Remember Me?

No need to adjust your screen, and your eyes aren’t tricking you — this really is a new blog post. As my almost two months of absence can attest, I’ve been struggling with the blog lately. The entire thought process surrounding this is long, fairly dull, and might lead to concerns for my overall mental stability. (“You spend time thinking about that, really?”)

But, lest you think I am pretending in order to excuse a too-long absence, here are just some of the questions I’ve been pondering: Who is the blog for? (Me? Readers? Both?) What is the blog about, other than me? Does it have a theme, a purpose? Does it need one? Are Facebook and/or Twitter working better for me to keep in touch with people? Should I be using the blog differently now that I’m using FB & Twitter more? Would I want to do more with the blog if it had a less-stupid name? And, of course, once I get those questions answered, there’s the usual, mundane stuff about finding the time to write and all that. (And all I can say about that is it’s amazing what a mere 30-minute change in work hours can do to complicate things.)

But anyway, I’m happy to report that the time I spent on my blog hiatus certainly wasn’t dull. I’m never going to manage to recap it in any comprehensive way, but here’s a quick overview. Since last you heard from me, I:

• had house guests, twice (Marlene & Chris in October, Shannon & Wendy in November);
• went to Nashville for the National Preservation Conference and, among other things, ate more barbecue than would probably be considered appropriate;
• took a trip to Mexico (Akumal, on the Riviera Maya), had a blast, and discovered that tequila doesn’t kill the H1N1 virus;
• had the swine flu and an ear infection — at the same time;
• got to see nearly my entire family (Mom, the Minnesota cousins, the Pennsylvania cousins, my uncle, and — of course — Brian, Jen, and the boys) for an early Thanksgiving/family hockey night extravaganza;
• did a bunch of planning for my trip to Egypt and made a website for the friend whose wedding I’ll be attending there;
• went to several Caps games, a Redskins game, and a couple of concerts (Andrew Bird & Bruce Springsteen), and — this is the biggie —
• got a new nephew – at least for now, one who I’m excited to be meeting for the first time this upcoming weekend.

I don’ t know if this post marks my return to regular blogging or just a drive-by visit to the blogosphere, but given that it’s a new month, I thought I’d kick it off with a post.  We’ll see where it goes from here. And by all means, if you have any opinions about the questions I raised or advice on getting my blogging mojo back, by all means, have at it in the comments.

Bad Auntie (or, The Day I Almost Ruined My Nephew’s Hockey Career)

Yesterday, I made my first-ever trip out to the Kettler Capitals Iceplex, the rink out in Ballston where my Washington Capitals practice. I was not, as you might suspect, heading out to stalk get an up-close view of the players (though I wouldn’t have complained if that had come to pass), but rather to go ice skating with Jen and D, my sister-in-law and older nephew. D has decided that he wants to play Mites on Ice hockey  at a Caps game, but there’s a glitch in his plan — he doesn’t know how to skate.  Yesterday’s trip was his second time out on the ice, and Jen invited me to join them.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I am going to come out right here and say I am a terrible ice skater. I always have been, even when I skated semi-regularly as a kid, and having not been on the ice more than once or twice in a decade or so has done nothing to improve my skills.

You can see where this is going, can’t you?

Things went remarkably well for most of our visit — a spill here and there for D, but nothing he couldn’t handle. Jen and I went around with him most of the time, each of us holding a hand, but he’d also let go for short stretches every now and again. Towards the end, we decided to take some pictures, and that’s where things went off the rails. We slowed down for a moment to let Jen snap one last picture, and D wobbled and fell just as a group of people came around the corner. I couldn’t get out of the way fast enough, and skated over two of his (thankfully glove-covered) fingers on my way down to the ice.

I can’t say with certainty which one of us freaked out more. D was, without a doubt, louder, but I was just as upset. I mean, I skated over two of his tiny little fingers. I hurt one of the little guys I love more than anything in the world. And worse, I did it when he was trying out something new, something that he liked, something that he really wanted to do. I was afraid I’d instantly ruined ice skating for him — squashing his dream of playing Mites on Ice, and thereby denying him his future NHL career. I was heartbroken.

Fortunately, D ended up being a real trooper. After what felt like an eternity of sobbing, he started to calm down. (In reality, he wasn’t hurt all that badly;  one finger was bleeding a bit and both were clearly going to bruise, but they were definitely not broken.) Seeing an opening, I went straight for bribery, offering him chocolate milk in exchange for getting back out on the ice — knowing that it was critical that he skate at least a few minutes more so that he wouldn’t end up permanently afraid. He was reluctant, but eventually the lure of chocolate milk overwhelmed him, and we made one last circuit of the rink.

Once the skates were returned, while we waited for the customization on my Caps jersey to be finished, we sat in the snack bar and D had his reward. And thus, my status as a beloved auntie — as well as  D’s future as a hockey star  — was saved. Phew.

This-n-That

Well, it’s another one of those weeks where I am being a very bad blogger, partially because of work (too much time in front of the computer at the office = lack of enthusiasm for it at home), but also because I’ve just been feeling lazy about writing. A few of the ideas percolating around in my brain are going to require serious effort, and I am resisting. So instead, here are a few random tidbits, some about the blog, some not.

Blog-related:

1. Yeah, I know — I am really late on getting last week’s Project 365 photos posted. I do have them and am hoping to post them tonight. But then, I was planning to post them last night, so no promises.

2. I also know I’ve been terrible about doing my three beautiful things posts of late and promise to improve on that, as well. I may shift it to another day of the week, since I am not always as smart or motivated on Mondays as I might be.

3. Eileen and I are beginning discussions about having her become my official co-blogger, instead of just a now-and-then guest writer (and also instead of her possibly starting her own blog). Any thoughts on this? Does the current template make it easy enough for you to tell who has written what? Or do we need to think of a new design along with a new name?

Not blog-related:

4. My dishwasher isn’t broken! I’ve thought it was for months, but (as if by magic) it is now working again. I don’t have enough words to say how happy this makes me. Had I written a 3BT post any time in the last few weeks, this would have been on it.

5. I’ve been hearing these really weird ads on NPR for a production of Pirates of Penzance at Wolf Trap. The ad begins normally, but then end with “including the song ‘I am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General.’” I don’t know why this needs to be spelled out — it’s one of the songs in the show; why would it not be included?

6. I’m loving the fact that the DC Sports Bog is covering the National Spelling Bee finals. When one of the participants questioned why she was being interviewed by a sportswriter, blogger Dan Steinberg told her “once it’s on ESPN, it’s a sport.” Her reply is classic:

“Sports is, like, athletics,” she noted. “This isn’t athletic at all.”

7. Speaking of sports, I’m finding this still-developing  news story very depressing and want it to not be true. (And I have to say, the complete vagueness of the accusations gives me some hope that it isn’t.) I’ve never thought of hockey as being a steroid-driven sport, so would find the Caps’ involvement very surprising, and, well, if the Nats are taking steroids, they need better ones.

8. I’m starting Arabic lessons on Tuesday with a couple of the girls I went to Jordan with. I’m very nervous, as I’ve never exhibited much of an aptitude for languages. (See: my almost complete inability to communicate effectively in either German or Spanish despite years of classes.) We’re hoping to make another trip to the Middle East next year, and thought having at least some ability to communicate in Arabic might help.

9. This is cute. (Hat tip to Rudi for sharing.)

Well, I thought I might make it all the way to ten, but alas… I think that’s all I’ve got for now.

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Updated to add numbers 8 and 9. I guess I had more than I thought.