I'm Not *That* Talented!

Among my group of friends, I’m known as the cook, the one who likes to cook and bake. I’m the one who hosts the birthday parties at home and makes the homemade cakes. I enjoy it, and I like to do it for people.

When it comes time for playgroup, people always make sure to show up when it’s at my house, as they know that they’re guaranteed enough food to skip dinner that night. In fact, one friend insists her husband stay late at work on nights I host playgroup.

I’ve had the same playgroup since Mister Man was a few months old. Our group has grown and shrunk and grown again. There are only a few of us who remain from the original group, but we’re all good friends. Until earlier this year, we met every Monday at someone’s house. Now that we all have two children who are involved in a variety of activities, it’s down to once a month. I miss having it every week and seeing all of them as often, but I’ll admit that it was getting really hectic to try to make it every week.

Today was my day, and I have to live up to my reputation. I had planned on making a bunch of food, but I ended up having an unexpected mandatory call for work from 3 to 3:45, while I was planning to get ready for playgroup from 3 to 4:15. Needless to say, it became a bit rushed.

The good news is that I’d planned ahead a little and made cookies the night before. It wasn’t my banana cake or chocolate éclairs or chocolate cherry chip brownies, but they were homemade at least. I also had made a batch of bread dough a little after noon that was rising.

I ended up making homemade bagel dogs and pizza with the dough. In fact, I realized that I had no sauce in the house (whoops!), so it was truly homemade pizza – homemade dough, homemade sauce, homemade cheese. Oh, just kidding there was no homemade cheese.

After that, I cheated. I cut up cheese and put out crackers. I washed the mongo strawberries I bought at 7:30 this morning. I put out pita chips, although I had forgotten to get hummus. Ironically, I bought salsa but forgot chips, so it sort of evened out.

Partway though the playgroup, the following conversation ensued:

Friend A: This is all really good.
Me: Thanks!
Friend A: By the way, what is this white creamy dip? It’s my favorite!
Me: Uhhhh, you mean the Cool Whip?

Apparently my friends have too high of expectations for me. While I do occasionally whip cream myself, I wouldn’t do it for small kids at playgroup. And I had intended to make a yogurt dip for the strawberries but ran out of time. I’m definitely not capable of recreating the creamy goodness of Cool Whip, however!

I'm On A Mission...

… and I want you to join me!

On Friday, I had the annual alumni event for the consulting company I used to work for. It’s actually pretty fun. Anyone who’s ever worked there is invited back to the office (and Booz was founded in 1916, I believe) for appetizers and drinks and meeting up with old friends while making new ones. All in the aim of getting more business for those currently working there, of course (not that this is the stated aim or ever mentioned)!

Anyway, I took the train down this year since I didn’t want to deal with any of the traffic issues of driving into the city on a Friday afternoon in the summer while the Edens is under construction. Not surprisingly, I made a good dent in the newspapers I’m behind on. Sadly, I still have about a seven inch pile to go.

Anyway, my point is that a woman approached me on the escalators to the street.

Her: Excuse me.
I slid over to the side of the escalator so she could get by me (without looking of course – no one actually looks in Chicago)
Her: Excuse me? (more of a questioning tone)
Me (turning this time): Yes?
Her: Where did you get your top? It’s fantastic!
Me: Oh uhhh White House Black Market. Thanks!
Her: It’s really great; I love it!
Me: Actually, I got it last fall, so I can guarantee they don’t have this one anymore, but they’ve always got really great stuff.
Her: Thanks so much for the recommendation. I’ll definitely have to go check them out.

Not that I was having a bad day before that, but her giving me a compliment like that (and granted, it is one of my favorite tops) really made my day.

Then I got to thinking – because, really, what else is there to do while walking the streets in the Loop. I see things I like and admire on or about people all the time, but I rarely say anything. But if it gave me such a life on a not bad day, what would it do for someone who is having a bad day? And how hard is it?

The only downside I can see is someone being snooty about it, but really, that’s their loss and just provides more fodder for entertainment, right? But if I can find someone to compliment every day, how great would that be? Who’s with me?

Can Someone Just Choose For Me?

My car turned 11 years old today. Well, at least 11 years old in my ownership of it (and I’m the only owner). I’m still calling this its birthday though. It’s seen a lot of history with me, and a couple of minor incidents.

It’s an Explorer, and to be honest I hate Fords at this point and am not likely to buy American (or at least Ford) again given the quality issues I’ve had with this car (and my previous Explorer – which says a lot for me being a slow learner, right?)

For as many issues as it’s had over the years – the most recent being a mysterious unwillingness to start again if I’ve driven awhile in hot weather, stop the car and restart it in under twenty minutes. Given that this last issue cropped up last summer, you’d think that I would have replaced it before now. Knock on wood, I haven’t had this issue yet this summer.

I haven’t replaced it yet though for several reasons. The first is that I tend to be a bit ummm frugal, shall we say. I hate spending money on things like this, and a car is a huge money pit of a depreciating asset. More importantly, I couldn’t decide what to replace my Explorer with.

Part of the debate was sedan vs SUV (minivan isn’t a consideration – I just can’t bring myself to buy one). Gas mileage alone, sedan all the way and hopefully hybrid. However, I have two small children and am already starting to need to carpool. Plus, when my family goes somewhere with my parents (which we do frequently since they live 15 minutes away), we always take two cars because 6 people don’t fit into any of our cars.

I did finally decide SUV is the way to go, but I continue to have the dilemma of what to buy. There isn’t a car that jumps out at me shouting BUY ME! Many marketers will be crushed to hear that, I’m sure. I definitely don’t want a car any bigger than my 1997 Explorer (the current Explorer is already a bit bigger), but I also want a third row.

This will come as no surprise to anyone who’s read my blog for more than a couple weeks, but my dad has decided that he’s going to get a new car after the breakdown he had on Wednesday (fuel pump went on his 12 year old 150K mile Yukon). So yesterday, we went car shopping together.

The first dealership we went to was a Chevy dealership to look at the Tahoe hybrid. Ray greeted us, and internally I groaned. I hate to stereotype, but Ray lived up to it in the end. He was a quite elderly, slightly unkempt looking man in a non-matching plaid collared shirt and pants.

We asked about the Tahoe, and luckily there was one on the showroom floor. As we asked what the third row seating looked like folded down, he tried to describe it until we asked him to actually show us with the car sitting in front of him. He walked around to the back but couldn’t get the tailgate to lift – entertainingly, he did the “Hey, watch this; it’s really cool!” – because the battery was dead in the car. Hmm. “Well, I suppose if you really want to see it I can find a car on the lot and bring it around for you to look at.” Uhhh yeah, actually we were hoping to do a test drive, so please bring a car around, thanks.

Ray then disappeared for the next 15 minutes. Had I not been with my dad, I would have been out of the dealership well before he finally walked back to us. My dad, however, really wanted that test drive, so he hung out in the driver’s seat of the non-functioning showroom car looking around the interior.

Ray’s expression wasn’t too promising, and well… neither of the two hybrid Tahoes he had on the lot were functioning. They both had dead batteries, too. Apparently it had been awhile since anyone had expressed any interest in driving them. He was going to have someone jump them though. Comforting.

We finally got into a car that was running, and my dad noticed that the gas gauge was on empty. Ray then went back into the dealership to get a voucher for gas. Apparently either changing to the other car that was now also running wasn’t an option or it’s normal for cars on the lot to not have gas. We drove to the gas station, and I won the bet with my dad. I chose the under on his line of 5 gallons. Yep, 4.65 gallons – just under $20 – went into the tank. My confidence in the dealership continued to plummet – the two-thirds empty lot for a brand whose fortunes are down (along with the caliber of salespeople still there) makes me wonder how long the dealership will remain afloat.

As we drove down a side street, I commented that I had not seen a certain neighborhood before but that the houses were really cute. My dad explained that they were actually Habitat for Humanity houses, which was pretty cool. Then Ray piped up from the back seat that nope, they weren’t Habitat, they were built in 2000, they were like townhomes but with no wall sharing, they have full basements, the neighbors are all really nice, etc etc. In case you can’t guess, Ray himself lives in that not-Habitat neighborhood. My poor dad.

Unfortunately, the Tahoe wasn’t even an option. The seats didn’t even come close to folding flat in the third row (a need for Costco trips!), it was really hard to get into the third row, etc etc.

We then moved on to the Honda dealership a mile or so away. There, we were greeted by someone opening the door and welcoming us. All the employees wore smart looking matching outfits. Dustin was able to answer questions we had about the Pilot (unlike poor Ray). He could walk through all the features on the various levels of the Pilot, plus the differences between the 2008 and 2009 models.

He quickly brought around a 2009 for us to drive and kept us up to date with everything he was doing, so we never wondered where he was or what he was doing while we were patiently twiddling our thumbs. That alone earns Honda some points in my book. Plus, the Pilot is a far superior car in my book.

It’s a much more comfortable drive – the Tahoe really was too big for me. The cupholders and storage areas are intelligently designed vs just dumping space together. Lots and lots of clever little things within the car, including my dad’s favorite feature, the backup camera mounted in the rearview mirror. On a lark, I’d stopped by the Toyota dealer about a month ago and test driven the Highlander and been perfectly content with it. But it’s hard-pressed to compare with the Pilot in terms of intelligent features.

We then proceeded to the Toyota dealership, where the intelligent and put together guy I briefly spoke with at my previous test drive was not around. Instead, Raymond helped us out. What is it about people named Raymond? He was very similar to Ray from the Chevy dealership in both looks and attitude. Actually, his attitude was worse than Ray’s.

We did finally get a hybrid Highlander to test drive, but unfortunately he knew nothing about the car. C’mon the 2009 Pilot has been out a few weeks and Dustin can recite everything it has and all the changes from 2008. The Highlander has been out since October of last year, and Raymond couldn’t answer half the questions we asked him (and they weren’t hard – things like does the third row support LATCH? Not a good sign when he’s never heard of LATCH).

Raymond never tried to sell us on the car. There was no reason in his mind why we should purchase this over anything else. In fact, he walked away from us twice to go talk to his buddies when we were looking at the car before driving it. And when we finished the test drive, he went inside and basically shook our hands and that was it. Truthfully, if I do go with a Highlander, I will be sure to not deal with Raymond as I don't want him to get any commission off me for his poor performance. And my dad, who's generally far more patient than I am, feels the same way.

Anyway, we drove the Highlander hybrid, as well, and we were definitely not as impressed. The storage space wasn’t as intelligently designed as the Pilot, nor was there as much of it. The backup camera was in the center console vs rearview mirror, which meant my dad couldn’t see it for the glare of the sun when he was driving. It wasn’t nearly as comfortable inside, and the seats don’t fold as flat. Plus, it is more narrow inside, so the middle seat of the middle row is literally about 5 inches wide and not really a feasible seat.

However, it isn’t a bad car. Plus, it gets 25/27MPG vs 17/23 for the Pilot. Given the state of the economy and me already feeling bad that I’m going to get another SUV vs a smaller car, I’d tend to go for the higher mileage. But the hybrids still aren’t even close to perfected. If I keep the car for say 6 years instead of 10 plus and get the much improved hybrid then, maybe that’s the smarter move. Plus, I already get more than the stated mileage on my Explorer because of the way I drive (my insurance company loves me), which means that I’d be closer to the 20s than high teens with the Pilot. And it’s a much better car.

Then, there’s the price differential. The hybrid is priced a whole lot higher than the Pilot, and I’m not sure I can justify the increased cost, although I’ll be creating a spreadsheet on the breakeven under a number of scenarios within the next few days. And the way Toyota does their features, I tend to end up with a package that has things I really don’t want (e.g., DVD player) to get things I sort of want (e.g., navigation system or other minor upgrades). That drives the price up even more.

When talking to my dad today, he’s definitely going with the Pilot. And he’ll probably buy one sometime next week, knowing him. I don’t know that I’m quite that ready to pull the trigger this quickly, but he doesn’t have quite the same issues given that he’s retired and puts fewer than 6,000 miles on a car annually. Oh yeah, and do I really want the same car my dad has? Sorta weird, no?

I do know that I need to replace my car somewhat soon. I really don’t want to get stuck somewhere with the wee ones (or needing to get to the wee ones). But I’m still not sure. Anyone have any experience positive or negative with any of these? Or for that matter, any tips on how to ensure I get the best deal?

And They're Off!

We all have our guilty pleasures. Things that our spouses or loved ones do that crack us up that really shouldn’t.

We have two cats. Unfortunately, they are really dogs in cats bodies’ (read: incredibly people oriented and friendly and affectionate). They love hanging out with the wee ones, and they’re so excited when we and they get up in the morning. In fact, if it was their option, the wee ones would get up much earlier. To that end, they like to sit outside their bedroom doors and meow. Loudly. Sometimes they choose to do this in the middle of the night, as well.

Needless to say, the buddies get banished to the basement each night before we go to bed. This job falls to my husband. The fat one (Meow) is pretty docile and mellow and goes along with it all. Sometimes he walks into the basement by himself even. At the very least, he allows himself to be picked up and carried to the basement.

The wily one (Roar), on the other hand, would prefer to stay up with us, and he lets us know it. If he sees me heading upstairs at night, he’ll meow at me to hurry before snuggling in with me. When my husband picks him up to take him to the basement, he gives a very dignified squeak of dismay.

More often though, he runs when he sees my husband approaching at the witching hour. And since we have an open floor plan where you can walk around the entire house, he runs in circles (much like the wee ones play their “running game”). With my husband chasing him.

Roar used to run around one time and then give up and head into the basement on his own terms. Lately though, he’s been a bit more determined. So around and around they go before my husband finally convinces him to head downstairs. The whole game has become a highlight of my evening, and I’m disappointed when I miss it. Fortunately, my husband is good natured enough to allow me to laugh at his attempts to herd a cat.

Ahhh, and here they go. Excuse me while I go laugh for awhile!

Freaky Child!

I got that call from daycare today. You know the one. We all dread it. “Hello, Mrs. X, you need to come pick up your daughter.”

Of course, the call came about about 9:45 in the morning. She had been dropped off at 9am. Of course, I was in the office and in meetings until about 11:30. I was a bit panicked when I got the voicemail since it had been left so much earlier in the day. I hadn’t seen Little Miss that morning.

On the days I go into the office, my mom very kindly comes over at the ungodly hour of 6:15 – that means I’m up at 5:45, people! – to get the wee ones up and dressed and breakfasted and off on the bus and to daycare before she starts her day. (Thank you, Mom! You know you’re appreciated!)

Thus, I hadn’t seen Little Miss since I’d left to go practice softball the night before. When I left, she was fine. My husband didn’t say anything was wrong with her when I got home the night before. And my mom had sent her to daycare that morning. What could be wrong?

I called the daycare back immediately and asked to speak to Little Miss’s teacher. She wasn’t available but the director told me that her grandma had picked her up already and was taking her to the doctor because she had a really bad eye infection, and they were worried that it was contagious. Umm, thanks for calling me back to let me know that my mom had picked up Little Miss!

I then called my mom who said that her eye was hugely swollen and red and puffy but that she didn’t want to not send Little Miss to daycare that day for fear that my husband and I would be mad at her for keeping her home. Wait, what?

Needless to say, I was a bit worried about her, but the doctor’s appointment was at 11:45, so there was no way I could make it there in time. I decided that if it was really that bad and she had to go to the hospital for surgery (thanks for planting that thought in my head, Mom) I’d leave immediately and made my parents promise to call as soon as they heard from the doctor.

At 12:30, I called them again. They were just with the doctor then and would call me back. I waited, staring and staring at the clock. With each minute that passed, I was more convinced that there was something seriously wrong with her.

Finally, my parents called. It was just a bug bite. A simple little bug bite. So why was everyone freaking out so much?

Apparently, Little Miss is allergic to mosquitoes. She had a bite just to the side of her eye and it had swollen and so forth with the allergic reaction. Oh. Well, now that I think about it, the couple bites she got last year did swell up and have big red patches, but nothing like this!

New medical knowledge for me: the face has lots and lots of blood vessels so any allergic reaction will have much more swelling as there are that many more vessels to let the blood loose, etc. Oh, and because there is so much more blood, it will take that much longer for the blood to be taken back up by the vessels, which means that she’ll have what looks like a shiner for a much longer time. Great.

It’s now a week later, and she still has a shiner below her eye (awww, isn’t it cute?). Don’t call DCFS on me. It’s actually worse right now, as she got bit on her arm at daycare this time, which also got red and black and blue and swollen. My guess as that the second bite got the first bite inflamed again.

The good news is that Little Miss has an incredibly high pain tolerance and isn’t bothered by the bites. But hoo boy, I can tell this is going to be a fun summer! My mom has already vowed to not let her outside again until winter. Riiiiiight.

Today Is All About Me...

Or at least, it was supposed to be! Today was my desperately needed mental health day. A day for me to catch up on some of the things I haven’t had a chance to do at home that are on the someday list, as well as doing a few nice things for me to distress before the reality of summer hits with the whole family home and hanging out while I work three days a week.

Somehow, I forgot to write out the thank you cards for the preschool and daycare teachers. I can’t wait until they’re in elementary school and I have only one teacher to buy for. Mister Man’s this year was: two bus drivers, a preschool teacher, two aides, three therapists, the principal, Language Stars teacher, and three daycare providers. For Little Miss: two preschool teachers, one aide, and three daycare providers. All told, that’s nineteen cards (and gifts, ugh!) that I need to write at the end of the year – ok, and at Christmas, too. I’m so ready for it to be just one each.

Fortunately, I was able to get this all done before the bus came this morning, and Mister Man helped by signing each one that was from him. Of course, that also meant that I did nothing else this morning before the bus came. Once Mister Man was safely on the bus, I got the last of the things together for the trip to daycare and dropped off Little Miss. Finally, I was able to eat breakfast and take a shower.

As I was heading upstairs for my shower, I started to feel like a heel. Mister Man’s class was having a “graduation” ceremony – since all the kids but him are moving on next year – and I was planning to skip it for my mental health day. My dad was going to go, so he was going to have someone there to support him, but how wrong is it for me to not go? Ordinarily, I would be home and ready to walk out the door if necessary by 9:05, leaving me plenty of time to get a few things done before I needed to start driving to the preschool. At 9:23, I decided I should be there and that I was a horrible mom for even considering ditching the ceremony. Let’s just say that was the fastest shower, etc that I’ve taken in awhile.

At 9:55, I was driving through the last traffic light before Mister Man’s preschool, totally going to be on time. And my phone rang. It was my mom calling to tell me that my dad’s car had broken down on the way to the ceremony – about 6 minutes from where I was at the time – and requesting that I pick him up. U-turn and I started heading towards where my dad had broken down, although my mom didn’t know exactly where. Smart me, I called my dad’s phone, but no answer. Fortunately, I was able to find him by driving very slowly and looking down all the side streets.

When he saw me, he was surprised, as my mom hadn’t told him that I was coming. Oh yeah, and he had to stay with his car until the tow truck came which was expected about a half hour later. So I turned around again and headed to Mister Man’s school. I made it there about 10 minutes late and missed some songs and dances that they were doing, but I have years of that to come, right?

When it came time for the diploma presentation, Mister Man had made his way to the back of the classroom. At first, I thought he was coming to see me and was going to shoo him back to the rest of his class. Nope, he had to go potty. So when his teacher called his name and then started looking for him, he was still occupied. She, not surprisingly, had never noticed that he left the rest of the class sitting in the circle. The good news is that he made it back to the rest of the class by the time the last name had been called. He was so proud to have his certificate!

By 10:30, it was all over, and the adults were all taking their kids home. Uhhh, Mister Man can’t go to daycare until noon, and I have to be back at his preschool for a thank you lunch at 11:45. Plus, I also have to pick up a gift card at Petco for the school nurse as the last of our teacher appreciation events. The plan had been for my dad to take him to lunch and then drop him at daycare. Obviously, not going to happen now! Fortunately, Mister Man was understanding of needing to stay at preschool with the one student who had no parents come while I ran errands.

And yes, I managed to get the gift card in time to get back for the lunch. Plus, I did the first thing strictly for me today. The Petco happened to be near the mall where the belly dancing instructor had told me the hip scarf store was. I am now the proud owner of a black hip scarf with silver coins. Bonus: I was talking to the cashier about my complete noviceness, and she found out where I did the belly dancing class which happens to get a 20% discount. Yay!

The lunch, I will say, was lovely. The teachers went all out for us with china and lots of homemade goodies – including the oddest cake I’ve ever seen: graham crackers layered with pudding and then frosted – and many nice things to say. Apparently they’re grateful that we were finally able to get the school board to approve building a new early learning center!

I tried donating blood again but unfortunately my iron was low, so I was deferred again. Apparently all the running, etc that I’ve been doing has been depleting my iron stores. Of course, going there meant driving 20 minutes northwest. I then drove 30 plus minutes southeast to uhhh get a manicure and pedicure. See, I told you it was a day about me!

On my way home, I got a call from my parents wanting to know where I was. They needed my car with carseats so they could pick up the wee ones at daycare – for some reason, they prefer that the wee ones spend the night if possible rather than my mom being at my house at 6:15 so I can head out to work! – and with my dad’s car having been towed, my car was required.

I picked them up at my house, and we all went to pick up the wee ones, which is always a good 20 minute experience, especially when there are students and teachers to say good bye to and lots of accumulated stuff to ensure we pick up. Finally, I arrived home to start my mental health day for me at 4:40. How did it get to be 4:40 already?

I started going through some of the end of year papers and filing a few of them before my neighbor brought dinner. And granted, I did check my email briefly. Oh yeah, and I paid my property taxes and credit card online. However, my at home to do list somehow didn’t shrink. I need a mental health day from my mental health day!

The update with my dad’s car is that the fuel pump has gone on it. It’s an $800 repair on a 12 year old car with 150,000 miles. Knowing what you do about my dad, anyone want to join me in a pool on how long before he comes home with a brand spanking new one?

And lastly… I absolutely can’t decide what three posts to provide to SITS to get featured – because I need that ego stroke! Tell me your favorites, and let me be lazy!

Why Do We Blog?

I suppose everyone has a different reason or set of reasons, but I know what my reasons are. The more I think about it, the more I realize I have quite a few reasons.

I sometimes have a poor memory, and these times with the wee ones are ones that I want to capture – and not just the good but the bad and the ugly, too, so that I can empathize when they have children of their own. I had started writing them letters that recapped the previous year each year for their birthdays, but I know there was so much that I was forgetting and so much of it was the little fun cute things that I want to remember.

I also find that my blog is a great outlet for me when I am frustrated or irritated or confused by something. I can pick and choose the gory, unrefined and sometimes pitiful bits that may provide a colored view of my world, but they allow me to vent here. Once it’s out of my system, I then regain the zen (ha!) that I normally do and don’t take it out on anyone around me. Or less so, anyway.

I also generally like to write. Anyone who’s ever received an email from me knows that I’m pretty good and spinning something out of nothing. I’m not claiming by any stretch to be a great writer, but it’s something I enjoy. Disciplining myself to keep my blog updated ensures that I write just a little bit more frequently than I would otherwise, and I think that’s good for me.

For a long time I put it off, thinking that I wasn’t good enough or didn’t know how to do it or it would be too hard or too humbling. Now I wish I’d started far earlier as there are stories that I’d thought I would remember but only the vaguest of details remain with me today. If you don’t have a blog or aren’t keeping yours up to date, go for it! It is yours to make of it what you will, and that’s part of what makes it so great.

Plus, there’s a great community of bloggers and blogger readers out there. While I have no ambition to ever make money off my blog (and kudos to those who do!), it is nice to know that what I write doesn’t just go into a black hole but that someone else gets it – or doesn’t – or enjoys or appreciates something that I wrote. It’s something of a selfish ego boost, granted, but I won’t deny that it’s nice to see my reader counter slowly rising and see comments pop in on most posts.

Towards that end, I have added a couple of buttons to the left of my screen. Both are new blogger communities that have pretty lofty aims that I applaud. They aren’t soliciting the best of the best – whoever determines that – but recognizing the everyday blogger and helping them find an audience and a voice.

AllMediocre is a play off AllTop, which shockingly I hadn’t heard of. Apparently AllTop features the crème de la crème of the blogosphere, while AllMediocre takes that and runs with it. As members sign up, they are encouraged to go visit new blogs that are part of the community. It’s a great idea, and I have to say that there are some entertaining blogs part of the community. Go check them out!

The other new community button is SITS – The Secret Is In The Sauce. Every day, they feature a new blogger, again not the high profile blogs but average blogs by average people who submit theirs to be featured. Obviously submitting isn’t a guarantee that a blog will be featured, but what a great way to find new blogs that you like while at the same time increasing readership for the featured blogs. I love the idea – and of course, I’ll give them a plug on their contest. In their effort to get this cool idea off the ground, if you comment on SITS by Friday, you’re entered to win a bloggers survival kit. And to keep the momentum and give incentive for readers to go visit the featured blogs, there will be a small weekly contest for those who go visit the featured blogs and comment.

I love the idea behind both these communities. And it’s given me a nice opportunity to reflect on why I blog. Or some of why I blog, as I’m sure there are more reasons that I have yet to identify. So why do you blog? Or if you don’t blog, why not?