Tragic Sandwich

Tag: meme

  • What’s In a Meme?

    I got this from The Harried Mom. Read. Write your own post. Pass it on.

    1. What were you doing 10 years ago?

    2003. Really? That was 10 years ago? I guess so, because Mr. Sandwich and I were well into our long-distance dating relationship, but not yet engaged (that came later in 2003–July 4th, to be exact). This time that year, my dad and I were preparing for a railroad trip through the Canadian Rockies. Awesome trip, BTW.

    2. What 5 things are on your to-do list?

    • Get our passports.
    • Take boxing lessons.
    • Organize our home office.
    • Declutter the house.
    • Take Spanish lessons. Again.

    3. What are 5 snacks you enjoy?

    Macadamia nuts, honey wheat pretzels, shortbread cookies, ice cream, chocolate chip cookies

    4. Name some things you would do if you were a millionaire.

    Pay off our mortgage; save for Baguette’s education; work part-time and shorten Baguette’s time in day care; pay off my brother’s mortgage (I’m assuming more than $1 million here–is that okay?); buy a vacation home in Kauai; hire a cleaning service

    5. Name some places you have lived:

    Maryland, California, Texas, Virginia, New Jersey. Several of them more than once.

    6. Name some bad habits you have:

    Bad housekeeping, too easily distracted by the computer. Mr. Sandwich would add “stealing the covers.”

    7. Name some jobs you have had:

    Door-to-door doughnut sales, newspaper delivery, editing, project management, social media manager, marketing

    So, what about you?

  • Deck the Meme with Boughs of Holly (updated)

    This holiday meme was stolen from Katherine of Somewhere in the Middle. Enjoy, and pass it on.

    1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot chocolate, definitely!
    2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Neither–Santa leaves unwrapped gifts in our stockings.
    3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? The more colors, the better.
    4. Do you hang mistletoe? No, but I used to want to when I was younger
    5. Tacky holiday sweaters: yea or nay? Nay! (Apparently I left out #5–thanks to Blogging With Mittens* for this one!)
    6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Yorkshire pudding, part of my family’s traditional holiday feast.
    7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? Making egg-carton ornaments with my dad and construction-paper garlands with my mom.
    8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? No idea.
    9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? No, we wait until Christmas morning.
    10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Lights and eclectic ornaments. I grew up with tinsel, but we don’t use it because of the dog.
    11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Love it! Largely because we live in Los Angeles–if we see snow, we’re on vacation.
    12. Can you ice skate? Badly, and not for long.
    13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Slippers. It’s not a lame gift if your feet are always cold.
    14. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you? Spending time with family.
    15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? My mother’s shortbread cookies.
    16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Dinner.
    17. What tops your tree? A clear star I bought the first year I had a tree of my own.
    18. Which do you prefer: giving or receiving? Giving!
    19. Candy Canes: Yuck or Yum? Yum, until the mint upsets my stomach. Then yuck, clearly.
    20. Favorite Christmas show? How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
    21. Saddest Christmas Song? I’ll Be Home For Christmas. (Because you can tell, no, they won’t.)
    22. What is your favorite Christmas song? Joy to the World.

    And you?

    Update: You know what? I’m going to tag a few people.

    Blogging With Mittens*

    Confessions of a Semi-Domesticated Mama

    Don’t Forget to Feed the Baby

    Expatria, Baby

    Katie Is a Teacher

    Life Ever Since

  • I Need to Learn More About Photoshop

    Here’s my contribution on The Bloggess‘s Juanita Weasel meme. I think the concept is decent, but the execution? Pretty lacking.

    Juanita Weasel Bloggess meme

    How come Photoshop won’t let me use bigger type? My guess: I have to create it in something else, like InDesign (which I don’t have) and then make the text a layer.

    And how do I correct redeye in Photoshop 7.0 (not that Juanita suffers from that affliction, thank goodness)? It was so easy in Photoshop Elements, but the “big” version doesn’t seem to want to do it. At all. And when I google it, I get instructions I can’t follow, because I don’t have the tools specified.

    It’s a hard-knock life.

  • My Balance: Tragic Sandwich

    Rock-Scale

    I don’t know anyone in this photo; I just liked it!

    I got this idea from a post on Oil and Garlic; she got it from A Cup of Jo. Does that make it a meme? At any rate, here goes:

    1. What’s your work schedule?

    I start work at 8 a.m. (or thereabouts, depending on whether my bus is on time) and leave at 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Mr. Sandwich works 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., so our schedules are a little staggered. We used to commute together, but when my maternity leave ended, we needed to shift it a bit. Each of us comutes by bus, although I sometimes drive to work if I have a late-afternoon doctor’s appointment, or if I miss the bus and my day doesn’t allow for me to be 15 minutes late. Or if I’m super tired and the bus is SRO by the time it gets to my stop.

    My alarm goes off at 5:20, and I get up one snooze-button hit later. I drop Baguette off and drive like a crazy person to get to my bus stop. Mr. Sandwich picks Baguette up, and we all get home a little after 6 p.m. Then we play with her, take her and the dog for a walk, feed her, and bathe her when she needs it. (The order of these events varies depending on the day.) She hates to go to sleep, so there is usually a fairly long wind-down period, with lowered lights and hushed talking and a final bottle. We want her to go to bed between 8 and 8:30, but all too often she isn’t ready until about an hour later. Then we get our things and hers ready for the next day and watch a tiny amount of TV, and get to bed between 10:30 and 11:00–about an hour later than I’d like, but that’s how the time goes.

    2. How do you handle childcare?

    We found a wonderful day care center that is about a two-minute drive from the house. It’s like paying a second mortgage–and I am not exaggerating–but we have so much confidence in them, and Baguette really likes the teachers and her little friends. If she gets sick, one of us stays home with her. Mr. Sandwich’s parents live in town, so sometimes they will come over on the weekend and help us with supervising Baguette and completing tasks around the house.

    3. What do you find best about your current set-up?

    It works. I really like her day care, although I wish it weren’t so expensive. I wish my commute were shorter, but I live in the real world of Los Angeles, and that’s how commutes work here.

    4. What advice would you give to other moms about the juggle?

    Establish priorities, and don’t beat yourself up. I had fantasies of cooking meals for the three of us. This could work, because Baguette is a pretty flexible eater. This absolutely does not work, because I just don’t have time. I felt bad about it for far too long, and then I acknowledged that I really can’t do anything but supervise her when I’m with her–she’s just too active. So now I hope to be able to do that in the future. But it’s completely unproductive to feel bad about not doing something that I just can’t do.

    One of my friends has a daughter a couple of months older than Baguette, and she makes amazing meals every night and spends time with her children. I used to wonder how she managed it, and then I mapped the distance between her house and her work. Guess what–she doesn’t have my commute! So she’s got more time to work with. It’s not realistic to compare my life to hers, because they just aren’t the same. That’s true for everyone else, too.

    5. Do you think the juggle is harder for women than for men?

    Yes. Mr. Sandwich is a very hands-on dad, and he’s also done pretty much all of our laundry for much of the past year. But Baguette is a very hands-on baby, and she wants me when I’m home. I feel like I’ve been mommy-tracked at work, and I made every effort that I could think of to avoid that. He’s got his own work issues (don’t we all?), but I haven’t gotten the impression that he’s been daddy-tracked. That can happen, of course, but I think it’s much less common.

    Photo by neurmadic aesthetic, via Flickr.

  • 25 Things

    Another meme! Actually, I got this one from a friend on Facebook–but having recently done 25 Random Things (although I shortened it a bit), I thought that might be overkill.

    So here are my answers. To spread the joy, provide yours in your blog and link back, so that I can see what you wrote. I’m nosy that way.

    Where is your cell phone ? in my bag
    your hair ……….needs attention
    Your father? ……..role model, mentor, and friend
    Your favorite thing? ……….sitting in my living room . . . which I own!
    Your dream last night?….so many dreams lately, can’t remember which were last night’s
    favorite drink………….water
    Your dream/goal? ………. to finish writing a book
    The room you are in? ….living room . . . which I own!
    Your fear? ……… loss of loved ones
    Where do you want to be in 6 years?….. that’s a tough one
    Muffins?………. strawberry
    One of your wish list items?………. go to Iceland
    Where you grew up? ……….. various places
    The last thing you did? …….danced in the back yard with Mr. Sandwich
    What are you wearing?……brown slacks, pumpkin t-shirt, brown cardigan
    Your TV?………. turned off due to re-runs
    Your pets? ………. none so far
    Your computer? ……. Mac
    Your life? ……… is good right now.
    Your mood? ……… sleepy
    Missing someone? …… absent friends
    Your car? ….Subaru Forester
    Favorite store?….Martin & Osa
    Your summer? ….. is too far away to imagine
    Your favorite color? ……… blue
    When is the last time you laughed? ……… can’t remember, but not that long ago
    Last time you cried? ……… can’t remember, but longer
    Three people who email me? ……. MP, AC, KO
    Three of my favorite foods? …….. potatoes, ice cream, steak
    Three places I would rather be right now? ….Rome, Kauai, Portland (Oregon)
    Three people I think will respond? …. no idea

  • Meme

    Yesterday our new modem arrived. Turns out it doesn’t support wireless. Which means that AT&T sent us the wrong modem.

    So to distract myself from my (in my opinion) righteous but tiresome (also in my opinion, and I can only assume in yours) ire, I present this meme, courtesy of my friend Chelsea.

    Here are the rules:

    Use the first letter of your name to answer each of the following questions.
    They have to be real places, names, things. Nothing made up! You can’t use your name for the boy/girl name question.

    1. What is your name? Tragic. Clearly it’s not my real name, because my parents were not that mean. Actually, they were pretty fantastic. But it’s what we’ll work with here.

    2. A four-letter word: Tote. The knowledge that I should get rid of some of my totes makes me feel like saying other four-letter words. But I do have a lot.

    3. A boy’s name: Thomas. I’ve had more than one neighbor named Tom or Tommy, and I’m starting to wonder if a scamp-like nature goes with the name.

    4. A girl’s name: Trixie. Not sure why I came up with this one, as I was never a Trixie Belden fan.

    5. An occupation: Tollgate attendant

    6. A color: Teal

    7. Something you wear: Toe shoes. Actually, I didn’t wear them much. I could never break them in, and finally my ballet teacher let me do my solo in ballet shoes. I really don’t think anyone minded, especially not me.

    8. A beverage: Tea. My favorite is English Breakfast, hot, with sugar.

    9. A food: Tortellini

    10. Something found in the bathroom: Toilet. Well, it had better be there.

    11. A place: Tuolomne Meadows. I remember driving through there more than 20 years ago (oh, that makes me sad) on a trip to Yosemite. While I’ve been back to Yosemite many times since, I have never been back to Tuolomne Meadows. I remember it as beautiful and completely unrelated to the majesty of the more famous valley floor. And I suspect that when I do get back there, I should make sure that I have plenty of insect repellent.

    12. A reason for being late: Twisted an ankle. Not today, fortunately. So far.

    13. Something you shout: Time out!

    Anybody else want to give it a try? Put your link in the comments so I can see what you come up with.