Unsolicited advice for the newbie

(Wow, I guess this counts as being “published!” I’ve submitted an article related to this post to Work It, Mom! and it was posted today!) Dear Chris, (Since you blog under your real name, I’m not afraid to use it here.) Congratulations! You’re about to take the first step into your post-college professional life. If what I’ve been reading lately is true, you could have as many as 8 jobs before you’re 30, so you […]

Her eye is on the Milk-Bone; or, a hundred names for “dog”

The new addition to the page sidebar answers to quite a few names, but one hundred is a gross exaggeration. As for her actual name, she was a rescue adoption and it came along with her. She is known as: GypsyMiss GypsyGypsy-GirlPuppy-Girl (she’s almost ten)Gypsy RoseGypsy Belle (she’s from Memphis, after all)Puppy-Face (by her grandma)Funny-GirlFunny FaceFunny-PupPupsterFuzzybuttPrincess FuzzybuttWhatserbuttThe CritterMost Beautiful (I am not objective)Miss ThingDoofusDingusDingleberryNimrod She’s cute (and knows it), she’s smart (but not always, hence […]

That good ol’ Southern cooking

We’d been planning our trip to Tennessee for awhile, ever since we knew what the date of my son’s college graduation would be. We had in mind several places we definitely wanted to visit – the Memphis Zoo (despite the irony of spending part of your vacation at the place you used to work), Graceland (TallGuy’s choice), and Great Smoky Mountains National Park – and more nebulous plans for other days. And we definitely had […]

I think I was a “slacker mom”

Of course, one of the great things about reading blogs is when they tip you off to stories and info you might have missed elsewhere, and today’s On Balance blog entry pointed me toward this item on “slacker moms” from USA Today. I’ve heard the term, but hadn’t really found out much about what it signified before, and what do you know…it’s not as pejorative as it sounds on the face of things, and it […]

Unpredictable

An unexpected substitute dog-sitter has emerged from a source we’d never have predicted. The stepkids’ mom, TallGuy’s ex, has offered to keep Princess Fuzzybutt during our trip, due to Mom-in-law’s broken leg/foot…and we’re thisclose to taking her up on it, although we haven’t officially done so. SDKate is pretty excited about having her step-dog with her for the entire week – good thing, since she’ll probably be doing most of the caretaking. We honestly never […]

The best laid plans

So here it is, two weeks before we leave for Tennessee, and I really should be working more than I am today. And as if there weren’t enough things to worry about, we get to add one more – Mom-in-law took a fall and will have her leg in a cast for several weeks, so she can’t drive and probably won’t be walking so well either – and she’s our designated dogsitter. Either TallGuy and […]