Second Blooming

Spin Cycle: Camp Mama 2012

Well, another summer has come to a close here at Camp Mama, and I, the Camp Director, deem it a very successful season.

We did not complete all of the activities we had hoped to, but we did complete many. And we managed to work in quite a few activities that we hadn't planned on, so...hurray.

We slept late every day. Which was a very good thing. And by "we", I mean "me". Jude got up at the crack of dawn to play Minecraft, while I lazed around and drank coffee while diddling on the computer. I don't think I can even count how many mornings Jude reminded me at about 11 am that I still hadn't made him breakfast. Bad Mama! He did, however, survive this neglect.

We were in the sunny outdoors a LOT. Beach, pools, water parks. All good. We played tennis. We ran. We camped. We kayaked.  Jude and I both have tans! Amazing, but true.

So in summation, here is what I believe I have learned over the summer of Camp Mama...

1. Next year, when we go camping with girls, I must be more attentive in monitoring Jude's interest in "inviting girls into the tent", "trying to play spin the bottle" and "playing truth or dare" instead of just drinking with the ladies by the campfire. Nothing got too crazy this year, but it's just going to get worse, and next year actual contact with the girls might be attempted. Very frightening.
2. Next year, when signing the boy up for camps, I MUST REMEMBER to call other moms and get them to sign their kids up for the same camps. The UCLA Track Camp would have been SO much more fun for Jude if I'd just coordinated it with other moms at the beginning of the summer, and he had had a buddy with him. Plus, that way we could have CARPOOLED, which would have saved me a lot of endless driving. Somebody please remind me of this in the future.
3. I can wear a bikini, and no one will point and jeer at me. Next year, I'm going to start wearing it right at the beginning of the summer, so by the end, my big, squishy belly will be big, squishy and tanned.
4. The longer, 3 week visit to the in-laws is better. Yes, I actually just said that in writing. That extra week made the whole trip SO much more relaxed, because we had time to do all the things we wanted to do. It's worth the insanity.
5. It is absolutely ridiculous for me to attempt any kind of home improvement project while Jude is home from school. It's impossible. I must remember this. The kitchen is still the same ugly color, and the backyard is still a disgusting wreck.
6. It is really not a good idea to allow Jude to completely forget how to multiply/divide and write cursive over the summer. Like I did this year.

So there it is. Summer is over. Thank goodness. Jude is back in school - Fourth Grade...

Which is seriously big and grown up and...eeeeeeeek! Today Fourth Grade, tomorrow college, marriage, grandbabies...! Boohooohoooo!

Sorry, I had a hormonal moment. I'll try to get it together before Camp Mama 2013.

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Don't forget to visit our other Spinners and find out how they spent their summer vacations! Much fun was had by all!

Kendra at Life in the slow lane

Aimee at AimeeWrites

Vandy J at The Testosterone Three and Me

Nain at View From Down Here - NEW on FRIDAY!

Ginny Marie at Lemon Drop Pie - NEW on FRIDAY!

Sheri at Sheri's Scribbles - NEW on SATURDAY!!

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Next week on The Spin Cycle...

Education

It's back to school time for most kids, so I thought it might be a good time to consider a little learnin'. Your education? Your kids' education? Advanced education? Self-education? Sex education?

What have you learned? What do you wish you had learned? What do you wish your children would learn? What do you wish they HADN'T learned?

I feel certain that MANY of you have MANY opinions on this subject. What do you think of the state of education in America?

Write it up. Let me know. I'll link it here.

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RTT: Bad Dogs, Tea Towel and Stent

It's Tuesday, so it must be...

Yet another site courtesy of my friend Amanda...

Dogshaming

The funniest damned site I've seen in a long time. I'm dying for Fancy to do something dreadful so I can publicly shame her. Jude and I obsessed over this site for an HOUR, laughing so hard we both cried and slightly peed ourselves.

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 This is the funniest commercial I've seen in a while. The kids performance is fab...

 

It's not funny enough to get me to buy a jar of Ragu, but funny nonetheless.

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Do y'all remember back during the Royal Wedding how I was lamenting my desperate need for a Wills/Kate Wedding Commemorative Tea Towel? Well, my friend Stacy just got back from Great Britain and guess what she brought me??

Don't you love it?!! I want to figure out how to display it in my house, but don't know what to do. It's kind of a ginormous thing to frame. Hmmm. Ideas?

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I'm sure you all remember Darren from Daddy/Daughter Fun Time, who was my substitute blogger when I first left for New York. Well, just a week or so after his substitute gig, he almost had a heart attack! Had to have a stent put in his heart. Scary stuff! He's on the mend, but he and Lynn and his daughters would certainly appreciate it if you would all keep him in your prayers for a while.

And better yet, drop by his blog and read his hysterical account of his hospital visit. Warning: much talk of man parts. I've told him that he is no longer allowed to feign embarrassment over my tendency to talk about hot flashes and menstruation after I just read two posts about his balls. Anyway, please, please, pretty please do me a favor and visit his blog and leave a comment with a nice long, lingering virtual hug. His posts - Stress Test and Stress Test Part 2. Both hysterical.

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My friend Lannyl sent me this in honor of Mommy...

 

Just about sums it up.

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Made this for dinner last night, and it was so good I ate a bowl about the size of my head. It's super easy and quick - 15 minutes to cook.

Summer Shrimp Capellini

1 lb. uncooked shrimp, peeled, deveined, tail on or off

8 oz. (half a package) capellini or angel hair pasta

1/3 cup olive oil

4 cloves garlic, crushed

1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

1 tsp. salt

 1/2 tsp. black pepper

1 lb. cherry tomatoes, halved

1/2 cup chopped fresh basil

grated Parmesan cheese

Heat olive oil in a very large skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic, red pepper, salt, pepper, shrimp and tomatoes. Cook until shrimp is opaque and firm. Cook in 2 batches if your pan isn't large enough to accommodate the entire recipe. Add basil to shrimp and toss quickly. Remove from heat.

Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions. Thin pasta cooks quickly, so be alert. Drain. Pour shrimp tomato sauce over the pasta and toss. Serve with Parmesan if desired.

Yum!

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 That is all for today. Don't forget to head over to Stacy's for more random goodness.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

 

It's How I Spent My Summer Vacation week here at The Spin Cycle!

Good Morning Class!

Welcome back to another school year!

I have no doubt that you all had busy and fun-filled summers. We want to hear about it!

Please write up your assignment and turn it in by Friday.

You may write about whatever you like, however, points will be deducted for spelling/grammar/usage mistakes.

Don't forget the pictures!

For those of you who have never played along with The Spin Cycle, this is the perfect chance! Just write your post and include the little button below. Let me know in a comment that you have posted, and I'll link you here and again in my Friday post.

Extra credit points if you read everyone else's assignment!

Here we go...

Kendra at Life in the slow lane - Extra points for being so prompt!

Aimee at AimeeWrites

Vandy J at The Testosterone Three and Me - NEW on THURSDAY!

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Camp Mama 2012 Week Eleven: Reentry

Sometimes, I am just as dumb as a stump.

Jude and I got back to Los Angeles from New York on Tuesday night at 10 pm, exhausted and jet lagged. Wednesday morning, we woke up ridiculously early because we were still on New York time.

So what did I decide to do that day? Rest and regroup? Unpack and do laundry?

No. We went to another waterpark! Another huge group of parents/kids were heading up to Ojai, CA to the little waterpark there, and we just couldn't resist joining. It ended up being 7 grown ups and...prepare yourself...20 children! Crazy. By the time we got on the road for the 1 1/2 hour drive back to LA, it was about 6:30 pm. I was so unbelievably tired that I kept pinching myself on the leg to keep from falling asleep at the wheel because I was still on New York time. Stupid.

Thursday ended up being the regroup/laundry day. Finally. Though there was no much-needed rest. The house was a disaster. Well, Jimmy wouldn't like me telling you that, but it's the truth. The man had managed to keep the place relatively tidy, but hadn't done one bit of sweeping/dusting/deep cleaning/vacuuming. It was one big dust bunny. And we had ZERO food in the house. I have no idea how the man fed himself for the two weeks he was here without us. I'm horrified to see the Visa bill - I suspect he ate out every meal. Ergh!

On Friday, I took Jude plus his friends AJ and George to Santa Monica for Beach Friday. You know, it's really a good thing that I only have one child, because I am just not cut out for a herd. The noise level in the car was at airplane decibels. I don't know how you moms of many handle it. I kept praying for a Cone of Silence or something. And how do you keep track of all of them? When we got to the beach, I sat all three of them down and gave them three rules -

1. DO NOT let me lose you!
2. DO NOT whine!
3. Memorize and use the following sentence "My goodness, Mrs. D, you certainly look young and thin in your bikini!"

They followed my rules very well, and so all was well.

On Saturday, I was absolutely fried. I'm just having the hardest time getting on CA time. I'm exhausted all the time. And on Saturday night, I had to go to a birthday party at a super hip and cool Hollywood bar. I'm just too old and tired for this kind of stuff, and seriously, if I'm going to be hanging out with a group of women, I want to be some place where we can talk and gossip. But it was a really cool bar - La Descarga. It's a Cuban-style speakeasy - an unmarked door, a doorman who won't let you in unless your name is on the list, a walk up a long, sleazy stairway, then admission through the back of a hidden armoire. Very fun. Once you get inside the place, there are mojitos galore and an hourly burlesque show!

All of which would have been extremely fun if I hadn't been about to fall over with exhaustion.

Then last night, I was supposed to have my writer's group meeting, which I'd been looking forward to for weeks. At 9:20 pm, I was undressing to climb into a nice hot bath, when suddenly I remembered about my meeting, which I should have been at at 6:30! I rushed around the house, wearing nothing but a bra, found my phone with numerous texts and phone messages asking where the hell I was, I yanked my clothes back on and drove over there like a madwoman.

So clearly, this reentry thing isn't going well.

Okay, I just reread this post, and it's boring and whiny as hell. Sorry. Hopefully, this next week will be a little more relaxing as Jude starts 4th Grade on Wednesday.

Hit it...

 

Hope your summer is wrapping up well. I think that my Spin Cycle this Friday will be a Camp Mama Season Finale.

Until then, I think I'm gonna try to get some sleep.

Spin Cycle: Working On It

I haven't worked what we showbiz folks call a "day job" since 1987.

In the world of the actor, that's pretty damned good. What that means is that for the last 25 years, I have supported myself as an actor. I may not have ever reached that upper echelon of fame, but I have made a living. At times a rather nice living. At other times (like now...) a rather meager living. But a living nonetheless.

Because of this "meager living" thing, I really need to work on monetizing my writing. That means focusing myself on specific writing projects that I can sell and make money. Specifically, I have what I think is an amazing idea for a children's novel, which I am extremely excited about and EAGER to write.

Sounds easy enough, right? But it's not. Because I don't seem to know how to work.

My Daddy used to always tell me that I was a lazy thing, and despite the tremendous amount that I do...I fear he's right. I piddle. I play. I procrastinate. I don't know how to make myself do the work.

For an actor, once you make the effort to get an agent, the agent basically does the work for you. Because the "work" is the getting of the work. When you actually get a job and go to "work", that's the fun! Because for an actor, working is playing. So your agent gets you the audition, you just have to show up, play a little bit and go home. And if you played really impressively, you get the job, and they give you money to play even more.

To prove my point, I offer you the Trident commercial I shot last month. I am the dance crazed business woman in the middle shaking her moneymaker. Literally...

 

For playing for two days in this silly way, they are giving me money. It's hard to call this...work.

But here I am with this amazing book idea, and I just don't know how to focus myself. I seem to have SO much going on  in my life which I'm constantly juggling, that I can't seem to make the time on a constant, daily basis to work.

Here are a few things I think would help me...

1. Prioritizing...me. I am never my priority. Jude is. Jimmy is. Cleaning the house. Jude's school. My choir. I need to make my work an absolute priority.
2. Creating a space. I have no office. I do all my blogging on my laptop wherever I can - the bedroom, the kitchen, the bathtub - I'm all over the place. We actually have an office, but Jimmy's desk is in there, Jude's computer is in there, and...a tremendous amount of CRAP is in there. I need to clean it out, and create a space just for me. My only real alternative to the office would be to make myself a little space in the attic. This would involve shoving all the Christmas decorations out of the way, and making myself a tiny hole. Might work.
3. Making a schedule. I think I need to choose a particular time of day, say 10:00 am to noon. And make that my "work time". I need to shut myself up, stop doing laundry, don't answer the phone, and just write. The problem with this, of course, is that nothing else in my life has a schedule, so this will constantly get screwed up. I'll get auditions. I'll need to do stuff at Jude's school. But if I could even work three days a week, I'd feel like I was making a good effort.
4. Blogging...less. Yes, that's right. Because I get caught up with needing to get something posted, and that becomes my writing time for the day. If I loosened up, and didn't feel like I HAD to do a Random Tuesday Thoughts every single week, and a Mama Kat's Workshop all the time, I would have much more time to write my other projects.
5. Spending less time screwing around on the internet. Like Daddy said, I'm a piddler. And while some of the piddling is productive (like say actually reading other people's blogs and commenting, which I'm HORRIBLE ABOUT), much of it is NOT. Like playing stupid GAMES.

Okay. Writing all this down is making me feel very inspired. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.

I am open to any and all ideas that y'all have that might help me learn how to work. I thank you in advance.

Wish me luck!

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Don't go away without visiting this week's Work Spinners!

VandyJ at The Testosterone Three and Me

Nain at View From Down Here

Ginny Marie at Lemon Drop Pie

Stacy at Stacy Uncorked

Michele Renee at Must Be a Full Moon - NEW ON FRIDAY!

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Next week on The Spin Cycle...

What I Did Over My Summer Vacation

Your first assignment of the school year is to share with us all of your summer adventures. A recap, if you will. We all want to hear!

Was it fun? Relaxing? Stressful?

Write it. Tell me. I'll link it!

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Workin' It

 

God, I love me some vintage Merle...

 

It's "Work" spins this week on The Spin Cycle!

Are you working hard? Or hardly working?

Here are our Work Spinners...

VandyJ at The Testosterone Three and Me - NEW on THURSDAY!

Nain at View From Down Here - NEW on THURSDAY!

Ginny Marie at Lemon Drop Pie - NEW on THURSDAY!

Stacy at Stacy Uncorked - NEW on THURSDAY!

Write up your spin! Let me know and I'll link it here!

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RTT: Another Mommy Edition

Today, Jude and I are on a plane, headed back to Los Angeles after our 3 week visit with the in-laws. My beloved mother-in-law, Mommy, is, no doubt, sitting alone, eating chocolate, watching General Hospital and crying softly to herself. (Remember to read Mommy in the voice of Edith Bunker) "I sit and I think of aaaaaall the good times. And I cry..."

Mommy is very good at guilt.

And so, in Mommy's honor, I will give you some Random Mommy Thoughts. For last years RTT: Mommy Edition, click HERE.

Mommy leaves Christmas decorations up year round. Evidence...

This one plays "The Little Drummer Boy".

 I have no explanation for this. I just thought you'd like to know it.

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The other night, when Jimmy was still here, after a long family dinner, the boys started teasing Mommy about her many gentleman callers during the time when Pop was on hiatus. (For those of you who missed it, Pop left Mommy for another woman known as "That Woman" for 20 years, then came back). She'd had a couple of her vodka tonics, and got so silly! Giggling, blushing. There were, apparently, several single gentlemen who pursued Mommy during this time, but she never succumbed to any of them. I'm  not sure if she was pining for Pop to return, or torturing him with her misery and aloneness. Anyway, Jimmy and Tony kept teasing her about one particular man named Andy, who came by all the time. Jimmy always called him "The Kisser" because every time Mommy walked him to the door to say goodbye, he'd make a dive at her, pin her against the wall and try to give her a kiss. Then, after he left, she ran upstairs and rinsed with Listerine and covered herself with Lysol!

Pop sat through all of this reminiscing with a decidedly disapproving look on his face, but you know he totally deserved it, what with "That Woman" and all. I think Mommy LOVED being portrayed as desired by other men. Totally what Pop deserved!

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Mommy washes her dishes with a bar of Ivory soap...

This has bewildered me for years. I mean, was this ever something that people actually did? Or is it just Mommy? "It's the way we do it." is the only explanation I've heard.

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Mommy was absolutely delighted with all her birthday presents from us and from Tony and Niki. TWO pairs of flashy earrings. Two slutty tops (with short sleeves to cover her arms). Niki found her a necklace with a gem in it that's supposed to calm nervousness. We'll see if it works. Here she is, modeling one of the blouses and the flashy earrings I gave her.

Please notice that she's posing in front of her collection of flashy earrings, which hang on the earring holder I made for her several years ago. Mommy believes that as far as earrings go, the bigger the better. Once, I gave her a pair of lovely, delicate earrings, and she actually hung them on the bottom of a pair of huge hoops "so you can see 'em"!

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I have mentioned in the past that Mommy is a complete and total chocoholic. She will eat it for every meal if nobody is looking. About 15 years ago, I made her a Chocolate Pecan Pie, and she totally flipped out. It's her absolute favorite thing in the world. So I've taken to making one for her every time we're here, with strict instructions that it's just for her, no sharing. She will eat that pie for breakfast, lunch, dinner and late night medicinal chocolate snack until it's all gone.

So you can have a little bit of Mommy in your life, here is the recipe. Hope you love it as much as Mommy does...

Mommy's Favorite Chocolate Pecan Pie

3 eggs

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1/2 cup dark corn syrup

1/3 cup butter, melted

dash salt

1 cup pecan halves

6 oz. chocolate chips

1 unbaked pie crust

Beat eggs and sugar. Add syrups, butter and salt. Stir in pecan halves. Sprinkle chocolate chips in the bottom of the pie shell and pour the pecan mixture on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes. Horde in a cool corner and take tiny slices all day long when nobody's looking. Great for breakfast with a cup of decaf. Or eating in bed while watching a video taped episode of General Hospital.

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The other day, I saw a quote from Mother Teresa which immediately made me think of Mommy -

"It's not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing."

And that's Mommy. She doesn't do much, but she puts an amazing amount of love in all she does. Think...Mother Teresa with "blonde" hair, a slutty tank top, flashy earrings and medicinal Scotch. Watching General Hospital. And worrying. And eating chocolate.

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Okay, that's all the Mommy you get. Please visit Stacy and all the other random thoughts folks!

And one last thing...

It's only two more days of voting on this silly Top SoCal Mom Blogs thing, and I've slipped out of the top ten. Can y'all do me a favor and click the link below, scroll down and vote for me? Thanks SO much!

 

Camp Mama 2012 Week Ten: Old

I'm worried about the old ones.

Mommy, Pop and Aunt Grace are all over 80 now, and I'm afraid that they are all finally showing it. They still look good...

 

Mommy and Aunt Grace - looking fabulous at Mommy's 83rd Birthday dinner.

Pop - still rocking the colorful pocket handkerchief

 

But to look good isn't really to feel good.

It absolutely breaks my heart. They've been such a constant source of love and support for me for so long. It just kills me that they are each slipping into old age in their own way. And it's happened so quickly. In the last year, the changes are drastic.

For Pop, it's the physical. He's always been as strong as a bull. Really truly. In his youth, he was not only a minor league baseball player, playing on a Yankee's farm team, but he was a Golden Gloves boxer they called "White Lightning". He fought in the Korean War. He owned and managed his own book distribution warehouse for 40 years, getting up at 4:30 in the morning and heading down to that warehouse. He only retired a few years ago at 80! But now his body is failing him. While he was always a mass of aches and pains, it never got in his way. He was always on the go. But now he just can't do it. His mind and spirit are still as fiery as ever, but his body can't keep up.

For Aunt Grace, it's the mind. I am SO scared for her. In the last year, she has been forgetting more and more. Now, I find myself telling her the same thing four times in an hour, and she still can't retain it. Sometimes she's absolutely normal and extremely sharp, watching her CNBC financial news and obsessing over the stock market, but other times, especially late at night or early in the morning...or if she's had a martini...she just isn't herself. I worry about her in Manhattan all by herself. While she's still very physically active, and in truly excellent health, I fear that she'll be walking someplace and forget where she is and get afraid. Or forget to turn the gas off on the stove or something like that. And we're all afraid to talk to her about it because she's so stinking stubborn and independent. Breaks my heart.

And Mommy? Well, Mommy is still Mommy, thank God. But her fears and worries are getting worse, if that's possible. I mean, we actually had to lie to her TWICE this trip about where we were going, so she wouldn't have a freak out. When we got back from kayaking the other day (which was super fun, btw) and confessed to her where we'd been, she STILL had to take some medicinal blackberry brandy over what COULD have happened but didn't. "In a boat?! On the water?!" Sheesh.

And physically, her arthritis is getting really crippling. Saturday was her 83rd birthday, and as a special treat for her, I scrubbed the bathroom. Odd birthday gift, I know. But this woman is truly, the CLEANEST person in the world (second only to Aunt Grace, but don't tell her I said that), a woman who has always had everything in it's place and every inch of her house cleaned and scrubbed and perfect. But I'm afraid that the bathroom had devolved quite a bit. I guess she just can't see the dirt, and can't get down on her hands and knees and scrub properly. I had thought she might tell me not to do it, but she gave in immediately, which tells me just how hard it must be for her. She was so excited over how nice the bathroom was after I cleaned it that she called the Cathys (all of Mommy's friends are named Cathy) and told them about it "I can see my reflection in the tub!!!".

And the saddest thing of all? Many times I've mentioned Mommy's penchant for what she calls "that slutty look" and all of the "slutty tank tops" I've given her over the years. Well, she has finally, at age 83, decided that her arms just aren't what they used to be, and she needed to start wearing tops that cover her upper arms. So for another birthday gift, I found a couple of slutty tops that had 3/4 sleeves.

I am suddenly faced with the possibility of losing them. And I guess it's making me particularly aware of how lucky I am to have them.

My own parents died when I was still so young. Jude never met my Mama or my Daddy. But these people have embraced me as a daughter-in-law so completely. I am absolutely blessed. And you couldn't ask for better in-laws. They never question or try to control me. They are genuinely filled with unconditional love for me, which I realize is very rare.

And Jude adores them. Absolutely adores them. Even though they are on the opposite side of the country from us, he thinks of them all daily. And I thank God that he has these wonderful old people who worship the very ground the child walks on. For these last three weeks here in New York, he's been giving and accepting as many hugs and kisses as he can.

 

Mommy giving Jude "a million kisses". Please note Mommy's rollers, Grace ironing in the den, and the poetic placement of the heart-shaped wall decoration.

 

People think I'm crazy to spend 3 weeks of Camp Mama in New York with the geriatric crowd. Well, all of this is why we're here. I want Jude to get as much time with them as he can before they go.

So when I whine and gripe about how nutty they are, and please know how much I adore them. And feel free to remind me of how lucky I am.

Spin Cycle: Water...

Waterlogged...

On Monday, Jude and I went to Splish Splash Waterpark yet again with our friends Jenny and Mia. We do this every year when we visit Long Island. And every year I whine and complain about how exhausted I am afterwards. This year, Jenny had a most excellent idea, and got a couple of 20-something friends to come along so we didn't have to go on every single damned ride with the kids. This does not mean that I didn't go on ALMOST every single damned ride. I must stop doing this, but I know I won't because...it's fun. There, I said it. Even if afterwards I feel as though every muscle in my body has been put through a meat-grinder. And Jude and Mia adore it, and a handful of Advil and some wine work wonders.

Apres waterpark ride home with stuffed animals won at the arcade.

Water Up My Nose...

Gone are the years of Jude wanting to ride the waterpark rides that involve a pleasant ride on a plastic inner tube. Now all he wants are those damned extreme water rides that involve propelling your body down a tiny plastic chute at high speeds. The Giant Twister, Max Trax, Shotgun Falls. And while I don't relish the bumps and bruises, the worst part of all is the water that shoots up my damned nose and basically rotoroots my head. Sigh...

Low-Water Mark...

My wonderful friend Lannyl and her daughter, Georgia, took us to a taping of America's Got Talent!

Jersey, baby! Thousands of screaming Howard Stern fans!

All of which was a high-water mark of fun, but unfortunately, the show itself was the worst show they've shot all year. Instead of the usual contestants, they had people who had entered a special YouTube competition, and I'm sorry, but it really says a thing or two about the quality of The YouTube. There were only about two act in the entire show that were memorable. But we did have fabulous seats, and Howie, Sharon and Howard all walked about a foot from us, and we loved hanging with the bridge and tunnel crowd, and ADORE hanging out with Lannyl and Georgia, so a great time was had by all.

Water Lilies...

After the AGT show, we spent the night in NYC at Aunt Grace's, and the next day, I took Jude to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the first time. After spending about an hour taking him around to the exhibits which I thought he'd find most interesting (the Egyptian mummy stuff, Arms and Armor) he turned to me slightly disappointed and asked "But where's the art?" Turns out he mostly wanted to look at paintings! Who'd a thunk it?

 

Taking in Monet

 
Rainwater...

After taking in all that culture at the museum, we went outside and sat on the steps of the Met and ate lunch which we grabbed off one of those NY street food carts. Jude got a hot dog ("Even better than Coney Island.") and I got the best falafel gyro I've ever had. While we were hanging out watching street entertainers, lightning and thunder started up, and about the time we wolfed down our last bites, the heavens opened up in a downpour! We then had one of those great mother/child moments that we'll probably never forget. We held hands and ran laughing down 5th Avenue until we caught the bus to take us back downtown.

 

Rainsoaked on the M2

Pool Water...

We are really, truly, genuinely BLESSED to have our friends Ray, Jenny and Mia living just up the street from Mommy and Pop. Jimmy and Ray have been friends since they were kids, and they both had kids the same year! So Jude has his little Long Island "girlfriend" Mia to play with every year, and I have the sanctuary of Ray and Jenny's house to escape to when the in-laws make me a little nuts. They have a beautiful pool, and we've been down there QUITE often. Jude and Mia swim, and I drink Jenny's excellent coffee and talk to Ray about...pretty much everything. Now that Jude and Mia are a little older, I find him showing off quite a bit. I worry about what they're going to do together when they're about 16. Here's Jude showing off his moves...

 

By the Water...

Shhhh...don't tell Mommy. We're having to lie to her yet again. Today, Tony, Niki, Jude and I are driving to the Hamptons to go kayaking. Can't wait! But I'm afraid that last year Mommy saw something on the tv about a man who drowned while kayaking somewhere in the world, and now she thinks it's a terribly dangerous thing to do. So we will be waiting to tell her about it when we get back. Instead, we've told Mommy that we're driving "out east" to have lunch "by the water". "By the water" is a Long Islandism. "Let's go by the water." or "He lives by the water." And it means by the ocean or the bay, but nobody says that. So little does Mommy know that we're actually "in the water" as opposed to "by the water".

Tonic Water...

Mommy has me drinking her favorite summer drink - Vodka Tonic with a big chunk of lemon in it. This is Mommy's drink of choice when she's having a relaxing social drink, as opposed to when she is partaking of a medicinal beverage to steady her nerves. Then it's either blackberry brandy or if she's REALLY nervous...scotch. And I might add that Mommy's a real lightweight - one Vodka Tonic and she gets totally silly and giggles and tells stories she shouldn't tell.

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Alright, visit the other Water Spinners. Don't forget. Do it now!

Ginny Marie at Lemon Drop Pie

Nain at View From Down Here

Jan at Jan's Sushi Bar

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Next week on The Spin Cycle...

Work.

Either you love it or you hate it, but we all have to do it.

What things in your life do you consider work? Do you work a job outside your home? Do you love it? Or do you just do it for the cash? Is your work inside your home that you do for the love of it twice as hard as the work you do outside the home?

Are you looking for work? Out of work? Over-worked? Under-worked? Housework? Homework? Office work?

Write your spin. Let me know and I'll link it here.

Share your spin!
Highlight the code.
Copy to your HTML.
Et voila! Linked!

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Water, Water Every Where

That title is spelled correctly, by the way. It's poetry, y'all.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner -

"Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink."

We got water here this week on The Spin Cycle! You want some water music?

My fave Elton John album...

 

Or maybe...

 

Or if you feel like cranking up the volume...

 

But enough of that, and on to the spinners...

Ginny Marie at Lemon Drop Pie - NEW on WEDNESDAY!

Write your spin! Let me know and I'll link it here!

Check back on Friday for my spin on "Water"!

Oh, and if you get a chance, can you vote for me for the Top 25 SoCal Mom Bloggers? Thanks so much!

 

 

Share your spin!
Highlight the code.
Copy to your HTML.
Et voila! Linked!

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