by jphilo | Nov 24, 2015 | Top Ten Tuesday
Thanksgiving is all about tradition…at least at our house. Here are ten of our top traditions in the order in which they occur.
10. All the dog owners bring their dogs to keep the kitchen floor clean.
9. Generations (4 this year) mingle together creating new links in the chain that stretch into the past we can’t remember and toward the future we can not see.
8. Everybody brings appointed dishes for the meal…enough to feed a small army.
7. Once people begin arriving with their appointed dishes, it is imparetive for everyone to talk at the same time. All day long.
6. Except when chowing down handfuls of Fabulous Franklin Chex Mix to keep up our strength until the meal begins.
5. Everyone worries there won’t be enough food because we all plan to eat too much.
4. Certain members of the family guzzle Grandma Josie’s tapioca fruit salad. They are secretly pleased that some people don’t like it so the leftovers can be eaten for Christmas.
3. After the meal, we play games and games and games and games…
2. …after the chef pops the turkey carcass into a stock pot and sets it to simmer on the stove…
1. …and until we’ve digested long enough to make room for pie. With real whipping cream on top.
What are your family Thanksgiving traditions? Leave a comment.
by jphilo | Nov 10, 2015 | Top Ten Tuesday
The Man of Steel is back on his feet, and I’ve begun therapy for my hand. Here are a few final reflections on the double whammy of gimpocity we recently experienced.
10. Having no one in the house who can drive is a problem.
9. Having one driver, who is also a nursing mom, in the house with 1 baby and 2 gimpy adults is not a problem. However, it is a challenge that requires creativity and determination.
8. A back that moves without pain should never be taken for granted.
7. Ditto for having 2 opposable thumbs.
6. Hand therapists spend their evenings thinking ways to inflict pain on people careless enough to sever the tendon to a thumb with a kitchen knife.
5. The painful exercises hand therapists inflict upon people careless enough to sever the tendon to a thumb with a kitchen knife also engender healing at lightning speed.
4. Thumb therapy exercises every 2 hours pretty much consume a person’s day.
3. Pie makes gimpocity tolerable.
2. So does good coffee.
1. Babies make everything more tolerable.
What makes hard times tolerable for you? Leave a comment.
by jphilo | Nov 3, 2015 | Top Ten Tuesday
Now that Gilmore Girls is on Netflix, I’m finally watching the series–sans advertisements. Between episodes and listening to the buzz about the possible Netflix Gilmore Girls reunion episodes, these ten thoughts came to mind.
10. Does the Stars Hollow set give anyone else the sensation of being at Disneyland?
9. Every episode with Fred Gwynne chips away at the injustice my siblings and I suffered because our parents refused to allow us to watch The Munsters.
8. Emily Gilmore’s costumes–especially the color-block suits–are majorly inspired.
7. Because I skip the credits, I didn’t recognize Sally Struthers until the beginning of the fourth season. She’s come a long way since Meathead.
6. Someone needs to speak to Lorelai and Rory about their taste in men.
5. Do you think the show’s creators chose the names Luke and Lorelai as a nod to General Hospital’s Luke and Laura? I hope not.
4. In the same vein, how can everyone in the universe except for Lorelai see that she and Luke are perfect for one another?
3. The Gilmore Girls props department has cornered the market on big, funky coffee mugs. Which explains why I had so much trouble finding any for my DifferentDream.com website redesign photo shoot.
2. Contrary to Popular opinion Sheldon Cooper is not the first Aspie character on a hit TV series. Kirk Gleason was.
1. How can Loelai and Rory eat so much and stay so skinny? I gain 5 pounds just watching them chow down.
What do you think of the proposed new Gilmore Girls reunion movies? Leave a comment.
by jphilo | Oct 27, 2015 | Top Ten Tuesday
We’ve had a baby in the house since Thursday when the Man of Steel and I swallowed our pride and asked our kids for help. The presence of a baby changes a person’s priorities faster than almost anything else, making adults ignore things they once held dear. Here’s what’s being left by the wayside at our house this week.
10. The dog. Not ours. Our daughter and son-in-law’s. Poor thing’s had its nose out of joint since early April when Baby arrived and became the center of attention.
9. Feng shui. Not that I believe in it, but if I did, the baby paraphernalia scattered throughout the house would destroy any semblance of personal harmony with the environment.
8. Housework. Thank you, dear Baby, for liberating Grammy Jo from this one. At least for a week or two.
7. Normal routine. Because the only predictable thing in a baby’s routine is lack of predictability, which has a domino effect on everyone and everything.
6. Regular mealtimes and table manners. After all, Baby’s gonna eat when Baby’s gonna eat. And who cares about elbows on the table when an adorable six-month-old has squash puree dribbling down his sweet, little chin?
5. Elaborate grooming rituals. Forget about neatly coiffed hair, a manicure, or a pedi. Instead, consider a day with time to shower, brush teeth, and slap on deodorant to be a magnificent gift.
4. Latest fashion trends. With a baby on deck fashion trends are reduced to trading pajama pants for yoga pants every morning.
3. Adult conversation. Who has time to talk politics and new movies between feedings, diaper changes, and playing Peek-a-Boo? All of which are far more fascinating than politics and movies anyway.
2. Any task requiring more than 5 minutes and 1 hand. No further explanation necessary.
1. Modesty. Between a chubby baby butt and a nursing mother, everyone lets their guard down a bit. And that’s all I’m going to say about that.
What gets ignored when there’s a baby at your house? Leave a comment.
by jphilo | Oct 20, 2015 | Top Ten Tuesday
Living one-handed has been an eye-opening experience. I’ve discovered a plethora of simple tasks that are impossible to perform with one hand, even if that one hand is your dominant one.
10. Slicing or chopping large, round vegetables and fruits like potatoes, onions, tomatoes, and apples. Perhaps its a good thing this task is off limits since I’m one-handed because of kitchen knives.
9. Twisting and untwisting twisty ties is an exercise in futility.
8. Certain laundry tasks –such as squirting 1 pump of liquid detergent into the machine, carrying a basket full of clothes, and putting clothes on hangers–require two hands. Trust me on this one.
7. When putting fresh linens on a bed, someone else will have to put on the pillow cases. On the bright side, one hand is enough to remove a soiled pillow case, if you don’t mind using your teeth.
6. Tying shoes is out. Slip-ons and Velcro fasteners are in.
5. Cleaning and putting in contact lenses absolutely doesn’t work. So keep your glasses’ prescription up to date.
4. Flossing with dental floss string is a no go. Thank goodness for those little floss wands.
3. Not to put too fine a point on it, half of shaving under one’s arms and applying deodorant is a waste of time.
2. Thorough hand washing can’t be done. Before leaving the hospital, I asked the surgeon and the discharge nurse for one-handed hand washing tips and received only blank stares in response to my foresight. You’d think think they’d have a protocol for that. This YouTube video was no help because he can enlist his stump. I am to apply no pressure to my hand and have strict orders not to get the splint wet. So I squirt soap on the side of the sink and roll my good hand around in it. Still, I will understand if you refuse to shake my hand for the duration.
1. The cruelest blow of all is the inability to hold open and read thick books. Were it not for audiobooks and the new season of Longmire on Netflix, this one-handed wonder would be deeply, deeply depressed.
Have you ever had to live one-handed? What tasks were impossible for you?
by jphilo | Oct 13, 2015 | Top Ten Tuesday
My annual physical torture exam was yesterday, and it once more confirmed my opinion about the 10 worst things about this yearly appointment.
10. When the mammographer says, “This will hurt a little,” she is lying. It hurts a lot.
9. Breathing is impossible while in the vise grip of the mammography machine, and the command “Don’t breathe” is like salt in the wound.
8. Being weighed in the hallway without being given a paper bag to put on one’s head.
7. Those paper gowns that don’t cover what needs covering and aren’t absorbent enough to soak up flop sweat.
6. Sitting on the exam table in a little paper gown soaked in flop sweat, paging through the magazine you smuggled in from the waiting room, and being one paragraph from the end of a really good article when the doctor walks in.
5. Every evidence of the niggling condition that’s been bothering you for a month and you didn’t make an appointment for because your physical was coming up, disappears when the doctor arrives.
4. Your bad breath, compliments of fasting in preparation for blood work, blasts you and the doc when he tells you to say ahhh.
3. Blood draws.
2. Flu shot.
1. Because you are almost 60, neither the person who draws your blood or the shot nurse offers you a princess Bandaid to cover your owies.
What do you like least about your annual physical? Leave a comment.
