The Pile I’m Standing In

Have you ever seen hydrangeas this color? I haven’t. Pinks! and Purples! These were along the waterfront near The Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco.

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I know you’re wildly anticipating the video of my BlogHer Community Keynote reading, but I would first like to torture you with a few more pictures of my trip to San Francisco. (yawn).
I friend I’ve known forever and ever drove up from San Jose to spend the day with me on Sunday, and we walked [...]

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Tell me, just tell me HOW I could have resisted buying this beautiful amber ring in San Francisco’s Chinatown, especially - ESPECIALLY - when my very savvy shopper friend says to the woman, "would you take FIFTEEN for this?" NEVER underestimate the power of a good bartering friend.

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Sunday morning after BlogHer I took it easy, then a friend drove up from San Jose to meet me in the city. We scored free parking after a pay lot’s pay machine rejected my five dollar bill. TAKE THAT.

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Just in case you missed it, I am here:

Blogging will be… well, WHO KNOWS what could happen. But you will likely get more of the scoop if you follow my twitters.
I would love to give a big shout out to the guy in seat 24D on my flight from Seattle - he loaned me his [...]

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It is June 5th, and I’m wearing jeans, socks, a sweater, and I turned my heat on for a couple hours today just to take the edge off. Yesterday the kids asked for hot chocolate, my seeds are not sprouting in the garden, and I’m sick of being cold.
So you know what? I’m giving [...]

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We spent our last day in sunny California riding Grandpa’s tractor, eating oranges off his tree, and visiting a petting zoo. It was seventy-five degrees.

We arrived at SeaTac airport after midnight, had to wait while the luggage carousel was fixed, and finally made it home just before 2am. As expected, it is raining in [...]

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We spent New Year’s Eve at my BIL’s house, and my SIL mentioned something about watching cage fighting over the weekend while we were gone. I’ve known my BIL has been into cage fighting for years, so this prompted me to ask the question of whether she was into it because HE was into it, [...]

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A few days ago we drove the kids through the neighborhood Bryan grew up in. I’ve seen it all before, but it was fun to take the kids - especially Ruthie, who seems to have understood these were places Daddy was when he was little like her.
This is Bryan’s Grandma’s house, now owned and [...]

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We are spending the weekend with my brother, his wife, and my seven year old nephew - about two hours away from Bryan’s family. We started off the weekend by playing Guitar Hero for about two hours, which, I have to say, is the only video game I have been able to beat my [...]

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My FIL lives up in the hills, and the back of his property borders a wild area. Occasionally at night you can hear coyotes just across his fence and the dogs go crazy. The other night when Bryan and I and the kids were alone in the house, all three dogs went nuts [...]

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Somehow I’ve managed to maintain my current weight this week even though every flat surface in this house is covered with something sugared or baked. I mean, for cryin’ out loud! I nibble a little here, and I nibble a little there, but for the most part I have avoided a full throttle gorge. [...]

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It takes me fifteen minutes just to get to the interstate from where we are staying, on a hill high enough that my ears pop every time we go into town. On the interstate it takes another 10-15 minutes to get to Costco, or Target, or wherever I’m headed (because, you know, I saved [...]

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Despite the fact that we didn’t go to bed last night until after eleven, Ruthie was still standing at the end of our bed at 6:45 this morning, demanding that we be awake now.
“I’m sure grandpa’s awake,” said Bryan into his pillow.
So I jumped up, threw some clothes and a box of cereal at her, [...]

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This morning it occurred to me, as I observed my daughter at the airport security check point, that this is the third time this year we have traveled by airplane with the kids. I was thinking of this because Ruthie walked right up to the x-ray machine, took her shoes off, and put them [...]

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