O Tannenbaum

I always saw this title in my Christmas piano books, but never knew where it derived. According to Wikipedia, "O Tannenbaum is the German version. How 'bout that?

I always talk about my "ugly" tannenbaum in a box that I've had the last few years. It has a certain appeal, I think, and I got it for a good price at a place that rhymes with Benard's. It's not the flashiest or the prettiest of things, but it works for me.

Dining Room

The Dining Room is starting to come to life. Here is what it looked like.











The border was stripped off, and the walls were primed and painted. The trim was also painted to match the kitchen cupboards. I found a cute table with a wood finish.

Hey Baby

I went to Omaha this past weekend to visit my sister's family, among them the newest member of our clan, Mary Madeleine (14 weeks). On Saturday we decided to walk around a craft show going on in the Old Market, and I offered to carry little Mary in the BabyBjorn (those Swedes are so clever. I do love them for their Swiss Miss). The Bjorn (with two dots above the "O") is a nifty sling-like contraption that parents can wear to carry infants. Plus, ain't no way some psycho-crazy-kidnapper is ever going to snatch anyone in this thing! And I can see why babies like it. It keeps them warm and cuddly and allows them to see all the action that we see. Look how happy she is!



After about 20 minutes of wearing the Bjorn and all 13 pounds of Mary, my neck did start to hurt a little. And I soon discovered the "looks" and "how cute!" I was getting on the streets weren't for me, but for Mary, especially when she zonked out in the craft tent. Oh well.

Flush Twice

This is the latest and greatest homeowners' advice I received. Who would've thunk it?

Flush twice, I was told. Always flush twice. No matter what. Whether it's a number one or two, flush twice. Whether I use one ply of toilet paper, or enough to make a cast around a bleeding wound, flush twice. It will keep the good water going in a one-person household. And if I have company over, I have to flush several times after everyone leaves. Unless my friends want to flush twice??,.... but I would never insist upon it.

Every "energy /water-saving " site I have ever read says how you should only flush once, and that you lose GALLONS" of water the more you flush. But in my case, the more I flush, the happier I will be. Or, the less I flush, the bigger my sewer-related bills will be. I learned this on Sunday afternoon after a sewer company spent about five hours trying to break the built-up "sludge" in my pipes. We noticed after I moved in that the drain in the basement was slow. The problem had most likely started before I even closed on the place. On Saturday it had had enough.

Luckily, the problem was fixed, there wasn't any damage, the repairmen were nice and very professional, and I didn't lose my sanity. The smell is pretty much gone (thanks to bleach and Glade candles), and I was lucky to stay at a friend's house on Saturday so I could shower and use the other necessary facilities. It was a pain, and not something I exactly wanted to spend money on, but it had to be done. Apparently the owner even showed up in my driveway toward the end, because he likes "challenges." Well, that's fine and dandy and all, but hopefully their next challenge won't be at my expense.

So when in doubt, flush twice. I said to one of the two repairmen, "won't this cost me more in water bills?" He looked me in the eye as he was rinsing away the "sludge" in my basement drain that was now, not plugged, and asked, "would you rather have us back here in a year doing the same thing?"

Good point. Flush on.

What will be Next?

I've noticed that lately I don't see as much about "counting carbs" on TV. Is that fad finally over? I hope so. I hope it is over for the mere fact I hate health fads. In the mid-80s, cholesterol was big and bad. Eggs were especially awful. In the late 80s, I counted calories as a junior high girl. That was the thing. 100, 200, 300, 400, etc. A hot pocket had 300 calories. That was good.

In the 90s, "fat grams" was next. One gram, two grams, three grams. Subway had X number of sandwiches with six grams of fat or less. Those were healthy.

In the early 2000s, "low carbs" was the craze. Everything from yogurt to yams were coming out with low-carb versions. If it was low in carbs, it was probably higher in fat.
Now there seems to be a kick on the "trans fats." Boxes of crackers are plastered with "O trans fats," whatever that means.

What will be next? Sodium? Protein? Calcium? Zinc? Iron?
Is anything good for us?

Don't ring me

It was reiterated again today why I don't buy expensive rings. I lose them. Most of the time it is my own stupidity. If (heaven forbid) I ever were to get engaged, I would probably tell my fiance to purchase me a sucker ring from a candy machine or make one for me out of twine, because chances are, I would lose that one, too.

Here are some examples of rings I have lost over the years:

Summer 2001: I'm on my way back from three weeks in Europe, standing in the Detroit airport, washing my hands at the restroom sink. I took off my blue ring I bought in Munich and discovered I no longer have my blue ring from Munich when I arrived in....Green Bay.

May 2005: I am picking up my sister and bro-in-law at the Green Bay airport (maybe there is a theme here?), and as I am putting a piece of luggage in the trunk, my fat silver ring slips off my ring finger and goes somewhere in the bottom of never land of my trunk. Haven't really attempted to look for that.

July 2006: I decide to "shake out" my Eddie Bauer bag after countless trips to the beach, and I decide to do this on my balcony, which overlooks some holed grid in the ground. I'm shaking and shaking and I hear a CLLLINNNGGGGG! Oops. It's my cool twirly ring in one of the side pockets I had been looking for for weeks. It's gone.

Today: I was at a meeting in Appleton, playing with my $5 ring I bought in Texas. I notice at some point during the meeting, I no longer have my $5 ring from Texas. Hmmm, I must've stuck it in my purse. When I get back from the meeting and use the restroom, I hear that familiar "cling" in, you guessed it, the bottom of the porcelain bowl. I must've stuck it in my short pocket during the meeting, and now it fell out. As much as I love the $5 ring I bought in Texas, as many compliments as I get on it, I don't love it enough to fish it out. Bye bye $5 ring from Texas.

I know there are more I have lost, but I can't remember exactly how those happened. I should learn my lesson and stop buying rings altogether, but I don't. And if I ever do get married, I might have to keep it permanently attached.

Empathy-Schmempathy

It is true that we really don't know how people feel until we walk around in their shoes. I learned two big things in the last 1.5 weeks, relating to volleyball. It seems trivial to be mentioning this, but if I am going to learn anything out at a bar, it might as well be something useful.

I was a substitute referee last week, and after that experience, I will never complain to a ref again. Not that I ever did, but now I really won't! It takes a lot of concentration, and it is hard to see everything going on on the court. I withstood hate stares on certain calls, inpatient players when I would forget to flip the score and eyes rolling from some younger players used to WIAA high school rules. I never would've got in a ref's face before, and now I certainly won't.

Last night I subbed for a team in the league I formerly played in, and I had to pass and hit middle. I haven't done this in a LONG time, and I'm not a hitter. I'm not sure if I was sluggish, if they were serving really tough or if my skills had weakened that much, but I struggled. I was shanking passes left and right, passing short, toward the net. I wanted to bury my head in the sand and not come back out. I am a setter, and I did that on my old team. Setters often get frustrated when the passing is bad, but I learned that the passers/hitters get equally as frustrated. It's not an easy thing to do, and passing in quads (four people on the court) is much more difficult than in sixes (six people on the court). There is a lot more court to cover. I'm hoping I might have been sluggish, because when I have passed in other games, it hasn't been as bad as last night.

So....I got to stand in a ref's shoes and in a passer's shoes. I learned that both roles need empathy. Some of those refs might be doing that after a long day at work (as I did), so their minds not be as sharp by the time the 10 pm game comes around. Some middles passers in quads need encouragement and support if they are not doing as great as they want. We all need empathy. Hopefully I can continue to be more empathetic in other aspects of life as well.