Bringing back the lookalike game

I think you’ll all agree with me that it’s been way too long since we played this game. So long that I’ve gotten pretty rusty.

I guess you’ll just have to help me out.

The only celebrity lookalikes I can think of are:

Elizabeth Hasselbeck and Meaghan Jette Martin
(I can't even take credit for this one. I saw it when reading a review of the 10 Things I Hate About You TV show . . . which yes, of course I've been watching. What do you think?)

David Moscow and Matthew Morrison
(I watched a movie with Moscow last night, and I was just sure it was Morrison, the guy from GLEE. Turns out it was just his blue-eyed twin.)

Bruce McGill and Tyne Daly
(Seriously, how could two unrelated people look so much alike? Every time I see this guy in something, I say, "Oh my gosh, he looks just like Tyne Daly!" So this week I finally got around to looking him up. And nope, he's not related. Just looks like it.)

Have you spotted any lookalikes lately?

And hey, don’t forget to enter the giveaway for Rain on Me by Holley Gerth!

I do ride the bus, you know.

Yesterday at work, I decided to listen to some tunes on Pandora. I was a little tired of my Kathy Mattea and Bobby Brown stations, so I picked my Pink station.

So sue me. I enjoy angry rocker chick music.

But I started noticing that Pink has quite the mouth. Apparently listening to a Pink song on the radio is like watching a Judd Apatow movie on TBS.

You know, all nice and censored cleaned up.

Once I started noticing the profanity, I couldn’t help but notice it in the other songs. That Avril Lavigne? She needs to watch her mouth, too!

Anyway, my reaction to these songs – that I’ve listened to many a time – made me laugh, as I remembered a conversation I had many years ago.

I don’t remember exactly what the context was, but my cousins were discussing something in front of me and assumed either I didn’t understand or was not old enough to hear such things.

So I said to them, my cousins and childhood heroes who happened to be 5, 6 and 8 years older than me, “I do ride the bus, you know.”

Because seriously, who didn’t learn something their parents wished they hadn't on the school bus?

What? That was just my bus?

Well, anyway, my cousins thought that was sooo funny. They laughed and laughed. Or maybe they just laughed and my burning ears heard an echo that wasn’t there. Either way, they thought my bravado was hilarious. And though I don’t remember anything more, I’m pretty sure they waited to finish their conversation until I wasn’t around.

I guess I need to either listen to more uplifting music or remember that I shouldn’t be shocked so easily.

After all, I did ride the bus, you know.

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On another note, Monday night was one more for the books with Annalyn. And by “for the books,” I mean awful, horrible, no good, when is bedtime, I wanna run away from home. As a matter of fact, I gave myself a timeout at one point! But last night was the polar opposite of Monday’s tantrum-filled evening. We spent our precious time together reading, playing, giggling and walking.

Annalyn hadn’t walked in quite a few days, preferring to hold our hands while she walks around or regressing back to her old standby, crawling.

Last night, though, she dug her cat ears from last year’s Halloween costume out of the closet, put them on and got busy walking.

It turns out she was just missing her walking ears.

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Don’t forget to enter the giveaway for Rain on Me by Holley Gerth!

Top 10 Things I Learned From My Survey

Some of you also mentioned enjoying my photos. And since I aim to please...

A couple weeks ago, I had some time to kill in the Detroit airport, and I decided to write a survey. It was so much fun that I can guarantee I’ll do it again.

Maybe I’ll take a survey of what TV shows to watch this fall . . . or what Christmas presents to buy . . . or how to cut my hair . . . oh, the possibilities are endless.

Until all of our survey dreams come true, though, I thought I’d share the results from this first one.

1. Only about half of you (47%) subscribe to this blog. Ahem. If you would like to subscribe – which means every new post from Giving Up on Perfect automatically shows up in your Feed Reader or in your e-mail – just click that orange button over on the right. Easy peasy.
2. Out of the 44 people who took my survey, 14% were first-time readers. Umm . . . you all must really like surveys! Which is cool with me. I’m a big fan of the survey, too. Oh, did I already mention that?
3. Almost half of you know me in real life, with a whopping 7% claiming that I make you read my blog. Honestly, I’m not sure who’s saying such things, because Mark and Smitty don’t even read every day . . .
4. Speaking of reading frequency, 42% of survey respondents (now doesn’t that sound official?) read this blog every day. Thank you.
5. As I suspected, most of my readers are women. Three men did take the quiz, though. I hope you’ll comment on this post and tell me who you are. But since I don’t see that happening, I’m going to guess that at least one of those guys is my brother. And maybe my friend Jeremy of the Cheez-It fame.
6. The ages were all across the board, although a solid 50% are somewhere in their thirties. I’m not sure if that counts anyone who is perpetually 39. The free survey software may not be that sophisticated.
7. Interestingly, the posts that you all most enjoy are rambling accounts of my daily life. I’m not so sure why, but I’m making an effort here to ramble more. For you, my readers. The sacrifices I make . . .
8. Also in the running for top topics: memories and stories (good thing, as I do love to reminisce), my always valuable opinions on pop culture (another good thing, as I will not be turning off the TV anytime soon) and parenting.
9. The less-loved topics – and yes, I know the survey forced you to answer, even though you didn’t want to because you love me – were book reviews, food and domestic life. Hmmm. Well, I can cut back on book reviews and spare you the details of my housecleaning routine (ha!). But people, you need to know this: food and I have a close relationship, and we will probably not be parting anytime soon.
10. Finally, half of you prefer me to respond to comments in the comment section. And boy, have I been letting you down! I will try to get better at this, but even if I don’t respond to your comment, I promise I still appreciate it.

Now, about those essay questions. You all just made my day. Seriously, you do know this was an anonymous survey, right? I can’t give anyone credit for saying nice things or making sweet comments or telling me how wonderful I am. You know this?

And yet you did it anyway.

As a thank you, I’m going to give one lucky reader a signed copy of Holley Gerth’s devotional, Rain on Me. I met Holley at Blissdom and we clicked immediately. Now I’m getting the chance to know her better as we work on (in)courage together, and I just love this girl. You will, too!

To enter this giveaway, leave a comment telling me something you’d like me to write about on this blog. It can be a story, a list or the answer to any question you’d like to ask. Comments will be closed on Saturday, and then I’ll randomly select a winner.

If you’re lucky, I might even answer your questions or write about the stories you request. At least that would keep me from doing those annoying carnivals so often, right, Survey Taker #15?

Oh, calm down. You know I kid.

But this post will be linked to Top Ten Tuesday and What I Learned This Week. (See? Ask me some questions!)

It was a napping kind of weekend.

You know what I wonder? Why do I have a calendar? I mean, I occasionally write things in it, but then I close it up, stick it in my stack of stuff that I tote back and forth every day, and never look at it again.

Case in point: last Friday. Though just two days before, I’d sent my friend Christelle a note on Facebook saying how much I was looking forward to our scrapbooking date on Friday, I sat at my desk that afternoon and thought, “Hmmm, what am I going to do tonight?”

And then, because my life is so very exciting, I logged onto TVGuide.com to see what was playing on the old boob tube.

Thankfully I had an occasion later on to open my calendar, where I saw “Scrapbook with Christelle” written on my Friday box. I say thankfully, because a) it would have been quite embarrassing to have Christelle find me in my usual Friday routine (you know, lounging on the couch in my stretchy pants watching Wife Swap), and b) it was pretty slim pickings on TV and I had decided I’d just watch Kate & Leopold again.

I didn’t even like it that much the first time. Mainly because Meg Ryan has her weird fish lips in that one, and it’s just too distracting for me.

Let’s pause for an important disclaimer: Yes, Pysch is on Friday nights, but I tape it, so Mark and I can watch it together over the weekend. Now, carry on.

So, I remembered my scrapbooking date in time to order pizza and pick up the toys decorating our floors. And more important than organizing my photos and picking out the perfect rub-on or brad, I had a great time catching up with my friend.

Which is a good thing, because I wasn’t so successful in the scrapbooking part of our evening. I am either on or off with that stuff, and I was off.

I don’t really remember what we did on Saturday, although I distinctly recall it involved an extremely pleasant afternoon nap.

Oh yes, we also went to the park – for 15 minutes. Because by the time we got there, somebody was getting cranky and needed a nap.

No, I don’t mean me.

But kind of.

Anyway, Saturday night was a big deal: Mark’s dad watched Annalyn for the first time, while we went with Smitty to a birthday party. I could bore you with details about how the restaurant we went to used to be called Johnny O’Quigley’s but now it’s Paddy O’Quigley’s but I didn’t know that and assumed the invitation had the wrong name but then I saw it was right but still Smitty wanted to mock me and assume that I was crazy.

But really, all you need to know is that they served green tortilla chips – because dying the Mexican food green makes it Irish. And Annalyn had a great time with her Grandpa Jim.

We wrapped up Sunday with choir practice and church, the longest 90 minutes ever (also known as our monthly service in the toddler nursery), another nap for the whole family, lots of giggles and Mark’s awesome grilled chicken.

How was your weekend?

Random Readings 8.22.09

I haven’t done a Random Readings in a while, but since I read some really great posts in the past week, I decided to share them with you. Have you read anything inspiring, hilarious or interesting lately?

• Discipline: MckMama shares tips on disciplining kids. So timely for our house – anyone else relate?
• Ask me what I did last night: Amy wrote about freedom in Christ. And she blew me away.
• Checkout lines are no place for non-church attending Catholics. Jennifer had a terrible experience a couple Sundays ago. Made me feel sad…and mad…and a little guilty…
• Hope and Hope, part 2: Colleen bared her soul about her childhood, some changes she’s considering and how it’s all connected.
• Before I Was a Mom: Jill wrote about how motherhood has changed her. (And to think she claimed to have writer’s block before this? I’m not buying it!)
• Prayer: Why We Struggle (and how not to): Ann writes beautiful poetic words, and her post about prayer and why we don’t do it brought me to my knees.
• For class of '13, times are a-changin': Beloit College takes time to make me feel old. Thank you.
  

Have a great weekend. I’m hoping to clean my house, balance my checkbook (yawn), take the kiddo to the park and eat up this amazing weather, go with Mark and Smitty to a birthday party, and make it to church on time for choir practice before worship service. And then? A nap. With the windows open and the breeze blowing . . . and the Zyrtec on call.

As if we needed further proof.

We've recently switched Annalyn's naptime from the morning to the afternoon. This makes her a tired girl. I don't eat enough vegetables, and I haven't worked out since Day 4 of The Shred. This makes me a tired girl.

And that, my friends, is not a good combination when it comes to after-work trips to the Walmart.

Fortunately, between contact solution and tortillas, we stumbled into the cracker aisle. And since I know how anything labeled "cracker" makes my daughter oh-so-happy, I decided to pick up a box.

Plus, it was after work. And she wasn't the only one who was ready for dinner.

As we strolled down the cracker aisle, my eyes were drawn to the red and yellow boxes of little cheese-flavored squares. Right. You know the ones.

The Cheez-Its. The one kind of cracker that I can't buy and keep in my house, no matter how much my daughter loves them. Possibly because I, too, love their salty, cheesy crunch. And possibly because a box of Cheez-Its in our house disappears faster than, well, a box of Pop Tarts in our house.

But the Cheez-Its we saw tonight? Oh, they were something special. They were . . . Scrabble Cheez-Its!


My friend Jeremy bought a box of these several months ago. When I saw them at his house during our Bible study, he acted all casual. All, "Oh, I bought them at Target." Right. I've been to Target, mister. And I saw no such Scrabble Cheez-Its!

Okay . . . honestly? After I saw the special crackers at his house, I looked at every store around for a week or so. When I couldn't find them, I figured it was a limited time, short-term, blah-blah, should've bought it sooner thing.

And then I cried.

Just kidding.

But when Annalyn and I found them tonight at Walmart? Well, you can be sure I bought a box.

And opened it up before she starved to death right there in front of my eyes. I know that was a possibility, because of the way she kept shouting, "Cracker! Cracker! Pease! Pease!" No, we're not dramatic in this family. Not at all.

The good news is that somehow, putting letters on the cheesy squares of goodness makes them somehow, less good. I think Annalyn will actually get to eat all of her own crackers this time.

The bad news is that it's just as hard to find the letters you want with Scrabble Cheez-Its as it is with the real game.

Wordless Wednesday: Bath Time

Guess whose new favorite words include "bubbles" and "duck"?

For more Wordless Wednesday, visit 5 Minutes for Mom.

The Long-Awaited (??) Summary of My Bloggy Education

Way back in February or March or maybe May, Autumn asked if I would share with you all what I’ve learned at the blogging conferences and seminars I’ve attended in the past year. Being generous and a giver in general, I said, “Of course I will!”

And then I promptly did not do any such thing.

Ohhhhhhh, I’m so sorry. My friends, I have a huge folder that won’t even close anymore, jam-packed with notes and handouts and presentation slides and ideas and rules. And I carry it with me, from home to work and back again, intending every single day (well, you know, most days) to write up a great summary of all the knowledge that has been dumped into my brain in the past several months.

But here we are. And still no post. [Insert big, guilt-ridden sigh here.]

By this point, I’m not even sure if anyone out there wants this information. And I’m not sure typing out my scribbled notes from a conference six months ago would help anyone. But just in case someone is still interested – and honestly, to alleviate my bloggy guilt – I’ve gathered up a bunch of great resources for improving your blog design, content and more.

Blogging Basics 101 – Exactly what it sounds like! Here are three of the best posts, in my opinion: 5 Mistakes to Avoid When Starting a New Blog, 5 More Mistakes to Avoid and Blogging Etiquette Tips.

Mommy Always Wins – Colleen writes great how-to posts for all sorts of bloggy design projects. She’s also helpful, hilarious and oh yeah, starting her own blog design company!

Musings of a Housewife – Jo-Lynne runs her own blog design company, but she shares her secrets every once in a while. Easy step-by-step tutorials that anyone can use.

Michael Hyatt – As CEO of the largest Christian publishing company, Mr. Hyatt is – of course – on my must-read list. But he writes about so much more than books! I have not found anyone else who writes posts that explain social media better, and I highly recommend checking out all his posts about blogging. Two recent posts are 13 Idea Starters for Stuck Bloggers and Focus on Blog Content Before Traffic.

ProBlogger – Darren Rowse is one of the few people out there actually making money by blogging full time. Even if that’s not your thing, he has great posts about how to blog well. Try 9 First Step Goals for New Bloggers, 13 Things I’ve Learned, and Warning: Do You Recognize These 21 Blogging Mistakes?

Also:

• CopyBlogger writes about the seven deadly sins of blogging.
• Darcy at Life with my 3 Boybarians is refreshingly honest about 10 Blogging Mistakes.
• Kevin & Amanda share tons of blog design tips, as well as tons and tons of free fonts.
• Sarah at Real Life Blog has a few tips about blog design, too.
• Nathan Bransford, a book agent, goes over the absolute basics of blogs right here.
  

Okay, what do you think? Am I leaving something out? Do you have any burning blog questions? I don’t know that I have answers to your burning questions, but I’d be happy to help you find them.

And though this whole darned post is belated, it will be linked to What I Learned This Week and Top Ten Tuesday.

This is my associate, Jazz Hands.

Do you all watch Psych? It is one of my favorite TV shows.

(Yes, I'm talking about TV again. My brain has shut off for the weekend and does not plan to resume functioning until sometime tomorrow morning.)

Anyway, as the banner says, it’s about a guy who pretends to be a psychic but is actually just highly observant. His best friend Gus is a pharmaceutical sales rep by day and fake psychic sidekick by night - or days when he's not selling pharmaceuticals. As Shawn, the main character, says in the first episode of this summer, “You know the Mentalist, right? It’s like that.”

Like most shows in cable networks, Psych doesn’t follow the regular programming seasons. Fortunately for me, this means it was perfectly timed to start its season just as my beloved So You Think You Can Dance was winding down.

Just in case you haven’t been watching this hilarious show, which is, admittedly, a formulaic cop/detective show but also chock-full of pop culture references that crack me up every time, here’s a sample of the funny-ness you’re missing:

• A gentleman of leisure never packs his gun next to his socks. It’s uncouth.
• Here I was thinking you’re Thomas Crown. But you’re just Remington Steele. Does that make me Laura Holt? Do you think a guy likes me wants to be Stephanie Zimbalist? Maybe.
• There’s something weird about every family. It’s what makes America great.
• Note to self: be rich some day.
• I have peeps, Shawn.
• You have two peeps, and one is made of marshmallow.

See how funny that is? (What? It's not as funny taken completely out of context? Surely you jest . . .) Oh, and you're wondering about the title of this post? Well, Shawn has a habit of introducing Gus with crazy names when they're investigating a case. And Friday's episode gave Gus the best name ever: Jazz Hands.

This weekend I went to see The Ugly Truth with Smitty, watched my taped (yes, on my VCR) episode of Psych, rented 17 Again, ate way too many carbs, spent many hours with Little Miss WalkWalkWalk and, oh yeah, spent time with both sides of our family. More on all that later.

How was your weekend?

Some light summer reading?

This week's posts have been a little heavy, haven't they? Good, but heavy. Well, I suppose I shouldn't assume you all agree with me on the "good" count.

Anyway. I thought we'd lighten things up today. So I have three questions for you. Answer one or answer all. Just answer in the comments!

Question #1: What TV shows have you been watching this summer? Or, if you are one of those people who are too busy swimming and playing and whatnot in the summer, what TV shows are you looking forward to watching this fall?

Question #2: What is your favorite dipping sauce? Annalyn is a real big fan of all dipping sauces lately - and she calls them "dot dot." That's her funny pronunciation of ketchup, but it goes for ranch dressing and salsa, too. So - what's your dot dot of choice?

Question #3: What's the most fun thing you've done so far this summer?