Taboo Subject - How I'm voting on the Issues

So there are several major issues up for vote in Ohio next week. I took the time to research them yesterday so that I’d know how to vote “intelligently”. I used the Enquirer’s review of the issues as my basis for information gathering. Here’s some general summary for my Ohio friends:

Issue 1: This issue extends the ballot deadline from 90 days to 125 days. The good news is that it seems this would make the process more streamlined to put new issues on the ballot – it also gives more time for proponents and opponents to collect petitions for their side. It has no formal opponents. The bad side is that if a law were passed in this time period (which would be longer) it’ll take until the next year to get taken out of law. I'm voting YES on this issue.

Issue 2: This is the Clean Ohio issue that was originally passed in 2000 and is up for renewal now. It does not raise taxes and is funded by state-issued bonds. It has successfully “helped to conserve 26,000 acres of natural areas and wildlife habitats, preserve 20,000 acres of Ohio farms and revitalize 173 abandoned, polluted former industrial sites”. It has no opponents and appears to have no downside. I'm voting YES on this issue.

Issue 3: The water rights issue, this simply puts into constitutional law a law that is already in existence and has been upheld by the Ohio Supreme Court several times. It says that water (lakes, streams, wells, etc.) on your land is yours and that while you can use the resource (for irrigation for example) you can not restrict it from others who have rights (ie you can’t build a dam and not allow people downstream not to use the resource too). Opponents only oppose it because it’s “redundant” not because they don’t like what it says. I say who cares if it’s a law it can go into the constitution to make it more firm. I'm voting YES on issue 3.

Issue 5: Payday advancement has gotten HUGE nationwide. Locally in Cincinnati Check-N-Go is a large company that employs 6000 people state-wide by providing cash advances to people who need them. What happens in general is that individuals post-date checks and are willing to pay a premium on the money they borrow. For example, they’ll write a $115 check to get $100 now and the CNG company will cash their check at the later date. Some times what happens is that you simply use your paycheck as collateral to pay back some of the money but it’s more like a traditional loan. It’s been shown that APRs can get up to 391% to people who don’t repay these loans on time and rack up fees on top of high interest rates. Opponents to this (the loan companies themselves mostly) claim that with lower and restricted rates (8%) they won’t have enough revenue to stay in business and 6000 people will lose their jobs. If this goes away banks will become the primary loan source with short-term (ie 3 month) loans as their primary replacement offering. Banks ARE restricted by law to mainain "reasonable (<10%) interest rates .

This is a little tougher. I'm traditionally FOR business as in my opinion businesses employ people who then have money to buy things (spur the economy) and pay taxes. Unemployed people with no money can do neither. As the “personal reference” for friends/family who have used these services (we get the calls of “have you seen so-and-so lately? Can you please tell him/her we’re looking for them?”) I know first hand the vicious cycle that owing money can get you into. Also, as you can imagine, these institutions really harm your credit which makes getting future loans difficult (one friend was paying ~20% interest on his truck loan!). Institutions like this enable people to make and continue to make harmful financial decisions. On the other hand, there are a lot of people in 1-2X binds that will responsibly use these services and it’s good they have the source to do it.

At the end of the day I'm voting NO to this issue so that these businesses can charge what they want and put the responsibility on the people for making their own decisions (they know the terms when they agree to the loan) and living with whatever consequences their decisions earn them.

Issue 6: Bringing casinos to Ohio. The premise that Ohio is losing out on taxes, revenue and the jobs potentially created by building a mega-casino in Wilmington, OH (about 45 minutes northeast of Cincinnati of I71). This company would become in the top 5 employers in the state and would open the doors to other casinos being added in other counties. The taxes paid by said casino would be split between all 88 counties in the state and it’s projected that it’ll draw as much as $850 million in revenue per year. As you can imagine, the Ohio Visitors and Convention Bureau is all for it as are the residents of Wilmington who fear major job loss with the departure of the DHL hub in the city.

Opponents worry about increased gambling addiction, traffic congestion (which will require additional highway/roadway spend to expand), the well-noted loopholes that state that the 30% tax rate the casino would currently spend has the right to change (reduce) to match whatever future casinos pay, and the lack of a gaming license fee.

Obviously the key here is if we allow this industry to start in Ohio what will the benefit be? The risk with taxes is IF an Indian casino would come they pay no taxes so this casino would match and there’d be no taxes. Experts say the likelihood that an Indian casino would come is slim and even if it did it would be years and years of processing to get it approved. The other downside is that they wouldn’t have that initial gaming license fee with is normally a hundreds of millions of dollars number. That’s a lot of money to miss out on.

I just don’t like the idea of people having another opportunity to waste their money. While this seems completely contradictory to how I'm voting on Issue 5, my first-hand experience with my mother and father in laws hobby (and their complete lack of a retirement savings at age 60) makes me resilient to letting others get in that boat (where my taxes then pay for their healthcare and living via Medicaid). I am therefore voting NO on Issue 6.

You asked for 'em: OUTTAKES

I don't want to carve no stupid pumpkin!

Ohhh this feels kinda weird...

Did you really let me sit on this counter alone? Kick ass! I'm on the counter with a pumpkin!

When I pound on this thing it sounds funny! Listen while I keep pounding!

Wait, this thing comes off?

Does it fit back on too?

I'm thinking about spitting this candle out...

Expanding my mind (?)

I looked up information on Kabbalah the other day. I read an article about Madonna who’s an avid follower and realized I didn’t know the first thing about the religion. So, if you’re interested, here’s what the official Kabbalah site (http://www.kabbalah.com/01.php) has to say about what Kabbalah is:

Kabbalah — the world’s oldest body of spiritual wisdom — contains the long-hidden keys to the secrets of the universe as well as the keys to the mysteries of the human heart and soul. Kabbalistic teachings explain the complexities of the material and the nonmaterial universe, as well as the physical and metaphysical nature of all humanity. Kabbalah shows in detail, how to navigate that vast terrain in order to remove every form of chaos, pain, and suffering.

For thousands of years, the great kabbalistic sages have taught that every human being is born with the potential for greatness. Kabbalah is the means for activating that potential.

Kabbalah has always been meant to be used, not just learned. Its purpose is to bring clarity, understanding, and freedom to our lives — and ultimately to erase even death itself.

Sounds a little hokey. Anything that claims to know the secrets of the universe makes me a bit skeptical.

Anyway, I kept reading through the site and in general didn’t learn much. Boo to their webmasters. One thing that I did make note of was the multitude of books written on the subject. I think that when I'm done with the trilogy I'm currently reading (I'm 1/2 way done with the first and the third's not yet written) I might go borrow one from the library.

For Martha (and Katrin)

Here's a post not about spiders. It's about pumpkin carving.

This sucker was hard to break in to! I had to pull in the hired guns.

Here we are scooping guts. Nicole wasn't afraid to touch them, in fact at one point I pulled 4 seeds out of her mouth. She's sneaky...

All empty!

"What's in there?"

This design was more challenging than I'd hoped. The size of the pumpkin was the ultimate downfall. Part of the inside snapped where the wall was thin and I had to break out the toothpicks and perform surgery. : ( Nicole seemed pleased though.

"Melmo!"

Maternity Ward

On Sunday we all got up, ate waffles and raspberries and got ready for church. Seemed like an ordinary Sunday. When we got back from visiting God, I made ravioli for lunch and Jim got Nicole’s highchair tray to serve her portion.

“What’s this?” he asked pointing to about 2 dozen black dots along the edge.

Upon further inspection we discovered they were tiny, little baby spiders. I'm not one to get grossed out about bugs so we cleaned and disinfected and generally thought it was weird but oh well. That “oh well” opinion changed when we sat down at the table to eat and saw hundreds of baby spiders burned up in the sun on our kitchen table.

Apparently we were hosting a pregnant spider in the mum that Grandma gave me. The plant, which was sitting in the center of the kitchen table, was coated in spiders. Some brave ones had left the plant and died on the table top, others made it to the floor and lined the hardwood under the window sills. I wouldn't go so far as to say there were "thousands" of them though it'd spice up this story even more, but several hundred (600?) is a pretty accurate guess.

We swiffered, vacuumed, removed all plants from the room, Clorox wiped, and vacuumed again on our hands and knees with the hose. What started out as the end of Charlotte’s Web (when all her babies head off into the world) turned into Honey I Shrunk the Kids with us crawling around inspecting every nook and cranny of the kitchen for little spiders. I think we got them all except for some stubborn ones (that appeared dead) deep in the air vents that refused to get sucked out.

End of the day it surprises me more that this has never happened before than it happening at all. How many spiders live in your house you’re unaware of throughout your life? Doesn’t it seem reasonable, even probable, that eventually one of your tenants is knocked up? Unfortunately even with this logic Jim has requested approval on all “outside plants” being brought inside the house.

Fruit

A lot of food companies like Kraft, General Mills, and Tropicana have been trying to get around raising prices by other creative means in the last several years. A common tactic is to change the actual package size so that the consumer gets less but pays the same. Ice cream for example used to be a half gallon portion and is not in many brands any longer, filling a potato chip bag half full of actual chips and half with air is frequent.

As I ate my kiwi this morning though the thought occurred that fruit growers don’t really have that luxury. A kiwi is a kiwi. They can’t shrink the product size, change how much it costs to transport it, or repackage it differently. They can pay their workers less, use more pesticides to keep crop counts high and other things that are “bad” to keep costs low, but changing the actual product portion isn’t really an option.

And this particular kiwi came from New Zealand. It can’t be cheap to ship a bunch of perishables from New Zealand to Ohio. I bought this thing for ~$.33; doesn’t that make the actual product cost of this piece of fruit like a nickel? Shipping this baby, even in mass quantities, has to be like 3X that cost when you take fuel prices into consideration. The profit hardly seems worth the effort of transporting it, storing it, paying import taxes, etc.

I guess I'm just surprised that my kiwi isn’t like $.50/ea by this point. Though I'm glad it’s not.

WaHoo!

I filled up at $2.37/gallon this afternoon!

Learning the world around her

Some words Nicole picked up recently: rainbow, mommy, cracker, Elmo ("melmo"), and Grandpa ("papa"). Plus some "oldies" - turtle and duck- for good measure:

Call me a mean (educational) mom, but I frequently quiz Nicole on what she sees now. When we read her Sesame Street music book she points to Elmo on each page. We're working on Oscar, Big Bird and Ernie too which she gets about 60% of the time. No more looking at books just to hear a story. Fortunately she doesn't seem to mind... yet... Movie below is the Elmo search. If you don't know Elmo he's the red guy on the pages:

She knows 12 body parts and 2 animal sounds (snake and sheep).

Jim was most impressed on Saturday though when Nicole took the initiative, without being asked, to pick up the string cheese wrapper, take it to the trash bin (we have a pull out cabinet), throw it away, and then close the door. So helpful!

Jim and I talked about her growing up now that she often follows directions, knows where important items are (cheese is in the refridgerator in the bottom drawer, crackers are in the pantry, etc.) and knows how to correctly use real objects like tissues, hairbrushes, etc. Tonight Jim asked what she wanted when she started getting fussy and she said "mommy" and walked to the door that I had left from. Makes me tear up some times because while it's exciting to see her learn the old helpless days are over. She's already on her way to not needing me [as much]. :( It's so cliche to say but so true...

Weekend of 10/19/08

This weekend was a full one. On Thursday Sarah F. came into town for Lisa’s baby shower. She, Sarah W., Lisa and I all hit up the Olive Garden where they had the “requirement” of charging me $3 for salad since I ordered an appetizer as my entrée and salad apparently doesn’t come with appetizers, even if it’s only for one. This turned into a big hoopla and probably 2X more salad than we normally would have gotten was ordered so we could make the most of the $3 it cost us. Ah, immaturity. :)

Saturday morning I had to teach and then I hauled ass up to Troy to make it to Lisa’s for the shower. The pending “emergency” that caused me to go so fast was her announcement of what gender the baby is. They waited for me to get there and it was a good thing – I won the door prize for guessing correctly!

On Sunday we took Nicole to the pumpkin patch to get her Halloween gourd. There were a LOT of pumpkins and most had pretty good dimensions/faces to them. Jamie/Jason/Ryan met up with us during the process and once everyone had collected their pumpkin we headed up to pet the ponies and pay for the goods. Nice hour-long relaxing adventure.

One of the funnier moments was when I asked Ryan to hold Nicole's hand for a photo opp. Well, he was sweet enough to comply and Nicole promptly took off, pulling him along with her. Jim counseled that he might as well get used to a woman dragging him along.

Bowling was frustrating. We won’t go into detail about losing ¾. :(

Next Season's Dancing with the Stars

Happy Friday, Everyone!

New Business Idea

I had a dream last night. Stay with me here, I know people go “ugh” when blogs start this way….

There was a company that allowed people to sell their organs upon death. For example, if I died via a car accident I would have a pre-determined price on my heart, kidneys, eyes, etc. This company would collect my organs and store them until a buyer came along that was willing to pay the price I set for the organ. 20% of the selling price went to the company for a commission (since they are doing the holding/storing) and 80% of the selling price went to a benefactor of my choice.

The business model answered the supply and demand for organs that are not currently being met in a timely fashion via the traditional organ donation programs. Here, if you need a kidney you don’t have to wait for your turn on the list; you shop for one and pay what you’re willing to pay.

All in all not a bad business plan.


I thought about it more though and I think that if this would ever happen there would be a sharp decline in people giving up their organs “for free”. Why donate if you can sell and make Little Johnny an extra $2000 for your lung? This would really hurt people of lower income who could’t afford to buy them from an even shorter list of available organs.

Tom P told me about prisons in China being suspected of being organ mills where they are [accused of] killing people just to take their organs and give them to the rich. Holy cow!

Guilty Pleasures

• Liking and listening to One Step at a Time by Jordin Sparks
• A little sweet at home in addition to my post-lunch mini candy bar
• Watching Dead Like Me with Jim in the evenings when I could be doing something “productive”
• Taking Nicole to the doctor and hearing from a professional that we’re not screwing her up (this evening!)
• Flavored French Vanilla cream in my coffee each morning
• Having dinner with “the girls” instead of hanging out with Jim/Nicole
• Painting my fingernails with a French manicure
• Blogging at Work

Everybody's 2 Favorite Topics

1. Today will be the last day of the year in the 80’s. The high is predicted for 81. 81 degrees in mid-October!! Really though I don’t mind, I really like my own fall wardrobe (lots of sweaters!) and I haven’t had the chance to break out much of Nicole’s new [to her] fall clothes because its been so warm.

2. I bought gas last week for $3.09 and was so pleased I called my dad while pumping. This week it’s dropped down to $2.68 in some places. Holy crap!

Somehow I suspect that there will be an inverse relationship to the weather and cost of gas in the upcoming month….

Nicole's Weekend of 10-10-08

On Friday night we got to babysit Ryann while my brother and Lindsay caught a movie. The girls played near and with one another all night. Here's a <2 minute video of the action:

Saturday we had to prep for the softball party at our house. Nicole was a big (read: insistent) help in getting the kitchen cleaned up.

When she was finished Swiffering she relaxed with a spin around the driveway.

The softball party was low-key but fun. Nic was mesmerized by Tom S.'s good looks. Meghan & I understand her crush.

Sunday morning we pulled out Nicole's new slide. Her friend Ryan C. brought it for her to the softball party since he's too big for it now. It was a hit!

My favorite part of her routine is the dramatic fall into the pillow at the bottom. We were on this thing for literally HOURS on Sunday.

Freaky Friday 6 - Mary Sightings

Writing these Freaky Friday posts is a double-edged sword. On one hand I like the opportunity to reflect on some of these ‘mysteries’ and to get the opinions of readers alike. On the other hand, I feel unqualified to talk about some of this stuff; in some cases even to give my opinion as I haven’t thought through the subject entirely to have a well-formed opinion on the matter. Maybe I shouldn’t even write until I’ve done that (thought it through), but who has time to sit for an hour and think about what-if’s?

So forgive me if my analysis is far from complete and my limited examples paint a small snapshot of the whole picture.

A subject that fascinates me are the [supposed] apparitions of Mary around the world. I’ve attended private, Christian-based schools my entire life and this was a subject presented as fact though lightly covered. In grade school we had Mary Day where a lucky 8th grader would crown the virgin with a wreath of flowers and ribbons while the whole school would sing Ave Maria in the “grotto” area between the school and church. That being a song that really touches me and the sentiment being so pure, this was always one of my favorite parts of the school year.

I know this’ll make me sound kind of dumb, but when I was young I used to pray for Mary to come to me. For some unknown reason in my mind I chalked my own mother up to be inaccessible for conversations on topics as important as getting your period. Surely the 2000 year old Mother of God would be more in touch. I promised to never tell anyone if she came and for a long while I believed that she actually might if I prayed hard and intently enough. I'm sad to report that she never showed.

I'm sure you’ve heard over the years of every-day items that look like the Holy Lady – water marks under bridges, toasted images in hamburger buns, window smears, etc. All of these I chalk up to coincidence and over-active imaginations, much like the game we play as children trying to spot a likeness in cloud shapes.

I also wondered if other religions had sightings of their leaders (Mohammad, etc). After several searches on Yahoo! and Google I didn’t find any articles about this at all.

As recently as this year one of the sightings by a shepherd-girl has been validated as real. Through the years several have been approved and dozens more are still under investigation by the Catholic church. In doing a little research for this post it seems that most of these sightings are to children. Some more than one child have seen (ie Fatima), others it’s just one girl seeing the light/woman and others around her see nothing at all. Some times it’s not a sighting that’s reported but a crying or bleeding statue. Still, approved or not, whole presence or just tears, people come in droves to make pilgrimages and pay their respect to the location where Mary once was.

I’ve never been to one of these places before. I’ve never been anywhere that I felt a real religious presence/peace. I think the lack of this is what still keeps me questioning a lot of religion in general. I have had moments of feeling my place in the universe as a whole. I experienced this thoroughly one night on a retreat in college and have never forgotten what that sensation was like.

So, at the end of the day, do I buy into Mary coming back to Earth for visits? When I watched the YouTube posted video of the crying statue (see link above) it gave me chills. I can't explain it. I'm assuming this was untailored video but how do I know? This skepticism is what leads me to say that if I had to give a black and white answer I’d say no, I don't fully believe. But I’d really really like to.

My Candidate, Myself

Here's an interesting article about people's unwavering political views. I'm happy to report that while I can be guilty of siding with a candidate in gray areas (where neither's answer mirrors my own opinion/solution I will support the guy I like better, McCain), I have on many issues (like most recently the AIG spending insult) sided with Obama if he's got it right.

Sept. 22, 2008 “Let’s make sure that there is certainty during uncertain times” — George W. Bush, 2008

Last week, I jokingly asked a health club acquaintance whether he would change his mind about his choice for president if presented with sufficient facts that contradicted his present beliefs. He responded with utter confidence. “Absolutely not,” he said. “No new facts will change my mind because I know that these facts are correct.”

I was floored. In his brief rebuttal, he blindly demonstrated overconfidence in his own ideas and the inability to consider how new facts might alter a presently cherished opinion. Worse, he seemed unaware of how irrational his response might appear to others. It’s clear, I thought, that carefully constructed arguments and presentation of irrefutable evidence will not change this man’s mind.

In the current presidential election, a major percentage of voters are already committed to “their candidate”; new arguments and evidence fall on deaf ears. And yet, if we, as a country, truly want change, we must be open-minded, flexible and willing to revise our opinions when new evidence warrants it. Most important, we must be able to recognize and acknowledge when we are wrong.

Morning Room

Ignoring our lived-in house... the teal room is our morning room off the kitchen. Long term I want to add more of a sitting area along the far left wall - a love seat, end table, and chair so it's more of a solarium.


If you look closely you can sort of see the wire pumpkins I put out on the island for Autumn.

Shopping during an economic downturn

I read an article this morning on how well Goodwill stores (and ones like it) are doing in this economy. The main point was that these stores are finding a lot more middle-class customer base than ever before.

The Salvation Army store in Dublin, Georgia, located halfway between Atlanta and Savannah, has seen its sales increase by 50 percent this year, said store operator Gary Spivey. The comparative affluence of his new customers is obvious.

"We're seeing a lot more middle-class and upper-class customers we haven't seen before," he said. "Without even asking, you can just look in the parking lot (at their cars)."

… According to Alterman, 75 percent of the company's customers are college educated, with an average income between $50,000 and $65,000. Thirty percent of its customers have household incomes exceeding $100,000, he said.

Here’s one manager’s logic as to why this is happening:

Consumers "can't change the price of gas. They can't change the price of food. They can't make the stock market go up again," said Adele Meyer, executive director of the National Association of Resale & Thrift Shops. "But they can control the price of clothes and furniture by being a savvy shopper."

Makes sense to me.

I was surprised how many people in my office shop at secondhand stores like this. After complimenting a certain piece of clothing they’ll boast of their $2 buy at the Salvation Army store.

Locally we have been doing more selling on Craig’s List and have been shopping for higher ticket items (ie a piano) there too. My brother and his wife just bought a practically new Temperpedic mattress and a new playsest for Ryann off the site. I'm looking for a second-hand kitchenette for Nicole for Christmas. At $200+ brand new I'm having a hard time swallowing it.

I’ve talked about the $60 runs on ½ complete seasonal wardrobes and a $12 Radio Flyer tricycle for the baby at the recent mother’s sale. I find this very economical for Nic’s clothes since she only wears them for a max of 6 months before she’s on to something new and will never return to that item.

While I justify shopping at places like this for her I don’t buy my own clothing at stores/outlets like this. I gravitate towards universal pieces like white blouses or floral printed skirts – the kind of stuff that is pretty generic and doesn’t go out (or in) of style. Therefore, if I spend $30 on a pair of pants from a first hand store (often a TJ Maxx type) I keep them for 6 years and feel I’ve gotten more than my value out of them.

It’s looking like Nicole will be a ladybug for Halloween – we just got a costume (The Children’s Place) from the babysitter yesterday that is too cute and on FREE loan!

Weekend of 10-3-08

• I had a birthday party at my aunt’s on Saturday with the family. Very nice time – fried chicken, mac n’ cheese, green beans, and of course cake and ice cream. :) I got some blouses and a skirt from my mom, a board game from Dad, a check from one grandmother and a potted plant from the other. “Nicole” (aka my mother) gave me a pretty beaded necklace.
• Nicole did a few fun new things – 1) she got a new tooth (top right molar looking thing – a bicuspid?), 2) when you ask her where her eyes are she blinks heavily, 3) she answers “Baa” to the question about what a sheep says. My dad was emphatic that she said “Grandpa” to him but I haven’t heard it yet. I measured her on Saturday and she’s 30 inches tall.
• Mom and I went to Garden Ridge on Sunday because their autumn stuff was 50% off already. 2.5 hours later I left with a new wreath for the front door, centerpieces for the dining room table, decoration for the kitchen island, a Halloween decoration for the front flower bed, and another hanging do-hickey for the morning room door. Jim rolled his eyes at all the stuff I “needed” and I told him that I refrained from buying the light-up eyeballs they had for 25% off, even though they might have looked good on the walk-way up to our door.
• We also finished up Stardust (A) and Sex and the City (B) on Saturday night.
• Bowling is okay. I sucked big time the first two games. Jenny and Jim absolutely rocked. We pulled out ¾ which ain’t shabby at all!

Freaky Friday 5 - Psychics

I attempt to be a practical person in many matters but the subjects of these Freaky Friday posts are about all the stuff that logical people can’t always rationalize. What I'm going to shallowly cover today is the concept of psychics.


Sure, I think all of us have experienced déjà vu before. I have to the point of actually stopping what I'm doing to look around and deeply evaluate the scene because it feels so familiar.

There are times I'm convinced that I’ve dreamt of things before I’ve actually done them. Perhaps the explanation is that I’m dwelling on a situation and my mind filling in the possibilities sub-consciously yet so completely that when reality plays out it simply aligns with one of the solutions I’ve already contemplated.

Maybe I'm just a little psychic. Who knows.

It seems really weird to me that someone can see the future. Free will and the butterfly effect cloud my mind with the improbability of this being a reliable source of fact. Likewise, seeing the past, past that is someone else’s past and not your own personal recollections (that do sometimes still feel very, very real in our minds), seems similarly sketchy. However, there is case after case that document people who have this ability – to see the past of people they’ve never met.

Here’s a 3-year old article about a psychic and police detective who have partnered for 30 years to solve crimes. She gets glimpses of people and has, on many instances, reported detail that was not made public and known only to the individuals on the case.

It’s hard to be a doubting Thomas when this is a known source of information that police use (routinely? I don’t know…) to actually solve mysteries. It’s hard to blow off the concept when I personally experience déjà vu (though my mind does wander back to the Matrix’s explanation not that I actually believe this).

Conclusion: I believe that the power to see the past exists but I don’t understand at all how it works.

$20,000 3-letter word

I have a big vocabulary which I directly correlate to how much I read. I find this a good thing, others probably find it annoying (like my brother, Mike) when I pull out a “big” word for something “basic” even though it’s the first thing that comes to my mind to describe the situation. In like fashion, I get geeked when people I know use one-off words that say exactly what they mean but aren’t everyday. For example, my friend Mark J. sent me an email today and in the subject he used the word “née”. Fabulous. When was the last time you heard someone use “née”?

Just in case you are interested, my favorite word of all time is brilliant.

I'm 29!

As my husband pointed out so eloquently in his card – the countdown is officially on until I join many of you in your 30’s. Yesterday, as many noted, was my birthday. In general it was a good day – I did the normal morning routine but had the joy of reading birthday cards and getting a massage gift certificate from my family (left in my car for me to discover by Jim). Nicole’s card read:

Hi Mom-ma,
I'm so happy it’s your birthday, not that you can tell because I'm happy almost all of the time (except when you and dad-da kiss or he tries a family hug).

I signed to dad-da what gift I thought he needed to get you because I think you need a little time to rest, as I can be a handful sometimes.

I love you very very much and look forward to doing this again next year.

Love you,
Nicole

My uncle brought me a no-iron tablecloth from he and my aunt. We’ll be having a birthday party for my cousin (9-29) and I on Saturday with the family. However, I did get some cake early as Jessica G. made me a beautiful one and left it at the babysitter’s for the kiddies and I. I got several cards, e-cards (Lisa's was particurally funny), emails, and blog comments- I definitely felt loved!

THANKS!

Oh, and for the record, I'm only having small pangs of “God, I'm 29.” I think it mostly stems from the fact that I really perked myself up for 27 and 28 being the best years of my life (and they were great). I don’t know what to expect for 29 but it feels so ADULT.