New year, new challenges

You know it's going to be an interesting year when you look at the amount of excitement in the first two weeks.

On a global scale, the Haitian earthquake happened a little over a week ago. It's a scary thought, not only on the scale of things, but as a resident in a famous fault area myself, it is telling...almost looking in a mirror as to what could happen in our neck of the woods, should the big one hit here.

Rather than feel distanced, donate. And if you want to keep your donations local, check out Wings of Hope. They are a charity located in Chesterfield and their primary mission is flying and by doing so, making a difference in the health and welfare of people all around the globe. Check out their charity navigator rating, too. You'll see that they have a four star rating and use their donations appropriately. They need your help to keep their Haitian and Dominican operations running to help the aid organizations in the area. Please donate if you can.

On a personal note, I'm getting ready to Master the Met, Saturday March 6. What does this mean? Yours truly will don the sneakers and march up fortysomething floors to the top of the Metropolitan Square Building downtown. Note: I didn't say I was running. No thanks! Just know that I will make it up to the top, just a little slower than the marathon runners who race up the stairs. I truly believe the race is not just to the swift, but to those who keep on going.

If you'd like to contribute to this effort, which benefits the American Lung association, click on my fundraising page to donate.

Graduate school starts again soon and I will be taking a road trip cross country. It should be interesting.

Last but not least, one little fellow at our house has a birthday soon. He will be donning the bowling shoes and partying with his friends and a Transformers cake. I can hardly believe I've been a mother for seven, whole years.

Happy Birthday, sweetie! Mama loves you!

More to come...stay tuned.

Misspent ....

Vacation? Perhaps, but alas, I got more done than I thought I would.

Who would have guessed that one little water leak would lead to a mess and lots of cleanup? That's done, thankfully. And the carpet looks smashing.

As is usual whenever I'm off, there was a whole lot of cooking going on around here. Pans of lasagna, not one, but two kinds of fresh apple pie, a variation of beef stroganoff and a few other things. If only I took pictures...I could have posted them with the recipes!

When you're in a hurry, be careful what you throw in boxes or bags to store. I finally got around to taking care of those assorted boxes and bags in storage. The local charity resale stores got the benefit...lots of clothes, toys, coats and even some furniture. It's amazing how much room you have when you get rid of the stuff cluttering up your storage area! Some of them even pick up which is even better!

And as a reformed technology person, I spent a good chunk of my vacation online. I never check my Facebook account unless I get an e-mail, so I went mulling around there and found a few new cool groups, including one for the Carondelet Historical Society. Besides that, I found a really cool article about saving wet electronic equipment like MP3 players here at cnet.

Sure, I had to do some homework for my online classes, but I got them done in time to start the Christmas shopping (and now I have plenty of room to hide the stuff!) and found all sorts of interesting stuff, including this cool candy selection on www.amazon.com called the 1980s Retro Candy Gift set. Gotta love those wax lips and fangs! I won't reveal any of the other things because some people are too nosy! Just gotta wait for Santa!

Nevertheless, I go back to work soon, but I have aspirations of goodies while I wait. This article about short story writers called Brevity is a Virtue makes me want to write something. We'll just let that idea float around and see what happens.

More to come...check back later.