I’ve probably mentioned before that I’m a big fan of the show Community. So it was pretty disappointing when NBC recently announced that it wasn’t going to be on the midseason schedule (replaced by 30 Rock’s return). Community hasn’t been cancelled (yet), and my understanding is that the rest of the season will still air at some undetermined time, but things aren’t looking good for the Greendale gang. The show has had terrible ratings since the beginning, and even though I refuse to believe that the current ratings system accurately reflects the popularity of a show, that’s what the network cares about. It’s actually amazing that the show has made it to Season 3 (thank God NBC is such a disaster).
So that being said, you can imagine how great it was Monday morning as Mrs. and I watched The Today Show and a representative from TV Guide Magazine was on to announce the winner of the second annual “Fan Favorites” cover contest and the winner was . . . well of course, Community! Now I realize there were only ten contestants and none were the highest rated shows on TV, but Community still beat the likes of Person of Interest (which draws something like 10 million more viewers each week) and a couple of other shows that get double the viewers (according to the Nielsen ratings). So even though they obviously aren’t watching the show, I’m glad so many people came out and voted for the TV Guide Magazine cover. Either that or the 96 Community fans just voted over and over again.
So suck it Vampire Diaries, back to fantasyland Game of Thrones, and go plot your revenge . . . uh . . Revenge. And of course, congratulations to Community. Now here's hoping this leads to NBC deciding against all odds to renew the show for a fourth season (we all know they don't have any better options). Although leave it to NBC to cancel a show after it wins a popularity contest.
November 29, 2011
November 28, 2011
November 25, 2011
Outdoorsy Chic
This month in InStyle, there was a section on how to wear the new "Outdoorsy Chic" trend.
Usually I skip over these sections if it's a trend I don't ever see myself wearing (pulling off). I am not outdoorsy and have no desire to look outdoorsy. But, this time I read it.
In the you don't have to spend a fortune snapshot, this was tip #1:
"Go to the source: L.L. Bean, Lands' End, and Pendleton. Search online for Baja surfer hoodies or a Hudson's Bay blanket to wear as a poncho."
Hold on. Did they just tell me to wear a blanket? Outside of my house? As an article of clothing.
I reread and then googled "Hudson's Bay blanket" to be positive I understood what exactly this was.
Yes, I got it right the first time.
A blanket as clothing.
Side-eye to you InStyle.
November 22, 2011
Read This!: The Secret History of the Pink Carnation
By Lauren Willig
I have seen this book for years and have picked it up and put it back repeatedly but finally at the Borders blow out sale, I snatched it up for a few dollars. Coincidentally, my Aunt Greeney mentioned to me in passing that she was reading this. She enjoyed it and recommended it so I have been looking forward to this read.
This is a story within a story.
Starting out in modern day London, Eloise is doing her dissertation on English spies in Napoleonic France. She already knows the real identities of the Scarlet Pimpernel and the Purple Gentian but wants to unmask the Pink Carnation. One of the descendants of the Purple Gentian allows Eloise to read some old family documents. In these documents is the second story…
Half-French Amy Balcourt moved to England at age 6 with her English mother to escape the French Revolution leaving her father, eventually the victim of the guillotine, and her brother Edouard in France. She grows up with her mother’s family in the English countryside dreaming of becoming a spy who will avenge her father’s (and subsequently her mother's) death. Her more sensible cousin Jane is her partner in crime.
When she is 20, Amy’s brother sends for her to come to France. Taking Jane with her, she commences her plan to meet and join the league of the Purple Gentian. Soon she is embroiled in a mix of espionage and romance.
I highly enjoyed this book and it made me laugh out loud more than once. The dialect is not quite historically accurate but eh, I think it improved the tone of the story as it reminded me of a spoof on serious spy novels. I am very much looking forward to the next book in the series. It is already on my Christmas list.
PS Scarlet pimpernels and purple gentians are flowers. Who knew? Wikipedia did.
I have seen this book for years and have picked it up and put it back repeatedly but finally at the Borders blow out sale, I snatched it up for a few dollars. Coincidentally, my Aunt Greeney mentioned to me in passing that she was reading this. She enjoyed it and recommended it so I have been looking forward to this read.
This is a story within a story.
Starting out in modern day London, Eloise is doing her dissertation on English spies in Napoleonic France. She already knows the real identities of the Scarlet Pimpernel and the Purple Gentian but wants to unmask the Pink Carnation. One of the descendants of the Purple Gentian allows Eloise to read some old family documents. In these documents is the second story…
Half-French Amy Balcourt moved to England at age 6 with her English mother to escape the French Revolution leaving her father, eventually the victim of the guillotine, and her brother Edouard in France. She grows up with her mother’s family in the English countryside dreaming of becoming a spy who will avenge her father’s (and subsequently her mother's) death. Her more sensible cousin Jane is her partner in crime.
When she is 20, Amy’s brother sends for her to come to France. Taking Jane with her, she commences her plan to meet and join the league of the Purple Gentian. Soon she is embroiled in a mix of espionage and romance.
I highly enjoyed this book and it made me laugh out loud more than once. The dialect is not quite historically accurate but eh, I think it improved the tone of the story as it reminded me of a spoof on serious spy novels. I am very much looking forward to the next book in the series. It is already on my Christmas list.
PS Scarlet pimpernels and purple gentians are flowers. Who knew? Wikipedia did.
November 20, 2011
Size Quandary
The November issue of Real Simple magazine showed off this sweater from aerie. I like it so I decided to order it.
Now, I have never bought anything from aerie but I know it has a teen type demographic so before I ordered my normal size, I looked at the size chart and compared that to a store I frequently patronize. The XS measurements matched between the two so I ordered an XS.
When it arrived, I pulled it out and thought, "I didn't realize this sweater was cropped???" I tried it on and it hit me right at the natural waist (not the most flattering and I would constantly be pulling it down) but it did fit so I was thinking I would just keep it rather than deal with returning it. It bothered me though because I thought said item would be longer and because I can't just let things go, I dug out the original Real Simple article. And lo and behold, the sweater was significantly longer on the lady in that pic.
So I ordered the small and thought I would compare the fits.
When I pulled the small out of its bag, the length of the arms and body looked more proportional. I tried it on and it was a lot longer hitting me at the hip. Comparing the two (XS on top of S and lined up exactly at the top):
Huh? Can someone explain to me why the XS is so much shorter than the S when the arms are the same length? This seems so weird to me. I have seen a difference in the length of pants or skirts grow as the size increased but only slightly and it is always mentioned in the description of the clothing item. At 5'3", I usually appreciated the shorter length in the smaller sizes. But, nothing on aerie mentioned this much of a difference in length between the XS and S. I even went back and checked before writing this post.
Do teen XS girls have significantly shorter torsos than their S counterparts?
Maybe I am too old to understand how this sizing works? I am in my 30s and no longer a teen. I guess I will go buy my next clothing item from Talbots.
November 18, 2011
That Old Cape Magic
That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo didn’t quite live up to the expectation I had after how much I enjoyed Russo’s Empire Falls earlier this year. Maybe that’s what you get for starting with the Pulitzer Prize winning novel. That Old Cape Magic wasn’t bad by any means, but not particularly memorable either. That could also have played a role in why it’s taken over a month for me to write this review.
Jack Griffin is a fifty-something writing professor in New England. When the book starts he’s attending the wedding of one his daughter’s friends, his own marriage is starting to fall apart and he’s dealing with the loss of his father. Flash forward a year and now he’s attending his daughter’s wedding, he’s separated from his wife, and dealing with the loss of his mother. All of this turmoil causes Jack to look back at how he got here. How his own parents’ failed relationship (they ended up divorced) affected him, and where he went wrong in his own marriage and in his (not always so civil) interaction with his in-laws. And while this description might make it seem like a depressing story, there’s actually plenty of humor injected into all of the events.
My biggest complaint about the novel is that it seemed more like a screenplay for a made for TV movie (perhaps intentionally since Jack used to be a Hollywood screenwriter?). It was a relatively short book and a good “beach” read (I read none of it on a beach), but it was a bit clichéd for my taste.
One of the things I enjoyed about the book, though, was (what I’ll call) a theme of the story, and that was the idea that we all remember or interpret the events from our past differently. We see it with how Jack remembers scenes from his childhood vs. how his mother explains those same events. It’s there in how Jack views his in-laws vs. how they’re revealed as the story progresses. And we also see it in Jack and Joy’s differing viewpoints about parts of their marriage and what caused them to travel down the path towards their separation. It all made me remember why I thought Russo was such a good writer in the first place. And it’s a good thing too, because I have two more of his books on the shelf, which, like this book, were Borders store closing purchases (I know this because there is a big black marker strike through the UPC barcode – no returns!).
One last thing. Before I decided on That Old Cape Magic for my next read, I briefly decided to go with Charles Dickens’ The Pickwick Papers, which I had downloaded to my Kindle for free, mostly because my previous read, Drood, inspired me to try a Dickens novel (I hadn’t read one since high school). Well, I started it on the train home one day and it was tough going. In fact, I noticed that after two days I was still only at 2% complete (again, this is on my Kindle). So I went to amazon.com to see how long the book actually was (something I admittedly should have done earlier) only to find out that the Penguin Classics paperback edition is 953 pages! Um, so yeah, I set that book aside. Perhaps another time Mr. Dickens, perhaps another time. I just have a few dozen books that moved ahead in the queue though.
Next Up: The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova (I’m already 500 pages in!)
Jack Griffin is a fifty-something writing professor in New England. When the book starts he’s attending the wedding of one his daughter’s friends, his own marriage is starting to fall apart and he’s dealing with the loss of his father. Flash forward a year and now he’s attending his daughter’s wedding, he’s separated from his wife, and dealing with the loss of his mother. All of this turmoil causes Jack to look back at how he got here. How his own parents’ failed relationship (they ended up divorced) affected him, and where he went wrong in his own marriage and in his (not always so civil) interaction with his in-laws. And while this description might make it seem like a depressing story, there’s actually plenty of humor injected into all of the events.
My biggest complaint about the novel is that it seemed more like a screenplay for a made for TV movie (perhaps intentionally since Jack used to be a Hollywood screenwriter?). It was a relatively short book and a good “beach” read (I read none of it on a beach), but it was a bit clichéd for my taste.
One of the things I enjoyed about the book, though, was (what I’ll call) a theme of the story, and that was the idea that we all remember or interpret the events from our past differently. We see it with how Jack remembers scenes from his childhood vs. how his mother explains those same events. It’s there in how Jack views his in-laws vs. how they’re revealed as the story progresses. And we also see it in Jack and Joy’s differing viewpoints about parts of their marriage and what caused them to travel down the path towards their separation. It all made me remember why I thought Russo was such a good writer in the first place. And it’s a good thing too, because I have two more of his books on the shelf, which, like this book, were Borders store closing purchases (I know this because there is a big black marker strike through the UPC barcode – no returns!).
One last thing. Before I decided on That Old Cape Magic for my next read, I briefly decided to go with Charles Dickens’ The Pickwick Papers, which I had downloaded to my Kindle for free, mostly because my previous read, Drood, inspired me to try a Dickens novel (I hadn’t read one since high school). Well, I started it on the train home one day and it was tough going. In fact, I noticed that after two days I was still only at 2% complete (again, this is on my Kindle). So I went to amazon.com to see how long the book actually was (something I admittedly should have done earlier) only to find out that the Penguin Classics paperback edition is 953 pages! Um, so yeah, I set that book aside. Perhaps another time Mr. Dickens, perhaps another time. I just have a few dozen books that moved ahead in the queue though.
Next Up: The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova (I’m already 500 pages in!)
November 15, 2011
Next to me...
On the plane...
A man in tree motif camo...
Reading "Texas Trophy Hunters" magazine...
With a bullseye as his phone's background.
I breathed a sigh of a relief that I opted not to wear my deer costume.
A man in tree motif camo...
Reading "Texas Trophy Hunters" magazine...
With a bullseye as his phone's background.
I breathed a sigh of a relief that I opted not to wear my deer costume.
November 13, 2011
Shredding!
I have been waiting to post about this until I can honestly say I have seen some results. Then, on Friday I discovered that the bum was saggy on previously tight jeans. So here goes...
Starting September 4, BFFs Hoops, Coke-Is-It, and I started Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred. Technically you are supposed to do this everyday for 30 days along with her diet system to lose pounds. The DVD says up to 20 in those 30 days.
Now, we have other things going on in our lives so we decided to try to do this 3-4 times a week and see what happens. No diet plan was involved.
I liked this DVD because the actual work-outs are 20 minutes. For someone who HATES doing any kind of work-out, this was big because it wasn't a huge commitment of my time. There are 3 levels, each getting harder with 3 rounds of 3 minutes of strength, 2 minutes of cardio, and 1 minute of abs.
The strength moves, I hate. I am not strong at all and this just emphasizes it. However, over the past two months, I have noticed that my arms don't scream quite as loudly as they did when I started.
The cardio is challenging but not too awful. It definitely gets my heart going.
I found the abs sections the least challenging. I think it is because I have been doing pilates for awhile and we do a lot of these moves in class.
Jillian has two helpers, Natalie and Anita. Anita shows you a beginner version of the move. Natalie shows you the advanced version. I stuck with Anita for most of the levels when I initially started them. As soon as I felt like I was getting better, I would try the Natalie version.
The best part is that because the circuits are only a few minutes, when they really stink and you are hating life doing them, they are soon over.
Going into this, I knew I was out of shape but I still thought "How hard could it be?". Um, after doing it once, I could barely walk the next day. I had the same effect once I felt qualified to move on to level 2 and did that for the first time. Mr. mocked me when I first started this so I challenged him to do it too. He barely made it through the warm-up before he was sweating like there was no tomorrow and whining about his knee. I recently started level 3. Oh my. It is rough. But, I am sticking with it because I am seeing results.
So far I have not lost any weight (boo!) but I have been losing inches:
Bust -1 (boo!)
Waist -2.5 (yeah!)
Hips -1 (nice!)
I wish the hips were losing more but I am still working. My booty looks way more toned now (IMO anyways) and Mr. says my legs look skinnier.
I think it would move things along faster if I didn't eat my face off in New Orleans or spent the past few weeks gorging on sweets and Halloween candy. But alas... I hate working out so this is a big enough sacrifice.
Side by side from September to now:
I'll concede that it's not an extremely huge difference visually and I think I can feel it more than it shows. However, the left picture was taken on a day I was feeling pretty skinny in September. Now that I look at it though... Yikes! I like the new toned booty and smaller waist that makes me not look like I am expecting.
I still have some more work to do but this is a decent start.
One final note... If you are looking to try the Shred out, I bought the DVD for $9.99 at Best Buy BUT I have since found out that Levels 1 and 2 are available on Exercise TV On Demand if you want to test the waters for free.
Starting September 4, BFFs Hoops, Coke-Is-It, and I started Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred. Technically you are supposed to do this everyday for 30 days along with her diet system to lose pounds. The DVD says up to 20 in those 30 days.
Now, we have other things going on in our lives so we decided to try to do this 3-4 times a week and see what happens. No diet plan was involved.
I liked this DVD because the actual work-outs are 20 minutes. For someone who HATES doing any kind of work-out, this was big because it wasn't a huge commitment of my time. There are 3 levels, each getting harder with 3 rounds of 3 minutes of strength, 2 minutes of cardio, and 1 minute of abs.
The strength moves, I hate. I am not strong at all and this just emphasizes it. However, over the past two months, I have noticed that my arms don't scream quite as loudly as they did when I started.
The cardio is challenging but not too awful. It definitely gets my heart going.
I found the abs sections the least challenging. I think it is because I have been doing pilates for awhile and we do a lot of these moves in class.
Jillian has two helpers, Natalie and Anita. Anita shows you a beginner version of the move. Natalie shows you the advanced version. I stuck with Anita for most of the levels when I initially started them. As soon as I felt like I was getting better, I would try the Natalie version.
The best part is that because the circuits are only a few minutes, when they really stink and you are hating life doing them, they are soon over.
Going into this, I knew I was out of shape but I still thought "How hard could it be?". Um, after doing it once, I could barely walk the next day. I had the same effect once I felt qualified to move on to level 2 and did that for the first time. Mr. mocked me when I first started this so I challenged him to do it too. He barely made it through the warm-up before he was sweating like there was no tomorrow and whining about his knee. I recently started level 3. Oh my. It is rough. But, I am sticking with it because I am seeing results.
So far I have not lost any weight (boo!) but I have been losing inches:
Bust -1 (boo!)
Waist -2.5 (yeah!)
Hips -1 (nice!)
I wish the hips were losing more but I am still working. My booty looks way more toned now (IMO anyways) and Mr. says my legs look skinnier.
I think it would move things along faster if I didn't eat my face off in New Orleans or spent the past few weeks gorging on sweets and Halloween candy. But alas... I hate working out so this is a big enough sacrifice.
Side by side from September to now:
I'll concede that it's not an extremely huge difference visually and I think I can feel it more than it shows. However, the left picture was taken on a day I was feeling pretty skinny in September. Now that I look at it though... Yikes! I like the new toned booty and smaller waist that makes me not look like I am expecting.
I still have some more work to do but this is a decent start.
One final note... If you are looking to try the Shred out, I bought the DVD for $9.99 at Best Buy BUT I have since found out that Levels 1 and 2 are available on Exercise TV On Demand if you want to test the waters for free.
November 11, 2011
November 10, 2011
Pumpkin Thieves
I had three pumpkins and a mini-hay bale on our front steps to be festive for fall.
Yesterday I noticed the smallest pumpkin was missing.
I attributed this to maybe the mail lady knocked it over and just rolled away.
This morning, Mr. left for work.
Two seconds later the front door was being unlocked.
"What did you forget?"
"All your pumpkins are gone!"
"What?!!!!"
I ran to the door.
Peeping out, I confirmed, yes the pumpkins were all gone.
We have become the victims of pumpkins thieves.
The mini-hay bale was still there though.
At least the thieves had some scruples.
Update: Mr. e-mailed me to let me know he discovered our pumpkins impaled on a fence down the street. I may have to go rescue them later.
Jerks.
Yesterday I noticed the smallest pumpkin was missing.
I attributed this to maybe the mail lady knocked it over and just rolled away.
This morning, Mr. left for work.
Two seconds later the front door was being unlocked.
"What did you forget?"
"All your pumpkins are gone!"
"What?!!!!"
I ran to the door.
Peeping out, I confirmed, yes the pumpkins were all gone.
We have become the victims of pumpkins thieves.
The mini-hay bale was still there though.
At least the thieves had some scruples.
Update: Mr. e-mailed me to let me know he discovered our pumpkins impaled on a fence down the street. I may have to go rescue them later.
Jerks.
November 8, 2011
Read This!: My Name is Memory
By Ann Brashares
This is another novel from the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants/ The Last Summer (Of You and Me) author. I usually like her books so I scooped this up once it was in paperback.
My Name is Memory starts at the present time with Daniel and Lucy, the main characters, in high school. Daniel has lived many lives and remembers all of them unlike Lucy who only remembers this life. They are drawn to each other, Daniel because he is convinced she is his soulmate from his past lives and Lucy because there is just something about him. As the story progresses, glimpses into Daniel’s past lives with and without Lucy are interspersed with the story of their current lives.
Even though this was definitely chick litty, I found myself thinking about the concept behind this story. What if we are reincarnated and our weird, unexplainable quirks in this life are due to what happened in a previous life? Is this why am terrified of being murdered in my bed at night? Or why I am claustrophobic and afraid of the dark? Or why I have been obsessed with the ocean since I was a wee one even though I have spent the better part of my life not living anywhere near it? Or why I always had a strong desire to live in New England even though I never step foot in it until I went there for college at age 18? Spooky.
Anyways, if a reincarnated Sigmund Freud ever comes my way, I will ask him if I am crazycakes or not.
Back to the book.
I thought the story was a little contrived and it committed one of my deadly sins of literature (and I use “literature” here loosely) which was (SPOLIER ALERT!!!) an unresolved ending. I like when books tidy it all up at the end. This did not and I was left wanting more so I was not pleased.
I am not sure if Brashares was trying to paint Daniel as a sympathetic character or not. I didn’t find him to be one. I actually thought he was a bit too self-involved but I think her point was that he wasn’t living the life he was given, he was always waiting for a better life and living in the past and only when he started living this life and being this person was he happy.
Personally, I thought Lucy could do better.
This is another novel from the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants/ The Last Summer (Of You and Me) author. I usually like her books so I scooped this up once it was in paperback.
My Name is Memory starts at the present time with Daniel and Lucy, the main characters, in high school. Daniel has lived many lives and remembers all of them unlike Lucy who only remembers this life. They are drawn to each other, Daniel because he is convinced she is his soulmate from his past lives and Lucy because there is just something about him. As the story progresses, glimpses into Daniel’s past lives with and without Lucy are interspersed with the story of their current lives.
Even though this was definitely chick litty, I found myself thinking about the concept behind this story. What if we are reincarnated and our weird, unexplainable quirks in this life are due to what happened in a previous life? Is this why am terrified of being murdered in my bed at night? Or why I am claustrophobic and afraid of the dark? Or why I have been obsessed with the ocean since I was a wee one even though I have spent the better part of my life not living anywhere near it? Or why I always had a strong desire to live in New England even though I never step foot in it until I went there for college at age 18? Spooky.
Anyways, if a reincarnated Sigmund Freud ever comes my way, I will ask him if I am crazycakes or not.
Back to the book.
I thought the story was a little contrived and it committed one of my deadly sins of literature (and I use “literature” here loosely) which was (SPOLIER ALERT!!!) an unresolved ending. I like when books tidy it all up at the end. This did not and I was left wanting more so I was not pleased.
I am not sure if Brashares was trying to paint Daniel as a sympathetic character or not. I didn’t find him to be one. I actually thought he was a bit too self-involved but I think her point was that he wasn’t living the life he was given, he was always waiting for a better life and living in the past and only when he started living this life and being this person was he happy.
Personally, I thought Lucy could do better.
November 6, 2011
Another Day, Another Diaper
As you know, Mr. and I are childfree. A typical Saturday night in our house involves dinner, snoozing on the couch, watching something like 48 Hours Mysteries, having teas and treats, eventually going to bed. Very low key.
Recently, however, we got a glimpse into how the other half lives when Coach and Feisty left their 7 month old, Buggy, in our care for an evening. That Saturday went something like this:
5:15 Coach and Feisty leave.
5:30 I feed Buggy. They said to burp her half way through but, honestly, she screamed too much, so I let her slide. She did burp at the end though.
6:00 We order Chinese.
6:00-7:00 We play with Buggy who is the best baby ever. She rarely cries which is heavenly to people like us who are not used to dealing with bambinos. At one point during this hour, however, she had such a stuffy nose that I attempted to suck it out with that weirdo baby nose cleaning device. She screamed. I stopped. (Are you noticing a pattern?)
7:00 We put Buggy in her bouncy and dove into our Chinese.
7:04 I realize Mr. and I can never have a child together because he would never again know a moment of peace and I would be driven mad (ok madder) in the process. Case in point:
Buggy was on the floor right next to us with lots of toys to keep her occupied. She was easily visible and we could still talk to her but yet Mr. kept getting up to check that she was doing OK.
Me: She is fine, just let her be and eat.
Him: I am just making sure.
Repeat.
Repeat again.
One more time.
And again.
And once more.
7:30 We finish dinner and go to play with Buggy.
Me: Oh hey Buggy! What are you doing?
Mr.: What is all over her?
Me: Huh?
Me: Oh no!
Little Buggy decided we were boring and felt the need to spice up her evening by having a major blowout in her bouncy.
Enter the Keystone Cops.
Mr. had never before changed a diaper so this was initiation by fire.
I picked up Buggy and tried to think of the best room to change her in. Certainly not our carpeted family room… The bathroom floors would be too hard… I briefly considered driving her to the wedding her parents were attending and handing her over... I settled on the hardwood in the guest bedroom (on a changing pad of course).
I’ll save you the gross details but the fact this came out of a baby was quite alarming. Debris was EVERYWHERE!!!!! Meaning we had to get her out of those clothes. Whoever thought having a baby shirt with snaps at the bottom so you have to pull said shirt over her head is an idiot. Mr. and I had an intellectual conversation on how to get this shirt off her body without getting poop all over her head or ripping the shirt in half. We came up with a plan. It failed.
In the interim, I was yelling at Mr. to
1. Get some kind of bag to put the dirty diaper and wipes in.
2. Get some kind of bag to put the clothes in.
This was a bit of a debacle as he ran around the house like he hadn't lived here for three years and didn't know exactly where the bags were but eventually he got it together.
We were getting dangerously close to using up all the wipes so we decided to hose Buggy down because we didn’t see how we could get all the ick off her otherwise.
I might add during all this, she was very complacent and just chilled. I think she knew were novices at baby clean up.
8:00 She was cleaned and ready to go and we all hung out relaxing, reading. and watching Lifetime movies.
8:30 Repeat feeding experience from earlier.
9:30 She fell asleep. We had teas and pumpkin coffee cake.
10:00 I said to Mr. “Coach and Feisty wanted us to put her in that sleep sack. Should we change her?”
Mr: But she is sleeping.
Me: But we should put her in that because they said so.
We decided to give it a go.
Now, I managed to get outfit two off without waking her. Yeah! Then, ugg, we noticed the changed color of her diaper indicating she was wet. Damn you technology!
We briefly considered looking away and acting like we didn’t see that but we couldn’t do it.
Here she woke up. I was off getting wipes (aka turned my head to get one) and Mr. started yelling. Yeah, she was performing her impression of Old Faithful.
Then, in our haste to put the diaper on and stop the flow, we put it on backwards.
10:30 Bugs is rediapered, in a sleepsack and chilling with us on the couch.
11:00 Me and Buggy are snoozing. Mr. is on the computer.
12:00 Coach and Feisty return.
A few parting thoughts:
1. It took six hours of babysitting but we have become those people who talk about nothing but baby bathroom habits and send an annoying amount of baby pictures (and OK maybe a video or two) around to our family and friends.
2. Minus the bathroom debacles, we did pretty much the same things we do every Saturday.
3. Adding in the bathroom debacles, that was the most exciting Saturday night we have had in a while.
Recently, however, we got a glimpse into how the other half lives when Coach and Feisty left their 7 month old, Buggy, in our care for an evening. That Saturday went something like this:
5:15 Coach and Feisty leave.
5:30 I feed Buggy. They said to burp her half way through but, honestly, she screamed too much, so I let her slide. She did burp at the end though.
6:00 We order Chinese.
6:00-7:00 We play with Buggy who is the best baby ever. She rarely cries which is heavenly to people like us who are not used to dealing with bambinos. At one point during this hour, however, she had such a stuffy nose that I attempted to suck it out with that weirdo baby nose cleaning device. She screamed. I stopped. (Are you noticing a pattern?)
7:00 We put Buggy in her bouncy and dove into our Chinese.
7:04 I realize Mr. and I can never have a child together because he would never again know a moment of peace and I would be driven mad (ok madder) in the process. Case in point:
Buggy was on the floor right next to us with lots of toys to keep her occupied. She was easily visible and we could still talk to her but yet Mr. kept getting up to check that she was doing OK.
Me: She is fine, just let her be and eat.
Him: I am just making sure.
Repeat.
Repeat again.
One more time.
And again.
And once more.
7:30 We finish dinner and go to play with Buggy.
Me: Oh hey Buggy! What are you doing?
Mr.: What is all over her?
Me: Huh?
Me: Oh no!
Little Buggy decided we were boring and felt the need to spice up her evening by having a major blowout in her bouncy.
Enter the Keystone Cops.
Mr. had never before changed a diaper so this was initiation by fire.
I picked up Buggy and tried to think of the best room to change her in. Certainly not our carpeted family room… The bathroom floors would be too hard… I briefly considered driving her to the wedding her parents were attending and handing her over... I settled on the hardwood in the guest bedroom (on a changing pad of course).
I’ll save you the gross details but the fact this came out of a baby was quite alarming. Debris was EVERYWHERE!!!!! Meaning we had to get her out of those clothes. Whoever thought having a baby shirt with snaps at the bottom so you have to pull said shirt over her head is an idiot. Mr. and I had an intellectual conversation on how to get this shirt off her body without getting poop all over her head or ripping the shirt in half. We came up with a plan. It failed.
In the interim, I was yelling at Mr. to
1. Get some kind of bag to put the dirty diaper and wipes in.
2. Get some kind of bag to put the clothes in.
This was a bit of a debacle as he ran around the house like he hadn't lived here for three years and didn't know exactly where the bags were but eventually he got it together.
We were getting dangerously close to using up all the wipes so we decided to hose Buggy down because we didn’t see how we could get all the ick off her otherwise.
I might add during all this, she was very complacent and just chilled. I think she knew were novices at baby clean up.
8:00 She was cleaned and ready to go and we all hung out relaxing, reading. and watching Lifetime movies.
8:30 Repeat feeding experience from earlier.
9:30 She fell asleep. We had teas and pumpkin coffee cake.
10:00 I said to Mr. “Coach and Feisty wanted us to put her in that sleep sack. Should we change her?”
Mr: But she is sleeping.
Me: But we should put her in that because they said so.
We decided to give it a go.
Now, I managed to get outfit two off without waking her. Yeah! Then, ugg, we noticed the changed color of her diaper indicating she was wet. Damn you technology!
We briefly considered looking away and acting like we didn’t see that but we couldn’t do it.
Here she woke up. I was off getting wipes (aka turned my head to get one) and Mr. started yelling. Yeah, she was performing her impression of Old Faithful.
Then, in our haste to put the diaper on and stop the flow, we put it on backwards.
10:30 Bugs is rediapered, in a sleepsack and chilling with us on the couch.
11:00 Me and Buggy are snoozing. Mr. is on the computer.
12:00 Coach and Feisty return.
A few parting thoughts:
1. It took six hours of babysitting but we have become those people who talk about nothing but baby bathroom habits and send an annoying amount of baby pictures (and OK maybe a video or two) around to our family and friends.
2. Minus the bathroom debacles, we did pretty much the same things we do every Saturday.
3. Adding in the bathroom debacles, that was the most exciting Saturday night we have had in a while.
November 2, 2011
Read This!: Shades of Earl Grey
By Laura Childs
Back in June, I read another one of Laura Childs’ books from this Tea Shop Mystery series. It was OK but if you’ll recall I thought the book was kind of momish, it annoyed me that I couldn’t figure out how old the main character was, and I figured out the mystery pretty early on.
This was a repeat experience.
With the added addition that I was annoyed that every time Haley, the chef at the tea shop, made something there was a description about how perfect and utterly divine it was. We get it. She is a good cook. Do we need to go into detail about it every time she is featured cooking something?
Moving on to the plot…
Theodosia Browning and her crew are on the case trying to figure out who is stealing some of Charleston’s most treasured possessions starting with an heirloom wedding ring said to have been owned by Marie Antoinette.
Even though I think these books are predictable and make me roll my eyes at points, I still like them. Perhaps it is because I wish I owned a tea shop in Charleston’s historic district? Maybe someday….
Back in June, I read another one of Laura Childs’ books from this Tea Shop Mystery series. It was OK but if you’ll recall I thought the book was kind of momish, it annoyed me that I couldn’t figure out how old the main character was, and I figured out the mystery pretty early on.
This was a repeat experience.
With the added addition that I was annoyed that every time Haley, the chef at the tea shop, made something there was a description about how perfect and utterly divine it was. We get it. She is a good cook. Do we need to go into detail about it every time she is featured cooking something?
Moving on to the plot…
Theodosia Browning and her crew are on the case trying to figure out who is stealing some of Charleston’s most treasured possessions starting with an heirloom wedding ring said to have been owned by Marie Antoinette.
Even though I think these books are predictable and make me roll my eyes at points, I still like them. Perhaps it is because I wish I owned a tea shop in Charleston’s historic district? Maybe someday….
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