time

I'm having a hard time believing it's June. It just doesn't feel like June to me. The recent weather has added to that sensation, I am sure. But still, this year is just flowing past me, and I cannot seem to catch up with it, no matter how hard I try.

June is usually a busy month. Graduations, my parents anniversary, and their usual  family bbq the weekend before the 4th of July. MG traditionally spends a good part of the summer with her Mom, she left yesterday.

By the time I get used to June, it's going to be July. Then August. And mid August, school will start again. (We start early-ish here because of potential snow days). Summer is going to be faded away before I get into the swing of it. 

Shouldn't time slow down as we get older, so we can enjoy it more? We are wiser, (supposedly) now. It would be good if things slowed down. Just a little....

Angry Songs

I've been talking with Bubblewench today, about music for her up-coming road trip. I'd made a suggestion to her (Seether), but, in hindsight, was starting to wonder if they would hold any appeal to her.

So we started talking about music, likes, dislikes. I was telling her that one of the reasons I like Seether is that they've written one of (what I refer to as) my "angry songs".  I like my angry songs... 

Bubblewench, upon reflection, doesn't have any angry songs. 

Now, my angry songs don't make me mad, they, for me, are more of 'healthy outlet' songs, that remind me of some of the crap my ex's have tried to pull on me, in the past. The fact that someone else wrote the words doesn't bother me, at all.

My 2 angry songs that I can think of, right away, are (of course) You Oughta Know, by Alanis. I prefer the tighter, slower live version, though, she sounds more ominous in that one. And the aforementioned Seether has this song called "Fake It" (which also has a slower version, but that one isn't as strong). Fake It's chorus involves the phrase "You're such a fucking hypocrite". Boy have I known some of those...

MM has an angry song, "Crazy Bitch", by Buck Cherry. I would guess he's known a few of those...

so how about you? Got an angry song?

** after thinking more about this, I have remembered my very first angry song. I STILL love the message of that song. It's "You Don't Own Me" by Lesley Gore.

Friday Mieography

Meet Lillian Moller Gilbreth. SHe is the first working female engineer holding a PhD.

Born in Oakland, California, she had the usual childhood, and was admitted to, and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with both her BA and her MA. Her Ph.D came from Brown University, and was the first degree granted in Industrial Psychology. During her lifespan, she ended up also getting 22 honorary degrees from many schools, such as Princeton, Brown, and U. of Michigan, just to name a few.

She married Frank Gilbreth, and proceeded to have 12 children with him. As a matter of fact, the books (and subsequent movie) Cheaper By the Dozen (and also Belles on Their Toes) are the story of their family life.

So if that wasn't enough, Lillian continued her work as an engineer. She was the first American Engineer to combine a synthesis of psychology, and scientific management. (With that many kids she'd have to, right?). She also, in her "spare" time, helped to design a desk for display at the Chicago World's Fair. Yes, she developed the first ergonomic desk....

Her work focused on inefficiency, and waste, and she studied this in both time and motion, and also the waste of potential human satisfaction and fulfillment that could be derived from work. (Work is supposed to fulfill us). She believed that poorly planned jobs made work tiresome, and destroyed the enjoyment of the task. (boy is she right on that one). She fostered the theory that each employee deserved basic human dignity, and that managers and owners needed to structure their authority in the workplace.

     She did marketing reasearch for Johnson and Johnson, and assisted both them, and Macy's with their management departments. She also wrote numerous books and essays, and did a doctoral dissertation, and a Fatigue Study. She and Frank wrote books together while their children were asleep. She even wrote a Motion Study for the Handicapped. She and her husband formed a management consulting firm, Gilbreth, Inc. which performed the time and motion studies, with their children working with them, as a team. She died in 1972 in Phoenix, Arizona. She is called the First Lady of Engineering, and was the first woman elected into the National Academy of Engineering. She also held Professorships at Purdue and Wisconsin-Madison Universities, and the Newark Collage of Engineering. In 1984 she was made into a Postage Stamp.

Thursday 13

One should never blog hungry. Or shop that way, for that matter. This is my hungry Thursday 13.... as usual, for more views on the thirteen world, go here

1. I LOVE a good Grilled Cheese sandwich.

2. Gyro's. Food of the gods. I cried when our Greek restaurant (the only greek restaurant) went under...

3. I love artichokes. And their hearts

 I love a good baked potato

5. Creme Brulee. I drool even thinking about it

6. Right out of the garden is the best...

7. Roasted Chicken. I make a mean roasted chicken, if I had more time, I'd start one.

8. Garlic bread. Because it has 2 of my favorite things. Garlic. And bread.

9. Grilled corn. I love grilled corn

10. A nice, grilled, juicy steak

11. Mac and Cheese. Yeah, I have a carb problem. What about it?

12. Taco's. It's what's for dinner. SOON.

13. Stuffed Shells. mmmmmm tasty.

Wordless Wednesday

Ahh, its the end of the year

School is ending in very soon, a few, mere days, as a matter of fact. Leaving us with an active, and probably soon to be bored teenager. It seems like yesterday she was just starting her freshman year, and now its over? Already? Time flies....

I remember, oh so long ago, the end of my freshman year. It was a year wrought with change. Everything seemed different. I had a whole different set of friends, ones that lived further away from me in my big county. I tried alcohol for the first time. I was kissed for the first time. I had "boyfriends". (yeah, plural). I actually FAILED a class for the first time. (Algebra still pains me). The vice principal targeted me because of my sisters behavior, and I served so much after school detention for being tardy for freshman orientation that I got used to getting home in the dark. (I had PE at the opposite end of the school right before that. Stupid.)

So if I can remember all the stuff about MY freshman year, how is it possible that I am now LIVING with a freshman, and I am one of the ADULTS in the house? 

Time, it does more than fly. It went sonic on me....

Monday Morning Mush

Its been an interesting weekend.

MM and  MG and I went to see The Lion King, (broadway, not movie) in it's traveling show. I'd seen a performance of it in NYC and thought it was amazing, and since MG was in drama this school year, I thought it might be a cool thing for her to see. The show was indeed, fantastic. We had a great time, but got home at 12:15 am. Unfortunately, this was THURSDAY, and they had to go to work and school Friday. Needless to say we were dragging a little ass Saturday, but not slow enough that MM didn't go fetch his new to him Mustang. Yes. We have another family member. I don't call him Mustang Man for nothing. There are now three ponies in the corral. Technically, one belongs to the nephew in AZ, but it is here with us, for now. MG woke up long enough to go have fun at a friend's birthday party, and MM and I had a leisurely meal out after his guitar lesson, where I got to preview the song he wrote with his music teacher. (It's a ballad, called "Body Bag", romantic, no?).

Sunday, we didn't really do a whole lot. We got the fish tank working, and if all goes well we will consider the purchase of fish possibly later today. I want to be sure that things are good, and we don't drop some fish in just to have them die. On an interesting, yet slightly squeamish note, we were in one of the local pet stores, looking at some fish. I found these 2 puffer fish, cool looking little dudes, they had the coloration of frogs, kind of. They had little flippy fins and were swimming happily around, and, well, I liked them. They were cute. I should have realized they were in their own tank for a reason..... But my mind kept going back to that funny little puffer fish in Finding Nemo, and how funny he looked when he puffed up and got pissy.

MM goes and asks the fish people if the puffer fish require a special diet, and, well. Yeah. They do. One of the employees came by, threw an innocent looking little orange fish into the tank, and WHAM! right in front of my eyes, those sweet looking puffer fish turned into Hannibal Lector. Those fish completely attacked the "feeder fish" like a pride of lions on a gazelle. They went right for the spine, then proceeded to shred the thing. I walked away, MM watched a second longer. NO, we will not be getting any puffer fish for the tank. Though MM had the idea of getting a shark, and those, and seeing which one was the Ultimate Warrior. I think NOT. 

After that we went and saw the new Pixar film, UP.

If you get a chance, go see it. I got oddly choked up at the beginning of the movie, and shed a few tears. I'm not even PMS'ing. Yet I cried at a cartoon. Damn it, I'm getting soft in my old age. I blame those damn puffer fish for disembowling the gold fish in front of me.....