Thursday, October 30, 2014
Columbia Mall
Photo history of the Columbia Mall by The Baltimore Sun. (Does anyone ever call it The Mall in Columbia??)
Some of my fondest memories growing up include Jade Palace, and birthday parties at the McDonalds where you could sit on the Trolley instead of at the "normal" booths, and running into my two-feet-taller-than-me friend who, so we could talk face-to-face, habitually knelt or else we found a bench. So in the middle of the mall we got to talking, and he knelt, and we kept talking... and we're both sure that passerby thought it was the strangest proposal ever.
Dating?
Do Big Frog and I look like we're new-matched on eHarmony or some such?
I don't know if I'd necessarily recognize a first date if I saw one.
But I sure wouldn't look for one at the local diner or at the Mexican restaurant.
Why, then, have the last two times we've eaten out were we asked, "So is this on one check?" We've only been together 16 years at this point.
PS It belatedly occurs to me, maybe they think we're "just friends"! What does that look like? Of course Big Frog is my best friend, but still... Curious...
I don't know if I'd necessarily recognize a first date if I saw one.
But I sure wouldn't look for one at the local diner or at the Mexican restaurant.
Why, then, have the last two times we've eaten out were we asked, "So is this on one check?" We've only been together 16 years at this point.
PS It belatedly occurs to me, maybe they think we're "just friends"! What does that look like? Of course Big Frog is my best friend, but still... Curious...
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Kidlit quotes
Kidlit quotes
Evidently I need to read more Roald Dahl, but I recognize and resonate with all the rest.
Saturday, October 25, 2014
News & Notes 2014
Because of the really-public nature of the blog, I try to be circumspect about naming names. But I also use this as a resource for me to be able to find things again, which FB certainly doesn't facilitate. So with regards to News & Notes, last year I simply redacted the newsletter we sent out to everyone, which was really a series of bullet points. This year that may be more difficult because I got really text-heavy. So here's the pics... I'll work on getting the text redacted and into a .jpg format.
Thursday, October 23, 2014
Slide rule
NPR article: The Slide Rule: A computing device that put a man on the moon
I remember my dad, who is and always has been an engineer who thinks in engineer and speaks engineer, marveling that my eighth grade geometry class included trig tables. We quickly moved to scientific calculators and then the exciting world of graphing calculators. I remember one of my friends making 6-slide flip books on the graphing calculator in the middle of non-math class, and even "taking notes" on it. (We knew, and the teacher knew, he was drawing. But he actually had English notes in there too, so she couldn't call him on it that time.)
One time I forgot my graphing calculator and borrowed dad's scientific calculator... it threw me for a loop because not only did it have a cord and an adapter, you had to enter your data using reverse polish notation (Instead of 3 + 4 - 5, you type in 3 4 + 5 - ). When he bought it, for several hundred dollars, it was really top end high tech. After all, the whole of NASA when we sent men to the moon had less computing power than a flip phone has nowadays.
I remember my dad, who is and always has been an engineer who thinks in engineer and speaks engineer, marveling that my eighth grade geometry class included trig tables. We quickly moved to scientific calculators and then the exciting world of graphing calculators. I remember one of my friends making 6-slide flip books on the graphing calculator in the middle of non-math class, and even "taking notes" on it. (We knew, and the teacher knew, he was drawing. But he actually had English notes in there too, so she couldn't call him on it that time.)
One time I forgot my graphing calculator and borrowed dad's scientific calculator... it threw me for a loop because not only did it have a cord and an adapter, you had to enter your data using reverse polish notation (Instead of 3 + 4 - 5, you type in 3 4 + 5 - ). When he bought it, for several hundred dollars, it was really top end high tech. After all, the whole of NASA when we sent men to the moon had less computing power than a flip phone has nowadays.
Messy or not, our house is open for visitors, effective now.
(TL;DR: Come to our Housewarming Party, details in the link.)
Go ahead and start by reading this to get an attitude of gratitude going. We'll wait. Did you read it? I mean it. Go read about "A Whole New & Necessary Way to See Your Messy House" now!
Incredibly thankful for those, and there were many, who helped me purge, and purge, and sort, and organize, and pack Selah up prior to the move. So many boxes! When everything was finally packed, I literally had to edge around the house in the sole pathway from my bed (camping mattress, at that point) to even the bathroom.
<
Then suddenly, everything was gone, on a van for a month of storage. W-e-i-r-d.
All that was left was me, a suitcase, the aforementioned camping mattress, and the dust rhinoceroses who have been lurking in untouched places, growing in the 12 1/2 years we lived in Selah.
(And all the sundry things keeping me from flying to NC & having the movers take Titan, my car. And all the random things I needed in the interim, like my tap sneaks and show pants. But without some important but packed things, like toothpaste. In an amusing twist, the same day I emptied Selah to "bare essentials", I made a Walmart run.)
We were blessed, incredibly blessed, beyond blessed, by a wonderful cleaning crew of NCF sisters who swooped through, cleaned every nook and cranny, and disappeared a mere two hours later. Left to my own devices, that could have taken weeks.
I drove to NC and, as previously blogged, met Big Frog at Credo, and serendipitously was able to go into the house because the previous owners were picking up some last items from the place. We continued to indoors-camp even after closing on the house while waiting for flooring to be installed -- out with the tortoiseshell cat carpeting, in with the sleek "Oregon Walnut Fog" flooring. The trio of installers Costco sent us, amazingly were able to do the entire transformation in a single marathon day, which given that it was slated as a three day project, gave them a midweek weekend. And gave us a glorious expanse of empty floor (no furniture yet) in which to sock-skate, which is to say, dust by wearing fuzzy socks.
Furniture Friday saw our household goods, plus some planned items from my mom (and a few surprises), arriving in boxes and crates.
We also successfully surprised Big Frog with PA artwork autographed by many of our friends. Literally hundreds of our friends kept the secret from him and helped me coordinate it across a number of events, several held under his very nose even before he left PA.
And now most of the boxes are open and we need to fill this hospitality house with friends. One of Big Frog's questions, early in the househunting process, was, "I wonder who'll be first to stay over at Credo?" We certainly have grown as people since we bought Selah. To that end, our Housewarming Party is on Sunday, November 9, 3-6p. Please come, and bring friends, and we'd appreciate if you brought a plate of your favorite cookies as well as its recipe. We're excited to be building our community here in the Triad.
Go ahead and start by reading this to get an attitude of gratitude going. We'll wait. Did you read it? I mean it. Go read about "A Whole New & Necessary Way to See Your Messy House" now!
Incredibly thankful for those, and there were many, who helped me purge, and purge, and sort, and organize, and pack Selah up prior to the move. So many boxes! When everything was finally packed, I literally had to edge around the house in the sole pathway from my bed (camping mattress, at that point) to even the bathroom.
<
Then suddenly, everything was gone, on a van for a month of storage. W-e-i-r-d.
All that was left was me, a suitcase, the aforementioned camping mattress, and the dust rhinoceroses who have been lurking in untouched places, growing in the 12 1/2 years we lived in Selah.
(And all the sundry things keeping me from flying to NC & having the movers take Titan, my car. And all the random things I needed in the interim, like my tap sneaks and show pants. But without some important but packed things, like toothpaste. In an amusing twist, the same day I emptied Selah to "bare essentials", I made a Walmart run.)
We were blessed, incredibly blessed, beyond blessed, by a wonderful cleaning crew of NCF sisters who swooped through, cleaned every nook and cranny, and disappeared a mere two hours later. Left to my own devices, that could have taken weeks.
I drove to NC and, as previously blogged, met Big Frog at Credo, and serendipitously was able to go into the house because the previous owners were picking up some last items from the place. We continued to indoors-camp even after closing on the house while waiting for flooring to be installed -- out with the tortoiseshell cat carpeting, in with the sleek "Oregon Walnut Fog" flooring. The trio of installers Costco sent us, amazingly were able to do the entire transformation in a single marathon day, which given that it was slated as a three day project, gave them a midweek weekend. And gave us a glorious expanse of empty floor (no furniture yet) in which to sock-skate, which is to say, dust by wearing fuzzy socks.
Furniture Friday saw our household goods, plus some planned items from my mom (and a few surprises), arriving in boxes and crates.
We also successfully surprised Big Frog with PA artwork autographed by many of our friends. Literally hundreds of our friends kept the secret from him and helped me coordinate it across a number of events, several held under his very nose even before he left PA.
And now most of the boxes are open and we need to fill this hospitality house with friends. One of Big Frog's questions, early in the househunting process, was, "I wonder who'll be first to stay over at Credo?" We certainly have grown as people since we bought Selah. To that end, our Housewarming Party is on Sunday, November 9, 3-6p. Please come, and bring friends, and we'd appreciate if you brought a plate of your favorite cookies as well as its recipe. We're excited to be building our community here in the Triad.
Sunday, October 19, 2014
Praying Wife
25 Verses to Pray over your Husband
May I also commend to you Stormie Omartian's The Power of a Praying Wife.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)