I remember Nana

Today would have been my maternal grandmothers 98th birthday. I just want to send a happy birthday out into the universe to her. She was an amazingly self sufficient women, with a thrifty streak to top all her depression era contemporaries. She was much loved by all her family, and is very much missed.

Happy Birthday!!!

Wii have an attitude

My husband got a Wii a few weeks before Christmas. He and my daughter and some of the neighbor kids have been having a good old time playing games and music on it ever since. I on the other hand have had no interest. I've watched them all playing with wild abandon throwing bowling balls, swinging at baseballs, and heaven knows what else, and was not the least bit interested.

I can't say as I've ever been much interested in video games with the exception of a brief window in the late 70's and early 80's. This was really the dawn of video games and once I saw what Pong and then Atari had to offer I was pretty sure it wasn't for me. I mean really what is the point of trying to get a frog across a river?

But, it all changed Christmas morning when my husband gave me a Wii fit. I started it up and went through the body test. If you haven't been through this experience, I must say it is quite harrowing, and I did it in a room full of my family. It tests your balance and reflexes. It takes your height and then weights you. It then takes all this info and tells you your BMI. A measurement I think insanely inaccurate, but that another blog. It also gives you your age according to their data. which I did o.k. on, coming in about 3 years younger then I am.

I have to warn you though the testing process was a bit rude, I would go so far as to say demeaning. First during the balance test they say helpful thing like, do you fall down a lot, if you wobble while balancing on one foot. When they weight you, and you come in over weight, as I confess, I did, it makes this baby elephant music and then makes your Mii (the little representations of yourself) fatter. It's really unpleasant and hardly motivational.

All that said though, I do enjoy playing on it. The skiing is fun, and the yoga is great because they tell you all kinds of interesting things about you posture, with less attitude than in the body test. Over all I would highly recommend it. But don't be too sensitive to the personal remarks.

Under the Christmas Gun

I apologize up front for what will be a meager few weeks on this blog. I am really busy trying to get Christmas thrown together. I'll be taking a few days in Arizona for a memorial for my grandmother right before the big day, so I must get the holiday organized days in advance. That, with the lovely cold I got last week has really got me under the gun.
I hope you all have a fabulous holiday, and if I survive I'll see you back here before the new year.

LA Mom Blog

I have a new blog up at LA mom's blog, all about the joys of Christmas cards.

http://svmomblog.typepad.com/la_moms_blog/

100 things to do (Meme from Sarah)

Meme -- The 100 Things

I got this from http://marvistamom.typepad.com/sarah_/ who got it from
Los Angelista's blog. Both very cool blogs

I've highlighted the ones I've done.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars

3. Played in a band

4. Visited Hawaii

5. Watched a meteor shower

6. Given more than you can afford to charity

7. Been to Disneyland/world

8. Climbed a mountain

9. Held a praying mantis

10. Sang a solo

11. Bungee jumped

12. Visited Paris

13. Watched a lightning storm at sea

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch

15. Adopted a child

16. Had food poisoning

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown your own vegetables

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France

20. Slept on an overnight train

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Hitch hiked ( don't tell my mom)

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb

26. Gone skinny dipping

27. Run a Marathon

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

29. Seen a total eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset

31. Hit a home run (In elementary school)

32. Been on a cruise

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors

35. Seen an Amish community

36. Taught yourself a new language

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied (I'm satisfied with very little money)

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

39. Gone rock climbing

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David

41. Sung karaoke

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt

43. Bought a stranger a meal in a restaurant

44. Visited Africa

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance

47. Had your portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling

52. Kissed in the rain

53. Played in the mud

54. Gone to a drive-in theater

55. Been in a movie

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies

62. Gone whale watching

63. Gotten flowers for no reason

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma

65. Gone sky diving

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp

67. Bounced a check

68. Flown in a helicopter

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten Caviar

72. Pieced a quilt

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Toured the Everglades

75. Been fired from a job

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had your picture in the newspaper

85. Read the entire Bible

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating (I'm counting fish)

88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someone’s life

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous ( Ringo Starr is the most famous one I've met)

92. Joined a book club

93. Lost a loved one

94. Had a baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a law suit

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee

I've got about a quarter of these things to do yet. In looking over the list it seems I did most of them before I was 22. I guess it's been an uneventful decade or so. I'll have to work on that. Let me know which things you have left to do, that you'll consider, in the comments. For example, I'll do all the travel things but I will not sky dive.

A Blog of One's Own

After years of hearing people lament that email and texting has ruined every ones ability to write a complete sentence, at least I think they were talking about everyone and not just me. Is it possible we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. It is true that for the last decade or so I have not written more than a few lines on a Christmas card. But in the last few months I have written about 40 short essays on a myriad of topics.
Some people might think I have signed up for a writing class, or finally found that elusive room of ones own, but they would be mistaken. What I’ve found is blogging, A blog of ones own. Yes, I can blog it all out anytime I want. I needn’t hole up in some dusty room, I can throw it all down during a particularly good episode of Backyardigans and then just post it. (Virginia Wolf is probably spinning in her grave right now!)
With so many people starting their own blogs, I think it just may save writing and reading, not to mention community. So many people are looking for an opportunity to express themselves. Just look at facebook and my space, someone just told me they register something like 300,000 new members a day. People want to connect and get their ideas out. While computers do have a tendency to make us anti social in real life, we are very social in cyber space. Commenting on a blog can turn into a exchange of ideas with a person you would never speak to in the real world. Sometimes good sometimes bad, but always interesting.
Now I’m not saying every post is going to be great literature, particularly if they’re all written during the average attention span of a preschooler. (See Virginia I’m not totally crazy) But it has revived writing among the masses, which may encourage some people to put more time and effort into it, in a room of their own even, and possibly create a little great literature.
So, if you haven’t already, I encourage you all to start a blog. You don’t even have to tell anyone about it if you don’t want. You’ll be amazed the amount of writing you can accomplish.