Sprinkle liberally

I'm not a really political person. 8 years ago, I left several sites I frequented on the internet because I was SO SICK of all the political discussion. 4 years ago was much the same. This time around I wasn't as disenfranchised, but I was still tired of it by the time it was over. The campaigns run for so long that by the end of it, it feels like they have already had a term in office and they haven't even started. I'm glad Barack won, I'm sad the school tax didn't get approved.

I'm mostly liberal, although I've been told that I could be considered Libertarian as well. Most of my friends are liberal as well. In looking around, I realized that I can only name 2 McCain supports, of people that I know personally. Those 2 are my aunt and my uncle and neither of them live in my state (One lives in MN and the other in AK) so I rarely talk to them. I did see a McCain sticker on a car at school at least one of the parents at school is and I probably know them. But really, everyone I associate with on a regular basis is liberal.

Now, my question. Is that because there are simply so many liberal people in our town? Or is it because we share many of the same ideals so I seek those people out to befriend? Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Really Irrelevant Ramblings

Depending on the mythology you subscribe to, vampires either burst into flames or sparkle in the sunlight. How does that apply to tanning beds? The books all talk about how white vamps are because they can't go in the sun without risking death (I'm going to discount Stephanie Meyers because although I REALLY liked the Twilight series, it is totally different from all the other vamp mythology out there). But, in theory, couldn't they use a tanning bed? What is it specifically about the sun that is toxic to vamps? Is that same thing found in tanning beds?

See? Irrelevant but I bet you are wondering about it now too

Why?

Why is it that I'm completely fine with Sesame Street and the Muppets but Yo Gabba Gabba creeps me the hell out? They are all just giant dancing puppets.

Thoughts on weight loss

"My fitness goals are different than most peoples.Most people want to lose enough weight so they look good in a bathing suit or they want to lower their cholesterol. I just want to lose enough so my stomach doesn’t jiggle when I brush my teeth."
-Kevin James

This is about the jist of my fitness goals. I'm a fat girl and I'm ok with that. I'm going to gym (although that is going to get reduced when I set about bringing more income into this house), not to lose weight, but to feel better. I don't like being out of breath all the time. But honestly, I don't care if I ever lose a pound.

I do wish there were more clothes for fat girls. If I had any sewing skills at all, I would start a line of fat girl clothing that wasn't ugly and didn't cost a fortune. Really, I know that fat girl clothes require more material but $20-$50 more material. Seems like a racket to me!

If I could sew, I would also create a line of maternity clothes. They would include fat girl, tall girl, petite girl, etc clothes because according to popular thought only women who are 5'6 to 5'8 and a size 8 ever get pregnant. And the big thing that it would have? Pockets in the pants. Just because someone is having a kid, doesn't mean they have less crap to carry. In fact, it might mean they have more.

The morality of Survivor

At a discussion board I visit, there is a thread about Survivor. In it, someone mentioned they were glad to see Jonny Fairplay go home because he is a jerk. I mentioned that I liked him and was sad to see him go so early in the game. While he was talking about how he wanted to go home, I kept thinking "what kind of scam is he running" I also said that I like the strategy the fireman is (or was, we'll see if it changes) employeeing as far as getting people together to vote people off. I tend to like the people who play dirty on those shows because that is the point of that kind of show. The person that I was discussing this with brought up the issue of wanting people who are nice to and i countered that playing dirty and being ruthless is the way of the world. No one that is extremely successful is a nice person. She brought up the issue of what her watching those types of shows is teaching her children and that got me thinking.

Does everything in life have to some morally redeeming quality or are people allowed to have guilty pleasures? On one hand, my previous statement that ruthlessness is a way of life stands. Of course, there is the caveat that success is how you define it. Am I successful? I would say yes. I'm a good mother, I work hard, etc. I'm by no means rich but I'm succesful at what I've chosen to do. When I talk about being successful for this arguement, I would define that by being rich, since the point of these shows is to win money.

On the other hand, it could be used to start the conversation of "yes there are people like this in real life, but they aren't the people that anyone wants to be around" Rob and Amber are a perfect example of that. Rob screwed people left and right to get to the final two and at the end, no one would vote for him to win because EVERYONE hated him (it still worked in his favor by marrying the winner but if he hadn't he would have just been a jerk).

So, this post sounded a lot better in my head. I've spent over an hour writing it here though because I keep getting distracted (Make me a Supermodel is funny) and it didn't come out as profound as it sounded when I first started working on it. :(

Roller Skating, Music and Meatloaf

Talk about diverse, huh?

C and I went skating today. He did it in PE a few months and at the family skate wrap up party, seemed to have some apptitude at it. So we put him in lessons for the last month and he is doing really well. Now, we are trying to commit to going a couple of times a month (bare minimum once a month) so that he can keep practicing. I like to skate and I used to do it all the time but life got in the way (like with everything else) and I hadn't been in 10 years prior to the wrap up party a few months ago. Since then, I have been 3 times in 3 months. Normally, the music SUCKS something fierce. Used to be when I went, even if I didn't like all the music at least I had heard it. Not the case now. Today, I was pleasantly surprised that the music had about a 1:5 for bad songs to good. Typically, it is 10:1 so I think Sunday might be the day that we go since it is more fun when the music is at least stuff I've ever heard.

Speaking of music, Mix had a commercial that said "all the varity of your iPod, without all the download fees" and I was thinking "yeah right. When you play Patsy Cline, followed by Snoop Dogg, followed by Nickleback, then we will talk all the variety of my iPod" LOL I have eclectic tastes to say the very least :)

I'm making meatloaf for dinner tonight. I love meatloaf but it is such a pain to make. I had almost everything in the bowl to mix and went ot get the crackers out of the cabinet, only to find myself an empty box :( Fortunately, my mom had some I could borrow. The other issue is having to wash your hands all the time. Every time I would mix it and then need to add something, I would have to wash my hands. I seriously washed my hands 5 times in the space of 15 minutes. I'm all for cutting down on the spread of germs but that is a little excessive. :) The meat is is now cooking and soon the house will smell really good, though so I'll go put some lotion on and just deal with it. :)

New theories on food

My new theory on food is that anything bad for you (cookies, cake, candy, etc) should be DIY. If you want a chocolate, chocolate chunk cookie, you need to fire up your oven. Anything that is good for you should be pre-done. You want some strawberries, open the fridge and eat one, no cleaning required. Alternately, all food should have to be worked for. While that wouldn't deter hard core eaters, I knwo I would eat a crap load less if I had to cook everything all the time. Open a bag, eat cookie? Yeah, I can manage that. Stand over the garbage can for 20 minutes shelling walnuts? Doubtful, I might eat one or two and then either find something to distract me so I wouldn't eat or move on to something easier.

I also think that healthy foods should be cheaper or at least equally priced to unhealthy alternatives. We buy poptarts, milk and cereal bars, etc because to buy a whole box of them is cheaper than a dozen eggs. We buy plain jelly because it is cheaper than the smashed fruit stuff. I could make a million examples but it seems to me that a start toward winning the war on obesity would be to make foods that are good for you easily accesable to everyone.

Old School

I was listening to the radio the other day and heard an old Garth Brooks' song. Hearing it made me remember how much I used to like Garth Brooks, although I don't generally like country music as a rule. For years, a friend of mine got me each tape for my birthday so I had a full set. Then I upgraded to CD and had to re-buy the whole collection. By that time, greatest hits had come out and then shortly there after the live CD. So I have most of his CDs. I decided that I wanted those songs on my mp3 player so I started ripping the CDs to my computer. In the process of ripping those songs, I started looking back at other CDs (of which I have several, although none from the last decade) and I am totally nostalgic now. Instead of just ripping Garth Brooks, I've decided that most my CDs need to be on my MP2 player because they are AWESOME (in that lame, decade old kind of way). We are talking MC Hammer, Vanilla Ice, Meridith Brooks, Genesis, Firehouse, Ben Folds Five, CCR, the Lion King soundtrack, Soul Asylum, Forest Gump, American Graffeti, etc. Awesomely lame and I can't wait to have them all in my MP3 player so I can listen to all the stuff in my car without dragging the whole huge CD case around with me :)

The things you learn

C lost his Legend of Zelda game for his ds :( He is trying to replace it with his own money but doesn't have a ton to spend. I've been looking around eBay for something that is in his price range, but I'm not having much luck. I posted to CUBUYSELLTRADE asking if anyone had one for sale since that would mean we wouldn't have to pay shipping. I also decided to take a look at Craig's List and see if I could find anything. Nothing was there, but I decided to post a wanted ad for it and see if we get anything. Never hurts to try. While I was posting the wanted ad, I saw a link for posting "gigs" little odd jobs and things that people have around the area. That got me curious about what kinds of things people wanted done so I found the area of the site and was looking around at it. One of the catagories for gigs was "adult" Well know I was really curious. It is about what you would expect, "models" stippers, escorts, etc. There was also an area for "adult movie stars" Call me naive, but I always wondered how people get into the porn industry. I generally assumed that it was people who desperately wanted to act and failed in traditional Hollywood movies. I always assumed it was a last resort type thing, not something people actually sought out as a job. Interesting.

Snow Way

I hate snow. I dislike winter, overall, although I look better in long sleeves than short so I like that fact. It is cold and everyone craps their brain as soon as the first clouds sheds the first flake. I can forgive people, to a very small degree, that have never driven in this garbage. People that have lived here their whole lives have no excuse. If you can't drive in it, get on the bus and out of my way.

Perversely, I was just watching the weather and they are saying chance of up to an inch of snow tomorrow night and then a "significant" chance on Saturday (although weather channel says 20% chance tomorrow and only 30% on Saturday so we'll see). I'm a little excited about it. I don't want anything like we had in Feb.
where everyone had to work crazy hours and we ended up with several house guests because we live in town and no one could make it home. An inch or two, enough to go sledding without messing up the roads (tis the season to be travelling, after all), would be ok. The kids really like the snow so I don't mind it as much because of that.

Shoes

Typically, I wear Birks. Unfortunately, it is now cold and snowy and I can't wear them because my socks get wet. :( I bought some camo slip on Chuck's last year for my birthday. I spent far too much on them but they are crazy cool looking so I'm ok wearing them. They solve the wet feet problem of the Birks, but present a problem of their own. They are FLAT. They have NO SUPPORT of any kind. This wasn't a problem in the past, but I have recently come to the conclusion that they are the reason that I've been having back problems. I bought some shoe inserts that were supposed to help with that but they were too tall and pushed my foot clear out of the back of the shoe when I walked. I got some lower inserts but they haven't really helped. So, I have no shoes that I can really wear since our lovely snow the other night.

I was looking at Payless.com (since I can't afford anywhere else) for some slip on tennis shoes. I like the ones that look like real tennis shoes but have no back. I like slip on shoes because I can't stand and put on shoes (I have no balance) and I don't like having to lean over and tie my shoes because I'm fat. After seeing that there were no shoes like what I was looking for, I started browsing the rest of the site. I got distracted by the dress shoes (which I need a new pair of as well, but those are far less important than the tennis shoes) and I'm amazed at the number of "holiday party" shoes that are completely open. The reason I need new dress shoes is because my good ones are sandles and my feet get very cold when I wear them for "holiday" parties. Do these people not understand that it is winter time? That in a good portion of this country, you can't wear dress sandles in December? I do like the boots they have though. I might get a pair of those for dress (I have an old pair but they don't fit anymore)

I might take the kids shopping this afternoon and see if I can't find something that will work for one or both of my current lack of shoes :)

What should I do?

What I am currently doing:
Sitting on the couch making a blog entry
Thinking about putting on jammie pants and a sweatshirt and maybe digging up a blanket.

What I should be doing:
Going to Kinko's to print calendars
Going to Dollar General to buy Kleenex and Sudafed (we are all getting sick here and it sucks)
Taking Lizzie to the last story time, ever, at the old library.

Alternately, I need to clean the living room, including moving all the furniture and sweep and mopping the floor.

What will I do? Probably keep sitting here and then feel guilty that I got nothing done.

Tis the season to be downloading

I just went WILD and dled a TON of Xmas stuff. I can't wait to see the CATW kit that is coming out in a couple of weeks. It is going to be stellar and I hope to get every dl. I used to have a lot of Xmas kits and little use for most of them. Now that I'm working on a project that includes lots of old Xmas pictures, I have a need a no kits. Well, I HAD a need and no kits, but now I have plenty. I just have to unzip and tag all of them now :)

Woohoo, party time!

We went to J's b-day party this afternoon. I was the only mom who stayed (and I spent 2 hours chasing 8 "superheroes" around with a camera trying to get pictures for the b-day mom). By 5:30, the kids had baths and were jammied for bed. By six, they were watching TV and I was laying on the couch reading a book about digital photography. By 6:30, they were still watching TV and I was napping on the couch instead of reading.

We had a seriously rocking Saturday night. Look at us wild party animals! LOL

Dia de los Muertos

Day of the Dead> is a Mexican/Spanish holiday honoring the lives of the deceased. The first I ever heard of this holiday was my freshman year in high school in Spanish 1. A bit of background on this. My Spanish teacher was HORRIBLE. She rarely had control of the classroom, she cried probably once a week in class because the students wouldn't listen to her. She would take weeks (and sometimes months) to grade and return assignments. We did a food unit and she left the leche (milk) setting on the table for 4 days before a student finally took it and threw it away. During the same unit, a student in the class threw one of the fruits at her. She spins around from the board and demands "who threw that?" The person that threw it had picked up the other piece of fruit to lauch it as well and simply sat there with his hand in the air, holding the apple and just didn't move. Apparently she didn't notice because she demands again "if someone doesn't step forward, I'll have to punish everyone" Then she turned back to the board and continued writing. The student proceeded to throw the apple at her again. Students would show up until after she took attendence and then leave the room while she wasn't looking to go to lunch early. She never figured out what was happening. Her comment always was "hm, I thought they were here, I must have done attendence wrong but it is too late now" She had "Pesatas" that she gave out for participation in class. Her student assistant took her master and made tons of copies of it and passed them out to everyone. Then, instead of participating, all we had to do was cut out 5 (you only needed one a day) and hand them in at the end of the week and we would get an A for participation. It took a few months, but eventually she figured out that no one was participating, yet we were all handing in enough pesatas. She bought a cutsie little stamp (I want to say Cabbage Patch Kids, but I can't remember for sure)and stamped the backs of all the pesatas she handed out. To combat this, her assistant took her stamp, brought it to lunch and stamped all the copies he had made. She never did figure out what was happening. There were 2 Spanish 1 classes and at one point in the year, we took a test. Spanish 1 5th hour did much better on the test than Spanish 1 4th hour. She decided to add a curve to the grades but curves the classes seperately. This caused the people in 5th hour to have a general cow because they were all very competative about GPA, even during freshman year. We argued with her, explaining that class rank wasn't broken up 4th hour and 5th hour and the freshman class was the freshman class, that curving the grades seperately caused some people to lose their spot in the class rankings and that wasn't fair. She was having none of it so one of the girls in the class announced that she wouldn't participate again until the grades were curved together. Several of her friends were in the class and backed her and the idea spread to the rest of the class. We all sat silently and refused to participate for nearly 10 minutes. At that point, she had asked several questions and had gotten nothing back except silent stares. That was all she could take and she broke down bawling and promised to fix the grades and BEGGED us to "please, please please just start answering questions again. It isn't fair for you all to sit there and not say anything" She did fix the grades and it caused several people to score over 100 on the test, but there wasn't a lot she could do, aside from just teaching and hoping we retained something without participating. 6 weeks before the end of the year, she was moved out of the classroom, into a large closet in the home-ec, where she did lesson planning. She was replaced in the classroom with a sub whose only Spanish background was the fact that she taught in Texas for a few months. We learned little or nothing that year and from that point forward, all the Spanish classes were remedial, trying to catch us up to were we should be.

Anyway, all of that is because somebody mention day of the dead and it reminded me of her trying to celebrate it with us. She made Pan de Muerto, which is "bread of the dead" and brought it in. We had only been in school a few months but we already knew she was totally insane. The bread is supposed to have licorice in it but she went totally overboard. The whole room reeked of it for 2 days. I wouldn't touch it and neither would most of my classmates. Afterward, we termed it "Death Bread" because it probably would have killed us if we tried to eat it!

I am not normal

There was a commercial on the radio yesterday for a local jewelry store and the guy says something like "guys, I guarantee that if you give your wife jewelry for your annivesary or her birthday, you will get the best response you could ever imagine" Dh started laughing and said "If I gave you a diamond the response I would get would be a serious butt kicking" I nodded, because really, I don't like diamonds or jewelry of any kind. Then I said "If given the choice between a DSLR or diamond, I'd take the camera anyday. If the choice was diamond or poke in the eye with a sharp stick, well the diamond would win, but just barely" LOL Of course, then dh was teasing me about silly things that he could get instead of a diamond said "What if I got you Tupperware" I would be thrilled since a full set of nice Tupperware is on my way too expensive to buy list.

I told him I wanted to call the jewelry store and tell them they shouldn't guarantee something like that because not every woman in the world likes diamonds.