Casual Friday with Mir—because some days are made for wearing your jeans and surfing the blogs.

Goooood morning! Yet another week is drawing to a close, and all I can thinking is that tomorrow, I can sleep in. I think my body is trying to tell me something. If only I could figure out what it is…. (Oh, hush. Like you’ve been getting enough sleep.)

Shall we find some fun new reading this morning? Let’s!

I didn’t know how much I was craving a Domo cupcake until I saw them. (Scary! But yummy!)

Loralee is my kind of crafter. (Don’t worry; I won’t tell Utah.)

Jennie is about to have her first child, and now that I’ve seen what she does to her dog I’m a little concerned. (Kidding! Mostly!)

I used to secretly watch Beverly Hills, 90210, and I was sorry I missed the premiere of the new version. But after reading this synopsis I feel certain that the blog was more entertaining than the show.

Speaking of television, Heather has a few rules she’d like you to review. (You tell ‘em, Heather. TV viewing is serious business.)

And now I’m off in search of coffee. Have a great Friday, everyone!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas tax time….

No, I haven’t lost it. Not yet, anyway. The way my taxes worked out for 2007, we got enough of a refund to cover my first two quarterly tax payments for 2008. Which means that my first get-out-the-checkbook, kiss-my-money-goodbye tax payment to Uncle Sam for this year is due on September 15th.

Lord knows I have made many, many mistakes in the business side of organizing my freelancing, over the years. Luckily most of them are even documented here in this space. Heh. So on the rare occasion when I get it right, I hope you’ll excuse me while I crow just a little bit.

And I know, it’s weird. But yes, Virginia, I’m excited about my taxes. Read the rest of this entry »

So, remember how I was all worried about my kids coming to one of my book signings? A funny thing happened this weekend at the Decatur Book Festival!

I got food poisoning. Oh, wait. That doesn’t have anything to do with this story, I suppose. But I did get food poisoning—the night before our panel and signing—and so as you might imagine, I was not exactly feeling at my finest when Saturday morning rolled around. No no no. But I got myself there and did my thing and put on a brave face and tried very hard to pretend that I felt just fine. (Thankfully, I was no longer violently ill, and mostly I was just exhausted.) But that is neither funny nor the point I wanted to make. I just couldn’t resist mentioning it.

No, the funny thing is that my kids showed up! Read the rest of this entry »

Casual Friday with Mir—because some days are made for wearing your jeans and surfing the blogs.

Hellooooooo, Friday! Just in time—I fear this week was about to eat me alive. But now that it’s (almost) over it looks like I shall live to fret another day. Hooray! To celebrate, I think I shall cruise the blogs. (Oh, wait. I do that every Friday. Well, I’m nothing if not consistent.)

Jane is really enjoying her new neighbors. Sort of.

Amanda is recording precious moments with her toddler. The kind that involve bodily functions, of course.

Personally, I think it’s high time someone rewrote Desiderata.

Meanwhile, Debra’s learned some things I found quite profound.

Finally, if you haven’t checked out Nie Nie Day you must; there’s a link to the backstory, there, but in short this is a gigantic multi-blog auction to raise money for a family in need. Not only are there fabulous items to be had, it’s a great cause. Check it out.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Freelancing deja vu: The feeling that you have mismanaged your multiple contracts in exactly this way, before.

Ugh.

Um, hi! Do you remember how once I wrote this pretty great post (if I do say so myself) about how at a certain point, one really has to sit down and be realistic about how much work you can reasonably handle? Remember that? And remember how I was becoming overwhelmed and was piously vowing to do better and choose wisely and not put myself into a situation where I was burning myself out simply because I lacked the foresight to make a sensible decision, already?

Yeah. That was a really good idea. Read the rest of this entry »

My daughter often prefaces an interaction with me by turning to face her audience and—with a grand, sweeping arm gesture—announcing, “Hey! Everybody! This is my Mom!”

It’s sort of charming, if you can overlook the fact that 1) the room is empty when she does this and 2) toting around an invisible audience is a wee bit creepy. She’s always marched to the beat of her own drum, and I never really gave it a second thought… until recently.

I’ve now been blogging about my kids for four and a half years. I don’t use their real names online. I don’t share pictures of them. Both kids are aware of this and both of them seem to accept it as the normal state of affairs. But now that Sleep Is for the Weak is out, my daughter thinks she’s found her real-life audience. Read the rest of this entry »

Casual Friday with Mir—because some days are made for wearing your jeans and surfing the blogs.

Happy Friday! Another week (almost) come to a close, and another chance to justify spending a few minutes doing something other than working. Wooooo!

Let’s see what’s happening in blogland this week, shall we?

Elsewhere is just living her file. That’s right. You heard me.

Did you know Miss Doxie is back from hiatus? And how. Please enjoy this story about geese.

PunditMom knows who Obama will pick for vice-president. (Hint: He’s furry and refers to himself in the third person.)

If you’re a SciFi geek and/or a Trekkie and/or a fan of black velvet (?!), you must read this if you haven’t already.

I do love me some 5ives. I’m especially liking Five terrible fake Jane Austen novels.

And with that… I’ve given you five ways to waste a little time. Enjoy, and don’t forget to do a little work, too. Have a great weekend!

Do you know the Shel Silverstein poem that starts out “‘I cannot go to school today,’ / said little Peggy Ann McKay?” Peggy Ann McKay lives at my house—my daughter can do a dying swan impersonation like nobody’s business. If she comes to me and says that she’s too sick to go to school, she needs to produce a fever or some very unpleasant bodily fluids to get the okay from me. This is simply a fact of (my) life.

My son, on the other hand, has always been a stoic. “I’m fine!” he’s been known to protest, right before he vomits up his toenails. “I’m just a little tired!” he once told me, with a fever of 105. So when he came into my room early yesterday morning and told me he had a stomach ache and thought he should probably stay home from school, I agreed without a second thought. Read the rest of this entry »

I was late to a committee meeting last night, and I hate that. I hate being late. I got stuck in traffic that I should’ve anticipated, and so by the time I got there I was rushed and annoyed (mostly with myself) and, yes, a little uncomfortable at walking into a room full of people who were already seated, in a meeting already underway.

This was for a school committee I sit on. Now, I was on the committee last year, too, so theoretically I’m already an old hand at this. But I never attended the “opening meeting” last year (I joined later), so I was completely confused when I walked smack into the middle of what is apparently the first-meeting-of-the-year tradition: They were going around the table and doing introductions. Read the rest of this entry »

Casual Friday with Mir—because some days are made for wearing your jeans and surfing the blogs.

Gooooood Friday morning to you all! I saw Mamma Mia last night, and yes, I’m the last person on the planet to see it, but let’s just say that my toes are still tapping this morning.

Here’s a bit of reading to take you through the last barrier to the weekend. I recommend you pair it with a snack.

I recently discovered Five Husbands, and what does a woman need when she’s had five husbands? A wife. Obviously.

You might not want to drink the water in the blogosphere right now. I mean, take a look at Jonniker and Kira. I’m just sayin’.

No, really, you need to see Boba Fett recreate Flashdance. Trust me.

And do you need 10 Practical Uses for Psychological Research in Real Life? I’ll bet you do. (That one comes from the incomparable Guy Kawasaki, whom you should already have bookmarked because he finds the coolest stuff.)

Experiencing a bit of Olympics Fatigue? Go have a giggle about some of the stories we’re tired of hearing.

Have a great Friday, everyone!