No Hitter!

The first Cub game in DAYS, and it was worth waiting for! Instead of playing in Houston (Ike), the Cubs and Astros took the field in a "neutral" spot, Milwaukee, aka Wrigley Field North. The bats woke up, and Carlos Zambrano pitched the first Cub no-hitter in decades. I love my Boys in Blue. Right now, I even love Zambrano.

DAY 14 -- September Fitness Challenge

Leg lifts on the floor in front of the TV (with my cat, Charlotte, keeping me company by doing the feline version -- trying to kick the stuffing out of a catnip mouse). From a culinary point of view, I rediscovered PB&J, and I enjoyed it. This is a low-fat way to get that protein I'm told I lack.

Sunday Stealing #3

Sunday Stealing: The Meme About Blogging



1. How long have you been blogging? Since May 2006

2. Any advice to beginners? Nope

3. What are the good things blogging has brought to your life? It's a nice "bus man's holiday." I write for a living, but the subject matter and medium are dictated by my clients. (As it should be; they're paying for it). This way I get to write just to express myself. It's a great journal, wonderfully organized for me, and just waiting for me to chronicle my life. And it's been a terrific way to see how similar my life and feelings are to other women's, all across the country. There IS more that unites us than divides us!

4. What would you consider the pitfalls? I either have to figure out how to keep it anonymous (which is a drag) or pull my punches (which defeats the journal aspect). I've fallen somewhere closer to anonymity, but it's hard.

5. Tell us about your blog name. Ever think of changing it? If so, to what? Why? There weren't a lot of appropriate names available with "musing" in the title. There you go, that was my deep, creative process. It still works, so no, I haven't thought of changing it.

6. Knowing what you know now, was starting a blog a good thing for you? Why or why not? It was a good thing. It's comforting to have a place to deposit whatever is bugging me, making me happy, or that I'll want to remember years from now. It also helps me connect with others in a way that is, weirdly enough, often more "real" than my "real life," again, because of the anonymity.

7. How do you think blogging, bloggers, or the blogosphere has changed since you started? I get less spamming than I originally did a couple years ago (thank you, Blogspot). And I get fewer annoying commenters. I guess because I've learned that deleting them is more effective -- though infinitely less satisfying -- than responding.

8. Ultimately, what would you like your blog to accomplish for you or others? I'd like it to be an evolving chronicle of my life, and if it resonates with you, I'd like you to share.

Party like it's 1929

There goes Lehman Brothers … right after Freddie and Fannie and Bear Stearns. Are AIG, Merrill Lynch and Washington Mutual (the good people who hold my mortgage) next?

I have no idea what any of this means, but I know it's not good. I wish Barack Obama and John McCain would quit talking about lipstick and pigs and explain if these developments have any impact on their plans for the economy.

It's sooo frustrating! Four years ago it was a Constitutional Amendment to ban gay marriage (hey! whatever happened with that, anyway?) and Swiftboating. Republicans are so good at this -- throwing a smoke bomb to distract us from what's really at stake -- and then the Democrats have to respond or it looks like the smears or silly "cultural warfare" stereotypes are true, and somehow frivolity rules the news cycle and no one talks about the real stuff, like Lehman Brothers and Freddie and Fannie and Bear Stearns.

Yes, they're ugly, but I love them

It's been raining -- and raining hard -- since Friday night. I am not in any way minimizing the horrors those on the Gulf Coast are suffering, but here it is mid-September, and Chicagoland is already setting records for monthly rainfall. Homeowners along the Chicago River have been evacuated, and that isn't standard practice. I'm in a fourth-floor condo, not a house with a basement, so I'm not as adversely affected as some. But I'm a little blue and feel almost trapped indoors.

It's times like these that I love my Crocs. To borrow from one of my favorite Marcia Ball songs, these shoes are "the right tools for the job." My far prettier denim/cork sandals are STILL soaked through from a run to my favorite coffee shop yesterday brunch. My Crocs? They then took me around town to my other errands, and are dry, comfortable and ready to go out into the rain again today.

I'm embarrassed by their looks, but I when I need them, I shamelessly turn to them. It's my fabulously dysfunctional rainy-day relationship.