A Year Ago Today

I woke up this morning feeling out of sorts. Just a little lost, as if there's a train I should be catching, but it's passed me by. Or as if there's a party going on next door and I'm not invited.

It's another Monday morning and I'm headed to work, just like every other Monday morning. There are battlecards to produce, PowerPoint decks to review, and whitepapers to edit. Nothing new, and no reason to elicit melancholy. So what is it?

As I looked at the date on my Outlook calendar as I was setting up a meeting this morning, I realized exactly what it is: a year ago today we were getting on a plane, headed for a month in Germany.

How I'd love to be heading right back there this morning -- back to Munchen and Ruhpolding, to Salzberg and Ramsau and Mittenwald. Back to see our exchange daughter, Laura and her family, and my aunt Leni, and Thomas and Petra, and of course, all my German expat blogging friends! But for now, all I can do is review my posts from last September and play my slideshow again.

Huge sigh!

Today's Quiz: The Shed Tom's Making -- Will It Be For Me or For Him?

Cozy writer's refuge?

Or utilitarian workshop/cave?

Let's take a vote, shall we?

This is what Sarah Palin MOCKED.

A lesson for Sarah in community organizing:



The holier-than-thou attitude coming from Palin and that entire Republican National Convention (Gulliani! Could you believe how mean-spirited and divisive HE was?!) just sickened me.

We have to get it right this November. So much is at stake!

A Me Mosaic Meme

Two of my favorite bloggers, Christina and Blythe introduced this meme to me:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page of results, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The Questions:

1. What is your first name? (Carol)
2. What is your favorite food? (Mashed potatoes)
3. What high school did you go to? (Menlo-Atherton)
4. What is your favorite color? (Forest Green)
5. Who is your celebrity crush? (Mike Rowe... Anderson Cooper is a very close runner-up!)
6. Favorite drink? (Peach nectar)
7. Dream vacation? (Maldives)
8. Favorite dessert? (My mom's raspberry cheescake)
9. What you want to be when you grow up? (A midwife)
10. What do you love most in life? (My family!)
11. One Word to describe you. (Tenacious)
12. Your flickr name (Northwest Ladybug)

Here's the result:

Go ahead and try it!

(Photo copyrights: 1. Dedicated To My Dear Friend Carol For Writing A Beautiful Testimonial, 2. Wasabi mashed potatoes, 3. Menlo-Atherton-High School (Stevie Nicks' Alma Mater!), 4. A touch of Green..Bamboo forest, Huang Shan (Yellow Mountain) 2a, 5. Mike Rowe, 6. Peach / Nectar, 7. Maldives, 8. Raw Raspberry Cheesecake, 9. Midwife by Eucharius Roblin, 10. art31 - “The Different Faces of Family Love”, 11. Tenacious, 12. Small World Under Glass)

Empty Nest Means CLEAN Bedrooms (Another Upside...)

Aleks and I spent the last 6 hours digging through clothes he's had since 6th grade, dumping school papers from junior high school, and re-discovering long-lost treasures. His (an Okarena whistle from his Zelda days) and mine (the slippers I bought him years ago that are still brand new). The dust bunnies were more like dust monsters, causing my asthma to kick up horribly. But it's done!

Six large black bags filled with items for charity and four large black bags filled with trash later, we are DONE! So now the messiest bedroom in the house is Tom's and my room. THAT is a first!

As you might remember, this was Aleks' room last week (month/year):

And this is his room tonight:

Permission is now granted for him to go to college!

Empty Nesting the Trader Joe's Way

In 24 years I was rarely able to shop for specialty foods, small serving sizes, or exotic ingredients because it was just too expensive to feed our large family that way. I've come to know Costco well because it carries the quantities I needed to feed this large family -- and I'm sure I'll continue to shop at Costco on a regular basis.

But today I went to one of my favorite stores that I've had to largely forego for the past 24 years because of their relatively small serving sizes. Today I went to Trader Joe's and shopped my heart out! I bought gnocci and Mediterranean feta cheese and spanakopita and sushi and sweet basil pesto sausage. I bought spicy carne asada and whole wheat fettucini and eggplant parmesan and organic tea & lemonade. And of course I bought a few bottles of Two Buck Chuck! I bought tiny portions and and exotic ingredients, and I didn't worry about serving size or even expense. I just shopped for what Tom and I might like to eat for dinner now that it's just the two of us.

I left a lot of really wonderful cheeses, desserts, breads and beers at the store, so I'll be back often to try new, tasty treats! Fortunately, there's a Trader Joe's within blocks of my office, so I should be able to get back often.

Maybe this empty nest stuff won't be so bad after all...

Bittersweet

During their high school years (but not before), I never demanded that my kids clean their rooms. As long as there was no rotting food or drink in their rooms, and as long as I had no reason to believe that they were hiding dangerous substances in their rooms (and had I, their privacy would have been a thing of the past), those rooms were their own private sanctuaries. Sometimes they were clean, but most of the time they were pretty darn messy. It drove me nuts, but it was one of those things that I let go of as they got older.

Although I honored the kids' messy rooms for most of their teen years, there was no way I'd allow those rooms to stay messy once they moved out. "You can't move out," I insisted, "until your room is clean enough for an impromptu guest." And guess what? Without question -- at least so far -- they cleaned their rooms before they left!

I thought I'd love a house filled with tidy bedrooms -- and I do love the tidy bedrooms. But it's just... it's just weird!

Here's what Peter's room looked like a few months ago:

And here it is now:

Here's what Kat's room looked like a few months ago:

And here it is now:

And here's what Aleks' room looked like a few months ago:

And here's what it looks like now:

Hmmmm... Aleks definitely has his work cut out for him this week!

I Don't Wanna Talk About It, Okay?! (Part Deux)

Less than a month ago, Peter moved to Pullman (but has already been back twice!), and less than a month from now, Aleks will move out. But today's Kat's big day...