Let's Wray a Leath!

On Memorial Day our family and friends went to Princeton's parade. The parade marched down Nassau Street right in front of the university. There were lots of drums, bagpipes, scouts, and puppies. After the parade, we walked down to the memorial park where our friends were honored to "wray a leath." (That's "lay a wreath" for those who don't mix up their words like Heidi and Aileen!)

I took another step in my effort to embrace digital media and made a "smilebox" slide show. You can click on it below! You'll see our family (Dirk, Heidi, Caitlin, and Courtney) at the parade and the Crowleys (John, Aileen, John Jr., Megan, and Patrick) who wrayed the leath at the foot of the memorial in honor of our armed forces.

Create a free slideshow design

Facebook "About Face!"

Facebook has had to do a military-style "about face" after learning that their website is not so secure as they claimed. After being assured that Facebook was relatively benign, we've all heard horror stories about stolen identities, fraud, and of course, plain old embarrassment. Facebook is finally facing up (ha!) to its shortcomings.

I have a Facebook page that Caitlin created for me on my 47th birthday. After I received a couple of odd emails from friends ("Why are you naked on your Facebook profile?"), I realized that Caitlin had posted a headshot of me in a strapless gown. Unfortunately, the gown did not show at all... just my bare shoulders!

I love Facebook and plan on giving my own site a "facelift" (ha!) and using it more often. I plan on putting my Facebook connection on this blog once I get it set up. There's no better way to connect with old friends and distant relatives. My girls love it for socializing and even checking homework or sports practice schedules. However, I worry like many parents about monitoring Facebook use.

Here are two new articles about Facebook account security:

Facebook Adjusts Privacy Controls After Complaints


How to Secure Your Facebook Account


Note: I was browsing through my blog posts and saw that the links to these articles are not showing. The links show on my own editing page, but not on the published blog. I went back to try linking the articles again, but to no avail. I'm afraid I will have to ask Caitlin or Courtney to help me figure out what I'm doing wrong.

Heidi's Dream House... Photoshopped

During my internet real estate browsing, one of my favorite ways to waste time, I came across a darling cottage in Pennington Borough. In fact, it's so dang cute that you might get a cavity if you gaze for too long. It's a sugar house! It's not the best fit for our family, but I would throw practicality out the window if I could live there. The house looks like it came from a fairytale.

Now look closely... is that grass a little greener than your neighbor's lawn? Is the sky a bit bluer than the last lovely Spring day? How about those perfectly placed cotton-candy clouds? This picture on the computer screen may be a tad small to notice those enhancements, but the too-beautiful-to-be-real colors are obvious on the shiny brochure I received at the open house. (Yes, I'm one of those annoying looky-loos.) I'd dare say, I think the house has been photoshopped!

In our computer age, it has become all too easy to "photoshop" any picture. We have all seen models with legs so twiggy they'd be unable to carry the human body. Yet it only takes a couple swipes of the digital paintbrush and wah-lah!, the girl has gams no amount of thigh-master squeezing could create. (As much as I like to complain about the false reality of the gorgeous faces and bodies that cover my bedside magazines, it also gives me an excuse. If a covergirl in her 40's looks half her age, I can always amusingly dismiss my own shortcomings with a snort, "Oh, she was so obviously photoshopped," as though I'd look just like her if I had that advantage. I wish!)

The word "photoshop" has become a common verb. In Marketing 101, all students learn how the brand names Kleenex and Xerox have, over time, become generic words for all facial tissues and any photocopying. It seems that Adobe's Photoshop software will suffer the same fate. The word "photoshop" is now commonly used for any kind of image editing or alteration. Back in the dinosaur ages when I was growing up, there was no such word or activity. In college I was actually writing code on 3x5 cards for mainframe computers. Now my daughter is happily photoshopping away on the laptop. "Look mom, I just gave myself curly hair!"

We all wish for a perfect world, so I guess photoshopping is not such a bad thing. We haven't yet been able to attain world peace, but we can achieve perfect cheekbones (at least in the digital world, if not the real world). I realize photoshopped images have often been wrongly used to miscontrue the truth, but sometimes they are simply brightening up humdrum reality.

The pictures of my sugar house may indeed be dreamily photoshopped, but I don't mind. In real life, the little cottage is just as delicious as it is in pictures.

ABC Vote for Me!

Caitlin ran for Junior Class Secretary and won! Pictured above is one of her posters. She had the most fun coming up with her speech and jingle. She thinks she won because she's the only candidate that even had a jingle. Also, her speech was a funny: The Top 10 Reasons You Should Vote for Me. Other candidates waxed poetic about their trustworthiness or quoted Ghandi. Below is a video of Caitlin practicing her speech in our kitchen. Vote for Caitlin!

Walking on Sunshine

Caitlin had her last choral concert of her Sophomore year. The chorus members were allowed to wear summer dresses for this "pop concert" rather than their black, church-going, long dresses. Just the change in fashion seemed to lift their moods. It was very fitting that their last song was a mash-up of the songs Walking on Sunshine and Halo. Caitlin glowed like she had a halo and was walking on sunshine, seriously.

Is anyone out there a Glee fan? I am such a Gleek; it's really pathetic. If you are someone who tapes Glee so you won't miss a minute, then you know what a mash-up is: a blend of two songs. The two songs Caitlin's chorus sang were the same mash-up that was performed on the show. For anyone who has not watched Glee, you really must check it out. Be patient. It's a little like coffee or beer -- you have to acquire a taste for it.

In this video, you'll see Caitlin "rocking out" while the other girls are standing there with blank expressions and hands to their sides. The director told the girls to let loose on this song, but apparently Caitlin was the only one who took this to heart. She is really groovin' while the others look more like wax statues. Watch this video, and you won't be able to get the smile off your face!

Note: I realized that my videos are not posting for some reason. Please come back later to visit this post and see the video! I also just learned (by accident) how to go in and edit my earlier posts. Now I know how to go in and change things or add information instead of posting a comment to my own blog.

Top Down in the Mustang

This post is simply meant to brighten your day.

It's so great that I can take digital pictures, download them to the computer, then upload them to share in this blog!

Here are some happy girls: Caitlin, Courtney, and our furry kid too.

Who doesn't love to ride in a convertible?

OBJECTS IN THE MIRROR ARE

CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR

Caitlin is a Top Ten Student

Hot on the heels of Courtney, lil' miss student of the month, is Caitlin, top ten student for Hopewell Valley high school's sophomore class!

Caitlin brought home an invitation for an academic awards ceremony and wondered out loud why she had received it. She ripped it open to discover she was one of the top ten students for her grade level. Heck, we knew she got good grades (and is super fantastic in every way), but we didn't know she was in the top ten of her class!

Not to complain about the agonizingly looong ceremony, let's just say there were a lot of students and a lot of awards. When it was finally time for Caitlin's category, the principal emphasized that the school does not rank students... however, they still want to recognize the top ten students. He emphasized repeatedly that the top ten students were not ranked and would be listed alphabetically until the audience started chuckling at his insistence.

Caitlin "M"acfarlane was called to the stage for her certificate of achievement, right after the "L's" and right before the "N's". Congratulations to my top-ten-alphabetized-unranked-daughter!

Caitlin with her proud daddy.

Courtney, Caitlin, and some crazy dude.

Caitlin on stage (in the middle with a black dress).

I'm Feeling Green Today

Now that I'm a-bloggin', I am getting a little more adventurous with my computer. I downloaded (or uploaded?) a picture of our family and added a background! We're looking pretty darn outdoorsy in this photo, so I thought I'd add a green and brown background to my blog.

The amazing thing about this digital era is that we (as in "I") don't really have to know much about computers or software or any of that other yucky stuff. Someone else has done all the work! For instance, I googled "free backgrounds" and my computer came up with a couple of good sites. When I found the background I liked, the website literally (well, non-literally) held me by the hand as it took me step by step through the process of posting my new blog background. When I pasted the new background into my blogspot, the result was a long list of HTML/Javascript code that some other person had written for me. I love that person! So when I hit "preview," wah-lah, my beautiful green and brown background magically appeared.

Maybe I don't hate computers as much as I thought I did.

Courtney is Student of the Month

Courtney has been selected as "Student of the Month" for her eighth grade team! Go Courtney!

She was not acting too student-of-the-month-ish when the news was announced over the school's intercom. She was reportedly "spacing out" when the morning announcements were being delivered. Her friend ribbed her and said, "I knew it would be you!" Courtney shook her drowsy head and asked, "Me, for what?" She was pleasantly surprised (and awakened) when her friend recounted the good news to her.

You may be wondering, what happens when someone wins Student of the Month? What do you get? Confetti shot out of the air vents? Flowers delivered to your locker? A singing telegram in your homeroom? No, you get a whah-whah-whah-whah message over the loudspeaker, reminiscent of Charlie Brown's monotone school teacher. You also get a letter delivered to your parents that "recognizes" you for positively contributing to the school environment. AND... here's the big prize... you get to have lunch with the Vice Principal! Huh? The letter sternly reads, "Students will report to the main office to eat pizza with Mr. Suozzo on Tuesday, May 4th at 12:27 p.m." Doesn't that sound more like disciplinary punishment rather than a reward? The reward should be not having to go to the VP's office, and definitely not having to awkwardly sit and eat pizza with him! Where's the free Cold Stone ice cream certificate? How about a "No homework for a week" pass?

We congratulated Courtney with big, proud hugs and expressed our condolences for her lunch date with the VP. The funny thing is, both Courtney and Caitlin came home with straight-A report cards last week. How did we, as great parents, reward our hard-working, responsible kids? We took them out to eat! That's not much different than the "reward" Courtney received for Student of the Month, is it? Eat lunch with the Vice Principal; eat dinner with the folks. Hey mom and dad, where's the "No bed-making for a month" pass? How about movies, chocolates, and no dish-washing for the rest of our lives? Above, Courtney's exasperated, yet exonerating expression says it all: you adults have got to kick your rewards-for-good-behavior up a notch!