tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57044842017-06-21T21:26:42.885-05:00Make yourself a cuppa, lean back, and enjoy the bitching and moaning of this mother of twins.margalithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09782326504951603071noreply@blogger.comBlogger2132125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704484.post-60710000048544124142012-09-24T16:28:00.000-05:002012-09-24T16:28:15.243-05:00

When I decided that the internet was unhealthy for my mental status, I meant it. I haven't posted in more than a year, I no longer refer to people I've never met in real life, and I've stopped being enthralled by other people's personal lives. That last one was especially hard since I'm such a yente but really, I knew I had no choice. Now, a year or so later, I still occasionally read facebook

margalithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09782326504951603071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704484.post-65704105525616913022011-09-22T13:43:00.000-05:002011-09-22T13:43:07.963-05:00

So it's a week since my heart surgery. I had my ICD completely replaced, they added a 3rd wire into my heart, cleaned up a lot of scar tissue, and taped me back up again. What everybody neglected to tell me is that the second and subsequent times it is about 500 times more painful than the initial installation because of all the scarring and the wires getting tissue overgrown that has to be

margalithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09782326504951603071noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704484.post-61825639183794543352011-09-15T20:08:00.000-05:002011-09-15T20:08:11.308-05:00

Hello fellow internets. I have risen from my slumber. I am currently in the hospital recovering from heart surgery. It hurts like a mofo. Now, until we find an internet service provider that covers our area, we are going to continue without internet. It sucks, but when Comcast raised our bill for internet to $156/month, I told them where to stick it. And then I called every single ISP in the free

margalithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09782326504951603071noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704484.post-61772358799427511752011-07-25T15:37:00.000-05:002011-07-25T15:37:28.043-05:00

Love feels differently at different times of your life. Love for a spouse may be different than love for a teacher that has shown you how valuable you are. Love for a parent can be mixed with fear or misunderstanding. But regardless of how love comes into our lives, it is a rare person that cannot feel love. Even rarer is a person that feels love, but the love is mixed with emotions that make it

margalithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09782326504951603071noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704484.post-32119568678211304352011-07-16T05:09:00.000-05:002011-07-16T05:09:35.988-05:00

When I put the lout badge on this site, I wasn't really sure it would add any value to this blog. I've got a modest readership and I like it that way. Being popular or controversial just makes people want to be mean to you, and I get enough of that at home, thank you very much. However, last night I started seeing people on twitter talking about a European music service that was never before

margalithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09782326504951603071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704484.post-70827766676851695872011-07-07T23:07:00.000-05:002011-07-07T23:07:10.352-05:00

margalithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09782326504951603071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704484.post-39192755883754390412011-07-06T22:54:00.001-05:002011-07-06T22:56:12.009-05:00

Facebook can be a real cesspool of commentary, especially if you have gotten political sites linked to you. I love politics. I love pretty much everything about it, from the bad behavior and inane commentary to the heroic and sincere attempts to make government work for everyone. I'm opinionated, I get pissed, I can be more passionate than is healthy, and occasionally I can get rabid. What I

margalithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09782326504951603071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704484.post-72881036490961044932011-07-04T17:33:00.000-05:002011-07-04T17:33:23.869-05:00

I've been a sulky Sue the last couple of days. It isn't anything in particular, rather a series of communication misunderstandings, some careless thinking on the part of my kids, and a dirty kitchen I'm sick to dealt of looking at, but don't have the gumption to get off my fat ass and clean it. Boy, do I miss having a home health care aide that cleaned on a weekly basis. That was such luxury and

margalithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09782326504951603071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704484.post-86829440874388700222011-06-30T07:25:00.000-05:002011-06-30T07:25:23.841-05:00

Gracious me, there has been yet another Twitter scuffle, one that needs a bit of dissecting. I'll be naming names in this post so you can go and look for yourself about the hissyfit. I'm more interested in the namecalling, particularly the use of "troll". Trolling on the net is far from a new thing. Trolls have existed for at least 20 years, way back when there was no WWW and people used Usenet

margalithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09782326504951603071noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704484.post-41907316319535278912011-06-27T16:10:00.000-05:002011-06-27T16:10:41.585-05:00

I got nobody to call my own... Bobby Vinton had it right. I've been really lonely recently. Part, no most of it is my own doing. I've been so stuck in the house for so long that I can barely remember a time when I felt free. Now that I've got the Ride back, there is such a big city to go out and see that I'm actually overwhelmed with possibilities. To nobody's surprise, I'm not great with

margalithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09782326504951603071noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704484.post-52632763080197952982011-06-25T10:57:00.000-05:002011-06-25T10:57:05.483-05:00

Nope, this is not another tale about Whitey Bulger. I think we have all had enough of Whitey right now. The excitement of his capture, his extradition back here, his indictments, his girlfriend, his brother Billy... it is enough already. I'm totally ODed on Whitey. But he isn't the only thing to happen in Boston the past week. There is also my long-standing battle to get food stamps. Which would

margalithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09782326504951603071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704484.post-76452907877077371982011-06-16T14:19:00.000-05:002011-06-16T14:19:58.446-05:00

Holy Mother of God. Dealing with the state is driving me nuts. Absolutely bonkers. It isn't that the people I'd dealing with aren't nice. They are. And helpful when they can be. It is that the way the communicate with each other is back in the stone age, and they have no money to improve the communication. I'm so frustrated I'd like to go out and buy them a fax machine for the 2 offices trying to

margalithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09782326504951603071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704484.post-52055835457819192172011-06-11T16:59:00.000-05:002011-06-11T16:59:54.973-05:00

I'm not a Facebook whore, but I was invited to play a game called Garden of Time recently, and OMG, I got hooked hard. The game itself is kind of stupid, and I imagine it is a lot like Farmville, that FB game that was all the rage a couple of years ago. Gardens of Time (GOT) has you building a "museum" where you get to add artifacts as you move up the levels. It also has matching games, which is

margalithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09782326504951603071noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704484.post-29892834809639711592011-06-07T20:41:00.002-05:002011-06-08T00:00:52.587-05:00

Colbert on Palin's Paul Revere gaff: Don't text in this movie theater. Pretty things The weather. First blistering hot. Then tornados. Then nice cooler weather. Now back to steaming hot. Bought a bottle of Mojitos. Not a mix, actual mojitos. Put bottle half full in fridge, pulled it out tonight with one fingerful left in it. Is it fair that I cannot keep any alcohol for me in the house? He

margalithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09782326504951603071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704484.post-19988346245011014062011-06-02T05:47:00.001-05:002011-06-02T06:24:01.185-05:00

We had a bit of the weather the rest of the country seems to be exhibiting today. We ended the storm with 4 confirmed deaths, 33 known injuries and 5 people in surgery. Buildings in central and western Ma were damaged and destroyed. By TORNADOES. WTF? We don't have tornado activity here. Until today, anyhow. Now we have 19 communities in the Pioneer Valley that were hit. Nineteen. How weird is

margalithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09782326504951603071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704484.post-33379914625053458282011-05-31T02:07:00.001-05:002011-05-31T03:25:18.663-05:00

If you haven't watched RHONJ this season the title of this post will mean nothing to you. But if you DO watch and substitute wedding for christening, you'll have a good idea of what I'm alluding to. Let's just say that I promised another member of my birth family that I would never blog about his family, and I have kept that promise for many years. I've had things I could say, but haven't to keep

margalithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09782326504951603071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704484.post-20809414958930358912011-05-24T12:33:00.000-05:002011-05-24T12:33:13.206-05:00

I am usually able to entertain myself with a combination of annoyance at both kids and cats, some wicked trashy TV, and some equally questionable books I'm sent to review. However, since I totalled my right knee three weeks ago, I'm kind of stuck off my feet, which means that the normal half-assed cooking and cleaning are out. Also, totally stuck in the house because, my GAH, stairs? The Devil's

margalithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09782326504951603071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704484.post-60640916288615622102011-05-19T11:21:00.000-05:002011-05-19T11:21:03.166-05:00

I probably will never eat another egg as long as I live. And I love eggs. Taking a short break until my stomach stops roiling.

margalithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09782326504951603071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704484.post-47181827888814245772011-05-11T03:36:00.000-05:002011-05-11T03:36:46.961-05:00

Did you know that yesterday was some sort of international Monty Python Day, where you were supposed to post pithy MP quotes. Oddly, it was also the day when I got hacked and had to clean up a huge mess of spam. My email has been beyond quirky the last few weeks, but yesterday it took on a life of it's own and sent out thousands of emails with links I didn't ever open. I just kept deleting them.

margalithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09782326504951603071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704484.post-50522433274830989782011-05-09T06:51:00.001-05:002011-05-09T06:54:45.300-05:00

I've been posting on this blog on and off since 2003. In 2003 my kids were just starting middle school, we had moved back from California during the high tech bubble, and I was job hunting like mad to no avail. Things were rough financially, but we were all basically in good physical and emotional health. Graham was on medication and in school and seemed to be doing OK. Gemma was having problems

margalithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09782326504951603071noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704484.post-62025126237033019512011-05-08T05:47:00.001-05:002011-05-08T05:52:21.583-05:00

There is one song that always gets me through the lowest points of my life. The song that reminds me to keep on going, no matter what.

margalithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09782326504951603071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704484.post-50665069269126312202011-05-05T05:28:00.000-05:002011-05-05T05:28:10.459-05:00

Conflicted? Who? Me?  Yup, as we encroach upon that mist confusing of Hallmark Holidays, the one where we honor our mothers as our children honor us. I'm sure it comes as no surprise that this is my least favorite day of the year. Father's Day doesn't really get to me because my father is dead, and my kids don't acknowledge their father since he pretends that they don't exist. But Mother's day?

margalithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09782326504951603071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704484.post-22486034964306981882011-05-03T05:29:00.000-05:002011-05-03T05:29:04.438-05:00

I have offically declared that I am suffering from News Overload Disorder. First it was the wedding of the century. You did hear about that small quiet shindig in London on Friday, right? Knowing what kind of idiot anglophile I am, you must know that I starting watching at 2 am when TLC started off showing a bunch of background shows, to catch you up on everything royal. Can't possibly say no to

margalithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09782326504951603071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704484.post-34638004663197326012011-04-30T18:16:00.001-05:002011-04-30T18:19:51.639-05:00

I finished reading a novel today, and is often the case, my take on the book was radically different than the blurbs that made me want to read it in the first place. Not that I didn't like the book, quite the contrary in fact. I loved the book. It was beautifully written, had strong and sympathetic characters, an interesting storyline, and was exceedingly witty and compelling. It was, in fact, a

margalithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09782326504951603071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704484.post-75152966571867059302011-04-28T19:31:00.000-05:002011-04-28T19:31:47.161-05:00

 Hell yes, I'm going to watch it. I wouldn't miss it for the world. Nobody does pompous celebrations better than the British and following a long line of dubious Royalists in my family makes following the wedding "Tradition."  I know, hard to believe that this Jewish girl from Southern California can use the tradition excuse for staying up all night watching the wedding of two people she'll

margalithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09782326504951603071noreply@blogger.com0