Mette Ivie Harrison's Blog, page 136

don't lie to me

I tried out the new TV series last night and thought it was interesting, though a part of me thinks that it can't possibly be that easy to tell if someone is lying. On the other hand, it did make me revisit my thoughts on the importance of lying in social interaction. Really, we are expected to lie all the time, and to know when to lie and when not to. I think about my children, and honestly, the ones who frustrated me most as toddlers with their lying tend to be the ones who are the most soc

why tri?

This is a question that Active.com always insists that I must answer before I register for any race. I find myself typing in some inane answers, such as "because I love pain" or "for the challenge" or "it is an illness." But at a writers' retreat this weekend, one of the pieces of advice was that we should look at our lives and think about what it is we are doing that we don't write about--and then write about it.

This is not the first time that someone has suggested that I write a book about

Shopping and ear piercing

Today I spent 5 hours at the mall with 15 and 13. They are the first of three waves of school shopping excursions I have planned this week. I have been too busy this summer to fit them in before, and with kids growing as fast as they do, I am never sure there is a point to shopping too early. And in this case, 15 shrunk 2 sizes. How can you guess stuff like that? I did do some online shopping previously, but it didn't seem to help the time I had to spend in the mall.

We made a list for each

Oops! I did it again.

I forgot to post here about my signing this week. If you went to my website, then it's up there, but if you go straight here, that's no help. Anyway, I will try to do better. I got to see a few familiar faces there and for the first time ever I did not feel self-conscious during a public appearance. I didn't worry about saying something stupid about myself or my books.

I think that I ended up talking too much to people coming to get books signed than too little. But, after all, if someone go

reality check

In case I thought my kids were a little too good, this conversation happened yesterday:

15: Mom says that you aren't smarter than me.
13: Am so.
15: She says you're not and she says you're just saying that to get my goat.
13: Whatever that means.
15: She says they won't let you take AP English in 10th grade.
13: Mom! Can't I do anything before Hope does?
Me: No, dear. Nothing.
15: Ha! Ha!
13: You're so mean. I hate you!
Me: Hey, it's not me. It's the school.
13: Mom, why won't you make them let me?
Me:

I think there is something wrong with my kids

This week I have spent a lot of time with my kids. We went to the local amusement park two days in a row. Then the weekend hit and because I am tapering, there was only a shortish workout, which I did later in the day, so there was time for snuggling in bed (a weekend tradition at our house) and waffles for breakfast (whole wheat with homemade mango syrup and sour cream). Then when we got back, we did lunch and spent the afternoon watching TV with the kids and going shopping with the kids. T

new bike update #3

To those of you tired of my bike updates, I apologize.

Friday I went out with my new bike and my son and headed down to the trail I've been going to lately. There were very few people out, which was good. I had a compliment on the cool-looking bike. I actually liked my old yellow one, which was so visible with my yellow helmet. The new one is red and white and silver and I have a silver helmet, not so visible, unless you are looking for the really small bike, which mine is. I did go faster,

new bike update #2

I went to pick up the new bike today. It had to be special ordered because it is so small because my legs are so short. I felt very fast on the new bike. I am going to take it out later today to see HOW much faster I really am. One of the interesting things that happened was that I brought my old bike with me, because I have liked it so much. I told the guy who was going to fit me on the new bike that I had loved it and he was pretty skeptical about matching any of the angles of the old bik

kids triathlon

I got 9 and 12 to do a triathlon this last weekend and was very proud of them. 9 did a kid length one, which was 100 yd swim, 1 mile bike, 1/2 mile run. 12 did the mini-sprint, 300 yd swim, 5.5 mile bike, and 1.5 mile run. I took the day off of training (which I have not done for months!) and went and cheered them on. One of the funny things was that 9 learned to ride a bike on Monday of last week. I kept thinking she would go out and show initiative and ride it herself, as other kids of mi

fast food menus

I went to a fast food place a couple of months ago, to a drive through, and discovered it had changed the menu outside into an "EZ picture based" menu, like some of the picture based web sites that I avoid. I seriously could not figure it out. I read pretty darn well when it comes to words, but I have never been one who could read those supposedly intuitive pictures on your car. (What does that mean? Oh, it's a seatbelt? I thought it was a hangman's noose.) I gave up on the menu outside an