By Julie

I've been home for over two months and blogging less than ever, not that there's nothing to blog about but because blogging was in part stress relief for me, and right now even with all the work-related projects I'm trying to finish over the summer I have little to be stressed about. Plus I've been doing a lot of introspection, which by its very nature is more intimate dinner conversation and less "Hello Internet!"

Maybe that's why I don't get Twitter right now. On the other hand, I've been trying to get Twitter ever since Evan Williams announced his new venture and opened it up to beta testers. I immediately grasped the conversational aspect of the party badge, which displays tweets from you and all your friends - and which I used to document conversations between me and the kids for public amusement - and I loved the update-via-IM feature. But both the party badge and IM updates have been broken for a long time now, and I have no desire to share my cell phone number with Twitter in order to update via SMS. I have updated a couple of times via the Pageflakes Twitter plug-in, but those tweets were never conversational. They were more like mini blog entries in that they linked to whatever I found amusing on the Internet at that moment.

One thing I do know is that the 21st century man of mystery does NOT use Twitter. Imagine James Bond broadcasting his martini preferences to the world... hahaha, so not happening. Even more damning is the fact that everybody I know in real life who uses Twitter has locked up their account. Nobody needs that much transparency.

With all three kids home with me for the summer, simple things like feeding and grooming can easily take up much of the day. I consider myself having gone beyond the call of duty if I manage to get the lunch dishes into the dishwasher before Kevin gets home in the evening. On top of that I've been giving Alex and Ana Chinese homework everyday. So far they've learned numbers (一, 二, 三 ... 十, etc.) and family members (爸爸, 妈妈, 哥哥, 姐姐, etc.) as well as have/don't have and do you have (有没有弟弟? 没有! 有没有妹妹? 有!).

Kevin has been busy too. When he isn't at work, he's going to the store for groceries or doing chores around the house. On weekends he takes Alex to karate and both Alex and Ana to swim at Grandma's house. He's also in charge of taking Alex to percussion lessons. It's just for the summer, a break from piano and possibly early preparation for 4th grade band.

In between all that I've found time to make the most of our Netflix subscription:

Labels: chinese, memes, movies, parenting

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By Julie

Saturday Kevin, Alex, Ana, and I had a family meeting to discuss which night we were going to unplug as part of the 52 Nights Unplugged Project. The idea is no electronic entertainment -- no video games, no movies, no Internet -- one evening a week for a whole year. After much deliberation we chose Sunday, and so last night was going to be Unplugged Night #1.

Well folks, it didn't happen. What did happen was taxes. And work.

We had gotten up a little late, around 11, and after a lovely brunch Kevin settled down at the dining table with his laptop, the copy of TurboTax we bought from Costco, and the gigantic file folder that I had stuffed full of pay stubs, receipts, and anything else vaguely tax related. I sat down across from him with my laptop, intending to do just a little bit of work.

Nine hours later, Kevin was still doing the taxes, and I was still working.

Today I got some news that should change my work habits quite a bit. At the least I think it means we'll actually unplug next Sunday.

Labels: 52-nights-unplugged, memes

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By Julie

A while back I tagged Rita with a meme called "7 weird/random things about yourself." Instead of answering that meme, she recently turned it into a new one called "7 weird/random things about your significant other" and tagged both me and Kevin. After struggling with it for a solid week I gave up for two really good reasons: 1) Kevin and I have been together too long for me to think anything he does is weird, and 2) hey, I tagged Rita for the original meme, so isn't it slightly illegal for her to tag me back? :)

I guess I've had a change of heart. In a few months Kevin and I will be celebrating 15 years of together-ness as we hit our first-date anniversary, and later this year we'll be celebrating our 14th wedding anniversary, so I'm doing this meme as a public service to all couples who haven't been together as long.

1. Kevin is a total guy. I know this one seems like a big duh, but it took me a few years to realize that. That's when I did our relationship a great service; I put aside my prejudices and read Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus. (I also learned to my surprise that I'm a total girl, but that's for another meme.)

2. At the same time, Kevin is completely disinterested in watching football, basketball, or baseball. He knows plenty about them to make small talk, but if you really want to be his friend, hand him an epee and join him on the fencing strip. Some other alternatives: billiards, snowboarding, or scuba diving.

3. Kevin makes amazing pasta. From scratch. No really, he takes semolina flour and turns it into fettuccine. This is one of the reasons I married him.

4. Kevin also gives amazing massages. This is another reason I married him, and as a result he's no longer allowed to give other people massages, only shoulders and neck.

5. Kevin's patience is Buddha-like. Case in point, before we got married, he taught me how to drive a stick shift using HIS car without cringing or yelling even once. (Need I say this was yet another reason I married him?)

6. Kevin wants to do EVERYTHING himself. John Gray might argue this is one of those Mars guy things, but I think it 's unique to his family. I mean, how many guys you know would take on home improvement projects that required a jackhammer, a welding torch, or a hammer drill?

7. Kevin lets me drag him out to all sorts of music and art events, and afterwards he tells me how much he enjoyed them. He even watches cheesy comedies with me even though I refuse to watch scary movies with him. In all the years we've been together he's only complained ONCE about the quality of my entertainment choices, and that was when I temporarily lost my mind and ordered Spice World via Netflix. What can I say? Darling, I know we'll never get those 93 minutes of our lives back, but I'll spend the rest of my life making it up to you.

Labels: memes

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By Julie

Brian tagged me to reveal 7 random/weird things about myself.

1. I'm right handed, but I mouse with my left hand.

2. My biggest shopping weakness is $9.99 DVDs. Anything cheaper is probably a movie not worth watching.

3. I'm afraid of heights, esp. bridges and glass elevators.

4. I don't like to touch raw meat. When cooking I use rubber gloves.

5. I speed read. It still feels too slow to me. Next step: osmosis.

6. This year we celebrate our 13th wedding anniversary. I have socks that are older than my marriage.

7. When I was a teenager I was really, really good at making lists like this, but not anymore.

I tag my sister, my cousin, Rita, Cindi, Felisa, Stella, and Damon -- the latter three in hopes they'll revive their blogs :)

This was really hard to write! I hope it's easier for the folks I'm tagging!

Labels: memes, nablopomo

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