Well, well, well, here we are again. It’s PROMPTuesday time already. I’ve got to tell you…this week’s is one of my favorites. For two reasons: the picture below has always intrigued me, and I love the song that accompanies it.   I know I’ve done the whole study a photo thing before, plus I’ve included [...]

Goodness, I’ve missed you.   Come back soon for when I wonder aloud if I have a drinking problem.   Meanwhile: Stay thirsty, my friends.   It doesn’t have to be for alcohol.   Although if you’re me, it probably is.   But I’m getting ahead of myself.   So for now, here’s a re-posted [...]

Thank you for your input. This whole exercise in thinking I’m always right reaching out to the community for backing up of my less popular opinion feedback has been very humiliating valuable.   I’d also like to thank The Rock for his gracious acceptance of being right. When he first said that most of America [...]

Please help me out here. Someone in my family thinks that his tradition is overwhelmingly practiced across America, and someone else in my family thinks that her tradition is more common and awesome.   So: do you open presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?   I will reveal the less awesome Christmas tradition practicer [...]

Tip #1 If you like to go thrifting, and your hunting and pecking takes you to the book section, which is just across from the public bathroom, take a deep breath about five minutes prior and hold it for the duration of your stay. In case of pass-out, be sure to wear a med alert [...]

Lex won the Kookeys!   FADKOG won the Tracksters!   That’s all I got today.   Seriously. You’re lucky you got the exclamation points.  

I do this thing where I’m sure I’m not doing enough for the kids and so rope The Rock into nefarious schemes to make me feel more parenty.   This past weekend, I thought we should be doing more holiday things, so I scanned the Internet and found a community theater production in a quasi-questionable [...]

(One more day for the Stocking Stuff Giveaway!) It’s over, baby. **********************************************************************************   I apologize for delaying publication of this week’s PROMPTuesday. Thank you for the notes threatening me with non-specific injury to my person if I didn’t get on the stick. It’s just that I needed to know someone loved me. I know, I [...]

The Stocking Stuffer Giveaway is alive and kicking! Enter here! (It’s not a pony.) ***********************************************************************************   I am such a tool. All month long I’ve seen commercial after commercial promoting this princess and that doll house and this ‘Lil Pony and that Easy Bake Oven and this pooping baby and that Scooby Doo Mystery Game. [...]

Instead of reading this, why don’t you enter my giveaway? I’d erase this post altogether, but that would be in direct opposition to my Tip #1 included below, in the midst of this drivel I’d rather you ignore.   How to write. I ask myself this question almost every day. Because I overthink, and because [...]

Still need to fill up your kids’ stockings? Let me help. Because I’m very solicitous and hospitable like that.   I’m giving away two Kookeys and two Tracksters, which are perfectly-sized for Christmas stockings. Unless you bought tiny stockings. Which in this economy, who could blame you. I hope you win these prizes then.   [...]

The Dream I’d applied cucumber-cranberry mask to my eyebags and when I looked in the mirror, I happily saw my bags had retracted so completely that they were concave, as if someone had scooped my eyebags out with a teaspoon. It WAS a dream, but still, I should have been alarmed, right? To my credit, [...]

  I loved meeting kidlit author Barrie Summy Tuesday night at Warwick’s Book Store. Her new middle grade book, I So Don’t Do Mysteries, launched just that day and I wanted to come out and give my congratulations.   The thing is? I just found Barrie online (she blogs too) (thanks for the tip, Vodka [...]

The crank cloud has not yet lifted, and it’s heavy with a chance of rain. i’ve been so pissy that it’s in complete opposition to all that is good about the season. I’ve even desecrated the cheerfulness of “Rudoph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” It went something like this* (please look away if you are a good [...]

I found a new friend in the Blogosphere (Shh. She doesn’t know yet). She’s a San Diego author who just (JUST! It comes out today!) had her middle grade mystery novel published. Her name is Barrie Summy, the book is I So Don’t Do Mysteries, and she is my new role model (Shh. She doesn’t [...]

This is hilarious.

Look, I’m sorry to do this to you, but it has to be done. Why, I can’t say. I don’t tend to examine my inspiration. It’s so often demented and idiotic.   What I regret perpetuating upon your writerly person is this: For today’s PROMPTuesday, please compose a holiday limerick.   As you may or [...]

WINNER ANNOUNCED TOMORROW!   Oh OK, I’ll do it now, but make it official tomorrow. It’s Auds! Which is cool, because I think she is my exact undisclosed age!   “Suppleness” is a disconcerting word that reminds me of those gel nipple shields I wore while breastfeeding, but I thought it’d grab your attention. Because [...]

I’ve got so many giveaways this week, you can’t even believe it. There’s a complete AVON skincare system, Kookeys (like Webkinz) and Tracksters (like vehicular Webkinz), a photo family storybook (like scrapbooking, but done for you), and well…this isn’t looking so up the gazooey anymore. Just please enter these giveaways. Because nothing is sadder than [...]

I’m a little nutso about home security, as in completely insane. I always need the doors locked and at night, I only leave the bedroom windows open a crack in case an enterprising burglar rock climbs our sheer walls to gain access.   I absolutely must have our home alarm at all times and have [...]

I often pretended Maura Dominiak’s nooks and crannies house were mine. Big, rustic, rife with wood, and usually empty of parental supervision. Full of antique stoves and stained glass and porcelain knobs. After fall’s football games, we’d drive up to the detached garage with the warped edges that never shut properly, park behind the Peugeot, [...]

I love this website. It’s designed for grandparents, but it lists kids’ activities by city, and I use it to find stuff to do with my kids. I’m too lazy to look in the local paper for events, so this pretty much takes care of it for me. They’ve also got an awesome holiday guide [...]

I’m going for easy peasy lemon squeezy today. Emphasis on “squeezy,” because I KNOW we’ve all got something squeezy to share for this one.   So think back to when you were 15. Let the year play itself back to you. Pick one memory — even if it’s just a mere moment that stands out [...]

I’m not going to cease to exist if I don’t update my blog every day, right? I mean, I CAN disconnect from Twitter, Facebook, WordPress and e-mail for a day or two while I capture the holiday spirit, finish some work, and domesticate myself.   It IS possible. What’s important is my family.   So [...]