did in 2004 for Kerry, when he was really outstanding). And, all of the words were right, but I just didn't feel like he was totally into it. His cadence was off, he didn't have the same energy and he just seemed a little bit off. Some of that is that he is generally a great public speaker and the bar is set high, but I didn't feel like he brought his best effort. I have seen him better.

I also felt like Biden struggled a bit. He stumbled over some words, and he misspoke a couple of times...like "And now McCain is promising $200 million in new taxes for big oil,", which I am pretty sure is the OPPOSITE of what he meant to say. And he is also the wrong guy to criticize McCain's decision making when he has a) been right alongside him on many of those decisions, and b) said three months ago that he would be honored to run as McCain's VP.

Obama's appearance at the end was well-timed, although at first I thought it was a bad idea. Showing up obscured everything else that happened, and really showed up Biden...but since I didn't think Biden was great, it sort of saved the night for them a little bit.

It will be interesting to see how the polls reflect this convention. The early ones show very little bump so far for Obama (and some actually show more progress for McCain), but he obviously has the chance to turn that around tonight. I expect that he will be fantastic...he is simply too good a public speaker not to be.

But that runs risks, too...if the bar was high for B. Clinton, it is through the roof for Obama. I think he will deliver, though.

I guess we will know soon;-)

Convetion Update

OK, so I don't have Convention fever quite like I had Olympic fever, but I have been watching and listening. Being here at the beach alone with the little ones lends itself to prime time TV watching. Yesterday we took the ferry to Hyannis for dinner and to wander around town a bit, and then the girls crashed when we got home because they had been out on the beach all day.

Incidentally, the Hyannis trip is sort or apropos during the convention, as it is the Kennedy family's traditional home base. Of course, if we were really tracing Teddy K's famous stomping grounds, we should have hopped a ferry to Martha's Vineyard instead. And this gets me to something that really irritated me about the first night of the convention...

I understand that he is dying and that he risked his health to get to Denver, but can we please stop praising him as some monumental American hero? For a party that rails against privilege and wealth, he is the absolute height of entitled aristocracy. He was born into fabulous wealth and connections. He got thrown out of Harvard for cheating, then got let back in because his old man gave them so much money (and his brother was a Congressman).

He KILLED A WOMAN, for Chrissakes!!! And again, his family connections got him out of that. He was handed his Senate seat because his brother had just been elected President, then proceeded to be an absolute national joke for his entire time in Congress. And, lest we celebrate his great liberal ideals, let's not forget that he has spent the last five years fighting against a wind farm because it will be visible on the horizon from his back porch in Hyannis. The word "hypocrite" comes to mind.

OK...I am ranting now...back to the program. Michelle Obama spoke on Monday, and I thought she was just sort of OK. Not bad, but I feel like they have reined her in for fear of her being seen as a little too much of an America-hater. Her speech seemed tame and kind of disinterested.

However, I thought that Hillary was really good last night. She is not really a great speaker, but she was really on point last night. Hit most of the notes she needed to hit, spoke with confidence and a good rhythm, and just basically delivered a really good address. A little heavy on rhetoric and disingenuous examples of people she may or may not have met...but overall she really delivered. I have read some stuff today that says she didn't do enough to personally endorse Obama, but I am glad she didn't because it would have seemed so phony. She stuck to the believable parts: that they agree on a lot of major issues.

She has set the bar high for Biden, who will inevitably be compared to her, but I think she came in just where she needed to be...good message, good delivery, clear instructions to her supporters but not showing up the headliners. I know the McCain folks noted that she didn't mention any of the things she criticized Obama about all spring (basically, that he is unprepared to be Commander in Chief), but I think Bill will cover that tonight. It was easier for her to avoid it that to try and go back on her statements...and Bill can speak to that better than she can anyway.

So, where are we now...let's see. Democrats are often criticized for being soft, and this is no exception. They are missing their chance to tell everyone why McCain would be a terrible President. This is their one chance to get a huge TV audience and to have a whole string of people rip the other guy over and over again.

I feel like they are mis-reading two important facts.
1) People basically like McCain. He is old and frumpy, but there is a lot to like about him, whether it is his military service or his clear convictions and willingness to buck his own party.
2) The connection to Bush is not a given. He and Bush have been at pretty strong odds over the last 8 years, and I am not sure they can just say "Well, this will be more of the same," and have it stick. Bush and McCain clearly have a lot of similarities, but this is not like a sitting Vice President running to replace his boss.

It just seems like the Democrats are assuming that everyone will dislike McCain personally and assume that he is a carbon copy of Bush, and I don't think it is safe to make that assumption.

Two more days to go, though...and plenty more talking.:-)

What the Veep is Going On Here!

Here are my thoughts on Joe Biden:

Pretty good choice, and I certainly can't think of a better one (I don't think Hillary Clinton would have been a good choice at all.) Biden is tough, well-respected, experienced and pretty universally liked within the party. He is also strongest in the areas that Obama is weakest (in other words...he has a lot more of a resume;-)).

I think it carries several risks, though. First, as has been noted a lot this weekend, it highlights Obama's weaknesses. If you pick someone who brings something you are lacking, it just lets everyone know that you think you are lacking it.

Second, it reverses course on Obama's constant calls to change Washington and to change the culture of government. Biden is the exact opposite of change...he has been in the Senate for 36 years and all of his "plusses" involve that experience and his understanding of how things work.

Third is Biden himself. He could work really well in the attack dog role that some people like a campaigning VP to play, but he has also unleashed that on Obama already. Remember when he called him "clean"? Or when he called him a "Johnny come lately copycat" on Afghanistan? Or when he said he wasn't ready to be President and that it wasn't a job that lent itself to on-the-job training? Obviously, he is going to now claim that he knows Obama better and that a lot has changed, which may be enough...I am not sure what will resonate and what won't.

And then there are his laudatory comments about McCain. This is a McCain ad, so take it for what it is worth...but it could be very damning. If Biden is on record saying that he would have accepted the VP role with McCain, and he did accept it from Obama, well doesn't he just look like an opportunist who was willing to run with the first guy that asked him? I find that a little harder to explain, maybe.

That said, it is a decent choice. Biden is a good guy that knows his way around and brings some (possibly) needed experience to the campaign. Given his short list, I am not sure Obama could have done better.

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In keeping with my reputation of working less than anyone you know:-P, I am still at the beach with the girls until Tuesday evening at least. Looks like Tinkerbelle may be staying right up through next weekend (unless she gets really homesick this week), and this is a MUCH better place for the two of them than back in the city. Here I can open the back door and they can entertain themselves all day without a whole lot of oversight, which is a good way to watch children;-).

I actually have a project to do that lends itself very well to this. One of the VP's is writing an article from something and needs a whole bunch of research done before he can start...so I can sit here on the couch by myself and get all of that done without any distractions...so that is good. Of course, it means that I have to actually get to work...

Gotta have more Tinkerbelle!

Break out the party hats, today is Brandy's birthday! Coming on the heels of a job disappointment, I think we should all wish her extra-special birthday good wishes for a happy and enjoyable birthday. With lots of cake:-) [And a bevy of beautiful men to lick frosting off of...or, I guess just one. Or two. Two's good.]

Tinkerbelle's mom is not doing well. He back is healing slower than they anticipated and she is going to be in the hospital probably all weekend. The issue now is that they just can't stop fluid from building up near the site. It is slowing, but not enough to let her leave. She is in good spirits, though, and says that the pain is not as bad as they had warned her of, so that is good. I offered to let her stay here until she has to go back to school (a week from Tuesday), and I imagine she may take me up on that. Which would be fun!

There appears to be big news coming on the Obama front...he says he has picked his VP and will announced it maybe today. I have to be honest, the timing seems weird...who makes big announcements on Friday afternoons in the summer? Usually only people who want the news to blow over...and this should NOT be one of those situations. The VP selection is wildly overrated as a deciding factor in the fall election, but it is still news, and seems like something that should be aimed at getting more attention. (For the record, I will guess that it is Joe Biden, but I have no real reason for thinking that.)

And he could use the attention, because his campaign is in a total funk. This site...which is like my daily civics crack...has shown the race go from a seemingly one-sided affair to a virtual dead heat. It is hard to tell where the two candidates stand exactly, but it is obvious that Obama had a big lead two months ago and that lead is almost (or maybe entirely) gone.

McCain's summer strategy is sticking and Obama's is not...in fact, I saw a fascinating piece of analysis (that I can't find now) showing that Obama is actually a very weak candidate (thus far). The metric they used was polling on the question of "Which party are you more inclined to vote for this fall?" or something like that. Basically, "If you remove the individual personalities at every level of the ticket, would you pick a Democrat or a Republican?" The poll showed a national leaning towards Democrats of about 6 points...which is HUGE, and is why the Democrats are going to take an even bigger majority in both houses in November. But Obama is only 2-4 points ahead of McCain in the same national poll...which means that he is under performing against what should be the built in bias for him.

Not sure anyone else finds that as interesting as I do...but it refutes a lot of the conventional wisdom of Obama being a motivational leader and great campaigner (at least when the audience isn't registered Democrats). I dunno...seeing how much money he has raised, how much the media loves him, and how much more high-profile the Democratic primary was than the Republican...I feel like he should be much farther ahead than a couple of points. Or maybe none.

Anyone have any thoughts on this? Or any hopes on who he picks as his running mate? Does it matter at all?

Family Work Day

I brought both kiddos to work with me today:-) This should be fun...lol. Munchkin actually has some summer reading and some book reports to work on, and she gets focused enough that she could sit in the conference room and work quietly all day. Tinkerbelle, however, is a little young for that;-). She has some books, and some things to draw with (she LOVES to draw), but there is no way that she is gonna remain all day without getting grossly bored.

But I had a meeting at 8:00, another at 10:00 and then Boss Foxy is taking us all to lunch. In truth, that will change the topics of our usual lunch discussions...hee hee...but that is OK. After that, I will likely take them home and they can be by themselves for the afternoon. I should be able to get home relatively early. Tomorrow they are going to Munchkin's friend's house...a friend who conveniently has a 7 year old brother and 9 year old sister:-) And that gets us back to the weekend, and back to the beach!

And, of course, let's not forget chicken fingers tonight...it is Thursday after all. I also haven't seen The Boy since Sunday, and I miss him mightily...so I am looking forward to seeing him, too!

Some kind of sad news...The Body and her boyfriend have officially broken up, and I feel badly about that. I love them both so much (he was one of my best friends in college, too) and it is difficult to see something that was so promising break down like this. It is not a big surprise...he didn't come out for Smoking Hot Roommate's wedding because they needed some space...but it is a little more official now. She is disappointed by doing OK...I have to call him and see how he is, too.

So that's a bummer...I don't know why, but I thought they would end up together. I like the idea of two of my friends getting married:-) But, wishful thinking, as it turned out...cest la vie.

On the plus side, if you live in Phoenix and are single, I know an impossibly hot single girl and a cute, charming, hilarious single guy (as long as you are OK with a red head:-P)...

I Will Have Extra Tinkerbelle on that, Please

Hi everyone:-) I am going to take a little break from my work/babysitting/vacation/visiting activities to check in here briefly. I feel kinda bad about not blogging at all for the last couple of days, even though there have been a whole lot of things that I felt like I should write down. And now, true to form...I forget all of them when the time comes to actually blog them. Go figure!

I am finding that I can be really productive remotely. I have gotten a ton of stuff done over the last two days, and haven't really felt like I was killing myself. The mornings especially have been really good, and that has meant that I haven't had to kill myself all afternoon and evening and have had plenty of time to hang out with the Little'uns.

I am loving having Tinkerbelle around:-) I just find her very fun, and so does Munchkin. They refer to each other as "Sislings", which I find extremely adorable, and we have all slept in the same bed all week. They both kick the covers off and roll over, but I don't mind at all...I don't get much of a chance to have them both around. Plus, it is a King bed, and we are all small:-).

On a more serious note, I am probably going to keep Tinkerbelle for at least another day or two. She was originally supposed to go back this Saturday, but her Mom's surgery was more complicated than expected, so she is a little more out of it than she thought she would be. I guess they found something that wasn't in the MRI and the fix for that is a little bigger deal than just the disc problem.

So, surgery was Monday, and she will be in the hospital until at least Friday and will be pretty doped up for the weekend at least. She is staying at her brother's house, and Tinkerbelle certainly could have gone there, but it seemed to just be easier to extend her visit here so her Mom doesn't have to worry about that. Long and short of it, she will probably be here until next Tuesday, which is just fine by me:-) She has to start school on September 2, and I wouldn't mind if she stayed until then, to be honest. I think that would be fun! Then Munchkin and I could swap her out for our new roommate:-D

Speaking of which...The Boy is moving in officially the weekend after Labor Day. His condo is on the market already and the agent thinks it should sell relatively quickly, so hopefully he can get that wrapped up without too much difficulty. I don't think he feels like having that drag out for any length of time.

The weather is kinda fall-ish today...and that makes me sorta sad. It is a little cooler, and very dry and that just reminds me that summer is ending. Where did it go? I can't think about this for too long...it will depress me.

Anyway, that is about it for today. I do have to go back to the office tomorrow, so we are packing up and heading home tonight. Although we will probably come right back on Friday and stay until Tinkerbelle has to go home, so don't cry for us too much!

Back to John Edwards

Excellent comments on this...some good insight. Please feel free to chime in if you didn't get the chance yet. The questions were based on John Edward's recent admission that he cheated on his wife with a campaign staffer. Rumors abound that he fathered her child, but both (sort of) deny that so far.

I should preface all of this by saying that I never liked him. He struck me as a super-slick shyster from his first splash on the national scene four years ago, and I never felt like he had a whole lot to say. He had a message that clearly resonated on some level ("The Two Americas") but his rhetoric was rooted in too many half-truths, blatant distortions and false hope for my taste. Railing against free trade is just...I dunno...a waste of time ("Oh look...suddenly Obama loves NAFTA...who could have ever seen that coming?!?!?!")

So, to recap and add my own thoughts, by question:

1) Is this newsworthy? Virtually everyone said that it was, and I agree, but I just don't know why this was such a big story. Is anyone really surprised as a politician cheating on his wife? Especially one who had treated his wife's illness as something between a sympathy play and a blatant campaign event (and was apparently well known for talking about his deceased son during closing arguments of personal injury trials).

And further, why is he all that relevant anymore? He ran for President twice, and VP once and lost. So, at this point he is a former one-term Senator with no distinguishing record and little hope of a life in Politics. I have seen some people say that he is hurting his chances of a role in an Obama administration, but that was gonna be a nothing job anyway. Unless Obama was gonna make him Attorney General (and really, given his own lack of a resume, can you imagine Obama tabbing someone for this job that his opponents could call an "Ambulance chaser"?) there are not really any real jobs that Edwards would have been seriously considered for.

2) Is this our business? This is a tough one. When seeking elected office, it is pretty fair to debate someone's character. And infidelity (not to mention leveraging your position of power to chase some tail) is certainly relevant when judging someone's character...so I would say that yes, it is our business. He wanted us to trust him to run the country, but his own wife can't trust him to keep his hands off the hired help. But, as noted...he is not really running for office right now. Still, it was recent enough, and he would certainly purport to still be a viable political prospect that I would say it is in fact our business.

3) Is it worse because his wife is sick? Yes, I think it is. I don't feel like it minimizes other acts of infidelity to say that there are degrees of it. When you get married, you promise to be devoted to each other, especially in times of need. If he is out banging his PR director, he is not focusing all of his energies on helping his wife through what is likely the most difficult thing she will ever do. And, saying that "she was in remission," even if you are not intending it as an excuse, is just plain tacky.

4) Finally, the point of my fourth question was...do you feel differently about this because he is a slim, good-looking guy and his wife is, well, kinda chunky? I have to be honest, I hadn't thought of this, but the issue was raised and I wondered if it had an effect on how people viewed this.

So, there are my thoughts...continue to chime in as you feel the desire to.

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Raise your hand if you are bouncing up and down and doing happy dances because your little sister is coming to visit!!! (That's me with her hand raised:-))

She is flying in tonight and I am super, super excited to see her. This will be, by far, the most uninterrupted quality time I have had with her. Geez...I hope she likes me...lol...what if she thinks I am kind of a tool?

Anyway, I don't know how much I will be around next week. I will definitely be at the beach for the first couple of days of the week, but I will be working, so I won't be totally off the reservation. I will likely still blog a bit, too...but you will have to wait and see:-)

Jimmy and his television set

I have my thoughts on John Edwards mostly written out, but I am going to hold off on publishing until tomorrow (kinda serious for a Friday, I know). I wanna give people another day to chime in if they would like to...excellent comments so far!

Today, I am totally switching gears.

You all should know by now that I heart Boston very much. I didn't grow up here, and my entire time spent in the city is now a little over three years, but it feels like home to me, and it has since pretty much Day 1. Moving here coincided with a couple of monumental life changes: in 2005 I graduated from college in May, moved here in June, started work in July, got Munchkin for good in August and buried my mother in September. I started dating The Boy that summer, too, although the full significance of that was not immediately obvious:-).

Boston is home to me, and it will be home for as long as I can possibly see on the horizon. Emotionally, it is a very important place for me, and I feel like things here are always good for me. I also really like the city a lot. It can be very small...in fact, the area that has a postal address of "Boston, MA" would seem alarmingly small to most people.

For example, Jenny lives within the city limits, but I am guessing that her mailing address is not Boston...not sure if she has publicized the part of the city she lives in, so I will have to keep that a secret. She can confirm my suspicions if she would like, though:-). Basically, using this handy-dandy neighborhood map, everything between Fenway and the North End, including the South End, is "Boston", and everything else would virtually always be referred to by its other name (I need a ruling...is Mission Hill Boston or Roxbury?). Anyone who lives in Roslindale would tell you they live there, and there address is "Roslindale, MA" not Boston, MA. Actually, they would tell you they live in Rozzy...but that is not important right now.

I love that the city can be so big and so small at the same time. There are nearly 3 million people in the Metro area, yet you can walk from one end of the city's heart to the other in maybe an hour. People as far away as Manchester, NH could consider themselves somehow identified with Boston, yet my sister memorized the subway in a couple months. My car is totally unnecessary.

This is a very long and winding means of getting to, what I think, is one of the neatest things about the city: The Jimmy Fund. I have lived in a couple of big places and traveled to some others, and I have never seen anything really exactly like it. In the simplest explanation, it is a charity that raises money for cancer research, most specifically at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, one of the world's leading cancer hospitals and maybe the leading juvenile cancer hospital.

The Jimmy Fund started in 1948 to buy a little boy a television set. A young cancer patient of Dr. Sydney Farber wanted to watch The Boston Braves from his hospital bed, and a national radio show put him on the air to ask for donations to buy a TV. He needed $500, and listeners of the show pledged about $200,000 (not all at once...it was a huge success, so they asked again later). That started The Jimmy Fund to support Dr. Farber's work. Since then, it has raised more than $500 million.

One thing that makes The Jimmy Fund so uniquely special is its long-time affiliation with The Boston Red Sox. The team and the charity have had a very close long-standing relationship since 1953, a relationship that becomes apparent the moment you get near Fenway Park. The team lends its considerable fundraising might to the organization, and many of the players have traditionally spent an enormous amount of time and effort with the patients at the Dana Farber Institute (mostly the kids).

In fact, it is such a key part of the Red Sox that players who don't spend time there are generally singled out and criticized...ahem. Roger Clemens is a horribly unpopular guy around here, but even his many detractors remember fondly that he would regularly visit the hospital in his uniform because the kids liked it so much better than if he was just in clothes. Tim Wakefield is well known for spending tons and tons of time with the kids, once sitting in a waiting room reading by himself for three hours to say hello to a little kid who couldn't meet with him earlier because he was quarantined from chemo. Things like that make you think that maybe all athletes aren't horribly self-indulged.

I guess my point is that The Jimmy Fund and the Dana Farber are very much a part of the fabric of the city, and I think that is really cool. I write all of this today because this is the start of the annual radio telethon on WEEI, the sports radio station with a really, really unhealthy level of popularity...lol. They hope to raise $4 million, and history says they will do it. If any of you are feeling particularly charitable today...it is pretty hard to find a cause better than Kids with Cancer...

Aches, Pains, Congestion...must be a bad case of Olympic Fever!!!

I don't care what Billy says...I am sick with Olympic Fever! And not just because of the ridiculously hot bodies on all of the swimmers (although, for the record, I would gladly take the place of the hot Australian girl swimmer than the hot Australian boy swimmer broke up with before the Olympics...yum. In fact, do I have any Aussie readers? Do you know him:-)? Could you hook me up?)

While we are on the subject...are swimmers in Australia tabloid fodder? NBC makes it seem like they are treated like the cast of The Hills down there. I need educating!

And, oh my god, who could possibly cuter than this girl? She looks like an adorable little bunny rabbit! She is also the World Champion in gymnastics (and Wikipedia says she is 4'9" tall, which seems about right, and makes her even shorter than me:-D).

Change to a moderately more serious subject...I had a brief IM discussion with Ally yesterday about John Edwards' affair. She had an interesting take on it, and one I had not thought of previously. So, I was wondering what all of your thoughts on it were...and then I will write out my own tomorrow (I don't want to poison the well, so to speak.)

Basically, think about these questions and give me any thoughts you have:
1) Is his infidelity newsworthy?
2) Is his infidelity really our business?
3) Is it worse because his wife is sick?
4) How do your pre-conceived feelings about them as a couple effect the way you view this?

If there is some discussion, I will post on this tomorrow. And if y'all just don't care...well then I will let it go:-P

Tuesday Threesome (No, Not the Fun Kind)

First of all...a hearty congratulations to Aaron and his lovely soon-to-be bride Sarah. Contrary to what that picture may imply, Sarah is, in fact, NOT an Indian Princess, but she plays one on stage sometimes:-P.

Second, I love how British people talk...Blue Soup noted yesterday that "it's pissing down here in London too". I really wish I could use "piss" more often in conversation. It is just not an acceptable ladylike American thing to do . It is nice that Bostonians can use the word "pissah" in a sentence, but it is not quite the same thing.

For the record, "pissah" is an extremely high degree of "good". It would be several rungs higher that "awesome" on the lingo ladder. For instance, when the Red Sox beat the Yankees, you might be able to say "That game was pissah!" There is, in fact, only one degree of positivity higher than that...and that would be the rarely used and incredibly powerful "wicked pissah". For example: "It was wicked pissah when the Red Sox won the World Series." Got it? Now you can pretend to be from Boston like I do:-D

And third, Ally correctly noted the (not very well kept, I already told you) secret from yesterday. Tinkerbelle is coming to visit:-) For my new readers, Tinkerbelle is my other little sister (i.e., the one that doesn't live with me). She and I have the same father (Munchkin and I have the same Mother) and I only met her at Christmas two years ago because my deadbeat father suspected but never bothered to confirm that he had another daughter. Moving along.

I don't get to see her nearly as much as I would like to, although I do get to talk to her a lot and she can email a little bit, too. She gets to see many of our cousins all the time, though, which is a very good thing...they are super, super people and they love having the new addition to the family around.

Tinkerbelle's Mom threw out her back earlier this summer, and is having surgery on Monday to fix it, and Tinkerbelle is coming out to visit me while her Mom is recovering all week:-) Does anyone else think this is going to be the BEST WEEK EVER?!?!? I sure do:-D. She is flying out with one of our cousins, who is staying for the weekend, and then she is gonna stay all week. I think my plan is to stay at the beach for most of the week so that I can do some work and she can be occupied the whole time. I think I can pretty much work half days all week from there.

Assuming it stops raining at some point!!!

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

First of all...I am surprised at the number of people that have never seen Almost Famous. It made Kate Hudson a star, has a cameo by Rainn Wilson (Dwight Shrute!) and it will totally re-shape the way you think about Elton John's Tiny Dancer. In other words, you should see it soon if you can. You will love it.

What the FUCK is up with this weather? Seriously...it has rained every day for like the last month. Not constant rain, and there has been a lot of nice weather in there, too...but we have developed a Floridian habit of massive Thunderstorms passing through every single afternoon. Of course today it is just plain raining.

We had a nice weekend at the beach though:-) Smoking Hot Roommate ended up getting back a little earlier than expected on Friday, so we managed to get to the beach at a pretty good hour. Her Mom's family showed up en masse on Friday and Saturday, which was really fun. They are all going to be there all week now, and hopefully they have good weather!

Saturday and Sunday were both gorgeous...although, true to form, it rained Saturday night, and I think again last night after we left.

Anyone want to guess who is coming to visit me next weekend?

Freudian...

So, I watched "Almost Famous" last night after chicken fingers...which is just a wonderful, wonderful movie. And one I have seen many times.

There is one part of the movie that always makes me absolutely bawl. Despite the fact that I have seen it so many times, and that I know it is coming. The scene? When William's sister finds him completely broken at the airport and he makes her bring him home.

If you haven't seen the movie (and just why haven't you?!?!?), the sister and the mother have some serious issues early in the movie, and basically stop speaking. The sister leaves to become a flight attendant, and this scene is the first time she sees her mother after that.

And their awkward hug on the porch...where both of the kids are home for the first time in a while...I dunno...it just kills me. Absolutely tears me up every time.

Anyone have some deep psychological reasoning for this?

Can I Have Your Attention, Please!

I had a terrible time getting out of bed this morning. It was just way too comfortable in there, and too dark outside to really want to get up. I think I hit snooze five times maybe? It is kind of overcast and not real warm, and it just seemed like it would have been a really good day to stay tucked into bed all day.

Big announcement at work yesterday. I have known that this was coming for a while (um...three years...lol?) but had to keep the details a secret:-). The basics were pretty well known, but the specifics have been under wraps until yesterday when everything was all announced.

The announcement is that there is a new VP starting here as of September 1. She is a supremely talented, experienced deal-maker with expertise in some very complex transactions in a variety of industries. And, she just happens to be Big Sis:-D.

This is not a surprise at all. She works in the same industry as we do, and it has been pretty widely known that she would jump from her current firm to ours, but the timetable was a bit of a secret. She actually worked here for a short period of time when she got back from London (winter and spring of 2004) on one specific deal. The lesson of that was that she and her father (Papa Bear) were not really meant to work together too closely...lol.

Smoking Hot Roommate and I were in college at the time, and she got a phone call every day from each of them, complaining about the other. Basically, it was a disaster (well, not entirely...the deal turned out really well, they just hated each other a little bit...lol. But I have learned that they argue a lot more than Papa Bear and SHR do...very different relationships. I thought I wrote a post about this, but I can't find it anywhere.)

Anyway, that convinced them both that she would be better off working for someone else for a while, and coming here when she was a little more senior, and when Papa Bear was a little less involved in the day-to-day operations of the firm. That time is now:-)

The surprising part of the news is that she is not coming alone. The place she was working is sort of dissolving...a couple of the partners are retiring, a couple more are going to another firm, two are sort of remaining but basically starting a new, smaller firm with a very small speciality, and one of the partners is coming here to take the same role. They are bringing another VP and an associate as well. So, we are getting four new people out of it.

For those who remember way back to the early days of this blog, Boss Foxy and Big Sis used to work together (that was one of the first posts I wrote!). So this will be something of a reunion for them.

And for me, it means I get to have my Big Sis around every day now:-)

My Office Should Be on the Beach

I have been back in the office for exactly 32 minutes, and I am officially looking at the clock and wondering when the day will be over...is that bad of me? I haven't even been here long enough to think I am bored yet! And, I have plenty to do...I will most definitely not be bored today.

Yesterday was actually one of the most productive work days I have ever had...proving that you actually can work from the beach. I got a TON of sun over the previous three days, so I spent most of yesterday sitting on the couch with my laptop and a pile of stuff to get through. The peace and quiet served me well...as I got an absolute mountain of work done. So, maybe I need to do that some more, right?

Smoking Hot Roommate is back from her honeymoon on Friday, and her mother's family is invading the beach house starting tomorrow for the next week and a half...so hopefully she gets home without any issues, because I know she wants to get to the beach as quickly as possible.

Munchkin has a golf date today...how cute is that? Well, assuming it stops raining this afternoon... She is playing with three boys, at least one of whom has an obvious crush on her, which was confirmed by his father. When I talked to him about picking her up today, he offered "I don't care how old you are, men don't invite a woman to play golf with them unless they really like her." Which sorta cracked me up...although I would add that SHR gets invited to play in at least 150 golf tournaments a year, primarily because she is absurdly good, and gets to play from the girls' tees. I guess the tall, leggy blond part helps...

And for the record...all three boys are 14 years old and one year ahead of her in school, which is totally within my comfort zone...lol. Shit...I forget to give her money. I guess that means I need to make a quick trip home this morning. There is one excuse to leave the office...anyone have any others?

I don't have a whole lot else for you today. I am expecting some big blogosphere news in the near future, but that is still under wraps, and I am nothing if not a good secret keeper!

So, until then...back to work, I guess...

Why does Munchkin have Talking Heads in her iPod?

Raise your hand if your pretend older sister convinced you to stay at the beach through Tuesday and work from there.

And, also raise your hand if your pretend big sister conveniently has a lot of pull with your boss, and also is likely to be your boss in relatively short order:-).

So that explains where I was today when I should have been blogging. And where I will be tomorrow:-P.

But I have a very good reason for all of this. You see, it is August, and that means that summer is more than half over...and that means that we need to take advantage of the good weather that is left. And since it has been GORGEOUS down here for four days...ergo, so on and so forth, such and such, etc...

So...I have a random story from Friday's ride down here. Munchkin, Big Sis and I left pretty early (The Boy and Papa Bear drove down together later on...which is good, they don't get nearly enough quality time:-P). On the way, we were listening to Munchkin's iPod, and after a while we realized that she had a really eclectic set of songs on there. To be specific...here was what was on the docket:

Once in a Lifetime - Talking Heads
Clumsy - Our Lady Peace
Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen
Dirty - Christina Aguilera
Rocket Queen - Guns N' Roses
Romeo and Juliet - Dire Straits
Girlfriend - Matthew Sweet
Just Like Heaven - The Cure
Shake Ya Tailfeather - Puff Daddy, Nellie, Murphy Lee
Whipping Post - The Allman Brothers
It's Alright - Big Head Todd and The Monsters
She - Gram Parsons

So, after a bit of this, a logical question arose...how the fuck did all of these songs find their way onto her iPod? This is not the first time that I have been totally floored by her taste in music...but the scope of her selections this time really took me by surprise.

How did this all end up on her iPod? Simple...The Brain Surgeon put it there...which was news to me and Big Sis both. They apparently had a conversation about music a LONG time ago, and he has been filling Munchkin's iPod with all kinds of stuff from all over the musical spectrum for a while now. Which I guess explains why she knows all the words to Simon and Garfunkel's "The Boxer"...

Anyway, I thought that was cute...she has an amazing ability to form relationships with people in so many ways. She obviously sees The Brain Surgeon a lot, but that is sort of their thing, and gives them something to always talk about...she tells him the sorts of things that she likes and he finds more stuff, or other stuff that he thinks she would like based on that. I need to have a talk with him about the amount of sexual moaning in Rocket Queen, though...hmm.

However, her growing ability to attract older boys? Less cute... It has dawned on me this weekend that, physically, she has matured quite a bit in the last six months, and that she does NOT look 13. Girls, remember when you went through a growth spurt around that age? You finally got boobs, shot up about 6 inches and got really gangly and awkward for a while? Then when you get to 15 or older, you started to fill out, grew some hips and got curvier? (OK...some of us never went through a growth spurt and are still barely five feet tall...details...)

Well, she skipped right past the awkward, Olive Oyl stage. She is built much more like a 16 or 17 year old than a 13 year old. And, since she doesn't have braces, she is missing the obvious sign of being her age (her teeth are straight...I totally hit the jackpot on that..you know how much those things cost?!?!)

So far there hasn't been anything that has led to any real trouble, but I don't necessarily like the way it is trending. It's OK when she is in school...everyone knows how old everyone else is there...but when she is with "summer friends" that she has maybe only known for a month or two, things get sketchy.

When boys that are 13 and 14 and even 15 get all tongue-tied and awkward around here I find it cute. When I feel like she is drawing attention from boys with driver's licenses? Yea...not so much at all. As usual, she hasn't done anything to make me think she isn't totally and completely capable of handling herself in any social situation.

But I worry. I can't help it...it is the Mom in me:-)

Weekend Ahoy!

I originally titled this TGIF, and then I realized that Kate wrote this morning and already claimed that title...rather than plagiarize, I changed it:-P

Sorry for being a terrible blogger all week...it has been sort of busy and I have been dragging, too. I still don't feel like I have quite caught up on sleep from last weekend. I also feel like I never adequately covered Smoking Hot Roommate's wedding, but now it seems like kind of stale news to really go over it. Sufficed to say: totally great wedding, completely top notch all the way around. When the photographer posts pictures, maybe I will put some here, but I wouldn't count on it (remember when I promised after Big Sis's wedding last year? How did that work out...?)

She and The Rocket Scientist are on their honeymoon...Greece this week and Italy next week. The Greek week is just to sit on the beach on some quiet island somewhere, and the Italian week will be a little more touristy...Rome, Venice, Florence, I think...not sure exactly. The Rocket Scientist has never been, so he wanted to do a little more than just veg on the beach for two weeks.

Meanwhile, I am spending the two weeks visiting a little town called Jealousville...

Munchkin and I had chicken fingers for the first time in what seems like forever last night. It was nice:-) The Boy met us, and some other friends stopped in on their way home from work or out for the night, too. I wonder if Munchkin will be too cool to have dinner with her big sister every Thursday at some point? I hope not...it is my favorite tradition.

Secretly I am really hoping she stays in Boston when she goes to college so I can take her to dinner every Thursday...is that dorky of me?

Headed to the beach after work. In fact, I am planning on leaving work early and heading this afternoon. For a while it looked like it was just going to be me and Munchkin, but now there is a little more of a crowd coming, which should be nice. Awful big house for just the two of us to bounce around in:-). I plan on reading and sitting in the sun...and not much else!

I had a wonderful talk with The Judge last night (I also just re-read those posts and they made me cry again...like they always do). I called him last week because a conversation with Kristen B reminded me that I hadn't talked to him in a while. He called me back last night and we had a really nice talk. He is coming out here this fall for a symposium of some sort, and I can't wait to buy him dinner:-). He has also never met The Boy, and since he exerted some influence in my getting custody of Munchkin, he feels some responsibility for her well-being and would probably like to meet her new roommate:-)

I guess that is about it for this week...not my best as a blogger, but I can't be witty and insightful every single week! Hope everyone has a great weekend.