Go to the bathroom before reading

My sister sent me an email with a subject line of ''Go to the bathroom' and a link to the below website.
http://www.tamponcrafts.com/

Good thing I heeded her advice or I so would have peed my pants laughing.

Etiquette for house guests

I want to preface this by saying, I am not the queen of etiquette.

In fact, I would venture to say that in most things I am far too casual -- party etiquette ... RSVPs, invitations, etc. I just am not that organized.

However, with regard to house guests, I have some basic expectations of appropriate behavior.

1. I expect my house guests to give me a general schedule indicating when they will be leaving/returning to my home. It does not need to be specific, and I understand it could change, but I think it is only fair that you tell me if you are going to be walking in my door at 2 AM so that I am not awoken by the strange noises thinking burglars are entering my home.
2. If I prepare a meal while you are at my home and you don't already have plans to go out, I expect that you will sit down and eat with me. For example, if I get up on a weekday and make waffles specially because there are house guests, and the house guests get up and say they don't have plans for breakfast, but won't eat my waffles, and then later decide to go out to breakfast .... Call me crazy, but I will be offended.
3. I expect my house guests to participate in at least one activity with me while they are my guest -- eat a meal with me, play a game, or at least invite me to participate in one of their planned activities (sight-seeing, etc.) even if I am not able to attend due to my schedule.
4. I expect a thank-you. At a minimum say it -- better to send a thank you note after the stay. For close relatives, I don't expect a hostess gift, but if you are a 'friend' or a friends relative ... then the appropriate gesture is to offer some small token of appreciation.

I think these are pretty basic expectations. If you aren't willing to follow through with these minimum requests, then please, my home is not Motel 6. If you just want a bed to sleep in, then get a hotel room.

Operation NICE

I like this blog:
http://www.operationnice.com/

I added it to my blogs I'm following and would encourage you to do the same. The author posts almost every day and it is a good reminder for me to reach out of my shell and be nice to the people I come across in this world.

Lately I have been feeling particularly uncharitable .... Examples: making snide remarks about tacky wedding outfits, picking fights with my dear husband about stupid crap that doesn't really matter, becoming quickly impatient or angered at stupid people or people who are intentionally nasty, etc.

None of those things help make me a better person. And they definitely don't make me a nicer person.

So, I guess I will just have to keep working on suppressing my bad habits and encouraging my nice ones to flourish. Probably going to be a lot of hard work still to come in that arena.

Check out the site and let me know what you think.

The world can always handle a few more good turns.