Nothing personal

This blog tends to slow down a lot. But I try not to let it get too personal or intimate -- for the last few years, it's been mostly for random thoughts and book promotion, neither of which I have much time for right now.

As a personal update, the baby is doing great! I am so excited to be with him and to think of the future. I've learned a lot already. He turns 6 weeks old next week!

Happy Halloween to everyone.

Special candy

Are there really apple caramel Hershey Kisses out now? Here is a blog that runs down all the special seasonal candy out now. I didn't know! (Mostly because I've been staying inside.)

Reviews

Some new reviews of Carrie Pilby have been posted on people's blogs in the last few weeks and I haven't had time to link to them. But some new ones also have been added to Amazon, so here's a link to those. Very nice comments. Thanks, readers!

Older entries

After Zach eats, which is often, he needs some upright time to digest his food. So at 4 a.m., after his latest binge, I held him in my lap and boredly looked at some of my old blog entries.

And wow, has my life changed in only four or five years! Check out what this entry says I spent the month doing. I always figured that while I was alone, I might as well be productive. Still, I probably spent some time that weekend trading e-mails with prospective dates...

I would have rather sat by the fireplace (see photo) with the hubby, but I don't think I had met him yet.

Here's another tidbit of things I was doing, and a photo of me with much longer hair.

On a humorous note, here is an entry I like from March of '06:

ENTRY FROM 3/12/06

My totally awesome day

Before, I was doing my taxes and decided to eat some nerds candy. I accidentally dropped one of the strawberry Nerds and couldn’t find it, so I got a flashlight and began crawling all over my rug looking for the Nerd. I spent at least 10 minutes looking around my room for the Nerd. (And yes, ha ha ha I DID look in the mirror, ha ha ha you so funny.) I found it. Breathe a sigh of relief. I don’t want to attract any creatures with extra goodies.

Earlier today, I went to meet my mom for her birthday lunch, and I went to throw my credit card payment into the mailbox on the corner. But instead I threw my mom’s birthday card into the mailbox. So then I had to throw in three notes for the mailman saying, “Please put blue envelope that says MOM on it into [my address].” My mom didn’t seem to care because she still got to eat lobster.

Foliage

Today, Zach and I had a few errands around town, so I got to finally see some foliage! I've been inside with the baby so much that I haven't done any leaf-peeping.

Here are a few shots:

Another Zachary

I put my son's name, Zachary Samuel, into Google out of curiosity. The first link that comes up is this amazing story of a woman who adopted a baby and named him Zachary Samuel. It's worth reading the whole story, making sure to click "next" at the bottom to read all of it.

What is remarkable is that the baby could not see or hear, but his adoptive mother found so many joys in taking care of him and loving him. Reading this story reminds you to savor every positive aspect of life, not to dwell on the negative. Just a small reaction or sign of progress on any given day seems to have made this woman's heart soar, and that is a beautiful thing.

I think the reason this child lived for four years, despite predictions that he would die much younger, is that this woman poured on so much love and so much affection. We all know that just being held does wonders for any living thing. This Zachary had a short life, but one in which he was very much loved thanks to his adoptive mom.

"Zachy could not see or hear. Nor could he understand anything in this world, but the happiness he felt when his cheeks were stroked. He was blessed, because he was spared all pain, and worry, and sorrow. He didn't know he was missing anything."

This woman actually adopted many disabled children. To do something like that, you need a few things, the most important of which is a big heart. We should all aspire -- as long as we are able -- to be useful to humanity and increase the amount of love in the world, and I often wonder how I can do more to help in ways like that. Of course, to adopt disabled kids you also need a LOT of resources, both emotional support and -- of course -- money. And so many people have their own problems to take care of before they can take the risk of supporting or helping others. But even a small thing you do can add love to the world.

When this woman looks back on her life, she can know she did a lot of good. And reading her story about her Zachary does us all good because it reminds us how important it is to give as much love as possible, no matter what the outcome or whether you get just as much back. It also reminds us how much joy you can find even in what others might consider a tough situation.

Here is the link again.

Hey hubby

Click for image of tasty dessert

I love the quiet times.

Huh

My friend Howard W., who used to be in my writing group, has a way with words. He sent me this IM on Facebook:

how you feeling?

did it come right out, or did they have to tug and pull?

and cut

Only if he's dark

"I have a question for you. If we get a chocolate lab, and Mommy is hungry for chocolate, and there's no chocolate in the house, is she going to go after the lab?" -- The Hubby, talking to the baby

Happy anniversary, cutie!

It's our 3-year anniversary today. Whee! A delivery guy came to the door w/this fruit basket today. Check out the chocolate-covered pineapple!

The hills are alive

Gretl, Maria, and the rest...

In first grade, I had a great friend named Dorothy. She moved away for second grade, then came back for third, but by then I had moved. We reconnected a few months ago on Facebook, though. She is still just as funny and sweet as she was back then! Anyway, it turns out we both like musicals a lot.

On Facebook, she posted an article about the Sound of Music cast reunion coming up on Oprah next month. Yay, I'll be home to watch!!

I was present for the last full cast reunion, five years ago. I saw something about it on the web, and got up at 5 a.m. to get into the city to be in the live Good Morning America audience. They asked the people on line to raise their hands if they could sing. That was the only way in, so I raised my hand. Luckily there were no audience solos.

Here's the Washington Post story about the upcoming reunion.

And here are my photos from five years ago, in the GMA studios.

Somehow I predict hubby will NOT be leaving work early to watch the reunion with me. I guess I'll just have to sing for him later!

It's a beautiful day!

Don't let it slip away.

7 pounds of love.

We made a baby!

His name's Zachary Samuel and he came home yesterday. We're all doing well and very happy. We are looking forward to his next poo, and Zach is looking forward to a quiet Sunday night of football watching for all three of us.

To make it easy to post a bunch of photos we took, I created a blog so you can take a look. Don't expect it to have high intellectual and literary value like this one (in other words, not as many English bulldog pix).

Twin babies laughing at each other

This video makes me smile.

Important sports update

Hubby admits to being wrong, but is absolutely thrilled that the Dolphins beat Bret Favre this weekend.

Wow, who turned this blog into Sportscenter? Needs something girly. OK, here are some pretty Dolphins colors. They are much prettier than the Viking colors.

Creative writing blogs

Got this email. Looks like a good site.

Hi,

I work with Bestcollegesonline.com, where we just published entitled, “50 Best Blogs for Creative Writing Students” Considering this overlap in subject matter with your blog, I thought perhaps you would be interested in sharing the article with your readers? If so, you can find the article here.

Or, you can just go straight to our homepage (bestcollegesonline.com) and find it there.

I am happy to let you know that your site has been included in this list.

Thanks for your time!

Hubby is cute

Last night, my hubby randomly said to me, "Care-Care, I really think Baltimore is going to dominate Cincinnati this weekend."

I didn't even know for sure what sport he was talking about, but I think it's cute that he tells me those things.

Where the ratio of singles favors you

Well, single women, the ratio of you to men is about 100:92 in NYC, Phila and DC, so don't move there. Instead, go to Austin. At least, that's according to one study.