I got my U.S. News and World Report magazine in the mail today and I about fell over when I read the following:
Was it just a coincidence that President Bush teamed Secretary of State Colin Powell and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, his brother, for last week's tsunami fact-finding mission? Or was it a sign of things to come? Some administration and Democratic insiders believe the president was signaling his dream team for the next presidential election. "Was this the first campaign trip for the '08 ticket, Bush-Powell?" nudged a senior administration official. Said another Bushie: "Yeah. It's a good fit."
Come on, guys. Didn't we just finish the longest and most contentious election of our lifetime? Are we really starting the '08 campaign already?? Besides, if we must go there, shouldn't the ticket at least have Powell on top over Jeb?
Plus, dynasties are like, sooo yesterday.
Monday, January 10, 2005
Winter Wonderland
Most people who know me would not say that I am an outdoorsy type of gal. I've always thought it would be cool to be the type of girl who goes rock climbing, hiking or camping but it's just not me. The last time I went camping it was in high school and my friend Anna when we went with her family to the Yogi Bear Jellystone campgrounds in Wisconsin. They had a pool there. And showers. Needless to say, it was not real camping. And to top it off, we couldn't even cut it at cartoon camping because it was so unbelievably hot and humid that we ended up sitting in the car with the air conditioning on half the time. I'm kind of girly like that.
Also, you may have noticed that I have an adverse reaction to cold. Combine this with my lack of outdoor sporting skills and you can imagine what I might say when Juliana asks me to go sledding with her. Let me put it this way: I hate sledding. "How can you hate sledding?" you're probably thinking. "Everybody loves sledding!" I have never liked it, even as a kid. I remember going sledding with my Dad and brother and although I enjoyed the first couple of runs down the hill, after about 10 minutes I was cold, wet, tired, and pretty much over the whole experience. There was also the time where I was slammed into by a bunch of teenagers on a gigantic wooden toboggan so that probably didn't help much either. My Dad always made me wear a bright red ski mask too. Enough said.
Anyway, Jason had taken Juli sledding in the backyard on Saturday, so Sunday was my turn, whether I liked it or not.
And I'm so glad I went out there with her!
Ok, so I didn't go down the hill myself. But it was worth freezing my butt off and soaking my jeans to watch her toddle up and down the hill in her purple snowsuit and scream with delight every time I sent her flying down on the snow tube. And oh my god was that snow tube FAST! I had picked a spot where she hopefully wouldn't go careening onto the frozen pond (because I'm a responsible parent who heeds the sign posted that reads NO SKATING with the illustration of the little stick man drowning on it), but a couple of times she managed to veer off a bit, sending me into a panicked mom sprint down the hill, diving for the sled and practically landing on my face. It also didn't help much that a few yards over was a group of older kids who were flying over a little snow ramp and plummeting right down to the iced over pond. Thanks guys. As if it's not enough that my child is a natural-born daredevil- she doesn't need any new inspiration.
All in all though, it was time well spent. Photo documentation coming soon.
Also, you may have noticed that I have an adverse reaction to cold. Combine this with my lack of outdoor sporting skills and you can imagine what I might say when Juliana asks me to go sledding with her. Let me put it this way: I hate sledding. "How can you hate sledding?" you're probably thinking. "Everybody loves sledding!" I have never liked it, even as a kid. I remember going sledding with my Dad and brother and although I enjoyed the first couple of runs down the hill, after about 10 minutes I was cold, wet, tired, and pretty much over the whole experience. There was also the time where I was slammed into by a bunch of teenagers on a gigantic wooden toboggan so that probably didn't help much either. My Dad always made me wear a bright red ski mask too. Enough said.
Anyway, Jason had taken Juli sledding in the backyard on Saturday, so Sunday was my turn, whether I liked it or not.
And I'm so glad I went out there with her!
Ok, so I didn't go down the hill myself. But it was worth freezing my butt off and soaking my jeans to watch her toddle up and down the hill in her purple snowsuit and scream with delight every time I sent her flying down on the snow tube. And oh my god was that snow tube FAST! I had picked a spot where she hopefully wouldn't go careening onto the frozen pond (because I'm a responsible parent who heeds the sign posted that reads NO SKATING with the illustration of the little stick man drowning on it), but a couple of times she managed to veer off a bit, sending me into a panicked mom sprint down the hill, diving for the sled and practically landing on my face. It also didn't help much that a few yards over was a group of older kids who were flying over a little snow ramp and plummeting right down to the iced over pond. Thanks guys. As if it's not enough that my child is a natural-born daredevil- she doesn't need any new inspiration.
All in all though, it was time well spent. Photo documentation coming soon.
Saturday, January 8, 2005
Exercise in Futility
This morning I attempted something that I would never advise anyone else to do. Jason wanted to take Juli out to play in the snow so he asked if I could go buy a sled and a pair of snow boots for her. (Luckily her snowsuit from last year still fits, but the boots- not so much.) Anyway, did you know that it is patently impossible to puchase winter items such as sleds and snow boots in the month of January? It's like trying to buy a swimsuit in July. You just can't. I also needed to pick up an ice scraper for the car, which is a dumb thing to need to buy this time of year too. After going up and down the automotive aisle in Target, throwing my hands in the air in frustration , I finally turned to corner to see a massive empty wall of shelves with little labels on them that read "Scraper $5.99". With nothing behind them. A whole wall. Amazingly enough at the very end, nestled in the corner, lived the tiniest, loneliest looking ice scraper I have ever seen and I made it mine.
This was the easy part of my shopping trip.
Over in the shoe section, I discovered that I could puchase multiple pairs of flowery flip-flops and sparkly Barbie sandals if I pleased- no problem whatsoever. Boots, though? What am I, crazy? It's January 8th already, people! Time to buy bikinis and blow-up kiddie pools and halter tops! What kind of person buys articles of clothing that are pertinent to the weather going on outside? Apparently not anyone who shops at Target, since people were poring over the new spring items like mad.
*As a side note, I also discovered today that Target has debuted a large new section of their store where they sell decorative home items that look like they came from the Cost Plus World Market store. Number one: I'm already proud of myself from resisting shopping regularly at the Cost Plus since I would no doubt drop a large sum of money there. Number two: As if Target needs to receive more money from me than they already do. Isn't it enough that the Super Target by me has a grocery store inside with an awesome produce and deli department? Enough already. /End side note.
Back to my shopping excursion. I was lucky enough to find a pair of snow boots across the street at Kohl's and they were 50% off so lucky me! For now. I still had to find a sled because what good are boots and a snowsuit with no sled? I was racking my brain trying to figure out where to go next, and since the Toys R Us was too far to drive to, my only option was the Axis of Evil that I never ever set foot in, otherwise known as Wal-Mart. Now, I'm not a fan of Wal-Mart's business practices for starters but when it comes down to it, the main overriding reason why I refuse to shop there is because it is unorganized to an ungodly degree, always overcrowded, and generally one of the most frustrating places I have ever shopped at. I haven't been there in years though and since I really couldn't come home without a sled I went there anyway.
Why, oh why did I think I could walk into a Wal-Mart on a Saturday morning, quickly buy one item and get out of there?
THIRTY MINUTES LATER I exit the store- but with my sled! Yahoo! My only option was a blow-up one that looks like an inner tube without the hole in it, but Jason and Juliana are outside playing with it right now so it's apparently a success. My biggest complaint with Wal-Mart though is this: If you know you have such a massive volume of people charging through your store with shopping carts every day, why on earth do you insist on putting displays in the middle of every single ailse? Why? The best thing about Target is the fact that they have wide open aisles. I never have to press myself up against some shelves of crackers or shampoo or smush into the wall in order to get to where I need to go. It also doesn't take me five whole minutes to walk from one end of the store to the other and I never spend twenty minutes in the check out line.
Of course, Target doesn't have blow-up sleds in January.
This was the easy part of my shopping trip.
Over in the shoe section, I discovered that I could puchase multiple pairs of flowery flip-flops and sparkly Barbie sandals if I pleased- no problem whatsoever. Boots, though? What am I, crazy? It's January 8th already, people! Time to buy bikinis and blow-up kiddie pools and halter tops! What kind of person buys articles of clothing that are pertinent to the weather going on outside? Apparently not anyone who shops at Target, since people were poring over the new spring items like mad.
*As a side note, I also discovered today that Target has debuted a large new section of their store where they sell decorative home items that look like they came from the Cost Plus World Market store. Number one: I'm already proud of myself from resisting shopping regularly at the Cost Plus since I would no doubt drop a large sum of money there. Number two: As if Target needs to receive more money from me than they already do. Isn't it enough that the Super Target by me has a grocery store inside with an awesome produce and deli department? Enough already. /End side note.
Back to my shopping excursion. I was lucky enough to find a pair of snow boots across the street at Kohl's and they were 50% off so lucky me! For now. I still had to find a sled because what good are boots and a snowsuit with no sled? I was racking my brain trying to figure out where to go next, and since the Toys R Us was too far to drive to, my only option was the Axis of Evil that I never ever set foot in, otherwise known as Wal-Mart. Now, I'm not a fan of Wal-Mart's business practices for starters but when it comes down to it, the main overriding reason why I refuse to shop there is because it is unorganized to an ungodly degree, always overcrowded, and generally one of the most frustrating places I have ever shopped at. I haven't been there in years though and since I really couldn't come home without a sled I went there anyway.
Why, oh why did I think I could walk into a Wal-Mart on a Saturday morning, quickly buy one item and get out of there?
THIRTY MINUTES LATER I exit the store- but with my sled! Yahoo! My only option was a blow-up one that looks like an inner tube without the hole in it, but Jason and Juliana are outside playing with it right now so it's apparently a success. My biggest complaint with Wal-Mart though is this: If you know you have such a massive volume of people charging through your store with shopping carts every day, why on earth do you insist on putting displays in the middle of every single ailse? Why? The best thing about Target is the fact that they have wide open aisles. I never have to press myself up against some shelves of crackers or shampoo or smush into the wall in order to get to where I need to go. It also doesn't take me five whole minutes to walk from one end of the store to the other and I never spend twenty minutes in the check out line.
Of course, Target doesn't have blow-up sleds in January.
Wednesday, January 5, 2005
As If I Needed to Spend More Time on the Internets
Well, yesterday I went to vote for Dooce at the Best of the Blogs 2004 website and by default I got sucked into reading a bunch of other people's weblogs that were on the list of nominees (becuase, apparently I don't spend enough of my life reading about other people's lives on the internet.) I try to pry my eyes away from the monitor but I JUST CAN'T. Most of the people that I like to read about are all linked to each other and refer to each other a lot, which leads me to wonder how many hours a day do you have to spend on the computer to keep up with everybody? I would post a list of my new finds, but copying and pasting the links here would just take time out from me doing more actual reading, so I'll just advise everyone to go to the blog awards link above and check it out for yourself if you are so inclined. (As if you needed me to tell you, I'm a fan of a lot of the blogs in the Mommy category.) Two particular things I read today especially made me smile as I often find myself feeling the same way, being a stay-at-home mom and all. If you are interested in reading about something I identify with, have a look-see here. (The link referred to in this person's post is also worth reading, if you just have to have more.)
Otherwise, things are starting to fall back into their normal routine here on the suburban homestead. We had new carpeting installed on our second floor yesterday, so the house has that refreshing new carpet smell, which is nice. However, I do still have half the girls' toys stashed in the bathrooms and my clothing all over the kitchen table so I should put all that stuff away sometime today if anyone intends to bathe or eat in this house. Also, while I was taking down the curtain rod in our bedroom yesterday, I decided to loose my footing on the bed and fall-- smacking my bum on the bedpost. OUCH. So now it hurts my tailbone to walk, climb stairs, bend over to pick up Ava, and even sit in this very chair for too long. Poor me. (Ok, not really. Just stupid, clumsy, you're-supposed-to-be-a-dancer-so-why-are-you-falling-on-your-butt me.)
Ok, enough talk. I'm going to get off said behind now and actually get some work done before naptime is over.
Otherwise, things are starting to fall back into their normal routine here on the suburban homestead. We had new carpeting installed on our second floor yesterday, so the house has that refreshing new carpet smell, which is nice. However, I do still have half the girls' toys stashed in the bathrooms and my clothing all over the kitchen table so I should put all that stuff away sometime today if anyone intends to bathe or eat in this house. Also, while I was taking down the curtain rod in our bedroom yesterday, I decided to loose my footing on the bed and fall-- smacking my bum on the bedpost. OUCH. So now it hurts my tailbone to walk, climb stairs, bend over to pick up Ava, and even sit in this very chair for too long. Poor me. (Ok, not really. Just stupid, clumsy, you're-supposed-to-be-a-dancer-so-why-are-you-falling-on-your-butt me.)
Ok, enough talk. I'm going to get off said behind now and actually get some work done before naptime is over.
Monday, January 3, 2005
Teen Movies and Geekdom
Jason and I watched the movie "Saved!" last night. It wan't too bad. The jokes were a bit too obvious (yet still funny though) and parts were fairly predictable and overly dramatic but it was a fine movie to rent. I can't believe that I actually watched and enjoyed a movie with Mandy Moore and Macauley Culkin in it. What has happened to me? I am, however, the type of person who is considering painting their bedroom taupe, so I have all but lost my hipster status anyway. The movie did have Martin Donovan in it, which was the selling point for me. That man could be in a movie roller skating on his hands with a bunch of monkeys and I would pay money to see it.
Anyway, the original reason I wanted to post was to remind myself that another thing I want to do in this new year is re-read the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy now that I have seen all of the movies. Jason and I also plan to carve out a chunk of time where we will watch all three extended editions of the movies back to back. This will require nearly 12 hours of time to accomplish though, so we will of course need babysitters and lots of sustenance to complete the task.
One of my favorite t-shirts I have is one that reads "I Heart My Geek." I am seriously thinking that Jason may need to get one of his own.
Anyway, the original reason I wanted to post was to remind myself that another thing I want to do in this new year is re-read the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy now that I have seen all of the movies. Jason and I also plan to carve out a chunk of time where we will watch all three extended editions of the movies back to back. This will require nearly 12 hours of time to accomplish though, so we will of course need babysitters and lots of sustenance to complete the task.
One of my favorite t-shirts I have is one that reads "I Heart My Geek." I am seriously thinking that Jason may need to get one of his own.
And The Crazy Just Keeps Happening
I hate being such a downer but I could not believe the atrocious garbage I heard coming from Fred Phelps this morning (you know, the guy who pickets at the funerals of gay people? A real compassionate soul.) Anyway, apparently he is praising the tsunami for killing Swedish tourists since he hates Sweden. Whaa? Just when I think I've heard it all... If you just have to see this for yourself, you can find it here.
Saturday, January 1, 2005
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
