Vida

Today's my dad's birthday!  Happy birthday, Dado! To the guy who always seems to have a way to calm me down when I'm upset.  He always seems to be on the receiving end of calls when I have reached my end and he talks me through it.  He saves me newspaper articles.  I can say I am a definite fan of the newspaper and it's probably because of him.  He talks me through my Cardinals questions and could probably talk about baseball for days if he's with someone who can keep him going.  He seems to find something to talk to everyone about.  Oh you're from _____.  Have you heard of ______?  Things I never even knew about him. Happy birthday, Dado.  You're the best! Don't bother us...we're learning. ;)

"Throw in some exclamation points." Rewind several years to my a date with a fellow.  I was working at the planetarium and on our first date he said in a much nicer way than I now remember, that I come off as mean/rude/not excited in text message form. Upon dissection of this statement with my friend and co-worker, Rubina, she gave me the best advice: Throw in some exclamation points.   I still remind myself of this now.  All the time.  I guess I just don't think of text messages with exclamation points.  There have been many times where I'm just about to hit send and I go back and change a period or two to an exclamation point.  It seems to be received better. Even with that awareness, my now friend and co-worker, Justine, still questions my enthusiasm in text messages. So just know, if you get a text from me and think I'm not excited.  I might be!  I'm trying my best over here!

Everyone's heard of the do not call list.  Right?  If not, put your number on it now. Have you heard of the do not mail list ?  I had not.   I must have purchased from someone who sold my name as part of a list.  Which happens, and I get it, but I was getting SO MANY catalogs, which I did not need.  I started thinking about what a waste of paper (and money) it was and decided I would slowly start removing my name from their mailing lists. I sent a note to Shutterfly to remove me and they so helpfully sent along information on the do not mail list.  Thank you, Shutterfly! I put in my information so I will hopefully stop receiving all the catalogs that go directly to recycle. You can customize what you want and what you don't if you're worried about that. Let's save some paper!

Hello, How are you lately? I'm feeling so overwhelmed lately.  For me it seems to start with very busy days at work and I get home exhausted.  The time change and night sky when I leave the office at 5:00 isn't helping my battle here. I have my sights set on Thanksgiving and everything has become a countdown until I leave for Missouri. Here's to a good weekend! xoxo Lisa

Have you ever arrived at a party at the start time (or even a half hour late) and you're in the special early crowd.  Some people may hate this.  I kind-of love it. Here are some reasons why: You actually get to visit with the hosts/hostesses.  (The people you are actually there to see anyway.) If you don't know the hosts/hostesses, have some time to get to know them.  This will prevent a common occurrence.  As the night goes on and the host/hostess welcome more attendees, they won't continually say, "I don't know how that is, they're with ____."  They'll say, "Oh that's, ____, I met him/her tonight.  He/She is really nice.  He/She is here with ____."  See how much nicer that is. First sofa/chair/corner/wall space choice. Room in the fridge for what you brought along. Are the snacks always gone by the time you get there?  Not if you're on time.  No awkwardly reaching over people you don't know so you can have a chip with

I always seem to forget(/make myself forget) how much I dislike this time change.  Don't get me wrong, I love seeing the sun earlier in the morning.  It sure is rough to watch it set from my desk at work though. When I worked at the planetarium, we worked under ground.  This meant in the winter there would be days sometimes when I didn't see the sun.  At work before it rises and leaving after it set.  Very sad. So while I deal with my sadness I thought of an activity you can enjoy in the dark (or sunlight).  Brewery tours!  I've made my way on quite a few in the midwest so let's check them out.  Feel free to share your brewery tour experiences in the comments. ( via ) Goose Island - This was probably my first one, I was a junior or senior in college.  They had pitchers of the beer they were sampling and they went around and around until they were empty.  It was $10 for a pint glass and the samples.  This was 5-6 years ago, not sure what the deal is now. (Thi