August 7, 2008 | I Just Logged On My Internet, Other Bloggers, Signs of the Apocalypse

I wrote a post yesterday about how my son wants to play for the Washington Redskins. As a long time Buccaneer fan this comment spoke to me:

August 6th, 2008 at 10:01 pm, suzhasbighair Says:

i’ve been a buc fan since they wore those horrendous orange colors!

we’ll always make room for you down here sarah- and for your goon squad!

So I immediately e-mailed her back. I explained that being from Tampa myself, I too suffered through the creamsickle days.

Then she e-mailed me back and said she grew up in Tampa too and she told me where she went to high school.

My high school.

She graduated before me and since we didn’t actually overlap any years we started naming people that the other one might know.

I said Did you know Michelle [name deleted to protect the innocent]? She was my best friend’s sister.

Suz replied: michelle and i were best friends at  [jr. high] and then soph at chs…  so you were friends will jill???? CRAZY!

Crazy indeed. If she hung out with Michelle I have probably met her before. I spent a good deal of the late 80’s and early ’90’s over at Jill’s house. What are the odds? Now that makes TWO people I have met randomly through blogging/commenting that went to my high school. If you add that to running into my sorority sister at BlogHer last month it really seems like the world is shrinking.

Go say hi! Suz doesn’t like to use capital letters, but we won’t hold that against her. Especially since there is a strong possibility that she bought me beer before I was old enough to buy it for myself .

August 2, 2008 | Other Bloggers

You know how I cave to peer pressure.

Well, the brilliant Kristen from Motherhood Uncensored has come up with a brilliant plan:

The premise is simple. If you read blogs, then for the month of August, make the “pledge” to click through from your feed reader. No obligation to leave a hilarious comment or send a long stalkerish email (although both, within reason, are always lovely). Just click through to the blog (not on ads unless you are so led) and if you’re feeling generous, click around to their older posts.

Just those extra page views can make a big difference for bloggers who could really use the help, or in my case, where page views don’t matter so much, a big fat ego boost.

Since I pretty much do this anyway I figured I might as well try to peer pressure the rest of you into doing it too. It is for the good of the blogosphere!

July 29, 2008 | Other Bloggers

You know how when you go to birthday parties for little kids your children get parting gifts?* I went to a birthday party this weekend where the adults got parting gifts too, and my parting gift was a baggie full of ham.

Seriously. A sandwich bag with ham in it.

(Curse my broken camera!)

It wasn’t a joke either. This is what happens when vegetarians serve cold cuts to guests.

Or maybe if you go to a party where the mom and the dad are both bloggers the real parting gift was blog fodder.

Either way I challenge you to come up with a more bizarre take-away from a party. (And no fair saying laundry nuts.) It has to be real, and bonus points if it was something consumable.

Side note: I could not find a picture of ham in a baggie on Google Image, but I did find this handy Pork Cut Chart.

* Seriously. Not necessary. You don’t have to bribe my kids to come over to your house and eat cake. Plus they will probably just trash your place. It is really nice, but you shouldn’t feel obligated to do it.

July 6, 2008 | BlogHer, D.C. Metro Moms Blog, Mom Road Trip, Other Bloggers, badassery, tourists

So remember forever ago when I told you that I had something really exciting happening in July and I told you I would tell you what it was and then I never mentioned it again?

Well, I couldn’t tell you yet because we had to wait for all of the legal stuff to get taken care of. But I can tell you now.

I’m going on a road trip to BlogHer!

That’s right. You heard me. Me and three other suckers from the Silicon Valley Mom’s Blogs (DC Metro Moms Blog, Chicago Moms Blog and the soon to be launched Rocky Mountain Moms Blog) will be driving to San Francisco.

I know it sounds crazy. Yes, I know it is 2823 miles from Washington DC to San Francisco, but we are getting a Hybrid Chevy Tahoe to drive and I don’t have to pay for the gas.

I hope you will check out our website. Devra and I will be leaving here on Saturday. We drive to Chicago to pick up Meagan, then to Omaha, then we will pick up Aviva in Colorado. The next day we will stop in Salt Lake City, Utah and the day after that Reno, Nevada. On Thursday we will stop off in Silicon Valley to pick up Jill and then we will show up at the hotel for BlogHer.

We will be blogging and posting videos the whole time.

I realize that a road trip of four Moms going to a blogging convention may earn me a nomination into the nerd hall of fame, but I expect it to be a great time.

Did I mention you can follow us on Twitter?

May 28, 2008 | Other Bloggers

Sam at Temporarily me is six days overdue.

Poor Sam.

Karen is throwing her a virtual baby shower. She wanted us to tell Sam some stories about our won overdue babies but since mine were almost six weeks early I am going to have to tell a different story about being really REALLY pregnant.

Even though I only made it into my 34th week of pregnancy I was really quite large. I always figured since I was born with these hips I would have no problem carrying more than one baby at a time.

In fact, I think joking about it so much may have been the cause of me having multiples. Seriously. We don’t have twins in our family.

As it turned out I did have trouble. Even on my 5′ 9″ frame I was bursting with babies. By my 27th week I could no longer fit into any of the XL maternity clothes. By my 28th week my body decided that it had had enough torture and the babies were ready to come out.

My doctors didn’t agree.

At 28 (I thought I was 29 weeks pregnant at the time, but apparently I suck at math) they put me on hospital bed rest.

I kept getting bigger. My Mom went to TJ Max and bought me mens XXXL gym shorts. They fit just fine.

Here is where I need to tell you a little side story. My Dad and I are both serial dieters. We both gain a bunch of weight and then loose it. Then we repeat the cycle. Right before I got pregnant my father went on this hardcore hospital diet. At the time my weight was on the way up and he used to joke that we were going to “pass”. He meant that I was going to weigh more than he did.

My Dad is 6′ 2″.

Guess what? We passed.

The week before my children were born I weighed in at 222 lbs. My Dad weighed 217.

The next week I had two little babies. Claudia only weighed 4 lbs 13 oz. but Ian weighed 6 lbs. 8 oz. Not bad for a premature twin.

I like to joke around that if I was only carrying one child and Ian had gone to full term he would have been 13 pounds. Sure I’m joking but you may notice that I’m not having anymore kids.

Anyway - Godspeed Sam and good luck. We love you.

* I don’t mean to imply that Sam is smelly.

May 7, 2008 | Friends, My Soapbox, Other Bloggers, TV

How great is it to turn on The Today Show* and see your friends on there?

Kristen, Jill, Mir and Heather all did great jobs.

I enjoyed the segment even if Kathie Lee Gifford is pretty much a tool and obviously hasn’t spent much time reading blogs. Did she actually say she was afraid of the computer?

She is worried about Dooce exposing her child to people, yet I know what Kathie Lee’s kids names are and what they look like too. What is the difference between talking about your personal life on a blog or talking about your personal life on a morning talk show. Oh, right. People are still reading blogs on a regular basis.

Photo used with permission from Mir.

___

* Fine, you caught me, I never would have just turned on The Today Show by myself. I find it mind-numbing, but I got the tweet from Kristen that they were airing the segment this morning and so I set up my DVR.

May 3, 2008 | Other Bloggers

You may have heard that my lovely lady friends Mrs. Chicky, Her Bad Mother and Chicken and Cheese are all within moments of having their second children.

You know how this works by now, right? Mother Bumper and the ladies from Cool Mom Picks are throwing a virtual baby shower (with prizes!)

They have asked for my favorite ass/advice on having a second child.

Heh.

As you may or may not know I had my second child a whopping two minutes after the first so I’m not very clear on what it would be like to just have one baby. Or toddler. Or crib or car seat or pack n’ play or… well you get the picture. But as a veteran parent of two children I can offer this: What works for one won’t necessarily work for the other one, don’t panic and just do whatever you can to comfort/discipline/potty train/get to sleep/feed each child as themselves.

Having two totally different children is one of the great parts about being a parent. I have learned a lot from these kids.

For example, I have completely reversed my opinion on nature versus nurture.

Quick aside: Last week I took the Goon Squad to South of the Border. For those of you that have never been it is like the crappiest gift shop imaginable all jacked up on steroids. I let each kid pick on thing to buy. Ian picked a squirt gun (after I nixed the sword and shield combo) and Claudia chose a princess tiara. Who would have guesses that two kids growing up with the exact same toys would end up such a girly girl and such a BOY?

Anyway, don’t listen to all the assvice about how things have to be done a certain way. While you may have gathered this information on the first go round just keep in mind this mantra: WHATEVER WORKS.

And yeah, the beginning will probably suck, and yes, they will fight at some point. Probably a lot. But they will also eventually play together giving you free time to do laundy or cook dinner or participate in virtual baby showers.

Now. Look at my babies.

March 28, 2008 | All This and Culture Too, Other Bloggers

This cast belongs to MammaLoves. I have a picture that looks just like this but you can see her beautiful smiling face in. She however, claims it is a picture of her ass. And yes, you can see her ass in it so since I don’t want her posting a picture of my ass on the internet and since she will be at my house tonight and have the opportunity to take a picture of it, I choose to respect her wishes.

____

On Tuesday (right before my blog went completely off line due to hosting issues) I metroed down to The Smithsonian stop to meet the lovely and hilarious BOSSY.

BOSSY was able to spot me right away since 1) We’d met before 2) I was wearing a bright red hoodie and 3) I told her to look for the person that looked like me in the bright red hoodie.

Then we rushed off to The National Gallery to look at some art because we are very cultured. We established a mutual dislike for Mary Cassatt and that “That Guy” as in Hey! Look. It’s the picture of that guy. Was in fact Vincent Van Gogh.

Then BOSSY muttered something that could have been about art but I said “Did you say a glass of wine?” and so we rushed off (Screw it. The National Gallery is free.) to have a relaxing drink.

You know, before we had to meet the other for the the drinks that were less relaxing?

You know how nervous I get around other bloggers!

We found another metro station. Easily found our stop and then got lost.

Here is a reenactment.

Sadly, the last picture happened at the exact same time as my head turned pear shaped and my eyes got way to close together.

But all was well and some nice man told us where our next bar could be located and when we got there some superfly people were already waiting for us.

You can read about that part here or here because I sat on the end and mostly talked to people I already knew. It was really LOUD in there.

Fun was had by all and now I know what Van Gogh looks like. Plus DC was the first stop on the tour so now I know for sure that we are #1.

March 17, 2008 | If It's For Free It's For Me, Other Bloggers, Sports

If you weren’t at the Caps/Bruins game yesterday, not only did you miss a great ending (there was a shoot out and Semin and Kozlov scored winning goals for the home team) but you missed fleece helmet day!

Nancy and I totally rocked the hats, didn’t we?

*sigh*

We really should have asked someone else to take the picture. Whenever I take a picture of myself my head looks huge. Of course Nancy looks adorable.

We had a great time and drank some non-green beer.

Proof:

If you look very carefully you can see the Capitals logo on my shirt.

You know, you would think a city that closed down half of its streets for a St. Patrick’s Day parade would at least have green beer at a hockey game. Come on! We played the Bruins. The Boston Bruins.

Speaking of beer, I would like to apologize to anyone who saw the picture of the twins’ sonogram yesterday and thought I was pregnant. I am not and I never plan on being in the future. We have had that surgically taken care of. YOU can have as many children as you want, but we’re sticking with two. When the twins were infants I had a recurring nightmare that I found out I was pregnant with triplets and we were going to have five children under the age of two.

Okay, this post is going nowhere. Tune in later when I make more sense.

Have a great St. Patrick’s Day everyone!

January 29, 2008 | Other Bloggers

You know how I always say that if all of my friends jumped off a bridge I would too? Well, Neil from Citizen of the Month has this theory that everyone is interesting. He decided to do this experiment where everyone that wanted in and commented would interview the person who commented right after them.

This was really cool because I found a great blog that I had never read before. If you get a chance go check out The Life and Times of Chantel she has beautiful pictures and a great sense of humor. I would tell you all about Chantel, but I will let her have that honor.

1) In one sentence sum up what your blog is about.

My blog is about where I’ve been, where I’m at and where I’m going.

2) You have a lot of fantastic pictures on your blog. What kind of camera do you use?

I use a Panasonic FZ8 (this one is not as fancy as professional photographer but I’ve never claimed to be a professional). I was previously using a Sony Cyber-Shot.

3) Why do you blog?

I started blogging when I started writing a book; I’ve kept it up. The blog has evolved and now I do it because my ADD compels me to. I write because I have no choice. I write stories because you read them.

4) Who is your favorite author? What is your favorite book?

My favorite author is a Poet. Leonard Cohen — However, my favorite book is very difficult to sum up. I spent two years as a child homeless; for most of that time my parents would leave us at the public library all day while they searched for work. There, I found my solace and imagination in the stacks and stacks of books. I don’t write poetry except for a short time in High School but I found its one of my favorite Genre’s.

Since you’re holding a gun to my head - my favorite book: is 100 Years of Solitude

5) If you could only listen to one cd for the rest of your life which one would you choose? (mixes not allowed)

Probably something by Def Leppard for the teenager inside of me; they were my first rock band. I love them and I’ve been known to be loyal to my own detriment.
If you were asking as an adult it would probably be Kruder & Dorfmeister’s K&D Sessions (this isn’t necessarily a mix but they do a lot of techno sampling).

I listen to a lot of ambient techno music because it suits my mental state most of the time. Lyrics tend to piss me off so instrumental music is my preferred music.

6) You seem to have lived in/visited a lot of different places. What is your favorite city? What place did you hate?

My favorite city is very cliche.I love everything about Paris, the food, the art and how I feel when I’m there. I feel anonymous or new depending on what kind of mood i’m in. I feel inspired when I’m there and I’m the kind of person that needs to be inspired to wake up in the morning.

I moved a lot as a child because we were homeless and very unstable. I can’t say I hate anyplace but, I’ve been in a few places that are nothing but painful memories and I would not choose to return there unless the future of the human race depended on it. I went to Yakima Washington for a bowling tournament once and well that was a pretty rotten place. I’m pretty sure I punched my then, asshole boyfriend in the face when I was there too!!

7) Name three movies you could watch over and over.
The Pillow Book
Gone With The Wind
Love Song for Bobby Long

Each of these movies is full of lush imagery and dialogue. As you can tell I’m one of those people who need to use all five senses in everything I do. I need to see, touch, hear, feel and experience anything to really, “get it”.

If I came over to your house for dinner what would you cook for me?

That depends on if you’re a vegetarian.

If you’re vegetarian I would cook a dish I recently invented for other vegetarian friends of mine.
Polenta layered with porcini mushrooms, roasted red peppers, mozarella, & a balsamic vinagarette.

Carnivore:
If you’re a meat eater you could have any assortment of dinners that my daughter and I would prepare. More than likely if you’ve never had southern food my daughter and I would whip up some Fried Chicken, mashed potatoes, stewed greens and cornbread. We feel its one of those meals that makes you a better human being.

9) What is your very favorite blog? Have you ever met anyone through blogging?

I still read a few blogs that I found when I first started blogging four years ago. Those are generally still my favorites. If you’re on my blogroll you’re more than likely a favorite (Please see Def Leppard loyalty comment above). http://www.lifeandtimesofchantel.com/blogroll/

http://www.petiteanglaise.com/
http://www.citizenofthemonth.com/

I’ve actually met a lot of people through blogging. I met Neil & Sophia at TequlaCon in Portland last year. I’ve met a lot of ladies at BlogHer two years ago. One of which now lives in Portland and we are friends. I’m going to SF this weekend where I hope to meet up with a couple of other lovely Bloggers.

10) Are you planning on going to BlogHer this year?

I would really hope to attend but we’ll have to see how my finances are for that weekend. I really enjoyed BlogHer when I went last time.

11) What is the strangest search term that has ever brought a visitor to your blog?

“Grandma Porn” is one of the most popular search terms. Here is the post they find when they arrive. http://www.lifeandtimesofchantel.com/journal/2005/10/13/my-grandma-owns-a-porn-store.html

I don’t mind the boob search terms or the other gross foot fetishes but for some reason; “Grandma Porn” really bothers me.

12) Is there anything else you want my readers to know about you?

Yes, I don’t normally wear matching socks and I might love my dog more than my kids.

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I’d like to thank Chantelfor putting up with my weak questions (It has been a hell of week over here with the tonsillectomy and the adenoidectomy) and thank Neil for hosting the whole shebang.

SecondHand Karl got to interview me. You can read that one over at his place. He called it Desperately Seeking Sarah.

You can check all the rest of the interviews out over here.