Seems like there is a lot of changes happening in the Tangents’ world. I did like having my own avatar, so I thought I should have a page that displays them. If the page looks a little familiar, I’m using the same theme our admin is using.

I liked it because it was highly adaptable. As you may have noticed, I like playing with this and I never leave a default if I can help it. If you notice, your avatar is not the standard default, so if you don’t like the little monster, you should pick your own. 😉 So far, I like this theme and the current setup, but again things may change.

3 more shows, so this will be a short post.

Just a quick note because I’ve been too busy, and I miss blogging!  I had started two posts about last weekend, but haven’t had the time to finish either one – hopefully I will soon!  It’s been really difficult to blog with a 17-month-old who only wants to climb on me and bang on my keyboard when I actually do have the time to sit down!  So then my computer will reset, and that’s the end of that…

More later – I’m hoping!  STAY WARM!!!

IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED THE 11-12-09 EPISODE OF The Office… PLEASE SKIP THIS POST!

Tonight’s episode put me in the mood for one of those infrequent murder mystery game nights. But seeing that our poor hosts are under a self-imposed quarantine, this will have to wait…. get well soon.  It seems that the gang from Dunder-Mifflin Scranton Branch are under the impression that the company is on the road to financial disaster.  Much to co-manager Jim’s dismay, our beloved leader devises a plan to put the teams mind at ease: A Murder in Savannah.

Each associate is given a character with props to create using their imagination.  Naughty Nellie Nutmeg, Nathaniel Nutmeg, and VooDoo Mama Juju are a few.  Guess who gets to play Caleb Crawdad, handsome playboy.  As usual, hilarity ensues in the face of turmoil.

The outcome of the company will likely take a few episodes to decide as will the undertones of the Andy/Kelly “Erin” relationship.

Perhaps it is all a ploy to advertise the newest edition of the classic board game Clue.  And check out the cool new look of the Tangents homepage and check into starting a blog of your own… it’s FUN!

I’m not really sure why I’m up so late this evening, but I am..

I was skimming through some of my old posts because I noticed somebody was going back and looking at things. I think it was some sort of ‘bot looking into my blog, but I can’t tell for sure unless they reply.

Last year at this time I made a plea for some blog responses. I did get a few and that really made my day. I realize that not everyone sees something in blogs to respond to. I know that I visit a blog site or three and don’t respond. Not because I don’t like the blog, but because I really think that I have nothing to add.

I’ve just been thinking, maybe (just maybe) I should respond every once in a while with a simple “I like your blog.” response. That would take very little of my time, and would give the other blogger a small lift. I mean, it couldn’t hurt.

That may or may not show up on blogs I semi-regularly post responses to. You know who you are, and I really enjoy your blogs. Sometimes they say everything that needs to be said. My response would be redundant.

I’m going to try to get some sleep… Ha Ha…

I did not go to Walmart yesterday, but I still have enough of a complaint to sit and write a blog post about the place!  In case you’ve missed my other (many) Walmart rants, I’ll save you the search and link to a few of the various episodes depicting the times they wronged me.  Like this time.  And this time.  And this time, to name a few…

So anyway, back to last night – I needed tartar sauce for dinner and didn’t realize it until after the kids got home from school, so I ran out (for what I thought was going to be) really quick to get some.  I went to Walgreens first, but they don’t carry tartar sauce, so I went across town to Dollar General, and they don’t carry tartar sauce either.  Is this a side effect of living in a small town – it’s hard to find the things I need last minute if needed?  If so, I will gladly take it in exchange for the traffic, air pollution, and the general stress that exudes from larger cities (see hubby’s blog post about a recent news article about the most stressed cities – ew).  But most likely the apparent lack of tartar sauce in rural NW Ohio is due to scenario #2 – ever since we got a Super Walmart a few years ago, the competitors have phased out certain grocery non-necessities like tartar sauce.  Why should they carry old crusty tartar sauce when no one buys it there because everyone shops at Walmart?  I begrudgingly include myself in that category – you can read those previous posts of mine if you really want to know more about my Walmart paradox and why I shop there.  (At least my kids were never slapped by strangers, and I haven’t shown up here – yet.)

If you’re still with me – I’ve linked all over the internet in this post, so I wouldn’t be surprised if I’ve lost some people –  I’m going to blame Walmart for my lack-of-tartar-sauce problem.  And in case you’re wondering how it all turned out, it really wasn’t a problem after all.  We just convinced the kids to try ranch dressing instead of the tartar sauce, and they actually liked it – well, until the ranch dressing came out too fast and spilled and incited a tantrum that caused a chain reaction that ruined dinner, but that’s another post!  And before my comment board lights up with healthy eating advice, I’m already aware that the kids really shouldn’t grow up so sauce-dependent.  But in these parts where the kids outnumber the adults, you must adapt to survive, and “pick your battles” is essential parenting advice!

While I’m on the topic of date night (see my previous post)…

This week we did not feel like mini-golfing again on date night, so we went bowling instead.  I did so well, we got a printout of the scores, much to my husband’s dismay – I’ve already mentioned how he has bad luck at physics-dependent sports like bowling and mini-golf.  And I got tons of practice at bowling as a kid – I was in a weekly bowling league for I don’t know how many years.  Later in high school, I took bowling in gym class and joined intramural bowling after school where I  was crowned, “Female Bowler of the Year” for the two years I was in it –  not a difficult feat, seeing as how there were under 10 girls involved, but still, if we had had a competitive bowling team in high school, perhaps I would have been a high school athlete, hehe!

I’ve spent about 23% of my adult years pregnant (!) and most of the rest of those years raising small children who would wreak havoc with a bowling ball, so needless to say, I have not had a chance to hone the skill I developed as a youngster.  I do enjoy the occasional bowling game,  though, and rarely do I top my previous bowling average from back-in-the-day: 132.  Well, the other date night, not only did I top my old average for the two games we played but I somehow tied my all-time high score!  Well, anyway, here are the scores, and this reminds me to make joining a weekly league a priority when the kids get a little bit older!

And about the title I chose for my post…  I just finished reading the book Columbine by Dave Cullen, and it was a fascinatingly detailed account of the 1999 Colorado high school massacre dissected from just about every angle.  If you like to read true crime or just want to know every detail about the massacre (it holds a special fascination for me since it was unfolding just as Hubby and I arrived at our honeymoon destination after a 24-hour road trip back in ’99), you should read this book.  It’s both sad and informative, and the author does mention that the Michael Moore movie, Bowling for Columbine, has little to do with the circumstances involving the high school massacre.  But, Bowling for Columbine is a catchy title nonetheless, which is why I borrowed it, not because I’m a Michael Moore fan.  Actually, we saw a parody of his movies the other day, and I will be sure to include the movie review in an upcoming post called “It Was A Redbox Summer”.  Stay Tuned!

Don’t count me out!  I know I haven’t been blogging as much as I used to; it’s because I’ve been all over the place this summer!  I am just swamped, but in a great way!  The girls were with their Grandma for the past week, so I used the opportunity to finish up some old blog drafts and post them.  I haven’t really had the chance to sit down and write up my many recent adventures, so hopefully time will allow for that in the next few weeks – it’s been totally awesome, and I can’t wait to share everything with you!  But until I have time for more blogging, please bear with me and check back often for updates!  I hope everyone had an awesome 4th of July weekend – happy birthday America!  THANKS FOR READING!

WOW!

I’ve made 500 blog posts here on My Food Chain Gang!  That is A LOT of rambling and a ton of tangents!  Thank you for reading; especially those of you who have read all 500 posts, if there is anyone who could stand me for that long!

I think after that many posts, I’m entitled to a generic one, noting nothing other than my 500th blog post, don’t you?

I don’t know what’s happened to me lately.  For over a year, I was pretty diligent about publishing my 5 blog posts per week, one for every  weekday.  Sometimes I did more, sometimes less, but rarely as few as I’ve been writing lately.  I figured that if I were to lose enthusiasm for this blogging thing, it would have happened already and I’d be done with it.  But that’s not the case.  I’ve stuck through it while being pregnant (of course it was easy to sit on my pregnant butt in the summer heat last year and blog – didn’t want to do much else!), and I even caught up after having the emergency surgery and the recuperation period associated with that, also while caring for a new baby and 3 older kids.  And I also caught up after spending a week in Florida with no blogging!  So yes, it’s something I enjoy, and something I’m going to stick to.  I think I’m just going to back off a little bit for now and not publish quite as many posts as before.  I still have a lot to say, and a lot of things with which to bore my readers, so have no fear!

But the weather is nice, and I have 4 kids to deliver to places around town constantly.  We’ve had to recently make some sacrifices – I always wanted to give my kids the opportunity to be in every activity they wanted, but I’m finding out that it’s just not possible with 4 kids.  My oldest is in Girl Scouts, and she also wants to take piano lessons, swimming lessons, be in 4-H and be in plays.  Our very-soon-to-be 5-year-old is old enough for Safety Town class this year, and we kind of wanted to get her involved with swimming lessons also.  Not to mention all of the projects that Mom and Dad have volunteered to do; the list seems endless.  I think our summer is jam-packed already and it’s only May!  Plus, we’ve embarked on some rather large home improvement projects that need finishing…

So don’t wonder where I am or if everything’s ok – it’s GREAT to be Über-Busy!

Thanks to advance posting (thank you taylhis for making me look for this), I am able to wish myself a happy blogging anniversary and not have to worry about getting it done that day.

I wasn’t sure what I was planning on doing when I started this blog. I thought I would get a few more space/science related blogs than I have, but that is neither here nor there. I did assume that I would write about my theater experience. That I did. I also wrote about my family, friends, life experiences and even some book and movie reviews.

I am always interested in who reads my blog, but it seems that most visitors are either computers (loads of spam visits) or very shy lurkers. For the most part I average around 25-30 visitors a day. Less if I don’t write anything new, more if I do. Are people telling their friends that I wrote something? I don’t know. My guess is that it is just the computers finding new stuff. I also noticed I get more visitors when I post on other sites with my blog as part of my signature. I hope they enjoy what they find here.

My regulars, well I just think they are the some of the best people I know. But of course I still wish more people would reply. I’m in theater, I enjoy the notice. 😉