Life Bulleted

• Las Vegas is not for a pregnant lady with gestational diabetes
• Life will go smoothly until you return home; then child reverts to poor sleeping habits and crankiness
• Mini eggs are even more tempting after Easter, when they are on sale and a diabetic no-no; so are creme eggs
• Apparently corona (or any other alcohol) is an acceptable form of breakfast in Las Vegas
• Preparing for the vacation always takes longer than adjusting back to regular life
• Even though it feels like your belly can not get any bigger... it always finds a way to surprise you, making you feel even more hippo-tastic
• Three days of 80 degree weather have quenched any desire for a warm summer. Please keep it to the 70's and everyone around me will be better off
• Outlet shopping is never as fun when you are pregnant
• May 23 can't come soon enough, yet at the same time I don't want it to ever come
• Hiring a personal grocery shopper might not be a bad idea
• Chocolate cheerios and fresh raspberries are awesome for breakfast or any time of day
• GD I rue the fact that I must live with you and not enjoy chocolate milk, ice cream, key lime pie and all other forms of sugary goodness (chocolate cheerios and raspberries included)

Blah Blah Blah

How is it that a post from a day ago is already in my nerves? Yet nothing has happened in the last 24 hours to make me want to blog, but I need to because I hate the previous post. Some times you have something you want to say, but it ends up coming out nothing like it sounded in your head. How does that happen? I've always thought I should take a class on how to transition my brain thoughts into public thoughts. But then again, I think I talk too much already, so it's probably not a good idea.

I think February is the blah month. We should change the name to Feblahary. I am a person who doesn't mind winter...but I think this year I am feeling the pull of warmer places. Not that a warm, tropical vacation, or a move to a warmer climate is in store....I just find myself daydreaming on kayak a lot more than usual. As soon as June rolls around I will be hating summer (I know it doesn't get THAT hot in MN, but 80 is my limit folks) and wishing for fall. It's just an evil cycle. I could never pull off a move to Florida or Texas or anywhere much more south than Chicago (and I don't want to live in Chicago) which sort of limits us. Mark would much rather live in the heat but he would much rather not have me whine and complain about the heat every day! Although if you asked him today, he'd probably disagree. Not that we're moving in the near future or anything. The way I see it, winter is on it's way out and spring should be here...by June at the latest. And those 2-3 months of spring/summer are great! :o)

The blahs make me want to do less than I normally do...coming up with a dinner idea is hurting my brain tonight. I can't even ponder what we will do tomorrow, that's just too much pressure! What do you do when you have the blahs? Is there a quick cure that doesn't involve a trip to the south of France? Or is that what I am going to have to do...because if it is, I'll make that sacrifice.

Pinky and the Brain

Something strange happened today. Given my last post, it shouldn't come as a surprise at all!

At some point between going to bed last night at 10:00 and waking up at 6:40 this morning, I seem to have lost my mind. I'm not sure where it could have gone, but I'm pretty sure it's not under my skull.

Here's the evidence so far: 1) A week or two ago I was helping at a church service project sewing fleece hats. I had a bit of trouble with my machine to start off but after some re-threading of the bobbin it was smooth sailing, up until the last 10 minutes or so. For some reason my machine would not sew forward anymore; the needle would stop when it got to the top. If I turned the wheel backwards it was fine, but if I turned it forward, nothing. Great, new machine busted. so I called a local repair place this morning and they said to bring it on it. T and i hoped in the car and away we went. So the guy there is a genius. I had barely walked in, told him the problem and about 10 seconds after he set it on the counter, problem solved. The bobbin holder (for when you're winding thread on it) was in the locked position - hence why the needle would only go backwards. It was a cheap fix monetarily, but quite pricey for my pride. Oh well, at least I didn't have to dip into the bank account for that one.

2) After the sewing shop incident we headed out for a few groceries and a quick, albeit unnecessary, trip to Target. I know better than to shop on an empty stomach, but I think I had safely passed from an empty stomach to a never ending pit. I bought way more crap than I should of including ready to bake chocolate chip cookies, and 3 packs of the refrigerated jello puddings (they were on sale, and only 60 calories!!). The worst was in Target however, we stopped by the cafe on the way out since it was almost lunch and I downed the bread sticks. SO. GOOD. Pizza Hut bread sticks have to be the best, but I know I must check my brain at the door to eat those things.

3) This one is the kicker. It sealed the case of the missing brain. Mark is in New York today, well he should be there by now. He called me this morning from Boston and asked me about a few restaurants we had been to while we lived there. I told them what they were called and where they were. Then I got sad. I wanted to go eat there. It almost made me want to be back in New York. ALMOST. Until I remembered what the cost of rent was, and the loud neighbours, and the smells...and that I have a kid now and I would probably become a hermit if I lived in NYC with a kid. And Mark would have to make a LOT, and I mean a LOT, more money.

Maybe it's just because it's getting close to Christmas and the Rockettes touring show isn't coming to Minneapolis, and all that other holiday stuff. Christmas was really the only time I enjoyed NYC. But you've already heard that story.

So I guess for now I will live vicariously through Mark eating all that yummy food while T and I dine on pancakes this evening. Maybe next year I'll head out for a Christmas time visit and enjoy the holiday scenes. Until then, the Holidazzle parade will have to suffice, along with the snow, the cold and the warmth of my car, not the freezing subway platforms.

4) Still waiting on this one, but I am guessing it will happen some time around when dinner is being made. The pancake mix calls for water, but I'll dump vinegar in or something. Maybe I will forget to turn the stove on and stand there yelling at it for 10 minutes. Whatever it is, I have no doubt about it happening before bed.

So if anyone has any idea where my brain may have run off to, please feel free to let me know!

The Neverending Abyss

I'm at a loss for blogs. Nothing seems worthwhile to blog about. Or if it does, I've already blogged about it and no one wants to read me go off on my soapbox again (seriously, why does the fashion world insist on either size zeros or relegating "normal" sized women to plus size modeling?? Why not just have a lovely mixture of models of all sizes? It would be so much easier and so much more realistic.) Ok, I am done with that rant.

Other than my above mini rant....I am really at a loss. I could continue with odes to family members when I am having a mental block, but I'm not sure any of my family want their mugs up on my blog and the embarrassing stories that accompany them...oh the day the dog ran over my sister will forever live on in my mind, complete with a running laugh track. Still makes me laugh every time.

Perhaps my brain has finally given up on me now that it gets zero to no exercise anymore. Well, if you can call TV exercise, then it does get some. Someone in my family recently asked me what I wanted for Christmas, specifically if there were any books I wanted, and I sat there blankly, trying to think and all that went through my head was "books...books...books..." followed by a very loud silence. I don't even know the last book I read. Well, I do, but I think it's the only book I've read all year and it took me much longer than it should have for me to finish it, and I didn't care for it that much in the end.

Maybe I need to have some political debates with Mark, if only to get my brain going again. But who wants to read about my political thoughts?? If any of my readers are like Mark, than no one wants to hear/read/see them. Thank goodness for Entertainment Weekly and W...I can at least blog about celebrity crap and the absurd prices of designer clothing (oh if only I could afford them).

Oh well, at least the last post has been pushed down from immediate viewing.

Tuesday's Pet Peeve

Today on Good Morning America, they had an interview with a woman, who became a model after losing 70 pounds, leaving her weight at roughly 90 pounds. She had been told that if she lost 70 pounds, she could be a super model. This all while she was on high school, totally healthy and on the cheer leading squad. After years modelling and still being told she wasn't thin enough, she gave up trying and went back to her healthy size 12 self and is now a very successful plus sized model.

OK, Since when is a size 12 plus size?? When a size 0 became the seemingly acceptable size for models? When I was just out of high school, I paid my dues to the retail world for many years. During some of those years, I worked for a store that carried "regular" sizes (2-16) but I also worked some shifts for the "plus" size (14-26) store of the same chain. I'm not sure who started calling a size 12 a plus size, but I would like to meet that person and give them a good, swift kick.

While I was going to University, I was driving home, listening to the radio and heard a commercial for a modelling opportunity for plus sizes, size 10-14. SIZE 10???? What? Seriously people, someone has got to stop with this arbitrary labelling of plus sizes. Why can't we just go with being healthy and not numbers? You might be a size 2, but have 30% body fat - it doesn't automatically mean you are the picture perfect image of health. Just as someone may be a size 12 (gasp!), but be in perfect health.

At one of the malls I worked at, I worked across from a store that catered to young teens, and we would see them dress their mannequins sometimes, as they struggled to get outfits on, or done up. We would often tell them just to put a bigger size on the mannequin and clip it if they needed to, so it looked like it fit properly. We were shocked when they told us that they were using the biggest size they had. If the clothes you sell, don't even fit the mannequins in your store, how do you expect them to fit people??

Perhaps if we stopped obsessing with celebrities and cellulite, young girls could grow up feeling good about themselves no matter what size the label on their pants say.

And that's today's rant. Thank you.

Irk and Bernie

Bernie Madoff. I am sure we're all familiar with him and what he did. And yes, it sucks for those who lost their money to him, big time - especially for those who invested a LOT of money with him. Now he is in prison. For 150 years. Yes, 150 years. Think of all that time he'll have to think about the wrongs he's committed and the lives he ruined, or destroyed. He'll be able to read, relax, work, make friends, play basketball, knit, paint...anything he wants, it' not like he'll have a shortage of time.

Oh wait. He will have a shortage of time because he's going to DIE in prison, unless he has some sort of longevity secret he has been keeping to himself. Maybe he'll be the first person in modern time to live to be over 200 years old!! Right now, as he sits in his cell he maniacally laughs under his breath at how he has out smarted the system again! "Fools all of you!! I will be out long after everyone has forgotten about me and I will do it all again! 150 years and death will not stop me!!"

Here's my issue. Madoff gets 150 years for stealing people's money, yet sentences for murder, rape, and child abuse are handed out for less than 10 percent of Bernie's sentence. Plea deals are made, convicts are let out for good behaviour...you can't tell me you would rather have a convicted murderer roaming your streets over a guy who stole money from people? Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced to 15 life sentences (roughly 936 years) and David Burkowitz was sentenced to 365 years. Those I can understand given the number of people they killed and the ways in which they were killed. You don't want those guys roaming around your street. But Bernie Madoff, really? Would Mothers run, screaming, to gather their children from the park if Bernie was coming? Would baseball games be called because Bernie was in the stands? Highly doubtful. Give the guy his sentence, he broke the law. Make an example out of him to try to keep would be thieves at bay (not likely), but let's be realistic here, there has got to be some sort of balance on the scales of justice; 150 years for stealing money and 12 years for murder....seems a little unbalanced to me.

Missed Opportunities

So snapfish has a great deal on right now...well only until the end of today (the 10th). 50 prints for 50 pennies. Awesome! I needed to print out some pictures for my grandma anyway, might as well take advantage of the deal, right?

I upload my pictures, place my order and think to myself, "Even with shipping that was cheaper than going to the photo place! Way to go self!!"

Then tonight as I am talking to my Mom and was going to mention the deal to her, I realized I paid a lot more than 50 cents plus shipping. Perhaps I missed the deal and it ended yesterday (until the 10th). To make myself feel better I went to the website, and sure enough there was the deal all big and bright right in my face. So why didn't I get the deal price??

Oh...I forgot to type in the coupon code at checkout. Idiot.

So, if any of you need photos printed and see this before midnight (in your timezone), check it out!! Just don't forget to type in the promo code or you'll be joining me at, what my friend used to call the table in math class for kids who needed some help, the idiot table.