updates

because it's been a whole month since I mentioned anything about my girls, here's the update:

Naomi is still smiley and sweet and likes to play with toys she can grab. She just had her 4 month appointment and is doing great, except for sharing her sister's propensity towards ear infections. Boo. She's got the ok to start on the solid foods, but I don't know if I'm quite ready for that yet.

Josephine got lots of fun things for Christmas that she *loves* to play with - fake food, and a cart to wheel it all around in, a non-name brand MagnaDoodle (just don't know what else to call it), a backpack that she likes to carry around but doesn't think about unless we give it to her, a Leapfrog laptop that says her name, sings her songs, and sends her emails, and a Winnie the Pooh doll that's almost the size of her. I started to understand this year about how parents can easily go overboard buying gifts for their kids. It's so much fun to see her play, and there are a lot of things that I know she would really enjoy or would help her learn things. Every time we go to Target now, I easily find things I would like to buy for her. This is actually a heart (and wallet) check for me, since the last time we went to Target we came home with 2 new things for Jo that she didn't actually need, but REALLY likes. Bubble bath that she is pretty crazy about, and a CD set that includes songs from The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and also a story. We've listened to it upwards of a dozen times in the last couple of days (including right now!)

Also in Jo news, she is enjoying music in general more than ever, she'll even sing along for bits that she knows for songs like Twinkle Twinkle and her ABCs. She is also getting pretty good at counting to 3 and starting to identify her colors. We are talking just a little bit about using the potty and possible toilet training. She's interested, but I'm pretty sure we're not quite there yet. I've been kind of hoping she'd be ready by her birthday, but I'm learning it's really ok to wait.

Finally, we have new words just about every day. Last I heard, between 18-24 months kids will pick up about 10 words a day - how's that for a reminder to watch what you say around them? Latest ones include "Jesus" and "Zombies". The former is from listening to our Pandora station of Christian music for kids, and the latter is from Seth and my affinity for our Plants vs Zombies game, which Josephine loves to watch. It used to be that any time she got near the laptop we would hear "pooh" as her request to watch the Winnie the Pooh movie, now Pooh has to share time with "zombies" when she thinks it's time for someone to play. Still not sure if it's funny and cute that she knows about zombies, or it's a frightening look into how mom and dad are spending their time these days...

Anyway, that's all. As soon as I get around to putting pictures from Christmas and later on the computer, I'll post some here.

So Excited

Hey look, a post that isn't actually related to me being pregnant right now!

I feel a little juvenile about this, but I'm really excited about a movie that's coming out in a couple weeks. It's called Coraline, it's based off a book by my favorite author, Neil Gaiman. I'm pretty sure it's just a kid's book, at most it's a Young Adult book, which might explain why I feel a little juvenile about my excitement.

The book is fantastic tho. Actually, I haven't read it yet, but I borrowed the audiobook from the Library. For a Neil Gaiman book this is at least as good, if not better than reading the book itself. The audiobooks are all unabridged. He reads his books himself and he's got a fantastic British accent. He also knows exactly how to read and where to put what intonations in the dialogue (since he wrote it and all). Plus, they tend to add in fun music and little extras with some of the dialogue to enhance the experience (there are a couple parts with talking/singing rats in Coraline that are deliciously creepy in the audio version).

In general, Neil has a wonderful ability to make a kid's book appealing to more than just kids. They're humorous in ways that adults can understand, and while the language is such that a kid can easily read and comprehend it, the themes aren't just for kids, either. Coraline has bits of magic and silliness along with everyday life, but it's a bit scary in parts, too. There's danger and suspense and tension, quite a bit of Unknown mixed in with everything. I don't know if I would recommend it for anyone younger than maybe 7 or 8...it might depend on the kid. There's nothing horrible or disgusting, but there are some rather sinister characters.

I'm excited for it to be made into a film because there hasn't been a single movie that Gaiman's been involved with that hasn't been brilliant. Mirrormask was what first got me interested in his work, then there was Neverwhere, a novel turned into a BBC sci-fi miniseries, and then just last year was Stardust and Beowulf. Neil himself has been blogging about Coraline for months now, and is very excited about how it's been coming along. I generally take it as a good sign when the author approves of how his creation is being transformed from one medium to another. There are also all sorts of websites, promotions and fun things (such as the first video by Neil) to go along with the release, which make it all the easier to be excited.

So childish as it may seem, I'm looking forward to this movie like very few other movies lately. And my kind and loving husband has promised to take me to see it, maybe as a Valentine's Day date. In 3-D, even. I'm so lucky!

weekend epiphany

You know what I just discovered yesterday? Endurance training actually works! The last few weeks I haven't been running a ton, just a couple mile here and there, but I have been doing some endurance training, mostly because it takes about 5-10 minutes from start to finish, and I feel special after being able to hold a 8.5mph pace for a whole minute. Exhausted, but special. And it's only once a week, so it's easy to take.

The idea is to run as fast as you can for a minute straight, then stop or walk slowly (1mph on the treadmill works nicely) for a minute, and then run again as fast as you can for a minute, etc. etc. I'm up to repeating this 3 times total. It's pretty hard, but yesterday when I was playing Ultimate for the first time in 2-3wks, I totally noticed the difference. I could sprint and it wasn't as taxing as it normally is, and I could actually go a full game without wanting to collapse!

Now, this isn't really a witty anecdote or a deep spiritual thought, but I still thought it was cool. I tend to have a hard time keeping up with things if I don't see results pretty immediately, so I like that it's only been 4-5 weeks and I can tell a noticeable difference. Doing this training is supposed to help with lung capacity and speed, and those are definitely two things that I need a lot of help with. I feel quite encouraged that I've actually found something that I can do to get better in those areas.

free at last!

the first major bonus of being sold to a new company:

we're now off the old servers with the major internet blocker. I can now listen to internet radio, watch Rock TVs, and of course fully enjoy Jon Carlson's blog from work again.

should it be this awesome? I'm not really sure, but it kinda is...

mark your calendars!

I have been waiting since last fall for this little tidbit of news...So You Think You Can Dance is finally heading back to the airwaves! This my one honest to goodness weakness in the realm of reality shows, the only show last year that I absolutely did not miss a single episode.

I'm so excited I might just set my VCR tonight to make sure I record it...even if it's not on until May 24th...

lazy monday

for those with some time on your hands, you might find this interesting. Dunno if there's any point to it, but it was kinda neat to me:

http://www.nfctd.com/home.html

good/bad

The good thing about client visits: I get to leave the office for approximately half of the work day, and the company pays for a yummy lunch at Axel's.

The bad thing about client visits: I had to dress nice. On a Friday! Granted, we're all casual all the time, so I'm really not losing a special casual day, but still. I guess it's worth it for a free lunch.

trivial things i learned on my trip to florida

1. In the 4 or so terminals I visited in Chicago-O'Hare Airport, I found a Children's Museum (not-so fancy play area) and only one moving sidewalk.

2. Never having had more than a couple Disney movies growing up, I didn't realize how repetitive children's videos are, especially when watched daily. I could now tell you more than anyone needs to know about Pygmy Marmocets, 3-toed Sloths, Maned Wolves, and Condors. can also sing many songs about jumping, running and flying to help rescue these animals.

3. Condors do not fly after the sun goes down, but if you're with Diego, you could possibly find the giant Condor who will be able to raise the sun into the sky and give you some more daylight hours...I need to find that Condor, I think.

4. I noticed quite a large (to me) number of people (in the many hours that I spent in the airport) carrying around cylindrical containers on their travels. Most were very long, several were too skinny to be carrying fishing poles, which really was my only guess as to what could possibly be inside (my other thought would have been firearms, but I'm thinking they'd make you check those these days). I'm still curious to know what would be so popular, if anyone cares to hazard a guess or two...(or in case you really know?)

5. Ducks who are used to getting fed get kinda pissed if you visit their pond without food. It was a species I've never seen before, and they started hissing and approaching menacingly, as if to take whatever they could find by force, which would probably have been Lincoln.

6. I liked the spaces between the terminals at O'Hare. There was one area that was filled by paintings from local residents, but in general the spaces were dimly lit, almost empty, much more quiet than the rest of the airport, and a little lonely. There was just something peaceful there.

7. There were also parts of O'Hare that reminded me of the Airport in Lima. I can't really describe it too well, but it did.

apparently I learned many useless things by walking around in an airport for several hours. At least the time didn't go to waste, right?

8. Playing Zelda: Twilight Princess for approximately 20 hours got me nowhere near finishing, but totally made me want a Gamecube (or Wii) so I could keep trying.

no post today

There will be nothing interesting to post today, I'm taking my lunch break to create a menu and grocery list because our fridge is about bare.

Any suggestions on what I should make for dinner over the next couple weeks?

espectacular!

last night after house church seth and I were rummaging thru tv channels, looking for something to watch. I'll admit a guilty pleasure here - with basic cable came MTV2, which was full of Celebrity Deathmatch and Jackass and Pimp My Ride, and even occasional music videos. We would regularly watch just for the pure empty entertainment value. We noticed that we haven't been getting that channel for the last couple days, and with the change from TimeWarner to Comcast, it wasn't too surprising, I knew things were going to switch around a little.

So we were wandering around, seeing what other channels we may or may not have anymore, and we found way more home shopping networks than could possibly ever be healthy, and Univision! Qué sorpresa fantastica! It obviously excited me much more than mr. r, and I'm sure that I'll only be able to watch it while he's not home, but just the thought of the Telenovelas and las noticias, and Super Sábado Gigante con Don Fernando and all the other gameshows they have on, what fun! And it'll give me a chance to work on my spanish comprehension, since it's been awhile since I've really had anything resembling an actual conversation in spanish.

hope springs eternal, pt. 3

look at this!

All I did was wish for some friggin' snow, and almost as soon as I was done with lunch, it started snowing.

God listens to my prayers!!



Now all I have to do is drive home in it...

hope springs eternal

yes, i'm still a vikings fan.

I'm even wearing my very own vikings jersey today. Granted, it's a Daunte Culpepper jersey and I haven't bothered taping over his name quite yet, but it's my one and only piece of memorabilia and I am rockin' it big time.

I'm not foolishly optimistic. I don't know how I feel about Secret Squirrel, our new head coach. I can't stand the offense right now. I don't even know if they'll win the game verses the evil Packers tonight. It'll be Tarvaris Jackson's first start EVER, at Lambeau, playing against a hated division rival and Brett Favre, no less. Talk about intimidating! It's likely that it'll rain as well, so that'll be good fun... I know their shot at the playoffs is slim, and even if they got there they'd have a hard road to get anywhere near (much less win) the Superbowl, but I still cheer them on. I won't stop cheering them on, no matter how much it hurts.

I'd really like to watch the game tonight - I should have thought of that before inviting Ben and Sarah over for dinner. You guys are from WI right, so that means you're bred to be Packers fans? Lets make our quality time around the game tonight, whaddaya say?

I'm kidding of course....

unless you'd really like to....

who likes crosswords?

try this one out - no clues!
it's pretty fun, and you can start out easy to get the hang of it.

long lost love

augh! I was just meandering through different blogs that I haven't read in a little while (there were a few of them, sadly) and I noticed in Rachel's links her addiction to SET online...how long has it been since my daily obsession had gone un-obsessed? Oh SET game, will you ever forgive me? Mere minutes out of my day to hone my visual acuity and matching skills, and I had completely forgotten. No longer! I'm making plans to once again integrate it into my daily life.

is it healthy to knowingly pick an addiction back up?

fallen hero

bad news about Rowdy Roddy Piper

Roddy was one of my favorite wrestlers back in the day when it was cool to watch and not as much of a soap opera as it is now. Back in the days of Hulk Hogan as a good guy, Macho Man Randy Savage, Sgt. Slaughter, and Jake "the Snake" Roberts.
And now Roddy's got lymphoma. At least he's got a good attitude about it.

It seems like I have been fighting someone, something, someplace, in some manner, my whole life," Piper said in a statement. "But this fight is one I am gonna win!"

That's because he'll just go into his trademark scottish rage and thrash all the lymphoma out of his whole body. Way to go Roddy Piper!

p.s. does anyone know if Mean Gene is still working in the wrestling world? Just curious...

question of the day

we have been invited over to jodi's house tonight for dinner and a show. The evening's entertainment will be watching Animaniacs, which is a treat, but it brings with it a quandry.

Most people I know who watch and love the show cite Pinky and the Brain as the best part. This is not without merit as they had their own spin-off, and also because some of the lesser known cartoon shorts really stank (Katie Kaboom anyone?).




My personal favorites of the show have always been Yakko, Wakko and Dot. It could be that they had the most creative allowances, spoofing classic movies and musicals, or the fun educational songs that they sang, or that I grew up with healthy doses of Marx Brothers movies and have a great appreciation for sharp wit and painful puns. They're insanely silly and I can't help but love them.


But even with that, I don't know that I would put Pinky and the Brain 2nd on my list. I also really like Slappy Squirrel. She's cynical, crabby, and violent, what's not to love? Pinky could be described this way as well, but maybe it's the unending quest for world domination that puts me off. Yay for being persistent, but find a more practical hobby, mouse!



So the actual question: Which was the best sketch on the show, and why? Can you change my mind about the lab rats?