1. If I take home leftovers for lunch, I can count it as groceries.
2. Taking pictures of the food for a blog qualifies as work.
3. MY TEAM WON!!!
4. my team lost…
5. I’m saving energy by not opening my fridge.
6. Going to take my family here the next time they’re in town… should make sure the quality is still up to standard.
7. I didn’t scream in frustration when that car cut me off. A reward is clearly in order.
8. Don’t want to go grocery shopping hungry.
9. My cat told me to do it.
10. I can practice my Italian pronunciation.

Vegemite: You haven’t done a blog post yet this week. You’re going to do one now, right?

Me: Have you noticed how busy this week has been?

Vegemite: What busy? Making things in the crockpot? I think you need to stop playing Skyrim and write a blog post.

Me: I am right in the middle of finishing a forty minute quest. Please inform me at once that you are not serious.

Vegemite: I am Italian-restaurant-or-diner-for-lunch serious.

Me: Darn, there’s a troll in my way. They kill me with one swipe. Veg, why are you so worried about me writing on my blog?

Vegemite: The mustard says I smell bad and no one here likes me. I want you to tell the world it’s not true!

Me: Look, if the mustard says that again remind it that it’s full of blue cheese, which makes it smell not so awesome itself. Now be quiet, I need to concentrate on sneaking up on this troll.

Vegemite: It’s not just the mustard. The hot sauce has a major attitude and keeps talking about how important it is because you use it almost every day. You’ve only used me once.

Me: Cream cheese, cherry tomatoes, and Vegemite on hearty toast is delicious. Vegemite and fajita chicken… not so much. Arg… the troll saw me! RUN AWAY RUN AWAY RUN AWAY!

Vegemite: I don’t understand this game. Is your character supposed to spin around like that and fall on the ground? What’s a reloading screen?

Me: It’s what happens when you lose concentration because your condiments start talking to you.

Vegemite: Oh. Well, about that blog post…

Returning to places you love:

Finding places you want to return to:

Seeing things that impressed you so much as a kid, and finding out they still do:

Dinner for lunch, every day:

Remembering the great things about where you live:

Staying up late… because you can sleep in the next day:

Radio up and windows down:

Me: Let’s go to the Claude Moore Colonial Farm!

Siri: Whee! Fun! Let’s go!

Me: How do we get there?

Siri: This way!

*everyone drives along happily for a while*

Siri: Take this exit!

Me: No problemo. Boy am I glad I have a GPS to tell me where to go!

Siri: I know right? Now go along this road and you’ll be at your destination.

Me: …..

Siri: What’s wrong? Why aren’t you going along that road like I told you?

Me: You may not have noticed this, faithful Siri, but there is a rather large building in front of us.

Siri: Nope, sure didn’t. My maps tell me there is no such building. But there is a road!

Me: Yes, the road goes beside the building and off into the woods.

Siri: Forward!

Me: Perhaps I should mention that this building is surrounded by a chain link fence.

Siri: So? Go down that… why are you trying to change my directions? Where we want to go is down that road!

Me: Perhaps I should also mention that the chain link fence has barbed wire across the top. Several layers of barbed wire in fact. And you may have noticed a whirling noise.

Siri: I can’t hear anything but your radio. WHICH IS TOO LOUD BY THE WAY.

Me: …. that noise is the lovely whirl of cameras as they swivel in the direction of the small four door sedan, silver, tag number blah blah blah that is currently idling in front of their gate. In a few moments you may be able to hear the clicking noise of a keyboard as the CIA LOOKS UP WHO FOLLOWED THEIR DUMB GPS OFF THIS EXIT.

Siri: Well there’s no need to get huffy. You asked how to get there and I told you. It’s not my fault this CIA building is in the way. And I don’t care how many times you try to get me to tell you a different way that is the way to go WHY ARE YOU TURNING AROUND!!

Me: Stupid GPS.

Siri: I HEARD THAT!

Creative funks happen, and when they do there’s only one course of action I rely on. Regroup, settle in, and force myself to focus and get some work done goof around on the internet. The past few days have represented such a funk, and so I give you the fruits of my procrastination.

There are many talented people on the internet, and some of them have congregated on Amazon.com. Their purpose is to spice up the site with some awesomeness in the form of reviews. Below are my favorites*. Many thanks, though he will surely never see this, to George Takei (most know him as Mr. Sulu from Star Trek) whose Facebook brought this trend to my attention. Seek his entries, they are worth it.

• Mountain Three Wolf Moon T-Shirt
• Hutzler 571 Banana Slicer
• Tuscan Whole Milk
• How to Avoid Huge Ships
• Denon AKDL1 Dedicated Link Cable

*Yes I know I’m late to this party. Just pretend you haven’t seen these before.

I’ve been thinking about The First Post for a while now. I wanted something grand and imaginative that explained why I felt the need to send my thoughts off into the interwebs. Along the way I came up with plenty of ideas for posts, but nothing I thought was ‘enough’ for The First Post. General observations, eating new foods, top ten lists. None of these ideas made the cut.

Last night I got pretty frustrated with myself, so I thought about why I’m actually doing this. A few weeks ago I went down to the Mall and sat on a bench enjoying a fresh funnel cake while watching families fly kites. It was a beautiful day, I was very happy, and I wanted to share it. I posted it on Facebook, but realized I had more to say. And that’s about the time the idea of this blog came along. Adding to that the awesome excuse to try new things and revisit past favs (‘I really need to eat this giant turkey leg and a drink ale from a pewter mug while watching people walk around in Renaissance costumes. FOR THE BLOG.’) and here we are.

Of course life isn’t always sunny days with cute kids flying penguin kites and puffs of wind covering you in powdered sugar, but often something cool happens when you reach a little outside what you know. Maybe something small, but still. So in the end The First Post hopefully reflects what I want for this space. Nothing fancy or cerebral or following a specific path. Just a journal of sorts, a place to share what I think about what I see. And now I think there’s a cheeseburger in my near future. For the blog, of course.