Blog - Life in the DayngrZone

Take It Like A Mom

{ September 26, 2006 } - Trish

I’m going to coin a new phrase.

You know how everyone always says “Take It Like A Man”? Well, I’m going to coin a new phrase right here and now and that phrase is “Take It Like A Mom”!

I say this, and if you are a mom I’m sure you know where I am coming from here because there are just some things that a mom will do that a dad just won’t. Allow me to elaborate.

This evening Bella, my youngest, put something in her mouth, and in true Bella fashion tried to swallow it without chewing. Mr. Right was 1st on the scene and picked her up with every intention to root around in there and snatch it out.

However, just as he picked her up, she gagged and out came whatever it was – followed immediately by her last bottle of milky goodness. It was definitely and without a doubt going to land on his hand.

Now, in this split second, a decision has to be made. This is where (I believe) moms and dads differ. As I said, a decision has to be made. I know because this has actually happened to me. If you told me a few years ago that this would happen, I am sure I wouldn’t have believed you. If you told me this would happen and I would react the way I did I probably would have kicked you in the shin for being such a liar. But it happened so I know.

Back to the decision. In this split second a mother must decide, do you let your baby totally toss her cookies on you or everywhere else? So, in this millisecond you think, if I turn the baby outward and away from me I’m safe but then I have to clean up the baby, the carpet, strip the pack -n- play, wash the sheet, clean the pack -n- play, the toys and whatever else it hits. OR… I can become a human shield cleaning only myself and the baby thus “taking it like a mom”.

So what did Mr. Right do? As soon as the wet stuff hit his hand he freaked out and flung his hand hard and to the left, immediately flinging the yuckiness everywhere it never would have reached. Ugh. Man up! Er, I mean MOM UP! Geez, take it like a mom will ya?

A Miami Experiment in Cross Blogging

{ September 19, 2006 } - Trish

Having a thriving blogging community in Miami has created an atmosphere for creativity. So, we thought we’d try something we’ve never done before. We thought we’d take guest blogging to a whole new level. Enter cross bogging.

Cross blogging (aka Cross Blogination) is an event we’ve created in Miami and kicked off this week. Today, it’s looking like a total success. I heard there were some minor bumps in the road along the way (but hey, what would Miami be without a few bumps in the road?) and a kink here and there but it’s all been worked out and this experiment is in full swing. Have you stopped by and read them all yet? Well, get to it. I know I can be a little bossy but you’ll thank me later.

Did I mention we have our own Press Release too? Check it out on PR Web as well. Can you digg it?

The Bloggers

Critical Miami will blog on Miami Beach 411

greenerMIAMI will blog on Life in the DayngrZone, (formerly Dayngrous Discourse)

Miami Vegan will blog on Sex and the Beach

Stuck on the Palmetto will blog on Urban Paradise

A Mom, A Blog, and the Life In-Between will blog on White Dade

Transit Miami will blog on 26th Parallel

Klotz as in “Blood” will blog on Mango & Lime

Fanless will blog on Miami Vegan

26th Parallel will blog on Stuck on the Palmetto

Urban Paradise will blog on The Snap-Crackle-Pop-odopoulus Family

Hidden City will blog on All Purpose Dark

Freckle Face Girl will blog on Al Capone

Miami Beach 411 will blog on Discourse.net

Sex and the Beach will blog on Fanless

The Snap-Crackle-Pop-odopoulus Family will blog on Transit Miami

Dayngrous Discourse will blog on greenerMIAMI

Al Capone will blog on A Mom, A Blog, and the Life In-Between

Mango and Lime will blog on Klotz as in “Blood”

Discourse.net will blog on Critical Miami

All Purpose Dark will blog on Miami Gringo

Miami Gringo will blog on Hidden City

White Dade will blog on Freckle Face Girl

A huge thanks to the genius at greenerMiami who made this all possible. You may now take a bow. Check out all the assignments or surf the webring.

How to Become Fluent in Spanish in Just 3 Years

{ September 19, 2006 } - Trish

Without further ado, I give you the much-awaited, highly anticipated, soon to be duplicated Miami Cross Blogination event. Today Rebecca, of greenerMiami, and I are swapping blogs you can read her post below and mine at hers: greenerMiami. Enjoy!

As my assignment for Miami Cross-Blogination, this blog stumped me. No specific topic was required, just the suggestion that I write and not worry about what people think about it. That’s actually a tough assignment for me, as I constantly worry about what people think. In fact, that is what first impeded me from learning Spanish…which brings me to my selected topic: How to learn Spanish. Based, of course, on how I learned Spanish. Follow these simple guidelines and I guarantee you will become fluent!

First of all, I highly recommend falling head over heels in live with a Mexican. Then, about a year or so later, said Mexican will need to get transferred to Mexico. As you can not live without this person, you must follow. (Engagement not required.) You are not going to just go to Mexico and mooch off of the love of your life – you must find a job.

A job, you say? But I don’t speak Spanish! Who will hire me? Don’t let that hold you back. Sell your skills to the Mexican branch of your American company, as I did. Or, if all else fails, teach English.

Okay, so let’s do a quick re-cap. You now live and work in Mexico with your ‘honey’. Now I’ve got some bad news. You will spend an entire year in the country and not have much to show for it in the bilingual arena.

Why is that? Precisely for the reason that we started this conversation with – you are too concerned with what others think. You speak English at work with your bilingual co-workers. They speak it so well, you are embarrassed to take your terrible Spanish out for a test drive. To make matters worse, when out to dinner or shopping, you let your ‘love’ do all the talking.

But have no fear, you will not leave the country without mastering the language! The stars will need to align a little bit for this next one, but you will soon find yourself in the incredible position of planning your wedding! Congratulations to the both of you. You must be so happy! The wedding will be in Mexico, you say? Perfect. Sounds exactly like what we need!

Here’s the deal. You need to plan the entire wedding by yourself. Pick a date about eight months out. Arrange for flowers, food, location, dresses, and music. Yes, you will fumble. You will have to use hand gestures, pictures, and Spanglish. And guess what? You’ll mess up. A lot. You know what else? People will be kind.

You will learn all sorts of technical wedding words like bouquet and veil. But you will also get a lot more comfortable with the language in general. Keep this up, and by your wedding day, you will be almost fluent.

So, do you have to get married to become fluent in Spanish? No. But I would feel bad about leaving someone at the alter like that!

The reason you learned Spanish, of course, was because YOU HAD TO. That, in my opinion, is the only key to learning a language. (And I mean really becoming fluent.) Necessity.

There is ever more good news: You will cut your learning time in half when you stop giving a damn about what others think.

Suerte!

Check out all the assignments or surf the webring. Whatever rocks your world!

Cross Blogination Countdown

{ September 18, 2006 } - Trish

Miami bloggers are hosting a blog swap! Only 1 more day until Miami’s 1st Cross Blogination. On September 19th I’ll be posting on the greenerMiami blog and Rebecca of greenerMiami will be posting here. Of course, you won’t want to miss out on all the other cross blogination bloginators so be sure to check out all the assignments and stop by and read the posts. Talk about creating buzz! It is the hottest, hippest thing to hit the blogosphere since, well, blogs!

Miami Cross Blogination

{ September 15, 2006 } - Trish

Have you heard the latest? Miami Bloggers will be shaking things up participating in the first ever, Miami Cross Blogination! You didn’t? Man are you out of the loop.

Here is how it is going to go down, on September 19, 2006 some of us, way-too-cool-for-our-own good, Miami bloggers are gonna mix it up and switch blogs for a day. Each blogger participating will have a guest writer post on his or her blog and be a guest writer on someone else’s. This should provide for an entertaining read, mass hysteria and confusion and turn you on to some blogs you might not have known about before this monumental event.

The blogging assignments are as follows:

26th Parallel will blog on Stuck on the Palmetto

Al Capone will blog on A Mom, A Blog, and the Life In-Between

All Purpose Dark will blog on Miami Gringo

A Mom, A Blog, and the Life In-Between will blog on White Dade

Critical Miami will blog on Miami Beach 411

Dayngrous Discourse will blog on greenerMIAMI

Discourse.net will blog on Critical Miami

Fanless will blog on Miami Vegan

Freckle Face Girl will blog on Al Capone

greenerMIAMI will blog on Dayngrous Discourse

Hidden City will blog on All Purpose Dark

Klotz as in “Blood” will blog on Mango & Lime

Mango and Lime will blog on Klotz as in “Blood”

Miami Beach 411 will blog on Discourse.net

Miami Gringo will blog on Hidden City

Miami Vegan will blog on Sex and the Beach

Sex and the Beach will blog on Fanless

Stuck on the Palmetto will blog on Urban Paradise

The Snap-Crackle-Pop-odopoulus Family will blog on Transit Miami

Transit Miami will blog on 26th Parallel

Urban Paradise will blog on The Snap-Crackle-Pop-odopoulus Family

White Dade will blog on Freckle Face Girl

Be sure to stop by and check out the guest content here along with the blogs listed above.

Attention Miami Bloggers: Cross Blogination

{ September 6, 2006 } - Trish

Calling all Miami bloggers! In the past month, we’ve been working on creating more of a “blogging community” here in Miami. Today I’d like to announce the first-ever Miami Cross Blogination! On September 19, several Miami bloggers will do a bit of a switch-a-roo. Each blog will feature a post written by another blogger in the group. The post will be related to the blog on which it will be featured. It’s basically going to be a fun, silly day in which we can use our blogs to create a bit of confusion, mischief, or maybe just great new content by a guest blogger!

Who’s Participating

Blogs on board so far (please click at your own risk, some blogs go beyond the PG-13 rating that we have here on gM): Critical Miami, greenerMIAMI, Miami Vegan, Stuck on the Palmetto, A Mom, A Blog, and a Life in Between, Transit Miami, “Klotz” as in “Blood”, Fanless, 26th Parallel, Urban Paradise, Hidden City, Freckle Face Girl, Miami Beach 411 (new!), Sex and the Beach, The Snap-Crackle-Pop-odopoulus Family (new!), Life in the DayngrZone (new!).

Register to Participate

If you are a Miami based blogger and are interested, please comment at greenerMiami or email [greenermiami@gmail.com] and we’ll get you on the list. Deadline to sign-up is Sunday, September 10, 2006.

Cuban Food and Much Ado About Nothing

{ July 11, 2006 } - Trish

My friend, Diana, came over this weekend and we chatted for hours. She arrived shortly after 1 PM and stayed until about 10 PM or so. Boy, can we girls talk. Of course, we were busy too, we did laundry, had lunch and later dinner too. It had been a long time since we had the chance to sit and chat so it was nice to do just that. Of course, we talk on the phone all the time we just hadn’t had the pleasure of each other’s company live and in-person since right before Christmas. She is a busy girl!

We talked about old friends and old flames and our upcoming high school reunion and how it seems that everyone is coming out of the woodwork as the date draws near. We talked about relationships parental and romantic and about traveling. She recently visited Cuba and had much to tell about the conditions there. Tragic is the word that comes to mind. I can’t wait to see the story that the photos tell. Maybe she will let me share one or two here.

I’m trying to convince her to create her own bloggity blog because she is too much for just the spoken word I tell you. She must also be in print somewhere I say. The jury is still out on whether or not she will delve into this cyber world (since she spends all day on a computer at her big corporate job at a big fortune 500 company) but I am hopeful.

Cuban Food and Other Tasty Treats

Did I mention we had Cuban food for dinner? No? Well, we did, and it was from my Fav-o-rite restaurant Molina’s Ranch House. I know, it doesn’t sound very Cubano but it is. I assure you. Let me tell you what was on the ordered list to feed all five of us (salivate at will): a double order of Churrasco well done, Tostones (fried green plantains), Tostones Rellenos (tostones stuffed with shrimp in a red sauce), Morro (Rice w/Black Beans aka black Rice), 2 orders of Arroz Blanco (White Rice) with Frijoles Negros (Black Beans), 1 Baby Palomilla steak and some Maduros (Fried Plantains). We all ate like rock stars and then if that weren’t bad enough, Mr. Right commented he was having ice cream cravings and he must have his favorite from Cold Stone! So he lovingly drove miles away to get us all some. When he returned, over an hour later, our tummies were ready for the sweet, sweet goodness that only Cold Stone can deliver. Diana never had Cold Stone so she was pleasantly surprised. She tried my favorite, Birthday Cake Remix. DEE-LICIOUS!

She got to sit in on the bedtime ritual here @ our house. I tucked the Dayngrous Duo into their little beds and read their favorite books to them while D sat in the rocker observing. Lola was cooing at her and Charlie was finishing the lines in the story jumping in as I cued him. I would say “Oh the wonderful sounds Mr. Brown can do. He can sound like a cow he can go…” and I would look at him and he would chime in “MOO”. It was adorable and he does it every night and every night it is just as amazing and I am just as amazed. Yes, life IS good.

If there are other types of Cuban food you’re dying to know about I suggest visiting the 3 Guys From Miami website.

My Favorite Local Cuban Restaurant

Molina’s Ranch Restaurant
4100 East 8th Avenue
Miami, FL 33125

Phone: (305) 687-0008

The Real Miami Heat

{ July 10, 2006 } - Trish

It’s another blistering hot day in Miami. It feels like the Miami heat is going to kill me. Each day is hotter than the one before. The weather channel says it’s 89⁰ but that it feels like 95⁰. I say it is 95⁰ and it feels like 105⁰.

It isn’t just the heat though it is the humidity that really gets you. At 5 AM it was 82⁰ degrees. Who wants to get dressed up in weather so hot that it could melt the makeup on your face? Oh, and do you dare wear pantyhose in this heat?

Here at home, the AC is on full blast and it still feels like a sauna with the heat beating down on all these windows. The blinds are closed but they offer no relief. Sure, I know it could be worse. I could have no AC at all but that is of little consolation to me while I review my Florida Power and Light bill and still feel as hot as a tamale on a skillet in a Little Havana.

Another Kind of Miami Heat

Sure, Miami has its unbearable heat and humidity but ah, the spectacular views, our many cultures mixing together, and the divine food. Where else can you talk to people in English, Spanish, Creole, French and Italian then watch celebrities stroll by, and later have one kick-ass Bistec Milanesa with its many side dishes and share a carafe’ of sangria at Gloria Estefan’s restaurant while chatting with friends looking out over South Beach? That’s the real Miami Heat. The culture, diversity, and variety of people, places, music and food.

I’m trying to remind myself of all of this while I sit inside my air-conditioned home complaining about this Miami heat and how it feels like I am slowly roasting in the sun on Miami Beach.

eMail Our Military For Support

{ May 1, 2006 } - Trish

dayngrzone-emIl-our-military-support-lifestyle

The great German poet, Goethe, said to his generation: “What you have inherited from your fathers, earn over again for yourselves or it will not be yours.” We inherited freedom and because of that, there are some who seem unaware that freedom has to be re-made and re-earned in each generation. What a shame.

My Military Support Organization

I wanted to blog about my organization eMailOurMilitary for several reasons. The first being because it is an amazing way to support our troops both at home and abroad. Regardless of your political views, our military service members deserve our respect, support & encouragement. Their unselfish dedication keeps Americans securely enjoying life and liberty as we know it. It is so important for our troops to know they are being supported.

The second reason I wanted to write about eMailOurMilitary (eMOM) is that I am hoping others that might not know about us will join the effort to support our troops.

Third, I wanted to write about eMOM is because I would really like to meet other bloggers who support our troops, service members who are blogging, and military families out here in the blog-o-sphere and those bloggers who share my interests.

The last reason I wanted to do a little write up here is that I friggin love eMOM. It was born out of love for my country and my military. I wanted to do something after 9/11. Who didn’t right? Unfortunately or not, my job prevented me from tearing off to NY and pitching in physically so I had to come up with something else I could do right then and there. Immediately. Something positive. I had this unbelievable need an unimaginable drive to do something, anything to counteract what had just happened; something I could wrap my brain around and really send out to the karmic forces.

Supporting our Troops

Shortly after the events of 9/11 the DoD canceled Any Service Member mail and I had the idea for a safer alternative. eMail of course! It was a no brainer really. Just about everyone in the military has a military email address and every military unit sets up a computer system. After all, the internet was originally created for military purposes. So it seemed like a natural progression to go from mail to email.

I can’t even begin to tell you how much blood, sweat, and tears I’ve put into eMOM or the countless hours. eMOM is truly a labor of love. I’m sure this won’t be my last post about eMail Our Military and what I’m doing or what project I’ve completed or whatever else I want to get out. It is my life, my love, and my passion.

Please feel free to blog about eMOM yourself and link to the site or this post or my blog. Anything you can do to help our troops get the support they deserve and need, please do it.

So here I am, 5 years, 4 moves, 2 babies and 1 military man later still going strong. Still committed and still Semper Fi!

I hope you will take the time to check eMailOurMilitary out. It is a wonderful cause and as I said earlier, it isn’t about politics. It is about supporting our guys and gals who have signed up to serve our country.

In The Beginning: DayngrZone

{ April 1, 2006 } - Trish

Way, way, back in 1997 I created DayngrZone as my little way of expressing myself; my place on the web to rant and rave. I was sick and tired of the Fortune 500 bigwigs telling me what I could and couldn’t say and force-feeding me their ideas of what my opinion should be. Now, here we years later and ranting and raving on the internet is the next hottest thing. I was cutting edge then and I’m cutting edge now. Some things never change. Speaking of change… I was reading some of those old blog posts on MS FrontPage’s Forum and had to laugh to myself. The die-hard posters, the friends, the fans, the freaks – and those who were just hoping for a chance to be the next flavor. They were all there. Ah, but where are they now? Some found a way to keep in touch, some faded away and some, well, let’s just say I’m glad they’re gone.

There are people I miss, friends I will never forget, and some I still hope to hear from. Somehow our busy lives have made us lose track of one another though I can’t imagine how since I’m everywhere as Dayngr, and Google rules the web! Nonetheless, here I am posting my very first blog post, on this new blog platform. Let’s see where it leads…

Related posts:

The Bloggers

Find Out More

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The blogging assignments are as follows:

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Who’s Participating

Register to Participate

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Cuban Food and Other Tasty Treats

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Another Kind of Miami Heat

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My Military Support Organization

Supporting our Troops

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