That was some party!

Diesel's book release party that is. Time to get on with life here at Simply Said. You did go buy his book, right?

It's hard to keep up with blogging. Life takes over and sometimes lack of motivation trumps all. Not that I'm not motivated - just not with the written word. My zodiac symbol is a crab and sometimes I like to withdraw into my shell and so I do things like this:










or this:
I am so inspired by beauty in the form of art and interiors (and exteriors) and design. I get a couple/three (love that old saying) magazines along those lines. I have been pulling out sheets in which something catches my eye. In reading some of the design blogs on my blogroll, one or two in particular talk about creating your own "Inspiration Books" and so I started my own. It's crazy, but I spent a good part of the afternoon hours Saturday doing this as Tali designed something with her "Ello" toys nearby. Julian was at Grandma's and Scissors ~ where the heck was he? Hmmmm. Anyway, I find it soothing beyond belief.

So that's my idea of fun. What's yours?

I love this little picture showing Julian's chivalrous side as he insisted on carrying Tali's book for her into violin class this evening. Did I mention we had Julian with us because Scissor's car broke down and I had to swoop down, rescue Julian, toss Scissors my charged cell phone for him to call a tow and off to pick up Tali from camp to deliver her to violin. All done in time somehow.


Good night Irene!

ANTISOCIAL COMMENTARY RELEASE PARTY!!!

TODAY'S THE DAY!

I've called you here for an important dispatch. One so important that I thought a PressConference necessary.

You've been waiting for it without even knowing what you've been waiting for.

Diesel of Mattress Police and founder of Humor-blogs.com is publishing a book! A funny book. A witty book. A well written book. If I seem rehearsed, I'm just trying to remember what he told us to say about it. Yes, of course he told us what to say - the guy is a control freak. He has allowed for our varying levels of endorsement of his witty tomb and has even gone so far as to recommend possible posts:

"Diesel, the twisted genius behind the humor blog, MattressPolice.com, has announced the publication date for his first book! Antisocial Commentary: From the Secret Files of the Mattress Police, is a hilarious excursion through the mind of Diesel"
Twisted genius - I'll say. Who else but a twisted genius makes a tree house for his kids with a front door that opens to a 20 foot drop? Twisted genius indeed.

"You may be wondering how in hell a hack like “Diesel” gets published. Simple. The same way every other hack gets published these days: He self-published the book through Lulu.com. You know, the place that ranks just below Kinko’s as a reputable publisher?" Why the thought did cross my mind, but it all makes perfect sense now.

Okay, all of the above is meaningless, here's what's important:

BOOK TITLE: Antisocial Commentary: From the Secret Files of the Mattress Police.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: compilation of some of his best posts, plus some original material.

The book is going to be published on 8/15, but he'll start taking “pre-orders” at MATTRESS.POLICE.COM today, 7/26. It will retail for $11.95 + S&H, but you'll be able to pre-order a signed copy for $9.95 with free shipping.

Mostly you should buy it to help pay for the mounting medical bills associated with casting his poor kid's arm from falling out of the aforementioned treehouse.

No really - you should buy it for the same reasons I plan to:

- Help support a fellow blogger bud.
- The guy really is funny and writes well.
- You can use it to even out a lopsided table (his suggestion).
- It's a summer read - you won't even have to think while you read it. Actually that's not true, but if I know Diesel, he'll be happy to do that for you too.
- Two lattes would set you back ten bucks. Diesel is like a jolt of caffeine on a quiet day, so you won't even need to drink coffee as you read his book.


Okay, the real truth is that Diesel did not pay us to do these posts, he doesn't have to. He's a mensch, and makes you want to support his efforts. His success would be our success as we'd be that happy for him. The best is that he is most certainly not a hack - he writes well, with humor, sarcasm and wit - all from his own funny (albeit twisted) view of life.

So head on over and read up more at his place. Go on, nothing to see here folks. Move along.

A Tale of Summer Boredom

Three Dog Night's "Joy to the World" played on the little transistor radio on Marnie's blanket in the yard where she sat out under the tree, painting her toenails and wondering about summer friendships. Marnie always felt that somehow her summers never quite amounted to much. The truth is in this small town, whose did? But that was Marnie's problem, she dreamed of being away from this small town, if only for a week, a month - imagine for a whole summer!

She read books in which children went to camp, learned how to ride horses, solved mysteries, even kissed boys (that she could do in this crummy town, she thought somewhat repulsively). At thirteen, she knew of girls who did just that, they were fast becoming pretty popular. Not Marnie, she was somewhere stuck between tomboy and wanting to feel a bit more girly - not too much though. Toenail polish was as far as she ventured. She found those kind of girls to be just stupid.

Sure her parents took her and her three brothers to their uncle's little cabin near Lake Silverfoot for a long weekend each summer. Once they'd even gone for a whole week! But it just smelled moldy and made Marnie feel a bit sad, even though she had fun playing in the lake with her brothers. She even made a friend or two to play with. Once there was a boy named Claude who she was playing with and remembered saying that her favorite color was brown because his was. That was two summers ago. Oh how her brothers had made fun of her for that one, she still remembered.

She continued to paint her toenails as Jobie peeked through a space between fence planks. She ignored him as she mostly did when she wanted to be alone with her thoughts. "Wanna go bike riding Marnie?"

"Not now Jobie. Maybe later" she answered without looking up, humming along to the radio.

"Roller skate?"

"I'm waiting for the 4:30 Movie to start - it's Gidget week. Maybe after supper." Marnie offered.

Jobie gladly accepted "I'll call for you later Marnie!" and with that ran to go find some of the boys to scare up a game of wiffle ball. He didn't have far to go to succeed.

Another summer of Jobie and bike riding over the bridge passed the commercial waterfront along the river and back. Could be worse, Marnie tried to convince herself unsuccessfully.

She went inside and put on Channel 7 just in time for the music to kick up and Gidget Goes Hawaiian to roll.

"Someday, I'm going to surf there" thought Marnie as she settled into her favorite movie viewing perch with her legs hanging over the overstuffed armchair. Never mind that she had barely tipped her toes in an ocean. Marnie's dreams were already intertwined with the movie.

She smiled inwardly as MoonDoggie and Gidget did the Twist on the beach.

Dis Organization Part II

Another area where it can become frustrating trying to fit the "yes I am a together and organized person" profile is navigating the password Yellow Brick Road to gain entrance to the paperless Emerald City that awaits us online.

I only have about ten such for different applications at work. I've tried to start keeping everything the same, but it doesn't always work out that way as there are also different log-in names. For instance, first initial/last name; last name/first initial; caps/no caps; space/nospace; must have 2 numbers, 1 character and one animal reference. That's not including personal life passwords for various bill paying, blogging, flickr, etc.

Today I attempted to log in to one such place. Sorry, this does not match. Okay try another combo - nope. Shall we ask your secret question? Sure.

Place where you met your husband? Simple - NY Rangers hockey game. Wrong.

Okay, more general - NYC. Nope.

Madison Square Garden! Nope.

The backseat of a car? Hah, just kidding.

I am sorry to report that as a result of this run-in, I now have no idea where I met my husband, although he seems convinced of the above so now I'm not sure if he is, in fact, my husband.

Then to add insult to injury, when they finally degrade you enough by the smarmy "Forgot your password? Just enter your email" No record. I just know there is a tech person sitting back popping nachos into his mouth saying "What's up, you again? Write it down, biatch!" The truth is that I truly have a great memory, but it seems to fail me with so many options out there. I mean if I only log in sporadically, the chances of log-in success dwindle accordingly.

Once you try to gain the next rung of the recoup the password ladder, the inevitable, "Enter code letters as they appear below" subdues you into thinking your sign-on is imminent. Imminent if you had dropped acid and are looking through a funhouse mirror as that is the mental state you'd need to be in to decipher the code. The DaVinci Code may have been easier to solve (actually that whole book was one predictable pile of..., but I digress). The caps are actually small, the small are numbers and the numbers are that reference to an animal that I mentioned earlier.

I know we are supposed to be moving towards a paperless society but until such time that we just place our eye up to the screen and gain access, I will be a slave to the password scrawled on paper somewhere. And it will get changed and it won't be written down...you follow.

Now can somebody please tell me where I met my husband?

A Ball of Twine

That's sort of how I've been feeling of late - a big ball of twine. A ball of twine which has a giant cat batting me around, in fact.

The balled up feeling is my emotions which can, you know, get the better of me at times. Although you'd never know it from the outside (unless you live with me of course). The good news is that I was home today and got to catch up on some much needed paper sorting/pocketbook cleaning (where does it all come from, I ask!) and generally trying to get my house in order. Considering the cleaning woman was here yesterday, shouldn't be too hard, right?

Ah, the cleaning woman, yes. The one who left a note addressed to my husband (as he basically works from home and is there to let her in) "Scissors, la puerta es mal." Well yes, if you consider coming unhinged mal, then yes indeed it was. She of the slippery fingers cleaning school. Not slippery as in stealing - G-d forbid, but breaking which may or may not be worse. But really, if I don't have (and have often been without) a cleaning person, life gets really out of whack! As although Scissors works from home and handles cooking - cleaning is an elusive sort of category to him. He's not a slob, but then again, he's not exactly neat.

The truth is that I am a bit of a dichotomy. I am a neat person and like everything to be in place and my home to be comfortable, yet I'm disorganized and still working on the perfect filing system and thus spend time that I could be...well, blogging, looking for a certain paper. It's maddening to say the least. The truth is that I hired a professional organizer several years back who started me off. She was also a decorator and so we got into painting and decorating and well, I did get rid of a lot. But once I'm off the beaten path, it's hard getting back on. And we never got back to my filing system! Damn her (or really me for never picking back up where we left off).

All this is to say, time to get away for the weekend and just unwind (that ball of twine again).

Hope you all have a good weekend and the sun shines upon you wherever you are.

ANALYSIS = PARALYSIS

Women in Art

You know, I just thought it would be fun to pass along some of the inspiration that comes to my eye on any given day. I'm a giver. So take a look:



I found the inpiration while being inspired at Creative Swoon.

Enjoy!

Rabbit Rabbit

RABBIT RABBIT AND GOOD LUCK IN JULY!



I was just thinking that it couldn't hurt to kick off my birthday month with a little luck!



Above print from an art site called LITTLE PAPER PLANES