Sweetpea’s Garden

I’m going to let you in on a little secret: I don’t like the name of my blog. Maybe this isn’t that much of a revelation; I haven’t been happy about it almost from the beginning, and have complained about it off and on to those of you I know outside the blogosphere.

Of course, I have no one to blame for this but myself, since I am the one who named it. And as I wrote shortly after I launched (in response to a handful of WTF? emails from friends) it was in tribute to the nickname my father called me when I was little. And given that I started the blog less than two weeks after his death, it isn’t all that surprising that I went in that direction for a name.

There are a few reasons why I wish I had called the blog something else. I’ve realized that I am not especially comfortable with other people calling me Sweetpea, which is why I never correct anyone or make edits when someone slips and calls me Sarah. I also find the name “Sweetpea’s Garden” to be almost irredeemably hokey. I honestly can’t believe I came up with it. And, finally, it just doesn’t suit me. You’d have to be running really, really low in your big box of adjectives to pull out “sweet” to describe me.

I’ve done some poking around, and — much to my relief — it looks like I won’t need to start from scratch if I want a new blog name. All I need to do is buy my own URL and WordPress will set up re-directs for it, so all the old links and stuff will still work. This doesn’t seem like a bad option.

Now, all I need to do is think of a new name, but I am coming up blank. Any suggestions?

I’m a day late on this week’s three beautiful things, but as I noted in yesterday’s post, I wasn’t really in the right frame of mind. I can’t say for sure that I am in much better shape today, but I have my wallet, it isn’t raining, and I made it to work for my 10:00 a.m. meeting, so I’m gonna give it a go.

1. I got a surprise birthday present in the mail from my friend Heidi. It’s a gorgeous wooden bowl that smells like pine trees and for this reason reminds me of the cottage my family spent summers at while I was growing up. Inside the big shipping box, the gift box was wrapped in a lovely piece of green taffeta large enough to be a table cloth. Beauty upon beauty, with a cherry on top, this present was.

2. My former college roommate, Wendy, and her husband came to town to visit this past week. While their primary goal was visiting their new niece in Fredericksburg, we did get to spend some time catching up, along with another of our old roomies, Joanne, who lives here in DC. I’m not sure that Bob’s idea of a beautiful day was the three of us chattering away at a pre-baseball happy hour, but if it wasn’t, he was a good sport and didn’t let on.

3. Even though I posted about it already, that whole WaPo Express/DC Blogs double-header was a huge high point of my week and I’d be remiss to leave it off the list.

I am so in awe, I have to write about this. My girlfriend from college never ceases to amaze me. Here is a little background.

My friend Mary Beth is married, has two kids (ages 5 and 3), and works three days a week. Her husband travels regularly for work so she is on duty 24/7. For fun, she exercises (spinning classes and various cardio things), and she decorates cakes beautifully (for almost anyone who asks). She also loves 80s metal bands and boys with long hair. She has always been an awesome friend and cheerleader.

So why am I telling you about my girlfriend? This last weekend, she and her hubby (along with some other friends) participated the Rocky Gap Adventure Race - which is a timed (5 hour), 18-24 mile, trekking, biking, paddling, and navigation challenge. As if she doesn’t have enough to do with work, kids, hubby, and house she decided to turn in to iron-chica.

Now that I have confirmed that she survived the challenge - albeit very sunburned from what I am told - I just have to say publicly - WOW!

They finished in four and a half hours, finding all six check points in their assigned order, on and off trail. Here she is with the hubby and a friend after the race (hubby in the middle). And yes, that is mud splatter all over!

Oh, and then she came home and made a cake for someone (it appeared to be a wedding cake no less).

Don’t I feel like the human slug! Go MB!!