Making a List and Checking it Twice

I probably should have been pulling the weeds growing in the cracks of my driveway,
but I chose to indulge in pleasure and rode my fancy-schmancy new bike instead.

I'm not a list maker. I don't write down my daily to-do's at home, nor at work. I have yet to move my Bucket List beyond two dreams that I'll probably cross off in the next couple of years. I'm just not a thinker; I'm more of a do-er. Or so I thought, until I had the day off.

This summer has been crazy-hectic. It's been wonderful, but left me with little time to do the simpler things in life that just give me a perk. So today I had the day off work, and by 8:30, I was already starting to feel defeated. I started remembering all those things I wanted to do today. Not the things I should do -- the things I wanted to do. Like ride my new bike, play my flute, clean out my son's closet, exercise, and go to the library for Pattie Mallette's new book.

Instead, I found that I was spending my morning watching the same stupid talk shows I always watch when I'm home, and thinking of the things that I need to do (clean), but have put off. So I started to pick up all the shoes on the floor and then I thought --no. They're not mine and I'm not going to. This is my day off and I'm going to ride my bike!

So, I went for a bike ride. (I won't describe the pain that immediately followed.) As I caught my breath, I thought, what next? Not my flute. That will have to be later today, when I can breathe again. I tried to remember all the things I thought I wanted to do today but I couldn't remember what they were. Then it hit me: I need to write them down. I need to make a list of all the things I want to do and give myself time to do them. But I'm not going to cross them off. I want to keep doing them.

If it takes a list to remind me to do the things I enjoy doing, then so be it. I'm making my list and checking it twice. And now, I'm off to the library to read about Justin Bieber's mom. Because later, I have to play my flute.

The Pros and Cons of Returning to Haiti

Children at one of the orphanages we visited.

I recently ran into a woman I'd met in Haiti in 2008. She was surprised I remembered her, but I wasn't. Going to Haiti on a mission trip was life-changing. I think I remember everyone I met there. It was an experience I'll never forget.

At the time, I thought I'd like to return someday and bring my daughter with me. There were two young teenagers on our trip and I could tell that their lives would never be the same after going there. In fact, I think one will likely be a missionary, at least for part of her life. I wanted to bring my daughter, too, so she could see how other people live, and see how lucky we are in America and how much we take for granted. She's not a selfish girl at all, but she is perhaps a little sheltered. I want her to experience more than life at home. I wanted to take her to Haiti.

But now the subject has actually come up. Now my husband and I are actually considering making the same trip down there that I did years ago. And now that it's a possibility, I'm not sure about taking her after all.

So I decided the best course of action would be to make a Pro/Con list.

Pro:
1. It would be a wonderful, life-altering experience.
2. She would love helping out in the orphanages and would be a big help.
3. Going as a family would be incredible. We could make sure she's safe, and we would always share in this experience.


Con:
1. Some parts of the trip are dangerous, as any trip to an impoverished nation is.
2. Some parts of the trip might scare her; seeing people hurt or begging might upset her too much.
3. The vaccinations, mosquitos, and potential for disease are real concerns.
4. The bus trips and sitting on the back of a tap-tap is almost a deterrent for me, let alone her. It's dangerous.
5. Selfishly, I don't know if I want to spend my vacation time volunteering this year.

But the biggest consideration is that she's not sure she wants to go. She would, and would willingly help out without complaining, but maybe we need to wait another year or two. In fact, I'm not sure I've quite recovered from the 2008 trip. I may need another year or two myself.

10 Things You Probably Don't Know About Me

Today I'm turning Daily Snapshot inward. I'm revealing "10 Things You Probably Don't Know About Me" unless you're my husband or my mother. Then you probably do.

1. I hate having my picture taken, which is why there are so few of me on my blog. I HATE having my picture taken.

2. When I was a kid, I wanted to be Helen Keller and taught myself Braille. Yes, I know this sounds odd. I might even be writing a book about it (wink, wink).

3. Doctors told me I couldn't have children. I have two -- which is part of the reason why I never listen to doctors.

4. If I could go anywhere in the world, I would cleverly choose an around-the-world trip.

5. I asked my (now-)husband out on a date one morning because I thought I was having a good hair day and decided to swing by the bakery where he worked. I'm glad the mirror was kind to me that morning.

6. I pay my children to brush my hair.

7. I still have my old Archie comic books from the '70's.

8. The first thing I ever published was "How to Make Gumwrapper Chains" in Child Life magazine.

9. I rarely re-read books. The only exception is Where the Red Fern Grows. I read that 13 times in a row when I was eleven-years-old.

10. I'm a Justin Bieber fan.


Feel free to share something about yourself. It's kinda fun. :)

7 Things You Might Not Know About Hummingbirds

You can see the red-throated hummigbird to the left of the feeder.

1. Hummingbirds remember every flower they've been to and know how long it will take each flower to refill with nectar.

2. Hummingbirds hear better than humans.

3. Hummingbirds have little to no sense of smell.

4. Hummingbirds can barely walk; they prefer to fly.

5. Females lay a clutch of two eggs.

6. 30% of a hummingbird's weight is comprised of flight muscles.

7. A hummingbird's wings can rotate in a full circle.






*All facts gleaned from http://www.worldofhummingbirds.com/facts.php

The Race for the Oreos

We went to the pig races and watched the swine race for the Oreo finish. They had names like Hammah Montana and Pigtailor Swift. I believe Hammah won. After that, we spent the day thinking up new names for female contenders:

Piggy Longstocking

Dorothy Ham-mill

Hamber Frey

Pork-tia De Rossi

Scarlett Johamsen

Barbra Swinesand

Piggy Sue

Re-bacon Romijn

Natalie Porkman

Hillary Swine-k

Ham-ily Blunt

Hamela Anderson

Swine-dy Crawford

Sleep



This is not my bedroom. If it were, I'd probably sleep better.


There's been a lot of conversation within my relationship circles lately regarding sleep, or better yet, lack of sleep. I've been a horrible insomniac for most of my life but never really worried about it until I learned that it is a contributing factor in developing dementia. That scared the bejeezus out of me! And made me worry more that I wouldn't be able to sleep.

Everyone I know offered advice. I'm sharing some of their suggestions here, in case, like me, you have trouble falling asleep and/or staying  asleep.

1. Establish a bedtime routine. Going to bed at roughly the same time every night and following a bedtime ritual helps you trick yourself into getting ready to sleep. (Kinda like you do for a baby.)
2. Take all electronics (computer, smart phones, television, etc..) out of the bedroom. You're there to sleep; not work.
3. Make the room dark.
4. Read before bedtime.
5. Listen to audiobooks so that you can keep the room dark and your eyes closed.
6. If you can't sleep, get up and read or do something else relaxing instead of tossing and turning.
7. Limit caffeine. (This is the toughie for me. but I have stopped drinking coffee after noon.)
8. Take melatonin every day to reset your sleep cycle.

I've tried everything on this list. All of these suggestions have helped, but I'll admit that melatonin has made the biggest difference. I have a prescription for Ambien, but don't take it unless I really can't sleep, which is problematic since at that point, I probably don't have enough time to let the Ambien work. But by taking melatonin every night, it has improved my ability to fall asleep.

I still have some sleepless nights, but the insomnia is much less frequent now. I think the biggest change is actually that I take sleep more seriously now. I'd never considered how important it was to my health before, but now that I do, I'm making sure I get more sleep.

11 Things I Did In 2011 That I'd Love To Do Again

1. Walk along the Great Wall of China
2. Hug a dolphin
3. Stomp grapes
4. Climb to the top of Notre Dame in Paris
5. Eat Belgian waffles
6. See windmills in Amsterdam
7. Parasail
8. Watch my daughter's soccer team make it to the State Championship
9. Attend the Murder & Mayhem Writer's Conference
10. Sit and read a book all day
11. Laugh at the antics of my husband and mother. If I don't do anything else, this is the one that I want to repeat.

Glad You Found Me?

I am dying to know who is so incapable of standing in an elevator
 that only goes up and down three floors that they need a chair to sit down?

******************************************************************

It always interests me to see what search words bring people to my blog. Most are pretty straightforward, but sometimes weird combinations show up in my Traffic Sources. I jotted down a few of the ones I thought were fun and share them here with you.

men with mustache eats the earth

Jeezle! He grew a mustache, yes. But he didn’t eat the earth!

the golden gate bridge suicide phone

This one was easy. Yes, there is a suicide hotline phone on the Golden Gate Bridge, and yes, I took a picture of it. I still wonder whether anyone has used it? The piece I wrote wasn’t actually about the phone. It was about a weird conversation we had during a children’s birthday party. We gave it way too much thought.

all toes amputated

Not even entering these words into a search engine on my blog brings up any results for these words. What in the world??

johnny depp beach

This surprised me. I don’t ever remember writing about Johnny Depp. I’ve never met or seen him. So I did my own search and found me “Precious Toenail Polish Massacre” story. Now it all makes sense (kinda).

working on a third degree burn victim

This person had to be disappointed. Oddly enough, when I saw those search words, I thought 'Huh. I did write about the hospital in Nicaragua. I didn’t think I had yet.'  But when I entered the words for the search, I saw that I was correct; I haven’t written about Nicaragua yet. This piece was about my daughter watching Women’s World Cup Soccer. “Third” and “Degree” are interspersed, not together.

elevator sociology

I knew exactly what post these words led to: a fictional story about a sociology experiment a young woman conducts. But it’s not in an elevator.

top ten signs you're not god

Wow! I loved these search words! They actually linked to my list of “Top 10 Signs You’re Not The Next Food Network Star.” I guess some Food Network Stars probably think they are God, so my list might apply. I thought about coming up with a list of Top 10 Signs You’re Not God, but it could get very out of hand. I was a little afraid to go there.

Shoulda Been Seven



It gives me the creeps to take snake pictures. I can barely stand to look at them. This one was at the Georgia Aquarium.


After I posted my Six Scary Snake Stories yesterday, my daughter quickly reminded me of another. So I guess it should have been Seven. (It could probably be seventy...it's anytime I've encountered a snake.)

7.  I was driving in Mt. Vernon, Ohio one night when I pulled into a Staples parking lot. I got out of the car and walked toward the store when suddenly on the sidewalk before me was a snake. I happened to be on the phone with my husband back home and naturally, I started hyperventilating and high-stepping it back to my car as he listened to my panicked hysteria that the snake was chasing me. I peeled out of the parking lot, screeching onto the street to get away from the snake as fast as I could. Except that at that point, I was irrationally afraid that the snake had somehow gotten into my car. My husband tried to calm me down as I blindly drove down streets I didn't know, both pressing the gas and lifting my feet because I was afraid that snake might have been on the floor of my car.



I don't know how I forgot that story in the first round. I think I try to repress these memories. But everyone who knows me seems to have a snake story to add. I don't want to hear them! I want to forget!

No More Snake Stories!

Six Scary Snake Stories That Still Give Me Shivers

My son's cat desperately wants to get ahold of that snake. I would let her.


I am PETRIFIED of snakes. Petrified. I cannot express that enough, though the following stories may illustrate my point. I have goosebumps just thinking about them.

1.  This may be when it all started. My cat Wolfie had been missing for a few days during severe thunderstorms. When the rain finally let up, I put on my dad's work boots and wandered out into the woods beyond our acreage, searching for Wolfie. The mud was deep and the trek was tough, especially because his boots were way too big. I stopped in the woods and called out, "Wolfie!" I stood still, listening for meows, when all of a sudden I looked down and a snake was slithering across the top of my feet. I screamed and began running through the deep, sucking mud. Everything went black. I passed out for a minute, then came to, terrified that the snake was chasing me. I started running in the too-big boots again, intermittently blacking out and coming to as I made my way back to the house. I feel a little light-headed just thinking about it. Sidenote: Someone else found Wolfie's remains. :(


2.   Another cat story. My cat Midnight loved to bring us gifts. We were presented with dead rabbits, moles, mice and birds at least once a week. She often laid them on the doorstep; a macabre greeting that always startled us. But one time she brought back a live present. She meowed at the doorstep, so I opened the door. She ran in with a snake that she dropped at my feet. I remember screaming. I remember leaping across the room to the stairs. (Snakes can't climb stairs, can they?) What I don't remember is who caught the snake and took it back outside.


3.   I tried so hard not to let my fear of snakes influence my children. I tried to keep my fear of snakes to myself. That plan backfired. One day when my son was about 3-years-old, I took him and his friend Richie to a school playground to play. I sat at the picnic table, reading a book when all of a sudden I heard excited screams from the boys as they ran across the playground toward me.  "Mom! Mom! Look!" I looked, but couldn't make out what they were carrying. It looked like they had bouquets of flowers in their hands as they ran toward me. Mac often picked me flowers, but these seemed odd; I didn't see any colorful blooms. Then they got about ten feet away from me and I saw what the 'bouquets' really were: baby snakes. Dozens of them in each hand. I jumped up onto the table and hysterically smiled at the boys. "Take them back where you found them. Their mother is probably looking for them."  I didn't even care that I was sending two toddlers back into what I perceived as extreme danger. Better them than me. Survival of the fittest, and all that. It was all I could do to stay conscious. Sidenote: We never went to that playground again.

4.   I was sunbathing on a lounge chair in my backyard during college. A snake slithered near my chair. I jumped up and leaped as far as I could to the next lounge chair, where my feet went straight through to the ground. Hysterical and tangled up, I dragged the chair with me to the porch as I sobbingly screamed the whole way and then dead bolted my door to the backyard. That snake was NOT getting in my house. Sidenote: I never went into the backyard again.

5.   I was walking on a cement path through a local state park with my family. I saw a snake on the path and took off, screaming that it was chasing me. I saw black before my eyes, but didn't pass out. My husband and kids laughed and laughed. Sidenote: I have not gone back to that park.


6.   This story is my husband's favorite. This will make no sense to anyone else, but I feel a ringing in my ears like I might pass out just thinking about it again:

We were in Estes Park, Colorado. We'd taken the sky lift to the top of the mountain and were browsing through the gift shop. I was wearing clogs. (This is important to the story.) The shopkeeper was showing us things like Jackalope droppings, bear turds, etc. Lots of kitschy joke souvenirs. Then he handed me a little paper packet. "Those there are rattlesnake eggs. Probably about ready to hatch." Suddenly, the paper packet rattled in my hand. It was a spring release that he'd activated, but I didn't know that then. I thought the snake eggs had hatched. I thought (in the brief millisecond before the world went black) that I was now holding snakes in my hand. I screamed. I kicked up my legs and my shoes flew off. I jumped back and was blinded by blackness and a hot ringing in my ears. I was about to pass out even as I heard the shopkeeper and my husband laughing. It was all a joke. Ha, ha. So funny. Sidenote: The shopkeeper did NOT make a sale.

10 Diet Tips I Cannot Stick To

Generally speaking, most diet tips offer good advice. Drinking lots of water, filling up on veggies, exercising routinely and watching portion sizes all make sense. But there are a few diet tips that I cannot adhere to, no matter how hard I try.


1. Eat five small meals a day.
It sounds like a good idea, but when I try this, my reality is '5 meals a day' and they're not all that small.

2. Don't eat after 6pm (yeah, right) or (more generously) 8pm.
I will rationalize eight dozen ways that I should feel justified in breaking this rule because I "didn't eat much earlier" and then, by the time I give in and have a little snack, it's closer to 10pm which has got to be worse than if I'd eaten at 8:00.

3. Switch to skim milk.
Yuck. Then I need ice cream because I'm still craving the taste of milk that I didn't get when I downed a glass of white water.

4. Skinless, grilled chicken breasts.
Come on! The skin is the main reason to eat chicken!

5. Vary your exercise routine.
This one confounds me. I love to walk and could walk for an hour without thinking twice. But when I try to change up my routine and do something different -- basketball, kickboxing, bicycling, etc., I last about 10 minutes and call it quits.

6. Exercise with a partner.
You know the saying, "Never let them see you sweat"? That's my motto.

7. Order dressing on the side of your salad.
I know this makes sense and that I eat less dressing when I do this. Until I drop half my salad in the little petri cup of dressing and then end up pouring it on my salad because I've made such a mess.

8. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
It's also the make-it-or-break-it point for dieters. Blow your diet at breakfast and suddenly the whole day is shot to hell.

9. Put your fork down between bites.
This starts to feel like "playing with your food."

10. Only eat when you're hungry.
HA! If I could do this, I wouldn't need to be on a diet!

Restaurant No-No's

Sean Elder wrote an article for the digital magazine Real Eats titled 5 Things You Never Want To Hear Your Waiter Say. That immediately caught my attention, but I was disappointed to open the link and find such innocuous things such as:

• "It depends on what you like."
• "We have two orders of the [blank] left; if you're thinking of that I'll put the order in now."
• "We'll bring the dishes out of the kitchen as they're ready."
• "We can't turn the air conditioning/heat/music down because the chef likes it like that."
• "What are we talking about here?"

Here are 5 things I never want to hear MY waiter say:

1. I lost one of my ear gauges (or fingernails, or teeth). Can you check your food?
2. Hhhmm. That dish doesn't look right. It's not usually green.
3. We've only had 3 reported cases of food poisoning this week.
4. Aahh-ch-o-o-o-o!  Sorry, I'll wipe that off.
5. I think I'm going to throw up again.

Greens Are The Old Greens

I credit Food Network and all the other cable cooking channels for exposing us to the wide variety of leafy greens. Ten years ago I probably only ate spinach, and might have heard of collard greens, but now I find myself becoming quite the connosieur of leafy green vegetables and am surprised by their distinctive tastes and textures.

Collard greens are delicious boiled for hours with ham hocks and maybe a little bit of onion. Some people add bacon fat. They cook the leaves down until they're so tender that they nearly fall apart. My step-mother's mother makes some mean collard greens, but the best I've ever had was at Mrs. B's restaurant in Birmingham, Alabama. I took two quarts home with me upon that discovery.

Kale is a new staple in our household, thanks to Rachael Ray. She taught us how to wilt them down into a pan of cut-up bacon strips (with some bacon grease intact). Then we add sundried cranberries and a liberal dash of nutmeg. It's wonderful.

Swiss Chard was something we'd never experimented with before, but saw at a farmer's market. The farmer selling it gave us a recipe that entailed cutting the stalks up like celery and sauteing them with red onion and garlic. To that, add for wine, lemon juice, and parmesan cheese. Wilt down the Swiss chard leaves until tender. The result was an earthy sweet-and-sour flavor. We'll try that recipe again.

Spinach is one dark green that I like raw or cooked. A nice spinach salad with hard-boiled eggs slices, bacon, mushrooms and tomato is perfect when I want something both hearty and light. But we also like wilted spinach in our pasta with sundried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, kalamata olives and feta cheese. Funny, we usually have left over pasta but we've always picked out all the spinach.

Mustard greens and turnip greens are next on our list. We've found some interesting recipes for these, one of which includes cornmeal and Bisquick. Sounds like a twist on southern cooking. Oughta be good.

The Cast of Characters at Every Preschool Performance

"Synchronized" is not in the vocabulary of preschoolers.

I don't care if it's a dance recital, concert, or simply a recitation of the alphabet; if you put a group of preschoolers on a stage, they will each assume one of the following roles:

The Prepared Kid - there's one in every group. This is the child who has actually paid attention, remembered his/her lines, and even practiced by performing for her parents at home. Every now and again, take a glance at this child so that you get some idea of what they're supposed to be doing.

The Pop Quiz Kid - there are often several of these kids. They stare at the Prepared Kid as though they'd never seen him before. Songs to sing? What songs? Recital? Wha-- what?? Are they even supposed to be on stage??? This expression is sure to be repeated over the next twelve years of school.

The Stage Fright / Separation Anxiety Kid  - This kid has to be gently pushed onto stage. Almost immediately, he turns his body away from the crowd until he spots his parents in the audience, waving and smiling encouragement. His hands turn into fist-shaped eye patches. He rubs his eyes furiously while he cries, sure that he will soon be taken off stage. He won't. There are two more songs to perform and he's about to learn: The Show. Must. Go. On.

Old Yeller - Ah, another kid that is actually prepared. He knows the words to the songs. All of them. He'll prove it. He'll yell them out. Melody? What melody?

The Peep Show Kid - If it's a girl, she'll raise the front of her dress. If it's a boy, we'll see his belly. It's all part of the show, folks.

The Prop Master - Put reindeer antlers on this kid and he's sure to play with them through the whole performance. She'll wave her cardboard sign-on-a-stick through the whole song, if you'll let her. The boy in the back is too busy pulling his halo on and off to pay attention to anything else going on. And now the kids standing next to him are totally enthralled with what he's doing. Only Old Yeller is still performing at this point. That's why preschool teachers know that they can't hand out jingle bells until it's time to sing "Jingle Bells."

Madonna - Despite the fact that this is the first time any of these kids have been on stage, one kid in the group knows that at the end of a performance, you take a bow. So she does. Again and again, while her classmates file off stage. But there's going to be one Wannabee Madonna who hurries back onstage to take her bow, too. Keep your cameras out, Folks. The show isn't over until the preschool teacher drags them all off stage.


You've just experienced a virtual preschool performance. The real thing is even better. Enjoy them while they last.

The End

Odd Traffic Sources

Another picture of the "giant crabs" I wrote about.



It always interests me to see what search words bring people to my blog. Most are pretty straightforward, but sometimes weird combinations show up in my Traffic Sources. I jotted down a few of the ones I thought were fun and share them here with you.

adam richman skinny legs slurred speech

Wow. I did write about hearing Adam Richman of “Man vs. Food” speak, and included his joke about skinny jeans, but this searcher seems to have been looking for some celebrity dirt. Sorry -- I didn’t dish any out.

http://juliewetz-dailysnapshot.blogspot.com/2010/11/adam-richman-at-miami-university.html

bathroom spying spyware

So, so many searches that included words about ‘bathroom spying’ led people to my blog. It’s a little scary how many people want to learn how to spy in bathrooms. My blog titled “Bathroom Spying For Dummies” must have been a HUGE disappointment.

http://juliewetz-dailysnapshot.blogspot.com/2010/10/bathroom-spying-for-dummies.html

feet tickle sticking out

I thought these words were pretty weird search criteria. I highly doubt that the person searching this (who I can’t help but picture as a foot fetishist) wasn’t really looking for my account of spending the night ghost-hunting at Waverly Hills Sanitorium.

http://juliewetz-dailysnapshot.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-happened-at-morgue-at-waverly.html

does it smell in Nicaragua

Why yes, it does. That’s exactly what my blog was about. Hope I answered this searcher’s question.

http://juliewetz-dailysnapshot.blogspot.com/2011/04/smell-of-nicaragua.html

history of tuesday mary go round pic

Another weird search combination. I don’t know whether the searcher was looking for the history of Tuesday? Mary? Mary Go Round? (Did he really not know it’s Merry Go Round?). Regardless, I don’t think he found what he was looking for in my travel piece about the Merry Go Round Museum in Sandusky, Ohio.

http://juliewetz-dailysnapshot.blogspot.com/2011/05/merry-go-round-museum.html

attire to national chemistry week

This search made me giggle. What does one wear to National Chemistry Week? Lab coats? I was simply writing about hating high school Chemistry.

http://juliewetz-dailysnapshot.blogspot.com/2010/11/national-chemistry-week.html

another name for mother in law

Dangerous search here. But my use of the phrase “another name for mother in law” was just part of a fictional story about a manipulative woman who was based on a real person, but NOT my mother-in-law!

http://juliewetz-dailysnapshot.blogspot.com/2011/04/mother-in-law-by-any-other-name.html

giant crab attacks human Australia

Yikes! I wrote a fictional story about this. Did it really happen?

http://juliewetz-dailysnapshot.blogspot.com/2011/04/attack-of-giant-crabs.html

5 Things That Surprised Us On Our Trip To Paris

1. Everyone warned us that the French don't like Americans. But we encountered friendly Parisians everywhere we went. Our trip started out with a waitress who was not just friendly, she joked around with us and set the mood for our whole trip. The myth of the American-hating French was disspelled.

2. We'd imagined sitting at outdoor cafes, drinking wine as we watched Paris life pass by. But as it turned out, we liked the Belgian cherry beer Kriek better than wine and ordered it any time we saw it on the menu.

3. We ate at Parisian cafes at least once, if not twice a day, and discovered that their menues are mostly the same no matter what arrondisement we were in. You could count on three things dominating the menu: jambon (ham), bread (baguettes or tartines, which are open-faced sandwiches), and cheese. You could simply order a cheese plate if you so desired. We ate our fill of all three.

4. Walking along the Seine isn't as romantic as the movies would have you believe. It was usually littered, often smelled of urine, and was desolate more often than not. The only times we were nervous in Paris were when we walked along the river where many homeless seem to reside.

5. Some of the best sights aren't in the travel books. Our travel guide didn't include any information about the Biblioteque Nationale, which was right across the street from where we stayed. Once our Metro passes expired, we decided to check it out. We walked in and saw two enormous globes detailing the constellations. They were fantastic. There were floors full of conference rooms, lecture halls, and other informative displays. I wish we'd taken time to explore it earlier in our trip. Next time...

5 Hour Delay

My husband has a 5-hour layover during an upcoming trip and wonders what he'll do to pass the time. As someone who just had a 5-hour airport delay (shortly followed by another 4-hour delay), I can share how other people passed the time.

1. Drinking - the bars were packed!

2. Playing with electronics - as long as the batteries hold out, you're good.

3. Arguing with flight crew. That didn't get anyone anywhere. Literally.

4. Shopping.

5. Taking turns walking up and down the terminal. This only works if you're travelling with someone who can stay put and watch your bags. Otherwise, it's too much of a hassle.

6. Making numerous phone calls and working on your laptop.  I think a lot of people got a lot of work done.

7. Cry -   There were more than a few frustrated travellers who'd had all they could take.

8. Sleep -  if you're one of the lucky few who can in a crowded airport.

9. Yoga -  I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it for myself, but one woman did a good 20 minutes of yoga at her seat.

10 Watch someone doing yoga  -  because if someone around you is doing it, trust me - you can't help but watch.

Top 10 Signs You're Not Very Good at Frisbee Golf

10. You call it a Frisbee. Real players use discs.

9. You need a GPS system to find your disc after every throw.

8. You get poison ivy on your hands at Hole #1 while looking for your disc.

7. When you throw a tomahawk, someone may actually get scalped.

6. Your “approach” causes you physical injury.

5. You get carpal tunnel by hole #5.

4. You spend more time climbing trees than playing disc golf.

3. The six-year-olds behind you ask if they can “play through.”

2. You’re already at par before you ever make it out of the woods.

1. By the end of the game, you even have poison ivy under your clothes.



More Tom Swifties

An icon from the 60's

In the 1960’s, a series of books featuring a character named Tom Swift were quite popular. These books included a writing style that incorporated clever adverb puns. These are known as “Tom Swifties.”

Some examples are: "'I lost my crutches,' said Tom lamely"; and "'I'll take the prisoner downstairs', said Tom condescendingly."

Here is the second set of Tom Swifties that I’ve concocted during idle moments at my desk. (The first set can be found here: http://juliewetz-dailysnapshot.blogspot.com/2010_09_01_archive.html )

“I got my pom-poms today!” she said cheerfully.

 “This cement is hard as a rock,” he said stonily.

“Let’s say you owe me four dollars and three cents,” she said figuratively.

“I have no idea where the children are,” she said absently.

“I was scared tomorrow,” he said tensely.

“Do you want to know the answer to the clue?” he asked mysteriously.

“All of these quotes came straight from the book,” she literally told me.

“Let me give you a piece of advice,” she said suggestively.

“Too many spices in one dish can be overwhelming,” she said sagely.

“This red, green and orange Hawaiian shirt is my favorite,” he said loudly.

Books About The Holocaust



This German statue stands in memory of those killed at Dachau.



I am drawn to novels about the Holocaust. I’ve read dozens and am always surprised when I read a new one that offers a different slant or perspective, broadening the scope of the Holocaust even more.

Below are my favorites from the past few years. 

The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy

                Two Jewish children are sent into the woods by their father and stepmother to escape the Nazis. Their father begs them to call themselves Hansel and Gretel and to never reveal their Jewish identities. The author provides incredible descriptions of the forest and the atrocities the Nazis inflict on the Jews they catch. Throughout, the author alludes to the well-known fairy tale, but with much scarier overtones.

Parallel Journeys by Eleanor Ayer

          This book was fantastic. It should be used as a social studies text book. Although I've read dozens of books about the Holocaust, this is the first time I understood what was happening in Germany. We got parallel accounts: one from a young man growing up in the Hitler Youth, the other from a young Jewish woman. The author did a fantastic job of helping me wrap my mind around all the numbers that made up the 6 million killed, and gave an incredible account of the liberation.

Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum

            The back blurb describes the author’s experience in interviewing Holocaust survivors for Steven Spielberg's project. I kept thinking about that as I read. I thought her twist on the interviewing project in the book was a great idea. And I wondered how many of the Holocaust/War stories in the books might have been based on things she heard?

The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom

          The sense of setting and time were so precise that every time I sat down to read this I was transported to Holland in the late 30's/ early '40's. I could clearly visualize the streets, the people, the watch shop, and the Beje. I liked the fact that the book started years before Germany occupied Holland. It drove home the fact that things changed gradually, and without warning. The book captured the growing fear among everyone, and the subtle changes in lifestyle that finally meant that this was war and nothing would ever be the same.

Shanghai Diary by Ursula Bacon

            This novel told the story of Jews who escaped Holocaust by moving to Shanghai – an aspect of history I was not familiar with. It was odd to read about the ordeal of Jews escaping Hitler without reading of the tortures of the Nazis. Instead, they were affected by the war between Japan and the U.S.