I’ve just discovered that 41 year old women who have pictures of glittery Disney princesses, Clay Aiken shirtless and Christ being nailed to the cross, all on their myspace (together, that is - all of this was on one woman’s myspace) freak the shit out of me. So much psychoanalysis, so little time.
Archive for March, 2007
An Inconvenient Truth
I’m fairly certain that if you haven’t heard about climate change you either live under a rock or somewhere there isn’t any access to television/newspaper/radio/internet.
Assuming, since you’re reading this, that you at least have access to the internet, then you have heard of Climate Change (the new branding for Global Warming) and most likely, you have heard about the movie “An Inconvenient Truth”.
I finally sat down the other day to watch it and I will agree that it does make you want to run out and cut your green house gas emissions as much as you can. The visuals are quite stimulating,m re-enforcing that a picture is indeed worth a thousand words. I would go so far as to say 2000 or more in some cases.
Check out the movie. I think, due to its content and message, that it should be free so if you aren’t inclined to spend the coin it costs to rent it, go here, click on “full movie” and watch it free of charge. Thor and I have recently discovered this site and we’ve watched a number of movies with mixed results. Some take forever to load and if they’ve stopped loading, then the movie just quits and you have to wait. I did watch An Inconvenient Truth via this site without an issues at all though so I hope your experience is the same as mine. The shows/movies are just provided via streaming video so if you have to exit the movie, you’ll have to start at the beginning the next time you log on – it won’t remember where you left off.
If you want more information about the movie, visit www.climatecrisis.net
Well, at least when they die, you don’t have to go far to flush them…
Introducing “The Fish-n-Flush” toilet by AquaOne.
“A whimsical potty that turns your toilet into a nautical wonderland”
This was in a magazine I just received today, along with this beauty:
the Peter Potty: a stand up urinal for home use.
At the end of the day, other than the benefit of having a nearby burial water for dead fish, I only see extra cleaning (toilet+tank+urinal). That and lots of excuses for missing the toilet when peeing (“I turned around to watch the fish”) and staying in the bathroom for hours on end. I wonder what would happen if you put one of those blue pucks in the toilet/fish tank….mutant fish? Probably nothing as exciting as that. Just dead bluey-orangey (green even?) fish.
Being a Stay At Home Goddess: The Darker Side
I love my children. Thor and I made the conscious decision for me to quit work and stay home with our children. You get one shot at this and we thought (and still do think) it was the right decision to make.
Having said that, there are some pitfalls to being a stay at home goddess.
- No sick days. I have a crappy head cold right now and all I want to do is dive into some decongestant and sleep it off for 12 hours. That’s just not happening with a 4 year old here.
- I think about food more than I want to. I prepare approximately 3 meals a day, 7 days a week. You do the math. That’s not including snacks and trying to account for the fact that sometimes the offspring prepare their own breakfast. Unless I don’t want cereal and milk all over the table and floor. Then I prepare breakfast too. I’m kidding (half-kidding anyway)! Thor Jr is an accomplished cereal/milk pourer. Little Athena on the other hand, likes to coat the table in Raisin Bran. According to her, it’s easier to pick out the raisins that way. Smart cookie, that one is.
- Isolation. In our diverse neighbourhood, a majority of the stay at home caregivers are grandparents who don’t speak English. Add that to the fact that once you have kids you become busy all the time and it’s hard for schedules to mesh with other goddesses’.
That’s all I can think of for now. My sinuses are preventing brilliant thoughts from forming so this is as good as it gets today.
Children’s Birthday Parties
It’s that time of the year when our jr god and goddess celebrate their birthdays. We usually go all out for parties. Last year Thor Jr. had a super hero party. Everyone wore a costume (we had more Batmen than we knew what to do with) and the Riddler had kidnapped Green Lantern and left his hat behind with several clues (scavenger hunt). The kids split into two teams and had to come together in the end to figure out where Green Lantern (Thor in a Green Lantern tshirt) was hidden. It was loads of fun for all. Oh yeah, we also played “pass the kryptonite” too.
The year before Thor Jr. had a pirate party. The kids decorated their own treasure chests (shoe boxes covered with brown paper) and then they played “Pin the eyepatch on the pirate”. After each activity/game, they were awarded pirate garb (bandanna, eye-patch and hook hand). Thor had made a fabulous pirate map and after they had passed all their “pirate tests” we set up a treasure hunts for the kids. The treasure went into their treasure boxes, of course.
Mammogram recall time (with bonus fibroids!)
So it’s time for my 6 month recall for a mammogram. If you were here back in September you saw my rather calm post here, detailing the situation. I re-read the post and can’t believe how the hysteria associated with it all didn’t come through.
This time around, I’m not nearly as worried about the mammogram as I was before because I was lucky enough to go to the doc for an irregular period and was told (after the appropriate tests) that I have fibroids on my uterus. I was quite surprised. I honestly went in for the test results thinking that whatever it was, my doc would probably put me on the Pill and that would be the end of my irregular period. No such luck. Instead I get to be referred to a gynecologist and their office wants me to have another test. An invasive test that sounds scary and painful (hysterosonogram). Fuck.
Daniel Craig is still Bond, Hottie Bond.
Just in case you thought this goddess had gotten over her girlie crush on Daniel Craig, um, yeah, you would be mistaken. It’s not that I’m obsessing or anything (Aphrodite has not inflamed me with stalker-like lust) but I have been patiently waiting the release of Casino Royale on DVD. By 10:15 on the 13th (release date!) I had a copy securely in my hands. By 11pm on the 14th I had managed to get a copy ripped and stored on my iPod. Plus I had seen the movie at least 3 times. While I’m still admiring His Hotness, there’s something to be said for seeing him on the big screen vs the iPods itty bitty screen. It’s hard to be larger than life when you’re on a 2.5 inch (diagonal) display.
Mazda 5: Zoom Zoom Zoom
I mentioned here that we were looking at the Mazda 5 as a replacement vehicle for our current minivan. Our minivan is one of the big ones (a Toyota Sienna) and since the Mazda 5 is considerably smaller than that, I asked for (and received) a Mazda 5 to drive for an entire day. So, today was “Mazda 5 test drive day” in our world.
Here’s my report card:
Seat Position: A+. I’m somewhat vertically challenged and in most cars I have to sit very close to the steering wheel. This is a small concern when you read about the dangers of air bags going off in close proximity to drivers. In the Mazda 5, I sit far enough away that my arms are almost straight and yet, I can easily reach the audio/heat/ac controls. It’s great. Zoom.
Audio Controls: A+. In our Sienna, I have to lean out of my seat a little bit every time I want to change volume/radio station/cd track. This doesn’t sound like a big deal but Thor Jr and Little Athena are still at the ages when they like to hear the same cd tracks over and over and over and over again. Louder and louder and softer and softer and louder again. So I spend a lot of time fiddling with audio controls and leaning out of my seat to make adjustments. Once or twice is okay. 15 times in as many minutes has become quite annoying. In the Mazda 5, not only can I reach the adjustments easily but…there are audio controls on the steering wheel! Whoo hooo baby! I used those so frequently today that I now have them memorized. I told Thor the only problem I saw with the Mazda 5 was that after our lease is up in 4 years, I’m going to want another vehicle with audio controls on the steering wheel because they are a beautiful thing. Zoom zoom.
Handling: A+. Sporty like my old Golf. Bigger like our Sienna but not quite as large. It’s like my VW Golf mated with our Sienna and the byproduct is the Mazda 5. I was able to turn the Mazda 5 on a dime and park it with ease in spots I would have had to to struggle to maneouvre the Sienna into.
Horse power/responsiveness: A. The Mazda 5 doesn’t have as many horses under the hood as the Sienna and it showed. At the same time, I don’t know that I need all that power in the Sienna to begin with. This isn’t a complaint, just something I noticed. The Mazda wasn’t unresponsive or sluggish but there did seem to be a little kick that was missing. I also had an automatic model as my test vehicle today and I want a manual transmission. I’m hoping that will remove the feeling I had. As I type this, Thor is reading over my shoulder and he commented that there are times he feels the Sienna is sluggish and thinks the only thing I was noticing today was the difference in horsepower. Having said all of this, I took the Mazda out on the highway and we were able to keep up with (and pass) the big kids, without any significant effort.
Noise: A. When we took the Mazda on the highway I didn’t have to adjust the audio volume and could still hear the radio. Normally in the Sienna, I’m prompted by my two offspring to “turn it up please Mommy” (see audio adjustment comments above!). Thor was seriously listening for everything he could because he’s one of those drivers that pulls over when he hears a squeak so he can see if he can fix it. Okay, not really. But he did come back from his solo test drive saying he heard a whistle from the auxiliary belt when the car was idling. I think he’s nuts but I still love him and recognize that if he heard it, someone else might too.
Cargo space/3rd row of seats: A. We didn’t actually test the 3rd row of seats with a borrowed child today. I wanted to, but this time Thor thought I was nuts and didn’t want to have to explain to our friends why we wanted to borrow their child. As far as the cargo space is concerned, it easily held 2 car seats (the size for kids 20-40 lbs) and then later, held 2 bins full of groceries. This was with the 3rd row of seats flat. I did realize that if we take any trips to the zoo, I didn’t think I’d have room for a wagon and 3 kids (sometimes we like to take one of Thor Jr or Little Athena’s friends with us). There are work-arounds to that (ie. rent a wagon at the zoo) and so I’m not stressing about it. Things might be different if we were still in that stroller phase of life but with kids aged 4 (Happy Birthday!) and 7 (Happy Birthday!), we’ve left that stage behind and are weaning ourselves off the wagon stage too. It also helps that we’re ending that “we’re in the van and so the kids need to eat/drink” stage. In the Sienna they’ve got room for a bag for all their food garbage plus a small lunch bag with their snack. In the Mazda, things will be a little different. But I think we’ll be okay.
Likeability: A+. Thor Jr: “I love it!”. Little Athena: “I love the Mazda 5 Mama”. Thor: “I’m over the moon. We’ll be saving $100 bucks a month.” The kids loved the little “secret compartments” (one of the middle seats flips up to reveal a flip-up table that goes between the 2 middle seats). There were enough drink holders for everyone today and even a storage spot for my chapstick.
All in all: A+. Zoom zoom zoom!!
We’ll get the car in July. Just in time for our annual camping trip. Think I’ll miss the Sienna much then?
