May 23, 2013

Sometimes, I Wax Like Ralph Macchio


I blog because…I enjoy writing and making people laugh.


Steve and I started this blog in 2006 as a way to keep our family and close friends up to date on the status of each of our adoptions. In March of 2012, when we were in China adopting our third child, a few people commented that my posts were funny and that I should write a book.

Well, that’s all it took for me to take full control of the blog reigns (Steve wrote some of the posts back then) and turn our adoption blog into my personal humor blog. I made the unofficial switch last summer.

Writing about blogging or why I blog isn’t a new topic here in Whineville. I wrote about blogging last October in a post called What’s the Point of Blogging?  I waxed poetic – actually, it wasn’t really poetic, but I did wax – kind of like Ralph Macchio - about trying to figure out what the purpose of my blog is and if writing humor is the best use of my time. I asked, What’s the point of writing about naked Barbie dolls when there are people dying all over the world? I concluded that if I share honestly about my life and struggles, whether in a funny way or not, someone, somewhere can hopefully relate and feel less alone in the world.

In the post How to Be a Christian and Write Humor, I discussed steps I take to write humor, including things about farts, without compromising what’s important to me. And don’t get me wrong, farts are important to me - the digestive system is actually my favorite organ system in the human body – but I want to make sure that when I’m writing I’m also honoring God. By the way, God created farts, so that’s a totally God-honoring topic.

I also wrote a post more recently, 10 Things I’ve Learned About Blogging, Yo! One of the things I talked a little about in that post was The BBB (The Battle for Balance in Blogging – I just came up with that right now). It’s a battle because if my time is spent on writing my blog and marketing it, then that time is taken away from other things, namely my family and friends, and cleaning my house. (I don’t really care about that last one…Steve might, but he told me two nights ago that I’ve always been kind of a slob, so the house being a slum-hole isn’t because of the blog, it’s because I’m a pig. At least I’m an organized pig. I know which pile of the 20 piles my crap is in.) But I don’t want to neglect my family and friends, so the BBB is an ongoing thing.

So, overall I blog because I enjoy writing and making people laugh and I hope that occasionally someone will be touched by my writing in some way that will make them realize they aren't alone in their struggles or thinking or...whatever.

On Monday, I’ll be publishing a post called “How to Be Funny”.  I’ll share 10 practical tips I’ve learned that have made me, and my writing, funnier – at least I hope they’ve made me funnier.

If you blog, why do you blog? If you don't blog, why not? Tell us in the comments.


This post is part of Finish The Sentence Friday.

Next week's sentence: My favorite movie of all time is...

Finish the Sentence Friday



Your FTSF Hosts:
Welcome our guest co-host for this week: Kristi from Finding Ninee! (TwitterFacebook)
Me (TwitterFacebook)

A rhyme:
If you're linking up, follow your hosts. 
We'll be tweeting/sharing/pinning some of your posts.
Grab the button from up above,
put it on your blog and we'll give you some comment love.
(dumbest poem ever)

Read and comment on the two posts before yours. Spread some love by sharing your favorites on Facebook or Twitter or social media of your choice.



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May 21, 2013

Caption That! (Round 34)


Welcome back to Caption That!

Last week's Caption That! Winner: "Trust me Robin, this is going to hurt me far more than it hurts you."




Submitted by: 
Natalie the Singing Fool at The Cat Lady Sings


To see the last Caption That! photo, click here.

Last Week's Photo: That picture of Batman and the boy baby was sent to me by Kristi, and her crazy self, over at Finding Ninee. Go check out her blog. She has the bestest, funniest drawings!


Caption That!

The Rules:
1. Participate! Leave a comment on this here blog or at my Facebook page with your caption.
2. Be Funny, creative, and somewhat kind (this is my family/friends)
3. More than one entry is allowed.
4. Make sure it's clear who you are, so I can give you credit when you win! If you have a blog, leave a link or your Twitter handle in your comment.
5. My husband, Steve, will blindly pick his favorite caption and I'll highlight the winner's name and/or blog the following week in my post and left sidebar.


If you've EVER one Caption That! feel free to paste this awesome, obviously professionally-made winner's button in your sidebar to give me free advertising on your blog show off that you won Caption That! and that you rock and that you're funny.

Can I Get Another Bottle of Whine


Alrighty, go ahead and Caption That!



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May 19, 2013

10 TV Characters from the 80s(ish) I Loved to Hate


I struggled with this topic (10 Movie or TV characters) for Monday Listicles suggested by Rachee (say it Rah-shay - I'd put the accent mark over that first e in her name, but I don't know how) not because I couldn’t come up with anything, but because it’s so broad. I was a TV junkie when I was a kid growing up in the late 70s and 80s, so I wasn't lacking for stuff to talk about, but which direction to take.

I decided on...



Here they are in no particular order...

1.  Joanie Cunningham from Happy Days and Joanie Loves Chachi – Joanie whined a lot. It was annoying and so was she. But I still watched both shows.

2.  Marcia Brady from The Brady Bunch – Marcia, Marcia, Marcia! I was like Jan, living in her older sister's shadow, so automatically I didn't care for Marcia. Except I didn't have an older sister and really, Jan got on my nerves too. Actually, they all got on my nerves - except Alice. I always felt bad for Alice because she had to live with all those kids and Sam was a non-committal butcher. But that didn’t stop me from watching every episode, sometimes six to ten times each, along with The Brady Brides and the reunion. If The Brady Bunch were on right now, I'd stop whatever I was doing and watch it.

I know this show wasn't even close to being on in the 80s, but I loved (to hate) it in the 80s, as well as the 70s, and 90s, so I put it on the list.

3.  Samantha Micelli from Who’s The Boss? – You may know about my crush on Scott Grimes (and nine others), so there was nothing I could do, but hate Sam.

4.  Urkel.

5.  Screech from Saved By The Bell – Who didn’t hate Screech? He was the white Urkel.





6.  A.C. Slater from Saved By The Bell – You’d think I watched this show all the time, but I didn’t. I remember my sister watching it and then my friends watched it in college, so I kind of had to watch it sometimes. A.C. just looked like he thought he was all that and a giant mullet. I guess he was cute, but I just couldn't see past that mullet. I think if you looked closely enough you would have seen some robin eggs on top of his head. I don’t know why he bothered me so much, but he did.


7.  Naomi Oates Harper from Mama’s Family – We watched Mama’s Family every Saturday night. We were that cool. I think it came on after Small Wonder (the family that had the robot daughter and annoying son). I couldn’t stand Naomi. I was like Mama; I wanted to beat Naomi over the head with a giant breadstick or something. She was all mushy with Vinton and usually made me puke in my mouth.

8.  Joey from Gimme A Break and Blossom – I think I was irritated because he always seemed to play characters with the name "Joey". Like he was so awesome that the show creators had to make his characters all "Joey". He was just always "Joey". And then came Melissa and Joey. He was even "Joey" when he had bit parts on Diff’rent Strokes and Silver Spoons.

9.  The entire cast of the original Beverly Hills, 90210 - Rich brats. It doesn’t matter that I couldn’t stand them, I still watched them Every. Single. Week. In 1993, I got together with a bunch of others in a friend’s dorm on Monday nights. My guy-friends drooled over Kelly and Donna and I just sat there and criticized every character and how they all made stupid life choices. Gosh, was I jealous. I wanted to live in Beverly Hills and be a stupid, rich brat too.

10.  This is the most pathetic list ever. I can’t think of anyone else and I sound like a giant, grouchy butt-hole. So with that, how about you end it. Which TV character did you love to hate in the 80s(ish)?

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May 17, 2013

Stick a Cork in It! (Weekend Update #13)


Yo, Peeps! Here's what happened this week in my Whine-hood!

On Monday I shared some of the junk items I found garage-saling the previous Saturday in One Man's Trash Is Another Man's...Trash. I knew people loved Elvis, but not that much.


On Tuesday, Sarah from The SadderBut Wiser Girl guest-posted with My Kids: Weird or Normal? She proved that sometimes your guest-poster can bring you more traffic than you give them. Thank you, Sarah, I owe you!

I also went to the gym, my favorite place to tweet.

I picked those babies up on Saturday.


I hope you ignored my misplaced comma.


This Wednesday's Caption That!  winner was Abby Heugel at AbbyHasIssues.com



The next Caption That! photo was of Batman and...was that Robin? shared by Kristi at Finding Ninee. It was a  big hit! You can still enter the contest by clicking the link above. If you have any photos you'd like to share on Caption That!, send them over.

Thursday, I took all three kids to the dentist to fill cavities. That was fun.


For Finish The Sentence Friday I wrote I Only Pretended To Like Iron Maiden. I changed the title back and forth, so you may have read it as Would You Become a Redneck to Impress a Guy? Steve suggested the latter, but I wasn't totally comfortable with it, so I switched back to the original. I finished the post one minute before FTSF went live then went back and made at least 10 changes after publishing. I know how to procrastinate.

And I went to the gym again. 


Anybody have this problem?







The Book Writing:
I had a revelation on my adoption humor book. I was going at it all wrong. I checked out a humor memoir at the library, read the first chapter and realized what I needed to change about my book. I'm back on target. A better target.

I wrote an additional 1543 words bringing my total up to 35,407. Yay!



Up This Week:

Monday Listicles - 10 Favorite Characters in movies or TV


Tuesday - I'll be worrying about what I'm going to wear to BlogHer.


Wednesday - Caption That!


Thursday - I'll be neurotic about when to get my hair cut for BlogHer, even thought it's two months away, because going to Great Clips a week before poses a $13.99 risk that I may get a crappy cut and I don't want to look 41 and dumpy when I meet other bloggers.


Finish The Sentence Friday sentence is I blog because...


Have a great weekend!



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