Haiku Friday: Eight Years

Eight short (?!) years ago
DuckyBoy arived, and BAM!
What I thought I knew,

who I thought I was,
all was up for grabs again --
still is, in some ways ...

I'm a proud mom (?!) of
somebody very special.
Happy birthday, son.

For his birthday, DB wants the big Lego City police station, and he just told me all the logical reasons why on the phone -- "I have so many Lego policement, and they need a place to stay, and I want to be a policeman when I grow up!"

Grandma H has already bought it, all we have to do is pick it up at the Lego store and head out.
Would you like to haiku today? To participate in Haiku Friday, just follow these steps:

1. Write your own haiku on your blog. You can do one or many, all following a theme or just random. It or they can be part or all of your post, but your post must include a haiku. What's a haiku, you ask? Hint: 5-7-5. More info: Click here. Or here.

2. Sign the Mister Linky below with your name and the link to your haiku post (the specific post URL, not your main blog URL). DON'T sign unless you have a haiku this week. If you need help with this, please let me know.

3. Please leave a comment after linking, thanks! (Eventually the Mr Linky links go away, I think, so they only way we'll find you in the future is via your comment.)

4. Pick up a Haiku Friday button to display on the post or in your sidebar by clicking the button at the top of this post.

REMEMBER: Do not post your link unless you have a haiku this week. I will delete any links without haiku.

Haiku Friday: Seriously, A Year

Wow, it's been a year
that I've been hosting this meme ...
time to up my game.

I'd like to blog more
in haiku, poems, and prose ...
BlogHer '10 inspired.

I declare it here,
I'm going to get serious
'bout blogging again!

Would you like to haiku today? To participate in Haiku Friday, just follow these steps:

1. Write your own haiku on your blog. You can do one or many, all following a theme or just random. It or they can be part or all of your post, but your post must include a haiku. What's a haiku, you ask? Hint: 5-7-5. More info: Click here. Or here.

2. Sign the Mister Linky below with your name and the link to your haiku post (the specific post URL, not your main blog URL). DON'T sign unless you have a haiku this week. If you need help with this, please let me know.

3. Please leave a comment after linking, thanks! (Eventually the Mr Linky links go away, I think, so they only way we'll find you in the future is via your comment.)

4. Pick up a Haiku Friday button to display on the post or in your sidebar by clicking the button at the top of this post.

REMEMBER: Do not post your link unless you have a haiku this week. I will carry on the esteemed tradition of deleting any links without haiku.

Haiku Friday: Ode to Big

Grandpa PotatoHead is going to help me with this week's haiku. We just got him yesterday at Costco ("Can you go shopping just ONCE without DB getting a new toy?" Husband lamented last night.) -- Db was the one who realized why he was at Costco -- because he's BIG!


Huge boxes and jars
Stare at us, floor to ceiling,
as we roll the aisles

Here's something we like,
we won't eat that fast enough,
let's try this sample.

Nuggets not crunchy,
but whole-wheat pasta's thumbs up,
and sweet-pepper sauce.

Who knew the samples
would expand DB's palate,
a little at least!

Want to play along on Haiku Friday? It's easy!

Just write a haiku (5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables) on your blog, any theme.
Put the post url into Mister Linky here, then please leave a comment after linking.

Not a blogger? Feel free to write your haiku in the comment field. Or just tell me what you think of my haiku. Or what your weather is like. Anything!

And have a great weekend!

Haiku Friday: Conference Hangover

I had so much fun last weekend at BlogHer ... then promptly fell off the face of the earth!! My apartment is covered in awesome BlogHer swag that I want to write about, take photos of, and on and on.

So far we've got one of DuckyBoy's swag pix up on his blog, of him with the adorable TempurPedic bear he got!

I'm uninspired re: haiku this week. I did join the Haiku Friday Facebook group, though ... and I added "#haikufriday" to my saved Twitter searches.

One poem per week
doesn't sound that hard ... yet it
rolls around so fast!

Seventeen morsels
of thought from my brain to yours
and from you to me

This summer haiku
drippy with humidity
and silliness too!

Want to play along on Haiku Friday? It's easy!

Just write a haiku (5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables) on your blog, any theme.
Put the post url into Mister Linky here, then please leave a comment after linking.

Not a blogger? Feel free to write your haiku in the comment field. Or just tell me what you think of my haiku. Or what your weather is like. Anything!

And have a great weekend.

Haiku Friday: BlogHer '10 Edition

How embarrassing ...
Spent the day at BlogHer '10
but forgot to 'ku!

Some hostess I am ...
I do better in person,
snacks, drinks I can do!

Maybe need to think
of hosting haiku as more
of a house party!

I'll try to redeem myself with a few photos of the day... obviously, DuckyBoy came with me ... his shirt (made by me) has his blog URL on it. :)

On our way into the hotel for the conference,
there was Mrs. PotatoHead getting out of a cab!


We also saw the Pillsbury Dough boy ... I saw him twice.
DB enjoyed poking him in the stomach to hear him "Tee heee..."

After the 4th or 5th poke, the Doughboy started to poke DB back!!
(Which made him "tee hee" too...)


Duckyboy really wants this Tempurpedic-material bear!
Me, I want to win the 2-free-mattresses giveaway!!


The S'mores suite was amazing, they recreated a hotel suite to look like an actual campout. Very unique and cool. In addition to eating 2 S'mores, DB snagged an awesome set of telescoping marshmallow toasting sticks, in a case!! Plus, they filled his backpack (not everyone's mind you, just his...) with Jet-Puffed marshmallows, Honey Maid graham crackers, and Hershey's chocolate. No other brands will ever do for him again!! And, now we MUST go camping.

So, what are you doing this weekend? (I think I asked that last weekend too! It's summer, people do interesting things...)

Haiku Friday: Hot Dogs

A hot dog poem
in honor of our weekend
cooking 100 --

Great Hot Dog Cookoff
our second year doing it,
"The Last DogBender!"

Long lean mystery
meat chopped fine inside a bun
topped with yumminess!

So tell me... what are you doing this weekend?

Haiku Friday: Summer Heat

Hello, 100,
you make DuckyBoy happy;
when he's hot, he's calm.

DuckyBoy is actually happy these days. He's SAYING so.

He's like a different kid these days. He says he's tired and has a summer cold. I think it's partly the swimming -- lots of physical activity -- and also, just maybe, the heat wave has a similar effect as a fever ... making him less anxious, more loving, more calm?

I know, sounds weird. Possible, though.

PS, speaking of weird, I think my snowy header looks a little weird ... but I'm too hot to make a new one right now, and the air conditioner is too loud to put it on. Tell you what, it's on the list!

Haiku Friday: Harrumph

Apparently DuckyBoy is doing great at summer camp. He's (fairly) upbeat about getting on the bus, where his friend is riding for the summer who usually goes by car during the school year. Not that I dare call him a "friend" because then DB will be sure to rebuke me: "He's not my BEST friend!"

Anyway. No one bothered to tell us moms that the kids are arriving half an hour late ... meaning DB and his friend are on the bus for just about an hour and a half each morning!! And they miss the "social activities worksheets" the kids do over breakfast. Of all the things to miss!!

But his teacher says he's been great so far. Which is good, because as soon as he sees me he turns into Drama King, unless he's in the pool or I am doing exactly what he wants me to do.

Which I am Not.Doing.Any.More.

Can you tell I am a bit p.o.'d at DB tonight?? We went to the (half an hour from nowhere near anywhere we ever go otherwise) dentist today and he screamed, fought, cried, and screamed some more when they tried to clean, just clean, his teeth. I'm spitting mad at him and he knows it. There was no mask, no laughing gas, and he's had a cleaning at least twice. But no. Apparently his new schtick for the dentist office is to freak out. He'd better not repeat that shtick on Monday when we go back for the cleaning! The dentist did get him to let her count his teeth, and she promised that's all she'd do and kept her word.

Did I mention they're a half an hour from nowhere??

Don't worry, he's been reassured that he is loved, and always will be, but he had no TV and fell asleep on the couch during our Bible study tonight. "I'm having trouble enjoying this relaxation time without tv," he moaned at one point. I told him his choices were to try, or go to sleep.

Can we tell a story? Um, no. I was honest with him -- I'm too mad at you, I said. Can I help you find a Lego part? Um, no. (I did help him download a pattern.)

I don't care that it's been like, 1,000 degrees here in NYC the last few days. I don't care that he's probably worried about 3rd grade and certainly reacting to the end of 2nd grade.

He's got to reason to be the way he's been toward me. The things he says range from mean to demanding to rude. I'm totally sick of it.

So mad at my son
and yet I love him so much --
my heart breaks in two.

Sigh. That's the best I can do today. I look forward to reading everyone else's haiku to pull me out of this funk! (And guess what? NO school-camp on Fridays, so we're stuck with each other all day! As of tonight my plan is: I'm going to get a bikini wax, a pedicure, and grocery shop. I also may need to criss cross Queens looking for 16-oz iced-coffee cups with lids. (Who knew they'd be so elusive?) Any other ideas, besides driving past every playground with a cackle?? Humph.

Please, do better than me! Link to your haiku post below, and leave a comment, too, unless you'd rather kick and scream for me...

Haiku Friday: Our First Fads of 2010

Fuzzy Zhu-Zhu pets ...
DuckyBoy rolls on the floor
with desire for them...

We have the real thing,
even fun accessories!
But this ... this is NEED.

How 'bout Silly Bands?
He has so many can't count.
Invented a day

For next week at school,
Unofficial Official
"Class Silly Band Day!"

He'll have to share them,
but so far so good with that;
from abundance comes...?

Want to play along on Haiku Friday? It's easy!

Just write a haiku (5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables) on your blog, any theme.
Put the post url into Mister Linky here, then please leave a comment after linking.

Not a blogger? Feel free to write your haiku in the comment field. Or just tell me what you think of my haiku. Or what your weather is like. Anything!

And have a great weekend.

Haiku Friday (on Saturday): Long Hair on the Brain

Two years of long hair.
Is it worth all this trouble?
Long hair in the drain

Careful showering
keeps the pipes unclogged for now
despite no filter.

Long hair on the brain
ponytail all of the time ...
New stylist Monday!

Haiku Friday: Life Spins on a Dime

Our new family motto is, "Life spins on a dime." Husband claims we had one already ... "Life sucks, then you die" ... but I don't remember ever voting for that, as if I ever would!

Last week for Husband's birthday I made this giant dime from posterboard and put a spinner on it, then taped things around the edges like "I go get your breakfast from 7-11," "Open Present #1," and "1 hour of watch shopping."

His birthday was Saturday, but we used it all weekend. I plan to use it again, because it made for a great weekend. Even for a guy who claims to not like surprises!

I liked that he was trying to guess what it was while I made it -- yep, I was brazen enough to draw it right in front of him! He thought it was a quarter as in, "A quarter of my life is over?!" -- which, since he turned 45, wouldn't be so bad.

Life spins on a dime:
DB will be Citizen,
his teachers told me!

From life on savings,
now full-time income again,
things feel so diff'rent.

I can charge something
and leave the house without guilt
and still get things done.

We don't live for it,
but money plays a big role;
life spins on a dime.

Want to play along on Haiku Friday? It's easy!

Just write a haiku (5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables) on your blog, any theme.
Put the post url into Mister Linky here, then please leave a comment after linking.

Not a blogger? Feel free to write your haiku in the comment field. Or just tell me what you think of my haiku. Or what your weather is like. Anything!

And have a great weekend.

Haiku Friday: The End of the School Year Nears

School year winding down
Last chance to be Citizen ...
can DB do it?

All should get a turn,
but his outbursts caused some doubt
within the past month.

This week's going great,
new mp3 for the bus
and getting driven

3 days out of 5
seem to help a great deal.
Wish I knew the key!

Want to play along on Haiku Friday? It's easy!

Just write a haiku (5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables) on your blog, any theme.
Put the post url into Mister Linky here, then please leave a comment after linking.

Not a blogger? Feel free to write your haiku in the comment field.

And have a great weekend!

Haiku Friday: For the Birds

Birds by the highway
splash and wash in a puddle,
no fear of danger

Two of them, so small,
found their city oasis
next to an off-ramp

I wish I could have snapped a photo of the 2 little birds I saw this afternoon-- starlings, maybe?? -- fluttering about in a puddle RIGHT next to the Queens Boulevard off-ramp of the Grand Central Parkway. (It just sounds big, right?) I was amazed at how such tiny creatures adapt to city life to the point that multi-ton vehicles zoom right past them and they just continued to splash around.

Want to play along on Haiku Friday? It's easy!

Just write a haiku (5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables) on your blog, any theme.

Put the post url into Mister Linky here, then please leave a comment after linking.

Not a blogger? Feel free to write your haiku in the comment field.

And have a great weekend!

Haiku Friday: Week Off!

Husband just asked me,
"Did you do your haiku yet?"
I've got a good man.

Last week I blew it
blame it on the vacation ...
but not Donald Duck!

Sorry!!

(Anyone know where this Donald is in Disney World? I've got nothing in particular to give away, but I'll come up with something for someone who gets it right!)

Here we are, not-haiku'ing at Epcot --
Tink, where are you? --
Atlantis pictures to come...

Want to play along on Haiku Friday? It's easy!

Just write a haiku (5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables) on your blog, any theme.

Put the post url into Mister Linky here, then please leave a comment after linking.

Not a blogger? Feel free to write your haiku in the comment field.

And have a great weekend!

Haiku Friday: Anxiety and Sunshine

wind etches the cliff
like lines of worry on the
face i hold so dear

I don't totally know why I wrote this haiku. It came to me last night as I lay in bed. Husband and I are anxious about several things (not the least of which was my Masters of Client Attraction call yesterday, which went really well, and his today!); maybe that's why.

Dear Internet, I love you too much to end on this downer. So, part 2:

Happy sunshine warms
wings and beaks, arms and noses --
chirps and smiles emerge.

Want to play along on Haiku Friday? You know what to do: Write haiku, any theme. Put the post url into Mister Linky here, then please leave a comment after linking.

And be sure to have a great weekend!

Haiku in the News

This "news" is a month old but I thought it was funny. All my facts are from the February 5 New York Post, page 30.

Former CEO of Sun Microsystems, Jonathan Schwartz, announced his resignation via this Tweeted haiku:

Financial crisis
Stalled too many customers
CEO no more.

How funny is that? I guess when you're leaving with $12 million severance, you don't really care.

Oh, and the best part: people were taking his verse to task, like, "If it's not about a season it's not a haiku..."

This is still RT'ing its way around the Twitterverse, so I don't feel so out of date. Plus, another Sun exec just quit today, confirming it via his blog, so it's got a timely edge to it. (Even though, if it weren't for the haiku, I don't know any of these people and would care less... but anyway!)

Good thing that person doesn't read my 'ku! Though I have found this year's snow to be very 'ku-spirational.

SURVEY!
If this post had...

__ 1 or fewer words or phrases that made no sense to you, leave a comment telling me your favorite thing about Twitter

__ 2 or more words or phrases that made no sense, leave a comment most burning Twitter question ("WTF is Twitter" is 100% acceptable).

Christmas Haiku

Breathe in scent of pine
Dots of color show the way
to fun this morning

A helicopter
hovers proudly atop it
not really that strange ...

We do pick something
that flies in the air: angel,
reindeer, star or ... this!

Stocking is open
by seven thirty a.m.
Now on to big stuff!

Fresh coffee has brewed,
the parents are awake now,
let's see Santa's loot!

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate, including me! (I can still celebrate Christmas on my own blog, right?)

Would you like to haiku today? To participate in Haiku Friday, just follow these steps:

1. Write your own haiku on your blog. You can do one or many, all following a theme or just random. It or they can be part or all of your post, but your post must include a haiku. What's a haiku, you ask? Hint: 3 lines, and count syllables, 5-7-5. The best haiku evoke a feeling of place or emotion. (Unlike mine which are often factual.) More info: Click here. Or here.

2. Sign the Mister Linky below with your name and the link to your haiku post (the specific post URL, not your main blog URL). Don't sign unless you have a haiku this week. If you need help with this, please let me know.

3. Please leave a comment after linking, thanks! (Eventually the Mr Linky links go away, I think, so they only way we'll find you in the future is via your comment.)

4. if you'd like, pick up a Haiku Friday button to display on the post or in your sidebar by clicking the button at the top of this post.

REMEMBER: Do not post your link unless you have a haiku this week.

Arguments Still Surprise Me: Haiku Friday

Cloud of angry words
dissipates slowly with time
the storm is over...

the hist'ry to blame
still lurks on the horizon
love's winds can't blow it

far enough away
to keep squalls from popping up
out of sunny skies ...

I'm never prepared,
need a better predictor --
Accu-Argument?

I'm just not always good at knowing what I do that will make Husband upset. Or when his reaction to something DB does (or, in this case, doesn't do, as in listen to us) will escalate to full-blown yelling. (I guess that just makes me human. But Husband is a systematizer by nature, finding ways to do things better, learning from every mistake ... so he expects me to improve the process every time!!)

All the work DB's teachers do to teach him voice levels, to modulate himself when he's angry, and what does he live with: a "level 5" voice.

Would you like to haiku today? To participate in Haiku Friday, just follow these steps:

1. Write your own haiku on your blog. You can do one or many, all following a theme or just random. It or they can be part or all of your post, but your post must include a haiku. What's a haiku, you ask? Hint: 3 lines, and count syllables, 5-7-5. The best haiku evoke a feeling of place or emotion. (Unlike mine which are often factual.) More info: Click here. Or here.

2. Sign the Mister Linky below with your name and the link to your haiku post (the specific post URL, not your main blog URL). Don't sign unless you have a haiku this week. If you need help with this, please let me know.

3. Please leave a comment after linking, thanks! (Eventually the Mr Linky links go away, I think, so they only way we'll find you in the future is via your comment.)

4. if you'd like, pick up a Haiku Friday button to display on the post or in your sidebar by clicking the button at the top of this post.

REMEMBER: Do not post your link unless you have a haiku this week.

Annd, Haiku Friday Sneaks Up on Me Again!

Really no excuse
for forgetting this again ...
what is my deal here?

With a little help from DayQuil to control the cough I woke up with, I had a great time in the school library today. Each month DB's school features a different book that inspires discussion and projects. We moved the "bucket drops" from the October book-of-the-month, How Full Is Your Bucket, to a different wall, then made a new display of vegetable soup inspired by the November BOTM, Uncle Willie and the Soup Kitchen.

We also have to add something new from now on-- the librarian said the principal told her to add a "Task sheet," describing what the kids did for each project and why, like this: "Using crayons, K and 1st-grade students decorated foods inspired by Uncle Willie and the Soup Kitchen, including onions, carrots, string beans, noodles, tomatoes, potatoes, cheese and bread."

It was fun to write them up and make those pages fit the theme of each display, and I also think they help make the projects look more "official," instead of purely "for-fun."

Next week we're going to decorate mittens and hats and read the book Caps, Hats, Socks and Mittens. Guess who's bringing the craft? Bring it on!!

Would you like to haiku today? To participate in Haiku Friday, just follow these steps:

1. Write your own haiku on your blog. You can do one or many, all following a theme or just random. It or they can be part or all of your post, but your post must include a haiku. What's a haiku, you ask? Hint: 5-7-5. More info: Click here. Or here.

2. Sign the Mister Linky below with your name and the link to your haiku post (the specific post URL, not your main blog URL). DON'T sign unless you have a haiku this week. If you need help with this, please let me know.

3. Please leave a comment after linking, thanks! (Eventually the Mr Linky links go away, I think, so they only way we'll find you in the future is via your comment.)

4. Pick up a Haiku Friday button to display on the post or in your sidebar by clicking the button at the top of this post.

REMEMBER: Do not post your link unless you have a haiku this week! I will carry on the esteemed tradition of deleting any links without haiku!

INSERT MISTER LINKY LINK HERE

Haiku Friday: Better Late Than Never

Many wins this week
DB dealt with the downs, too ...
they were hard on me! :)

DuckyBoy did great this week! I made him wait to get a toy until he got 2 stickers at school -- they have a reward system where you get one warning, on the 2nd thing you lose your sticker for that half of the day, and the 3rd time they ahve to speak to you (same or different offense) you have to write a consequence report.

When you get 10 stickers you get a prize. And at Back-to-School night, I noticed DB had the fewest stickers by half, literally.

So this week when we found one of the Transfomers he wants, he's out of spending money so I bought it, then had the idea to make him earn it by having a 2-sticker day.

At first he thought that was impossible! But he has had them before, at least once or twice, so I assured him he could (plus I emailed his teachers a heads-up, not so they'd go easy on him but so they'd know).

The very next day, he almost did it -- but had different teachers (who also know him well but didn't know "the plan," but it's fine) in the afternoon and acted out a bit right at the end of the day ... and was devastated that he didn't win his toy!

Whined and pleaded the whole way home, and got angry, adn tried sugegsting all kinds of things he would do at home if he could earn it that way.

It was really hard, but held firm.

And the following day? He got it.

He also lost his beloved Sigg bottle last week and found it on his own this week -- under one of the big freezers in the cafeteria, he thought to look there. A nice win!

Would you like to haiku today? To participate in Haiku Friday, just follow these steps:

1. Write your own haiku on your blog. You can do one or many, all following a theme or just random. It or they can be part or all of your post, but your post must include a haiku. What's a haiku, you ask? Hint: 5-7-5. More info: Click here. Or here.

2. Sign the Mister Linky below with your name and the link to your haiku post (the specific post URL, not your main blog URL). DON'T sign unless you have a haiku this week. If you need help with this, please let me know.

3. Please leave a comment after linking, thanks! (Eventually the Mr Linky links go away, I think, so they only way we'll find you in the future is via your comment.)

4. Pick up a Haiku Friday button to display on the post or in your sidebar by clicking the button at the top of this post.

REMEMBER: Do not post your link unless you have a haiku this week! I will carry on the esteemed tradition of deleting any links without haiku!