Bergen on the board.

Another Conversation with Bergen

Bergen is full of gems today. Love him!!

Scene.
Driving home from Toys 'R' Us, where he blew his entire wallet full of money on Legos.

Conversation.

Mom: Bergen, do you want me to make you ramen noodles when we get home?

Bergen: What are they again?

Mom: Remember, they're curly and they taste chicken-y.

Bergen: Oh yah. I know what they are. They sound like they're going to be gross, but they're good and they're fun to say.

Mom: You think "ramen noodles" is fun to say?

Bergen: Yah. I like the "manoodles" part -- manoodles, manoodles, manoodles. Raw manoodles, manoodles. See, it's fun to say.

Conversations with Bergen

Scene I
After hockey (Jay/CK) and church (Jen/BK) today, we stopped by Hy-Vee for a few groceries. Jay and Christian got a couple cookies from the bakery counter and brought one over to the cart, where Bergen and I were.

The conversation.
Christian: Here's a cookie for you, Bergen.

Bergen: No, thanks.

Christian: It's M&M.

Bergen: No, thanks.

Mom: Don't you want a cookie?

Bergen: No, it's got too high a sugar content and I already had caffeine today.


Scene II
Bergen's in the reading room at his school with his reading teacher, Mrs. Braun.

The conversation.
Mrs. Braun: We have a new student with us today named Jacob. Why don't you each introduce yourself so Jacob knows who his new friends are.

Sofie: I'm Sofie.

Kaleb: I'm Kaleb.

Bergen: I'm Bergen, but you can call me Meatloaf.

Jen's Column / E-mails

For better or worse, I've chosen a fairly antisocial career. I mean, as much as I adore working from home — and I do adore it — the truth is that I spend roughly eight hours a day alone. Even my cat ignores me.

To fill the gap, I bargain with myself. I say things — not usually out loud, but sometimes — like, "When I finish this draft, I can check my e-mail." Or, "When I get to the bottom of this page, I can play Facebook Scrabble."

Oh, Facebook Scrabble, how I love thee. In case you haven't discovered the glorious time suck that is Facebook Scrabble (not to mention Facebook itself), I'll fill you in. First, you join Facebook — a social networking site that will put you in touch with a good half of your graduating class. Then you start a Scrabble game with one (or two or three) of your Facebook friends and take your turn whenever you're available. The game can last hours or days or weeks, depending on how often you play your tiles.
I have 13 games in progress as I write this. But even those are fairly solitary games, unless I'm playing with Missie, who sends me roughly six messages a day that read, "It's your turn!" and "Have you taken your turn yet?!" and "Hey, did you get my message? It's your turn!"

Which leads me to my true sanity saver during those long days when I'm craving human interaction: "Reply-to-All" e-mail messages.

I'm pretty sure this is a system perfected by stay-at-home parents craving adult contact. In just one day — over the course of a mere 8 hours, in fact — 27 messages went flying through my inbox to and from a group of fellow moms from my sons' school. The e-mail chain started innocently enough with Deb recommending a title for her burgeoning book club. "Hey ladies," she wrote. "How about reading The Lace Reader next?"

I hit "reply all," commented on the book, and told the group to Save the Date for an 80s Prom fundraiser a friend and I are planning.

The next message came from Amy, who wrote that she'd read anything and, "I love the 80s! Bon Jovi rules!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Except there might've been more exclamation marks in her version.

Missie then claimed that half her closet is still stuck in the 80s and attached a YouTube link to Bon Jovi performing "You Give Love a Bad Name." I should point out that this was during Bon Jovi's seriously big hair phase.

After a digression on 80s hair — including a side conversation on bad home perms —
Theresa agreed to read The Lace Reader and said that while she doesn't use Aqua Net anymore, she does use a hairspray called Big Sexy Hair. And also, the last time she got a home perm was in fifth grade and then even her teacher laughed at her.

There was a comment or two on Jon Bon Jovi doing jumping jacks in red spandex and then Deb wrote that Big Sexy Hair has enough aerosol to gag all of Rochester. And also, if you turn your head upside down, spray and come back up, everything stays straight up. She knows because she tried it last summer with her sister.

Missie piped in, wondering if perhaps Big Sexy Hair would work on another saggy part of her body. To which someone (maybe me) replied, "It doesn't. Don't ask me how I know."

And then Deb replied, "FOMCLOL." And I have no idea what that means. But it doesn't matter. Because this, my friends, is why I can survive working from home. Vive la Internet — and Vive la Friends who require just as much entertainment as I do!

My new favorite PIC

I just told a knock knock joke.

- Jay

Hearts & Diamonds PICs

Hearts & Diamonds

We went to the annual Hearts & Diamonds benefit for the Ronald McDonald House last night. We had a great time with the Winklers, and Jen won the table prize for the third time in five years! This year it was a black clutch purse with Swarvoski (did I just butcher that spelling? maybe) crystals on the clasp. Really cute. We'll post pictures today or tomorrow -- good times!