It's official. We're still poor.

Or at least we aren't a few hundred million richer today. That's really a shame too, because we had some kick ass plans for that cash.

1. Bring in a contractor and finish every room in the house. Not to mention extending 2nd floor to get that master suite all set up.

2. Buy The Bloggess 16 Beyonces. Just as a thank you for all the laughs.

3. Buy the road in front of our house and close it to create a dead end thus eliminating the only hatable aspects of our home...bus and motorcycle traffic.

4. Buy that little flat in Florence Italy. Walking distance to seeing the David every day and then a gelato in the square afterwards.

5. Pay off all family debts. Invest in educations for all.

6. Open that little gallery business with a sweet studio for hubby to paint and play with digital images all day long.

7. Pay off one random mortgage a week for someone with employment challenges.

8. Invest in our best friends in any way they want. I promise we will keep them in our lives.

9. Buy a waterfront home in Cape Cod for us and Florida for the folks.

10. Buy a jet and set up our friend JQ as the pilot to fly us anywhere anytime.

 Depending on the quantity of millions there is more where that came from. As you can see we have some selfish and some selfless ideas. What would you do with a few hundred million?

Confessions and Penance

Confession # 1 Taking Sick Time: I'm sure I milked this virus a bit. I could have gutted it out. Even though I believe it was the wise thing to do to cancel my two business trips this week (one local to NYC office by train, one flight distance to Tampa) and to get better, I probably could have managed full days at the office. But really, it has been so long since I used a sick day I don't even remember it...and I feel much benefited from it. PLUS, I didn't spread my germs and can I get a hallelujah for that one? 

Penance:  My only downside is if staying home from work was the right decision, so was staying home from a visit to family in D.C. - where young children could have been sacrificed on the alter of my potential germ carrying being.  So after laying about most of the week, I had better do something constructive with this weekend....closet cleaning?  bedroom painting?  basement organizing?  window washing?  garden prepping?  One or more of these will definitely be penance.




Confession #2:  Fatty Fatty 2x4, Can't Fit Through the Kitchen Door.
Yes, this charming little rhyme was one my father used to chant.  And while I won't claim any psychological damage from it, I do look back at my relatively svelte self (40 pounds ago) from that age and wonder how I could have pictured myself as fat?

Now....after a sedentary iPad winter, I am bordering on blubber state.  So last week I joined WW on-line.  Which may or may not be another contributing factor for bringing me back to the blog.  After a few days of surfing the WW community - blogs, status updates, etc. I thought...well...I could do this on my own little site and not have some whole new e-life sprouting up only in WW land.

Penance:  Today, after 3 days of part work, part sick time, I got up, showered and took a 20 minute walk.  Why?  Because the sun was out and my little sneaker icon on WW on-line had been sadly unchecked since I began the program.  Now I have a check AND a smiley face.  And I came in to my home office with a brighter outlook and some gumption. Probably sourced from the walk, feeling better, and feeling like I actually rested and unplugged and recharged for the past few days. 

I have also developed a liking for Mr. Wheat Crispy Wheat...um...things.  I can eat 8 giant crisps (puffed wheat disc shaped snacks) for only 3 points or 110 calories.  Eating these while thinking of real potato chips is definitely a penance activity...and even tastes a little like church-provided wafers.  But for now...I'm motivated.

Note:  For people with sensitivity on the opposite side of the scale - check out the wonderful honesty of a Mom and her daughter going through eating disorder battles here.

Good and Bad of it All.  So the good and bad of it all is, I'm back on the blog. I'm recovered from virus, but eating cardboard type food...with a smile.  I'm trying to be self aware.  Fit. Arising from the winter hibernation.  Feeling somewhat recharged.  Grass is green.  Trees are budding. 

For a girl whose glass is typically leaning toward empty, I'm feeling like it's a pretty wonderful world right now.

Mayhem and Meanderings

So what does one say after a three month absence from blogging.

Surprise!?
I'm still alive?!
Finally have something to say?!
Hope you are still listening?!

Or does one just gracefully enter the blogosphere again like all is now clean and white again...like those women who proclaim themselves virgins again or like a born-again you-know-what?

I have no real explanation except I was bored.  Oh, and busy....really busy.  Really busy being bored and living that life thing.  Oh and work...yeah work was really sucking up my time.  Almost as much as my new iPad - which is blog entry unfriendly, but blog reading sweet.  It also has many many games.  And many many apps.  And plenty of things to make me think I'm engaged, while really just cluttering up my day.

Have you guys heard of Netflix for iPad?  For just $8 per month, I can watch unlimited movies and tv shows on my iPad...anywhere...And while Netflix doesn't have all the content I would like...it certainly has enough to keep my brain on neutral for hours on end while making me feel smarter than sitting in front of a television being held captive by 20 minutes of commercials in a 60 minute show.  I mean...I'm efficiently wasting my time folks.  And don't even get me started on the possibilities offered by Angry Birds, Words with Friends, and Word Warp.  I'm fighting Alzheimer's people.  You know that keeping a mind nimble and active can fend off those fuzzy brain diseases and god knows...getting my ass handed to me by my mother-in-law on a daily basis in WWF, just reminds me how sharp a mind I still have.

So, with all of these distractions right in my lap (or my purse) every minute of the day...why should I need to find a computer and enter my meaningless thoughts into a blog?

I didn't.

And that's the plain truth of it.  On January 1 - a few days after receiving an iPad as a gift - I tried to enter into my blog from the device. It sucked.  It wouldn't format or even include paragraph returns.  And suddenly opening my laptop seemed like too much effort when all the rest was right there in my hot little hands.  So the blog slipped quietly away.  Meanwhile, I didn't have to miss any of my other favorite bloggers, I could still read you while cuddled on my couch with my lightweight, cool little iPad friend to offer up all of your witty, touching, and compelling moments.

So what brings me back?  Well, I blame CBS.  You see CBS is not iPad friendly.  So here I am, home from work on a sick day and after completing 6 hours of work...which is a sick day now in America, my friends, I wanted desperately to catch up on "The Good Wife".  My DVR has been stumped by the sports and Amazing (stupid) Race program running late and always stealing my hour of recording space.  But the iPad could not retrieve and play full episodes.  So to the computer I went...sitting stiffly upright in a desk chair....I caught up on the last three episodes. And because it is CBS.com I also caught up on all the commercials.  Yay!

And the only thing that made me smile in those commercials was my little friend Mayhem.
Am I alone in just thinking he is the cutest little insurance bad boy on the block?

 

 I mean, come on, his absolute delight in wreaking havoc in lives is enough to make a Good Wife like me giggle and flutter her eyelashes at the screen.

So here I am sitting at my hubby's big screen Mac and thinking....this would be fun to share on my blog.  Do I still have a blog?  So here I am...back again.  I'm a little burnt out on Angry Birds, and getting my ass kicked in WWF (I mean how many times can you accept your MIL using a word like KAES ???? and getting like 102 points? while I use OPTICAL and get 26?), so maybe it will bring me back here more often.

Plus I'm getting Spring Fever as opposed to the cold and fever I've had this week, and looking for some new projects to do.

Stay tuned.  Mayhem may ensue.