Laurie, Author at Laurie Smithwick

The site formerly known as sk*rt

By LauriekirtsyNo Comments

Sk*rt is over. Yesterday. Old News. No, we’re not shutting it down, even though that’s what some people might like. Just the opposite. We’re aiming for bigger and better, starting fresh, onward and upward. A fabulous new name. With less hyphen! And in true sk*rt fashion, we’ve decided to do it with a great big contest — The What’s in a Name contest — and turn the naming decision over to our clever readers (which hopefully includes you!). And y’all — the prizes are big. A fancy new cord-free/hands-free phone. A Magic Bullet blender/food processor. And a free BlogHer Registration….

May 1, 2008

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Bonfire of the Overworked

By Lauriefunny ha ha, thoughts

Wow. And just like that, 2 months passes. By way of explanation, here’s a daydream: Who’s with me? And, more importantly, who’s bringing the marshmallows? xo, L

April 14, 2008

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Separated at Birth?

By Lauriephotos, thought provoking18 Comments

Are Hillary Clinton and Partridge Family mom, Shirley Jones separated at birth?

February 22, 2008

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I’ll Stop the World and Melt with You

By Lauriemonkeys, thoughts6 Comments

Happy Day After Valentine’s Day friends. Hope yours was filled with love — the exact kind of love you were looking for, whatever that may be. Lucy and Zoe celebrated Friendship Day at school yesterday. Each student brought in valentine friendship cards to hand out to the other students — one for every kid in class. For Lucy that meant 23 cards. For Zoe, 22. “Heck!” I said, back when we first got the notices about Friendship Day. “Why make plain ole cards? Why not make 45 hearts out of

February 14, 2008

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The mind of a 16 year old

By Lauriethoughts8 Comments

When I was in the 11th grade I lived in France for the year, on a sort of exchange program. 60 of us Americans lived with French families and went to school in Rennes, a smallish town in Brittany, 3 hours west of Paris. I was deep in the throes of being a teenager and life was full of extremes anyway, all highs and lows with nothing in between. But living in another country, learning a new language, thousands of miles from my family, every day was downright fecund with potential adventure. The amount I learned that year still awes…

February 5, 2008

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Now it’s on

By Lauriefunny ha ha, kirtsy, video3 Comments

Remember how Barack Obama invited me to dinner? And then wanted to be Twitter pals? And then Michelle found out about us? Well now Michelle and I have competition. Lookit: Can’t see the embedded video? Here it is. + + + + + + + Getting excited about Super Tuesday? And Fat Tuesday? Hey, it’s Super Fat Tuesday! We’re celebrating over at sk*rt this week with a new contest: The Super Fat Tuesday Contest. Basically it’s a two-step process: 1. You commemorate Super Tuesday by voting for 10 stories on sk*rt (and in your primary if you’re lucky enough to…

February 4, 2008

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Hyperbole, as spoken by 5 yr olds

By Lauriefunny ha ha, monkeys, overheard8 Comments

(I) Zoe: “Mama. In school yesterday we watched a movie about Philippe Petit. Me: “Who is Philippe Petit?” Zoe: “He walked on a tightrope between two big buildings. Did you know him when you lived in New York?” Me: “Sadly, no.” Lucy: “Did you know The Snowy Day won a gold medal for best drawing? Really. It did. It’s on the book. A gold medal. It’s called the Cawldercat.” Me: “Yes. I love that book. It’s been one of my favorites since I was a little kid.” Pause. Zoe: “Philippe Petit won a Cawldercat Medal too.” + + + +…

January 19, 2008

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Lost

By Lauriemonkeys, photos, thoughts8 Comments

Things have been hopping chez Upside Up — we’ve lost our first tooth!! As the 2nd of 3 possible shoes drop in the fallout from Lucy’s accident a couple of years ago, the dentist had to wiggle Lucy’s top front tooth out on Tuesday. She was very brave, and now she’s very very proud. I’ve caught her a couple of times standing in front of the mirror, smiling at herself. And she’s fascinated by the way the hole in her mouth has altered the way she speaks (or “thpeakth” as it would now be said). And the gold Sacagawea Dollar…

January 11, 2008

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Clearing house

By Lauriekirtsy, monkeys, photos, thoughts7 Comments

Whoa — where has the time gone? Life, as I believe I’ve whined before, has resembled an avalanche lately. And since my little blog carries the smallest return-on-investment of my many projects, it has been relegated to the back burner, of the neighbor’s stove, across the street, diagonally. And it’s a tiny old 2-burner stove that takes forever to heat anything, if it works at all. Which I’m not sure it does. Sorry. It isn’t you, it’s me. I swear. I’ve missed you though. And I think about you often. And I’ve been stockpiling some things I wanted to share…

January 11, 2008

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ZOOB revisted

By Lauriethoughts7 Comments

Back in 2005, Bob and I actually wrote a note on all the holiday cards we sent out. My handwriting is angular and choppy, and when I wrote “best wishes for all good things in 2006” about 100 times, Bob pointed out that it actually looked like it said “best wishes for all good things in zoob.” Which it did. This year we didn’t actually personalize all our holiday cards (apologies to those of you who received them and felt slighted by the impersonal pre-printed generic holiday message), but the few I did said something along the lines of “here’s…

December 29, 2007

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