R.I.P. Tiger Woods

No, not THAT Tiger Woods, our hermit crab Tiger Woods.

I was giving Simon crap about not giving his hermit crabs water and food the other night.  He finally got off his butt and did, but he came to me and said, “Mom, Tiger’s not moving.”  Sometimes Tiger is shy, so I was hoping he was just not in the mood to move.  I went to his cage and picked him up and as I was lifting his shell out of the cage, he flopped out of it into his newly filled water dish.  Dead.

Poor Simon.  His face just went white.  And Oh.My.God. what a smell!  Aaaaack.

So I did what any good mom would do, I called my husband down to take care of it.  LOL!

We had Tiger for almost a year.  We got him after Albert, who is still alive.  Simon came to me last night and said he couldn’t get the image of Tiger falling out of his shell out of his mind.  He said it scared him so much.  Poor thing.  I know what it is like to dwell on things that bother you.  It’s a tough lesson, and there is nothing I can do to help him with this.  I told him to try to remember Tiger in his shell when he thinks of him.

Tiger and Albert

Rest in peace, Tiger.  (he’s the one on the left in the picture)

July 21, 2008 | Filed Under Parenting | 7 Comments 

Five Places I Have Lived

Geez, it takes a meme to get me off my fat ass and writing again.  BORING.

My buddy Meg at Get In, Hang On posted a meme that I thought was interesting, so I tagged myself (per her instructions).

The fine print:

Name 5 places you’ve lived. Be as specific or generic as you like.
List 5 memories associated with each of those places.
Tag 5 others.

Like Meg, I’m not going to tag anyone. Tag yourself and let me know if you do it.

I’m a bullet kind of gal, so here’s my list. These are the first five places I lived.

Fort Riley, Kansas (age 2 (second home, but the first home I remember))

– Duplex house (the family next door had 9 kids, we had 6 – can you imagine?!)
– Kid next door stealing the streamers from my tricycle handles
– Helicopters landing and taking off
– My dad coming home from work and sitting in the big green recliner
– The last family photo before my dad left for Vietnam (I’m the cute one in the blue dress)

Last Family Photo

Alexandria, Virginia (age 3-18)

– Playing the piano and imagining someone kidnapping me and forcing me to play for an audience (obviously I have issues)
– Playing Kick The Can, Ghost in the Graveyard, Hide With Them with zillions of neighborhood kids and no supervision
– Learning to ride a bicycle, cutting up my knees on the driveway next door
– Playing by the river, making forts, sliding down the cliffs to the water on our butts (again, with no supervision)
– Learning to drive a car (um, no, not legally)

Blacksburg, Virginia (age 18-23 (college))

– Playing backgammon at Top of the Stairs
– Playing darts at Ton 80
– Tubing on the New River
– My first apartment
– My first car

Madrid, Spain (age 20 (study abroad))

– Afternoon siestas
– Tapas and horchata
– Partying until 5am (the bars never close, or if they did, we never noticed)
– Traveling south to Malaga/Calpe, and north to Santander with friends
– Bullfighting – I found it both intriguing and disturbing

West New York, New Jersey (age 22 (internship at Citicorp during grad school))

– The “A Great Place to Live and Shop” sign at the town limits
– The commute to work - Bergenline Avenue bus/Lincoln Tunnel/Port Authority/E Train to Midtown Manhattan
– Hauling laundry 5 blocks uphill to the Laundromat
– Putting “No Radio” signs on my car windows (and having no radio)
– Hocker Pschorr Weiss Beers at The Brass Rail in Hoboken (Did we actually steal a parking meter? Nah. That would be illegal.)

Aspen Hill, Maryland (age 24 (first apartment out of college))

– Wondering if I would ever find a job
– Having to turn left onto Georgia Avenue every morning during rush hour with no traffic light
– Commuting 25 miles each way to Reston, Virginia from May – December while they were widening the Beltway (yes, I finally found a job, just not in an ideal location)
– The squeaky butt sound of the fat guy upstairs taking a bath
– A burglar in my apartment

July 20, 2008 | Filed Under Fun Stuff | 5 Comments