Sophie's Story

We moved into this house about two years ago. There were some screws and a nail or two left in some of the walls so I put up a picture or two just to cover it up. I figured eventually we would hang all the pictures and I could move them around later. Then we got busy. There were places to go and things to do. Food to be cooked, dishes to be washed, laundry, vacuuming and so forth. The walls did not look too bad so there was no hurry to cover them up. A few months ago we got a large screen TV and an elliptical. We put them both in the finished family room in the basement. We wanted to make that room the "entertainment" room. We could watch TV and movies there. We decided to get a recliner for my husband and we got a smaller chair for me. It was time to fix the room up and make it more livable. That meant we needed to hang the pictures that were sitting in a corner since the day we moved in. Some of them were still wrapped in bubble wrap, others in cardboard sleeves. I had aske...

My husband and I decided it was time to get a laptop. Until now we did just fine sharing the one we have complete with 10 year old printer and keyboard. (Hey if it still works, use it). Since I'm writing more he thought it would be handy for me to have something portable. I could go to a coffee shop and write or I could go into the living room and write. He could also do some business stuff on it too. We decided if we could find one we liked at a decent price we would buy it. Well, earlier this week we found one. It came with a wireless mouse and its own backpack to carry it in. It had everything we wanted on it and a few things we don't know how to use. Yet. So we bought it. Now I have been using our old computer and my husband has taken over the laptop. That's just fine with me. Setting up a new computer is a pain in the neck and with a laptop I might not be able to resist the temptation to throw the thing out the window. The way we have it set up is that the main compute...

I've always told everyone that if you want to test your relationship with your partner buy something that needs assembly and assemble it together. If you can get through it and still be friends afterwards you're in good shape. A few weeks ago my husband and I bought an elliptical. Now, I could have paid the money to have them assemble and deliver it, but my thrifty side does not allow this. There was no reason why the two of us could not put this together ourselves. We had already put together a couple of chairs, two tables and a clothes closet. We survived the experience each time. Still, I was a little worried. I read the directions and follow each step carefully. My husband tends to look at the item and put it together the way he thinks it should go. Needless to say this leads to some clashes. The clashes get worse if I follow the directions and it doesn't make sense to him. I figured the elliptical would be fairly easy. All the parts are large and it's pretty...

Hello, I'm new here and just want to introduce myself. My name is Sophie and I live with my husband, step-daughter and two cats in the western part of St. Paul, Minnesota. I started writing a column that I've been sending to several friends of mine in May of 2008. I've been getting positive feedback from it so I thought I would also start posting them here for more than just my friends to enjoy. I write about whatever I want. sometimes it's something that happened that day or someone I met. Sometimes it will be thoughts that occur to me while I'm reading the news or watching a show. My goal is to entertain, inspire or maybe just make my readers think in a way they have not before. I welcome any comments and constructive thoughts you may have while reading. Enjoy!