Here are two really cute exchanges that took place between us and our kids this morning. (Preface: I was not feeling well, thought I might have strep throat like Greg had in the beginning of the week- actually feel a lot better now...)
Greg: Shhh, Mommy's Sick.
Ezra (4): Of you?
--------------------------------------------
Me: My throat hurts.
Gila (2): My throat hurts also (imagine tiny squeeky voice).
Greg: Gila, where is your throat?
Gila: (pointing to hip emphatically) Right Here!
I had a refrigerator repair man come today to check out some problems we have been having with the fridge since we bought it last year. I didn't want him to think that we had mishandled the fridge; thereby, causing the damage. I thought that if he saw how dirty/disgusting the fridge was, he would assume that we are the kinds of people who just don't treat a fridge correctly (Note: The fridge is still under warrenty so I am not really sure why I cared what the repair man thought of me).
So, last night I undertook the task of cleaning out the fridge. I would love to say that it was a cathartic experience, but it wasn't- it was just plain exhausting. But the upside is that now my fridge is sparkling clean and there are no molding plastic containers of tomato sauce in the back. If I may say so myself, it rivals the fridge of my next door neighbor who wipes down EVERY jar and bottle before she puts them back in the fridge to minimize the crumb deposits (she rocks!).
It is just pathetic and sad that I knew I needed to clean out my fridge; yet it took me worrying about some stranger who was in my home for less than an hour, to do something about it.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Actor Earl Hindman, best known for playing a neighbor whose face was forever obscured by a fence on the television show "Home Improvement," died of lung cancer Monday in Stamford, Connecticut. He was 61.
FULL STORY
Wow, that is sad. Earl Hindman was one of the best actors I never saw.
Anyone notice how everything technological is chrome (or fake stainless steel) and black nowadays? Cordless phones, cell phones, cameras, refrigerators, plug in coffee urns, dishwashers, ovens, microwaves, electric mixers, laptops, TVs, VCRs, just to name a few.
I don't know why it bothers me; when given a choice between an old black camera and a new chrome one, I definitely prefer the new look. I guess I just have the nagging feeling that we are updating the look of everything just to have it become passe again in a few years. Remember our parents' puke green EVERYTHING from the 70's?
When my sister and I were little kids, we made an audio tape of the popular TV Theme show songs of the time. Strangely enough, our rationale behind this was that when we grew up we may want to hear the songs reminisce about what we watched as kids. I personally think that is pretty mature reasoning for a 6 and 10 year old (I was the 6 year old). Anyhu, we made this tape and listened to it on and off over the years.
After writing the entry last week about some of my favorite childhood TV shows, I got nosalgic for the songs on that old tape. I have been unable to find the tape but luckily with the help of my scary memory for stupid things, I was able to recall the songs and order in which they appeared on the tape. I downloaded the songs and made a CD to surprise my sister with.
Here is a list of the songs on the CD. The first 10 songs are the actual theme songs in the exact order of the original tape. The second 10 are just songs of shows that we watched and are sentimental about. Here goes:
Diff'rent Strokes
Silver Spoons
Gimme A Break
Love Sidney
Gloria
Facts of Life
Little House on the Prairie
Three's Company
Joanie Loves Chachi
Father Murphy
Alice
Too Close For Comfort
One Day at a Time
Love Boat
St. Elsewhere
A Year In The Life
Fame
Family Ties
Mork and Mindy
Laverne and Shirley
If you enjoyed any of these shows, click on the links above and enjoy reminiscing!
We just moved our computer from the former "computer room" to the den (you rock, Greg). We're not sure what will become of the computer room, but it sure is nice to be in a wide open space when using the computer.
(BTW, I know the title of this entry does not fit with the body, but I liked it anyway)
We just hosted a Chanukah party for my grandmother, parents, sister and brother in law, three first cousins and spouses (minus the spouse who was supposed to have oral surgery today but fainted when they put the IV in), and our 10 children (my, my sister's and cousins' kids).
The kids cleaned up (present wise). Now I gotta go clean up.
I was just thinking about my favorite childhood TV programs. Besides the obvious ones like Little House on the Prairie and You Can't Do That On Television ("Whadda ya' think is in the burgers?!?", "Don't encourage your mother.") I was thinking about one of my other childhood favorites that was on Nickelodeon (we are going back 20 years before the Rugrats were even conceived): Today's Special. Anyone else remember this show (It was Canadian, so if you didn't have cable it might you may not be familiar with it)? It was about a manequin by day/man by night fellow named Jeff, a window dresser named Jody, a puppet named Sam who was the guard at a department store, and a mouse named muffy who lived in the department store and only talked in rhyme. Here is a link to the theme song. It was a simplistic yet enjoyable show.
That ends my stroll down memory lane. I didn't intend for this entry to be thought provoking or even intelligent. I just found something on the internet that I want to remember and I figured this was a good way to do that. One of these days I am going to blog about all my favorite TV shows of the past. It will be a long entry, I was quite the TV addict.
Wow, only a few hours after she commented on this blog for the first time...
Mazel Tov to my kindred spirit, sharer of middle name, and cousin Esther on her engagement to Mark Korman (no relation to Harvey)!!
We are so excited and look forward to sharing in the simcha with you. Now we begin the process of begging for frequent flier miles!!!!
(EZ, I tried to call you, left a message on your voicemail)
UPDATE: I finally spoke to Esther and told her that unless they e-mail us pics, we will have to assume that Mark is an Ugly Troll.
UPDATE: (Jan. 4) Esther e-mailed me 2 great pictures of her and Mark. They are really cute together! They look great. He is definitely NOT a troll!!! Thanks, EZ!
I think I finally figured out who the mystery reader from Israel is (I had been wondering after I saw an Israeli IP address). If it is who I think it is, I just want to say Hi and I saw your mother today and I hope all is well with your Dad (keep us posted). Take care and regards to all.
If I am wrong, mystery reader from Israel can identify him or herself to me so I stop embarrassing myself:)
So, Lanie dropped off her two goldfish for us to babysit while she is in Florida for a week. I told her that in return for this favor, we will be letting her babysit our two kids when we go away for a week. She didn't think it was a comparable trade.
Probably not. My kids are much cuter than her goldfish.
NEW YORK (CNN) -- The Freedom Tower, proposed to restore Lower Manhattan's skyline, will be the world's tallest building, according to the architects, who unveiled the revised model Friday.
Now the opinions will come. I don't know. If they are looking at a way to appropriately commemorate those who were lost during the 9-11 attacks, I don't think this is the way to go. First of all, the building is ugly. Second of all, I don't think it has to be the worlds tallest building-it just looks like a monstrosity.
The bottom line is that nothing will do justice to the memories of all the people who were killed on that tragic day. In my opinion, we should work on programs to remember September 11, why it happened, the specific stories of the people who were killed, and continue the efforts to fight the War on Terrorism. To me, that is a fitting memorial. Let's not let these people's deaths be for nothing.
After my first attempt at baking and the debacle that was, I waited a while to enter the realm of baking again. Why can't I ever learn from my mistakes? I had old bananas on the counter again so I made banana bread again. That came out fine (I think), no plastic in it.
Since tommorow night is Chanukah, I decided to be creative and make chanukah sugar cookies. Mind you, I have NEVER done this before. My mother brought over cookie cutters and I was pretty excited. So, I found a recipe for sugar cookies and decided use it. I mixed all the ingredients in my handy dandy KitchenAid mixer (Still looking great on the counter, by the way).
When that was done, I realized that I was never going to be able to roll the dough out to use the cookie cutters. I started to get a little despondent. I called my sister who actually knows how to bake (not better than her husband though). She told me I used a drop cookie recipe instead of a roll-out recipe. OK, whatever that means (I think I figured it out though, I do have a masters degree). So I decided, life gives you batter, make some cookies anyway. So I decided to "drop the batter" onto the cookie sheets. Well to make a long story short because I am probably going to be the only one reading this far the cookies did NOT come out. They all ran into eachother, looked and felt like sponges and tasted burnt and awful.
I am feeling a little helpless. I am planning on getting a real roll-out sugar cookie recipe and I will try again in a few days. Until then, my kids will have to suffer like all the other unfortunate children in the world and eat bakery chanukah cookies. Please don't call social services on me.
I got my flu shot more than 24 hours ago.
My arm still hurts. This better work...
I drove past the Senator Theater this morning and saw people lined up halfway up the block for "TRILOGY TUESDAY." They are showing the first 2 Lord Of the Rings movies movies starting at noon today and culminating with the third and newest one tonight at 10:30 PM. I heard on the radio that some people camped out all last night to get the best seats possible. I saw a lot of people in capes and a few hobbit-like costumes (although shoes were worn- it is December, people!). In deference to Greg , Maphet, etc. I just don't get it.
I agree that everyone is entitled to his/her own opinions about movies and that is fine. The Lord of The Rings Trilogy may be 3 of the best movies ever made (that is not my opinion). But who lines up around the block dressed as characters from a movie that you will be seeing? OK, I did see Karate Kid II on the first day it opened (I was in fourth grade and a HUGE KK fan), but I didn't feel the need to put on a Karate Gi and headband like Daniel-Sahn wore. Yes, I did go to Star Wars: The Phantom Menace at 7AM the day it came out (mostly because it was very close to my due date with Ezra and Greg did not want to risk not seeing it), but I didn't dress up with a light saber and/or Princess Leia buns in my hair.
People: Movies are fun, who doesn't enjoy watching them? But get a grip and remember: You are not a character in a movie, you are not even an actor. Believe me, Elijah Wood is not dressed up as Frodo today. He doesn't even care that much.
So yesterday I was feeding my kids breakfast when all of a sudden Gila, age 2, started singing a loud and wonderful rendition of this song:
(To the Tune of London Bridge)
Capitalism's Falling Down, Falling Down, Falling Down
Capitalism's Falling Down, So Says Lenin
Communism's Going Up, Going Up, Going Up
Communism's Going Up, So Says Stalin
Where did she learn such a thing? When Greg's grandfather passed away in November, we spent 4 days in Connecticut with the family. Greg's cousin Jonathan Sanders who is an expert on all things Russian (he was the CBS News Moscow Correspondent until the Cold War Ended, he wrote the books: The Russians Emerge and Russia, 1917: The Unpublished Revolution and taught/teaches Russian History amongst other things at Columbia University and Princeton) taught this lovely ditty to the kids every time one of them was on his lap. I find it pretty funny, but I wonder what their teachers will think when they try to sing London Bridge and my kids start singing this version on the top of their lungs in Preschool.
Oh well. Viva La'Difference!
With the latest news of the capture of Saddam Hussein (Go United States!, Good luck, Iraq!), I am once again faced with the fact that I am living through history, AGAIN.
I remember when I was a little kid and my parents used to talk about when JFK was shot, the Six-day War, , about woodstock (not that they were there), landing on the moon, the Vietnam War, and so many others. I remember thinking to myself, "Hey, they lived through history, I wonder what that feels like."
Growing up in the 80's, there were few earth-shattering events which stood out as historical in nature- at least not to me. Yes, I will always remember where I was when I found out that the Challenger blew up (I was in carpoo on the way home from school in 4th grade), I will always remember "We are the World" and "Hands Across America", and the Berlin Wall coming down will always be etched in my mind, but it wasn't until recently that I have started feeling like I am truly living through history and honestly, I liked life better when the news was mediocre and the world wasn't changing daily.
I feel like we have been living through way too much history over the past few years. From Rabin's Assasination to "MonicaGate", to the Bush-Gore election debacle in 2000, to 911, to the War on Terrorism, to Operation Iraqi Freedom, to today's news just to name a few. We can write whole history books about each of these events alone.
I don't know about you, but I am ready to go back to the simple life. I wan't may kids to feel the way I did when I was growing up- that life is boring and nothing is going on around them. Let them read history in the books, not live through it.
DETROIT, Michigan (AP) -- More than 200,000 computers spent years looking for the largest known prime number. It turned up on Michigan State University graduate student Michael Shafer's off-the-shelf PC."It was just a matter of time," Shafer said.
The number is 6,320,430 digits long and would need 1,400 to 1,500 pages to write out. It is more than 2 million digits larger than the previous largest known prime number.
Anyone who knows me knows I couldn't care any less about this news, but it reminds me of a funny thing that happened recently. Greg and I were sitting at a co-worker and friend of Greg's wedding a few weeks ago. We were strategically placed at the same table as the groom's Ph.D professor from University of MD,who happens to be a pretty big name in the computer science world, and his equally smart math professor wife. (As you can all guess, this means nothing to me, but he thought Greg would like that).
Anyway, at one point when we are all making inane small talk as strangers often do, this computer science prof.'s wife turns to the table and says, "we just read the most lovely book about the square root of negative 15," and her husband nodded in agreement. I did all I could not to laugh out loud.
So the lesson here is, even though I don't think that there is any significance to the fact that the hightest prime number has been discovered, there are other people probably peeing in their pants now about this news. Party On!!!
Tonight my family had an experience that rivaled any movie or TV show that has melted my heart in the past (I am not saying surpassed because lets face it, nothing is better than "The Wonder Years"). This was seriously one of the most special things to happen in a while and it was really just an everyday occurance. I don't usually speak from the heart (especially to the public in this blog) but I want to remember this night- as mundane and special as it was.
We were eating dinner and Ezra decided he wanted to listen to music after he finished his chicken nuggets. He put in a Chanukah CD to bring some festive cheer to our home (which I didn't mind since I am the biggest scrooge around, I strongly dislike Christmas carols, and that is all I hear anywhere). After he got bored with that CD, he found a promotional CD sent to us from Enfamil when Gila was born. Basically this CD is all propaganda about how music increases the intelligence of the child and their communication, yada yada- but there were many different types of music represented on this CD: Classical, Folk, ethnic, Ragtime, etc.
During one particulary "beaty" song, Ezra got excited and started beating imaginary drums. Next song, he started snapping and got up and jumped around a little (mind you we were all finished dinner by now so this was acceptable behavior for the moment). His excitement became contagious. The next song was a Greek folky dancy kind of song. The only way I can descirbe it is that it would have been a song to dance to during "My Big Fat Greek Dissapointment- I mean Wedding." At that point, Greg, Gila and I were so overwhelmed by Ezra's enthusiasm, that we were up and dancing with him. So here we were, 2 late twenty somethings, a four year old with a lot more rhythm and grace than you would think he should have, and a generally uncoordinated yet happy 2 year old dancing around our kitchen table. We were snapping, we were holding hands, we were crossing over our feet, we were having such a great time.
This song led into a waltz so we partnered up and went into the living room to dance. We switched partners, we twirled around, we stepped on toes (that was mostly me), we laughed some more. To the casual observer (and luckily there were none), we probably looked pretty silly. Yet, we were all so happy to be having such a wonderful time together as a family, it brought tears to my eyes. Having been brought up in a world that we often compare our lives to the pop-culture around us, I could only imagine that this was the point in the movie that became slow motion and the main character (obviously me) took a step back to realize that life was good and everything was going fall into place.
Marriage, raising kids, working a job, keeping a home can be pretty mundane, that's what life is-you have your ups and downs, yet it is nice to be reminded every now and then that within our daily lives, we can live the fairy tale as well.
I'd like to give a special shout out and Happy Birthday to one of my closest friends, Lanie! Happy Birthday, I hope it is a good one and a great year!!!
To all my readers (I know I have a few out there). Whether you have commented in the past or not, please leave a happy birthday wish for Lanie in the comments section (I give you full permission to use an alias if you wish to remain anonymous). Let's see how many birthday wishes Lanie can get on this blog. Mine is number one.
p.s. No Lanie, I will not remove this, be happy I didn't post a picture.
UPDATE: Come on People! There are only 7 1/2 hours left till Lanie's Birthday is over!!!!!!!!! Shlomo happened upon this blog for the first time today yet left a Happy Birthday message for Lanie. He doesn't even know her or me! Where's the love? Let's get some messages going- RALLY!
Here is my unpaid advertisement/opinion.
Glad Press and Seal: Not all that and a bag of chips (not even a bag of chips).
Saran Quick Covers: You rock my world. And the best thing is that if you ever need a shower cap- tada, you can use them!
Saran Disposable Cutting Sheets: My world continues to rock and rock and rock. You rock. Nuff Said.
These unpaid advertisements have been brought to you from one individual who likes to try out new and somewhat superfluous kitchen accessories. The opinions expressed here do not represent the opinions of anyone affiliated with any major dining establishment, consumer products company or any professional ANYTHING.
UPDATE: I am still not liking the Glad Press and Seal, but I think I figured out why. It is almost as hard as Saran Wrap (no offense Saran, you know I love you) which is no fun at all and it seems like there is so little on the roll. BUT, if GLAD wants to make amends with me and have me positively endorse their product, they can send me a bunch of rolls of Glad Press and Seal and I will be more than willing to give it another chance and write up a postive review. If anyone from Glad is reading this, leave me a comment, and I will send you my home address. Thanks in advance.
Wow, in looking through my archives, one might think I am an incredibly negative person. I have 3 posts just in my "recent entries" that all start with "I hate." I think it should be noted that these are just every day gripes. I am not a person filled with hate. I just have some issues with the dentist, sleep sofas, and snow. I am sure some more of my issues will come out over time. Just know that I am a loving happy person who just happens to feel strongly about a few things.
Will the author of the song "Let it Snow" Please step forward so I can pelt you with a few million snowballs?
Thanks in Advance.
Today was an interesting day in work. Here is a rundown of some of the people who I saw today
-1 man who threw up right in front of me, I had to help clean it up
-1 former heroine addict who had a gunshot wound to the head who can barely remember his own name
-1 women who doesn't realize there is anything going on on the left side of her body or to the left of her (if you are standing on her left, she doesn't see you)
-1 woman who needed to be reminded to spit the saliva that was in her mouth out into a cup every few minutes.
It's days like this that make me feel like I am actually helping some people. They also drive me a little bit crazy. I only worked 3 1/2 hours. Imagine what kind of people I would have met had I worked longer?!?
So I think we might need a new washing machine and dryer. They are practically ancient: the dryer only works on the high heat cycle and the washing machine frequently rips clothing. ARGH. Anyone in my vast (note the sarcasm here) reading community have any suggestions for cost effective yet effective laundry appliances?
UPDATE: Greg says he thinks I need to put less stuff in the appliances. I will agree that I stuff the dryer, but definitely not the washing machine. I say, you don't like the way I do it? Wanna give it a try?!?