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I decided to disable my comment section. If you want to email me I think you all have my email account. I have a new one I use for discounts but if you want to email me on it you can.

maryellenmaxfield@rocketmail.com

The Kitchen is Closed

We're moving soon. Very soon. So, I've been kicking it up a notch with the packing since I'll be back to work on the 3rd. The packing is going great. We're more than half way done except for the walls. Our walls are still decorated (except for the dining room) and they will be until we're ready to move.

I completely packed up our dining room on Monday and stripped the walls of art work. The result was I got pretty teary. So from then on I have left the walls alone and my tear ducts have stayed clear.

Today I packed up the kitchen. I made a bunch of burritos before I shut her down. I should have planned better and cooked something more exciting for the last meal I cooked in our kitchen like Julia Child's beef bourguignon.

Maybe I'll just have to save that meal for the first thing I cook in our next kitchen.

My French

Have you ever said something to someone and got a laugh and then you said the same thing to someone else and got nothing? Well, apparently that's not the case with my French. I've shown off my skills twice and have gotten a laugh twice.

Last night we were watching the U.S. women play France. Inevitably I started speaking French. I said, "Oooooo Fondue...." in my best French accent. I would have continued with words like plie and pirouette but I guess all John needed was fondue because he started laughing.

If he likes my French then he'll LOVE my Chinese.

3:36 a.m. is Way Too Early

This morning I was woken up by loud thunder and Kita making her way in between John and me on the bed. She was scared by the thunder. I was happy by that because our old girl can't hear too well these days so it's great when she shows us that she hasn't completely lost her hearing.

It was also raining. Thunder and rain in the morning is one of my very favorite things especially living out here in the Sahara. However, it just happened too early. When I woke up a couple of hours later the rain had stopped. Boo to that.

Saturday Doing Nothing...

Well, not completely nothing. In the morning I used up all but the last ten minutes of the four hours given to me to take my elementary education proficiency test. Um, I may be taking that again. It was kind of hard.

The rest of the day John and I spent at home doing things like playing Texas Hold'em. I lost. Our bets: John wants to give me another golf lesson (I lost a previous bet). I told him he didn't have to make that his bet because I would do that anyway. He said he wanted a guarantee. Probably a smart idea. My bet was for a romantic comedy that he had to watch with me without making jokes about it.

We also watched several episodes of Party Down and ordered pizza. It was really relaxing. We haven't had a Saturday like that in a long time. Last Saturday we were in Texas, the Saturday before that at a wine tasting party in a land far, far away (Peoria), the Saturday before that we were in Ruidoso and the Saturday before that my brother and his family were in town. My memory is a little foggy about any other Saturdays.

There's a free viewing of Frida's story at the Phoenix Art Museum today. John asked me if it was the one with Madonna. Aw, I love John.

A Thing

John says that I always need "a thing". Something that guides me through my day to days. I have to agree with him. Some of my things came from places like Hawaii when I came back with the Aloha spirit. I was so at peace with everything until I went back to work in triple digit temperatures and my Aloha spirit was murdered.

For many years I adopted Lee Iococca's proactive way of listing six things in a day that he needs to get done and then prioritizing them. The thinking is that if you get through all six things then you can make a new list. If you only get through one or two things then at least you've done the most important tasks of that day. I've been doing this for about six years. That thing is done.

I've even tried to do the seven habits of highly effective people. I hope my principal isn't reading this but that's a little too involved for me.

My two new things have come from the Zen Habits and Martha Beck who writes for the O magazine. From the Zen Habits I was very interested in an article about living without goals. The thinking here is that if we're so focused on certain goals then we've already pre-determined our path and it's difficult to let other experiences into our lives. Or we're so focused on achieving that we don't appreciate the experiences that get us there. Another thought is that if we don't succeed in the goals we've made then we're disappointed but if we didn't make the goal in the first place we can't be disappointed. If you would like to read the Zen Habits post you can click here.

My other new thing is Martha Beck's thoughts on what to do if you want to change the behavior of a loved one. The answer is to love them and not give a damn what happens to them. If you want to read that article you can google Martha Beck unconditional love. I tried to put the link for you but there was an error.

I think that my two new things are very much related. Both of them involve not setting expectations.

Well I'm off to do...something.


The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.-Albert Einstein

Life Lesson Learned at Little Caeser's...

Here's the lesson: If someone holds the door for you before going into an establishment make sure you say thank you loud enough for the person to hear you. If not you will for sure be told, "you're welcome" twice in a tone that really says, "a thank you would be nice b!@ch."