{Originally published on I am Bossy}

After fourteen seasons and twenty-two Emmys, the popular medical drama E.R. is planning its final episodes which will air next February, prompting Bossy to say, “Wait—E.R. is still on?”

It’s been many years since Bossy watched this show—but in case you’ve never seen it, here is everything you need to know:

Originally published on SoapboxMom

Have you heard John Mayer play the guitar? Better yet, have you been lucky enough to attend one of his concerts so that you could actually watch him play the guitar? Ahhh, grace in motion.

Before going to his concert this summer, I listened to his music, but didn’t truly appreciate it. I mean, it was nice to have playing in the background, nice to sing along with occasionally, but didn’t exactly make me sit down and breathe it in, you know what I mean?

Then I saw him perform live. Oh. my. goodness…

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Originally published on Missives from Suburbia

Before we left for Egypt, more than one friend called it the “trip of a lifetime”. Between you and me, I smirked to myself just a bit, because I’ve been fortunate to travel to incredible places all over the world, and I’ve had many trips that I would classify as “trips of a lifetime”.

I’m not going to back down completely – I still think I’m a lucky, lucky girl when it comes to my travel experiences, and I’ve had many “once in a lifetime” experiences – but standing in the shadow of the Pyramid of Khufu, the only remaining member of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, filled cynical little me with awe. Hubby and I kept repeating, “We’re at the pyramids. We’re at the pyramids.” It’s so surreal that we had to remind ourselves we were actually there.

Within minutes, we were climbing the pyramid’s external stairs, leaning and stepping on stones that were thousands and thousands of years old and worn smooth and shiny from the touch of countless hands and feet. Stooping and crawling, we scaled the interior passageway to the main chamber.

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Originally published on Thursday Drive.

Yesterday , I promised you a look at the list of players I would choose for my fantasy poker table.

If you click on the image below, you’ll get a better look at it (you’ll want one). In fact, when you get to the image on Photobucket, you can click it once more for the largest possible image.

Then come back here, and I’ll tell you my reasons for choosing each of them. Though, really, they hardly need explaining. (My only technical requirement was that they already know how to play poker.)

All photos borrowed from Google Images

The Lineup, by seat #

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Originally published on The Suburban Scrawl

Let’s face it: teenagers are good at making others, especially their parents, nervous. If you’re the parent of a young child, you are probably dreading the teen years because of all the horror stories you’ve heard from others, not to mention the memory of what you did at that age. In fact, the Teen Years are nothing to be scared of. All you need are a few tools to help you navigate the road, including a sense of humor and lots of patience!

My two teen-aged boys are great kids, and my husband and I are very proud of the consistency with which we’ve raised them. One of the most successful strategies we’ve used with our boys is to let them know what we expect in advance and sometimes in writing (you never know when you’re going to need proof of policy; also, it’s best to close those loopholes from the get-go!).

We used this strategy for the first time when we set up our older son with his cell phone on his fourteenth birthday. Unlike most of his friends, who were gifted with a no-obligation cell hone by their parents a couple of years before, our son knew that it was absolutely a big deal when we decided he was ready for one. When he read the rules we prescribed for his cell phone, he was – in a very un-teen like manner – seemingly relieved. A teen from another planet? No. Just a great kid.

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