1.  If I could leave one piece or advice for you it would be this: “Never ever underestimate having a spirit of play!”

The photo above is when the radio station sent me out to cover the Motorboat Races and to actually drive one…this one!  We took it out on the ocean from the Harbor to the Pier and back where I actually caught air without flipping the boat! Yay me!  I was screaming the whole time, but whatever!!!

2.  To set a good example, should one be tolerant of intolerance?

3.  I’ll be honest, cage-free eggs don’t taste stress-free or tastier for that matter, but I still feel much better. I’m sure if investigated, conditions are most likely still inhumane.

photo credit: Seth Brandes

4.  The St. Patrick’s Day parade was super fun but most of us suffered from heat exhaustion having spent 3 hours in 90 degree weather dancing up Main Street for the last leg of our journey. Squashed Grapes won two trophies Best in their Category and Best in Show, the granddaddy of them all!

5.  It’s been some time since I nailed a three-pointer, well at least since my knee started giving me serious trouble about six months ago.  I’ve been back on the court easing back into my exercise regime and trying to get my “game” back, and I’m happy to report, Thursday, March 19, I dropped not one, but two three-pointers!

I’ve always said, next lifetime, I want to be tall enough to be able to dunk, but I still think 3-pointers rule, especially when they swish and it’s nothing but net.

6.  One of the side effects of exercising I have had to endure over the years are frequent charlie horses in my feet and calves, sometimes my thighs; there’s not much worse than stretching in the middle of the night resulting in one of my calves cramping up with such severe pain that I have to get up and attempt to walk it off.

I’ve mentioned this a while back at work and Sergio said to try a bar of soap between the sheets. It was probably a year before I succumbed and gave it a go and I’m happy to report that it freakin’ works.  NO KIDDING!

So I thought I would look it up on Snopes, and guess what?  They don’t disagree with this remedy!  At one point they concede, “Yet skepticism aside, for those subject to nocturnal leg cramps, this bit of folk wisdom is clearly worth a try, in that the only potential downside is their having to share their beds with slivers of soap. (Well, that and having their spouses think them a bit loony.)”

Here’s a link to their article:  http://www.snopes.com/oldwives/legcramp.asp

7.  I beg of you, if you are on Facebook, DO NOT post a picture of a spider you recently came across.  Just do me this one solid please.

8.  One of the few TV series I followed religiously (I can count all of them on four fingers) included the X-Files.  I considered it a guilty pleasure, but now I confess, I’m giddy with anticipation for Mulder and Scully’s return to the small screen after a 13-year break.

9.  I saw this video on Facebook, and I thought, I’m going to learn some sign language!  So I went to the master, Youtube, and found some beginner videos and I now know how to sign, “Please,” Thank-you,” “Yes,” “No.” and I started to learn how to sign names and got lost on how to spell my own last name.  Damn you Baumgardners!

10.  There is a reason why I only have female pets and it stems back to when I was about nine years old and called my mother in a panic because my dog LBD’s “stomach” was falling out. After a couple of carefully phrased questions regarding the location of said “body part,”  She laughed and said, “Through him outside and leave him alone.” This became her favorite story to tell her friends for years to come.

Now I concede that female pets may get horny, BUT, their “insides” remain, inside.

Oh! And just so you know…LBD stands for Little Black Dog.  LBD eventually got shortened to just LB. This trend of using initials for pet names started with a pup we all had a say in naming called, Lucky-Becky-Junior-LBJ.  I voted for Lucky.  We also had a dog called GD, for Girl Dog.

As an adult pet owner, I started using full names such as Kitty Sanchez, and now of course Samantha “Boom-Boom” Baumgardner who we affectionately call Sammy.

12.  From my favorite quotes file: “Your life is an occasion. Rise to it.” – Suzanne Weyn, Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium

Thanks for your time!