Just Getting Started

Well, here we are.  My first attempt at blogging.  So far I haven't gotten a rash or anything.  That's a good sign, right?

In case you're wondering about the title, I arrived at it through a painstaking series of focus groups (I asked my friends on facebook), opinion surveys (I texted my clever friend Wendy), and reading thousands (okay, 15) of newspapers, magazines, and other blogs.  After all that, the title came when I went whining to The Current Husband (Mark) that I couldn't think of anything and he looked up from his computer and announced: "What about Brain Surgery on a Budget?" Then he went back to whatever it was he was doing, maybe forecasting for Q4, checking the stock portfolio, or catching up on Chicago Bears Daily (he's in total denial about the lockout).  Who knew I was married to such a genius?

Confession: I'm not really all savvy about the blogsphere.  Here's what I do know, just from the small amount of noodling I've done.

• There are a lot of folks out there who think they're writers but who seem to have skipped the whole Grammar 101 stuff in school.  Someday we'll go over all my pet peeves about the Common Mistakes of Bad Writing, but not today.  (My friends know what I'm talking about, because I'm pretty annoying about pointing it out.)
• I'm also alarmed at the plethora of periods outside of quotation marks.  STOP IT.  NOW!
• I love the people who use lots of photos to illustrate their point.  I fear I'll not have the time or talent to do this, and that makes me a bit sad.
• There are bloggers who can mine the rich depths of their family life for material.  I, however, may be a bit handcuffed by my dear children (Catharine and Joe, particularly Catharine) who are both more than a little embarrassed by me.  However, if I can't use this blog to help people Avoid The Mistakes I've Made in Parenting, then why, I ask, was I put here in the first place?
• I have no particular talent or interest I'm trying to write about or sell.  Well, unless someone wants to hire me as a writer--I do actually do that for fun and profit occasionally.  But I feel a little inadequate when I see my friend Cathy Wall's blog (Room RX) and Maria Andrew's babyKAMP blog, because they're actually adding some value to the world.  I fear I'm just white noise.

Well, kids, here we go.  I blame every one of you knuckleheads who came up to me at a Mothers' Guild meeting or a football game or a cocktail party and said, "You should write a blog."  Now, I'm sorry to say, you'll have to read it.

That'll show you.