Thursday Thirteen. Hey, at least I tried...

For your amusement (hopefully): thirteen things I did instead of coming up with a decent and clever Thursday Thirteen list this week.

* Had a conversation with the bag boy in the grocery store about baseball, specifically the RAYS!

* Spent a morning at the salon to have a big purple highlighted chunk put in my hair.

*Tried to break my #*&)(*#% cell phone.

HATE that thing. Seriously. P.O.S. It’s never really worked right since I received it as a birthday present (which is a whole other story in itself.) I finally thought it was going to give up the ghost last weekend when the touchpad part stopped working. However, as I was literally pulling into the cell phone store, I checked it one more time. The S.O.B. was working just fine. All of a sudden. And I couldn’t justify getting a new one. Grrrrrr. So now I’m working on “accidentally” dropping it in the toilet. Or running it over with the car. I’ll keep you posted.

*Chatted with an aging hippy in the post office parking lot about the Convention this week. He saw my Obama sticker on the back of my car and immediately wanted to conversate about the election and Hillary and Michelle and wasn’t she great and Teddy and his swan song and how it’s been the greatest convention he's seen in a long time and thank goodness we have a great candidate and... Wouldn’t be surprised if the dude rubbed elbows with Dan Rather in Chicago in ‘68 -- that’s how fired up he was.

*Plurked. And plurked. Then plurked some more. If you are there, you know what I mean. * Addictive. And so much fun. It’s got to be a gateway drug to something -- I’m just not sure what.

* Discussed politics, football, baseball and family gossip with my dad on the phone. For an hour. He calls me on either his morning/afternoon commute. It’s a riot, as I am now to the point in my life, and he in his, where we just sort of let things like profanity fly and it’s OK. Apparently my grandma (Daddy’s mother) had a mouth like a sailor, so I come by it honestly.

* Did three loads of laundry. Whoopee. Don’t have to go out and buy new underwear. Hooray.

* Worked on getting stuff ready for my kiddo choir (4 & 5 year olds), which starts up again next week. And guess whose registration form was on the top of the pile that I picked on at church on Sunday... Conrad’s! Conrad (not his real name) is the darling (and I use that term with tongue implanted in cheek) child who has been known to wield rhythm sticks as weapons and goose Miss Jane during game time.

* Finished my contest essay on the topic of “What was the most important day in your life?” Whew. It’s not bad. And I wish I could share it here with y’all -- but there are rules about publication and I don’t want to tempt fate. But as soon as I can, I’ll throw it up here.

* Read the current issue of “Rolling Stone” -- actually, just the article on the 10th anniversary of “The Big Lebowski.” The Dude. Still abiding. And now I want a White Russian...

* Hung out with Will. We played on the keyboard; played cars; watched the Game Show Network; had a splash fight during bath time. Awesome.

* Downloaded torrents of the three most recent episodes of “Weeds.” Damn, does that show make me laugh. Kevin Nealon (“El Doug”) and Justin Kirk (“El Andy”) kill me.

* Laid out plans for my new sports blog project. I’m really excited about this... if I can figure out a way to implement everything I’m kicking around -- or at least half of my ideas -- it’s going to be something I can be proud of. And have fun with.

So there you are. See, I haven’t been slacking off. Really. Kinda. Maybe.