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Advice from me

Helen Jane — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 03:15:17 +0000

Nora Lea,

I spent last night working at a friend’s awesome cabin.

Party April. Photo tagging party.

Helen Jane — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:20:41 +0000

So I’m doing my own posting every day in April thing around a parties.
Every day, a new party idea and some hits for execution.
Some I’ve thrown, some I want to throw and some I just think you should throw.

But a photo tagging party?
Sounds awful, right?
Why not share the load?

But I’m pretty sure no one but Kottke has all his photos properly tagged and titled. And you’ve probably been meaning to get to that, but it’s just that you have hair to wash and Moms to call. And this doesn’t only have to be online photo organization, but offline photo organization can work too. Bring your photo albums and loose pictures from that college vacation.

The Breakdown

Invitation: Via email, Facebook or Evite. No need for fancy paper invites and stamps. Let the invitees know they’ll either need to bring a computer or those pesky unfilled, untitled photo albums.

Time of week: This could be a good weeknight party. You wouldn’t want this to last more than two or three hours as tedium or drunkenness could wreck your plan.

Preparation: Make sure you have oodles of outlets for the laptops.

Food and drink: One handed food. Panini, appetizers and dips, soup in cups. Keep the food part away from the computer/photo album part. Since this is a weeknight party, offer a fun non-alcoholic beverage that could be punched up (so to speak) with a liquor.

Helen Jane’s Photo Tagging Punch
Ingredients:
1 quart lemon sherbert.
1 2 liter bottle of ginger ale.
2 cups of pineapple juice.
1 quart cranberry juice cocktail.

Scoop the lemon sherbert into the punch bowl by spoonfuls, add the ginger ale, pineapple juice and cranberry juice. Put out bottles of vodka, Limoncello or Tequilla in case your guests would like to doctor their own punches.

Grace in Small Things 62

Helen Jane — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 14:43:21 +0000

1. My dear, dear Ye Olde Internet Friend Aubrey.
2. James returns tonight. We haven’t been away from each other this long since we were dating. (All five minutes that we dated.)
3. When Nora Lea claps her hands and giggles.
4. Making time to focus on my own projects.
5. Four days in Austin that have transformed me. Seriously, I’m different now.

Grace in Small Things 58

Helen Jane — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 17:40:51 +0000

1. Steve Buscemi
2. Bocce starts in 37 days. Time to start fasting.
3. Baby’s cough getting quieter and quieter.
4. Cupboard full of clean mugs.
5. Clare’s birthday tomorrow.

Welcome, Nora Lea

Helen Jane — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:28:52 +0000

Well, we did it.
We done gave birth.
She’s healthy, she’s pink, she poops and sneezes and we couldn’t be happier.

I’ll probably write out more of my birth story later, but the quick version is –
1:00 am awoke with contractions
4:30 am went to hospital where I was dilated to 4
8:00 am still dilated to four and enjoying the fruits of back labor
1:00-2:00 pm I went from 5cm to 10cm dilation
2:00 pm Nora Lea entered the world with a full head of curly hair and some juicy lips

James and I wanted to go drug-free and I can’t believe I did.

I’d like to take all the credit, but I actually did call the anesthesiologist in.
Apparently Nora Lea wanted none of that.
We had to kick the poor woman out a few minutes later, and I gave birth.

Can you believe it? I’m a mom.

Also, because lots of people have asked, we’re registered at Amazon.

We’re also throwing a Meet the Baby party in August, to which you’re already invited.