Coins.

The 2nd graders had an assignment. “Who would you want to see on a US coin? Presidents are picked to be on the faces of coins because they are very important people in history. If you had the chance to pick someone to be on a new coin, who would it be? Would you pick someone that is famous in history, or would you pick someone who is just a good citizen.

1.Choose your person.
2.Write about why that person deserves to be on a US coin.
3.Draw a picture of what that coin would look like.

Max wrote: “I would want to see my mom on a U.S. coin because my mom is a very special person and mom made Scherer Cybrarian. Also mom is, well, my mom.”

I love it!

The Amazing Race – Easter Edition.

If you’re Jewish, you really need to make your own fun on Easter Sunday. There isn’t much to do. The stores are closed. Your friends all have family gatherings. You get the picture. So today, Andrew and I planned an Amazing Race for the kids. Max will guest blog the adventure (via dictation)…. so here goes!

The first clue was to find the depot in the town that flooded in days gone by. Reed figured out it was the B&O Railroad Station in Ellicott City — so he and Davis checked the maps to find Historic Ellicott City. Then we were off!

That’s Dad driving the van. He was acting like a taxi driver. It was funny!

There is me and Davis in the back. Don’t I look cute?

There’s Reed with the street map. Again, don’t I look cute?

Mom took this picture out the window. I think it looks like we’re on a train!

After Ellicott City, we had to go to a park where traveling passengers can be seen overhead and we figured out that we should go to the airport! North or South? We went North.

Isn’t it funny that there is a road called Coca-Cola Drive?

Look! We went the right direction!

These are my feet.

These are Reed’s feet. Aren’t they big?

Davis’ feet. Is he awake?

We’re at the park at the end of the runway where we watched the planes land. We had to count 5 planes before we got our next clue. It was loud! Then we used the porta-potties. They had urinals.

There’s Dad. He doesn’t like this picture, but Mom does. I don’t think he used the porta-potty. In case you wondered.

Next clue took us to a diner near Routes 1 and 175. We saw a lot of neat things on the way there. Mom saw a huge flea market and wanted to stop, but my brothers and I said “No Way.” When we got to the diner – Frank’s – we had to make paper “fortune-tellers” as a task before we went inside. We had a great meal! I had French Toast and bacon, Davis had eggs and sausage, Reed had pancakes. I don’t know what Mom and Dad had. Oh, we had milkshakes too. It’s a beautiful day.

I think Dad might have been going a little too fast. Maybe if he’d gone to the porta-potty, he wouldn’t have had to speed.

Was it fun? Yes, very fun. It was high pressure, but I really liked it. I want to compete with the Simons. So this is a challenge Simons! I’ll see you at the pit stop! Bye from Max.

Not that we’re competitive, but….

Liz and Tim came for dinner last night. Andrew grilled some soft shell crabs for appetizers and we had some nice olives and cheese. And wine, of course. After some catching up and lively conversation, we sat down for the main course, crab cakes, asparagus and risotto. It was delicious.

Then, as planned, we were ready to play some games! One of my favorite games is Quiddler. Liz and Tim brought a Skittles Table so we were going to play that first. First of all, I must say that this was a huge thing to bring. It’s not like bringing a deck of cards. It was as big as the one in that picture to the right. Really. And it even had a stand. And they packed it in the car and brought it over! I have a lot more to say about this game. But most important is that it’s loud. Really loud. So when the kids came downstairs to complain that we were keeping them up, we decided to play a game of Quiddler first. Once they were asleep, we could get rowdy. (photo credit and where to buy at the end of this post!)

Okay, back to talking about this Skittles thing. I love Skittles, the candy. I had to tell you that. In reality, I like almost all candies. Except I’m not fond of coconut.

When I think of Skittles, I think of 1) the candy, 2) Little Kiddles dolls but don’t ask me why. I thought I remembered a Skiddles doll, but I don’t even know if that is true, and 3) the game I remember as Skittles… like a tabletop bowling game. I even had that game when I was a child. But I digress.

So Quiddler was over & I lost badly. I usually do very well, but this was clearly not my night. But the Skittles game looked easy and I knew I could recover from being the Big Loser. So….

First I need to tell you that online, I found this game and it has many different names: Table à Toupie or Toptafel or Racketeer or Devil amongst the Tinkers or Jeu de Roi. The game is the predecessor to that 9 pin game and is more than a century old. The board top is made with several small rooms laid out and skittles (like small bowling pins) are positioned amongst the rooms and a top is then sent spinning from one end of the table in an effort to topple as many of the skittles as possible. Each skittle scores (or sometimes deducts) differing numbers of points. Some say that winning is largely a matter of luck. (I say it sure helps to know how to spin the top!)

It was time. Andrew and I got a quick lesson and the game began. I was teamed with Liz, Andrew with Tim. Wow. Not easy. I would say I wasn’t very good at it, but that would be the understatement of 2006.

But it was fun and we laughed. A lot. I’m not sure if the laughter was directed at me or not, but no matter. I had fun.

Game 2. Andrew and I were a team. Now this was really comical. We sucked. Not a little. Trust me.

But that’s okay. Next time we have game night, I want to be in charge of choosing the game. And I call jacks.

(You can buy the game from Mastergames where they sell a version of the game that has been produced by the talented craftsmen and students of Berea, Kentucky for more than 70 years.)

Slave labor.

Our new CD rack came today. Assembling it was quite the job. So now I’m resting with a Diet Pepsi and 2 of my sons and a friend are alphabetizing the CDs and putting them up on the rack. What is the fee for such a job?

Matzo candy!

Next job, record albums! We just got a turntable and are so excited to be able to play our old albums. Looking through them is just hysterical – I have a Bobby Sherman record, Partridge Family, Donny Osmond. My first “real” record, Gary Wright’s Dreamweaver. Andrew has a ton of comedy records. And of course, we both have some great ones – Creedence, Dead, Skynyrd, Led Zepplin, Who, Jefferson Airplane…

Teen thoughts.

Earlier today, I read something that made me wish I was 16. It was an article about “secret shows” that MySpace produces. They rely solely on word-of-mouth to promote live concerts and if you are subscribed to the page and print something out and take it where you need to, you can go to the show. It’s a great social networking idea. I love it. And I’ll bet it’s very fun.

As the day progressed, I was very busy with work and thinking that if I was a young, I’d be on Spring Break. Again, that sounded fun to me. (To all you clients who read, your work is MUCH more fun than Spring Break. I’m talking about the other clients’ work.)

And then, when driving home from picking up dinner at Famous Dave’s, I drove past Dobbin Center, a shopping center that was new and groovy when I was in high school. In fact Marc Dubick took me there for our first date to a restaurant with great hamburgers. I don’t remember the name. So here I was thinking about Marc Dubick, this very cute lacrosse player I went out with a couple times in the 70′s and a couple of things flashed back.

1) On our second date, he left his headlights on and the car had to be towed from the 3rd floor of the parking garage.
2) He was a slobbery kisser.
3) I took him to my junior prom (he went to Gilman and I went to public school) and he left with Phyllis Goldman.

Now, considering he kissed all gooey, who cares that he liked Phyllis better than me? Well, I did. Who wants to be alone at the prom? Yikes. I didn’t care about Marc very much. But I remember the humiliation with all my being. (Note: I had wonderful friends who hung out with me and brought me home. It ended up being a wonderful night. Some of those great friends are still very much in my life today. Thanks if you’re reading this!)

I am thrilled, ecstatic, overjoyed not to be a teenager. I’m happy to be just where I am.

Passover ramblings.

The best thing about Passover is Chocolate Covered Toffee Matzo. This year, my mom made it with and without nuts. Tons of it.

She called me an hour ago to ask if I’d save a piece or two of the nutty version for my dad. It was just in time – I have only 4 pieces left.

Davis was eating charoset on matzo this afternoon when he got this awful look on his face. “Mom, is there wine in this?”

The flourless chocolate torte I made was my own invention. It was my favorite fudge torte with the 2 TBS flour substituted with Matzo cake flour. OMG. What a disaster! I’m not going to quit my day job for a recipe development job any time soon.

Gotta go back to enjoy the family holiday!

Thin. Mints.

Isn’t it nice that these cookies come as conveniently sealed portion-sized packs? Two portions per box.

Another cookie-related observation of the day. The girl scouts in our area sold their cookies months ago. Of course, we ate all ten (really, ten!) boxes long ago. But the girls from the next county over are in full swing selling cookies now! The smartest troops are selling in front of my grocery store! Great strategy.

And lucky for me.

You know what sucks?

It sucks when you really believed something. You believed that someone who made you promises was going to come through. You believed that human nature is basically good. And then….

The contractor never came back.

Yes, I’m having Seder here the night after tomorrow. Lots of people. Lots, I say. And yes, my kitchen (which was supposed to be done last month) will not be ready. But does this suck? Well, yes, but it’s just a kitchen and my family won’t care at all. They’ll come back and see when it’s done and the night will be great. So, it’s fine and doesn’t suck that much.

But what really, really eats at me is that Andrew said this would happen. And I said, “You are just plain grumpy and don’t give people enough credit and you’re wrong. All wrong.” And, well… oops.

And the really, really, really saddest part is that I like being Little Mary Sunshine and I like thinking the best of everyone and I like thinking every experience is a good one and that life is grand. And each time someone proves you wrong, it chips a teeny piece of that away.

And that really sucks.

Photos.

So my friend Kristin came over yesterday to photograph our family. The weather was really gross and since she’s a natural light photographer, it wasn’t the perfect shoot. But she got some great shots. And lucky for me, she wants to do it again on a nice day! But I thought I’d share a few of my favorites. They really show the personalities of the boys!

Thanks again, Kristin!

Introductions.

When you’re introduced, how do you describe yourself? What is your elevator speech? If you don’t know what that is, click on the link or I’ll give you a short description: an “elevator speech” is a short description of what you do, or the point you want to make, presented in the time it takes an elevator to go from the top floor to the first floor. So you have a minute…who are you? Okay, normally, this is about your company. About your brand. But in reality, aren’t we all our own brand?

I’m no Martha or Ellen or Oprah, but I do believe that I get the work I do because I’m me. The people I’ve worked with and the people I know personally know that I’m hard working and reliable and good at my job. They recommend me. If they didn’t? My kids would be wearing worn out sneakers instead of those groovy Shaq sneaks.

But we all have something to pitch. It’s us personally. Or our companies, or our nonprofit that we support so passionately. So if someone asked you to say who you are and what you stand for in 1 minute, what would you say?

Instead of giving you my elevator speech, I’d love to read yours. I promise I’ll write mine, too. (Mom – I want to see yours!)