Lost, Shmost, it's Sweeps Week on Cat TV, too, you know...

Yes, Spring means "sweeps week" for our local Cat TV stations (aka windows on the lower levels of the house).  Besides the regularly scheduled programming of Birdies, Squirrels and Chipmunks, we also get the big guns - BUNNIES!!

Though, all the hours of sweeps week excitement do tend to tire a kitteh right out............

Monday Musings

I know there is a "thing" out there on the blogosphere to post Random Thoughts Tuesdays.  One of my favorite people to stalk bloggy friends, Cristin, does this pretty regularly and I always enjoy reading her posts.  Well, I always enjoy reading any of her posts, but you know what I mean.  (Or maybe you don't.  It is quite possible that I'm not making any sense whatsoever this morning as I am functioning on a caffeine hangover and less than 4 hours of sleep thanks to last night's Oscars telecast and my decision to majorly overcaffeinate in order to stay up late enough to watch every, last moment.  My brain is so foggy, it's San Francisco.  Or London.  Or that John Carpenter movie.  Or its remake.  Okay, okay, I'll stop.)

So, as this is Monday and not Tuesday, but the best I can do is throw out some random things that are clattering around quite loudly in my aching, befogged brain, this is my stab at a Random Thoughts Tuesday but I'm calling it Monday Musings instead.

***

The flowers that bloom in the spring, tra-la!  Look what four days of sunshine and a few-degrees-above-freezing temperatures have wrought in our front yard (along with a rapidly shrinking snowman):

 

 Crocipetti!!  (Or crocuses, for the non-Beat Cats in the audience)

  

 Daffodils!

 

Daffodils and also possibly a hyacinth!

I planted about 150 or so bulbs in front of the house and around our light post last fall.  I did a mixture of crocuses, daffodils and hyacinths because those were the three bulbs I was assured by many an online gardening site would be least tempting to the seventy squillion squirrels and chipmunks that call our silver maples and pine tree home.  I know that some of those furry critters still felt the need to sample what I'd planted because I came across several bulbs that had been dug up and had a little nibble taken out of them before being rejected and tossed aside.  I replanted those and hopefully they weren't too taste-tested to bloom.  I'm just glad *anything* is coming up.  I'm glad we've had sunshine.  I'm glad I can see something other than white, liberally splotched with yellow.  (Think I'm kidding?  I'm not...............)

That was taken the weekend before last.  There are no dog or cat footprints leading up to any of those spots, either.  Ewwwwwwwww.

***

With the recent thaw, it's a good thing we got outside the weekend before last and accomplished a few of Kiddo's Most Desired Winter Weekend Family Outdoor activities:

- building a snowman bigger than Kiddo...

- and building a snow fort from which to have a snowball fight.

Ed, the snowman - or rather, person of snow that we built, has suffered mightily with the sun that decided to come out and stay out in the days immediately following his creation.  We have had to pick up the various bits of his face and reattach them several times in the past week, most recently this morning as we were waiting for Kiddo's bus to make its way up the street.  Ed is now a little person of snow with basically just his bottom snowball still vertical and present.

 

If I'd realized that constructing things out of snow in the yard was all it would take to bring on the spring thaw and sunshine, I'd have been outside at 12:01am on January 1st!  Let's hope it lasts............

***

So, the Oscars were on last night, which reaffirmed my deep and everlasting desire to one day be a seat filler for the Academy Awards.  At least twice during last night's telecast, I saw a seat filler sitting right next to George Clooney.  Can you imagine?!  Of course, I'll need to get a whole lot more attractive before they'd plunk me next to any celebrity, much less one in the front row.  With my luck, I'd get to seat fill next to the guy who was sitting behind Quentin Tarantino last night... (not that I have anything against Gandalf, of course...)

I've said I really want to do this for my 40th birthday, so I still have another year plus to figure out the wheres, hows, and if it's really possibles since Seat Filling at the Oscars is totally the number one item on my bucket list!

***

Words Kiddo asked me to define for her over the past three days:

murder

distended

slipshod

Each time, the question came out of the blue, and each time, I asked her where she'd heard/read it.  Murder came from a book she had to read about Abraham Lincoln for homework, distended from the movie Bolt and slipshod from a Kim Possible book she was reading.  It's like living with a pop vocabulary quiz around here all of a sudden.

***

Are you watching Modern Family?  It is, hands down, my favorite new show of the season.  I like that not only is it side-splittingly, spit-takingly funny, but that the characters actually seem to be fond of each other.  Yes, there is snark, but it isn't mean-spirited the way it tends to be on sitcoms of recent memory (well, even further back than recent memory - all the way back to Roseanne).  Every character gets great lines and great scenes, from Ed O'Neill's Jay on down to baby Lily, who had her first lines last week.  Modern Family is the reason why our family's band name for Rock Band/Guitar Hero is Why the Face...

Speaking of television, I'm just not as into American Idol this year as I've been in years past.  I haven't even re-upped for the annual AI pool in which I've eagerly and intently participated for years.  I don't know if Adam ruined it for me with his utter perfection last year or what, but despite being a huge Ellen DeGeneres fan (and enjoying her participation in the show this year a lot too), I'm just not that into it.  Anyone else with me?  I don't know if it is that none of the performers have grabbed me (yet?) the way that Adam did last year, that the song choices have felt tired and the performances for the most part ho-hum, or that the judges other than Ellen seem to be trotting out a lot of the same, exact comments that they have made in previous seasons or what, but I'm not feeling it.  Out of the current group of contestants, I'd have to say my favorite is Crystal Bowersox, and I am hoping I get more sucked in as we get closer to the top 12, but right now, it isn't Much Watch Live TV, but more Watch it off the DVR at Some Point TV instead.

Also speaking of TV, how about that final season of Lost?!  Whoa nelly!  Now *that* is Must Watch Live TV, along with Modern Family and The Amazing Race (though I really do still miss the Globetrotters from last season).  I'd watch Project Runway live too, if it weren't on so late.  That falls into the Must Watch off the DVR Because it is on Way Past My Bedtime category.  (Speaking of Project Runway, did you hear that Meryl Streep's Oscar outfit last night was designed by PR alum Chris March? WOOHOO!)

What TV shows are on your Must List this season?

***

Conversation with Kiddo the other day:

Kiddo:  Mommy, I think it would be fun if you played Littlest Pet Shop with me.

Me:  You know what would be even more fun than that?

Kiddo:  What?

Me:  Doing your homework!

Kiddo:  Ha. Ha. Ha. 

*pause*

Kiddo:  That?  Was me laughing sarcastically.

(Yes, she has a ways to go yet before she realizes that sarcasm is diluted quite a bit by pointing it out immediately after using it...)

***

If you're looking for a good book to read, in terms of being laugh-out-loud funny as well as extremely well written, I recommend picking up a copy of Notes from the Underwire by Quinn Cummings.  I've been reading her equally well written blog, The QC Report, for a while, and after languishing on the library's hold list for what felt like an eternity, I finally got my hands on a copy of the book last Friday.  Now that I read and enjoyed the book, I'm sad that I got it from the library because that means I have to return it.  This might be one of the rare times when I go out and buy a book after I've read it courtesy of the public library, because there are so many bits that I'd like to be able to reread whenever I want to, without languishing on the hold list all over again.

For example..............

What I want to be is a strong, resolute figure leading my daughter through the primeval forest of childhood, hacking out a clear, bright path of expectations for her.  What I usually end up being is a person swatting at bugs, squinting at the sun and saying nervously, "Wait.  I know I have the map here somewhere."

There also was an entire chapter about organizing summertime activities for kids (as in camps) that struck a huge chord as I'm presently squinting through the reemerging sun and noticing the long, long stretch of no school that is suddenly looming much closer on the horizon.  She had me rolling in that "It's funny because it's true" sort of way through this whole chapter.  It also had me checking the town's recreation department website for the opening of registration for the "summer fun" program and sending an email out to all the other parents in Kiddo's class and our Daisy troop to find out whether any of her friends are going to be attending Summer Fun and if so, when.  Kiddo loved Summer Fun last year, when she didn't know a soul in town and it didn't matter therefore which weeks she went.  This year, there are more field trips as she's now a going-into-second-grader which puts her into an older group (2-4 instead of K-1) and she knows lots of kids, obviously, now that she's in school here, so the timing of Summer Fun scheduling is more complex.  The cost has gone up a bit as well, but it still is the most reasonably priced summer day camp type program around, for which I'm grateful that Kiddo enjoys it so much!

Whoops, I'm digressing again.  I think that's a sign I need to walk away from the computer and tend to either the grocery shopping or the sink full of dishes from last night and this morning.  I'd much prefer curling up in a sunny spot on the floor like our cat and taking a nap, but I've squandered any potential nap time by blogging instead.  Think I might ingest some hair of the dog before I attempt anything else... 

***

Last but not least, it's almost March Madness time again, so allow me to display a bit of Hubby's and my school spirit and end with a hearty

LET'S GO, ORANGE!!!

Leopards and poodles and pigs, oh my!

So, my parents came up to visit for the big Halloween weekend festivities. Mom arrived with her year old standard poodle on Thursday, Dad arrived Friday afternoon. Of course, the Halloween festivities had actually started prior to their arrival, with the Halloween party at Hubby's office on Wednesday afternoon:





On Friday, inclement weather forced the school's Halloween parade indoors. All the various parents, grandparents and siblings crammed into the auditorium and the classes paraded through. I sat on the aisle, camera at the ready, and caught this shot:





You'll notice that this particular leopard *does* in fact change her spots. I never did the same spotting pattern twice for all the various costume-requiring activities. Artistic license, yo!


So, I mentioned that my mom brought up her poodle. Well it turns out that the poodle, ginormous as she may be, is scared - petrified, even! - of Kiddo's goldfish, Swimmy. The dog would slink up to the tank and then when the fish would swim over (because to Swimmy, any movement in the vicinity of the tank could bring manna from Heaven in the form of fish flakes, so Swimmy gets verrrrry excited to see things moving about in any close proximity) the dog would jump back and cower, tail between her legs. Heh.





The Halloween festivities continued on into the weekend, with Kiddo attending a friend's costume birthday party Saturday afternoon and then Trick or Treating in our neighborhood Saturday evening. Alas, a little bit later Saturday night, we went from leopard spots to swine flu. Kiddo spiked a fever of 104 and by midday Sunday, I was chilled, feverish and coughing too. Phone calls with the pediatrician's office have concluded that we both have H1N1 (which is running rampant through the school - over 20% of the kids were absent last Wednesday) so now I'm supposed to be monitoring Kiddo for worsening or new symptoms that might indicate a secondary infection and keep her resting comfortably and pushing fluids in the meanwhile. Sadly, without that great pacifier of TV, Kiddo is proving to be a most cranky and recalcitrant patient, which I do not particularly enjoy given that all I want to do is crawl into bed and let Nyquil take me away. Stupid Swine Flu. Hopefully for Hubby's birthday (yes, today marks the beginning of that glorious period where, for exactly six weeks, Hubby and I are the same age. Then I go back to being a year older, sob sob...) we will NOT give him our germs. He's threatening to fly off to Vegas after work, Dad left for work early this morning and my mother and her scaredy-fish poodle have departed for their apparently equally germy homeland of New Jersey (both of my nieces and one of my nephews down in Jersey have H1N1 symptoms as well) so right now the house is merely occupied by Cranky, Achy, Sneezy, Chilly, Fevery, Whiny and Coughy. Trust me, that's plenty of company for the time being.





(Apparently the above is available for sale as a t-shirt - don't know to whom the credit goes but it's not my original design and props to whomever did create it!!)

Why if anything drips on us from the ceiling of the new house, I will FREAK

Hubby was terrible thoughtful enough to share the following news item with me. Before I give you the link, I must warn you it is the most disgusting thing I have ever heard, ever. And I grew up on a working farm with livestock and have been raising a small human for the past six years, so I know all about disgusting. This, though? Takes the cake. The really, really, really disgusting cake.

Okay, now that you're duly warned, click here if you dare... and if you're REALLY brave, click on the video clip in the story that was aired on the local news affiliate. It features some amazingly awful awesome sound effects. I was giggling throughout, which is kinda hard to do with a dropped jaw. Seriously, while this was a totally horrific thing for this poor woman to have gone through, it is one of those things that you laugh at even while you're getting utterly squicked out. (Or maybe that's just Hubby and me. We laughed as we got squicked out, anyhow.)

The good news is that Hubby shared this news item with our insurance agent before sharing it with me, so he was able to reassure me via the response he got from our agent that should we find ourselves in a similar situation when we move into our new home, with similar..... liquids dripping onto us or our belongings from the ceiling, we will be covered. Whew.

I'd still freak the heck out, though. I want to take a shower just from thinking about it!! *shudder*

This, that and the other...

A few miscellaneous updates to share, for those of you who might be interested.....

I hab had a bad code dis week. I can't breed thru by doze at all. If it weren't for the mighty power of Afrin Nasal Spray and the sleep assistance of that magical elixir Nyquil, I'd probably be dead by now. Well, okay, not dead, but a heckuva lot more miserable. As it is, I just have that lovely, peeling-skinned, red nostril look I always seem to sport when an infection sets up camp in my sinuses. As if having dry skin everywhere else wasn't bad enough, now my nose is looking like my heels. Ew. I wonder if I could use a Ped-Egg on my face......? (Kidding! Heck, I'm too skeeved out to get a Ped-Egg for my feet, and they *need* one, too.)

In house related news, we're having an Open House on Sunday afternoon. Well, not us, but our real estate agent. We'll be clearing out with the cat in tow. I bought a bottle of Comfort Zone with Feliway spray with which to liberally spritz her carrier before cramming her in there. Crazy Cat is not overly fond of either her carrier or car rides, so it should be a fun Sunday afternoon drive for us. Hence the spray - we have a Feliway diffuser in our bedroom (aka the site of Crazy Cat Peeing on our Bed to Express Her Displeasure at Any Number of Things) and it seems to have an effect on her, so I figured why not try the spray for the carrier - can't hurt...

We also have a showing scheduled for this afternoon, so I'll be doing my usual mad cleaning on my already ridonkulously clean house today, then collecting Kiddo from the bus and taking her across town to the only mall with a Stride Rite in our area because it seems that she has outgrown her sneakers yet again. Though I shouldn't complain, as she's been in this pair a lot longer than usual. (Um, it may well be she shouldn't have been in this pair as long, I will freely admit to being a Bad Mommy if it turns out she needs like a 13 and I've been obliviously stuffing her toes into her 11.5s.........) This will be our third showing and the house has been listed for 10 days now - guess that is pretty good. Of course, the first two showings didn't result in any offers, so it doesn't count unless the showing turns into something. This is why I'm baking cookies to set out for the Open House - someone had done that for a house we looked at earlier in the week. We didn't like the house but the cookies were definitely a nice touch (and tasty!) (What, I had to take a cookie - don't you think it would've been rude not to have one?) So, hopefully something comes out of the showing and/or Open House and we have an offer soon. It'd be especially nice as we've made an offer on a house and had to make it contingent upon us selling our place. Being able to remove that contingency would be quite nice. We should be hearing back annnnnny minute now on our offer, so I'm having a mini-heart attack every time the phone rings in between my frantic blogging - erm, I mean cleaning.

And speaking of Kiddo and her ginormous feet, I had a conversation with her physical therapist this morning. She called to give me the results of Kiddo's annual (re-)evaluation. The wonderful, terrific, spectacular news is.......... *drumroll please* ............. Kiddo has caught up on ALL her gross motor delays! *wild cheering* She'd had moderate to severe delays in balance, locomotion and other skills ever since, well, ever, and now, after three years of year-round, twice weekly PT, she is average - the same as every other kid! WOO-HOO!!!!!! The therapist is not recommending a complete discharge, as she wants to keep a quarterly consult in place to monitor Kiddo's range of motion in her legs. See, Kiddo has a tendency to toe-walk thanks to her SPD, and consistent toe-walking leads to shortened heelcords, which leads to limited range of motion.... so, even though Kiddo has shown improvement in her gait (she walks "heels down" a lot more than on her toes these days, only needing cuing to put her heels down now if she's really ramped up about something) and her heelcords flex to neutral and beyond (yay!), the therapist wants to keep an eye on things over the next year, hence the quarterly consult. No more actual PT though, which will be quite a change for Kiddo! Of course, she will still be needing OT for the indefinite future, since it is integral to her success with everything (school, life....) with her SPD, but still, to test out of PT is huge. Yay, Kiddo!!!

In other earth-shatteringly important news, what are you guys thinking of this season's American Idol? How about America's Next Top Model? Any favorites? I have to admit, I'm a solid Adam fan for Idol (even picked him, along with Danny, to be the final two in my annual Idol pool), and I really enjoyed his take on Ring of Fire. I do like Danny, too (I also like Lil and Megan), but when he did Jesus, Take the Wheel this week, I kept flashing back to a different performance of the song that I liked a whole lot better. See, one of my friends from high school was on that show Clash of the Choirs a while back, and one night during that show, she was the soloist on the same song as part of Patti LaBelle's choir. I had goosebumps from watching Liimu's performance back then, and still enjoy it now. Take a look for yourself and tell me what you think...............



See? Liimu was awesome! I'm not saying Danny was terrible or anything - I am a Danny (or is it Robert Downey, Jr?) fan - but I couldn't get Lii's version out of my head the whole time Danny was singing. And anyhow, I want Adam to win it all. (Not saying I'm positive he actually will win, but I'm rooting for him.)

As for ANTM, my early favorites are Fo, London and Celia. Also? I really do not think Allison is pretty at all. Not even Tyra's beloved "pretty-ugly" pretty, either. Her big eyes in that teeny-tiny head just freak me out. Seriously, she reminds me of the guy sitting to the right of Beetlejuice:



except, of course, with blonde hair. *shudder*

I'd be remiss if I talked about reality TV without mentioning The Amazing Race, which is just like the Best Reality Show EVER. (And not just because of Phil Keoghan, either...) This season, I'm completely rooting for Mel/Mike and Luke/Margie and cannot wait for Victor to be eliminated, because he drives me craaaaaaazy! Even his voice makes me cringe - I don't mind his sister, really, but since she's his teammate, then she has to go, too. Everything about Victor is just so ewwwww. I also drive Hubby nuts with all my endless comments about how dang SHORT the stuntmen/brothers are. It just cracks me up and I can't stop mentioning it when they're on screen - especially when they're on the mat and Phil is looking waaaay down at them. And isn't Phil just so awesome with his signing for Luke at the mat? Phil rocks!!

On another celebrity-related note, I was very sad to read the news about Natasha Richardson's untimely death after a skiing accident this week. It hits close to home for Hubby and me, you see, because twelve years ago, a good friend of ours also suffered a traumatic brain injury while skiing. In his case, he went off the trail and headfirst into a tree, and when he was brought in to the level one trauma center, the neurosurgeons said that his was the worst injury they'd ever seen where the patient wasn't DOA. The good news in this story is that he survived (it was a long road to recovery for him, including several weeks in a comatose/vegetative state) and he is still with us today (as well as his wife and two adorable daughters). However, his livelihood as he knew it (he worked in radio) is gone forever, and he has had to adapt to life in a wheelchair with pretty significant limitations due to the paralysis caused by his injury. Whenever I hear a story similar to our friend's, or Natasha Richardson or Sonny Bono or any other person who hits their head while skiing, I always ask the same thing - why the heck aren't helmets mandatory for skiing? I know they don't help in high-speed injuries, but still, they could help in lower-speed injuries, and any protection has to be better than none at all. I just don't get it. (And yes, I would wear a helmet if I went skiing again, which I actually haven't since our friend's accident. I'd make sure Kiddo and Hubby did, too.)

What else? I feel like there was something else I wanted to blog about, but now I'm drawing a blank. Huh. Oh well, I can always blog about it later once I remember what the hey it was. And Carma, I promise I'll do your video as soon as I can breathe well enough to sing again (also, from a vanity standpoint, as soon as my nose no longer looks like Rudolph with peeling skin)! I'm coming up on the big 300th post....... will it be the one in which I announce news of houses being sold and bought? Stay tuned!!! In the meantime, if you have any suggestions for a song I ought to download for my iPod, throw 'em at me! I need some new tunes on there, and I've still got the iTunes gift card Hubby gave me for a Christmas stocking stuffer burning a hole in my pocket! And by "new" I don't necessarily mean a new song, just something I don't have on my iPod already. I mean, if you've got a favorite that you rock out to from way back, tell me - I love older songs (most of my iPod is full of songs from well before the 90s!).......

For example, Kiddo and I frequently jam to this one while driving 'round town:



So, new tune, old tune, showtune, any tune you enjoy, you name it and I'll give it a listen! Thanks!

This-n-That

As usual, many random thoughts bouncing around the vast, empty expanses of my brain, none of which seem to warrant their very own post, so I shall commence with rambling for a bit and throw them all into one post now. As they've been percolating for a while, you can consider this a crock pot stew of randomness...

Kiddo's school has been having various events for school spirit, Read Across America and Dr. Seuss' birthday this week. Yesterday, the kids were supposed to all wear their school t-shirts (which Kiddo did, albeit over a turtleneck because it is still fuh-reeeeezing here) and there was a school assembly. Tonight is the Literacy Fair, which doesn't start until 6:30, but which they've hyped to the kids so Kiddo is dying to go. I'm a little surprised at the number of events that they hold for an elementary school that don't start until 6:30 or later. I mean, is it just *my* kid that goes to bed at 7pm on school nights? She doesn't do well staying up much past that during the week. I've told her we will go for a little while, but I also emailed her OT to give her the head's up that Kiddo might be more out of whack tomorrow than usual. Speaking of whack, tomorrow is "Wacky Wednesday" and the kids are supposed to dress, well, wackily. (Is wackily a word? Would just plain wacky be correct? ARGH, I can't decide.) Kiddo is way, way, waaaay excited about the wacky dressing concept, and I'm wracking my brains (which, as I've already mentioned, are mostly empty, having lost the last of my marbles some time in the past few weeks with this whole Project Moving '09 thing) trying to figure out what of her wardrobe will constitute "wacky" enough while not going too over the top. I did pick up some neon colored hair extensions for a buck at Walmart earlier today that I was thinking I could incorporate into a wacky hairstyle of some sort, though it has to be hat-friendly, because, did I mention? It is FREEZING here. (Yes, I was at Walmart again, this time to return the sheer panel I'd bought a week ago for the Window to Nowhere. As of right now, the decision is to leave that window bare - we'll see if the realtor suggests otherwise when he comes... While I'm digressing on the subject of the house, the realtor is coming over on Saturday to take pictures and do all that needs to be done for the listing, which should be up by Monday morning. WOO-HOOOOOO!) So, I've got wacky hair all set, now to figure out from the neck down. Kiddo wants to wear something out of her dress-up clothes, but I'm not entirely convinced that is the best plan. I may pick the brains of other moms at the Literacy Fair thing at school tonight. Friday is "wear your favorite hat" day and I'm pretty sure Kiddo will be going with her pink, monogrammed Mouse Ears from our trip to Disney last summer.

So, anyhow, the house. It is almost done, almost... I've begun looking in earnest at the different listings online and have fallen in love about six times over with properties that meet our basic criteria and are on the right side of town. I've never actually gone and looked at a house (as this was our first house and we had it built) so I'm extra-excited for that part to start. I can't wait to find out if everyone else has killed themselves as much as we have with the cleaning and decluttering and painting and fixing up stuff... I'm a little nervous about the showing of our house, more from a logistical standpoint (what if someone wants to come see the house and I have Kiddo in the tub or she's in bed? What if I can't find the cat and she gets let out inadvertently? How much will people really poke around in our cabinets and closets? Will it be okay to leave the toaster out on the counter, or should I stash it in the basement every time there's a showing?) than anything.

Have you guys seen this? How gross is that? I would pay money to see someone actually eat a can, I think. Not much money - until after my lottery ticket wins the Megamillions jackpot tonight - but real money nonetheless. Ew, ew, and ew. I'd like to buy a can (if they sold it around here) just to have it in my pantry as a conversation piece!

So, isn't the Amazing Race extra-awesome this season? Anyone else watch besides Hubby and me? If so, do you have a favorite team yet? I'm rooting for Mel and Mike and Margie and Luke thus far. I like the new music but I do wish they'd have left in the gongs and rattlesnake shaking of foreshadowing... If you are an Amazing Race addict like me, you'll definitely want to check out Josh Wolk's recaps over at Entertainment Weekly's website, as well as M. Giant's recaps over at Television Without Pity. Both Josh and M. are hysterically funny writers, and real fans of the show, which shows in their writing, too. Oh, and Phil Keoghan also blogs over at EW's website, too. Love me some Phil and his eyebrow.

Speaking of reality TV related things, I'm loving American Idol so far this season, though I'm a little bummed that there aren't going to be enough wild card spots to get all my early-on favorites in to the top 12. I know a lot of people didn't like Nick/Norman, but I loved him, he totally cracked me up. I don't think AI is the right forum for him, but my good bloggy buddy Hot Tub Lizzy suggested to me that he'd be great on Last Comic Standing, and I totally agree. I would like Anoop, Megan and Jesse to all make it into the top 12 though, so obviously I'm going to be disappointed to some extent. Oh well, once the top 12 are done, my pool starts and I can't wait!

Also on the reality TV topic, America's Next Top Model starts tomorrow night - WOO-HOO! I do so love that show. Obviously, makeover week is my favorite, but it's all good, trashy, mindless entertainment. I need that on a Wednesday, given that Lost always twists what's left of my brain into teensy, tiny, pretzeled knots every Wednesday night. Hubby and I are always quoting this bit of Dane Cook's during the commercial breaks of Lost (and ps - that link has some non-PG rated language...). I do love that show, though!

Okay, time to get Kiddo off the bus and see if she had a good enough day today that she gets to whip my butt at Mario Kart Wii for a bit. Happy Not-Monday Anymore, y'all!

I am pretty much barking mad, so why not get $250 to spend at Target?

We all know I'm pretty much crazy, and this whole "getting the house ready to list on the market" thing has essentially helped push me that teensy bit left to go over The Edge. I seriously have lost those few remaining marbles I once had. (I'm guessing they're off in the 10x10 storage unit we've rented and jam-packed full of things I am not sure I can really live without. Either that or I accidentally Freecycled them. Don't think they were in any of the lots I sold on Craigslist, but if someone did give me any money for my wits, the joke's on them. Ha!)

Annnnyhow, I hopped on the computer this afternoon whilst the miniblinds from the guest room were soaking in a lukewarm, Top Job bath per helpful instruction guide Hubby found and emailed me on "How to Clean Miniblinds in Fifty Not-Terribly-Easy Steps Guaranteed to Drive You Crazy, Unless You're Already There" and as my fingers were cramping from Step Thirty-Six: Individual Slat Wipedown, I thought I'd stretch them out over my keyboard for a few moments. Kiddo is presently buried in the packing paper we received from a fellow Freecycler and I think that Crazy Cat may be down there in the paper too. (See my previous post for more on that. Well, more in the "pictures are worth a thousand words" sort of way.)

As I was doing a quick blogsurf in a vain attempt to catch up on all the posts logjamming my blog reader (the number is getting daunting and I've barely left a comment in days - sorry everyone!), I came across a contest over at Auds' blog, Barking Mad. It is a lovely, All About Me kind of a contest. All one has to do is grab her badge (woot, blog bling!), give links to five to ten of one's favorite posts - posts on one's very own blog! - and then link up and voila, you're in and could possibly win a $250 gift card to Target! (Cue choir o' angels!)

I want that gift card, y'all. I'm sick TO DEATH of Walmart, where I've been eleventy billion times in the past two weeks, and where I need to go in just a few more minutes to return the curtain rods I bought in the wrong size and the guest towels I bought in the wrong color yesterday. See, that's where the Target gift card would come in handy - new guest towels for the brand-spanking new, Tear Drop blue painted (it's a REALLY pretty color and I wish we'd slapped it up about nine years ago so I could've enjoyed it more) downstairs powder room. Also, some new throw rugs for the kitchen, new welcome mats for the front and back door and all manner of other little "staging" type things.

So, without further ado, here's my list of my top five posts. Yeah, they look suspiciously like posts I've got listed over yonder in the sidebar. Think of them as Heather's Greatest Hits, if you haven't read them already.......................


Hey Karma, I think we're even now!
A Public Restroom Nightmare
Hair-raising Matters
If you're reading this in the buff, I don't want to know...
100 things about me

Here's the kewl blog bling that goes with the giveaway.....



And now, back to the miniblinds and then Walmart. My life, it is SO exciting. At least tonight is American Idol (go Danny Gokey, Anoop Desai, Alexis Grace and Ann Marie Boskovich!) and Lost (go back to the Island, wherever and whenever it is RIGHT NOW Oceanic Six!)..........

The "What Barbara Walters Would Ask if She Were HOT" meme

My dear blogosphere friend Eudea-Mamia just did this meme, and then graciously gave me the following questions so I could play, too. I'm fairly certain that credit for the title goes to EM, by the way....

My questions are:

1. Name one moment in your life when you were very proud of yourself (non Kiddo related!).

Um, I could go a bit cheesy here and say this moment:



but actually, I was more proud of passing the test and the audition/interview to get into the contestant pool than actually being called for the show, which was much more luck/chance than me actually *doing* something. Out of the 65 people that took the contestant exam that same day I did, only 6 of us passed it. So, that was a "woo, me!" moment.

On a less trivial level, I was also extremely proud of myself the day that I was promoted to the director of my department at the agency I worked for prior to the Ultimate Promotion to being a mom. I was only 27, the youngest person ever promoted to "senior management" and had been completely convinced I would never be picked to fill my predecessor's gigantic shoes. Some of the folks that I was up against for the job had PhDs and decades more experience than I, so I was a bit stunned to hear that I'd gotten the job. I'm further proud to say that during my tenure, my team exceeded all our contract requirements and benchmarks, started two new programs (one was a school-to-work program for high school students with disabilities, the other a program to help individuals with epilepsy who were unemployed or underemployed find and keep suitable employment) and had our department chosen to be one of five sites nationwide included in a federal grant. We were a great team and we helped a lot of people with very little resources and a lot of obstacles. I was definitely proud of that.

2. Which superpower would you choose a) being invisible? b) reading people's minds? c) stopping time?

Well, hmmm. Invisibility would be cool sometimes - I sure would work out a lot more if no one could see me huffing and puffing and sweating away, for example, or those times when I'm out in public with a melting-down kid, it sure would be great to be invisible then... Reading people's minds would also be cool, but could be very dangerous, as well. I mean, do I really want to know what people are thinking about me, really? *shudder* Pretending people are thinking well of me is probably the safer route for my ego, so no, not reading minds after all. (Though I suppose it would come in very handy with Kiddo, who at the age of 5 and a half has already perfected the monosyllabic grunt answer to questions like "How was your day at school?") Stopping time, hmmm, like Hiro on Heroes (which is on again starting tonight, woo-hoo!)? That could be good - I could keep Kiddo from bonking her noggin or skinning her knees, get the cat moved from the carpet to the linoleum *before* she gacked up that ginormous, juicy hairball, assist Hubby's golf game with an astounding amount of birdies - eagles, even! - prevent folks from sliding off the roads in all this snow and ice we just. Keep. Getting..... Yep, I think I'm going to go with stopping time.

3. What would your superhero name be?

This was a tough one. I was pondering aloud via my Facebook status and one of my old high school friends helpfully sent me a link to a site that generates your Superhero or Villian name. You have to plug in different variables (up to three) and then it will give you your name suggestions.

I scrolled through the list of variables, and decided that these were the best three for describing myself:



I mean, I'm whiter than the driven snow (skintone-wise), especially this time of year. (Hubby and I often joke that folks can always tell when we were outdoors in the summer because of the blinding glare thrown off our pasty white skin.) I am a jokester (of what caliber - whether "humorous" really is applicable, I cannot unbiasedly judge), and my shape does change, albeit generally between StayPuft, Doughboy and Jabba.

This is what came up for my variables........



Hmmm, definitely some possibilities there. I especially like Pale Girl and Fool Laugh.

I changed up the variables a bit (after deciding I am at least Queen of my own Insanity, if not my kingdom.........):



And came up with these:



Giggle Baroness? Oooh, that's good - royalty *and* it reminds me of The Sound of Music. Hmmm, I'll need to think a bit more on it and get back to you later.......

4. Name your top three crushes - real, fictional, past or present.

Okay, real (as well as past and present!):



(wasn't that obvious?)

Fictional:



and



From the past:







I know, that's more than three. I just couldn't narrow it down any further!

And now, it is time for me, Giggleo (pronounced Giggle-Oh, thankyouverymuch), to get motivated and off to the store. We're on a new mission to eat most of the food in the pantry (which is overflowing) and chest freezer before we move, so theoretically, grocery shopping should be a quick and painless task. Theoretically, anyhow... If anyone else wants to take a stab at this meme, give me a shout and I'll give you some questions!

Less than 12 hours to go...

...until we're back on the island! Where is it? WHEN is it? All the confusing wonders of


will be back!!! I can't wait!!!!

Random ramblings on a wintery weekend

I've been pondering my dry, dry, drrrrrryyyyyyy skin this morning. I'm not sure if my skin is closer to this:
this:

or perhaps this: Now, while I've never touched an alligator, they are the animals that one usually sees in the commercials for dry skin remedies. I have actually touched both a rhino and an elephant, and I think overall, my skin (especially in winter, when I'm not as likely to shave my legs quite as often as I do in the summer) is more similar to that of an elephant, as elephants have hairier skin than I recall rhinos having. I remember the rhinos' skin as being surprisingly smooth, whereas the elephants were a bit prickly.

At any rate, my skin definitely doesn't feel terribly human this time of year. Between the weather, the wind, and the more-frequent handwashing/sanitizing due to it being cold and flu season, my skin is suffering. It always does in the winters.

When I mentioned in my last post that my skin is dry and that I have tried many, many products with which to moisturize it, I wasn't kidding.
This is just a random sampling of the products I had close at hand when I decided to take a picture of them today. There are others lurking on shelves and counters, in cabinets and drawers. Some of the smaller tubes came out of my purse, because as well as carrying a small bottle of hand sanitizer and antibacterial wipes with me, I also carry lotion to try and counteract the damage I'm doing by sanitizing. As to the rest of them... clearly, I am a woman who is swayed by marketing, willing to believe any promise of smooth, soft skin that resembles none of the wildlife pictures above. Clearly, I am also a woman who does not frequently throw things away. Like, for example, those two bottles of "makes you look tanner" moisturizer/lotion. I'd heard good - even great! - things about those, so I cut out a coupon for them one Sunday and trotted off to the store. I bought the kind designated for "fair" skin, because at my absolute darkest, I'm still pretty dang fair. I did not at all like the color they turned either my legs (the body lotion stuff) or my face (the facial moisturizer stuff). It did darken my skin, but only in a "my goodness, but she looks like she could stand to have a liver transplant" jaundiced sort of way. Haven't opened either of those in years. They're still mostly full. I haven't thrown them out, though, because you never know when I might want to look orangey-yellow again, I mean, maybe the next time I try them, they'll work better.... ha. (Actually, those tanny-tinty ones kind of *do* make my skin look like that Rhino in the picture above!)

Anyhow, thanks for all the suggestions on moisturizers and lotions. Maybe this winter, I will find something that works well and yet doesn't make me break the heck out, too!

***
So, two weeks down, with five workouts a week. I no longer am quite like this, and with any luck, I'll be all buff like Homer (ha ha ha) in two months, too, though I'm eating oatmeal and drinking green tea for breakfast instead of eating Powersauce bars....


Hee! At the very least, I can pronounce the name of the place I've been dragging myself to each morning after Kiddo gets on the bus..... it's the "why?!?!?!"



***

Hubby and I are planning on going to the movies on Monday, sans Kiddo. (Woo-hoo!) We really want to see Slumdog Millionaire, but we also really want to use our Fandango gift card that my brother and sister-in-law gave us for Christmas, and it isn't playing at any of the local theaters that use Fandango. Grrrr. So, our options are either going to be to (a) see something else and use our Fandango gift card - and goodness knows, we haven't seen *anything* that's playing now other than Bolt, so we ought to have plenty of options, or (b) pay for the tickets ourselves to see Slumdog Millionaire. We haven't quite decided yet which option we will go with, but either way, a movie.....in a theater.....that isn't animated.....possibly with popcorn, even....... *swooooooon*

***

Speaking of *swooooooning* - Ellen has finally landed George Clooney as a guest. I love Ellen, but don't watch daytime TV really, other than the news first thing in the morning (so, before 6:30am) and then the Today Show or Regis and Kelly while I'm at the gym. I sort of vaguely knew that Ellen's had some recurring thing about getting George Clooney to be on her show, and I just read that he will be on this coming Monday. Totally setting the DVR for that one, woot woot!

***
In other TV-related news, only FIVE MORE DAYS until Lost finally premieres!!!! Lost is one of my most favorite shows EVER in the history of television, so needless to say, I'm a wee bit excited. Then, adding to the "oh my goodness!" levels of excitement, I came across this story on E! Online this morning.... The season of Sawyer?!?! Be still, my beating heart!!!

***
It is currently five degrees outside. (That'd be Fahrenheit, for all you international folks out there who wonder why I'm pointing this out. Then again, I suppose 5 degrees Celsius is also not terribly warm.) This cold spell we're in is supposed to end by tomorrow though, with temperatures soaring all the way back up into the 20s. (That'd be a wee bit of sarcasm...) At the rate this weather is going, it will be May before Hubby braves the outdoors long enough to take down the outside Christmas lights. I unplugged them the weekend after New Year's, but they're still up there. At least all the other Christmas stuff (aka the indoor stuff) has been put away for weeks now.

***
We have started giving Kiddo a weekly allowance. She has three piggy banks (thanks to her aunt and uncle who gave them to her for Christmas, knowing this was our allowance plan), designated as SPEND, SAVE and CHARITY respectively. Each week, she gets $.75 that gets divided evenly between the three banks. (Hey, I said we were giving her an allowance, I didn't say it was a BIG allowance...) Her current plan is to save up enough money in her SPEND piggy bank to buy some new clothes for her Barbie dolls (she has three; Birthday Barbie, Surfing Ken and Cinderella Barbie). Right now, the SAVE piggy bank is earmarked for our trip to Disney World next summer, but it may not last quite that long. She wants to use the CHARITY earnings for helping kids who don't have food or toys, so we'll figure out an appropriate charity to donate that money to once there is enough collected.

I never had an allowance when I was growing up. (I did have a savings account at the bank - one of the old-school, passbook kind of accounts - into which I put the money I earned through my 4-H market lamb and other endeavors each year.) Hubby and I think there are valuable lessons to be learned with an allowance, and Kiddo is now old enough to understand the concept of money to some decent degree, so we decided we'd go for it. One of the biggest perks to it for me that I've found so far is that now, if we're out at a store and Kiddo starts asking me to buy her something, I can defer her to her allowance and it makes her stop asking (or whining) and also makes her think more seriously about whether the item that has momentarily caught her fancy is really worth spending money to acquire.

***
So, those of you with kids, do you give them an allowance? If so, how much at what age and how do you do it? Is everyone else sticking with their New Year's Resolutions (if you made any)? If your resolution was like mine - to get in shape - how are you doing? (Thus far, I've lost a measly two pounds, but I haven't been killing it at the gym, though I intend to step it up a bit starting next week. There's a Latin dance exercise class I walked past on my way out yesterday that looked intriguing, and I'm going to see if I can join it for the rest of this session. If not, it will definitely be a next-session goal!) Any good movie suggestions in case we opt for the non-Slumdog Millionaire route? Any hints on how to do better at Wii Mario Kart, like which character to race as and which vehicle to drive? What daytime TV shows do you watch? Anyone else psyched for the start of Lost on Wednesday? (Boy, the PTA meeting better get out on time so I don't miss a second of it!!) Anyone have exciting weekend plans? We're going to Disney on Ice tomorrow, and I can't wait!

In closing, I will leave you with the link to the Human video from The Killers. I caught about 15 seconds of it while flipping channels early the other morning, and the song has been firmly lodged in my head ever since. I am going to download it to my iPod, I think... the lyrics may be silly, but it is downright catchy nonetheless, and I am a fan of the band. So, one last question: Are we human, or are we dancer?

My life on the D list

Hello, everyone. I know, I know, I haven't been around the blogosphere much this week. There's even been speculation that I whacked my head on something at the gym and passed out or fell into a snowbank or skidded off into a ditch somewhere...

Well, I'm not Dead (yet). Though that does fit with the overall theme of this week: the letter D. Because of all my D stuff, I haven't been feeling much like posting. For example,

I've been stuck in the Doldrums. (Is it just me, former Child Bookworm turned Adult Bookworm, who cannot read/see/hear the word "doldrums" without instantly thinking of The Phantom Tollbooth? That was one of my favorite books as a kid...) I've just been feeling generally blah. It's a combination of not sleeping well, Aunt Flo, and our weather of late, which has been rather

Dreary. More like Downright cold, actually. Ridiculous windchills and Arctic weather fronts which all combine to make every last centimeter of my skin most horrifically

Dry and really, really itchy. There aren't enough lotions or moisturizers in the world to combat this adequately. Especially my face - I have the worst time finding a moisturizer that works but doesn't leave my skin feeling slimy or make me break out. (If anyone has any suggestions for a cheap - read: available at Target or Walmart, not Sephora or a department store brand type thing - and effective moisturizer, I'd love to hear them...)

Also, I've been Dealing with a good bit of Drama of the five-and-a-half year old variety. As in sass, attitude and Disrespect. Always very Draining to have to deal with that Day in and Day out. Fortunately, Kiddo seems to have pulled her shizzle together as of today (we had a Long and Serious talk while waiting for the bus this morning about improving the attitude) and today went well both at school and afterwards. Well enough that I consented to host a birthday party for her beloved pet tiger, Roary. Complete with birthday cake (actually, a Doughnut that Kiddo picked out after school), candle, singing and party games. A certain group of Kiddo's stuffed animal menagerie attended; I'm not sure if the rest weren't invited or simply declined to come all the way downstairs from the warmth of her flannel sheets where they've been huddling.

I also have been a bit Depressed. General worry about Life and All That Entails, including concern about the Future and various family members and the State of the Country and World, etc. In more self-centered concerns, I've also been bummed (pun intended) about the wide, wide expanse of my Derriere. Yes, I've been faithfully going to the gym per my New Year's Resolution, and I know it is too soon to expect to see major results, but would it be wrong to just hope for a little miracle? Couldn't I hop on the locker room scale and have to slide the big weight Down to the 150 notch? How about one muscle showing some Definition? Humph.

So, anyhow, there you have it. Blah Heather in the Doldrums. Certainly nothing that anyone wants to read about, eh? I have other stuff I've thought about posting about, like some recent Discussions that have taken place with Kiddo and a positively Disgusting exchange I overheard at the grocery store yesterday, but I am getting grumpy all over again from my whining thus far. I can't stand myself when I'm Down and Dismal, so I must shake off the funk and quit my kvetching.

Instead, I shall give a belated but heartfelt shout-out to the always Delightful Eudea-Mamia, who bestowed upon me this lovely blog bling:

I don't know that I Deserve it, but it is very, very much appreciated. Thank you!

Thus concludes my big, fat, D list. At least the week should be ending better than it began, albeit with more of D same.... We are going out to Dine (a Delayed anniversary celebration), also to see Disney on Ice *and* we have a Day off on Monday. That makes for a much better weekenD than the week so far! Stay tuned for further Developments once I'm no longer Down in the Dumps! Now it is time to start thinking about Dinner, after which I plan to watch Grissom's Departure from CSI *sniff sniff* while eating some Dessert. (Yes, I know that ice cream is counterproductive when I'm trying to shrink and tone and turn my Jabba the Huttness into Heather the Hotness, but sometimes, a girl's just gotta have her bowl of ice cream, y'know?)

And now, I will leave you with a Doldrums-Defying Ditty, courtesy of my good pal Ernie (with an able assist from the fantabulous Cookie Monster):