Happy 40th Old Man!

So my husband has been picking on me since my birthday (in mid-January) and now it's finally HIS 40th birthday (never marry a younger man if he's the type that likes to poke fun at your age!).
But this post is not to rag on him about his age (I do that in person) but to share what might be one of the best presents I've given him in a LONG time! This year I contacted a fellow blogger (not sure I can call myself a blogger just yet!) Rick Green of Organized Doodles. He does caricatures from afar (he lives in Oregon) and I think he does a bang-up job! Here's a link to his post on my dear husband's illustration:
http://organizeddoodles.blogspot.com/2008/03/shellys-gift-some-difficult-lessons.html
Apparently I am a high-maintenance client...but that's a whole 'nother post for another day!

I think My Man was sufficiently surprised & pleased by his birthday gift. :o)

women vs men - the clothing size debate

It's like the age-old debate of why hot dogs come in a package of 10 while the buns come in a package of 8 (my own personal opinion is that they expect you to either drop a few in the fire...or you have kids that like to eat w/out a bun).

But here's my question....why is it that men can go out & buy pants w/out having to try them on..and women have to use a dressing room? If you're a working wife..you'll know what I mean. You go out to buy clothes, you try on 5 pairs of pants...you might buy 1 that fits the way you like. Let's say you wear a size 8 or 10. Depending on the pants, you'll take a size 6, a size 8, a size 10 and even a size 12 into the dressing room...because who knows what size this "brand" of pants decided to conform to. BTW, when I said you took 5 pairs in with you - I didn't mean 1 pant in 4 to 5 sizes...I mean 5 different pairs of pants...possibly in many different sizes.

Now, switch gears...it's the men's turn to shop. They walk into a store. They pick up 2 to 3 pairs of pants...look them over. Walk to the register. It's no wonder they can shop faster than us..they don't have to try on clothes! AND...why is that you ask? It's because THEIR clothes are not sized with one number....their pants are sized w/ waist & length measurements! So as long as they know how round they are & how tall they are...they're set to go!

So how come women are forced to use Small/Medium/Large ...or a number to figure out what size they are? Why can't they just use the same measuring system as men (or something similar)?

Case in point...I'm a short but normal sized person (my butt is the same size 8 or 10 as someone that is tall and wears a size 8 or 10). So I know what you're thinking...buy a petite, right? Well, I'm NOT a petite. A petite does NOT mean short leggs - it means short legs & skinnier waist and smaller butt.

So, my question is...why can't women's pants be sold using a waist & length size...or even better yet, waist, butt & length for those of us w/ a little more junk in our trunk?

life observations...

so i sit down at our production meeting & my dear husband (& biz partner) is still talking on the phone (instead of coming to the meeting). i was totally frustrated because my computer had been running SO s-l-o-w all day that i couldn't get prepared for the meeting (so i essentially had nothing to add to the meeting!). someone says - maybe you should talk to "the IT dept" about it (that was a joke..my dh is the IT dept!). of course, that won't help me at all because i have a multitude of IT issues going on that he has yet to fix...so why would my slow day prompt any kind of action at this point?!

after entertaining the troops with my long tirade of what i've been going thru today (i didn't say it was a productive production meeting, did i? LOL)...my dh finally comes to help me find out why my computer is running so slow. turns out i had tried to send an email with a 30 MB file attached to it! D.U.E. my dh calls to me as he walks out (that's pronounced doo-eee & it stands for Dumb User Error). great - i've been annoyed all day & it was my own durn fault? life just doesn't get any better than this does it!! /me rolls my eyes...

so i announce to the meeting attendees that i REALLY need to get out of work early today (one of them looks at their watch & sez "you know it's already 4:30, right?")....and i then explain that leaving at 5pm for me is "early". of course, i still didn't get out until 5:40 which means i'm hauling butt to get to daycare to p/up the kids. i really must get this life & work balance thing figured out.

i saw an interesting quote today....it was paraphrased but i can't find it...but i did find the original:
I've yet to be on a campus where most women weren't worrying about some aspect of combining marriage, children, and a career. I've yet to find one where many men were worrying about the same thing. (Gloria Steinem)

this is SO true in my life. i swear my dh takes for granted that i'm the one that drops off the kids at daycare & picks them up (mostly). i'm the one that takes them to the dr visits & talks to their teachers. i'm the one (seems) to do most of the caregiving because he's so busy at work. but we work together and we both have our biz responsibilities...but i don't think that he feels a need to find work/life balance....but i do. and i want that for both of us...but how can you get someone else to view that need when they are seemingly happy just being busy at work all the time instead of "wanting" to be at home with the family? i'm not saying he doesn't want to be home...and i'm not saying that he doesn't spend time at home...but i look at my work/life balance and i recognize that it's lopsided to the work side of things...and i can see that his life is even more lopsided to the work side of things....and i want us both to find more balance. i'm afraid that the harder i work to make the life side more balanced, the more he'll "think" he has to work harder to enable me to have that time.

The "Christmas Letter"...to write or not to write...

Well, truth be told...I always write one. Do you hate them? I hear some people do...but I also hear that people like to receive mine. I've been told that I write a good one because it doesn't always come off like I'm bragging about my year (like it did before we had kids), it's always updates of what's happening in our lives. Well, I just wrote this year's letter...and it sounds like we did a lot of traveling...and a bit like I'm bragging (I was never self conscious before someone mentioned bragging!). So, I guess it's back to the keyboard to do some editing. But of course, if I don't finish it...it won't get mailed until after the holidays!
I do enjoy writing one...it gives me a chance to reflect, month by month, on what I've done this year. My letter also includes photos so I get to go month by month through my photo album (that would be a folder on my computer btw, these are not scrapbooked yet!). I get to take a walk down memory lane for the year and remember everything we did. Turns out we did travel a lot!
We took a long weekend cruise in March....my mom & I took the kids to a family wedding in New York in May/June (my first NY trip!)....we drove to Mackinac Island in July....we went to Michigan for Tri-State in September (see previous blog post)....and because of the lame Tri-State vacation, I dragged my family to the Wisconsin Dells in October for a long weekend...and in November my best friend & I took a weekend in Galena to do some scrapbooking. So no, we didn't take any really long vacations, but we did travel more than normal. So is it really bragging when all you're doing is reminiscing?

F Paul Wilson

woo hoo - Bloodline has been released early! I am SO jazzed! I just love Repairman Jack (www.repairmanjack.com) and have been "jonezin" for the next (& final...so far) book to come out. It wasn't due out until October...but now I haveta run out & get it this weekend! Can not wait to read it. Albeit - I had just started a substitute book that a friend gave me...maybe I could whip thru that one first? After not reading (ficition) for over a decade (kid's books excluded) I have read over a dozen books this summer! And F Paul Wilson is to blame :o).

vacations...part duex

I've always looked forward to Labor Day weekend...for vacation reasons really. Every year (except last year, but that's another story) we drive to St. Joe, Michigan while my husband sails over. This happens on Friday. Then we spend Saturday together doing family stuff, and out to dinner that evening, usually with the crew (he sails on Can Can Duex). Then Sunday we drop him off at the boat so he can race to Michigan City, Indiana while we hit the beach (used to be shopping at the outlet mall before I had kids). Then we return home Sunday evening - dear hubby gave up sailing the last leg home (Monday) years ago.
Funny how I always "think" of this as a family vacation. Because every year (at almost every year) the same thing happens. I drag the kids across 3 states...just in time to force them into bed (very late because we lost an hour going over the time line). Then we get up on Saturday (used to be very early, whenever the boat got in, but that stopped when we started staying at a hotel you had to drive too...now I get up whenever I feel like it, no matter how early or late the boat gets in). So dear hubby calls just as I'm scrambling to get kids dressed and haul butt downstairs because breakfast is about to end (turns out I still had a half hour, the brochure in the room was wrong). So we eat and then head over to the boat. Of course, all the sailors are drunk by the time get there (in case you didn't know, the bar opens as soon as the boat is docked, no matter what time it is). So we hang out on the boat for awhile, because by this time I need a drink. After a couple of hours of the kids running up & down the boat and a few more drunken sailors either pass out or move on, we decide it's time to leave. Dear hubby needs a nap.
We return to the hotel, he takes a nap & the kids & I head off to WalMart. My 7 year old son has decided that he wants to spend all of his birthday money on an Ipod. Of course, he doesn't have THAT much money, so he's settled for an MP3 player. So we buy that, some shoes for the beach (forgot to pack some), this & that, etc. Turns out we had to go to 2 stores to find the shoes (crocs) and we all got a pair (love those end of the season sales). Then we return to the hotel to see if Daddy's awake yet.
While we let Daddy sleep some more, I copy High School Musical 1 & 2 over to the MP3 player (which The Boy has affectionately "named" Empy). The Girl colors in her new coloring book (also bought at WalMart) and I sneak in a few chapters of Midnight Mass (F Paul Wilson - the library didn't have the Harbingers in yet).
Finally, we wake Daddy up because it's time to go to the crew party @ Captain Clem's hotel room (it's now 4:30 ET). So much for that family time at the pool or the beach today! We get to the party late, snack on this & that, and then it's time for dinner. Of course, none of the crew have kids anymore so no one volunteers to go out with us...so it's just family tonight. We go to a brewpub-type place that we went to last year. The kids are fighting (or is that playing) under the table and dear hubby & I look like we're just having a blast. I try to make conversation...always resorts to work related stuff. Neither of us are interested...I mention that maybe one of these years I come alone & leave the kids at home. Finally dinner arrives - they screwed up my order. I change my order and ultimately the waiter doesn't charge me for my dinner (gave him a nice tip for that).
We head back to the hotel room - by now it's bed time & the kids are wired. I try to read a few more chapters of my book...but to no avail. We turn out the lights and go to bed (before 10 PM, whatever happened to apre-sail parties?).
Next morning - we're scrambling out the door after breakfast so we can get Daddy to the boat in time...we get there with time to spare as the railroad bridge closes for a train (that translates into a half hour of waiting). I tell My Man we're outa here - no reason for us to stand in the wet grass by the side of boats since they're rafted out 4 boats & everyone's busy getting ready for the race. So the kids & I head back to the hotel to pack up for the beach. I squeeze in the end of the book before we leave (didn't want to take a hardcover to the beach). Then I remember we forgot to buy beach toys at WalMart yesterday, so we go to Walgreens on our way out of town. I ask some locals about where to find a nice beach (don't want to back track to St. Joe) and we finally find one about half hour away (but in the direction we want to go). We spend the next few hours in the sun & sand (forgot my bathing suit, but didn't want to get wet anyway). We get to watch the fleet on the horizon as they s-l-o-w-l-y make their way to Indiana.
After hours at the beach (and me wishing I'd wore a suit because I was HOT), I decide it's time to go. I take the back roads, in hopes that a nap will happen in my backseat...it does, and we arrive in Michigan City around 4 pm. I call dear husband and find out that they still have not found wind and that they'll be lucky to finish the race before the cut-off time (8pm). You've got to be kidding me! If only I could go shopping! But I'm not about to drag these two kids to the outlet mall! Fortunately, one of the crew lives near us so I decide to forgo the rest of this "family" vacation and leave to go home. Dear hubby will get a ride home and I'm outa here!
I get home in time to give baths, dinner and slump into my lazyboy in front of the t.v. Durn it, I wish I had a new F Paul Wilson novel to read...

vacations

It's always great to have something to look forward to. The day goes by quicker, you feel lighter and your mood brightens. As a business owner I don't get to take too many vacations...and certainly not very long ones. And being in business with my husband makes it even harder (when we go on vacation that's 2 less in the office!). So we took a long weekend in March and now this weekend we'll take a little more (still not a whole week) for the Mackinac Island trip. This trip used to be an annual event (we both were sailors so I always met him up there after the race) but after having kids, the cost of it, and the business demands, kept me from going. But last year we (the kids & I and my mom) took the trip. It was SO great to get away. And now the kids & I will be doing it again...we leave Sunday. Yes, it's a long car trip alone with the kids, but I'm still looking forward to it. It's great to be on the island. No cars, the only loud noises are sailors & the occasional canon boom. Of course it smells like horse "stuff" and you have to watch where you walk, but it's still better than being at home!
I can't wait to go...and I'm sure by Wednesday I'll be anxious to get home & back to work. I only hope this time that the office can live without us and we won't be fielding calls the entire time we're gone! But that's a whole other blog...