Real Simple Magazine just published the results of its first study on how readers use and save time.

Gotta admire the reader who, asked how to make time for what matters most, announced that her family goes “unplugged” one weekend a month. We’re not just talking about unplugging the TV. They also unplug the phones and the computer and turn down social engagements. For an entire weekend. They use the time to hang out with each other.

Would this be wonderful? Or something like the self-inflicted punishment that can come with grounding a teen-ager? Wondering how many families would be able to pull this off.

I wish I could say I’d bought nothing but “Forever” stamps. Fofty-four cents now and enough postage to mail a letter forever.

Instead, I’m trying to use up all those 39-centers, 37-centers, 34-centers and 33-centers and all the one, two and three cent stamps that I bought to get them up to the next level. I’m scratching my head trying to figure out what the ones without a face value are actually worth.

I tried returning them to the post office, but the US Postal Service wasn’t buying. And so now, on top of everything else in my unbalanced life, are little envelopes of postage that must travel in armies to make the journey from my house to yours.

I suspect a nationwide search would find enough of these little fragments to pay off the national debt. Anyone know of a charity that takes them?

Sidelined for awhile with foot surgery, I’ve taken in more than my usual share (close to zero) of live TV.

It was a surprise to discover that I was inspired! Not by the programs so much but a series of testimonials ads featuring the luminaries on MSNBC – Chris Matthews, Rachel Maddow and Andrea Mitchell

Like their politics or not, it’s hard not to be inspired by the fire with which they describe their passion for their work: the thrill of asking just the right question, the joy of digging for more, the thrill of detecting dissembling.

Journalism isn’t for everyone. Neither is politics. But passion can be. So I’m working on my own two-minute ad, just for me. Not done yet, but some likely components – the thrill of finding just the right word, the fun of making someone laugh…. You get the idea.

What’s YOUR sound byte?

At the risk of being trite, I’m going to join the chorus of those who’ve noticed that it’s really inconvenient (and fairly dangerous) to hobble around on crutches following surgery and salute those who manage to do this on a regular basis.

Nothing like a little foot surgery to make me appreciate my usual (though yes, ill-conceived) ability to do six things at once. Testing out the premise that it’s better to focus on one thing at a time, I’ve read two books in four days and filled six garbage bags with documents accumulated in office drawers since 2005 and happily retrieved the instructions to a previously “non-working” radio. Who knew the “on” button was in the back?

No doubt staying in one place is helping me focus. Now, if I could only keep my thoughts so well tethered….