Monday, July 19, 2004
this was easier before the grown-up stuff
So now I have less than a week until Ben and I are stuck in a van with two kids who are both under five years old. Rabbit will be okay, as she is fine with just sitting in her car seat and reading (or nibbling on) books. C will be more difficult, especially since she gets carsick easily. We have medicine to give her for the six-hour part of the trip, so I'm sure she won't be too interested in doing car-trip kind of things, but I have a few ready just in case. Now, I've never gone on a long trip with a kid this age before (my sisters don't count), so let me know if any of these are ridiculous:
* We bought her a MagnaDoodle (it's the Dora one, just because Ben likes to spoil her -- he doesn't get to see her much with the twelve-hour distance between them) and a little Dora dry-erase notepad (sticking with a theme, see?), because she likes to draw and this seems safer than actual crayons and paper, plus it's pretty portable. I like the Blue's Clues version better, but we don't know if she's still into that show.
* I'm going to make a few shapes out of cardboard (probably cereal boxes cut into animal shapes), color them, and punch holes near the edges, then take some long pieces of yarn and coat the ends with nail polish. Voila, sewing for kids. I used to love that crap.
* We'll probly go by Goodwill and pick up a few kid's books that can be left behind when we drop her off at her mom's and will take the road-trip battering well.
What else do smart four-year-old girls like? I'm really lost here.
As for me, this is the first long drive during which I can actually DRIVE, since we've only taken Ben's cars before. Now, since we have The Behemoth, Ben doesn't have to drive all the time, which is good, because we have two twelve-hour drives and two six-hour drives ahead of us. But for my off-times, I'm taking a few books (of course), some mags, our camera, an idea notebook and a trip journal, and some embroidery, for when I feel like hazarding eye-poke-outage. Oh, and I caved to the mass media or whatever and got a handheld Battleship game. Stone me if you must.
I'm anticipating a lot of McDonald's, since our last dining experience with both kids ended with me sitting with Rabbit in the car. That was an IHOP where "scrambled eggs with cheese" equaled "scrambled eggs with a slice of non-melted American cheese laid on top." Yum.
* We bought her a MagnaDoodle (it's the Dora one, just because Ben likes to spoil her -- he doesn't get to see her much with the twelve-hour distance between them) and a little Dora dry-erase notepad (sticking with a theme, see?), because she likes to draw and this seems safer than actual crayons and paper, plus it's pretty portable. I like the Blue's Clues version better, but we don't know if she's still into that show.
* I'm going to make a few shapes out of cardboard (probably cereal boxes cut into animal shapes), color them, and punch holes near the edges, then take some long pieces of yarn and coat the ends with nail polish. Voila, sewing for kids. I used to love that crap.
* We'll probly go by Goodwill and pick up a few kid's books that can be left behind when we drop her off at her mom's and will take the road-trip battering well.
What else do smart four-year-old girls like? I'm really lost here.
As for me, this is the first long drive during which I can actually DRIVE, since we've only taken Ben's cars before. Now, since we have The Behemoth, Ben doesn't have to drive all the time, which is good, because we have two twelve-hour drives and two six-hour drives ahead of us. But for my off-times, I'm taking a few books (of course), some mags, our camera, an idea notebook and a trip journal, and some embroidery, for when I feel like hazarding eye-poke-outage. Oh, and I caved to the mass media or whatever and got a handheld Battleship game. Stone me if you must.
I'm anticipating a lot of McDonald's, since our last dining experience with both kids ended with me sitting with Rabbit in the car. That was an IHOP where "scrambled eggs with cheese" equaled "scrambled eggs with a slice of non-melted American cheese laid on top." Yum.
here's a brand-span(x)ing new update . . .
(hee) on the Spanx situation. I got my package Friday! They sent me two (!) pairs of the Power Panties. (I know we all hate the word "panties," and they're more like shorts anyway, but that's what they're called, folks.) I would have felt a little better if there'd been a note with them apologizing for the two months of sorting out my order, but whatever, I'm a free product whore. Which is good, because they sent them in one of the two colors I said I didn't want (and it's not like they were low on color options -- they offer the Power Pa... you know... in eight colors). I tried them on and they seem really nice -- the legband doesn't bind, and the knit is nice and breathable. The waist goes too high, but I have a short torso (or whatever it is that makes one unable to wear overalls and the like without looking deformed), so I'm used to that. If you're looking for something to wear under skirts and want to try Spanx, I encourage you to do so, but please learn from my mistakes and order from a retailer. Unless you have two months and a lot of patience to spare.
Monday, July 12, 2004
please don't cry
It's just a list, but it's a post, right? Recently discovered:
* Pink Thread: Well-priced cute things. I'm looking for a checkbook cover to replace the five-year-old one I have that holds too many special dog-chewing memories, and there are some Alice in Wonderland ones here that I like. (I also covet the floral vinyl wrist cuff.)
* Morning Craft: Slightly pricey cute and pretty things, but the prettiness wins out over the priciness (most of the time), and priciness is almost always understandable in handmade things. I actually bought a few things here last week (please don't stone me for shopping and then bitching that I have no money -- I always put aside a little money each week to throw into the wind, or else I'd go mad and put way too many purchases on crappy CapOne credit cards); it was a very automated experience, everything done through PayPal, but my order was shipped out quickly and everything was as advertised, and that's really all I ask for. Plus, prettiness!
* The Amateur Gourmet: Cooking and funniness -- one of my favorite combinations.
* the hungry tiger: Another food blog, one with a very pretty site. I learn new things every time I visit, but there are lots of new things for me because I don't know a lot when it comes to food, so take that with a grain of salt.
* Fans of Reality TV: It's no TWoP, but TWoP doesn't recap "The Joe Schmo Show," so this site gets a few visits from me. Actually, the recaps are pretty lovely and snarky, at least for the shows I've followed.
* Kitchen Sink: I received my first issue of this magazine last week, and I LOVED it. It was excellent. (Okay, it had a few typos, including mixing up "its" and "it's," which always bugs me and yanks me right out of whatever article or book I've been reading, but the mag was good enough overall for me to kind of ignore that.) It's actually joining my new selective subscription list, along with BUST, Bitch, and Venus.
* I found L's diary (haha, like I'm going to post that addy here), which sadly only has two entries, neither of them meaty. Why is it that she's the only person in my offline life who has anything online? Is our circle really that technophobic? Well, Angela's boyfriend has a blog, but I prefer not to look at it too much -- it creeps me out. I don't really want too much insight into his life (and his poetry), thanks.
* Spanx: It's a really cool concept, but I'm not sure the product is worth the ordering process. Let me explain: I tried to place an order, oh, about two months ago, and I STILL haven't received it.
Quickly: I placed the order, entered all my info, and got a wonky "your order wasn't placed" screen. So I tried twice more to place my order, kept getting that error message, and gave up. A few days later, I received an e-mail saying that my order had been placed. I checked the website, and I had an order, but the order number was different from the one on the e-mail. So I figured it was a fluke and waited for my package. Which never arrived. I checked the tracking number they gave me, and it turned out my package was delivered to a porch in a town I don't live in. See, the shipping was done via UPS, but I didn't see anything saying that in the FAQ or when I entered my shipping address, so I used my PO Box. They never sent anything asking for a physical address, and UPS didn't return the package once they found out it was a PO Box; I have no idea where they got the incorrect physical address. Then I received my credit card statement and found out I'd been charged twice. For one order that I hadn't even received. I e-mailed Spanx, faxed them a copy of the credit card statement so they could confirm my story (?), and was told that they would send out another package. (Of course, they now informed me that the color I wanted wasn't available -- the website doesn't say that, though.) TWO WEEKS LATER. I hadn't received a package, so I e-mailed the company again to make sure everything was okay. I waited a week and didn't receive a reply. At the end of the week, I e-mailed them again, and received an e-mail asking what I had ordered. The irritating part of this was that I'd kept the old e-mails in the text of the new e-mail, so it was already spelled out further down in the e-mail. (Sorry for the repeated use of "e-mail" -- I will pay penance for this repetition karmically, I'm sure.) So I explained it AGAIN, and got an e-mail back . . . asking for my last name. It's been a week, so the replacement package should be here soon . . . or should it be? DUM DUM DUUUUM.
Wow, that wasn't so much "quickly," huh?
So the end result is: it's probably just my bad luck, so you should check it out for yourself. Just don't be surprised if something goes awry. The customer service reps are very nice, maybe just too busy. It might also be that the company's experiencing a growth surge that they weren't prepared for, so I'll cut 'em a little slack.
They have pink fishnets, so they can't be all bad, right?
* My last bit of pimping: Fork 'n Spoon Zine Store: A zine distro that's dedicated to cooking zines, mostly vegan or vegetarian. Yum.
* Pink Thread: Well-priced cute things. I'm looking for a checkbook cover to replace the five-year-old one I have that holds too many special dog-chewing memories, and there are some Alice in Wonderland ones here that I like. (I also covet the floral vinyl wrist cuff.)
* Morning Craft: Slightly pricey cute and pretty things, but the prettiness wins out over the priciness (most of the time), and priciness is almost always understandable in handmade things. I actually bought a few things here last week (please don't stone me for shopping and then bitching that I have no money -- I always put aside a little money each week to throw into the wind, or else I'd go mad and put way too many purchases on crappy CapOne credit cards); it was a very automated experience, everything done through PayPal, but my order was shipped out quickly and everything was as advertised, and that's really all I ask for. Plus, prettiness!
* The Amateur Gourmet: Cooking and funniness -- one of my favorite combinations.
* the hungry tiger: Another food blog, one with a very pretty site. I learn new things every time I visit, but there are lots of new things for me because I don't know a lot when it comes to food, so take that with a grain of salt.
* Fans of Reality TV: It's no TWoP, but TWoP doesn't recap "The Joe Schmo Show," so this site gets a few visits from me. Actually, the recaps are pretty lovely and snarky, at least for the shows I've followed.
* Kitchen Sink: I received my first issue of this magazine last week, and I LOVED it. It was excellent. (Okay, it had a few typos, including mixing up "its" and "it's," which always bugs me and yanks me right out of whatever article or book I've been reading, but the mag was good enough overall for me to kind of ignore that.) It's actually joining my new selective subscription list, along with BUST, Bitch, and Venus.
* I found L's diary (haha, like I'm going to post that addy here), which sadly only has two entries, neither of them meaty. Why is it that she's the only person in my offline life who has anything online? Is our circle really that technophobic? Well, Angela's boyfriend has a blog, but I prefer not to look at it too much -- it creeps me out. I don't really want too much insight into his life (and his poetry), thanks.
* Spanx: It's a really cool concept, but I'm not sure the product is worth the ordering process. Let me explain: I tried to place an order, oh, about two months ago, and I STILL haven't received it.
Quickly: I placed the order, entered all my info, and got a wonky "your order wasn't placed" screen. So I tried twice more to place my order, kept getting that error message, and gave up. A few days later, I received an e-mail saying that my order had been placed. I checked the website, and I had an order, but the order number was different from the one on the e-mail. So I figured it was a fluke and waited for my package. Which never arrived. I checked the tracking number they gave me, and it turned out my package was delivered to a porch in a town I don't live in. See, the shipping was done via UPS, but I didn't see anything saying that in the FAQ or when I entered my shipping address, so I used my PO Box. They never sent anything asking for a physical address, and UPS didn't return the package once they found out it was a PO Box; I have no idea where they got the incorrect physical address. Then I received my credit card statement and found out I'd been charged twice. For one order that I hadn't even received. I e-mailed Spanx, faxed them a copy of the credit card statement so they could confirm my story (?), and was told that they would send out another package. (Of course, they now informed me that the color I wanted wasn't available -- the website doesn't say that, though.) TWO WEEKS LATER. I hadn't received a package, so I e-mailed the company again to make sure everything was okay. I waited a week and didn't receive a reply. At the end of the week, I e-mailed them again, and received an e-mail asking what I had ordered. The irritating part of this was that I'd kept the old e-mails in the text of the new e-mail, so it was already spelled out further down in the e-mail. (Sorry for the repeated use of "e-mail" -- I will pay penance for this repetition karmically, I'm sure.) So I explained it AGAIN, and got an e-mail back . . . asking for my last name. It's been a week, so the replacement package should be here soon . . . or should it be? DUM DUM DUUUUM.
Wow, that wasn't so much "quickly," huh?
So the end result is: it's probably just my bad luck, so you should check it out for yourself. Just don't be surprised if something goes awry. The customer service reps are very nice, maybe just too busy. It might also be that the company's experiencing a growth surge that they weren't prepared for, so I'll cut 'em a little slack.
They have pink fishnets, so they can't be all bad, right?
* My last bit of pimping: Fork 'n Spoon Zine Store: A zine distro that's dedicated to cooking zines, mostly vegan or vegetarian. Yum.
Wednesday, July 07, 2004
happiness
Things that are not sucky:
* I have a new van! No more dying Corsica days for me; it's a giant '98 Chevy Astro -- it's gigantic, true, but it's the newest car I've ever had, and it runs beautifully, AND it looks pretty nice, too. We were going to have to take a week-long vacation with two kids under six in a tiny Escort (it's a twelve-hour trip, we weren't looking forward to THAT), but now we can take this beautiful behemoth. We'll actually be able to take the stroller now. I'm so excited! OMGWTFLOL!!!1!!11!
* Postcard swaps rock. I love them ridiculously.
* Genevieve Dionne makes the prettiest things. (Of course, Plain Mabel is also a non-sucky thing, but you know that already because I've told you several times. How about a new (related) link? Here: Awful Cufflinks is the cat's pajamas, even though it makes me want to buy things.)
* You know that Formosa restaurant over in the shopping center with Staples and Heavenly Ham? Oh my god. For under five bucks, you can get a lunch special, which comes with soup (the hot and sour soup kicks ass), an egg roll (or spring roll with shrimp), fried rice, a huge helping of whichever main dish you choose, orange slices, fried doughnuts, and a fortune cookie. And it's all good. Holy hell, I had no idea this place existed. Now there are two restaurants in town that I like (that aren't chains -- I'm developing a slow-burning hatred for chain restaurants).
Here's to the non-sucky parts of life.
* I have a new van! No more dying Corsica days for me; it's a giant '98 Chevy Astro -- it's gigantic, true, but it's the newest car I've ever had, and it runs beautifully, AND it looks pretty nice, too. We were going to have to take a week-long vacation with two kids under six in a tiny Escort (it's a twelve-hour trip, we weren't looking forward to THAT), but now we can take this beautiful behemoth. We'll actually be able to take the stroller now. I'm so excited! OMGWTFLOL!!!1!!11!
* Postcard swaps rock. I love them ridiculously.
* Genevieve Dionne makes the prettiest things. (Of course, Plain Mabel is also a non-sucky thing, but you know that already because I've told you several times. How about a new (related) link? Here: Awful Cufflinks is the cat's pajamas, even though it makes me want to buy things.)
* You know that Formosa restaurant over in the shopping center with Staples and Heavenly Ham? Oh my god. For under five bucks, you can get a lunch special, which comes with soup (the hot and sour soup kicks ass), an egg roll (or spring roll with shrimp), fried rice, a huge helping of whichever main dish you choose, orange slices, fried doughnuts, and a fortune cookie. And it's all good. Holy hell, I had no idea this place existed. Now there are two restaurants in town that I like (that aren't chains -- I'm developing a slow-burning hatred for chain restaurants).
Here's to the non-sucky parts of life.
boo.
There has been a general spirit of nastiness going around in various spots of my life lately, and so right now I'm going to bitch for a minute. Then I'll stop, and the world will probably explode or something, but I'm tired of my personal negativity and this is the only way I can think of to exorcise it.
Okay, here goes; look away if you want, I won't cry.
* CapOne, you suck, and you and your partner in suck, my local post office, can kiss my ass. See, I have a p.o. box, and last month, the post office, in its infinite wisdom, decided to keep a bundle of my mail -- just regular mail, not any big packages or anything -- in the back room for THREE DAMN WEEKS. Included in this bundle was a CapOne bill, which I received the day before it was due. Now, May's CapOne payment never got sent, which was my fault (I lost the statement somehow), so I had one late payment already. June's CapOne payment was late, too, because of the post office fiasco, and for some reason, after only two late payments, CapOne decided to report my account as delinquent. No notice or anything, until AFTER they'd reported it. So I called up CapOne to see if they could attach a letter of explanation or something (I had sent a note explaining the post office thing with June's payment, but I guess they didn't read it, or care, or whatever), but they couldn't help me because it had already been reported. Assholes. So I cut up my CapOne card. I had no late payments on any of my accounts and they couldn't even give me a damn warning. So that sucked.
* The bank we're dealing with for our loan also sucks. I don't feel like going into it, but take my word for it: they suck. Also included in this particular realm of suckiness is any company we've had to deal with who hasn't called us back when they said they would and has basically treated us like their least important clients. We are good effing customers -- we pay our bills on time and we're not divas. There's no reason, just because we're not six-figure-income earners, not to treat us with a little damn respect.
* I CANNOT TAKE LIVING WITH MY PARENTS ONE MORE MINUTE. I love them to death; I just am not a house-sharing kind of person. They are totally being nothing but kind and helpful and generous with their house and their time and their space -- it's not them, it's me. I don't interact well for that many hours in a day, and I can't stand having to listen to my sisters fight with each other and my little sister fight with my parents and my mom lecturing my little sister in that nicey-nice voice that STILL makes me roll my eyes, five years later. Plus Rabbit keeps waking up in the middle of the night or in the middle of her naps because we're in the basement and can hear every step everyone in the house takes. Also, we have almost been walked in on three times now, and I think one of those times counts as actual walking-in-on.
* Virginia drivers are horrible. I will not make this a driving rant, but damn. Read the effing DMV manual or something.
* I hate not having money and loving expensive things. This includes food, because the good "weird" (according to Ben) stuff is always way too costly and my grocery bill ends up costing twice as much as it should because I'm a bad (meaning impulse) shopper. I also hate having to buy all my clothes on sale at Old Navy and Target.
* I hate that it's too hot to go outside with a baby (or a normal human, for that matter). And I hate that the TV is always on in my mom's house, and that someone (usually my little sister) is always sitting on the couch watching TLC or some awful makeover show or talk show. And I hate that my mom, at least once a day, leaves Rabbit and the little boy she also babysits with my little sister, who just sits on the couch watching TV while the kids amuse themselves, and my mom doesn't even take her cell phone with her, so there's no way to get ahold of her. And I ALSO hate that when the babies eat, my mom and/or little sister don't even bother to sit with them -- they just leave them at the table and watch TV or whatever. Most of all, I hate that we can't afford for me to be a stay-at-home mom.
That right there was a multi-spectrum hate-on.
I think I'm done. So various things suck in various different ways. That's life. Let's move on.
Okay, here goes; look away if you want, I won't cry.
* CapOne, you suck, and you and your partner in suck, my local post office, can kiss my ass. See, I have a p.o. box, and last month, the post office, in its infinite wisdom, decided to keep a bundle of my mail -- just regular mail, not any big packages or anything -- in the back room for THREE DAMN WEEKS. Included in this bundle was a CapOne bill, which I received the day before it was due. Now, May's CapOne payment never got sent, which was my fault (I lost the statement somehow), so I had one late payment already. June's CapOne payment was late, too, because of the post office fiasco, and for some reason, after only two late payments, CapOne decided to report my account as delinquent. No notice or anything, until AFTER they'd reported it. So I called up CapOne to see if they could attach a letter of explanation or something (I had sent a note explaining the post office thing with June's payment, but I guess they didn't read it, or care, or whatever), but they couldn't help me because it had already been reported. Assholes. So I cut up my CapOne card. I had no late payments on any of my accounts and they couldn't even give me a damn warning. So that sucked.
* The bank we're dealing with for our loan also sucks. I don't feel like going into it, but take my word for it: they suck. Also included in this particular realm of suckiness is any company we've had to deal with who hasn't called us back when they said they would and has basically treated us like their least important clients. We are good effing customers -- we pay our bills on time and we're not divas. There's no reason, just because we're not six-figure-income earners, not to treat us with a little damn respect.
* I CANNOT TAKE LIVING WITH MY PARENTS ONE MORE MINUTE. I love them to death; I just am not a house-sharing kind of person. They are totally being nothing but kind and helpful and generous with their house and their time and their space -- it's not them, it's me. I don't interact well for that many hours in a day, and I can't stand having to listen to my sisters fight with each other and my little sister fight with my parents and my mom lecturing my little sister in that nicey-nice voice that STILL makes me roll my eyes, five years later. Plus Rabbit keeps waking up in the middle of the night or in the middle of her naps because we're in the basement and can hear every step everyone in the house takes. Also, we have almost been walked in on three times now, and I think one of those times counts as actual walking-in-on.
* Virginia drivers are horrible. I will not make this a driving rant, but damn. Read the effing DMV manual or something.
* I hate not having money and loving expensive things. This includes food, because the good "weird" (according to Ben) stuff is always way too costly and my grocery bill ends up costing twice as much as it should because I'm a bad (meaning impulse) shopper. I also hate having to buy all my clothes on sale at Old Navy and Target.
* I hate that it's too hot to go outside with a baby (or a normal human, for that matter). And I hate that the TV is always on in my mom's house, and that someone (usually my little sister) is always sitting on the couch watching TLC or some awful makeover show or talk show. And I hate that my mom, at least once a day, leaves Rabbit and the little boy she also babysits with my little sister, who just sits on the couch watching TV while the kids amuse themselves, and my mom doesn't even take her cell phone with her, so there's no way to get ahold of her. And I ALSO hate that when the babies eat, my mom and/or little sister don't even bother to sit with them -- they just leave them at the table and watch TV or whatever. Most of all, I hate that we can't afford for me to be a stay-at-home mom.
That right there was a multi-spectrum hate-on.
I think I'm done. So various things suck in various different ways. That's life. Let's move on.
