30Liberty

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Have Fun Now

Ok, so last night after reading the "Power of Now" I could not sleep and then thoughts started coming to me - so I grabbed a journal beside the bed and wrote this. I have done some editing, it's close to where I want it.

L. Hull 9/22/08

No time like the present. My new mantra, "have fun now," coined by my daughter is tightly-coupled with that old time sentiment. This past spring while taking on the arduous chore of organizing a 5 year old's room, the awareness came.

We were trying to motivate Mary and ourselves to make some sort of order out of the chaos that her room had become. Needless to say, this was not her idea of a fun way to spend Saturday morning and it wasn't high on my list either.

After much fussing, we tried words of wisdom. "Mary, just stop complaining and start having fun."

Without much attention, she started helping and the whining stopped. Miracle, perhaps not. Conscience decision perhaps.

Mary had written a very simple and inspiring phrase on her chalkboard -- "Have fun now."

That day we were energized by her words.

Days later, Matt took a photo of the chalkboard after he had noticed it was still there. We talked about it and it fueled our creative juices. We realized it was the perfect phrase to adorn our t-shirts for the upcoming pig roast.

We had all intentions on making and selling t-shirts in honor of my father, Kel and donating a percentage to charity in his name. These were good intentions, but we all know where that can lead...So, it never happened and we often talked about - what if...

Present day - our near and dear friend Mike decides to launch an organic t-shirt thing and asks Matt for advice. We kindly advise, but start to ponder our own project and what the heck, it's the anniversary of my father's untimely departure and since there is no time like the present.

We are launching it now, right here and now. Why wait?

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Monday, May 12, 2008

Newest Family Member

Say hello to the newest family member. She is still unnamed [UPDATE: Her name is Katie!] and living with her family in Canada, but will be arriving in early June.

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

(Actually) Live from Opening Day

Dice-k. Detroit Tigers. World Series Ring Ceremony. Me.

What do these things all have in common? They are all at Fenway Park today for the opening day game of the 2008 season. Dice-K is pitching, the Tigers are looking to break their beaten streak (doubtful), the rings are being handed out before the game, and I'll be there to catch all the action.

Tradition dictates sushi for lunch. What a great day. Too bad it couldn't be about 10-15 degrees warmer...

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Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Live from Opening Day

Its a beautiful day here in Japan. Ok, not in Japan. Boston. And its not exactly beautiful, it's really cold. Spring. Opening day. I just can't help thinking that when the games come back to Fenway it will be really cold.

As I write the Sox are up 6-4 in the top of the tenth. Hoping for an Okajima save to win this one and put it in the books (so I can get back to work). Keeping track of the game on the ESPN game cast thing was not working. So old stand by Yahoo sports works pretty well - just not the cool graphics of the game cast.

Go Sox!!

UPDATE: Sox win to remain in first place - thanks to Manny "the Man" Ramirez and newcomer Brandon Moss (JD Who?). Hot dogs and beer for dinner. Here's to an undefeated season!

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Wednesday, March 05, 2008

MSG for You and Me

In the Dining & Wine section of the The New York Times is a good column about the history and uses of MSG. Author Julia Moskin goes into how MSG got a bad rap, how it is still being used in most Asian cuisines, and how forms of glutamate are used in lots of common items that most American consumers would probably not realize. I found this very enlightening, since all I ever knew about MSG was that it was a shortcut for adding umami to foods and that it was supposedly bad for you.

Maybe I'll start using that Accent I bought all those years ago...

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