PractiGal

Just another day -- NOT!

So I'm going about my evening business, loading the dishwasher, cleaning up toys, getting a book out to read. Ahh. Thursday evening.

One last e-mail check before my hubby takes over the computer for the evening, and...

Oh. My. Goodness.

My dear readers.... my peeps...

You know how people find your site by googling around?  Last night someone googled, found me, and e-mailed me.

That person is a producer from Good Morning America.

Yes, that Good Morning America.

The post he contacted me about? This one. Where I wrote about my neighbor's passion for her lawn.  Apparently, they might be doing a story on the psychology of lawn enthusiasts. Or something like that. He asked me to call him today.

So I did. We spoke briefly before we were cut off -- I continued talking for a while before I knew we were cut off, so I'm not sure exactly how much he heard from me.  I guess I just babble on when I'm nervous!

After Mr. GMA and I were cut off, I sent an e-mail, asking him to let me know if he wants me to see if my neighbor would be agreeable to talking about this. Because, people? I'm not completely positive that my neighbor would see the humor. She may. Or not. If she does, I'll probably show her the blog. But they're great neighbors, and I don't want to piss them off, you know?

Anyway, Mr. GMA asked for my phone number so he can call again when they get this together, for a possible camera interview.

Holy. Crap.

What does one wear for such an event, if it comes to be?

How can I lose 30 pounds in a hurry?

Where can I buy the world's best girdle?

People?

I need your help!

Gahhh!

Is this how Popeye started out?

I've mentioned that my child is cute and smart, but have I mentioned that he's built like a linebacker? and that our pediatrician has referred to him as Sumo baby?

The other night, I was away from home in the evening, and my husband and son were home, enjoying a pizza my hubby had delivered. I was surprised to come home and find not much left from the large pizza. My husband came into the room and told me that our son had put away 2 large pieces of spinach & onion pizza. These were good-sized triangular pieces, too.  Apparently, my hubby couldn't cut it up fast enough for him. The pizza was hoovered, and the little guy wanted more! My husband drew the line at 2 slices.  The child is 2 years old. He's about 3 feet tall and weighs 32 pounds. He's a very sturdy little boy.

Yesterday, the day after spinach pizza, the little guy was enjoying a home video just before lunch. He loves watching himself as a baby - crawling, being tickled, looking all baby-faced into the camera, whatever. I told him it was lunch time. He wanted to keep watching the video in the living room, so he went into the kitchen and pushed his high chair into the living room. (It's not very heavy, but it is bulky &  it's not on wheels.)  Once the chair was situated in front of the tv & video, he climbed up, sat down, and asked for his sandwich!

It won't be long til we can no longer afford to feed this boy.

But by then, I figure he'll be able to bring in some money with his own little business -- helping people move major appliances and furniture.

We'll give it another year or two -- who really wants to hire a mover who's still in diapers?

Ice, ice, baby?

Not only do I miss all weather reports, apparently I miss big news stories including one involving bacteria in ice at fast food restaurants.

I tuned in to Oprah yesterday, for her latest whiz kids show. They featured our local basketball phenomenon, J-Mac*, and I wanted to see him meet Oprah. She had a bunch of amazing kids on, including a young girl who did a science experiment comparing bacteria levels in fast food restaurant ice to that of the restaurants' toilet water. No joke.

What she found?  The toilet water contained less bacteria than the ice, 70% of the time.

Gahhh!

Last night I told my hubby about it and he was skeptical. I googled around a bit and found that this story was covered by lots of media outlets.

I know that there's bacteria everywhere, and that we'd all be appalled by what's found in our houses under black light, or whatever lighting is used to show us how gross motel rooms are (on Dateline, etc).

And I'm not freakishly germophobic.  At least I'm  no Monk.

But ice? ICK. 

I think I'll skip the ice next time.

Suddenly I feel the urge to evacuate my house & call in the professionals.  Or at least scrub some surfaces with bleach.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

* If you haven't heard the amazing story about J-Mac, check it out. He's our hometown hero!

Mourning dove nest

The previous owners of our house left a bird feeder off the back of the house.  It has a lid/roof, which doesn't stay on. We don't use it as a feeder anyway. We've had mourning doves nest there at least twice. A year or two ago, they were nesting too early and got caught there in an ice storm. Eventually, the parent abandoned the nest.

This morning I looked out -- they're back!  According to what I've read, the Mom and Dad take turns sitting on the nest, at different times of day,  and sometimes they're both there.

Loving a 2-year old

It wasn't long ago that we wondered:  What's going on in that brain of his?

Lo and behold, a LOT has been going on in there. Holy sponge-ola, Batman. Of course, every parent is convinced that their child shows signs of remarkable intelligence, right? In that way, I'm just like all the other gushing parents.  And we've always known that he's cute. Today I present to you: evidence of his smarts and cuteness.

(That gushing parent line is your cue to click away if you can't tolerate another gushing post. Really, I won't be offended. This is here for the archives, and of course, because it's my blog.)

Consider the following...

• In a rare middle-of-the-night wakeup, my little boy cries for Mommy, and I pick him up to  give him a hug. I decide to give him a fresh diaper while we're both awake. As I change him in the dark, he asks: "Rocking chair? Read books?"  Wow. And yes, we rock as needed in the middle of the night, but we don't read books at that time.

• There are probably 50-60 train engines and cars on Thomas the Tank Engine's  Engine Depot page. We've been amazed by how many of them our little guy knows by name. Even some pretty obscure ones that rarely come up in the videos and books.  One day I kept a tally as I clicked on the pictures and he announced their names -- he knows the names of 37 Thomas & friend characters. Whoa.

• We're listening to a lot of Laurie Berkner's music for kids. The little guy sings along to every song on her Buzz Buzz CD. Coincidentally, I know all the words & sing along too, but hey, I'm not 2!

• He's counting from 1 to 13, but he skips 8. Every time. Maybe he knows something we don't?

• This boy LOVES his milk. When he wants some, he opens the fridge, takes out his half gallon carton (he knows which is his) and puts it on counter -- if it's a new carton, he comments that it's "heavy!" Oh, and if he wants juice, he goes for that, though he's not adept at getting the bottles out from the fridge door -- yet.

• We had a library book where a cat got into things, and on each page there was something different (pots & pans, clothes, books...) everywhere. And as we read, I'd make sure to put an overly goofy emphasis on the word everywhere, so that the little guy would chime in at that spot on each page. After that, one night we headed upstairs for a bubble bath. He got so excited when he saw the bubbles,  he proclaimed "bubbles everywhere!" It's been a couple of weeks, but still when I shout out for bath time, the little guy runs to the stairs and asks "Bubbles everywhere?"

• Speaking of everywhere. The manners are everywhere.  "It's time for your pajamas and toothbrush! Let's go!"  "No thanks!"

• OK, last one. I know this gets nauseating. This one's my favorite. We were doing our usual weekend morning wake-up/drink milk/ slowly get into the day while watching Clifford or Sesame Street or whatever routine. We snuggle, and my boy turns to me:  "Nice to see you, Mommy!"

             Nice to see you too, my sweet!

/(end gush)

Fog is in my forecast. Every day.

Do the newscasters hold the weather reports hostage where you live? They sure do here. "Will there be rain at the big golf tournament tomorrow? Find out at 6!"  Maybe it's that way in the whole northeast, where we're hanging on every word to find out when the next sunny day will be. But that's not my only gripe with the weather reports.

More often than not, I'll turn on the evening news to catch the forecast, and then I'll miss it. I'll be watching the news, when the weather guy or gal finally comes on. I fade in and out as they tell me way more than I need to know about the weather patterns around the country, and somehow I'll miss the local forecast.  I swear, the weather people talk WAY more than necessary. I don't always need to know what's going on in Alberta, Canada (no offense to anyone in Alberta) and how it will affect our weather here in 2 weeks. Usually I want to know what it's going to be like here -- tomorrow, or over the weekend.

One local channel has introduced bells that chime when the 5-day forecast goes up on the screen. My problem is that the chimes sound an awful lot like my doorbell.  And when I'm only partly paying attention to the tv, while making dinner and watching a toddler, I often head to the door to see who's come to solicit at dinner time, again. Only to find that I've missed the effin forecast. Again.

Yes, there are oodles of places where I can read the weather forecast online. I just like to hear the forecast from a trusted local meteorologist. And yes, I have a favorite -- Scotty. Scotty is always excited about the weather, no matter what's coming. But not in an obnoxious way. He's just an enthusiastic nut, and I like that in a weatherman.

Am I the only one? Or do you keep missing the forecast too?

How do you do, Pooh?

Ding ding ding!

The bell rang, and I was off to the races to attend my first "garage sale" of the season.

Well, it was held in a church basement, but you know... 

There was a bounty of used children's clothing.  I arrived at the opening bell to get while the getting was good. And I'm glad I did, as the place was buzzing immediately at 9 a.m. Unencumbered by stroller & wiggling child, I moved swiftly through the toddler boy clothes.

My big purchase was a Halloween costume very similar to this one. It's in beautiful condition, and I think we may get 2 years out of it, because it's kind of big. $10 - pretty good. I got a bunch of shorts, a bathing suit (also with Pooh) and summer pajamas for my boy. And I came out well under $20, as is my game.

I guess that was my Earth Day celebration. I don't consider myself to be an environmentalist, per se, though I am big on the three Rs: reduce, reuse, and recycle.  I was kind of curious about the history of Earth Day, so I read about it here.  I was in kindergarten in 1970, so I guess that's why I don't remember the first Earth Day.

Now that I think of it, I am doing some more reusing/recycling this weekend. I moved a bag of old clothes to my car for delivery to a women's shelter.

Of course the furnace is running here today, because DANG! It's cold. I have to draw the line somewhere!

Have a great weekend!

Space

Imagine this...

Imagine that your keyboard's spacebar squeaks.

Do you realize how often you use the spacebar? When it squeaks, you realize that you use it a LOT. A whole lot. And when you type quickly, as I do, the squeaks are almost constant. Gaaaaah!

MaybeIshouldtypewithoutusingthespacebar. DoyousupposethatwouldbeOK? Wow. That wasn't easy to do!

I doubt you can use WD40 on a computer keyboard. Anyone?

Anyway.

It's a positively gorgeous day. We're having a spell of very nice spring weather here in NY. It's been great.

My lawn-obsessed neighbor has her back yard staked out, like it's a crime scene. There are posts and CAUTION tape everywhere. One of the areas staked out is quite large -- like a swimming pool could go there. The other day I asked if they were planning for a new pond.  Because they're into upgrading everything -- they're on their second pond now after a year with what was apparently a too-small pond. She rolled her eyes, and said no, the stakeout was for "patching" the lawn. She rolled her eyes because it's her partner who's the lawn-obsessed one. We tease back and forth -- there's plenty of fodder  in both directions.

Now, within the staked out area, there are patches of straw and sprinkler heads. Their front yard is nicer than my carpeting. So lush and green.

Us? We can't seem to grown grass. We try, but with all the trees on our street, our front yard doesn't get much sun. Or something. I'm sure the lawn-obsessed neighbor cringes when she looks at our yard. Since we're right next door.

I bet she cringes the way I'm cringing with this eff-ing spacebar!

It must work or they wouldn't do it, right?

I'm no marketeer, but I've just got to wonder -- do those cheesey walking billboards work?

Before Tax Day, there was a person dressed in a very loud Uncle Sam suit, with a very tall hat, pacing in front of a nearby tax preparer's office. I'll be honest, I drove by this costumed crusader for weeks, and I never had the urge to go home and call the place he was working for.  He/she was out there for weeks, even in snow and rain. 

And then today, in front of the same plaza, there was a person dressed in an inflatable Subway sandwich outfit. (And I doubt it was Jared.) This didn't make me change my plans and say 'Hey! I could really go for one of their sandwiches today.'

These sitings make me wonder:

1 - Do these gimmicks work? Do they actually succeed at getting people to come into the plaza to have their taxes done? Did Subway sell more sandwiches at that location today?

2 - Who is dressed up in the suit? Is it the manager? an employee? someone from an advertising agency? a temp?

These are things I think about when I approach the expressway, after waving to the walking commercial du jour.

This and That & Happy Easter!

I'm stealing a few moments away here to write a little update post. It's been a busy few days!  I hope you've had wonderful Easter and Passover celebrations.

As for me, I attended (& conducted) my first ever egg hunt today! How does someone get to be 40 and not go on an egg hunt? I don't know, but I fixed that today. We did a very easy little hunt in our yard for our 2-year-old son. It was a lot of fun watching him catch on to the whole idea. He didn't really want to give up the eggs though, and ultimately a couple got slammed on the pavement, but I guess that's part of the fun! We had an Easter basket filled with books and a couple of little toys; the big hit seems to be the Ernie puppet (Sesame Street).

The whole family is getting over a nasty cold -- thank goodness. I've never seen us go through so many boxes of kleenex before.

We've had Grandma (my MIL) with us for the long weekend, so that's been a big hit with the little guy. He looooves spending time with Grandma. 

I always look forward to company and holidays, though I have to say I'm also glad when it's all over. It's so hectic with the shopping, cleaning, preparing meals, clean-up...  It's really not relaxing when you're the host.

But for Easter dinner we went out to a restaurant. It started out fine, with a high chair, crayons, and toys, but the high chair grew old as soon as the chicken fingers were gone, so then we took turns taking the little one (& his balloon) for walks. So, a little stressful. I guess the parents don't really get to kick back on holidays with a 2-year-old!  Maybe in a few more years.

My hubby and I did steal away by ourselves to go to church this morning, and that was really nice. I can't think of the last time I went to church, sadly, though I really do enjoy the peaceful feeling it brings me.

Oh, and the eBay auction? My husband won it. We didn't have to return to no-man's land to pick it up. The seller delivered the pickup truck to our house.  It's a small diesel pickup, apparently a very rare model. My husband may someday turn it into a vege or biodiesel-mobile. Our son is now obsessed with the new "cruck" in the driveway. He likes to go sit in it! It's not registered yet, and it'll be a while before it is, as my hubby's going to do some work on it before he sells the truck that the new purchase will replace. So for now, the little guy gets to sit behind the wheel in the driveway, and he seems just fine with that! All I can say is he is definitely his father's son.

And that, plus a lot of yard work and a lot of chocolate, is what's going on here!

I hope y'all had a great weekend.