Why A 30-Something Should NOT be a hip-hop dancer

For weeks, I'd been waking up on Tuesday mornings with multiple hematomas spread across my knees and shins, the cause of which may have been misinterpreted by more dirty-minded individuals. (Come on, you KNOW you are out there.)

These bruises, however, I am ashamed to admit, are caused by my weekly hip hop sessions. Think multiple knee spins with nothing between your knees and the cold, wooden floors but a pair of cotton sweat pants. Finally, after last week's train wreck, I'd had it and this week caved and went to Olympia and bought some knee pads. Yes, I need a pair of knee pads, please, for hip-hop dancing. Yes! I said hip-hop dancing.

Anyway, this last dance class was on, and I was spinning with the best of 'em, my knees cushioned by a thick piece of heaven. Now if I could only, actually, dance!

The Heat Miser must have given up some territory for Snowy

This is what is greeting us as we open the front door this morning - one week into Spring.

Istanbul? (Not Constantinople)

A while back, I signed up for SiteMeter, a site that keeps track of who visits your Website. I thought the list would be few, as I could count on one hand the people who actually read Singuloso.

However, frequent checks indicate that besides the handful of family and friends who visit, there were some surprising non-domestic locations. Cool ones too, like Istanbul, the UK, Galway, Limerick and Slovakia. What I can't figure out, is that all these foreign locations track back to this post. Either they all like my hip-hop avatar, or I have committed some sort of copyright infringement and an investigation as to my guilt has been launched.

Anyway, when I saw Istanbul on there recently, it reminded of They Might Be Giants. So, without further adieu, here is a blast from our musical pasts. Enjoy.

Little Drummer Boy

I don't wanna work...I wanna bang on these drums all day......

After some prodding, Braedan decided he DID want to play the drums at his friend Ryan's house this morning. In true rocker fashion, notice how at the end he tosses the sticks to the floor. Show's over, people!

(Also, notice the miniature super hero gliding by in the background. That's Ryan, who rocks out hard on those drums, by the way.)

Bay State Parent Awards

So I didn't win any individual awards, but it was still nice to be mentioned in the list of writers who contributed to Bay State Parent Magazine's overwhelming success in this year's national Parenting Publication Awards. Scroll down and you'll see my name (along with blogging buddy Kate M. Jackson) mentioned in several categories, including Overall Reporting, General Excellence and two special section awards (The Think Pink Guide-Oct. 2007, in which my story on breast cancer survivor and WCVB news reporter Kelly Tuthill appeared, and the Dreams Do Come True Arts Guide-Sept. 2007 where two stories I wrote on Stoughton mom and singer/songwriter Lori McKenna and mom/rocker group HRT appeared.)

House of Coughs and Sneezes

There are piles of tissues everywhere, empty juice cups spread throughout the house, and no doubt this place is a giant petri dish of unimaginable germs.

Both husband and son have the flu.

Singuloso shall return when the place has been disinfected and the Haz-Mat guys have left the building.