2010
MarketPlace
There’s something comforting about watching a home improvement series or a reality dating show and hearing people talk about the exact same things, in the exact same words, over and over. Aaaaaand, there’s also something annoying about it. Yes, you can indeed change the wall color and get a new light fixture for the dining room! Yes, we know you’re here for the “right reasons” and not to make friends!
One of the things that always makes me roll my eyes is a couple joking about how her clothes will fit in the massive walk-in closet but his clothes will be relegated to the closet down the hall. Oh ho ho ho. Another thing that sets the eyes a rolling is when a single person, wookin’ pa nub, says that one of the things s/he’s looking for in a partner is a sense of humor. What IS that? Is there anyone out there who’s going to say, “Yeah, I’m really not into people with a sense of humor. I’m looking for someone humorless. Dour, if I can get it”? No. That doesn’t happen. (Although if it does, I damn well hope that preference is revealed up front lest the poor wandering soul wastes his or her time dating someone who’s actually pleasant. What a disaster that would be.)
(Furthermore, nevermind that when a lot of people say “sense of humor” they actually mean “funny.” People of the world, hear ye: “sense of humor” and “funny” are not the same. And don’t get me started on the misuse of “ironic” or, worse, “ironical,” which is, unfortunately, correct but also unnecessary and stupid.)
Anyway, all of this is lead-up to a point, which is that I love a good deal but I hesitate to describe myself as A Person Who Loves a Good Deal because who doesn’t love a good deal? (Probably the same people who look for a mate who doesn’t have a sense of humor, that’s who. “I like long walks on the beach, sourpuss lovers, and paying full price for electronics.”) ANYWAY, I love a good deal and so do you, so now is the time to click over to my review blog (where you may have forgotten several contests are going on right now, and some of them for money! did you forget! should I remind you more often? would you like me to shut up now?) so I can tell you all about a great place to find special deals online, and not just during the holidays either. (“I love good deals but only at Christmas, and I like a man with a sense of humor but only on Tuesdays.”)
(YES THIS IS A HOOK FOR YET ANOTHER SPONSORED POST WHAT.)
2010
Give It To Me Straight
Now that Wombat wants to do everything “ALL BY MYSELF”–just like that, in all caps–getting ready to go in the morning is both easier and harder. It’s easier because he’s more amenable to getting dressed when he’s allowed to pick out his shirt ALL BY MYSELF, but harder because he’s not at the point yet where he can also put on his own pants and shoes and then drive the car to daycare, an injustice against which he rails daily and mightily. (It’s only a short drive, but still. Kid can’t parallel park to save his life.)
But pick his own shirt? That we can do. Most of the time he chooses the tops that match absolutely nothing else in his wardrobe, and yet although I like to pretend I have a least some style savvy when I put my mind to it, I’m pretty much over caring how he looks when he goes to daycare. For one, consider how I look when I go to daycare: draped in whatever I worked in and then slept in the day and night before, my hair all scraggly, my eyes half-shut. And then consider how convenient it is that his funky outfit helps distract from his funky self–”funky” as in unwashed, “funky” as in we still haven’t gotten the hang of a regular bathing routine. Anyway, it’s fine by me that he goes out into the world looking like a psychedelic circus clown (especially when the rest of his friends look like that too because they, apparently, are also the all-caps DIY types), and anyway I’ve learned my lesson about daycare outfits: on the off-chance I take him to school looking sharp, something inevitably happens over the course of the day that necessitates resorting to the Pants of Shame, which are always the wrong color, season, style, and size, so, everyone, say it withe me: WHY BOTHER?
BUT! When he’s not at daycare and we’re out and about on a weekend, we style him to the nines (which is admittedly quite easy when you only have to do it once or twice a week). What’s not easy, though, is keeping him in cool clothes when he grows out of them so fast. (Four inches in the last six months, people. FOUR. INCHES.)
Like a desperado, waiting for the flood.
But fear not. The Gap has denim for toddlers, and thanks to them and BlogHer, Wombat, with god as his witness, will never go short-trousered again!
Click here to read all about it (or to just look at the pretty, pretty pictures) and to also, you guessed it, enter for a chance to win a hundred smackers. (Note: The post was written as a stand-alone for the Gap1969 website, where it will be appearing…sometime? soon?…, so if is a little repetetive, that’s why.)
2010
The Kept House
Summary: A few housekeeping notes and photos and videos and links.
Goal: To spread holiday cheer in the form of Benjamins and my son’s silly little face in a Santa hat.
***
Note the first: On Monday afternoon just as I was congratulating myself on pulling things together after an extremely busy few days coming off the relaxed holiday weekend (dinner party away, dinner party and game night here, cocktail party and ugly sweaters away, sleepover babysitters here), daycare called and said Wombat had a fever of 101 and was refusing to eat and blammo, tailspin into madness (me, not him). Wombat had to stay home from daycare today too (must be fever-free for 24 hours, blah), which puts me now a day and a half behind on work during a short week that includes a big band practice before a big band show, my first crack at a live Nutcracker in I don’t know how long, and my parents arriving in town on Friday to celebrate Wombat’s birthday, which I’ve sort of kind of been in denial over, as evidenced by the fact that I didn’t send out invitations to his party until six days before the actual event. (Needless to say, we went with Pingg instead of repeating last year’s handcrafted invitations of magic and wonder and glitter glue.)
So: I AM BUSY. There is simply no room in my schedule for fake fevers. (As per usual, he wasn’t actually sick. Unless it was a sickness that gave him tons of energy and superhuman powers of flight. Well, superhuman and brief.)
(At his two-year checkup last week, the pediatrician asked if he could jump. HE CAN JUMP. She also asked if he was speaking in two-word sentences. I told her he said to me earlier that day, “Mama! This morning…when I woke up…there was a dragon…outside my window…and it was pink…but it was nice. Mama? Can we go to Lucia’s house? Ooh, let’s play the piano!” Etc. I probably should have just said yes, but if you can’t brag to your pediatrician, who can you brag to? Oh. Yeah.)
Note the second: If Simon had a personal blog, he would probably tell you that he is also extremely busy, and he might even cite the example of today, when he was awakened (and I was awakened) by a phone call at 4:45 a.m. from the night watchman of the building he (Simon) runs who was just then standing in a flooded room with a mop and some late Donnie-Darko-definition “feces,” and was in need of some help. So Simon went to work at 5 a.m. and worked a ten-hour day and then came home and took Wombat grocery shopping for a carload of food while I worked and then ate a quick dinner (that he made) and then went off to band practice, where he’ll be until probably sometime around midnight. But Simon doesn’t have a personal blog, so you’ll probably never hear that story. Instead, though, you should go read what he has to say about the The Last Airbender‘s similarities to Citizen Kane on MamaPop, where he’ll be writing (and hopefully Photoshopping, because he’s a natural) every Tuesday morning forever and ever. Look, they let him have a bio paragraph and everything.
Note the third: I’m giving away a $100 gift card from BlogHer and Olay (this is separate from last week’s contest and from next week’s contest, so click on over), and later this week and next I’ll be giving away two more $100 gift cards and a $50 gift card and a book and some undergarments–yes, undergarments–and maybe some other stuff as well (need a discount on your holiday cards? I have one just for you!), so you’ll just have to wait and see. This is how I’m using my blog for good instead of evil.
Note the fourth: If you haven’t visited Style Lush lately, there’s a ton of great holiday stuff there these days, and not just stuff stuff, but ideas (although the stuff is really good too). My favorites: Jennie’s sweet and simple advent calendar, Sara’s solution for storing boots, these Gap shirts (I bought two and am living in them; see below), and pretty much every gift guide and covet list but especially Elizabeth’s massive 125 for under $25, which inspired my favorite giveaway to date. (It’s too late to enter, but the sentiment and prize are too wonderful not to share, just for a smile.)
Aaaaaaaaand, speaking of the Gap (which I did, up there, I think), they’re in cahoots with BlogHer and me to give away yet another $100 Visa gift card this week, so check back tomorrow for the details and more more more pictures of my Baby Who Is Not a Baby Anymore (but is still extremely scrumptious, as evidenced below).
I hope you guys are all doing well and surviving the holidays with your jolly good humor intact.
