holy twenty twelve.

oh my poor blog. malnourished, neglected, and feeling abandoned. i have not yet given up on posting...it just seems that since i returned to work, my blogging time is gone. literally. quantity of time and quality of time. a) there are not enough minutes in the day and b) my favorite time to write (3am) is no longer available, because i have to be sleeping in preparation for working the next day. the good news is that little pringle is suffering from none of the aforementioned neglect. on the contrary, he is thriving...well fed, adorably clothed (thanks in large part to hand-me-downs from his cousin), and infinitely loved.

pringle at the park...back when miami was still warm.

you are probably wondering how i found this time to write this post...i thought you would never ask!!! let's see, it is 4am, so the writing juices are flowing. i should be sleeping, but 45 minutes ago, a car parked almost directly below our bedroom window suddenly started honking. woke up the entire family, including the baby who had to be coaxed back to sleep. thanks to the mister for taking care of that. anyhow, being the wildly imaginative person that i am, i immediately assumed that someone had a heart attack and was face first in their steering wheel, so i called 911. of course, i am the world's most curious creature, so i stood on the balcony and waited. speaking of outside, it is 47° out there. why didn't anyone send me the memo that we would be experiencing a 40 degree temperature drop overnight?!? i have to know these things...i can't wear sandals when it is 47° outside!!! okay, back to the night's craziness. eventually a police cruiser rolled in, stopped next to the car, got out, shined his flashlight around, and apparently found nothing. after watching this mind-numbingly boring scene unfold with excruciating slowness, i finally wandered back to bed. and then my brain started writing this post. so here i am at 4 in the morning, tucked in bed and typing a post on my phone, because otherwise i will forget it. that said, my brain just turned into instant mush...like instant pudding, only without the milk..so i am abruptly going to sleep. i guess i will finish this post tonight. 

ringing in the new year...party animal.

[14 hours later]. i was a wreck today. first day back at work after the long winter recess and i was running on empty. most folks arrived at work looking refreshed from their vacation. and then there was me. rolling in at the last minute with bloodshot eyes and no tea in hand. thank goodness i teach art...otherwise spending the day with boatloads of other people's children might have been tantamount to torture. this whole, skip the caffeine for the baby's sake is starting to wear on me. seriously people, i want a gigantic cup of caffeinated coffee. alas, pringle is already a bundle of energy and i am not going to up the ante by adding caffeine into the mix. okay, so i think it is safe to say that we have a reached a point where continuing this post will take us on a long, slow, ride through my completely exhausted brain. i will spare you. you are welcome. 

and happy new year. for reals. happy new year.

hanging on to the future.

when i think of myself, i kinda still think i am a kid. but technology seems to be around simply to remind me of the gap between generations and the fact that contrary to my beliefs, i am no longer a kid. i have always chuckled about (and cheered) my mom's escapades on the computer and, most recently, her foray into text messaging. but the reality is that my smug little self is now getting lost in the dust. let's face it...i only took up text messaging, because i became friends with some young-uns, who were quick to help me realize that phone calls were so 1990s. so i got with the program and started text messaging. shortly after, the same friends convinced me to join facebook. i did and now i feel the urge to check it every three minutes. somewhere in all of this i discovered smartphones (hello, iphone!!), online education (yay master's degree), and blogging (wahoo!). despite what i thought was technological prowess, it still seemed that the future of communication had swept by and i was just hanging on to its coattails by a fingernail.

stuck under a sleeping baby.

and then i had a baby. sometime in a sleep deprived moment, probably stuck under a sleeping pringle, i jumped into this thing called twitter. you may have heard of it. i signed up for an account in 2008, but not really understanding it, i never tweeted. it is a strange concept, but i think i love it. although, it does seem like it is the perfect breeding ground for stalkers. details details. and now in my determination to at least ride ON the coattails of the future, i signed up for google+ (have not yet figured out its purpose) and thanks to mrs. nipper knapp, as of last night i am now a member of pinterest. i have only pinned a few things, but i think the idea is a gem. i wonder what is next. i am trying to keep up, but something tells me that in twenty years, pringle will be looking on in amusement as his mom tries to figure out the latest technology that is the backbone of his generation.

now that i am on top of all the latest social networks (i think), my latest adventure is to try to convince some companies that they should give me their products to test and review on my blog. see, i was bopping around on the internet looking for reviews of various baby products the mister and i are considering for purchase, when i realized that there are lots of folks out there receiving products to test out and review on their blog. i decided that since i spend inordinate amounts of time on my computer anyways, i should at least put my time to good use!! but i am thinking that if i want to convince companies that i have some clout, i might need a few more folks following my blog. so i need YOUR help. if you are a member of google or facebook or twitter or pinterest, you should find me and FOLLOW me!! no seriously, you should. all the cool kids are doing it and it makes me smile to know there are people out there. plus maybe it will help convince some corporates that swimming in brine is the bees knees. cant wait to see you in the world wide web!

google friend connect: follow my blog by clicking on the "join this site" button (left sidebar). 

facebook: swimming in brine - i would provide a link, but they wont give me one until i have 25 people - all the more reason YOU should find it and like it. :)

twitter: @swimminginbrine or you can click my name in the twitter box (right sidebar)

pinterest: pickel swimming

fresh in the water.

greetings one and all and welcome to the inner workings of my brain.

this is it. the official blog of pickel. lately i have been spending inordinate amounts of time by myself, which has prompted me to spend perverse periods of time contemplating the meaning of life. what better thing to do than share my lunacy with the world? okay fine. my reclusive behavior is 100% attributable to my desire to earn 1/8 of my masters degree in a six week period. seeing that i am second to only one in the world of procrastination, i spent the last six weeks engrossed in a plethora of activities purely designed to postpone the nightmare of daily coursework. one of my courses indoctrinated me into this strangle little world of blogging and then i met a lovely lady, who writes a fabulous blog (http://mymomsanerd.blogspot.com/), so i decided that i wanted to join this merry little band of bloggers.

since this is my first blog, who knows what direction it might take. for now i am thinking that it will just be a glimpse into the weird little world that i inhabit. i am sure my darling husband will be thrilled that i have decided to post our life on the internet. luckily for him, this post is about MY world, not his, so other than the fact that we cohabit the same world, he'll be immune. mhmm, sure. i predict he will be mentioned in every single post. so much for immunity.

current status: procrastinating. yes that's right. i have four papers to write today, totaling about seven thousand words. rather than even pretend to work on those papers, i decided to start a blog. this might be the most perfect tool i have ever discovered for delaying the inevitable. only my first post and i am already hooked.

unfortunately, i think that i should stop being so obvious about my dallying tactics. me thinks i shall go and peruse my favorite cookbooks. if i can write a shopping list before the mister gets home i might be able to prey on his hunger and convince him to go grocery shopping with me. since both grocery shopping and cooking qualify as official domestic business, they have every right to postpone studies. yesssss!! are you starting to get a picture of my capacity for lagging?