525,600 minutes ago

I interrupt the regularly scheduled Sunday programming to present this announcement:

Today is the ONE-YEAR BLOGIVERSARY of Grandma's Briefs!

Yeah, baby! One year ago today I set out to create a blog to help ease the distance between myself and Bubby, to share my successes and failures as I venture out on the grandparenting road. Since then, this little site o' mine has seen 396 posts, 2,393 comments, 15,385 unique visitors, and 44,748 page views.

Most of all, though, this site has seen YOU! And it's YOU that has made Grandma's Briefs such an awesomely incredible experience for me!

There simply are no words to describe how much I appreciate you showing up and reading and commenting on my words and pictures, making it seem like this crazy journey I'm on -- the same one taken by millions of others, yet oh-so personal to me -- matters to someone besides myself and my family.

You all mean the world to me, and I'm offering up a few prizes as just a very small token of my gratitude for the difference you've made in my life. I'd like to give each and every one of you a great big bear hug, but a little giveaway will have to do.

But first ...

DarrenRowse, masterful mentor and blogger extraordinaire of Problogger, recently proposed a 7 Link Challenge that I thought would make a perfect one-year-blogiversary post. Darren's challenge is to present seven links in seven themes that best represent to new and long-time readers what one's blog is all about and to possibly introduce one and all to a few posts they may have missed.

In that vein, here are my answers to the 7 Link Challenge (Be sure to keep reading after the links for details on my blogiversary giveaway!):

1. Your first post – And so it begins ... featured -- naturally -- an absolutely adorable photo of Bubby.

2. A post you enjoyed writing the most – One woman's pleasure is another's worst job ever. I absolutely hated, hated, hated this job but I found writing about it rather cathartic because I knew I would never, ever, ever again be in a position to have to work such duty. Plus, I kind of enjoyed making you all say "ewww!" over the stinky job instead of the usual "awww...!" over the always precious antics and photos of Bubby.

3. A post which had a great discussion – Wanted: Crazy, quirky confessions. Wow! I loved reading all the quirky things you all got going on, and apparently you did, too. This post had the most comments of any other so far, and it doesn't even include the equally quirky comments I got when posting the same thing over on Vibrant Nation.

4. A post on someone else’s blog that you wish you’d written – There are so many great blogs I read by interesting and insightful women, but it's the posts of Pat at Mille FioriFavoriti that I envy the most. Not one particular post, but every single one. Why? She's a grandma, just like me, but she lives in this wonderfully exciting place (NYC) and has the most awesome photo skills to document the world in which she lives and travels. I don't hanker so much to write posts like her; I just want to be able to take photos like her ... and take those photos in places as awesome as those in which she takes hers.

5. A post with a title that you are proud of – Bikes, trikes and big-boy beds. Other than the always adorable photos of Bubby, there's nothing particularly special about this post. But I think the title just flows well -- and tells exactly what the post is about.

6. A post that you wish more people had read – With this kiss, I thee wed. Without the first kiss, there would be no me and Jim, thus no Brianna, Megan and Andrea; no marriage between Megan and Preston; no Bubby. Ultimately, without that first fateful kiss, there'd be no Grandma's Briefs. Well, this post isn't about that kiss. But it is about the anniversary of that kiss.

8. Your most visited post ever – Two men and a toddler (haircut) was published last August, but to this day I still get at least one -- often more -- clicks on it daily. I like to think it's because it is such a wonderfully wacky documentation of Bubby getting a haircut by Preston and his buddy. I shudder at my stats, though, showing there may actually be a more disgustinglypedophiliac factor to the searches that result in some of the visits. I've considered deleting this post because of the thought of what's behind the searches, but I love the photos too much to do that -- and I hope the icky folks doing the searching feel gut-wrenching guilt when they unexpectedly click on the wholesome photos of Bubby getting his hair done by Daddy.

And now, for the Grandma's Briefs One-Year Blogiversary giveaway:

Like I said above, I'd like to give all of you something. But what I have is three prizes to award, at random, to three folks who comment to this post telling me Why do you read Grandma's Briefs and/or what topics or features would you like to see more of in the coming year?

The prizes are:

Grand prize: A Grandma's Briefs One-Year Blogiversary tote bag filled with a few books from my stack of advance reader copies from publishers, plus homemade chocolate chip cookies made by Grandma (that's me)!

1st place: A Grandma's Briefs One-Year Blogiversary tote bag and homemade chocolate chip cookies!

2nd place: Homemade chocolate chip cookies!

(Do note that I'll ship the prizes within 24 hours of making the cookies so you won't be getting stale yucky pucks in the mail!)

Comments received by midnight MST Wednesday, July 28 are eligible for the drawing; winners announced Thursday, July 29.

Again, I appreciate you all! Thank you for reading. Thank you for caring!

Update

on 2010-07-25 23:35 by Lisa Carpenter

Okay, I'm the biggest dork of a grandma in the world, as Megan just pointed out that the Rent song -- and the facts -- show that it's 525,600 minutes in year, not what I originally had as the post title. Correction to title made! Thanks, Megan!

Tweeting without Twitter

I never thought in a million years I'd say this, but I use Twitter. Daily. Sometimes hourly.

After several years of saying how stupid the social networking site seemed to me, I'm now a tweeter. Which is kind of like a tweaker, as it is rather addictive, but it costs far less. In fact, being on Twitter pays me -- in the form of new followers and friends. Some of you reading this may have even followed me here from Twitter. (Welcome, SITSGirls!)

Anyway, so I tweet. No big deal.

Apparently it is a big deal to my daughters, though. A laughable big deal.

My daughters don't tweet; they think it's silly (like mother, like daughter, I suppose). They text, they're on Facebook, one even has a blog. But "I'd never tweet on Twitter!" is pretty much the common refrain from all three, incredulous that their mother -- a grandma, even, and someone they thought was intelligent ... on most days -- would actually participate in such drivel.

Funny thing is, my daughters do tweet. All the cussing time! Just not on Twitter. They send me little chirps and shoutouts via 140-character-or-less texts and 140-word-or-less phone calls and voicemails all day long. Which, in my opinion, puts them firmly in the "tweet" category.

The girls call or text to tweet about their trip home from work, the weather, what temperature you preheat the oven to for banana bread and on, and on, and on.

Don't get me wrong; I love their pseudo-tweeting. I truly do. I love that my daughters are comfortable calling and texting any time, any day, any night, for any reason whatsoever, however inane that reason may be.

Here is a small sampling of the pseudo-tweets I've received from my daughters just in the last two days:

"I finally feel like I have friends again!"

"What do I do if the power goes out?"

"Have you accessed my bank account for any reason?"

"Yay! I signed a lease!"

"I've never hated a job as much as I hate this one."

See what I mean? Those are tweet-worthy texts and telephone calls. More like Twitter direct messages, but Twitter talk just the same.

The one serious difference between tweets from my girls and tweets from my Twitter pals? No matter how often they tweet, no matter how often they bug the cuss out of me with the chirping, I can't unfollow the girls. There's definitely no "unfollow" button when it comes to my lovely offspring. And in all honesty, I don't want there to be. (Some folks on Twitter? Well, that's a different story. And I do use the unfollow button.)

Oh, and another big difference: Retweeting certain tweets from the girls is bad. Very, very bad. And may result in a total lockout of the service.

Which means this post will likely get me a big 'ol #mymomdoesntknowwhentokeephermouthshut mention.

If only the girls knew what that means.

And how to do it.

But they don't.

Because they're not on Twitter.

Ha!

Today's question:

Do you find it easier to form new friendships online or in real life? Why?

9 things I've kept 'for the grandkids'

My daughters have been grown and gone for quite some time now, but there are a few useful things from their childhood that I just can't throw away.

I'm pretty sure -- or at least I'm bound and determined -- that these items will one day come in handy, that they'll one day provide fun and frivolity for Bubby and his future siblings and cousins.

9 THINGS I'VE KEPT 'FOR THE GRANDKIDS'

1. VHS tapes of children's movies and shows.Space Jam, Fluke, Casper and more. I can't see throwing away tapes I know kids love, but I sure don't plan on replacing them with DVDs or Blu-Ray discs (except for the Disney and Pixar ones, of course). Show time at Grandma's will be comparable to projector films back in the day, right? As long as I hold onto a VCR, too!

2. Craft supplies and instructions. Stickers and papers and paints, oh my! Plus a gazillion craft ideas torn from magazine pages ... most of which I never got around to doing with my daughters.

3. The keyboard. I have a piano now -- and never really played the keyboard anyway -- but the grandkids will love the electronic version that still bears the note stickers that helped the girls learn a tune or two. I still have the Disney songbooks, too, from which those stickers came.

4. Jell-O egg mold. It makes full-size Jell-O eggs for Easter! So cool! So colorful! And so nearly never used with my daughters. I just might have a Halloween-bat mold hidden away somewhere, too.

5. Halloween costumes. Witches, devils, monster masks. I got rid of the French maid costume, which was a bad idea the first time around. Kept the sari, though.

6. Puzzles. We -- okay, I -- like to do puzzles, and one day I just may pull out an old one to share with a new companion who's not yet grown bored with Mom/Grandma's 1500-piece challenges.

7. Sleeping bags. No doubt there will be slumber parties at Grandma's, with passels of kids lining the floor. I can dream, right? Sleeping bags are for those dreams.

8. Children's books. Does this one count? Does anyone get rid of books anyway? Not in this house! In fact, I keep adding to this collection ... for the grandkids.

9. Records. I still have the vinyl (!) recordings of children's music the girls listened to as youngsters -- Mousercise and more! -- plus a few 45s of pop tunes they played again and again as preteens. And yes, I do still have the record player ... and sometimes even still use it.

Today's question:

What have you held onto that you no longer use, simply because it just might come in handy one day?

This post linked to Grandparent's Say It Saturday.

Another grandma's been grilled!

This week's Grilled Grandma is Susan and by reading her grilling, you'll find the answers to these three questions and more:

1. What did Susan's three-year-old granddaughter say upon being exposed to a "filthy" public restroom?

2. What did Susan morph into, which pleases her husband who has said he's too young to sleep with a grandma?

3. How have Susan's children made the job of being a grandma much easier for her?

Read about Grilled Grandma: Susan for her witty responses to my questions as well as photos of her fabulous-looking family.

If you know of a grandma who should be added to the Grilled Grandma menu, don't hesitate in contacting me with her first name and e-mail address. You can even nominate yourself for grilling!

Today's question:

I obviously like to grill grandmas, but what is YOUR favorite thing to grill?

Just walkin' the dog(s)

Most of my friends are pretty active gals. They regularly work out at the gym, fitness boot camp or other similarly strenuous locations.

Not me. I walk. With my dogs. Same time, same route, same five out of seven days each week.

Here are some highlights of our daily fitness routine:

Out the gate and ready to roll, with Mickey in the lead and Lyla working on the "focus" command.

Now she's got it, periscope ear up and all -- proof that she's focused! (Keep an eye on that ear throughout; it does not go down!)

On the road ...

... past the open area where the deer and the fox like to roam.

Up the hill to the house where the maniac dog of questionable breed rushes the chain link fence, providing the best arm workout of the trek as I try to force the dogs to maintain at least minimal composure. (It doesn't usually work.)

 

Back down the hill again.

Trit, trot, trit, trot (with a tangled leash, evidence that composure was lost on the way down the hill).

This is the house of the man who hates Mickey ... and Lyla ... and me ... and every other living being (except his grass, which I think he manicures with scissors).

Up the next big hill ...

... where wondrous views await ...

... of ... Walmart and its busy parking lot ... at 9:30 on a weekday morning! While K-Mart, across the street, sports a nearly empty lot. (Poor K-Mart.) Okay, not the greatest of views, but if you turn the other direction, you get ...

... ta-da! Pikes Peak! This is the view we appreciate most.

Even Mickey can't get enough of the natural wonder. (Lyla can't get over the empty parking lot at K-Mart.)

While standing in the same spot, we need only glance slightly to the left for a full view of Cheyenne Mountain, with NORAD deep within. Well, it used to be the home of NORAD but now they've gone and moved it to a totally unsafe -- in my opinion -- location, with just bits and pieces left deep inside the mountain. But that's another story, for another time and featuring fewer photos.

Continuing on our way, with me searching the field where the fox den is located, ready to provide a detour if a fox comes our way.

Past the house where the nice man likes to smile and yell across the street, "Who's walking who? Ha, ha!" (Like I've never heard that six hundred and fifty-two trillion times before. But that's okay cuz he's nice ... and he thinks it's funny.)

One more view of Pikes Peak ...

... then we're homeward bound.

Ah, home sweet home!

The dogs make sure the coast is clear: No squirrels. No birds. It's a go.

And we're back where we began.

Fitness mission accomplished!

Sure, there are no pushups, no pullups, no plank positions involved. But the yanking of the leashes this way and that way while avoiding fox, squirrel, deer and passing vehicles (which are like crack to Lyla, who's having a difficult time giving up the habit) is more than enough workout for this grandma.

Mickey and Lyla, on the other hand, are ready for more. They dash off into the backyard the second the gate is opened, scaring the cuss out of each and every robin, wren, mourning dove and squirrel who had the gall to relax in the shade, eat from the bird feeders or splash in the water while the dog patrol was out making its neighborhood rounds.

Today's question:

What's your exercise routine?