It's July. When Did That Happen?

So many things kept us busy in June that I didn't find much time for blogging.

So thought I give you a quick recap, because -- guess what?!? -- I'm planning to be equally as derelict in my updates in July.

Finn finished kindergarten, declaring that he wants to be "an art teacher during the week, and a dolphin trainer on the weekends" when he grows up. I'll let him figure out on his own that his current plan doesn't leave much time for boogie boarding.

After school was dismissed and talk turned to first grade, Finney earnestly requested that his most favorite-ist kindergarten teacher in the whole wide world, seen below, be his teacher every year from now on.

Meanwhile, Shea finished her first semester of preschool, which she liked a little more each time she went. Which is to say she totally hated it at first and grew to kinda like it. Things reached an all-time high when she agreed to wear the silly hat.

With our newfound free time, we went to the Honolulu Zoo, a beautiful parcel of land that sits beneath Diamond Head and just across the street from Waikiki Beach.

And then, trying to squeeze the life out of our annual passes, back to Sea Life Park.

Finn started summer school, and so did Shea.

Another milestone: Shea (sort-of) sat through her first big-girl movie theater movie, Kung-Fu Panda, incurring only one brief lobby time-out for repeated and noisy squirming, and then fell asleep on my lap for the last 20 minutes of the film.

We had a great visit with some old friends from California.

Other bullet-pointed news items:

• The fucking ants ate through the wiring in our television and killed it dead.
  
• Finn turned six and for his birthday dinner requested ramen noodles and nigiri sushi. He actually ate pieces of tamago, sake, maguro, ebi and unagi -- and tried, but didn't care for, the tobiko. I didn't know what sushi was at 6 years old. He's on his way to becoming a real island boy.
  
• We hosted our first slumber party -- with SIX six-year-old boys -- and survived.
  
• The kids finished their first series of swimming classes -- and Finn, finally getting the hang of moving through water with his head semi-submerged, swam half the length of the pool on his own.
  
• Getting a taste of the bitter medicine his friend Logan had to swallow last summer, Finney said goodbye to his best Hawaii buddy, who moved away to Texas.

And there it is, in a nutshell. We'll be vacationing soon, so have a great rest of July and we'll hopefully see you again in August!

The Randomizer

There are nearly 6,000 of us masochists participating in NaBloPoMo this year -- nearly triple the amount of participants from last year.

Just click the fancy little black box below (or in the sidebar column, at right), to see what some of the other folks are coming up with on a daily basis this month.

Betcha they don't have wobbly, poorly lit shots of their kids holding their warm, morning beds hostage at 6:36 a.m.

Lucky bastards.

Expect Many Photos

Yeah, I'm going to try to do it again.

Well, Shucks

Would you believe that Double Duty Diary has been nominated for the annual Share the Love Blog Awards in the "Happiest Blog" category?


No, really! Despite all my whinging and whining, I guess there are a couple of people out there who think of this as a happy place.

And by that I am charmed and flattered.

Many thanks go to Shannon at Zokai for the sweet nomination gesture, and to Heather at One Woman's World for organizing the whole fun shebang.

You can check out other nominees and cast your votes in all categories here. There is much goodness to be had.

Personally, I Like Double Sipping OCD The Best

Most of my regular readers (hi, Mom!) have this blog address saved to their Favorites and check in periodically to see if I've posted.

Some of my more tech-savvy readers have added it to their Bloglines subscription list and are automatically alerted when I submit new posts.

And then there are those who find this blog through conducting a search on Google.

What searches, might you ask, would lead someone to this blog? Well, thanks to sitemeter, which allows me to track where visitors come from, I'm able to answer that question for you right now.

Here are some of the more memorable search strings that have matched to DDD over the last few months. (Think they were tickled by or disappointed with what they found here?)

• darth vader has to wear diapers


• super duty guy that poops


• Naartjie Smell of shop


• sarah bernhardt cookie recipe


• double sipping ocd


• expired denny's paychecks


• hawaii hula girl boobs photo


• Palm Sunday Digit Monday Phalange Friday


• damn heavy


• skywalker angst


• mom dad I'm gaelic


• swollen gullet


• thick diaper gals

Which one's your favorite?

Back Again, With Lots Of Pictures To Woo You With

Hi! Remember me? I used to be a dutiful blogger, diligently posting stories and photos of my kids and family.

Then the holidays came around and unceremoniously used me to wipe down every last dining table, strung me across the top of the roof line and set me to "blink," and threw me away with the heaps of crumpled wrapping paper and empty boxes.

And then I was not.

But I'm back, and shit howdy do I have a boatload of photos to share with y'all. My new camera and I are taking things very slowly, setting the strong foundation for any good long-term relationship, and have been learning little bits about each other every day.

Camera: Doesn't warn you when the battery's getting low; instead, just shuts off in a huff -- game over -- slightly resentful that she's been ridden that hard, frankly, and just needs some time to heal and recharge now.

Karin: Hasn't taken the time to read more than 10 or so pages of the manual to find out if she's just not looking in the right spot to monitor the battery's remaining lifespan. Didn't mean to offend camera.

Camera: When shutter button is depressed halfway while set to Manual Mode, interprets this as an indication that user wishes camera to establish focus on subject.

Karin: After 20 years of conditioning, still thinks that the partial shutter depression will yield a light reading and that it is still her responsibility to set the f-stop and establish focus on subject. Has taken an embarrassing number of poorly exposed and awkwardly focused images as a result. Remains slightly nostalgic for familiarity of old camera. Realizes it's time to read further in said manual.

Camera: Goooooood lookin', so refined....

Karin: Wouldn't you like to know what's going on in my mind?

Anyway, the holidays were a lot of fun this year. Eddie and Amy were here, as was Grandpa Jack. We spent some time at Crystal Cove State Beach's adorable cottages, which were just restored to their early-20th-Century splendor. We celebrated our 13th-annual cocktail congregation on Christmas Eve with a record number of friends and well wishers. We got completely spoiled by Grandma Emely's wonderful cooking. We went sledding and rang in the New Year in Big Bear with the newlyweds, as well as Finney's best friend Logan and his parents. Best of all, John was able to take 11 days off from work so the kids basically ignored me while he was in their presence AND I got to sleep in past 7am on most mornings. I'm so in love with my husband.

Here, then, are the links to my photos of these various eating and drinking festivals, uh...um, I mean, celebratory events. I will think of this Christmas as the one when Shea finally realized who the guy in the red suit was (but never warmed up to him), when Finn garnered the courage to sing with his peers in front of an audience, and when my new camera and I first started to get friendly.

To view a slide show of Crystal Cove, Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, click here.

To view a slide show of our trip to Big Bear to ring in 2007, click here.

At Last

Well, I did it.


Thirty days in a row of blog postings and, aside from a few trying weekends, I have to say it wasn't that bad.

And I agree with Laid-Off Dad that it has made my freelance writing flow much easier now that my wheels are greased and running daily.

And I feel like you, dear reader, have been able to stay more informed in our little goings on here at Casa Double Duty.

And I read some fun new blogs and made contact with some kind new commenters (hi, guys!).

But I'm done with the daily posts for a while, and plan to give myself a bit of a breather in December as I prepare for -- and enjoy -- the holidays.

In the meantime, though, I can tease you with this:

Double Duty Diary will be hosting another fun CAPTION CONTEST in December, so don't forget to check back in to give us your snarkiest and wittiest entries. There will be fabulous prizes for the winner(s).

And lumps of coal for those Grinches out there who don't play.

Surf's Up

So, according to Lane, there are a whopping 1,913 blogs participating in the NaBloPoMo blog posting month. That's nearly two thousand of us crazies out there, trudging through the mental muck to bring you the finest -- ** cough, cough ** -- blog content we can muster up on a daily basis.

OK, at least we're trying.

If you'd like to check any of them out (some of them are just great!), all you have to do is click "The Randomizer" -- that cute little blue box over on the right-hand column that's been magically rigged to transport you to another participant's blog -- and you'll get to taste some other flavors of the blogosphere. Thanks, Lane!

And if you're so inclined, say hello while you're there. Feedback is nice. Nice, nice, nice.

Enjoy your surfing session, everyone!

Day 1 of 30

So I've done gone crazy and voluntarily signed myself up for the divine M. Kennedy's NaBloPoMo posting drive, wherein participants agree to post on their blogs once a day (weekends included!) for the entire month of November.

Lucky for me, photos count, eh?

Here's a little explanation from Fussy herself:

NaBloPoMo is an alternative to November's NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, the program wherein you crank out a novel in thirty days. Some of us lack the imagination, stamina, and self-destructive impulses required to write a novel that quickly, but, by Grabthar's Hammer, we can update our blogs every day for a month!

Even if it takes having a metaphorical gun pointed at our heads.



Yeah, there are a few prizes donated by fellow participants that will be distributed randomly, but the real purpose of the drive--other than clogging up the blogosphere with even more minutae--is to get the little hamsters running in their wheels upstairs.

This one says it pretty clearly, too:



So I'll be here all month, folks! It's the Jedi Force, man. You just can't beat that shit.


P.S. Readers without blogs are also invited to participate by "de-lurking" and leaving a comments every day this month. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of us self-flagellating, masochistic bloggers involved in NaBloPoMo, and you can find an alphabetized list or participants here. Pull out a couple pennies--this is the month to share your two cents. And, as Fussy says, if the site has Google ads, you know what to do.

Blog 2.0

Welcome to the new and improved Double Duty Diary!

With the wonderful help of Sheryl, who created the cool banner above based on photos of Finn and Shea, and an entirely new template, we've freshened the place up for you. Come on in, take off your coat, and stay a while!

We've got a poppin' new color scheme, more links to lots of fun blogs, a less aggressive font size -- and even more to come.

Enjoy!

See, I'm Not The Only One Who Seeks Creative Reader Input

The powers that be over at Motherhood Uncensored requested motherhood-themed Successories posters (you know, those super cheeseball motivational posters with airbrushed stock photography and go-get-'em credos) from her readers this weekend.

Here's mine.

(You, too, can make one here.)

This Should Fix Things Right Up

Steven Colbert put some issues "On Notice" on my behalf.

You know, in the interest of truthiness.

(Thanks, Sweetney, for the inspiration.)

Butter. Shea Butter.

Thanks for the adorable t-shirt, Karen!

Happy Blogday

One year ago today, during the swelter of the summer I will forever remember as the one when I pottytrained a toddler while breastfeeding an infant--and did very little else--I started Double Duty Diary after reading an article about blogs in Time magazine.

At first, it was simply to provide photos and the occasional update about the kids to family and friends. Since then, it has become a wonderful outlet for me, both as a writer and as a mother. I now think about things that happen to me in the course of the day in terms of how I can best blog about them--how I can eke out the humor in the frustrating, the tender in the everyday.

I've even "met"--exchanged comments and the occasional e-mail with, really--other mothers around the world who are also making their way in the new years of motherhood. Many of them inspire me with their writing, photos, wit and insight. Mommybloggers certainly aren't the nitwits the name might imply.

I hope you're enjoying reading Double Duty Diary as much as I am creating it; hopefully my kids will someday enjoy reading it, too. Thanks for tuning in. Here's to another fun year of our crazy life captured online!

The Bloggies

The winners of the 2006 Bloggies were announced yesterday. Yep, that's like the Academy Awards of the blog world, except nobody dresses up (nobody really shows up, either, unless they're already at SXSW in Austin), and the prizes are usually around 20 bucks (2006 cents this year) and whatever random prizes fellow bloggers donate to the pool.

Some of my favorite blogs were nominated in various categories, including Loobylu, PostSecret, Finslippy, kottke.org, and, of course, the Mother of all mother blogs, Dooce. Some of them won and some of them didn't, but each speaks to a different part of my personal interest bank. I'm excited now to check out some of the other nominees and winners in whatever spare time I can carve out in the wee hours of the night.

Have you started a blog yet? No, I don't get kickbacks from any secret blogging agency for recruiting new bloggers, I'm just a devotee who's sold on the wave of self publishing that's giving a voice to the masses. Plus, the whole process just appeals to the family historian/scrapbooker in me; I'm hoping this blog is a great gift for my kids one day--to see what life, and they, were like when we were all younger.

Creating a blog is easy, it's free, and it's a fun way to stay in touch with family, share recipes, chronicle your family history, share a bit of your culture, or just write about things you love and want to buy. It can be whatever you want it to be.

Let me know your new blog address once you get set up so I can stay in touch with you, too.

Why I Love Blogging

Reason #152: Because I can post about something as silly as putting my daughter's hair in pigtails for the first time and, with a catchy headline and a little groovy formatting, it looks sleek, professional and, well...., published for all eternity.

(And also because here at doubledutydiary we relish all milestones that involve introducing products and accessories to Shea's adorable mop of unruly hair.)

We'll Be Back Before You Know It

Double Duty Diary will be hitting the proverbial pause button as we take a little family vacation to celebrate the the big guy's 40th birthday.

We'll be back again soon, most likely with some fun pictures, traveling-with-kids horror stories, acute jetlag, and sunburns.

Ah, life is good!

100 Things About Me

I tried to add this self-indulgent list to my main profile page, as I've seen posted on blogs elsewhere, but it went well beyond the established character allotment.

Good thing they don't have a photo limit on this system, eh?

1. My name is Karin.
2. It usually gets misspelled.
3. I’m 35 years old and this still bugs me a little, like someone dialing a wrong number.
4. From all accounts and memories, I was a pretty timid child.
5. Once, while staying overnight at a friend’s house, I played quietly by myself in another room while my friend and the rest of her family watched “CHiPs”—because the car explosions upset me.
6. That same family once took me to see a Blue Angels flight performance; the incredible noise of the aircraft overhead frightened me so much that I went to the parking lot and sat in the car with the windows rolled up for two hours. Alone.
7. That same childhood friend was Chinese and whenever I played at her house I would secretly wish that she would invite me to stay for dinner because her mother made the most delicious, authentic and, to my underexposed palate, mind-blowing Chinese meals.
8. To this day, my favorite foods are Asian in origin: Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, etc.
9. I take half and half and real sugar in my coffee.
10. I don’t drink enough water.
11. I waited for the right guy.
12. I’m thankful every single day that I did.
13. I hardly ever cry.
14. In the late ’90s I cried once for hours and hours after a little boy I knew drowned in a pool. At his Little League end-of-season pool party. It still chokes me up when I think about it.
15. My husband has known me for 11 years and has seen me give birth twice but has never seen me cry. I like to think that he’s a large part of the reason that I don’t need to.
16. It doesn't bother me when other people cry, but I look forward to the time when my children don’t cry so much.
17. The birth of my children represent the two best days of my life.
18. My wedding day is a close third.
19. At our wedding my husband, John, and I provided a keg of Guinness for our guests. We drank the keg’s last pitcher together in our room at the Hotel Laguna (the Bacall suite, named so because Bogart and Bacall used to rendezvous there), immediately after the wedding ended.
20. My married initials are KEG.
21. Finnegan, our son, is named after a book I have never read.
22. Shea, our daughter, is named after a stadium I have never visited.
23. I use Shea butter, however, in unbridled amounts and think the Shea tree of Africa is lovely.
24. I absolutely love both of my kids’ names and think they fit their personalities perfectly.
25. I can’t watch scary or violent movies. Despite hearing repeatedly how great they were, I have never seen Saving Private Ryan, Gladiator, Braveheart, Reservoir Dogs, Platoon, The Deerhunter, Seven, Kill Bill, or Unforgiven.
26. I saw Psycho at age 10 and was shaken for months.
27. I flirted with some OCD-type rituals as a child but gave them up because I found them to be too exhausting to maintain.
28. I have jumped off of more than one pier into the Pacific Ocean.
29. Once I did so at night with a group of my friends, wearing only my panties.
30. That night I was wearing more clothing than most of the other people in the group.
31. I used to prefer salty over sweet, but since I gave birth I prefer sweet over salty.
32. I was accepted to UC Berkeley but attended college at UCLA. I had a great time, learned a lot, and made some lifelong friends, but still sometimes wonder, “What if?”
33. I lived in London for six months after college and worked at Harrods, shucking oysters and serving champagne in the store’s gorgeous, tiled food halls.
34. Handling hundreds of coarse oyster shells each day gradually wore away my fingerprints.
35. They eventually came back.
36. I was standing about 90 feet away from windows that exploded when an IRA bomb, placed in a public trash can outside Harrods, detonated. Thankfully, nobody died. That time.
37. I went to at least one play, museum, or historical building every week while living in London.
38. I think about the city of London almost every single day.
39. My parents have lived in the same house for more than 30 years.
40. When my children visit my parents, they play and sleep in the same little room I called my own for nearly 20 years.
41. I’m not the best housekeeper.
42. I get better at cooking each year.
43. I used to procrastinate but I’ll get to the rest of that story later.
44. I can’t be away from the ocean for too long with getting a little batty.
45. I’d much rather be too hot than too cold.
46. Opening Day of baseball season is my favorite day of the year.
47. While I do love baseball and the romance and lore that surround it as an all-American pastime, it’s mostly because the arrival of Opening Day signals the end of winter and the beginning of warmer weather.
48. The first song I taught my son to sing was “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”
49. My least favorite day of the year is when the clocks are turned back for Daylight Savings.
50. Not so coincidentally, this usually falls around the same time as the World Series, thus marking the end of baseball season—and the beginning of colder weather.
51. I could never live (happily) somewhere where it snows.
52. I know; I’m a huge wimp.
53. I’m allergic to cats.
54. Although I like cats, I’m glad I’m allergic because I wouldn’t ever want to have one of my own.
55. One day, I’d like to have a dog.
56. After driving a series of used cars for 14 years, I bought myself my first new car at the age of 30.
57. Even though it’s a Chrysler, it felt like it was a Ferrari.
58. On the way home from the dealership I played Cheap Trick’s “Surrender” as loud as it would go. And for the first time in my personal driving experience the speakers didn’t distort.
59. I have been to no fewer than 150 concerts, large and small.
60. Remarkably, I still have fantastic hearing.
61. I’ve seen Beck in concert seven times; the second time I saw him, he opened for Johnny Cash.
62. The first album I knew intimately from start to finish was John Denver’s “Poems, Prayers & Promises.” Although he dabbled in cheese later in his career, I still find this early album to be earnest and beautiful, and the title song can make me a little misty if it catches me in the right mood.
63. I owned a metallic blue 1975 Cadillac Coupe de Ville de Elegance for about two years while I was still single. I bought it for $450, which I figured came out to about 10 cents a pound. It had five ash trays in it and sailed like a dream.
64. I read magazines from front to back, without exception.
65. John reads the obituaries department in Time magazine first.
66. The only thing I really miss about having a corporate job is the paycheck.
67. I’m perfectly happy with two children and don’t want any more.
68. When I imagine my life without kids I imagine myself pining for my kids.
69. I’ve needed my Mom more in my thirties than I did during my twenties.
70. I talk to my grandmother about once a week. She’s one of my favorite people. Ever.
71. As frustrating and blood-boiling as it is when my son is willful and defiant, a little part of me is secretly relieved that he isn’t as timid as I was.
72. It wasn’t until I had children that I felt I had anything to write about; I never felt close enough to the subject matter.
73. If I was given two hours to nap or read, it would be a tough choice deciding which to do.
74. I’d like to visit Japan.
75. John and I often talk about retiring in Hawaii.
76. Good writing quickens my heart rate.
77. I made most of the best friends I have today in Junior High. That was really the only good thing about Junior High.
78. When I was in seventh grade, a vapid rockabilly girl mistook me for a boy. I was wearing a grey crew-neck sweater, cords, and a bowl-cut hairdo. The next day before school, after I put on a skirt and blouse, my mom curled my hair for me.
79. In eighth grade, while eating the lunch my Mom packed for me, I unwrapped the aluminum foil from what I thought was a soda can and discovered it was a can of Coors. I giggled about it with my friends and threw it in the trashcan.
80. My Mom was mortified when I told her what she had done.
81. I cannot draw to save my life.
82. My brother was an art major.
83. I’m starting to get gray hair.
84. I don’t want to start coloring my hair. Yet.
85. John has sexy salt and pepper sideburns. I don’t think there’s anything sexy about my grays but he doesn’t seem to mind.
86. I love how John, one of those strong, silent types, will begin four separate sentences at the same time when excitedly trying to tell a story.
87. Sometimes, when he’s sleepy, he’ll begin a sentence and then just end it before completing his
88. When things are too hard to learn I give up more often than I’d like to admit.
89. I wish I had more perseverance.
90. As a girl I loved Julie Andrews and Carol Burnett.
91. It makes me sad that they’ve now both had so much plastic surgery that they’re hard to recognize until they speak.
92. The two hardest classes I’ve ever taken were Chemistry and Geology.
93. My friend Michelle is a getting her master’s degree in chemical geology, or something like that. Her talents boggle me.
94. I love destination aquariums.
95. The desert bores me.
96. I have a low threshold for personal drama.
97. I hate ironing.
98. I miss having time to read.
99. I miss having time to do crafts.
100. I know when my children get bigger I will have time to do these things again and I’ll miss the days when my children were little. I’m just that way.
     
     

Mini-Swap

I've been poking around the blog world lately and have come across some pretty impressive women out there who have the time and organization to both raise their children and remain dedicated to their arty crafts. First of all, let me just say how impressed I always am at people who manage to do both well. I'm still working on finding that happy balance.

So I enrolled our family in a "Mini-Swap" with a lovely group of other mothers around the world.

For Your Convenience

In case you've ever had the inclination to conduct an online search while reading Double Duty Diary (you know, during those moments when you ask yourself, "Who the hell is Linda Fiorentino?" or "What does she mean by calling Gerhard Richter an abstract expressionist? I've only ever studied his figurative work!"), I've added a fun Google search bar at the bottom right-hand column of the blog. Enjoy!