Monthly Archives: November 2011

And the Answer Is…..

Posted on November 8, 2011 | 8 comments

Good morning Everyone! 

I want to thank everyone who played “Guess Which Tree” along with me yesterday.  It was really interesting to read everyone’s answers, and I learned something in reading them, too.  

I’ll give any of you who didn’t participate yesterday one last chance to take your guess – the question was, which one of the two trees shown in the picture is a pine tree?

Trees 1

Trees 2

And the winner is …..the tree on the left!  As several people commented, it is the bark on the tree that gives it away as a pine tree.  It also occurred to me as I studied the pictures after I took them that I don’t recall ever seeing moss grow on a pine tree in the Southeast United States before, but that may just be because I haven’t been looking.  (My more woodsy/hiking friends – does moss usually grow on pine trees?)  Mark says that the tree on the right is an oak tree.  I wouldn’t know; I can recognize and name a pine tree, a ginkgo tree, a dogwood, a Bradford Pear Tree and a magnolia tree, and that’s about it. 

Fortunately, whether you chose the correct tree or not, you still won this challenge.  How?  To even make a choice, you had to really look at both trees; you had to admire the difference between them in terms of bark texture and bark color; you had to discard most of the ideas our mind automatically “sees” when it hears the word “tree,” such as branches and leaves, and recognize a tree. 

In a nutshell, then, the point of the exercise was to remind me (and maybe one or two others out there) that sometimes, it is okay to forget about the forest and admire the trees.  I hope you got a chance to do that yesterday.

And, of course, the view of the forest is worthwhile too…..

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

8 Comments

Posted in Just stuff..., Reflection, working mom

Tagged , , , , , , ,

Which Tree? (A Puzzle!)

Posted on November 7, 2011 | 16 comments

Good morning Everyone!

Today I am going to try something just a little bit different – the six of us, Mark, Kayla and I as well as Tyra, Mandy and Darwin, took the hour and a half drive over to Callaway Gardens Saturday.  (More about that tomorrow!)  I am sure you will be relieved to know that Mark, and not Mandy, drove, although Mandy did spend most of the drive standing with one set of feet on the middle console, with her head pressed against either Mark’s or my shoulder, and the other set of feet in the back seat.  We’ve never had a dog that could do that before. 

While we were there, I took the following two pictures of the same two trees.  My challenge to you is to tell me which one is the pine tree, and why do you think so?  (Bonus points to whoever can tell me what type of tree the other one is; I don’t really know the answer to that, so I’ll learn something too!)

Guessing is permitted, of course; however if you are guessing, please note that your reason for picking the pine tree as the one on the right, or left, is a “WAG.”  (WAG is a term that is sometimes used around my firm – it stands for Wild *** Guess). 

Ready?  Okay; here they are:

Trees 1

Trees 2

I’ll let you know the answer tomorrow!  Please, guys, play along with me on this one; I have an ulterior motive I’ll share with you tomorrow, too.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go rescue a stray handkerchief that has fallen into the clutches of Bad Dog and convince No No to leave her alone about it before he gets in trouble, too!

Bad Dog Caught With A Handkerchief!

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

16 Comments

Posted in Travel, working mom

Tagged , , , , , , ,

Not Again! (a/k/a Time Change)

Posted on November 4, 2011 | 10 comments

Good morning Everyone!

As I am sitting here writing, listening to Tyra bark softly outside because she is ready to come back in, I am looking outside and noticing that it has gotten to where it is dark in the morning now for quite a while after we get up.  From the fall equinox until the start of winter in December, here in Alabama we lose about one to three minutes of sunlight a day, which doesn’t seem like much, but slowly adds up.  Fortunately, we still have some vestiges of light once I start home from work, which I do enjoy.  That’s all about to change.

Daylight Savings Time ends this weekend, which  means that here in the United States most of us will be moving our clocks back one hour.  This is annoying, because for at least a week I will be looking at clocks calculating  “If it is one p.m. now, last week it would have been 2:00 p.m.”  (I never said I was a particularly deep thinker!)

Daylight Savings Time is one of those really stupid strange inventions I don’t understand.  I know the reason Congress started it (in World War II, no less) was to help save energy, but has anyone really done a study to see how much energy it saves?  It seems that the energy we save by lopping off one hour in the spring should be equalled by the energy we use when we add that hour back in the fall.  I think it was Dave Barry who said something like “Try as you will, you can come up with no logical explanation for Daylight Savings Time.”  My favorite description of it, and I’m not sure whether it was by Will Rogers or O. Henry or someone else, is the comparison of it between a blanket where someone cuts off one foot from the bottom of the blanket to add one foot to the top so it will cover their head!  I really think we should just do away with it – I don’t really care whether we keep summer hours or winter hours, I just wish we’d stick with one or the other.

One of the most amusing things to do on the spring end of Daylight Savings Time is to park outside the day care of your choice and watch the kids as they enter on the first Monday after it begins.  The kids don’t care what the adults told them, they know that something about the time is not right, and it is a sleepy passel of young ‘uns that pass through the day care portals on that day.  (I suspect the adults are sleepy too; we’re just better at hiding it! )

I do like getting the one extra hour back this weekend, although each year it seems like the extra hour slides by without any special recognition.  That’s probably because I spend it sleeping, one way or another.

I am grateful to the person who invented the memory aid “Spring forward, Fall back.”  Without it, I wouldn’t ever remember which way to turn – uh, the clock, I mean!

Have a great weekend folks!

Nancy

P.S.  For a while, Indiana and Arizona (I think) refused to recognize Daylight Savings Time.  Does anyone know if they still do, or if there are any other states/regions out there that have decided to march to the beat of a different drummer?  Kudos to them, whoever they are!

10 Comments

Posted in Just stuff..., On the Home Front

Tagged , , , , , , ,

The Vegetarian, Veterinarian Veteran

Posted on November 3, 2011 | 12 comments

Good morning Everyone!

The following conversation took place between Mark, Kayla and I as we were headed into choir last night.

Veterinarian

Kayla:  Mom, some of the kids are saying we’re off next week.

Mom:  No, just Friday for Veteran’s Day.

Kayla:  Veterinarian’s Day is Wednesday, November 9.  We are singing that day.

Mom:  Veteran’s Day, dear, and it’s November 11.  You’re just singing Wednesday because you’re off on the 11th.  Do you know what a veteran is?

Kayla, dismissing the question with a wave:  Yes, they’re someone who served in the military.

Kayla, moving forward to essentials:  We’re singing the Army-Navy song, My Country ‘Tis of Thee and This Land is My Land.  Do you know that song?

Mom, looking over at Dad, who hates “This Land is My Land”: Yes, we know that song.

Kayla:  Did you know that Veterinarian’s Day is the day after my birthday?

Dad:  (Ignoring the temporal inaccuracies of the previous statement): Veteran’s Day.

Kayla:  Veteran’s Day.

Mom:  Do you know what a veterinarian is?

Kayla, scornfully:  Of course I do.  They’re the ones that only eat vegetables.

Mom, hastily smothering a laugh:  No, those people are vegetarians.  A veterinarian treats animals.  That’s different.

Dad:  Unless you have a veterinarian who is a vegetarian veteran….

The lady walking into church in front of us started to laugh.  She probably thought we were crazy, but then again, that’s what keeps us sane!

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

12 Comments

Posted in Out of the mouths of babes...., working mom

Tagged , , , , , , ,

The Many Dilemmas of Candy Season

Posted on November 2, 2011 | 10 comments

Good morning Everyone!

Halloween marks the official start of  “Candy Season.”  Candy Season runs from October 31 (Halloween) until Easter Sunday every year, and I have a love/hate relationship with it.

Granted, I like candy (at least chocolate candy) as much as the next person, but for the five or six months between Halloween and Easter  we are inundated with it.  It seems to be a required part of almost every celebration during the next five or six months – except for Thanksgiving, but even then, pie or cake of some kind is required.

Certain ethical questions impose themselves upon the arrival of Candy Season – is it really evil to go through your child’s Halloween candy and pick out all of the Three Musketeers and Hershey bars and eat them before she can?  Surely it can’t be that bad!  Besides, what else would I do with the extra hour between her bedtime and mine?  Does Kayla really need the entire chocolate Santa that appeared in her stocking or chocolate bunny that appeared in her Easter basket?  Aren’t I really doing her a favor, saving her all those extra calories and at least one sugar rush if I go ahead and eat at least part of it?

There is an internal struggle to Candy Season as well.  This conversation occurs more often than I would care to admit.

Sweet Tooth Self:  Did you know there is candy in the house?

Healthy Self:  You don’t need candy.  Have an apple.

Sweet Tooth Self:  Did you know there is candy in the house?

Healthy Self:  Well, it’s not chocolate; you know you don’t like any of those other kinds of candy.  Have an apple.

Sweet Tooth Self:  There is to chocolate.  I buried it in the bottom of the candy jar so Kayla and Mark wouldn’t find it.

Healthy Self:  That was last month, and you have pretty well demolished all of that chocolate you put back.  Besides, they’re getting suspicious – it’s hard for them to miss the fact that they haven’t been able to find any chocolate since before Halloween.  Have an apple.

Sweet Tooth Self:  I’ll show you!  (Proceeds to candy dish).  See, I told you there was a mini-Snickers bar left in there!

Healthy Self:  Show off!  Have an apple.

Sweet Tooth Self:  But that’s a mini-Snickers bar!

Healthy Self:  Well, we are supposed to have nuts as part of a healthy diet….

Sweet Tooth Self:  I told you!

Healthy Self:  Eat it quickly.  Then we’ll give Kayla the apple.  We want to keep her  healthy, after all!

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

10 Comments

Posted in On the Home Front, working mom

Tagged , , , , , , ,

Halloween Present: Princess Rapunzel

Posted on November 1, 2011 | 12 comments

Hi Everyone!

Princess Rapunzel Checks Her Hair

You know I couldn’t post about Halloween Past without moving on to Halloween Present, didn’t you?  For those of you who are not enamored of pictures of someone else’s child, hang in there; I’ll have to find something else to talk about tomorrow! 

The princess ascends her throne

My Mom made every bit of this costume herself for Kayla, from the dress to the hair, and I think it is the most beautiful costume Kayla has had.

You called?

The first few pictures Kayla and I took Thursday night last week.  Kayla’s school was having Red Ribbon Week and the school book fair, and Friday they were allowed to dress up in costumes as book characters.

Kayla was a little indignant; other children in her class told her that Rapunzel was not a book character, and Kayla knew better. 

I'm not sure what she was doing here...

She decided to prove her point by taking the Rapunzel book she had to school with her.  I gathered from her Friday afternoon that producing the book pretty well squelched the “Rapunzel is not a book character” argument.

As Pretty A Princess As Can Be

The point is, though, that like any other wise mother who wants to have pictures of their child in a specific outfit, I decided to go ahead and take pictures on Thursday night in case the unthinkable occurred Friday and something – a stain, a tear or who knows what else – happened to the costume.

All modern princesses know how to use a PDA!

I needn’t have worried though; the costume came back home in pristine condition, and ready for its next escapade last night, when we went up to our church’s “Trunk or Treat” Festival. 

That first bite of candy!

The way Trunk or Treat works is that you arrive at the church as a family, register, and then you have a parking lot full of cars, SUV’s, trucks and even a fire truck that are decorated for Halloween with their trunks open and the child trick or treats her way around the circle of cars.  She came out with a pretty good haul!

Princess Rapunzel Considers the Best Way to Climb the Wall

After you completed the circle, the church had several blow up bouncy thingies (I don’t know anything more precise to call them, but I’m sure there is a term out there somewhere!) for the kids to play in.  The funniest conversation was listening to Kayla and a friend of hers from school that she ran into trying to figure out what to do with her skirt to help her participate in the bounce up and down house. 

Princess Rapunzel Climbs a Wall

In the end, she decided to leave it loose, since she had worn a pair of leggings underneath the skirt anyhow.  Leaving it loose didn’t hamper her jumping , nor did it restrain her when it came time to do the obstacle course.

Talking to Daddy

However, all good things must come to an end, even jumping on the bouncy thingies at the church carnival, so when we finally called her in, she had to put her sneakers back on.  (What?  You didn’t know that Princess dresses and sneakers are the height of high fashion at Court?  They are when it is cold outside!)  She did so talking non-stop to Mark.

She finally got her shoes on, and we headed back to the house for a quick supper, and then bed, one more Halloween under our belt!

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

P.S.  Mom- thank you again for making the costume.  It is beautiful!

12 Comments

Posted in Child's Play, working mom

Tagged , , , , , , ,