Usually we see commercials with the mute button on, if we see them at all. Most of our television watching is done after the program has aired because we tape virtually everything and then can skip through the commercials completely. However, I've watched the current Charmin commercials with the bears smiling through their crazy escapades with wimpy toilet paper in complete fascination. Now there's even a website, www.enjoythego.com, dedicated to folks who are (a) without a life at all or (2) scatalogically obsessed.
Seriously? Enjoy.the.go? Yeow. And they even have contests for their faithful followers. Just how do you win a contest about going number 2? How could you even enter a contest of that nature with any seriousness or credibility at all? Is there objective judging? Are pictures involved? It just fascinates me and repulses me at the same time.
Not for the first time, my wonderful husband has reminded me that I'm a tad on the impatient side lately. This was after a driver in a Suburban cut me off completely while switching lanes on the way back from Cleveland. I said no bad words -- and that in and of itself is a huge leap forward. But what I did say was accompanied by much horn honking, yelling at the top of my lungs and arm waving (I'm not Italian but I can certainly wave my arms like one) as I was slamming on the brakes to avoid a collision. The doofus never saw me at all or pretended not to. I guess the passenger in the front seat was comatose because she didn't react either.
I don't know why I'm more impatient lately than usual. I can blame all the usual reasons: my weight is creeping back up, I worry about money, I'm not getting enough exercise because it's bloody @#$ cold outside. The real reason is I don't know. I just am. Certain people strike me as immensely dense, clueless or slow witted. So I react. Guess I have my first resolution for the new year.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Friday, December 24, 2010
Monday, December 13, 2010
Vietnam
I grew up in the era when high school boys got their draft numbers upon their 18th birthdays and were expected to go into the service to fight in Vietnam shortly after graduation. That is, if they didn't get college deferments, become conscientious objectors or take off for Canada (we lived in Detroit at that time, right across the river from Canada so it was a viable choice). Of course, that war or whatever you call it now is long over. I have no biases against the Vietnamese people; I just don't have any desire to go there.
Our daughter and son-in-law, Holly and Mike,who were here for Christmas and Thanksgiving a couple weeks ago, are now in Vietnam. At her level with DreamWorks, she's on hiatus after finishing MegaMind and they get an extended vacation after the completion of a movie. She moves on to Madagascar III when she gets back to work in mid-January.
They had wanted to go to Argentina but discovered that the timing wasn't conducive for them to have sufficient time to see the country as they wanted to. They need five or six weeks and with the Christmas holidays in the middle, it just didn't work. So they went to Vietnam on the recommendation of someone Holly works with.
Good for them -- I really do applaud their traveling inquisitiveness. It's just I can't get over the weird feelings of knowing they're in Vietnam a country America fought with for so long and with so much bloodshed. They're also taking a side trip to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat, a temple from the early 12th Century honoring the Hindu god Vishnu.
I'm just going to be on motherly pins and needles until I know they're back in this country. That's all.
Our daughter and son-in-law, Holly and Mike,who were here for Christmas and Thanksgiving a couple weeks ago, are now in Vietnam. At her level with DreamWorks, she's on hiatus after finishing MegaMind and they get an extended vacation after the completion of a movie. She moves on to Madagascar III when she gets back to work in mid-January.
They had wanted to go to Argentina but discovered that the timing wasn't conducive for them to have sufficient time to see the country as they wanted to. They need five or six weeks and with the Christmas holidays in the middle, it just didn't work. So they went to Vietnam on the recommendation of someone Holly works with.
Good for them -- I really do applaud their traveling inquisitiveness. It's just I can't get over the weird feelings of knowing they're in Vietnam a country America fought with for so long and with so much bloodshed. They're also taking a side trip to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat, a temple from the early 12th Century honoring the Hindu god Vishnu.
I'm just going to be on motherly pins and needles until I know they're back in this country. That's all.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Bring on the comfort
...food. I'm having a crazy week and every night there's something so the days are filled with work stuff, home stuff, exercise stuff and then the evenings are filled one way or another too. So I'm more tired than usual. When I'm tired, that's my trigger for unbridled eating and impulsive snacking. I've been trying hard this week not to indulge but it's tough. I don't have (or didn't) the right foods in the house so that I reached for better snacks. And the open candy dishes offering Hershey's miniatures and special dark kisses were very inviting.
Anyway, yesterday after walking 4.5 miles at the mall with Bridget, I went to the grocery stores. I bought: non fat cheese, rice cheese, a chunk of turkey ham, thin sliced ham, my favorite sourdough multigrain bread, eggs, egg beaters, more ham (better nutrition facts, second store), whole wheat Boboli crust and naan for homemade pizza, pasta sauce and salsa. Pretty much everything geared toward comfort food eating.
I had made vegetarian chili the other night and, to put something meat-like in it, found some old (use by date of 2008) Boca Burgers in the freezer and chunked them into the chili. It tastes good and Johnnie has admitted salivating and thinking about it all day at work, looking forward to having the chili for dinner. For some reason, it's making me gag. I make veggie chili all the time and it's fine. It's something about the Boca Burgers -- maybe it's knowing they're two years beyond their usefulness -- but I can't eat it. When I make chili, I make a complete Dutch oven's worth of it so there were still several servings left last night, which was day three of chili. Ugh.
I figured we'd have pizza last night since I had a ham sandwich at lunchtime to get past my obsession with ham yesterday. Johnnie was very disappointed when I fired up the oven for pizza (usually his #1 favorite food) and really wanted chili. Me? Yeah, not.doing.chili. So we compromised: he had chili and leftover cornbread while I had a ham and cheese sandwich. I tossed on a couple pieces of Romaine lettuce to alleviate my nutritional pangs and get something greenish into my body.
Quite possibly that's our dinner again tonight. Tomorrow night? Pasta - YUM!!!
I'm all about comfort foods when the weather is this lousy. Typically in December, our area collections about four inches of fluffy white stuff on the ground. This year to date (and it's only the 8th), we have more than 24 inches of the crap on the ground. It's coming down every day. Unrelenting. Usually we have periods of this every day a few inches thing in January. So Mother Nature is starting early.
Bring on the comfort foods. I'm gonna need them, apparently for months.
Anyway, yesterday after walking 4.5 miles at the mall with Bridget, I went to the grocery stores. I bought: non fat cheese, rice cheese, a chunk of turkey ham, thin sliced ham, my favorite sourdough multigrain bread, eggs, egg beaters, more ham (better nutrition facts, second store), whole wheat Boboli crust and naan for homemade pizza, pasta sauce and salsa. Pretty much everything geared toward comfort food eating.
I had made vegetarian chili the other night and, to put something meat-like in it, found some old (use by date of 2008) Boca Burgers in the freezer and chunked them into the chili. It tastes good and Johnnie has admitted salivating and thinking about it all day at work, looking forward to having the chili for dinner. For some reason, it's making me gag. I make veggie chili all the time and it's fine. It's something about the Boca Burgers -- maybe it's knowing they're two years beyond their usefulness -- but I can't eat it. When I make chili, I make a complete Dutch oven's worth of it so there were still several servings left last night, which was day three of chili. Ugh.
I figured we'd have pizza last night since I had a ham sandwich at lunchtime to get past my obsession with ham yesterday. Johnnie was very disappointed when I fired up the oven for pizza (usually his #1 favorite food) and really wanted chili. Me? Yeah, not.doing.chili. So we compromised: he had chili and leftover cornbread while I had a ham and cheese sandwich. I tossed on a couple pieces of Romaine lettuce to alleviate my nutritional pangs and get something greenish into my body.
Quite possibly that's our dinner again tonight. Tomorrow night? Pasta - YUM!!!
I'm all about comfort foods when the weather is this lousy. Typically in December, our area collections about four inches of fluffy white stuff on the ground. This year to date (and it's only the 8th), we have more than 24 inches of the crap on the ground. It's coming down every day. Unrelenting. Usually we have periods of this every day a few inches thing in January. So Mother Nature is starting early.
Bring on the comfort foods. I'm gonna need them, apparently for months.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Apples and Water
The last full week before Thanksgiving, Erin and I met at the mall food court one day for lunch. She was jonesing for something from Taco Bell and, while I wasn't especially hungry for much of anything, getting together with her and Lucy was a treat not to be missed.
We went our separate ways to get food: Lucy and me to Burger King to get her macaroni & cheese and apple fries and I got a chicken sandwich. Erin indulged her taste for Taco Bell and we reunited at a table somewhere in the middle. After eating, we were just ambling through the mall and, lo and behold, there was Santa's village all set up and Santa ready to talk with kids.
In the past both Emily and Lucy have screamed bloody murder if we even suggested they go see Santa and (horror of horrors) sit on his lap. So as we're walking closer, we called Lucy's attention to Santa and she waved to him. He waved back. We both tried to stay calm, recalling past experiences.
We said, "Do you want to go see Santa?"
And like a sleepwalker, she walked up to him without any hesitation and sat on his lap. She was still munching on her apple fries so I quickly took them from her hand as he was talking with her. She never took her eyes off him during the whole visit.
Santa asked, "What do you want for Christmas, Lucy?"
Lucy, softly, "Apples."
"What else would you like?" prompted Santa.
"Water," Lucy said decisively.
Hey, it's going to be an easey-peasey Christmas around here, huh?
We went our separate ways to get food: Lucy and me to Burger King to get her macaroni & cheese and apple fries and I got a chicken sandwich. Erin indulged her taste for Taco Bell and we reunited at a table somewhere in the middle. After eating, we were just ambling through the mall and, lo and behold, there was Santa's village all set up and Santa ready to talk with kids.
In the past both Emily and Lucy have screamed bloody murder if we even suggested they go see Santa and (horror of horrors) sit on his lap. So as we're walking closer, we called Lucy's attention to Santa and she waved to him. He waved back. We both tried to stay calm, recalling past experiences.
We said, "Do you want to go see Santa?"
And like a sleepwalker, she walked up to him without any hesitation and sat on his lap. She was still munching on her apple fries so I quickly took them from her hand as he was talking with her. She never took her eyes off him during the whole visit.
Lucy, softly, "Apples."
"What else would you like?" prompted Santa.
"Water," Lucy said decisively.
Hey, it's going to be an easey-peasey Christmas around here, huh?
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Weigh in on the Ws, please!
There's been a bit of a dust up (I never get to use those words in my writing!) lately in the Rochester area over the letter W. No, you haven't stumbled into Sesame Street and the letter of the day.
The issue is that Walgreens has decided to sue Wegmans Food Markets for copying the W from their logo and using it. Walgreens contends that the W is too close to the style used in the Walgreens' logo, it's confusing and that customers may mistake Wegmans for Walgreens.
Seriously? To paraphrase those infamous words from the 1988 vice presidential debate between Senator Lloyd Bentsen and Senator Dan Quayle, "Walgreens, you are no Wegmans!"
Look at these logos, particularly at the Ws and see what you think.
The interesting thing is that Wegmans' logo is a version of the logo used in the 1930s and it has been in use in its current form since 2008. So where has Walgreens been to protest about this for the past two years?
In searching about this online, I found an article at www.consumerist.com that compares the logos above (they deserve photo credit for both images) and then point out the similarities of the two images below: the Walgreens logo and that of the Washington Nationals. Perhaps they should readjust their sights and go after the Nationals rather than Wegmans.
My husband, for one, is incensed at the frivolity of this lawsuit.
What do you think: does Walgreens have a W to stand on here? Please weigh in!
The issue is that Walgreens has decided to sue Wegmans Food Markets for copying the W from their logo and using it. Walgreens contends that the W is too close to the style used in the Walgreens' logo, it's confusing and that customers may mistake Wegmans for Walgreens.
Seriously? To paraphrase those infamous words from the 1988 vice presidential debate between Senator Lloyd Bentsen and Senator Dan Quayle, "Walgreens, you are no Wegmans!"
Look at these logos, particularly at the Ws and see what you think.
In searching about this online, I found an article at www.consumerist.com that compares the logos above (they deserve photo credit for both images) and then point out the similarities of the two images below: the Walgreens logo and that of the Washington Nationals. Perhaps they should readjust their sights and go after the Nationals rather than Wegmans.
What do you think: does Walgreens have a W to stand on here? Please weigh in!
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