Things That Baffle Me

1. People that talk on their cell phones while using public restrooms
2. People that litter
3. People that throw cigarette butts out their car windows during "explosive fire warning" days
4. People that are mean to little kids, old people, or animals
5. People that make stuff up to impress other people
6. People that don't give you a friendly wave after you let them in front of you in traffic
7. People that go hauling a$$ down the median when traffic is slow/stopped on the expressway
8. People that park their shopping carts in the middle of the aisle and just stand there blocking
9. The behavior of my garbage collectors
10. People who don't hold the door open when they know you are right behind them
11. People who don't wash their hands after going to the bathroom, especially in restaurants
12. People who talk on their cell phones in cars or restaurants
13. Other

If I had my own island, Taratopia, all of these things would be grounds for removal from the island. Maybe I'd let people have one warning first, but generally, poor citizenship would not be tolerated. Plus, there would be 4-day work weeks and 3-day weekends, mandatory nap time, and people would have to eat dinner with their families at least 5 times a week. I was going to make the island a Mustard-Free zone, but then Kev wouldn't come and live there with me. There would be no cars because it would be a small enough island to walk or ride a bike everywhere. There might be a trolley. I like trolleys. There would be owls. There would be no Jethro Tull music.

Wednesday Shout Out

Happy Birthday Dad!
You will be a great Grandpa!

Love, T., K., and the P.

Also, a very happy birthday to my friends Heather and Tracy, who have the same birthday as my dad.

The Pirate Ghost

This afternoon when I got home from working at my parents' house, I came in, checked email, put away some groceries, and other stuff. Then I went into the TV room, and noticed that right in the middle of the floor, there was a paper scary pirate mask that was left-over from a birthday party from 13 months ago. There was no reason for this mask to be in the middle of the TV room floor. I certainly didn't put it there, and I didn't remember seeing it before I left the house this morning. I didn't even know we still had it. So I was a little freaked out. I went to the back of the house to check if there were any bad guys or robbers in the bedroom or the bathroom. I checked to make sure the back door was locked. Then I checked to see if the stereo and tv were gone. Everything seemed just as I left it in the morning, with the exception of the scary pirate mask on the floor. So I called Kev at work and asked if he, by any chance, had been wearing the pirate mask last night and then forgotten to put it away, instead, leaving it on the floor. After all, he was up later than me, and who knows what he was up to. He was quite amused, and eventually, after milking my pirate ghost panic for as long as he could, told me it must have fallen out of one of the music books he'd been using. So, there was no pirate ghost (or bad guys or robbers) after all, and I continued with my Tuesday. The remainder of day has been pretty uneventful.

Crash

As predicted, my domestic groove came to a screeching halt during dessert, when I dropped and broke a bowl whilst serving ice cream. Luckily, I dropped it before I put any ice cream in it. It would have been a shame for any ice cream to go to waste.

Question: Does being pregnant make you clumsy? I keep dropping stuff. I hope I don't fall down.

Domestic Sunday

I have just finished making the first dress for the Peanut. I think it turned out pretty good, and I'd like to have one for myself. It is supposed to have a ruffle at the bottom, but I put in on backwards, so I just cut it off and did a straight hem. Next time, I will be more careful pinning on the ruffle. Things were going well, and I guess I got cocky. While sewing, I also put a brisket in the oven because my family is coming over for dinner to celebrate my dad's birthday. So it appears, at least for today, I am in a domestic groove. It is sure to be short-lived. I better take advantage of it and go clean something.

Meanwhile, Kev is practicing his trumpet. He is really getting good. I heard a very admirable attempt at some Squirrel Nut Zippers a minute ago. Now he is playing Taps. That always means trumpet practice is coming to a close. He must be having lip fatigue.

Best news of the day: It is FINALLY raining in Texas.

Perhaps I spoke too soon...

I am presently being treated to a late-morning performance by none other than the Rush Knucklehead. Fortunately, most of his loud obnoxious over-guitaring is being drowned out by construction noise. It is surprising that construction noise could possibly ever be preferable to anything, but in this case, it is. Keep those power saws going, fellas!

Belly

When I am transferring laundry from the washer to the dryer, I can no longer approach the washing machine head-on, but I have to come at it sideways because my belly is in the way. I think that's funny.

The Naked Running Man

One morning when I lived in my old apartment, the one with all the elderlies, I decided to walk down to Benny's Bagels for a breakfast sandwich, some coffee, and a newspaper. I used to go to Benny's a lot, because the bagels are pretty decent there, and because the guy who works there is nice. We don't know his name, we just call him Chef because he looks like Chef on Southpark. He is also the lowest of all low talkers in the histrory of low talkers. He makes Kev seem like a real loudmouth. Chef's mouth moves, but all that seems to come out is a low-frequency series of grumbly sounds. We learned quickly that we have to be very clear when placing our order with Chef, because if he has any questions, we won't know what he's asking. Anyway, I don't go there much anymore, because one day I was sitting at the bar by the window and I saw some ants. I don't care for ants, especially when they are near my food. But on this day, there were no ants, so I enjoyed my sandwich, coffee, paper, and visit with Chef, and headed home happy.

For some reason, I took a different route home than usual. I decided to walk up La Vista, which is a sort of busy street with mansions and stuff to look at. As I was walking, I noticed that a girl was walking toward me on the other side of La Vista, kinda by Swiss Ave, if you know the neighborhood. She was wearing a black t-shirt dress, which reminded me of high school. It got me to thinking about how during our junior year, a couple of times a week, Mrs. Harper, our first period Bible as Literature teacher, would parade my friend Whitney out into the hall and make her stand with her arms at her sides to see if her fingertips went beyond the bottom of her t-shirt dress or mini skirt. Inevitably, Whitney, who was lucky enough to be tall with long arms and fingers, would be sent home to change, while the rest of us discussed the literary merit of Jesus' parables, or somesuch. If I had been wearing the same thing, my fingertips wouldn't have come near the bottom, and I'd have had to stay. No danger of that, though. I pretty much only wore jeans and concert shirts that year.

So anyway, as I was thinking of poor Mrs. Harper, I started to notice that something about the girl across the street didn't look quite right. She looked very beaten down and forlorn, as if she'd had a really bad night the night before. Then, on closer inspection, I saw that she wasn't a girl at all. She was a dude! In a dress!. Now, this was too much.

By now, the dude in the dress was approaching the car wash, where a girl was spraying her car. I was just about directly across the street. Suddenly, the dude grabbed his dress at the bottom, and pulled it up over his head and took it off, and underneath he was COMPLETELY naked. All he was wearing now was some black tennis shoes, which he used to run down the alley behind the carwash, never to be seen again, at least by me. And thank goodness for that! It was quite a shocking sight on that nice sunny Saturday morning.

Anyway, then I saw some people a few houses up. They were having a garage sale, and they had a little kid, so I went and told them to keep an eye out because there was a naked man running around. And then I went home and probably called Kev.

I hope I haven't told this story before. I am starting to forget what I've already blogged. Have a good weekend, and watch out for streakers.

Weird

I just got home from Central Market, and when I got out of the car, noticed that my neighborhood smells like buttered popcorn.

My Bacon Number

Fun Fact:
I am no more than four degrees from Kevin Bacon. My friend Gordon was in a movie called Schtickmen with this dude named Oliver, who was in a movie with Laura Linney, who was in a movie with Kevin Bacon. And if the Oliver dude is the same Oliver dude I think he is, I've met him a few times before, which would put my Bacon number at three.

UPDATE: My Bacon number = 3. Just googled Oliver Tull, it's the same dude. I once played Smashball with Oliver in Teitze Park at a Shannon and Troy picnic.

Fun with Sewing

So, the other day, Kev told me I should make something for the baby. I was going to crochet something, but my crochet skills are pretty limited. Then, I was going to go to the cool MAKE store from previous blogs, because I saw they had classes on to make crib sets, but now they don't have those classes anymore, so I am going to take a screen-printing class, but that's another story. Anyway, today, I went to the fabric store to look for something to make for the baby, and I found this inexpensive and easy pattern for a little shirt-dress and jeans combo. I bought enough fabric to make 4 shirts (one for 9 months and three for 12 months), and two jeans (one for 9 months and one for 12 months). For the shirts, I got two groovy floral 60s-looking prints, one print with little duckies, and one with a sort of western paisley print. I am so excited. I wanted a monkey print, but I couldn't find one.

I also saw lots of patterns for baby-room accessories, so after we figure out our decor, I may go back and get one of those.

I hope I don't have any sewing disasters. Last night, I almost had a cooking disaster. I made some beef and barley soup, which was pretty tasty. The left-overs were designated for tonight's pot-pies, but as I was pouring the soup from the pot to the tupperware container, the handle slipped and I dropped the pot. There was soup all over the floor, and we were expecting company in 10 minutes. Luckily, I caught the pot and saved most of the soup, and Kev was there to clean up the floor. But it could have been bad. I typically don't handle cooking disasters very well.

I went to the prenatal yoga class at the hospital fitness center the other night. It was so great. I felt like a noodle after it was over. I wish I could go every day.

That's about it. Sorry this blog is boring and mommy-intensive. Next time, maybe I will blog about the completely naked man who ran down the street one day.

Nothing to Blog About

After winning the Dread Pirate (tm) and finding out the Peanut is a girl, the rest of the week has seemed pretty uneventful. I can't think of anything really blogworthy to blog a blog about. The constant battle with our trash collectors must be getting old to you guys by now. Let's see...

Oh. Yesterday, a complex of condos where I used to live caught on fire. It was a six-alarmer, and over 100 people are homeless now. I couldn't tell on the news if my old building was involved, but the whole thing is freaking me out a little. I lived there for a long time. Luckily, it seems no one was hurt, although one lady may have lost her cat, which is horrible. Especially if it turns out the fire was caused by someone being irresponsible and careless.
I lived in some apartments before I married Kev which were mostly occupied by the elderly. I was in constant fear that one of them would fall asleep (or worse) with a lit cigarette and burn us all up. The one exception to the elderly, was a younger girl that lived right upstairs from me. She was stompy. But the worst part was that every Friday and Saturday night, she went out, and that meant going through her pre-going-out ritual, which involved stomping even more while listening to either Journey's Greatest Hits or (good grief) Huey Lewis and the News at top volume. I'm glad I don't live there anymore. It's quieter here, and there's no one to burn us up with their careless smoking habits. Even the Rush Knucklehead has been quiet lately. Last time I heard him was on a Sunday morning at about 8:30. It lasted about 5 minutes, and my guess is somebody finally told him to knock it off. Haven't heard a Canadian Power Anthem since.

Well, maybe something interesting will happen this weekend. There is potential baby accessory shopping, which could lead to a bloggable tale or two.

PPHPHB Story

We sent a copy of PPHPHB Vol.3 to my friend Tracy in San Antonio. She was listening to it while she was driving her 4th grade son, Shane, to school. When Blue Christmas came on, Shane said, "Is THAT Kevin?" and Tracy said, "No, that's Kevin's dad." And Shane said, "Elvis is Kevin's dad???!"

Heh heh.

And the Winner is...

So, apparently, Marty owes Kim one movie with popcorn and candy and a drink, because as most of you know by now, we found out this morning that the Peanut is in fact a Peanutess. The even better news is that she is doing well and growing just like she is supposed to and everything is where it should be. We are very pleased and excited (and relieved). And an added bonus is that we have been having a MUCH easier time thinking of girl names than boy names, so that decision should be a little less complicated. Alas, no Ramekin or Plaul.

We got to bring home a video of the whole sonogram. Modern technology is pretty amazing, I tell you what. The baby was squirming around all over the place, but the doctor managed to find everything he was looking for. They told us the baby has long legs, so maybe she will be nice and tall like Kev, and play soccer too, since she is so kicky. It's gonna be a long time until June. Don't know if I can stand the wait.

By the way - thanks for all the input on the baby accessories poll. It is really helpful.

I am anxious to hear which movie Kim will choose...

Quick unrelated note to Kim and Marty - we made popcorn and it was good.

Oh, I Almost Forgot...

to tell you guys that on Saturday, I beat Kev and LarryFeathers at the Dread Pirate (TM) game, even though they kept making fun of me and calling me the Whiney Pirate, and even though I have generally poor Pirating skills. Aarghhh.

January

Yesterday when it was January 6, Kev and I went to White Rock lake to take a short walk and look at good birds like pelicans and cormorants and ducks and night herons. While we were there, I got HOT, and then we got ice cream from the ice cream man (Fudge-Banana Bomb Pop!). People were flying kites and racing their sailboats. Did I mention it was JANUARY?

I told Kev it must be good to be the ice cream man, because everywhere you go, happy people come running toward you, smiling and waving money. But Kev reminded me that if you are the ice cream man, you have to listen to the ice cream man theme song ALL DAY LONG. That would be a beating. I think maybe the ice cream man union should lobby for getting some new songs so they can have variety, and thus be happier and more productive.

Monday Informal Poll

Hello, and this is for people with kids. Kev and I are about to have to start shopping for baby accessories, and I would like to know what you think are the top 5 things we MUST have, as well as the things you think are a waste of money and completely unnecessary. We know we have to have a crib/changing table and clothes and stuff. But I am talking about all the extra stuff they (the baby industry) make you think you have to buy. Thanks for the help!

PS. Please don't say we don't need a baby monitor, because Kev is AGAINST baby monitors and I am FOR baby monitors, and if you say we don't need one, Kev will say,"SEE! I told you we don't need a baby monitor," and then I'll really have my work cut out for me trying to get one. Thanks.

Gosh!

Do you like Napolean Dynamite and his best friend Pedro? Then you will like their commercials for the Utah State Fair by following this link:
http://jakehilton.com/2005/09/02/napoleon-dynamite-videos

There are three videos and five audio clips. My favorite is the last one, Pedro's song. Pedro has rhyming skills. Thanks to Larry for sending these to me.

Dream Theater*

My dreams tend to be about one of two things. Either I dream of some kind of disasterous attempt to get from Point A to Point B, like being in an elevator when the cable breaks, or being on a plane that is crashing; or I dream about wildlife, often in peril, sometimes not. Over the past few months, I have had several, like at least 6 or 7, dreams about seeing an owl in the wild, and then running around excitedly telling people, "I have finally seen a real owl in the wild!," only to wake up and be sad that it's not true.
Even though it is usually not very interesting to hear about other people's dreams, I am going to blog about the one I had last night because it is all I can think of to blog about today, and you guys are probably kinda sick of Christmas Talk and Peanut Talk. So last night, I had this dream that I was suddenly back in 1997 or 1998 or sometime around there...late 90s. Anyway, so I had to decide what to do since I knew the future, and suddenly I thought, "I must save Peter Jennings!" So I decided I would go to Peter Jennings and tell him to go to the doctor and have his lungs checked, and tell him that whatever he did, not to start smoking again after September 11. Then Dream Tara thought, hey, wait a minute...September 11, I can STOP September 11! So in my dream I was urgently trying to come up with a plan for how to save Peter Jennings, and then get people to believe me about September 11, and then I woke up and had to go to the bathroom, which has become a thrice-nightly occurence (please somebody tell me my bladder will go back to normal after the baby comes). Then when I got back to bed, I started thinking about how of all things I could change, the first thing I thought of was Peter Jennings, and then I thought about in just those few years between 1998 and now, how many bad things could have been stopped, or people could have been saved from like the tsunami and Katrina, and so forth. And this kept me awake for a while, but I finally went back to sleep until the next time I had to go to the bathroom. I think I'd rather dream of owls.

* Dream Theater is a really terrible band that you might like if you are into Rush and Queensryche, but feel like listening to something harder. Dude. They probably actually spell "theater" with an -re, like theatre.

Three Reasons to be Happy Today

1. Texas beat USC. Woo-hoo!
2. John Stewart will host the Oscars (Chris Rock = Not Funny)
3. The Office is back tonight.

Final Week of Mystery

One week from today, Kev and I get to find out if the Peanut is a boy or a girl. So if you were planning to wager, you better get your bets in quick-like, because it won't be long until the mystery is solved. I can't wait.

Whatever it is, it has started doing a little kick-boxing routine, which is nice and kinda tickles. I am pretty sure this was brought on by Kev's delicious New Year's Gumbo.

I hope all y'all are off to a good start in 2006. Happy New Year!

Part 6 - Meet George Jetson, His Boy Satchmo?

I have spent the morning putting away Christmas. I usually feel very sad on Christmas-Tree-Putting-Away-Day, and have post holiday let-down. But this year, I have a lot to keep me busy and a lot to look forward to, so I feel pretty OK about it. Anyway, I thought since Christmas is put away, I better finish up How I Spent My Christmas Vacation once and for all. I shall try to be brief.

When December 26 rolls around, the fun is over for most people, but not us, because that day is Kev's birthday. This year, I got him a trumpet, and I'll be a monkey's uncle if he isn't already getting pretty good at it. The initial honking has decreased tremendously, and yesterday, I overheard him (how could I help but overhear him?!) playing a pretty good likeness of "Come Back to Sorrento." So, I am pleased that he likes his trumpet and that he is making such a real effort to learn to play it. I am hoping that if he puts his mute on, it will be quiet enough for a trumpet/melodica duet.

Kev's dad had been just about to explode with excitement for Kev to open the birthday gift from him. He gets more excited about Christmas and birthdays than anyone I know. So we didn't know what to expect, except that it was most likely something futuristic. And indeed it was! We were pleasantly surprised when Kev opened a small camera which attaches to your computer so you can have video conferences with others who also have cameras. It is just like on the Jetsons. Below, you can see us talking to Kim and Marty, all the way in L.I.N.Y. (Kev's sisters each got one too). These things are great. It is so much more like a real visit than a phone call. We used it to talk to the whole family on Kev's birthday, and it was almost like being right there at the house. We got to see everybody, including the dogs, and show them our Christmas toys. It will be great when the baby comes. There are a couple of small issues, like people talking at the same time, and occasional computer glitches that freeze people on the screen. But overall, it is really cool. And there is an endless amount of silly camera schtick, like fake-walking-down-the-steps and crashing the Starship Enterprise camera angles, etc. that you can do when you run out of stuff to talk about. Everybody should get one of these, especially if you have out-of-town friends and family.
I don't know if I have mentioned the ridiculous unseasonably warm weather we are having. But I guess if it isn't going to snow for Christmas, it might as well go ahead and be sunny and 72 so that we can grill out and have birthday picnics in December. Since I can't bowl at the moment, Kev decided he wanted to have a birthday steak. So he grilled one, and a hamburger for me, and we ate in the back yard. It was really nice to spend the afternoon outside.
So, overall, I think Kev had a pretty good birthday and Christmas in spite of being so far from home and not having any snow. And THAT is how I spent my Christmas Vacation. The end.

Part 5 - Christmas Goes on...

Christmas Eve continued with a great giant dinner at my parents' house. It was some good eats, just like Thanksgiving. After dinner, we played the Dread Pirate(TM) game with my dad and LarryFeathers. It is a really cool game where you get to have a pirate ship and sail around having skirmishes with other pirates and invading islands and collecting jewels and doubloons. I was a pretty terrible pirate, and by that I mean weak and inefficient. I lost all my skirmishes and most of my invasions were complete failures. Sometimes, it is possible to become the Dread Pirate, which is good because you get special priviliges and extra treasures. Kev was the dread pirate for most of the game, and he ended up winning (as usual). I don't know if I would like being the Dread Pirate, because everyone gangs up on you, and I would probably take it personally. Anyway, it is a really fun game, and I want to play again because we didn't even get to use hostages and mutinies and other interesting rules.

On Christmas morning, we went back to my parents' house for Christmas breakfast tacos (mmm...) and more gifts. My family got us lots of nice things, some for us and some for the baby, including several things called "receiving blankets" which I got laughed at for asking what do you do with these? Apparently, you use them to wrap your baby up like a human burrito, which keeps them calm and happy. I am glad I don't have to be wrapped up in one of these blankets, as I like to be able to move my arms and legs about at will. But they are very very soft, and some have little ducks on them, and I do like that. LarryFeathers gave us a nice bird clock and some money to start a college fund for the baby, which was really cool. After gifts, we all watched Napolean Dynamite, which may have confused my parents, then ate more food, and then Kev and I went home. It was a very nice day. Thanks to everyone for the nice gifts.

Coming up next...Birthday Fun for K...

Penguin Update

Here is a photo I received today of Tula, my adopted penguin, in her burrow on Isla Magdalena off the coast of Chile. The good Dr. Bingham informed me via email that the penguins there have finished laying their eggs, which should hatch in 40 days, at which point I will hear from him again. I also got a map to her burrow and a photo of her colony. This is so cool. Tula looks like a very nice and serene little penguin.

Part 4 - Art.

We received this great note from my cousin Jakob. He is 8. He is my pal because he is cool and likes Samurai Jack and Napolean Dynamite. And he can draw really good elves with sunglasses. I do not know if he got all 16 things he wanted for Christmas.

Part 3 - The Instrument for Me

Traditionally, on the years we stay in Texas for the holidays, Kev and I open our gifts to each other on Christmas Eve, and that was the case this year. We got up and ate breakfast, and began what would become a marathon three days of presents. Some of you may remember back in the spring when I went to see Elvis Costello, and witnessed the melodica-playing genius of the great Steve Nieve. I believe I bogged extensively about the melodica, and how I believed it was the instrument for me. Well, kev got me one for Christmas, and I was proven right! It IS the instrument for me, in fact, it may be the intrument for everyone! It is so fun and easy to play, and it has a pretty good sound too, sort of like an accordian. You can either play it using a mouthpiece on one end (which is the right way), or you can use the melodica tube, as seen in the photo below, so you can hold it on your lap for easier chord-playing or two-handed playing. It is a little hard at first to stop from laughing at how the tube makes you look like you are some kind of hospital patient, or that you are smoking the melodica. But once you stop laughing, it is a lot of fun to play, especially when you can play duets...

...with Kev on his new baritone ukulele (below). So, it was a very housepants Christmas Eve as you can see.
I also got some other nice gifts from Kev, including 50 tulip bulbs which I will be planting in the front yard, and some very cute outfits for the Peanut. I am officially declaring myself the easiest person on the planet to buy gifts for. Mostly because of this blog , I think. People who read it know what I like and what I don't like, and it makes it pretty easy for anyone who happens to be my secret Santa. Last year, it was my brother-in-law Marty, who did a fabulous job of giving me a very Tara pile of gifts. And this year, my other brother-in-law Pat did the same.
If the above photo was a little bigger, you would see that I am dressed completely in Sock Monkey-wear, including slippers. They are very cute and soft and comfortable, and I love them. And you would also see that in my hands I am holding a piece of paper which, when unrolled, informed me that I am the proud adoptive sponsor of my very own Magellanic penguin in the Faulkland Islands. (I cried when I read the paper). On Christmas Day, I received an email from the penguin people, with lots of information about my penguin and others like it. They are in peril, so this adoption is to help them out. I got to then name my penguin. I didn't know if it was male or female, so I emailed the good Dr. Bingham (the penguin guy) and told him to please name it Arturo if it is a male, or Tula if it is a female. He emailed back and said, "Tara, we have called her Tula." So thanks to Pat, I now have a penguin named Tula (which is from a Buena Vista Social Club song). And I will be sent photos and updates and a map to Tula's burrow should I decide to go and visit her. What a perfect gift. Thanks Pat (and Darlene, who probably helped at least a little) for being a great secret Santa.

Part 4 coming soon...more Christmas.

Part 3 - Coming Soon

Stay tuned for tales of trumpets, penguins, baby stuff, the real-life Jetsons, steak, and, at long last, the instrument for me...

Part 2 - Tamales con Amigas

On the Friday before Christmas, I went over to my friend Shannon's mom's house to learn the fine art of tamale-making. Shannon's mom (white shirt) is from Mexico, and was nice enough to spend a whole day teaching me, Shannon (pink shirt), Julie (orange shirt), and Shannon's daughter Collin how to make tamales. It is a long and involved process, which I am happy to report did NOT involve pig-face, or the face of any animal, for that matter. We spent several hours making tamales, and I finally had to stop and say I just can't do this anymore. We probably made at least 150 tamales. Then we ate some. They were good. So, a very special thanks to Mrs. S. for the tamale lessons, and maybe in a few years I will have the desire to make more tamales. Mostly, it was fun hanging out with my friends, which I don't get to do much, especially since Shannon lives out there in Los Angeles. Later that night, I went to see the Family Stone movie with Shannon and her sister. It is a movie that Kev would probably never agree to go see, and he wouldn't have liked it, so that was OK. It was a pretty good movie, but hard to watch because we were sitting on the front row on account of everyone in Garland was at the new AMC that night and it was crowded. It would be good if Shannon came to town more often.

How I Spent My Christmas Break - Part 1

Well, Christmas has come and gone, with nary a moment to blog. This photo is from the day of Kev's already-blogged-about company Christmas party, which is the event that really started off the holiday season. You can see the clean-looking house and neatly stacked gifts under the tree. This environment of serenity was short-lived, and eventually replaced by chaos. But it was a good Christmas, and I will share some of the highlights here, for anyone who happens to be interested.

Happy Birthday!

A very special happy birthday to Kev.

Have a great birthday!

We love you,
T and the Peanut.

PS: Next year, we bowl.

WooHoo!

It appears that the ANWR is safe again for now. Take that, Senator Stevens! Dirty tricks will get you nowhere. Turkey.

Hooray for Larry Feathers!

A very special Happy Birthday to Larry Feathers, who was born on this day in 1972, and was brought home on Christmas Eve, and things have never been the same.

In honor of Larry Featherses birthday, I was gonna post a link to his theme song, but I don't know how, so I will try to get that on here for you later tonight or tomorrow when Kev can help me.

Happy Birthday!

No Tip for You!

Our neighborhood garbage collectors were just here, and as you can see, they took no care in replacing our neighbor's cans on the curb. Rather, they threw them in the general direction of the house, violently knocking down a decorative Christmas lawn candy cane. At least this time, the cans are not in the street or blocking the driveway. As you can also see, our neighbors no longer bother putting lids on their cans, probably because they've been squashed by cars when left in the street. No tip for these turkeys. Booooo!

Company Christmas Party

Yesterday, Kev and I went to his company Christmas Party. It was held at a place called the Allen Heritage Center, which turned out to be a little building that looks like a train depot. It took us a while to find it. So, we figured out where it was, and as we were walking up to the building, we saw a lady sitting in a chair about 20 yards from the door, smoking. As we approached, she greeted us NOT with Merry Christmas, NOT with a hearty Welcome to the Party, but with the very puzzling question, "Do you like snakes?" I was confused by the whole scene. My first thought was that she was a snake sales-lady who thought it would be strategic to sit outside a company Christmas party in hopes of finding a few customers who needed snakes to complete their holiday shopping. Kev thought maybe it was some sort of code or password thing to get into the party. So I said, "Huh?" The lady repeated, "Do you like snakes?" So I said, "Um, they're OK." And then she told us to go inside because they were having a snake demonstration, and that was why she was OUTside. Apparently, she does NOT like snakes, so much so that she would rather sit outside in the cold, far far away from the building, and smoke. So, we went in, and sure enough, there was a room full of engineers and their families, completely captivated by a man dressed in black, who was making lawyer jokes while handling gigantic pythons and boas and so forth. Not your typical Christmas Party entertainment, but I tell you what, he was really great. He did magic tricks and told corny jokes and taught us things about snakes, and everyone loved it. The smoking lady really missed a treat.

After the snake guy finished his show, it was time to get on line for Dicky's Barbecue. Mmm-mmm. It was good eats! Dicky's has a fine sauce, just the right amount of spicy. Plus, there was pie and cookies and brownies and cobbler. It was great. We sat down and who ends us sitting at our table but the president of the company and his wife (of the famous mystery Christmas card incident of last week). It was a little intimidating, but they were really nice and easy to talk to and not at all snooty. I liked them.

Finally, just as people were starting to leave, who appears but this guy Mark, dressed as Santa. He was great. All the little kids got SO excited. This one little girl couldn't stop jumping up and down. Mark/Santa walked around giving them all hugs, then got them to sing a couple of Christmas songs, and passed out some toys and candy. It almost made me cry. It was the best company Christmas party I've ever been to.

Kev worked for the last three years at a different company. They threw very elaborate Christmas parties with expensive dinners and long speeches. One year, they had a casino night. Another year they put us all up in a hotel in Fort Worth. Very impressive, huh? But many, not ALL, but MANY of the people in this company were people of questionable character, and their fabulous parties reflected nothing but their flashiness and insincerity. This party yesterday was family-friendly, down-home, and sincere, and I couldn't be happier that Kev works with good people now.

Ooh, plus there was macaroni and cheese, which I have been craving for a MONTH!

For more info on Daryl Sprout, the snake guy, go to:
www.SnakeEncounters.com

Some Good News

Special Shout Out to Darlene and Patrick, who are having a baby 5 weeks after me. A new cousin for little "The Baby Never Officially Known As Ramekin." Yay!

By the way, I may get in trouble for this, but my mom thought a ramekin was a kind of cheap noodle. Heehee.

Alaska

Well, the underhanded trickery of tacking oil drilling onto a bill which has NOTHING to do with it has worked, as the Defense Spending bill passed the House, opening the way for drilling in the ANWR. This is not unexpected, as very few people are going to vote in a way which seems unsupportive of our troops. (By the way, I am pretty sure Hurricane Relief is also part of this bill, also something people don't want to get caught voting against). Now it has to pass the Senate though, and we are hoping for a fillibuster. Not sure when this is gonna go down, but I will keep you posted.

I just don't understand how they can get away with this kind of random attachment of unrelated things to bills. There should have to be a clear theme. Stupid government turkeys. I need some coffee.

Rant Warning

Sometimes things get me down, but I can say to myself, "just get over it, it doesn't have anything to do with you," and I can move on. Things like the Mavericks losing in the play-offs, or the Rangers trading good players, or good shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm getting stale. It sucks, but oh well. No big deal, really.

But some things get me down, and I can't just blow them off, so I get mad and stay mad and it messes me up. Last night I got a shockingly disturbing email, and I woke up this morning thinking about it, and it blossomed into this whole big laundry list of stuff that makes me mad and I couldn't go back to sleep. I am afraid I am sending bad anger chemicals to the baby, so I thought if I blogged it, I could try to move on and enjoy my recently found groove / Christmas Spirit. So, I'm not trying to start a debate, I am just venting. You don't have to read this if you don't want to. There will be no funny quotes about beans.

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you know how I feel about Alaska and its wildlife and indiginous people. And you know how happy I was when good brave moderate republican senators did away with trying to sneak drilling in the ANWR into the budget. But the bad sneaky ones are at it again, this time trying to include Arctic Drilling in a bill that funds the troops! How underhanded is that?! The vote goes down today, and I fear the worst, because it is going to take some real bravery to vote against something that will cause people to scream UNPATRIOTIC at them. This is how the government works, I'm afraid. Sneaky, underhanded, and misleading. it is disgusting. And it goes on all the time. I have a close relative who works for the government, and every time I talk to him, I hear stories of mismanaged people, time, and funds. I hear about ridiculous wasteful spending and I hear about various loopholes they find and use to get around acting appropriately. Knowing this stuff kinda makes it hard to believe people who say things like, "Oh no, of course we don't torture." Why should I believe that? I'm sure they've found ways to get around those rules too. Ugh. It just really gets me down, man. Plus, for some reason, the current administration is completely unwilling to listen to the scientists of the world about climate change, and this affects us all. Are conservatives afraid of science? Do they think if they listen to scientists, it is un-Christian? I'll tell you what, I don't think God it too terribly happy about what is happening to the nice planet he created for us. I hate politics. I hate all this conservative/liberal crap and party affiliations that tell you what you have to be for and against. This is why I am an Independent. Me, General Tommy Franks, the next Governer of Texas Kinky Friedman, and Hermey the elf-dentist.

I don't know if I feel any better. I am worried about today's vote. But I am going to try to think happy thoughts and send good chemicals to the baby, and continue with my Christmas groove.

Christmas Tip

Ok, so what's the story with tipping the mail carrier? I mean, if anyone deserves a tip, it's probably the mail carriers of the world. Their job is hard. They have to go out and walk around in the snow and rain, and even worse, the HEAT. And, at least in my neighborhood, they bring the mail all the way up to the porch so we can get our mail with minimal walking. So I wouldn't be opposed to tipping them. But how much? And here's a problem: We have about three or four different carriers that do our route. So I don't know what to do.

And what about the garbage collectors? Do they ever get a holiday tip? Not that I'd tip ours. Ours are terrible. They empty the cans, and then throw the cans all willy-nilly into the yard or the street or wherever they happen to land. People's cans are always getting blown down the street by wind, or run over by cars, all because of these lazy garbage collectors. They take no pride at all in their work. Kev used to want to be a garbage man when he was little. I don't think it was so much about the garbage as it was about the cool big truck. I tell you what, though. If Kev was a garbage man, he'd be about the best garbage man ever. He would take good care of people's cans, and place them back on the curb where he got them. Anyway, if you happen to have good garbage collectors, do you tip them?

Are there others that we are supposed to tip at Christmas?

Do you think Martha Stewart tips her mail carrier?

Feelin' Groove-y

In spite of my recent set-backs, there appears to be evidence that I am getting my groove back.
Consider the following:

• My Christmas shopping is done except for one easy thing I can get tomorrow.
• Everything for Kev's family has been wrapped and shipped to NY.
• Everything for my family is wrapped and under the tree.
• Kev's gifts, which are hidden in an undisclosed location, will be wrapped by this time tomorrow.
• I made all of my Christmas cards, and have sent out most of them (the rest require Kev's attention).
• Last night, I cooked a real meal.

So, either I am getting my groove back, or I am just in Hyper-Holiday Mode brought on by the pressure of deadlines. Either way, I am exhausted, and looking forward to coasting through the rest of the Christmas season.

Well, time to try to find some comfortable enough pants to wear to work. I may break out the Full-Panel maternity pants today. I wish I could declare HousePants Day at the office.

Update

The mystery family in the Chrismas photo belongs to the president of Kev's company, so I will cut them a little slack because the company pres probably SHOULD send cards to all the employees/contractors. The company Christmas party is this weekend, and I am nervous because I haven't met any of the people and I am not very good at meeting new people and I can't remember people's names anymore. But there is going to be BBQ, so that's good. Also, there is going to be entertainment, but we don't know what. Kev thinks it is one of the guys from work doing Neil Diamond karaoke. That's fine by me. I just hope it isn't a clown. By the way, creepiest clown ever: Ronald McDonald. Ugh.

Also, I'm glad I went ahead and cooked the beans. They were tasty, and Kev even said Emeril would be proud. You should have seen the Bananas Foster Bread Pudding that Emeril made last night. I have requested it for my next birthday. Emeril needs to get some new catch phrases. His schtick is getting a little tired. In fact, if you were a frat boy, you could probably make up a pretty successful drinking game out of watching that show. Be that as it may, he has some really great recipes, and he's a pretty good teacher. And he is really nice to kids. So that's something.

Shopping A to Z

Who sang Shopping A to Z? Was it Cyndi Lauper? Toni Basil? Whoever it was, I am pretty sure it was a terrible song. But today, that's just what I did, and I am wiped out. Ready for bed and it isn't even 4:00 yet. And I still have to cook dinner. I would just order out, but my beans have been soaking all day and I reckon they need to be cooked.

Anyway, the Dallas Morning News is always showing pictures of stuff from a shop called Forty-Five Ten in their shopping/lifestyle features. It is usually really cute stuff, and I have always wanted to go in there, but until today I never did. So today, I went up to the door and got a bad vibe, but I went in anyway and I will tell you right now I will never go back to that place. It was totally shishi, with a bunch of super-model clothes and fancy soap and $68.00 candles*, and not one single person who worked in there greeted me or asked if I needed help. They all just ignored me completely as if I wasn't there. I don't think I looked the part. I nearly "boo-ed" loudly on the way out, but I chickened out and boo-ed quietly to myself while vowing to tell the world, or at least the blog, what a snobby crappy store it is. So don't go to Forty-Five Ten. It even has a pretentious name. Booooooo.

*I know how to make candles, and I can assure you that these $68.00 ones only cost about a dollar to make. Where do they get off?

Over the weekend, we went to see Walk the Line, and unless you hate Johnny Cash, you will probably really like this movie. It is very good. I'd give it at least 4 out of 5 penguins in my penguin movie rating system. Plus I got to have a BBQ chicken wrap and sweet potato fries while we were at the Studio Movie Grill.

Last night we watched Willie Wonka (the real one) on ABC family channel, and they cut out the part where they ride on the crazy boat. That's not right. Did anyone see the Johnny Depp one? Was there singing in that one?

Today we got a Christmas card from a family and I have NO IDEA who they are. It is really bugging me. It's one of those photo cards they make at Target or Walmart, and there on the card is this nice family of five all posed for their holiday picture, and on the back is a little description of what the 3 kids are up to these days, and I have never seen nor heard of them before. The only thing I can figure is that it is someone from Kev's work. I'm sort of against sending your personal family photo Christmas card to everyone from the whole office, even if you don't know them. It seems a little weird or insincere or something.

Well, I got a pot of beans awaiting me in the kitchen, and they ain't gonna cook themselves. Louisiana Red Beans and Rice with cornbread is on the meal plan for tonight. I won't even tell you how much I struggled with the meal plan this week. P.A.D.D., I tell you what.

Feelin' 7-Up...

Last night we watched Repo Man which I probably haven't seen for about 15 years. Frankly, it doesn't stand the test of time. This oft-quoted sci-fi punk movie was a staple of my college years. But last night, all the quotes that were so funny at the time, seemed really lame. I still laughed, not because it was funny, but becauses it reminded me of my friends that couldn't go a day without saying, "Let's go get sushi and not pay," or "Hi I'm Kevin, vaccuum sir?," or ,"Rodrigez brothers."
So much of the stuff we thought was great back then, probably really wasn't that great at all. But that's OK.

Question: Do the kids today still go around quoting film dialogue? Do they sit around at Denny's saying lines from "Mean Girls" or that Eminem movie?

Feel free to comment with your favorite movie quote. Please no swear words.

Here it Comes...

Here is the picture they show on the news before weather updates. It is accompanied by dramatic music. Now, I'll give you that it's really cold and it is going to sleet, but come on. The reason we have to make such a big deal out of this is that Texas is completely unprepared for temperatures below 40, and so any winter weather is huge. It's the same every year. "Tonight at 10, we'll tell YOU how to prepare for the WINTER BLAST." Then they show some people in Wal Mart buying a hat and some duraflame logs. "And don't forget the 3 P's: Pets, pipes, and plants!" Or something like that. Then they post newscasters all over town who report, "Yep, it's cold." "I think I saw a flurry." "I just saw an SUV do a 360 here on the overpass. Back to you, Chuck." It's kinda funny. Then again, I cancelled my afternoon clients, so who am I to say anything. Be careful out there.

Brief Window of Opportunity

Our DSL is very flakey lately. It has been down all day, but is working at the moment, so I am taking the opportunity to blog.

Today I went to breakfast with my friend John_Clarke. We went to Mecca, and it was quite a pilgrimage. It took like an hour to get there because some truck spilled a bunch of sand all over Northwest Highway and caused traffic to suck. But the food was good and it was worth the inconvenience.

Channel Five Chief Meteorologist David Finfrock is all a-flutter because we are expecting a possible "wintery mix" tomorrow. I will believe it when I see it, but I'm hoping for snow. All of you readers from the north would be making so much fun of us if you could see the weather reports down here, as if the BIG BLIZZARD is coming. Anyway, it is nice to finally have some cold Christmas-y weather. It was 89 on Saturday. That's practically 90!

Another Christmas toy party has come and gone, and in spite of my P.A.D.D., it went off without a hitch, and seemed to be a success. I had a lot of help from Kev, so thanks to him. He managed to pull off quite a feat himself, by getting the PPHPHB Vol. III CD ready in time for the party. I hope people will like it. It features lots of guests, which makes it more fun. On a related note, I was happy to see that somebody down-loaded "Sock Monkey Man" from Soundclick yesterday, which I feel is one of the more under-appreciated PPHPHB songs. I often wonder whatever became of the Sock Monkey Man, especially after Katrina and all.

Question: Does anyone know the origin of the phrase, "What the Sam Hill...?" Who is Sam Hill? And why do some people say Sam Hill, and others say Sam Hell? I am so sad that I can't ask the great Glenn Mitchell. He would know, I betcha.

Note to Marty: Can we get a field report on the status of Official LRHS Minor League Baseball Player, Tim Rall? Winter Meetings got underway yesterday, but I haven't heard much about the goings-on.

So, I'm gonna publish this now, because I fear a DSL breakdown.

Lay It on the Li-eee-ine

If you ask anyone, "Who is your second favorite caterwauling Canadian rock trio?," their answer nine times out of ten will be Triumph. So one time in the 80's I went to see Triumph with a couple of my friends. Now, since it was the 80s, it was cool at the time to wear black rubber "Madonna" bracelets as far up your arms as possible. I reckon about twenty or so on each arm was about average. So there we were at the Triumph show with our Madonna bracelets. The show started and went about like all rock shows: hit, hit, new song, new song, hit, long guitar solo, long drum solo, hit with audience participation part (Now YOU sing!), unexpected cover song, hit, etc. Somewhere near the end, a stage rush is inevitable, and as usual, my friends and I ended up smashed up against the barrier in front of the stage. Then my friends got this wacky idea, and they started shooting Madonna bracelets like rubber bands at Rik Emmet, singer of Triumph. I may or may not have tried to stop them. Rik Emmet did not think this was cool. So next thing I knew, he was bent over us with a very mean look on his face. Then he held up one of his fingers at us while mouthing a swear word that starts with "f" and then he jerked his thumb toward stage left while mouthing the word "off." I was crushed. I didn't want Triumph to dislike me or my friends.
On the way home, we listened to the concert play-back on Q102. They were interviewing Rik Emmet about the show, which he said was great except for the stupid girls throwing stuff at him. I'm not sure, but I don't think Triumph has ever come back to Dallas.
And that is the story about how we got cussed out by the band at the arena rock show in front of thousands of people. Stupid Madonna. I like her now though.

Close Encounters

Thirteen weeks down, more to go than I care to think about. I am now in the second trimester, and just as everyone said, I am starting to get my energy back. The exhaustion has been replaced by what can only be described as pregnancy-induced A.D.D. I cannot seem to concentrate on anything for more than 30 seconds, and this is bad because I have a lot of stuff that needs concentrating on. For example, I am having a party this weekend, but I have not done one thing to prepare for it except buy a bag of Holiday M-n-Ms at Target. I know it's not a party without M-n-Ms, but at the same time, I'm SURE it's not a party with ONLY M-n-Ms. I have also not accomplished much in the way of Christmas shopping, and I'm usually almost done by now. I have get on the ball, because we have to ship a lot of stuff this year since we're staying in Texas. Anyway, I am not going to worry about all this. I'll get everything done. Eventually.

The other night, I was worried about the baby and then I had this dream: I was standing in my house, and a bright light came down from outside. It was a UFO hovering above the house. Apparently, the aliens had come with messages from the baby, which were projected ticker-style across a light fixture on my ceiling. There were several messages, but I only remember these two:

"I am only interested in the truth"

and

"In the morning, I like shapes. In the afternoon time, I like shapes."

So, I'm not sure what to make of all that. Kev reckons the PPHPHB should write a shape song though, using those lyrics. I am on board with that.

Anyway, I am not worried about the baby anymore. Not because of the aliens, but because I went to the doctor and heard the baby's heartbeat which was good and strong.

I'm thinking about telling a rock and roll story in my next blog.

Holiday Treat

Larry Feathers has blogged!

Oh Tannenbaum

Today is a good day. One, because Kev is going to make some delicious cornmeal mush for breakfast. Two, because it is Christmas Tree Putting Up Day. Three, because dinner will be Thanksgiving left-overs.

Christmas Tree Putting Up Day is one of my favorite days of the year. I love getting out the decorations and listening to Christmas music and spending the day with Kev. Sadly, this year I can't have our traditional eggnog, but that's OK.

Time to get started...

Only in America

So apparently the new trend is this upside down Christmas tree to make room for MORE gifts. What a world, what a world. It is just embarrassing.




Thanksgiving was so great. Best meal of the year. Now my cousin Brad from Kentuckiana is here at our house playing some drums for the PPHPHB. It is fun to have special guests. He is adding a lot to the Elizaville song. It's going to turn out really good, I think.

DSL is back at last. Aaahhh.

Hope you all had a great day today.

My name is Tara...

...and I am a Webaholic. We have had no DSL at our house for three days, and I am going insane. I cannot blog, I cannot check my email, I cannot look up fun facts or movie times or phone numbers or answers to random questions I have throughout the day (you'd be surprised how many of these there are).

Yesterday, we called the DSL man. He said he was coming to fix it. This was at 9:30 am. He showed up at 5:30 pm, and couldn't fix it. He was supposed to come back this morning and fix it, but Kev just called me and said it isn't fixed. (I'm in Garland, using my parents' computer which is dial-up and so very very painfully slow).

So, if I am slow to blog or answer your email, I apologize. I hope things are back to normal soon. I can't live in these pioneer conditions.

GMS RIP

http://kera.org/radio/In_Memory/Glenn_Mitchell/

It is a very sad day, as I have just learned that the great Glenn Mitchell of KERA passed away yesterday. I listened to Glenn's show almost every day, and learned a lot from him and his guests. He will be missed.

Eleven Week Freak-Out

VERY IMPORTANT CLARIFICATION:
Kev is not an ogre. You would have laughed at me too, had you been there and seen me slumped over the table crying about spices. Kev always does his best to cheer me up. He even offered to go out and bring me back a cheeseburger.

Being pregnant can be really weird. It's like you suddenly belong to a secret club. You get immediate clearance for access to All Things Baby. You get to read books you'd normally never pick up, you get to feel like an insider at Babies R Us, you get to buy special members-only clothes. You learn more about your biology than you ever wanted to know. And people, other secret club members, begin to tell you story after story about their initiation into the club. Some stories are helpful, but others should frankly never be told. Especially to a new and secretly terrified new recruit.

The past week has been really rough. I'm very lucky to have avoided any and all morning sickness, but I feel completely run-down. I have to take a couple naps every day, and I can't get anything done. I don't want to cook because I don't want to eat. Food tastes weird. I can't get any of my chores done, and I feel completely disorganized. The books all say this is normal. The veteran club members tell me I will get my energy back for the second trimester. I hope they are right. Because how am I ever going to get anything done with a new baby if I can't do it now?

The food thing is the worst. I am supposed to be eating all this healthy food, but nothing sounds good except pizza and cheeseburgers and I have a very weird craving for gumbo. I could not eat a mushroom, which everyone knows I LOVE, if it was my only choice. And the very thought of chicken marsala, a staple, makes me queasy. It is so weird. Everyone is different when it comes to these cravings and aversions. My mom craved tomato juice, which she doesn't like, and new car smell and the Sesame Street theme song made her feel sick. My aunt Karen craved the smell of gasoline. Weird. These are the things nobody tells you until you join the club.

Anyway, here at the eleven week point, I had a little freak-out. Yesterday, I got NOTHING done. The house is a mess, we have no meal plan, and Christmas is coming way too fast. All day yesterday, all I could think was how much I wanted just one day off from being pregnant, and then there was a whole load of guilt for even thinking such a thing. I went to the grocery store this morning, which used to be a high point, but I got no joy at all. It was crowded and I couldn't make any food decisions. Then when I got home, Kev was helping me put away the groceries, and he said,"The spice cabinet is out of control," and that was it, man. I lost it. I sat down and cried like a big freak baby. Kev asked what was wrong, and I told him I want my groove back and I don't want out of control cabinets and he tried not to laugh at me, but he did, and rightly so because it was very silly to get so upset about the spice cabinet. But I think I just needed to let it out, because it wasn't really the spice cabinet after all, was it? That was just the proverbial last straw. Anyway, you don't have to come on here commenting with encouraging words. I'm OK, really I'm just venting. I know in my head that everything is going to be fine, and I will not be a terrible mother with cabinet mayhem and a dirty house and frozen dinners every night. I just got overwhelmed.

Welcome to the club.

Sunday Shout Out

Happy Second Birthday
to our favorite nephew
Ryan!

Wish we could be there!

I've Got a Fever...

Last night, we were treated to the episode of SNL featuring the Cowbell Skit starring Will Ferrel as "Gene" and the great and creepy Christopher Walken as Bruce Dickenson, record producer. That skit is genius. It makes me laugh all the way through, even before it starts, I crack up just in anticipation of what's to come. It was the first time Kev has seen it, and I worried he would be disappointed because of all the hype, but he laughed too. Oh, SNL, will you ever be funny again?

Kev told me that he once went to see Blue Oyster Cult in Poughkeepsie with his friend Steve. He said they had to share their table with some dude that kept chanting "BLT! BLT!" instead of "BOC!" It is unclear whether the dude was trying to be funny, or just had some serious spelling problems. I guess it's also possible that he wanted a sandwich to enjoy during the show.

For those of us from the south, Poughkeepsie seems like such a mythical made-up cartoony place, a city from the world of Bugs Bunny, but not a real place. But I assure you it is real. I have been there. It has a lot of strip malls, a couple of indoor malls, a train station, and apparently a rock venue worthy of BOC in its later years. It is the last stop on the Hudson Line, which takes you from Grand Central Station north toward beautiful Hyde Park, where Kev's parents live. In fact, I think it should henceforth be known as Poughkeepsie: The Gateway to the Hudson Valley, much like Fort Worth is Where the West Begins. That would be good pub, and Poughkeepsie needs all the help it can get.

Fun Fact: Terrible movie director Ed Wood is from Poughkeepsie.

Radio Radio

Commercial radio is bad. If I'm in my car, I listen to sports talk radio in the morning and NPR from 10 until 2. But after that, I just have to flip from bad music station to bad music station and hope for the best. Sometimes I get lucky and land on MIX just as a Prince or Duran Duran song starts, but usually they are playing some kind of Dawson's Creek music. So, mostly I listen to the all-70's station or classic rock. Sadly, I usually hit a 7 minute string of annoying commercials, and if I DO get music, a lot of the typical classic rock songs are automatic punch-outs for me. Most of the Led Zeppelin catalog should just be retired, along with all Lynard Skynard, Molly Hatchet, 38 Special, and Steppenwolf. And I will never figure out what is so great about Bruce Springsteen. I'll usually stick with Tom Petty, the Hollies, CCR, and even Bob Seger (as long as it isn't Old Time Rock and Roll which is the worst song ever). Fleetwood Mac is listenable too, as long as it isn't a Christine McVie song. So, it's a real crap-shoot. My tape deck is unreliable, and of course I don't have a CD player in my lame car, and somehow I don't think the Buick is worthy of satellite radio. And I can't just turn off the radio and think about math and palindromes like Kev. What I'd like to hear, and I think this would do well in Texas, is a classic country station. It would play good old stuff like Bob Wills, Hank Sr., Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, George and Tammy, etc. It would be Garth-Free All the Time. Perfect for the afternoon commute. Somebody get that going.

Stroller Talk

OK, so everyone keeps talking about the stroller/car-seat combo, and I'd like to know why you think that's the best option. I saw them in the store, and they look like the dang Mars Rover, all huge and complicated. And it seems to me that it would be a drag to have to haul the car-seat in and out of the car all the time, rather than just leaving it hooked up in there. But I don't know anything about this stuff, so please offer me your words of wisdom, because if there is something about the combo that will make my life easier, I am all for that. Thanks!

LRHS Guarantee: The next blog will be baby-talk free!

I LIKE Maternity Pants! and Clint Eastwood.

This weekend, I decided to give Kev some guy time to record some stuff and make beer and whatnot, so I went to spend the night at my parents' house in the Land of Gar. JC Penney was having a huge sale on Sunday, which culminated with a "VIP" event for which you needed a special coupon but you had to wait until 4:00pm to use it. My mom had the VIP coupon, so we decided to go look at maternity clothes. But before that, since we had to wait until 4:00pm, we went to Babies R Us, just to look at stuff. It was very stressful. I have never seen so much stuff that I have no idea how to choose or use. No joke, there are about 50 or 60 different car seats to choose from, and just as many strollers, cribs, etc. How in the world are people like me and Kev supposed to know what to get? Everything was priced about the same in each category, so choosing by price won't work. And you should see how complicated the strollers are. Good grief. All I could think about was me and Kev spending hours and hours walking around Babies R Us with a notepad and Kev's ever-present tape measure, weighing the pros and cons of every high chair in the store. By the time we left, I just wanted to go home and curl up in a big defeated ball on the couch and let someone else just go pick out everything for me. I think I am going to need some help from you recent parents out there who have experience with all this new-fangled equipment.

Anyway, I had to shake it off, because there was more shopping to do.

So we got to the very very small maternity section of JC Penney, and started looking at stuff. I was a little baffled by the pants, but got some stuff to try on, and I'll be damned if I didn't like it! Marternity pants, while very weird, are so comfortable. Once I start wearing these comfy pants, I don't know how I'll ever go back to buttons and zippers. Plus, the shirts are really cute. I think I will be much better-dressed pregnant than I am now. So I got quite a few things, and thanks to my mom for getting me some stuff, and to my dad for spending so much time in the maternity section without so much as a grumble.

We celebrated my new expandable pants by going to Marble Slab for ice cream.

When I got home, Kev was still having guy weekend. He made popcorn and was about to watch Hang -Em High. I think he was hoping I'd go read or something, but I actually LOVE Clint Eastwood movies, so he said I could watch it with him as long as I didn't ask any girl questions. I got in trouble twice in the first five minutes of the movie, first because I made a sympathetic noise when there was a baby cow stuck in the water, and second when I shouted out "It's the Skipper!" when I saw Alan Hale Jr. in the posse that hangs Clint Eastwood. After that, I had to bite my tongue several times. It was all I could do not to shout "Book'em!" when Hawaii Five-o's Dan-O appeared later in the film. Anyway, Clint Eastwood is cool.

So, now it's Monday again. Kind of a drag, but at least I don't have to worry about pants anymore for a while.

Score!

There is now a box full of Big Wheel at my parents' house.

Great Victory !

As some of you know, the bad people have been trying to get approval for oil drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge by sneaking it into the budget, which is immune to fillibuster. Last week, it was approved by the Senate (including a senator from Alaska!) and it seemed like all hope was lost. However, yesterday, good smart members of the House threw out the ANWR provision, and Alaska is safe once again, at least for now. It is high priority for the Bush admin to get approval for the drilling somehow, and who knows what they'll try next. Thanks to all of you who ever clicked my links and signed petitions. It is a happy day today for me, the native people of Alaska, polar bears, caribou, arctic birds and other wildlife, and good people who don't want more beautiful places destroyed for oil, rather than looking for alternative energy solutions.

UPDATE: Details below

Dear NRDC Action Fund Supporter,
Fantastic news! Late last night, after months of intense pressure from millions of pro-environment activists like you, the House leadership dropped its plan to allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as part of the budget bill.In the end, they were forced to retreat after some 22 courageous Republican Congressmen stood their ground and promised to vote against their own party's budget if it sacrificed America's greatest wildlife refuge. With every single Democrat also opposing the budget, the leadership blinked.It was the kind of showdown at high noon that restores one's faith both in democracy and the sanctity of America's natural heritage.Make no mistake: we must now remain vigilant. Senate and House negotiators could still revive the Arctic drilling provision when they hammer out a final budget measure next month (the Senate version of the budget includes Arctic drilling).If that happens, we'll be calling on you to shore up Republican moderates in the House who have promised to oppose and defeat any such last-ditch ploy to sneak Arctic drilling into the final budget legislation.But last night's development is a stunning setback for President Bush, for Congressional leaders, and for the oil lobby -- all of whom vowed that 2005 would be the year they finally pried the Arctic Refuge out of the clenched hands of the American people.And it is a huge -- and I mean HUGE -- victory for all of us in the environmental community.Just one year ago, Washington insiders were saying that Arctic drilling was a done deal. President Bush was claiming a post-election mandate to industrialize the Arctic Refuge, and the pro-oil contingent of the Republican Party had just tightened its majority grip on both houses of Congress. You couldn't find a pundit anywhere who would give us a wisp of a chance.But millions of people like you did the impossible! Petition by petition, phone call by phone call, contribution by contribution, you helped us turn the tide in one of the toughest uphill political battles of the past decade.Although this battle may not be over, yesterday was a red letter day for the Arctic Refuge -- the greatest day since it was first protected by Congress 25 years ago -- but it is much more than that, too. It is a triumph for America. November 9, 2005 was the day that nature prevailed over corporate greed, that beauty triumphed over a dead-end energy plan. It was the day we reminded Washington that preserving wilderness is a core American value -- and that we intend to keep it that way.I know we can count on your help next month if Senate and House leaders dare to bring Arctic drilling back to the floor for a vote.
Sincerely,
John H. AdamsNRDC Action Fund. . .

Good Time-Waster for Fun

http://babynamewizard.com/namevoyager/lnv0105.html

Here is something fun to play around with if you are bored at work, courtesy of Uncle Pat. You can look up your name and other names to see a graph of their popularity/ranking over the past century. Pretty interesting stuff.

Tabitha - One tough kitty.

I will miss you too.

Learn While You Eat

The other day we ordered some food from Betty's Best Around Chinese Restaurant, which is not the best around, but it isn't bad. Kev is suspicious, because as far as we know, no-one works there that is actually Chinese. The people on the phone and the delivery guys are usually surly white people. Anyway, our fortune cookies from Betty's Best Round this time included not only the usual lotto numbers and fortune, but also a Learn Chinese lesson on the back. So now, if we ever go to China and need to find a store (shang-dian) or a medical doctor (yi-sheng), we are in good shape. Personally, though, I think Texas fortune cookies should have a Learn Spanish lesson instead. It would certainly be more practical. I think I'll write a letter to the fortune cookie people...

Ode to a Toy

We went to SuperTarget on Saturday, and guess what they had: real Big Wheels! Oh, how I loved the Big Wheel when I was a kid. You could ride it around and make it skid or spin out. So much fun. Others preferred the Green Machine, but not me. Anyway, this Big Wheel at Target was awesome. It is not some re-designed high-tech fake Big Wheel (like the Easy-Bake Microwave - bah!), but the real old skool Big Wheel with the bucket seat and giant black wheel and streamers on the handlebars, just like the original. A toy from a simpler, and in my opinion better, time, when kids did not need light-up shoes and new game systems every year and other such flash. I have put my parents in charge of making sure there is a Big Wheel in my kid's future. I am afraid if we wait to get one when the baby is old enough, the Big Wheel will be gone again.

I remember when I was too big to ride the Big Wheel. My knees started hitting the handlebars, and I tried for a while to ride "knees-out" but it was just too hard to pedal that way. My brother and my cousins could still ride it and I was so sad. Then I got my pogo stick and things improved. But I will tell you it has crossed my mind as an adult on more than one occasion that I wish there were adult-sized Big Wheels so I could take one last ride. Ah, yes.

Good Fun Sunday

Yesterday was such a beautiful day here in Texas. A little on the warm side for me, but sunny and breezy. Just the kind of day you'd give anything for in August.
In the morning, we walked to the Garden Cafe to meet our friends John and Karen for breakfast. It was really fun, and this time they got our orders just right. I was worried, so I placed my order very slowly, waiting for the lady (we call her Betty because it is a good waitress name and she has Betty Page hair) to write each thing down before telling her the next. However, while we were placing our order, chaos broke out. The CD player started skipping and a customer came up to check on why she didn't get her food yet and Betty became very flustered. I didn't have high hopes for getting what I asked for. But when they brought our food, they got it right, except for some reason they put my gravy on Kev's plate (why would he want gravy with his french toast?) and I had to remind them about my cheese grits, which they returned with promptly. I like the Garden Cafe.
After breakfast, we walked over to J and K's house for a tour. They live in a fabulous big house built a long time ago when builders took pride in their work and showed it in the subtle but interesting architectural details, like cove ceilings and carved staircase columns and lead-glass art windows and cool light fixtures and groovy tile.
After hanging out there for a while, we headed home, and I got pretty tired walking with a full belly from breakfast. Kev said we should stop and rest, but I just wanted to slow down a little. Kev has longer legs than me, so I have to take three steps for every two of his, and the pace was getting to me. "I'm walking for two," I told him, but he just laughed at me. I get laughed at off and on quite a bit. Anyway, Kev sat down in the grass by the post office, and after some convincing, I sat too, even though I don't like sitting in grass, and do you know what? I got a spider in my hair, which is exactly why I don't like sitting in the grass, but Kev got it out for me, and didn't laugh at me anymore all day until dinner, when I asked him if the Heimlich Maneuver (I bet I spelled both of those words wrong) works every time if it is executed proberly. I suppose to him it DID seem like sort of an out-of-left-field question, but it was logical to me, because I was sitting there eating my Chinese soup with crispy wide noodles, wondering what would happen if I choked. Does anyone out there know how to give the HM to a large pregnant woman? Is it safe to give the regular HM to a not-yet-large-but-still-pregnant woman? These are the things I worry about.
So, it was a pretty good weekend. Hope yours was good.

Deja Vu All Over Again

Seems like I just cleaned the house, and it's house-cleaning day again. The bathrooms are done, so I am taking a short break before doing the rest. I hate cleaning the house, but I guess it's better than being at work. Unless your job is cleaning houses. Then it's about the same I guess. Anyway, I am almost done, and today's treat for cleaning the house will be some delicious homemade pumpkin bread featuring the healthy goodness of Vitamin A. Kev thinks having a clean house should be reward enough, but it just doesn't quite cut it for me. Don't get me wrong, I love it when the house is clean. But I gotta have some sort of tangible incentive. That's just how I roll.

Dilemma: Today at Central Market I received, with my purchase, a free set of four stemless wine glasses. They are REALLY nice. But our kitchen has reached maximum capacity. We have nowhere to store these lovely glasses. I think it might be time for a house overhaul.

Hey, is it just me, or have you Dallas people noticed that we seem to be having a more colorful fall than usual? I was paying attention today when I was driving around the neighborhhood, and there is a lot of red and yellow on the trees. Especially the maples, crape myrtles, and pear trees. It's kinda pretty (flingo). So look at the trees today. It won't last very long.

Weird Trend

I have always been a one sneeze sneezer, never a mulit-sneezer, but recently, I sneeze twice about 3/4 of the time. I think that's weird.

Give the People What They Want

And what they want is:

MORE LARRY FEATHERS!