I don’t watch TV much. There are several reasons. One is that our TV is in our basement and it is FREEZING down there.

Second, I find the internet much more interesting.

Third, I don’t do well with most of what’s on. I’m one of those types that hears about a small child getting kidnapped and I become an obsessive lunatic for the next two weeks, certain my kids will be snatched up by every person that walks by. Same thing happens when I see a show about murder, rape, car accidents, terminal illnesses…in other words, basically everything that’s on.

And after all that, most of what’s left is sex. You know, the really wholesome, edifying kind that you never see because it happens between husband and wife in the privacy of their own bedroom. Not.

I’ve had to grieve the loss of many a show. My favorite has been blacklisted in fact. Alias. I had a secret longing to be Sydney Bristow of course. That chic rocks.

In the first two seasons, I enjoyed the drama, twists, turns, suspense; and there wasn’t a lot of trash (i.e. gratuitous sex, people dying gruesome and violent deaths, etc.). But unfortunately the trash soon started to creep in. Then it increased. So, I kicked that show to the curb. Not without a lot of grief as I said. But I got over it.

So now I watch two shows. The Amazing Race is one. I’ve watched it this season mainly because I want to see Rob and Amber die a humiliating reality TV death. How kind of me.

Summers are great for kids, but if you’re like me, you don’t exactly look forward to dealing with the inevitable “I’m-boreds.” Well, if you don’t know already, many movie theaters offer free movies to kids (and accompanying adults) in the summer (usually a few mornings a week). Regal Cinemas is one that has provided this service to the community since 1991. You might also check other theaters in your area. All I’ve got to say is, you can’t beat free!

Ever wonder what exactly your kids are seeing when they go to the movies? Ever wish you had a better idea before you paid almost $10 to see a film whether or not it was something you’d like? Check out Screen it!. They offer in-depth movie descriptions of all the latest films and tell you what kind of content is contained in each including sexuality/nudity, violence, language, etc. They also review music and videos.

If you have not heard of stock.xchange, make your way on over there right this minute. It is a site with thousands of photos posted by people like you. All of the photos are FREE to use for both personal and commercial use. (Contributors occasionally want to be contacted before using their photos so be sure to check.)

So if you’re looking for free stock photos to use for your website, if you need some art for decorating purposes or you just like to see cool things, check it out. Hey, while you’re there, post your own. But be careful…you might very well get sucked into endless photo exploration. Consider yourself warned.

It’s a weird combination, yes, and there really is no connection whatsoever except that they both happened to occupy space in my brain at some point during the day today.

Yesterday I saw a snake and it scared the bejeebies out of me…but it was only a garter snake. I know this because the first time I saw a snake that looked like what I saw yesterday, I freaked out (which I’m thoroughly embarrassed to say because I don’t like to think I’m high maintenance), called my husband at work and demanded he do something about the snake.

Wanting to provide as much assistance as possible from a location other than mine, he relayed the problem to the church secretary who then relayed the problem to a faithful church member with extensive experience in snake matters, who then DROVE OVER TO MY HOUSE to rescue me from the thing and give me a quick lesson in snake identification. I felt like an idiot but at least I now know that the snakes I regularly see in my yard (and ALWAYS scare me) are not really anything to be scared about. So now instead of just feeling scared, I feel scared and then I feel stupid for feeling scared. Story of my life.

Anyway, so scrapbooking…

I don’t scrapbook. Sure, I tried it like any good stay-at-home mom should, but I’ve come to grips with the fact that I stink at it. I did start a scrapbook for my first child and I did complete pages (quite nicely I might add) all the way through her first week of life. I’ve since had my second child and he’s lucky we took a picture the day he was born. (I don’t know why we are so lame with picture-taking, but we are.) Yes, what my younger sister feared from the beginning has come to pass: As the second child, my son is getting the raw end of the stick. My sister is projecting of course. But I digress…

My point about scrapbooking is, if I was a scrapbooker, I’d spend a lot of time at TwoPeasInABucket.com. I did spend a fair amount of time there in my scrappin’ days…mainly in the Peanut Gallery. This is the place where people who really know how to scrapbook post their scrapbook pages so that those of us who don’t know how to scrapbook can copy them. That’s right, every single one of the ideas in my daughter’s scrapbook is lifted. But hey, at least I can admit it.

I’ve played on a community softball team all summer. In a few hours we’ll be playing our last game of the season. Our team was new to the league this year, started by a friend of mine that wanted to get out, get active and have fun.

You may have noticed “win” was not on our list of objectives. This is a good thing because if winning was our goal, we would be sorely disappointed right about now. Let’s just say a good game for us was losing 14 to 1–we actually scored a run!

Despite how it sounds, this is not something I’m bitter about. The bottom line is, we’ve have a great time, we’ve improved phenomenally (you should have seen where we began!) and we’ve all enjoyed the camaraderie.

The teams we’ve played against are hard-core. These are women who play up to four times a week throughout the summer on various teams in various leagues in our area. Some even practice year-round (in a warehouse) despite our upstate New York snow and cold.

As for our team, we are a conglomeration of all ages and levels of experience. Several of our players have never played softball before and some of them have never played organized sports at all…ever. For them, I’ve got a lot of admiration. It really takes a certain amount of courage to try something completely new among others with significantly more experience than you. I say good for them. I hope I’m open to new things and not still paralyzed by my perfectionistic tendencies and fear of failure when I’m 50!