Mortimer's Mom

color and money

When I get bummed out, like I have been feeling these past few weeks, I take on a DYI project. Feeling frustrated? Bang on something! Feeling angry? Destroy something! Feeling blue and down? Throw some orange and magenta on the walls! Since I have banished orange and magenta from the blog, I decided to throw it up all over the walls of the guest rooms at the Kibbutz.  The details are over at Ubercrafty.

(In case you decide to skip the long narrative over there, let me just point out that those are TWO different rooms! I haven't completely lost my mind!) Also, mom and dad... Surprise! "your" room has been painted!

Now, onto a more serious topic... something that has been on my mind for a long time, ironically, probably since I first blogged about the Kibbutz... Back in the day, oh, 2 years ago now, when we first purchased our cottage, I got a troll dissing me. I don't remember the details, but it was mainly about the size of our second home, and basically, about the fact that we have money and how we chose to spend it..... Since I have been blogging, there have been very few taboos around here. I have blogged about every aspect of my life, my husband, my kids, my in-laws, heck, I've blogged about my period! But for some reason, whenever I blog about something remotely to do with our finances, I thread very lightly..... Even mentioning that we went to China in first class, with paid tickets, not on points, seemed to be taboo.... I didn't want to attract the attention.....

As some of you are aware, a troll struck a very good friend of mind yesterday. No need for links, either you know or you don't know. There was even a second comment about yet another friend's vacations.... The woman is a TRAVEL AGENT! If she's not going to take fabulous vacations, who is? And you know what, even if she wasn't a travel agent......

Here is the thing.... I live a more than comfortable life. We are on easy street so to speak. Why should I be ashamed of that? Why should I not blog about buying a Kate Spade bag, or staying at a 5 star hotel when I travel, in first class? Anyone who has read me knows I still buy my stuff on the sale rack at the GAP because up until I married, I didn't have money. So I do know the value of a dollar. I go to work, I run a company. I could sit at home and go to yoga. Scratch that. I could sit at home and make yoga come to me, like every other yummy-mummy on my street. I could hire a nanny to move in and take care of the children so I wouldn't have to bother with them. But I don't. So when I do go out and splurge on a pair of shoes, or a dress, or a cottage, I want to blog about it. And I don't want to attract the ire of trolls!

My second daughter just started nursery school this year. Same school my first daughter attended, mostly all the same families. But this year, there is a little girl there, the daughter of one of the richest families in the country. A well-known family, a family that has businesses and charities named after them. This little girl gets brought to school every day by her assigned nanny. Her sibling has a different nanny. The nanny doesn't walk over to the school. They are driven, by a driver, who is not assigned to the parents, only to the children. Everyday, I am sort of stunned by it. Not because of the expense, but to me, if you are going to be that rich, wouldn't you want to free yourself up and spend every second you can with your kid? But see, that's the thing... that's just ME! And I'm not going to hold it against them! Are they supposed to apologize for being rich? They are generous, they give away plenty, so who am I to judge? (Though I must admit, watching the nanny and bodyguard/driver go apple picking with the kid was pretty freaking hilarious! I wanted to blog about it at the time, but I realized, it wasn't my place.)

So here is the thing. I have money. Some of my friends have money, some don't. If someone wants to blog about their shoes, their vacations, their handbags, they should be able to, without fear of judgment. Because the alternative is communism... that's the only way to be fair to everyone... yeah, I didn't think you'd go for that......

the deluge

you know how they say When it rains, it pours.... well at my house, it's been the deluge, literally and figuratively...

First my husband came down with a big fever and cold just days before the tv shoot, then I got the foot thing that still won't go away. Because of those two things, we sent Dumpling to Grandma's house 2 nights earlier than anticipated..... 5 nights total, way too much for all involved.

Then there was the 3 days of which I am allowed to say nothing until a week after the airdate of Aug 6th. so we came home Friday night to a house in pretty good shape, save for a ton of furniture that didn't go back in the room was now in the middle of our basement TV room. And there was a weird odor coming from the furnace room. But we were too tired to investigate... The next morning, the odor was worst, so hubby checked it out, only to find 3 to 4 inches of water in the furnace room, threatening to leak over into the rest of the basement. So a plumber was called, a camera was inserted and we found out that the pipe connecting our house to the city sewer had given way under the roots of our stunning century-old maple tree and we will need to find an excavation company to come remedy the situation ASAP.

So with a smelly basement, a caughing husband and a gimpy foot, we set about to rest for the weekend, but I came down with a wicked sinus-thing.... probably just allergies, but I felt like crap all day Sunday. The only bright spot was the we worked so hard to get the new staff up to speed, we have been able to hand over the reigns of the new store faster than anticipated and didn't need to go in at all this weekend.

Which proved to be even more of a blessing when the cherry on the sunday of this disaster occured: while our dear friends D and A were visiting and checking out our house, my dear hubby noticed that our beloved Lucy's left ear was sort of just hanging and droopy. Went he went to touch it, it was like it was completely filled with blood....

Off they went to the emergency vet, where she had to have it drained and came home looking like she was wearing a water-polo helmet, along with one of those lampshade thingies.....

And just because that's not enough, the regular vet looked at it today: it was completely refilled with fluid, so she's spending the night there with no food or water and having surgery tomorrow.... We are besides ourselves, because our little Lucy-poo has had more than her share of Tsuris, from being abandoned to cmoing down with these nasty allergies that have now caused her to scratch until her ear blead......

And of course, Dumpling is looking for her everwhere: Mama? Zhizhi???

a good friend is hard to find

not so long ago, Amber posted about her laziness regarding friendships and I totally understood her. I too, fall in the not pro-active category when it comes to keeping in touch. I've always been a little lax in that department, but with the Dumpling's arrival, I became a downright bad friend.

But last year, I was on a quest. A quest to widen my circle of friends. So I joined the cookbook committee (the book is ready by the way, I can sell you a copy!) and lo and behold, I made a friend! At first, we just met to discuss soups. Then we started having Shabbat dinners together, and lately, we've been scrap-booking (shut up! don't laugh!). She comes over once or twice a week, we lock ourselves in the craft-cave, put on reality TV in the background and scrap to our hearts content while dishing the dirt.

She's an amazing person and I really love hanging out with her. So of course, she'll be moving away this summer, back to her hometown down the 401. Obviously, we'll keep in touch (thankfully for me, she's the kind of person who'll get on my case if she doesn't hear from me), but how much does it suck that I finally find someone who likes to come over in her pajamas, drink tea and watch bad TV, and she has to move away.....

You know who you are, I know you might be reading this, thanks. for being my friend. and for not complaining about the mess in that room!!!!

PS: how much do I love typepad?!?!? With the built in links and photos and SPELL CHECK! Holy mother of all things easy! Why was I wasting my time at the other place???