Yes, you’re right. I stopped blogging. But it’s nice of you to mention it. Here is a crash summary of the latest.

We took the boys and a neighbor kid bowling. The older two spent more time at the arcade, which is where they decided to invest a total of $25 to win handcuffs and a light-up grill. (Note to my mom: Grill means teeth with flashing lights.)

We also adopted a puppy. We think he is cute. My other dog does not think he is cute. We did have a dog trainer come to our house to help us turn our cute puppy into a polite puppy. The trainer almost couldn’t finish his explanation of how to train a dog by going on “50 First Dates” because he couldn’t get over how much Teddy looks like Benji. (8-year-old: Who is Benji?) As for the “50 First Dates,” I’ll see you 50 strangers soon. Please humor me by asking my dog to sit and giving him a treat. In turn, he will like you and then he will like all strangers. Until they don’t give him a treat….hmmm…. I hope this works out.

The past couple of weeks I have spent way too many hours working. When work was manageable again, I spent an evening listening to Kirstie Alley speak. After the event, my friends and I headed to the front of the ballroom to see if we could get a picture with her. I took a photo of some girl I didn’t know posing with Kirstie, but when it was my turn, the actress decided she was done taking photos. I mean, posing for four photos is a lot of work. Especially when you probably don’t want to be speaking at a Chamber dinner on a Tuesday night. What can one expect? So this is the only shot I got.

For Thanksgiving we traveled to my hometown. My 3-year-old was very helpful by getting everyone packed. Maybe too helpful.

And while we were in the area, we went to visit my cousin who opened a bar. The part that is either terrible – or a really smart use of time – is that we went to his bar on Thanksgiving night!!

Even though visiting with family on Thanksgiving (at a bar) was a nice way to spend the evening, I will probably not make family bar meetups a habit because while I was gone, this happened:

That, and I’m going to have to shed a few pounds to fit back into my going out jeans. I love my mom’s tacos!

Ugh!!! I put myself on a low carb diet and I want to eat the screen right now.

Working in the nonprofit sector is not new to me. But now that I am back in the charity saddle, I have to say that the topic of charity is an interesting one. During my past two weeks on the job I’ve heard everything from “Our company doesn’t donate because we are into making a profit,” to “I’m not coming to your event because Obama is using my tax money to support his favorite causes and I refuse to donate while he is in office.”

Whether you give to friends or family members who are in need, or you give through a charitable organization, it is equally good. You should feel great about yourself. Give to support what you care about. Take care of those around you. Then, watch patiently and you will see your kindness multiply in ways you could never imagine.

Waiting for an elevator with a colleague this morning on our way into the office…

Him: Hey. How are you?
Me: Good, thanks. How are you?

It was obvious that neither of us had made it to a coffee machine yet.

Him: Good…considering. You know, things could be worse, right?
Me: Yes, that is true.
Him: Don’t you hate it when you ask someone at work how they are and they enthusiastically respond, “Great!” I just want to say, I hope this isn’t what great means to you.
Me: I know what you mean. I had a taste of great last week.
Him: Hang on to the vacation buzz as long as you can.
Me: I will do my best.

I wiggled the toe ring that no one can see through my closed-toe shoe. Don’t lose the buzz.