When did ‘average’ become a bad word?  To call your child average is an insult, as would be to call yourself average, your marriage average, your dinner average.  From Merriam-Webster, “a level (as of intelligence) typical of a group, class, or series <above the average>”  Even the dictionary can’t settle for average, they have to say, “above average”.  If average is what most people are, then at some point, we have to admit that most of us are average, and to deny that is to set yourself up for disappointment and failure. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that it’s best to settle in and get totally comfortable and…

As you know, I’m trying to blog every day this week, while I’m on vacation, to see how it feels to be more active in the blogging community again. I’m also trying to spend a bit more time reading blogs, and seeing how that feels again. Thus far, I’m enjoying it. It’s kind of like the first time you jump in a swimming pool after a long cold winter, and you think, “Oh yeah, I KNEW I liked this…I wonder why I stopped?” This is a meme I saw over at Simon Says. Simon is another blogger that I’ve met in person…he and his lovely wife Paola and their three…

Whilst dining with Heidi yesterday, she asked me about Walnut Creek, where I live now. I said, “Well, it’s bland (aka, mostly white), and if you want to live in the suburbs, you have to choose between the yuppies and the rednecks…so we chose the yuppies.” Driving home afterward, I started thinking that maybe I wasn’t being quite fair. I don’t think of Walnut Creek as my home town, because I came here as an adult, when I was 30. But I moved a lot as a child, and really, I’ve lived here longer than anywhere else. I lived in Fairbanks for 5 years. I lived in Stockton for 11…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00u6qUelp6c[/youtube]

First off, Happy Friday the 13th. I’m not very superstitious, though I’ll admit to a few silly ones. I don’t open an umbrella indoors. I don’t walk under ladders. And I make wishes on white horses. Silly, I know. Anyway, Friday the 13th is a good day in my family. First off, it’s payday (yay!), and secondly, I remember the year my mom got pretty lucky on Friday the 13th. Saw this on Facebook. I don’t know the original source, but I liked it enough to share it here.   What’s with the apostrophe s? Who is this SnackWell that owns the company? I’m confused.  Or grumpy.  Or both. I…

My mom liked to say that we were broke, not poor.  The differentiation is that being poor is generational, and most likely lasts at least a lifetime. You come from poor, you’re poor, your kids are poor. Broke, however, means you’re not living up to your economic potential just now, but you may not have been broke last year, and you don’t think you will be next year. It’s temporary. You don’t act poor, you still act like a lady or a gentleman, whatever that means within your family. Growing up as the child of a single mom, one who loved teaching in private Montessori schools and working for social…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGDmBLAPikU[/youtube] (Title sung to the tune of ‘Notorious’ by Duran Duran) Ahem. Sorry, my blog is boring the heck out of me. Looking at a picture of orchid buds for weeks on end…whatever. So let’s see if perhaps I can come up with something else to talk about. I fully admit that I’ve posted most of these on Facebook already. But maybe you didn’t see them there, or maybe you’re not on Facebook, or perhaps you’re there, but we’re not friends. What a thought. Saw this chalkboard sentiment, and thought I’d share it here. Really, I couldn’t agree more. Please, live your beliefs. Unless your beliefs happen to SUCK, in…