PractiGal

Lookee here!

Thanks to everyone who visited from Michele's yesterday!! That Michele, she's quite the sunshine-spreader, isn't she?

On an unrelated note, my big announcement is that I'm now the proud owner of the domain name Practigal.net!  I had the .COM reserved for 2 years.... let it lapse a few days, and someone else grabbed it. Yeah,  that really does happen! Anyway, this one's mine now!

Up Day Down Day - my turn

I mentioned a while ago that my husband's doing this Up Day Down Day diet. He's lost about 20 pounds in three months. Encouraged by his success, I decided to join him! It's been a week and I'm down two pounds. I'll believe I'm really losing when I'm down five, since my weight varies a bit day to day anyway.

Can we go to a sale?

Each week I scan the ads in the local Shopping Bag newspaper. You never know when there will be a good coupon or sale. I always look at the garage sale ads. Last week, one in particular caught my eye.

"Huh. La Leche League is hosting a yard sale. You can bet there will be a lot of boobs there," I announced to my husband, who usually zones out when I read such ads aloud.

His face perked up, and his eyebrows even lifted for that one. There was even a verbal response -- "Hmm!"

Isn't that what they call selective hearing?

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Our son is really into the whole garage sale scene, too. Already. He knows that when we go to "sales," there's usually something in it for him.  Clothes, videos, books. And typically a 25-cent trinket that will keep him entertained for hours. Or days.

After returning home from a walk  over the weekend, apparently the little guy was disappointed to come home without hitting any garage sales. "Can we go to a sale?" he asked.

But I hadn't seen any sales on our walk. My husband had noticed a sign for one though, and based on the address, I had a hunch it could be a good one. There's a Mom to a boy a few years older than my son who sells beautiful kids clothes at extremely reasonable prices.  I remembered her living in that direction. So we piled in the car and found the advertised sale. JACKPOT. It was just the woman I'd been thinking of. She remembered me, too.  I was thrilled with the pile of little boy clothes I got, and my little guy was thrilled with the "hard hat," toy airplane, and book he got.

Oh yeah. We ALL like a good sale.

Is there such a thing as a day off?

There are a gazillion and one things I could be doing on the Memorial Day holiday (in addition to saluting those who've served our country)... among them:

• work (sadly, that's what I most need to do)
• plant & weed the gardens
• play outside with my son and husband
• wash my car
• organize & clean the bedrooms
• strip wall paper & prep walls for painting (hahahahaaaaa! This has been on my list since I've had this house -- over 6 years)
• shop for a new bed, which we desperately need
• exercise
• clean the windows
• etc.

Then, there's what I would really like to do if I had the day off & all to myself....

Pop goes the bagel

We'd had our ups and downs. No matter how you slice it, we tried to turn down the heat and you still left us burnt.

We waffled over what to do. Should we give you another chance after your crumby treatment?

No.

Face it.

We've pulled the plug.

You're toast.

Picnic chairs

It's early evening, and we're sitting outside at the picnic table eating dinner. How convenient that the table is called that, because our little guy wants to have picnics morning, noon, and night.

Anyway, we're eating, and one of the neighbor boys walks up to our house with a couple of plastic stackable kids chairs. R is probably 8 or 9, and we don't know him well, so I'm surprised to see him headed our way.

"Want some chairs for free?"

Free chairs? That appear to be in decent condition and are just the right size for our boy?

"Sure!"

"OK. A dollar apiece."

Huh? OK. Maybe there's a reason we don't know this kid.

"You just said they were free!"

"Yeah, that was before I thought about it."

Hubby to me: Do you want them?
Me: For free, sure. Not for $2!

So, my kind and generous husband offers the boy a dollar for both chairs, and he accepts.

A few minutes later, after dinner, we're in the house, and the doorbell rings.

It's our neighbor, R, again.

After returning home, apparently he shared the delight of his newfound dollar with his mother... who told him to return it. So he did. Reluctantly.

This gives me hope.

Eat at Joe's

I've discovered that I like relaxing music playing in the background while I work. I notice that my breathing is slower, and I'm less likely to tense up  -- my shoulders, in particular are more relaxed with calming music.  So, after listening to the same CD over and over -- gentle music with sounds of nature -- I thought I'd check out a bunch of CDs from the library, for something different.

But how do you know what's good when you go looking for CDs in a genre you know nothing about? I don't know about you, but I check the Amazon reviews.  I found a bunch of CDs by this guy, with lots of positive comments. So, I go to my library's web site, find some of his music, and put it on hold.

Well, I guess I didn't read the CD descriptions all that carefully. I bring them home to find that they contain music for relaxation alright. Along with subliminal messages.

Oh, sorry, they call them subliminal "suggestions."

So while I listen to this relaxing piano music, I'm being brainwashed.

The CD booklets list the "suggestions" that you can't actually hear, if you're human. They're things like:

You are relaxed.

You are calm, peaceful and relaxed.

Well, duh! If I were, I wouldn't be listening to your CD!

I know that there's power in suggestion, so I probably shouldn't mock it. But I can't help myself when I can't actually HEAR the suggestions! Apparently my subconscious hears them though, right?

For all I know, while they're telling me I'm hearing:

Tension melts away effortlessly with each deep, relaxed breath.

What Mr. Suggestion is actually saying is:

The ice cream is melting. Get to Baskin-Robbins, home of 31 flavors, as quickly as you can to save it! Go NOW!

And 

Your body and mind work in harmony to keep you healthy and happy.

May actually be

Hey YOU! Yes YOU!! The one who borrowed this CD from the library. Go and buy it NOW you cheap sumbitch. Fork over the money. GO! NOW!

But the more I think about this, the more I like the idea. When I think of how it could work in my favor -- if only I had software to plant the subliminal messages (err, suggestions) in music.

Think of the power for potty training.

You don't like sitting in your own poo. It bothers you. You WANT to wear your Thomas the Tank Engine underpants. And you WILL run to the potty chair when you need to go.

And with older children...

You will clean your room willingly. You will get up and go to bed when you're told. You will serve your parents a delicious breakfast in bed, once a week.

OK, so maybe Mr. Suggestion is onto something.

Newest Flinger

It's funny -- this blogging thing.

You get to know someone who lives clear across the country. Through posts, comments, e-mails... You read about her struggles and joys with motherhood. You nod your head and relate. You read about her desire for a second child. You grieve with her when she miscarries, and then you celebrate with her when her next pregnancy continues for eight-plus months. And you scream when you see that she's welcomed her new son, three weeks early.

Congratulations, Mrs. Flinger! Sending lots of good wishes & hugs across the miles...

Blueberries in a glass

Have you tried blueberry juice yet? Check out TrueBlue -- I did. Thumbs up from my family! Check out my review...

Revelations

Sometimes I struggle with how much to put 'out there' on this blog. I mean it's the Internet, and anyone may be reading, right?  So, mostly I stick with the inane... since that can't really come back to bite me in any way.

Every now and then, though, I think that maybe talking about some of my struggles would help someone else out there. And maybe someone out there has similar struggles and could offer me support... But anyone can read here. A boss. A neighbor. Santa Claus. Anyone.

So I hold back and stay on the safe side. Even though part of me is itching to reveal more.