Chapter Two of "As the A/C Freezes"...

Phew. I'm back home. It's just now gotten to 80 degrees in the house, but the A/C is functioning and cooling, which is a super-big relief. Baby's still a bit out of sorts, but he's almost asleep now. That's a huge relief. He was so frustrated and mad before I put him to bed, I think he was just kind of freaked out because he didn't know what to expect for once in his short life. Poor kiddo. I hope tomorrow will be a little easier for him - I'm going to go out of my way for the next couple days to do things as according to plan as much as possible to help him get back into his routine.

The A/C man found NOTHING wrong with the A/C. Seriously. He said it must be an intermittent problem, and he just didn't catch it in the act. Kind of like how when your car is making a hideous noise and you take it to the mechanic, and it totally doesn't make the noise. Ridiculous. So it's totally possible that this lovely episode will happen all over again some day in the future. I am so NOT looking forward to that possibility.

Now I'm parked on the couch, in front of a fan, trying to stay awake (sort of), baking a sheet of Extraordinary Chocolate Chip Cookies, and watching yesterday's episode of "Daisy of Love" and trying to relax. I sure hope I will be less stressed tomorrow after a good night's sleep in my own bed.

Greetings from the land of "As the A/C Freezes..."

Hi all, I'm sure you're wondering why I haven't posted my menu plan (and/or read your blogs) today, and well, it's because I am at the mercy of the hot Florida sun today. My A/C decided to take a vacation yesterday, so we wound up staying at a friend's house for the night (who quite possibly is one of the better friends I've had in my lifetime) and now I'm back at my house, awaiting the million-dollar answer as to why my A/C froze up for the second time in a month. Yikes. Hopefully everything will be back up and running soon (or at least by tonight!!!), but in the meantime, I have to stand in front of a fan on high, because sitting is just too warm, in my 96 (and climbing) degree house. Mr. Baby is at said-friend's house, with my mother, safe in the air-conditioning. Phew. Wish me luck! Now off to down another bottle of water and get my hands off of my hot laptop.

Dude, what's with the hiccups?

Anyone who knows me knows that when I get hiccups, they are the loudest hiccups you've ever heard. You can hear them down the block. They could probably wake Baby up if I ever wound up with them during a nap or after bedtime. I mean, they are freaking loud. Not only that, but they're kind of painful. They rock my whole body, and that doesn't exactly feel nice, you know? It gets better - I get them pretty often. Not every day, but usually at least once a week.

I've asked every doctor I've ever had in my life why this happens to me (and so often), and no one seems to know. I seem to have passed the lovely habit/medical issue/unattractive behavior to Baby, which is awful. Other pregnant women I knew told me that their babies had hiccups in utero. I thought for sure mine would, too, given my lengthy history with chronic hiccups. And because Husband seems to be pretty unlucky with them too - he doesn't get them often, but when he gets them, wow, stand back. He once had hiccups for four straight days. But that's another story for another post.

Not a single hiccup from Baby in utero. He was rocked by mine several times, but he didn't (as far as I could feel) experience them once. I thought he was going to be lucky and hiccup-free. No such luck. He started getting them when he was about a month old, and still does to this day, but nowhere near as often as I get them.

Want to know how often I've had them this weekend (meaning since yesterday)? FOUR TIMES. No joke. Four freaking times. Twice today and twice yesterday. The ones yesterday after dinner took me a half hour to get rid of.

So...since I seem to be on a hiccup bender at the moment, I thought it'd be a good idea to gather any successful hiccup-removing techniques you guys have to offer. The one that works most often for me at the moment is ten quick sips of cold, cold water. It's not failproof, but it works pretty reliably. So tell me, how do you get rid of the hiccups?

My girls night out last night

Oh my goodness, I had such a good time last night that my throat is a little hoarse this morning. Seriously! It was such a great time.

There were a few girls that couldn't make it, but there were easily still 15 of us altogether. The bar we went to actually had to put a table on top of a pool table to accommodate us (despite our event's organizer's attempts to make a reservation in advance to avoid such an inconvenience).

There were even prizes (I won a neat bath fizzie from Lush that smells divine and some lotion) for answering harmless trivia questions - mine was "What's your favorite thing to do in the summer?" And, well, given the fact that I am consistently 10 degrees warmer than everyone else, my answer was to stay where there's air conditioning. Pathetic, but true.

I got a chance to really chat with a few ladies that I've met a few times, and I really enjoyed it. I'm such a dork, but I like feeling like I'm making friends! I even managed to have a beer. Wow. I can't even remember the last time that happened. I need to get out more.

When I looked at my watch, though, and saw that it was after 10 o'clock, I couldn't believe it. Had I stayed home, I would have been passing out on the couch easily by about 9 o'clock. But here I was, out with the girls, having a good time, and still wide awake at 10. The funny thing was that I felt like I was out "late." This, coming from a girl who in her wilder days would stay out all hours, sleep for two hours, and then manage to go to work or go to class and actually function (nowadays? I'd be a total zombie).

So I know I tend to keep things a little bit anonymous, just because I don't want Baby to somehow read this in 13 years and be all embarrassed about his dear old mom, but I do want to toot the horn of my moms' group where I've met all these great ladies and who managed to get me out of the house last night: Mothers and More. If you don't know if there's a chapter near you, check. It's a really awesome organization. I'm so glad I found them, I feel like I've made some real friends there, and I know Baby has, too.

Must be PMS...

I think I'm a little down today. I've noticed that I've been more negative than usual, and that it's only 9:53 and I've already come close to tears because there are women parading around my neighborhood "preaching" (I tried to tell them this is a no solicitation neighborhood, and they told me they weren't selling anything, which is true, but they apparently need to look up the definition of solicitation because it's not limited to selling). I appreciate that people have and enjoy faith. I totally do. In some ways, I'm envious of that. At the same time, when I'm already not having a good morning, I'm really not in the mood to listen to you ask me about my faith. Really.

I don't really have an excuse for this crabby mood I'm in, except that perhaps I'm PMS'ing. Baby has been crabby today, too, because he woke up some time before 5:45, and I think was just really tired this morning. Not too sure why he was up so darn early, but hopefully it was a fluke. I like to get up early, so I can have some time alone before everyone else wakes up...but I only like to get up early to be alone. Not to play with Baby.

I decided that I wanted to treat myself to something fun today, in part because I'm in a crabby mood, and in part because I've felt like the last several weeks have included very few fun things for Mom, and with this weekend being Mother's Day, I wanted to do something nice for Mother's Day with Baby. Only problem is I can't actually think of anything. Sure, I could go to the mall, but how would that be fun? I go there every other week to visit the play area with Baby. Plus, it's not like money grows on trees to shop with (oh boy I wish it did). Then there's lunch, I could go out to lunch with Baby, that might be nice. But where would we go? Where would he behave? Where would we not get stared at when he has a fit? Some place probably that isn't too high on my "let's go there for lunch" list. So, the mall's out. Lunch is out. What else is there? Sure, I could go to a bookstore. But I have so many books I haven't read.

Are you sensing a pattern here? Every time I think of something, I talk myself out of it. Is this one of those things that inherently changed in me when Baby came out? There are so many, is this just another? That I just can't possibly let myself have some fun? I mean, sure I had fun with Baby at the spray park on Tuesday. And yesterday in his first movement class at the YMCA. But grown-up fun? Seems hard to come by because I won't let myself have it. Sounds like something I need to work on.

Off to go get a morning snack ready for Baby and to gather my coupons for grocery shopping. There's some real fun for you (dripping with sarcasm here!).

Swim diapers suck

Today was our first trip to the local spray park for "spray-ground" - well, not entirely local, it's in the next city over, but it wasn't too bad of a drive. Baby had an awesome time there, but dear old me here got quite a bit flustered before we even managed to make it to the car. Only I can master such an amazing feat.

When Baby woke up from his morning nap, I dressed him in his swim attire, so that we could hit the road right after we were done with his quick snack. He had on his swim diaper, swim trunks, and his rashguard shirt, and I parked him in his high chair for his snack of a little yogurt smoothie and some yogurt nibbles. He did great with his snack and seemed perfectly content when he signed "all done" to me repeatedly. So, I cleaned up and then unbuckled him. When I scooped him out of his high chair, I realized that the back of him was sopping wet. He was soaked.

Best I can tell, he must have peed, and the swim diaper didn't actually absorb any of it, so it must have gushed right up his back. The back of his swim trunks were soaked through, and at least half of the back of his rashguard was dripping. Lovely. So, I had to rush him back into his room, attempt to track down another pair of swim trunks and a rashguard that fit (I didn't do so hot there) and change him. Then I rush him out to the car, to get ready to leave, only to remember that I forgot his swim shoes.

So we rush back inside and get his swim shoes, and then high tail it back to the car. Baby was positively mismatched with his lime green rashguard and kelly green swim trunks, but he did have a great time at the spray park. At first, he was a little bewildered by the water, water everywhere, but ultimately, he had a great time picking up all of the buckets and and filling them up.

Phew. Now I need a nap, too. The heat out there was killer.

What else did my mother dictate in my life?

I was at the grocery store today, one of my favorite tasks of the week, and I noticed Skippy peanut butter was BOGO. I love BOGO deals. On top of that, I had two Skippy coupons. Perfect for taking advantage of the BOGO deal. Problem is, I've never had Skippy peanut butter. Well, never knowingly had it. My mom was a Jif mom. Exclusively bought Jif all throughout my childhood. So I go and grow up and what do I buy? Jif peanut butter. Well, I'm tight with my money these days, so I bought the Skippy. I had some peanut butter toast for lunch and it was pretty good. It definitely didn't taste bad, but it also didn't really taste any different than Jif did. So much for brand loyalty.

The whole thing reminded me of a scene from "Gilmore Girls," one of my all-time favorite television shows. If you're not familiar with it, the main character Lorelai was the polar opposite of her mother, Emily. At one point, after breaking up with a boyfriend Emily did not approve of, she was shocked and appalled that her mother didn't get up and dance a jig when they broke up. She started to question all of her decisions, because she had used her mother as a barometer all of her life to figure out what she liked and didn't like. If her mother liked Skippy, then Lorelai liked Jif.



I'm rambling again, aren't I? Must...have...sugar...

Have you ever broken someone's heart?

For whatever reason today, when I turned on my iTunes and went to the Party Shuffle playlist so iTunes would make me a playlist while I did some blog homework, it picked a song I hadn't really listened to the words of in a long time. Barenaked Ladies's "Break Your Heart," but more specifically the version from "Rock Spectacle," the live CD they released many, many moons ago. This clip is pretty darn close to the perfection that is the version on "Rock Spectacle."



What an interesting song, isn't it? It takes me back to the other serious relationship I've had in my life, with the ex before I met Husband, a weird and twisted relationship that makes very little sense, looking back on it. He was nine years older than me at a time in my life when nine years was truly a big deal, but I think it was just my attempt to prove to everyone that I was a grown-up. What a stupid way to try to prove it, because we were at totally different points in our lives, and eventually it started to feel like we just grew apart, but I stayed in the relationship because I wasn't really sure how to leave it. For whatever reason, after I broke up with the guy, I felt really kind of awful about it. I felt like maybe I led him on, and that was why I broke his heart. Even though it was totally the right thing to do, I totally didn't mean to break his heart. That's not a nice thing to have on one's conscience. But, eventually, I'm sure he moved on and his life is much better without me, just like mine is much better without him. Or at least that's what I told myself when I had moments of guilt. Nowadays, nearly seven years later, I don't think of him often, but this song sure made me think of him.

BTW, did you know that the guy who sings this got kicked out of the band recently? Sure did, he got arrested for drug possession and the group I guess was sick of dealing with the drug issue. Too bad, he's an awesome singer. I hope he gets his act together.

So, have you ever broken a heart? Tell me about it...

The worst diaper rash ever

Baby's been pretty lucky thus far in his fourteen months - he's really only had one episode of diaper rash thus far, despite the fact that he seems to have somewhat sensitive skin. That is, until this week...

He woke up Monday morning with the worst diaper rash I've ever seen (given that Baby is my only child). Poor kiddo's bum was totally red and every time I touched it, he would recoil and scream and cry. Poor little guy. Being a first-time mom, I called the pediatrician, who recommended a thorough course of Nystatin cream and Balmex/Desitin/Triple Paste/Boudreaux's Butt Paste. After he grilled me.

Oh yes, he grilled me. Question after question about what he'd been eating, and he asked me at least ten times if I'd given him citrus (despite his warning at Baby's twelve-month-old appointment to stay away from citrus). I sure hadn't. And neither did Husband. So what has caused the trouble?

I have run through my head a million times what I could possibly have fed this poor child that would cause him such agony and I'm at a loss. The only new food I can come up with that he had was my special homemade buttermilk pancakes on Sunday. Which did indeed have buttermilk in them. And I know that if I'm out of buttermilk, I can "make" buttermilk for recipes by souring milk with lemon juice. So maybe the buttermilk disagreed with him?

Then Husband came home from work today and remembered that Baby had spaghetti-O's for dinner Friday or Saturday night, and tomatoes are citrus, so perhaps that was the problem. He has had them before, though, so that doesn't quite add up for me. Baby is feeling better today than yesterday, though his bottom is still awfully sore and red. He's nowhere near as crabby, though.

If only I could figure out what caused this whole mess. Husband heard from his dental hygienist recently that when a baby's molars start to come in, they release some kind of chemical that can cause pretty serious diaper rash. Has anyone else ever heard of this? It sounds like an old wives' tale to me, but who knows? That would explain things, since a molar poked through Baby's gums last week...

TV Turnoff Week is this week

Have you ever heard of TV Turnoff Week? I remember it from when I was in school. I can remember we did it as a two-week project - the first week, we wrote down what our television watching habits were, and then the following week, we were to watch no TV at all and to write down what we did instead. It was an interesting experiment, and apparently, it still happens (I so didn't know that - thanks Google). I'm going to see about convincing Husband to try to do that with me this week.

It's interesting, there are lots of times where I feel like I lose track of time when the television is on - and oftentimes, it's not even anything good on TV. That's just silly. I could be spending the time reading a good book or blogging or (what a novel idea) talking to my husband (assuming he's home). I can totally see how something like TV Turnoff Week could help you whittle down your TV viewing habits.

There were some really interesting facts about television watching I came across when reading up about TV Turnoff Week...including...

• Number of 30-second commercials seen in a year by an average child: 20,000
  
• Number of minutes per week that parents spend in meaningful conversation with their children: 38.5
• Number of minutes per week that the average child watches television: 1,680
• Percentage of children ages 6-17 who have TV's in their bedrooms: 50
• Percentage of day care centers that use TV during a typical day: 70
• Hours per year the average American youth spends in school: 900 hours
• Hours per year the average American youth watches television: 1500
• Percentage of Americans that regularly watch television while eating dinner: 66

Wow, right? I've been wickedly strict with Baby as far as TV watching is concerned. He doesn't do it. The AAP (Academy of Pediatrics) says not to before the age of 2, so I've kept him away from it. It's been hard at times, when I've been desperate to just keep him busy for more than three seconds, but so far, I haven't really cracked. He's watched a few short videos on my computer of "Sesame Street." But that's it. I know I'm probably overcautious about it, but Baby is my first kid, and I am totally Type A...

So what do you think? Does TV rule your life? Do you think you'll try to participate in TV Turnoff Week?

Yuck...and other random thoughts

So I'm not feeling so super today...a sore throat has snuck up on me, so it was kind of a blah day. I had some chicken noodle soup for lunch, which shockingly didn't make me feel much better, and I wound up eating biscuits and chicken gravy for dinner. Not the most healthful dinner, that's for sure, but it did make my throat feel better...until I started coughing. Fun.

Speaking of yuck...did you watch "American Idol" last night? Were you shocked that the judges chose to save Matt Giraud? I was. My friend has a theory, and it's a pretty good one - that they just saved it to use up the save. I'm not sure, but I seem to recall that Disco Night is always a total trainwreck. Maybe they thought it would be fun to send two people home after the mess that will be Disco Night next week. Who knows.

I know everybody and their brother wants Adam Lambert to win "American Idol." Don't get me wrong, he's wicked talented (no pun intended), but I just can't imagine in my head what kind of record he would make, or as Kara would say what kind of artist he would be. Like, would he record a rock album? A Broadway tribute album? A Prince cover album? I don't know, I can't seem to figure him out. I don't see him as very marketable - though I do see him as immensely talented. So who should win if Adam doesn't? I don't know. I really don't. I think that Lil's time is over - she hit her peak in the audition and Hollywood and has stunk ever since. Danny is good, but his song choice as of late has been disappointing. Anoop is all over the place, totally inconsistent. Kris has potential to be a cute little tweeny-bopper kind of pop star, I suppose, but that's not my cup of tea. And then Matt, poor Matt. He thinks he's Justin Timberlake. He's talented, but he needs to find himself, if you ask me.

Anyway, you can blame this totally random post on me not feeling well. Maybe I need an outrageous brownie.

What did you think of "Idol" last night?

Remember the 80's?

Do you remember the 80's? I do. I remember dancing on my big sister's bed to lots of Wham songs, and singing to her George Michael poster. I remember my sister's big hair, and her friends' neon clothes...oh, the insanity of those clothes.

Anyway, Jen Lancaster of Jennsylvania (arguably one of the funniest women writers I know of) is hosting a Show Me Your 80's contest. (Needless to share, I shared this info with my sister, too.) Even if you don't have funny 80's pictures to share, it's totally fun to look at the pictures people are sending in. Each day, Jen is selecting a theme (like drop-waist dresses, mall hair, New Kids obsessions, and so forth. They totally make me laugh.

I love Jen - she's written three books, and her fourth is coming soon (and is her life in the 80's, hence the contest). I highly recommend her, and her blog. Her blog is just as funny as her books!

Comment Away!

You know, I was feeling kind of bummed that no one ever comments on my blog, especially now that it seems like I have readers (which is so entirely exciting!)...so I dispatched Husband to try to post a comment...and it failed. So, dear readers who have tried to share your comments with me, I am so very sorry! But fear not, as I have not only found the problem, but I have remedied it, so please, comment away! And again, please accept my apologies for the technical issue.

Happy weekend!

Top 5 Reasons to Have a Dog (Instead of a Cat)

So, I have two cats and a dog. This leads to massive insanity, especially as our dog is part-Beagle and often has cases of the "crazies," running around and doing laps in the living room. One of our cats thinks he's a dog. The other cat is a total diva, who was so thrilled when she wound up left alone in our house when Baby was born, as Dog was at the kennel and the other cat was also at the kennel because he required medication. She thought we got rid of everyone else and kept her. Imagine the fit she threw when we not only came home with a baby, but also the rest of the animals!
Anyway, the last several days, I have started to realize that I have become a dog person. I used to be a cat person. Boy Cat is my very first real pet, ever. He's going on like 12 now, but he was the very first animal with hair I've ever cared for. And I loved him like nobody's business for a while, but now he much prefers Husband over me.



I've found myself drawn more and more to Dog, who is also a little crazy, but has a lot of qualities that the cats lack, so I thought I'd share my top 5 reasons to have a dog as a family pet instead of a cat.

5. Dogs go to the bathroom outside. Sure, you have to pooper scoop on occasion, but it's much less gross than cleaning the litter box.
4. Dogs actually like to show affection. Dog is happy to see me whenever I come home (though he's also really anxious when I leave). Boy Cat thinks he's a dog, so sometimes he shows affection, but Diva Cat rarely shows affection.
3. Dogs provide companionship and want you to be their master. Cats just want you to be their slave.
2. When your 10-month-old baby leans in to hug the dog, the dog doesn't run away so fast that the baby wins up hugging air and smacks his head on the coffee table.

And the number one reason to have a dog (instead of a cat)???

1. Dogs do not get hairballs. Especially the spite kind, where the cat aims the hairball into your favorite pair of shoes or your spot on the couch or on Baby's toys or where-have-you. Super-yuck.

Dear Jardine...

Dear Jardine Cribs,

I'm not too thrilled with you this morning. We purchased your Olympia Lifetime crib in Natural for my son, now 13 months old, and had been quite pleased with it, outside of the fright we experienced a few months ago when you recalled a certain darker wood finish of this crib. As of Saturday night, though, you were on my S--- List.

After we put Baby to bed Saturday night, he seemed a little fussy, but not too bad. We went about having our dinner and tossing in a movie, just having a nice evening together. About forty-five minutes after putting Baby down for bed, he started wailing, and it wasn't the usual, "Crap, I woke up, Mommy" cry, it was more intense. After a few moments of discussing whether or not we should let him fuss it out, Husband went in to check on him. Once he got in there, he took one look at Baby, and called for me.

Baby was lying on his side and had his foot stuck between the slats of the crib. Husband was flustered, trying to figure out how to get his foot out, and after I looked at him, I told Husband to roll Baby's hips to turn his foot right side up. Once he did that, I was able to gently guide his foot back into the crib. Husband picked Baby up and rocked him for a moment until I took him and parked in the rocking chair, rocking and reading a few bedtime stories to help him calm down. Husband kept feeling Baby's foot and ankle to make sure there wasn't any serious damage, outside of the trauma of being stuck in a position he couldn't get out of. Baby still had that sad, hiccup-y cry in his chest going on while I read stories, but I knew I couldn't stay there forever, much as I wanted to just rock him for hours. I laid him back down in his crib and left the room with Husband. He cried for a moment or two, then fell back to sleep.

We recently took the Breathable Bumper out of Baby's crib - it seemed he was using it more to climb the crib than anything, and we didn't want to encourage that. Most of the slats, he can fit his feet through just fine, but at the corners of the crib, the slats are not as widely spread as they are everywhere else. That's exactly where Baby had his foot stuck. It seems to me that this is a serious design flaw. Below is a picture of this crib (not in our nursery) but it's hard to see this flaw without being on top of the crib.

I must say, when Baby #2 comes along some day in the future and I am crib shopping again, I will be looking very carefully at cribs. I will steering clear of cribs with this design flaw, and more than likely those that have the Jardine name. I'm so very disappointed to have found such a serious problem with this crib.

Sincerely,
Very Grumpy Type A Mommy

How I miss the Muppets

Imagine my excitement when I stumbled upon a CD of Muppet music at the library a while back. I am a diehard Muppet fan. I can remember jumping on my older sister's bed while listening to "The Muppet Movie" soundtrack on her record player. The funny thing is that Baby seems to like the Muppets too. I play that CD for him on my iPod a lot, and he loves when we dance around to "Movin' Right Along" - you know, the song that Fozzie and Kermit sing in the car when they begin their adventure together.

A few weeks ago, I read that Jason Segel, of "How I Met Your Mother" fame amongst some other influential TV shows, has written a script for a new Muppet movie, one that would make moms and dads recall the old school Muppets, before Disney got their paws on them. Since Disney, we've had "Muppet Treasure Island" and other odd Muppet movies and features, but nothing anywhere near as iconic as the trilogy of movies first made by the Muppets.

When I first popped in the Muppet CD I got at the library, I immediately latched onto the tracks from "The Muppet Movie." I hadn't listened to those songs in years, and yet I still knew all the words. I especially remembered the lyrics to the end of the movie, where the Muppets are the movie studio making their movie, and it's not going so wonderfully. Suddenly a rainbow appears through a hole in the ceiling (I know, this is sounding cheesy, but it's totally not in the movie!), and they're all transfixed by it. The song strips down to two simple notes on the piano, and Kermit intones: "Life's like a movie, write your own ending." For whatever reason, those words have kind of stuck with me over the years. Maybe that's why I majored in mass comm in college.

Anyway, today, I miss the Muppets. They were so neat. Baby doesn't watch TV yet, but the few snippets of "Sesame Street" he's seen, he's just transfixed by the Muppet characters. I'm hoping to pass my love of the Muppets on to him, so I'm hoping this new Muppet movie has more in common with the ones of yesterday than the Christmas special that aired on NBC this past year (which was nice in one way - hadn't seen the Muppets in a while - but nowhere resembled the quality the Muppets had been accustomed to). So there, I'll get off my soap box now, and maybe I'll watch one of the Muppet movies tonight.

:) Happy weekend everyone!

PS - I'm so excited to see that I have seven followers now! That totally made my day!!!

Blogamama

If you like reading blogs like I do, stop by to visit Blogamama - they're a great listing of interesting mom blogs, with tons of different focuses outside of just the daily joys and struggles of parenthood. I just applied to be listed there, and hopefully I'll be able to get a button set up for them on my blog soon, so you can visit them whenever you'd like.

Happy Friday! :)

I intensely dislike when plans change

I like change...when I'm in control of said change. Husband has to go out of town tomorrow, unexpectedly. He just found out at 6:30 today. Yuck. So, I'll have to go back to the drawing board with the menu - I'm thinking about treating myself with some Chinese. Haven't had that in a long time. And of course, this means I'm stuck with bath time. I dread bath time. Baby had been really difficult the past several baths, but we recently moved Baby to having big boy baths, all by himself (and a sticky, non-slip mat) in the bathtub. He's much more amenable to bath time, however, my back is not. The kneeling and bending over is just a recipe for a backache for me, so Husband usually handles bath time, which is a relief. No such luck for the next few days. In theory, Husband will be home Friday night at some point, though, inevitably it will be after dinner.

Back to "American Idol"........

Pardon our dust

You may have noticed I'm working on my blog. I got a great book a bit ago about blogging, specifically about Blogger, and I'm trying to learn how it all works. Once upon a time, I was really good with HTML and graphic design and all that stuff, but I am pretty darn rusty, so this Google Blogger for Dummies book hits the spot as far as my capabilities are concerned. I'm trying to spruce things up a bit around here, so pardon our dust while construction is underway. I'm hoping that by the time I wrap up on my redesign that I'll be ready to roll out my two super-fun new weekly events...so stay tuned. All I will say so far on that is that one will make you hungry!

:)

So much for celebrating our anniversary

Boy, was I looking forward to dinner this evening. Husband and I decided to go to Maggiano's to celebrate our third wedding anniversary, and because we have Baby and because I won't go some place without him if he's awake (only after bedtime am I comfortable leaving him), we wound up being a threesome, and went to an early dinner. Husband even left work early just to make it to our anniversary dinner. Cue the "awwww." Well, anyway, I love Maggiano's, so I was excited. We don't eat out a ton with Baby, so I was curious to see how this would go. In a word: bad.

Our food was yummy. I wasn't worried about that. Our service on the other hand was absolutely not fine. We were continually ignored by our waitress, as though we weren't even there. She walked by us on numerous, numerous occassions and didn't even acknowledge us. I don't know if it was because of Baby - but she seemed to think he was adorable and funny - but I don't care. As far as I'm concerned, if a restaurant has high chairs, I have every right to bring my kiddo. I don't know that Baby was the problem, but I do know that I was very displeased with the service. It took over 30 minutes just to get our check. Ridiculous. We wound up leaving way later than I wanted to in order to rush home (in rush hour traffic, mind you), so I couldn't take a minute to tell the manager just how awful the service was, but I did get one of those surveys on the bill, so I diligently went online and gave them a piece of my mind. Phew. I hate poor service. It's so irritating, especially now, when eating out isn't an everyday occurence - you want your experience to be a good one, not one you go home and blog about grumpily. Yuck.