The Great Interview Experiment - My Q&A

I interviewed Andrea and Lorraine of Fretting the Small Stuff. Two sisters, one blog. Each sister responded separately to my questions. Twofer!

They are fascinating people, so please add them to your blogroll.

1. What was your main reason for beginning your blog? How did your friends and/or family originally react? How do they feel about it now?

Andrea: This is actually my third blog, if you would believe it. After I took the bar exam and was looking for jobs, I needed some sort of outlet to express my silliness. I did that blog for a while and then in June 2006, my Irish Wolfhound was diagnosed with bone cancer. Of course, being the internet addict I am, I did a ton of searches looking for information about Irish Wolfhounds, amputations, and just personal accounts of having a giant breed dog. After not much success in finding the information for which I was searching, I started a blog about Finnegan's treatment. I only stopped blogging there very recently. He is 20 months past diagnosis, which is amazing, and is doing very well. Okay, phew! Now we are on the current blog. I decided I wanted one that was about a human (I suppose I am human) so I started Fretting the Small and harassed, threatened and bribed my sister into joining me. It's been really cool to have her input. She's much older (heh!) and wiser than I when it comes to life's lessons and experiences. My friends and family are supportive and I have received great feedback. Our parents don't know about this blog though. I'm very stealthy that way.

Lorraine: Andrea started the blog, then suggested I join her. It took a lot of whining and complaining (on my part), but she finally convinced me to take part. Quite frankly, my family was surprised I even knew what a blog is! :-)

2. If you had enough money not to work, would you still work at your current job? Why?

Andrea: It's funny you ask! For some reason, that question comes to my mind often. Honestly, I think it depends on the day you ask. I love my job. I am a consumer law attorney at a legal aid organization and it is one of the most fulfilling jobs I could have. I started out in private practice and it was not for me for many reasons. I probably would work part-time because my husband and I will be starting a family in the future very soon and I would love to be as close to a full time mom as possible. If I won a ton of money, I would probably stop working and give my time to helping abused, disabled, and homeless animals. I'm a huge animal person and would love to save them all. Even the funny looking ones.

Lorraine: Well, I LOVE my current job, which is a full time stay at home wife and mom, so yes, I would stay at my current job if I had tons of money. I might however, hire a housekeeper.

3. I haven't seen The Bucket List but the premise is to accomplish certain things before you die. What three things would be on your Bucket List?

Andrea: Three things: visit every continent, live in a green house with solar energy, and make a positive impact on the earth by decreasing my carbon footprint and helping those (both human and animal) less fortunate.

Lorraine: 1. Take a woodworking class so that I could safely operate power tools. I LOVE POWER TOOLS, but my husband is afraid I will lose a limb. 2. spend lots of time in Italy and France and Spain 3. Raise our children to be happy, emotionally sensitive and socially successful people

4. Valentine's Day is next week. What is the most romantic thing your husband has done for you? What is the most romantic thing you've done for him?

Andrea: If you see here, I am not about romance. It gives me the heeby jeebies. I'm more about silliness. The Prof cheers me up by singing songs, he stood by me during one of the roughest times of my life, and he loves me the mostest. In return, I provide him with a stable and loving home life he missed as a child.

Lorraine: My husband planned a huge celebration for my 50th birthday, had my family fly in and invited all my closest friends for a surprise birthday. He did so much planning, and he was so sweet. It was amazing. The most romantic thing I did for my husband was plan a surprise get away weekend.

5. Growing up, were you a tomboy or a girly girl? Or both?

Andrea: Probably a bit of both. I liked to be outside collecting fuzzy caterpillars but I also loved Barbie and Cabbage Patch Dolls.

Lorraine: Mainly a tomboy. I loved playing outside in the woods or dreaming about having a horse. I did have just about every Barbie available along with a Barbie dream house. But we had to rough it and set it up out in the garage or in the back yard.

6. Finally, if you could chose to be invisible or to fly, which would you chose, and why?

Andrea: I think I would like to fly because I could literally get a bird's eye view of the world. If I was super fast like Superman, I could easily visit my sister who lives too far away and my parents, friends, and brother who are all on the east. That would be pretty cool.

I want to end this interview by saying your strength is amazing. I cannot imagine through what you've been and I wish you all the best. Also, I want to say that I have the best sister in the world and I wish everyone could be as luck as Lorraine and I are to have each other.

Lorraine: Definitely fly, I love to watch the birds soaring around. Where we live is so gorgeous, I would love to be able to fly out over the sound or up into the mountains.

The Great Interview Experiment

Neil from Citizen of the Month posted a great idea called The Great Interview Experiment. I signed up, and was interviewed by Kelly. Here is our Q&A session.

I am interviewing Andrea and Lorraine of Fretting The Small Stuff. I'll post our Q&A when I get their responses.

Wednesday Bites - The Ash Wednesday Edition

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Lent season. Those of us who are Catholic are supposed to give up something from now until Easter. I gave up saying bad words. Maddy gave up saying shut up and other rude phrases. The deal is for every violation we put a quarter in the jar. We'll count the money at Easter and probably go to Hawaii. You will notice I already have a quarter in my jar - I said damn at dinner. Although in my defense, she was being a brat and made me say it. I think she should pay the quarter.



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Just a suggestion - if you are going to drive a muscle car with V8 plastered all over it, please do something other than 58 in the fast lane. If you don't MOVE, I will wind up putting $20 in my violation jar. mmmmkay?


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Valentine's Day is a week from tomorrow. A faithful reader asked if Maddy and I had plans. Maddy has gymnastics and I have an appointment for a haircut. We're so glamorous.


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Last week's freaky weather has jump started my spring fever. I'm planning my flower beds, and I'm even shopping for patio furniture, since the XHB has the original set. I even want to MOW. I've got it bad.

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Thanks to all of you who stopped by to say Hey. I'm doing good, I appreciate you checking on me. It means a lot.

Just Say Hey

I ran into a girl I used to work with today. She just looked at me, and her eyes welled up and she said "I just don't know what to say to you." I told her, "just say hey."

I wonder how many people that I know see me in my building or on the street and don't say anything to me for fear of saying the wrong thing. Unless you say something horribly callous, I doubt you'll hurt my feelings.

A good friend told me that if they didn't treat me different, they wouldn't care. I guess. It still sucks. I don't have a lot of normalcy in my life right now, so just a friendly "Hey, how's it going?" means so much.

In other news....

The St. Clair County State's Attorney has requested that a special grand jury review the evidence and decide whether or not to charge the officer with reckless homicide.
Here is the story. Here is the official Grand Juror Handbook, in case you were wondering just what the hell a grand jury does.

Jessica and Jordan- Senior Prom

Kelli - 4th of July

Fun at PaPa's Playground

For those of you with children, have you noticed your parents being a little more, shall we say, cool, with your kids? For example, my dad built a swing area, sandbox and seesaw for my kids. He had to use sand from the sandbox once while he was mixing cement. We came down the following weekend and Maddy asked him where all her sand went. He told her he had to use it to build a wall, and then he loaded her in the truck and they went and bought some more. I'm thinking, you know, when I was a kid, not only did I not have a sandbox, he dang sure wouldn't have just gone and bought me some more sand. He would have told me to play in the rocks. Okay, maybe not, but you get my point.

We went to my dad's (fondly known as PaPa to the grandkids) this weekend to celebrate his birthday. The weather was lovely, compared to the 8 inches of snow we had on Friday. Saturday was sunny and about 55. Maddy took advantage of the nice weather to play on the swings and seesaw. (The sandbox was wet). She was swinging along, and I was taking some pictures. All of a sudden, she's on the ground with a "what the blue hell just happened?" look on her face. The swing seat had broken in half, and she hit the ground with enough forward momentum to make her slide about two feet. After making sure she was okay, I laughed so hard. Poor child. She was more embarassed than hurt. Maddy has requested that the swings be rebuilt, perhaps with steel seats. She has also requested some padding be installed underneath.

I didn't get pictures of the buttslide, but here are a few shots of her in PaPa's playground. Don't you wish you were 9 again?

The seesaw is about 20 feet long, and one heavy mamajama

Balance is key

Before the break

After the break

Snow Day - Second Thoughts

I got my wish. I got a snow day. The school cancelled classes last night around 8:00 p.m. We already had at least four inches by then.

I did get up and call work, just to make sure we had our snow day. Then I went back to bed until about 9:00. The snow made it too bright to sleep.

I went outside to clean off my car, and remembered why I hate snow. I had to shovel my sidewalk to get to my car.

The effing plows piled up the snow at the foot of my driveway. I have a CAR, people. There was no way I was going to be able to get over that small mountain of snow.

It's supposed to be 58 on Monday. I hope it melts this crap. But then I'll just bitch about the mud.