My life as I know it

My nephew Max loves to say, "We have a mystery" and walk around trying to solve mysteries; mysteries that he has created. On this Sunday morning, Pat and I woke up to a mystery of our own. We were out of town for most of the day yesterday and never checked our mail when we got back last night. When I checked it this morning, I was surprised to see an 8x8 thin box in our mailbox. It was obvious from the label that it was an ebay purchase. Knowing that I hadn't ordered anything on ebay and that Pat doesn't know how, I would have assumed it was a mistake except for the fact that it was clearly addressed to "Pat and Emily Robinson." The mailing label on the box indicated that the item was purchased from an ebay store called Valley Village Collectibles in North Hollywood, California. When we opened the box we found a seven inch vinyl record, Eye for an Eye, recorded by Pat Robinson in 1984. Unfortunately, we have no way of playing or listening to this album. ...

As you know, due to my addiction with the game Words with Friends , I haven't been reading as much as I would like to these days. But I'm happy to report that I did just finally finish the one and only book I've read this summer (how pathetic am I?). I know I'm about six years late and a dollar short, but I finally read the book My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult and it was really good. I haven't read a Jodi Picoult book yet that I haven't loved. If by some slim chance you, too, have been living under a rock and haven't read the book yet, I highly recommend you do so! As usual, I have not allowed myself to watch the movie , starring Cameron Diaz, which came out in 2009, until I read the book first. I always like reading the book first, a lesson learned by my mom very early in life. So now, I've read the book and I really want to watch the movie but after several failed attempts, I'm beginning to realize, things just aren't what they us...

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately, and I'm really unhappy in my relationship with Words with Friends. Here are the reasons why I need to breakup with the game. 1. I don't even like scrabble.  Six months ago if you were to ask me what my least favorite game was, I would have told you it was Scrabble. 2. I'm not good at it.  At any given time I could be playing up to 10 games at once and very likely I could be losing every single one of them. 3. I have become obsessed and addicted to it. I am spending WAY too much time playing this game. It is taking away from my Facebook creeping, Twitter stalking and most importantly, my summer reading which was pretty much non-existent this summer because of my addiction to this game. 4. It caused a huge argument between me and the husband Okay, huge might be an exaggeration, but we did go to bed somewhat annoyed with each other over this stupid game. We do the play and pass version since he doesn't have an iPhon...

It's been a good run but I finally decided to come clean to the government about my secret life. You see, for the past two years and two months, I have been living under the dual identity of both Emily S and Emily R. I have to admit, it was invigorating. But, all good things must come to an end. And after my computer at work got a virus this afternoon, I was convinced the government had figured me out. So I went straight to the social security office to come clean. When she asked me "what is the reason for your name change," I told her I had gotten married. When she smiled and said congratulations, I have to admit, I was embarrassed to tell her it had actually been over two years ago. She didn't seem phased. I'm sure she's seen it all. There are several reasons why it took so long for me to finally make my name change official with the government (I changed my credit cards, license and other items immediately). First, hour limitations at the office. Before...

It's 10:52 PM and I'm just sitting down for the first time since I got off work at 4:30. I went straight to the grocery store, then to another grocery store, came home, unloaded the groceries and immediately started cooking. We are having a cookout tomorrow night with Pat's friends from out of town. Tonight I made pasta salad, cole slaw, baked spaghetti and a chocolate chip brownie cheesecake. While I was cooking the night away, Pat was busy cleaning our house. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I'm not a great housekeeper. When I do clean, I do a pretty thorough job but I just don't clean nearly as often as I should. I'm soooo lucky to have a husband who helps me! I've never made a cheesecake from scratch before, let alone a cheesecake with a brownie bottom. I will let you know how it turns out and if it's a recipe worth sharing, I will share it! Speaking of recipes, I owe you the wonderful strawberry vinaigrette dressing recipe. ...

I'm not really taking on the world, per say, but I am taking on a huge website overhaul that is consuming my life at work (and home). It is t-minus 16 days until the launch of the new website at the school where I work and there is so much left to do. Already having one website overhaul under my belt at my previous job, I thought I was prepared for this challenge but at times, today being one of them, I feel way over my head and like I really am taking on the world. Speaking of taking on the world, that is the title of the new OAR single off of their new album, King, which comes out TOMORROW! I'm so excited. I just pre-ordered it in hopes that when I wake up tomorrow morning, it will already be downloaded on my computer so that I can add it to my iPod and listen to it all day at work. If it all pans out, my Tuesday should be much less overwhelming and frustrating than my Monday. You know what wasn't frustrating, though? My awesome weekend! Friday afternoon started with...