What To-Do?

I began a to-do list the other day. I know, not very exciting or cutting edge, but I figured it might help us get some things done before the last minute (I won't hold my breath for that happening, but I can try, right?). This list includes everything from grocery shopping, to bill paying, to deck building, to painting the boy's room, to whatever random thing enters my mind that day that needs to be done. I'm not sure an ongoing to-do list is the way to go. So far the list has gotten longer and only two things have been accomplished (a bill pay and a phone call).

I thought having this to-do list would help me actually make some decisions for the child...no such luck. For whatever reason I can not decide on paint colours or cribbing and I have no motivation to have the inevitable fight over what name will be chosen.

It doesn't help when bedding sets for infants cost anywhere up to $2000 (what???), I have no inspiration this time around, no one fabric to base colours on and no help with painting and sewing. This kid won't mind sleeping in a laundry basket in our room, will he? If I could only make one of those decisions, like what colour to paint the room, at least I would be able to narrow the bedding search down, or vice versa, but I can't!! I did see one set I liked but it was almost $200 and I am not sure I can justify spending that much when I don't even spend that much on bedding for me! And let's not get started on prices of kids shoes...seriously??

So after all my hopes of being organized on and top of things over the next few months, this to-do list creating has only made me more overwhelmed. I might need some reinforcements.

Anyone who knows any stores or websites with cute, not so baby like, bedding options that won't send me into debt, please share!

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)

Thoughts on a Tuesday Night

Here I sit wishing I had picture in picture in picture in picture. Or at a least a DVR capable of taping 3 shows while I watch a fourth. Man did we pick the wrong time to take the second DVR back.

So I can no longer watch the Canada-Germany qualification game. Thankfully Canada was up 4-1 when the DVR kicked on it's second taping, making me miss the third period. And I can always check the score online since NBC deems it necessary to relegate all hockey games of the Olympics to MSNBC or CNBC. Really NBC? Come on.

Speaking of Olympics, I also had to miss watching the women's skicross. Man is that sport insane. What is lacking in your life to make you choose this as your sport? I don't know, but I hope I never find out. To top it off Canada won the gold and I didn't get to see it!!

It's all worth it though since Lost is taping and we all know my obsession with Lost.

However, spending my time watching American Idol whilst waiting for Mark to maybe be home in time to watch Lost has brought some thoughts to my mind. Will you let me share them with you?

1) Leggings and all forms of the "pant" - I'm talking to you jeggings - need to die, and do it quickly and quietly.

2) Didn't we already have a rebirth of 80's fashion a few years ago? Were the contestants not told about this? Or are they hoping to somehow keep it alive? While I am a larger than life fan of 80's music, the fashion should never be reproduced.

3) Idol should NEVER be watched live.

4) Once Idol hits the voting stage, why are there judges? It's not like they make a difference anyway. Unless they give them that judges save card again this season.

5) Randy should really be the judge that gets replaced. I'm not sure his comments contain enough nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc., to make up a proper, understandable sentence.

6) Kara reminds me of my friend and that's all I can think about when I see her.

7) Why people insist on singing songs by "Divas" and legends is beyond me. If you were as good as Whitney, Mariah, Madonna, Heart...would you be on Idol?

and lastly (and having absolutely nothing to do with Idol or Fox);

8) INXS is still my all-time favourite band. I don't listen to a lot of music these days and when I do, it's usually in the car for a short period of time. Lately I have come across a lot of INXS being played and it just reminds me of how good they were and how good they still are (minus lead singer issues). People might want to label them as an 80's band because that's when they had their big success, but take a listen. Those songs are timeless. It could be released today and would still be a hit. The two INXS concerts I saw while Michael Hutchence was alive were amazing. Anyway, if you're not too familiar with INXS, do yourself a favour and check out some of their songs, videos, concert footage...you won't be disappointed. For those of you who are familiar with them, do yourself a favour and revisit some songs. They just make you feel good!

Curtain Call

As I sat watching LOST last night, alone...I realized that I was very glad no one could see into my living room! Usually Markus is home and we watch it together but he was on the other side of the country, so it was just me, myself and I to marvel in the headache-inducing insanity. And boy oh boy was it headache-inducing. I have a tendency to get a little violent when watching Lost. Just ask Mark's arms and legs. I become slap happy. If I figure something out, or some crazy revelation is made, I slap him. He usually sits a seat cushion or two away from me to lessen the bruising. I am sure he was more than happy to watch the show in peace and quiet last night!

Sadly, I realized how much of an oddity I am last night. has anyone seen the Brendan Fraser clip from the Golden Globes a few weeks ago? See it here, if you haven't. I think I did that at one point during the first hour. Come the second hour, I gave up all pride and found myself sitting on the floor watching the rest of the show after having jumped up and clapped over some other piece of juiciness. While I sat there I realized how odd it was for me to be on the floor, but I just didn't care. For some reason, standing up when faced with such awesome revelations, made it that much more awesome for me. Sitting on the floor just made the whole thing even more edge of my seat.

Now the world knows my secret. I am an even larger nerd than you may have previously thought. Thankfully Mark has put up with me and my Lost antics for the past 5 seasons, hopefully this season I don't flat out punch him in the face during the finale.

So if you ever find yourself walking by my house Tuesday nights at 8:00...please don't peek in my windows!

Starting Early

First we take the World Juniors tonight....then we take the Gold in February!!! T is all ready to watch the game (if only it was broadcast on a channel we get in the US). Mom's ready too with her sweatshirt and jersey, but I don't think Dad will be donning his Canada hockey jersey with us.

(man is it hard to get this girl to pose)

Ways to Make the World Better

I don't know about you, but I think my life would be exponentially better if the following would just go away (girl, don't go away mad...just go away - thank you motley Crue!!)

Come to think of it, I think the entire world's life would be better if these two would just GO AWAY, we do not care! How these two became "celebrities" is beyond me. How they stay in the media is beyond me (a good PR person is my guess). But why they think anyone cares what they think, do or have to say is truly beyond me.

Now he is just sad. A reality TV show about you, your wife and 8 kids does not make you a celebrity. Hanging out with Michael Lohan definitely does not make you a celebrity. You're a 30 something year old father of 8 - buck up and take care of your kids instead of trying to be the celebrity you think you are (because you're not).

Wanted

As I sit here wiping my seemingly, never-ending runny nose, I have discovered what it is in life that I want. It's really quite simple actually, and I have wanted this for years...about 8 years to be exact. I don't remember when I first discovered this want, but I know it was probably some time around September 2001, maybe October, but not much after that.

Sadly, there are many reasons I will never have one of these for my very own, but if you don't mind, may I dream about it for just a second?

How nice it would be to have one of these when I come home, when I have an errand to be run, or when I have chores to be done. It would be so lovely to not worry about simple things, mundane things, messy things or day to day things. To have all of the little things taken care of, the extra things done without asking, the wheel oiled that makes the days go by.

I don't know how much I would have to pay, but I am thinking it wouldn't be a very high price tag, actually I could probably get one at a pretty good deal. Sure, there would be some work on my part, but nothing that would cause me to pause and debate my choice. Days would be filled with the things I wanted to do, hobbies, fun, work (if I wanted), trips...all things anyone would love to fill their days with right?

As I sit here, I am even more determined that this want should be mine. I can't think of one downfall to the addition of this to my life. Oh yes, I guess there is one downfall; I would have to move to Connecticut, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Vermont or Iowa...and I hate unpacking.

*Just in case the subtlety has gone over your head...I'd like a wife, but I can only get one in 4 states right now.

**And just in case...this post is totally facetious. Although it would be awesome to have a wife.

Are You Guilty?

Here's a fun article I read on cnn.com;

"Facebook, for better or worse, is like being at a big party with all your friends, family, acquaintances and co-workers.

There are lots of fun, interesting people you're happy to talk to when they stroll up. Then there are the other people, the ones who make you cringe when you see them coming. This article is about those people.

Sure, Facebook can be a great tool for keeping up with folks who are important to you. Take the status update, the 160-character message that users post in response to the question, "What's on your mind?" An artful, witty or newsy status update is a pleasure -- a real-time, tiny window into a friend's life.

But far more posts read like navel-gazing diary entries, or worse, spam. A recent study categorized 40 percent of Twitter tweets as "pointless babble," and it wouldn't be surprising if updates on Facebook, still a fast-growing social network, break down in a similar way.

Combine dull status updates with shameless self-promoters, "friend-padders" and that friend of a friend who sends you quizzes every day, and Facebook becomes a daily reminder of why some people can get on your nerves.

Here are 12 of the most annoying types of Facebook users:

The Let-Me-Tell-You-Every-Detail-of-My-Day Bore. "I'm waking up." "I had Wheaties for breakfast." "I'm bored at work." "I'm stuck in traffic." You're kidding! How fascinating! No moment is too mundane for some people to broadcast unsolicited to the world. Just because you have 432 Facebook friends doesn't mean we all want to know when you're waiting for the bus.

The Self-Promoter. OK, so we've probably all posted at least once about some achievement. And sure, maybe your friends really do want to read the fascinating article you wrote about beet farming. But when almost EVERY update is a link to your blog, your poetry reading, your 10k results or your art show, you sound like a bragger or a self-centered careerist.

The Friend-Padder. The average Facebook user has 120 friends on the site. Schmoozers and social butterflies -- you know, the ones who make lifelong pals on the subway -- might reasonably have 300 or 400. But 1,000 "friends?" Unless you're George Clooney or just won the lottery, no one has that many. That's just showing off.

The Town Crier. "Michael Jackson is dead!!!" You heard it from me first! Me, and the 213,000 other people who all saw it on TMZ. These Matt Drudge wannabes are the reason many of us learn of breaking news not from TV or news sites but from online social networks. In their rush to trumpet the news, these people also spread rumors, half-truths and innuendo. No, Jeff Goldblum did not plunge to his death from a New Zealand cliff.

The TMIer. "Brad is heading to Walgreens to buy something for these pesky hemorrhoids." Boundaries of privacy and decorum don't seem to exist for these too-much-information updaters, who unabashedly offer up details about their sex lives, marital troubles and bodily functions. Thanks for sharing.

The Bad Grammarian. "So sad about Fara Fauset but Im so gladd its friday yippe". Yes, I know the punctuation rules are different in the digital world. And, no, no one likes a spelling-Nazi schoolmarm. But you sound like a moron.

The Sympathy-Baiter. "Barbara is feeling sad today." "Man, am I glad that's over." "Jim could really use some good news about now." Like anglers hunting for fish, these sad sacks cast out their hooks -- baited with vague tales of woe -- in the hopes of landing concerned responses. Genuine bad news is one thing, but these manipulative posts are just pleas for attention.

The Lurker. The Peeping Toms of Facebook, these voyeurs are too cautious, or maybe too lazy, to update their status or write on your wall. But once in a while, you'll be talking to them and they'll mention something you posted, so you know they're on your page, hiding in the shadows. It's just a little creepy.

The Crank. These curmudgeons, like the trolls who spew hate in blog comments, never met something they couldn't complain about. "Carl isn't really that impressed with idiots who don't realize how idiotic they are." [Actual status update.] Keep spreading the love.

The Paparazzo. Ever visit your Facebook page and discover that someone's posted a photo of you from last weekend's party -- a photo you didn't authorize and haven't even seen? You'd really rather not have to explain to your mom why you were leering like a drunken hyena and French-kissing a bottle of Jagermeister.

The Maddening Obscurist. "If not now then when?" "You'll see..." "Grist for the mill." "John is, small world." "Dave thought he was immune, but no. No, he is not." [Actual status updates, all.] Sorry, but you're not being mysterious -- just nonsensical.

The Chronic Inviter. "Support my cause. Sign my petition. Play Mafia Wars with me. Which 'Star Trek' character are you? Here are the 'Top 5 cars I have personally owned.' Here are '25 Things About Me.' Here's a drink. What drink are you? We're related! I took the 'What President Are You?' quiz and found out I'm Millard Fillmore! What president are you?"

You probably mean well, but stop. Just stop. I don't care what president I am -- can't we simply be friends? Now excuse me while I go post the link to this story on my Facebook page.

SHOCK

Holy Crap!! Really??