polka dot suitcase » Archive for March 2009
Finding fun when you think there’s no fun to find
Sir is staying on top of me, asking every morning, “Did you do your blog?” And today I had to hang my head and say…nope. Some days it’s a little harder to find itty bitty things that make you go, “Wow!” than other days. It’s a beautiful, sunny day here in Polka Dot Land. Temp’s going up to a comfy number. No pressing deadlines, and the ones I have I’m looking forward to tackling. But no little joys. No little pauses in my morning that made me think, “Cool!” It reminded me of this thing you do with kids: When you’re outside, you stop and look around. Ask the kids if they see anything living. They’ll see the trees, the grass, the robins. Maybe your family dog or cat. Anything else? … Read entire article »
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Energize, Scotty! Energy: 25 Projects Investigate Why We Need Power…
Totally tickled to announce my new book is out! Energy: 25 Projects Investigate Why We Need Power and How We Get It just showed up on my doorstep late last week. (My next book is Titles: How to Make Them As Long As Possible and Why We Do It, coming soon.) It looks pretty slick — the illustrator did a fun job with the pictures and the layout team really did a super job. If you’ve got … Read entire article »
Filed under: Fooling Around
Condiment love
Sir Buffalo Sushi, again. I don’t know about you, but, I LOVE condiments! I’ll give you some true examples: I put mayo, ketchup (even though I really don’t even like it), mustard, relish, deli mustard, and onions on my average hot dog. And on my egg sandwiches (which I make myself, from scratch) I put, mozzarella cheese, cheddar cheese, 2 of these cheeses that I can’t pronounce, american cheese, 2 pieces of bacon, ham, and canadian … Read entire article »
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Release the hounds! (Of creativity.)
So I’m looking for something in my “reading alcove” the other day. (Tangent: Our home office has a huge closet. I had nowhere to read in peace. We took the doors off the closet, stuck a chair in there and voila! Reading alcove.) Pushing papers and books around, and I spotted this title, half-buried under a quarter-ton of 1999 magazines, cables for electronics we no longer own, parts for science projects, and some unused bubble wrap huddled up protecting itself: How to Come Out of Your Clutter-Filled Closet, Straighten Up Your Home, and Discover Your True Potential. Because I’m prone to distractions, I immediately sat down on a tangle of last-year’s Christmas lights to read it. According to the book, I’m stifling my creativity by being a slob. Once all … Read entire article »
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I tweeted Geordi
In my ongoing 2009 ambition to join the 21st century, I finally started Twittering. Tweeting? Uh, still got a lot to learn. Anyhoo, when you sign on, the Twitter Powers That Be suggest a bunch of people to stalk. Er, "follow." And there’s LeVar Burton, aka Geordi from Star Trek. Sure, I’ll follow Geordi. Click. So, LeVar tweets about something to his almost 200,000 followers (not even kidding). It was funny, so I tweeted ‘im back. … Read entire article »
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Ideas are like naughty puppies
I was interviewing an education expert yesterday, and he commented on how sometimes you have so many ideas in your head bumping around that when you try to write them down, you can’t do it fast enough and you lose some. That happens to me all the time. Like just yesterday, when I was trying to crank out my grocery list. Milk! Butter! Popcorn! Uh… But he’s totally right. When I’m trying to write creatively, ideas will pop into my head when I least expect it – usually when I can’t write them down. That’s because ideas are like naughty puppies. As a former dog trainer, I get the puppy connection. Here’s a quiz for you: 1. Your puppy runs away. Do you: a) Chase after her, and holler at her to teach her she … Read entire article »
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Oooh! Bonus!
Woohoo! Just found out via Foodimentary that today is National Chocolate Covered Raisin Day! YUM. They’re one of my all-time fave snackers. True confession: I like ‘em so much that if I don’t have any real ones, I’ll grab a handful of chocolate chips, mix in a handful of raisins (and sometimes some broken pretzels for crunch), and chow. I have no dignity. … Read entire article »
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Winner of the Human Body book giveaway!
But first…a little story (I know you’re going to skip down to see anyway, but I’ll close my eyes and imagine you’re reading before you peek). I tried to generate random numbers using one of those online random number generators. But first I clicked it a couple times to see how it worked — and the first five clicks gave me the same number twice. Out of 200. Now, I’m no mathematician, but I have seen a couple episodes of NUMB3RS, and I’m pretty sure that’s weird to get the same number twice in five “random” shuffles. So, Sir, Mister, and I went all old-fashioned and cut numbers out of paper. I wanted to put the numbers in something themed, like a human skull or something, but ours were all in use … Read entire article »
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Smiley Tooth
Hi, I’m Sir Buffalo Sushi! Every Friday, I’ll write a blog article, or what ever it’s called. So… OK, let’s get on with it. When my aunt, (I won’t tell her name, so no body can black-mail her or anything), was a kid, she crashed on her bike, and slammed into a light post. She walked away with only a broken tooth and minor scratches. So, she went to the dentist to … Read entire article »
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It’s all in your head
As I was showering Tuesday, celebrating St. Pat’s by using Irish Spring (manly, yes, but I like it too), I glanced at the shower door. It’s glass, etched with some funky woodish/generic pattern. Anyway, there’s this little guy in there. More like a little face, I guess. We’ve lived here for over ten years, and one of the very first times I showered here, I spotted this guy. Here he is — magnified many times; he’s … Read entire article »
Filed under: Fooling Around