Daily Archives: April 10, 2009

Three Small Words

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This meme In Three Words is published on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, but for this week at least I’m planning to answer all three at once, if only because Karen did. Respond to the pictures below using just three words.

1. The very first impression you had when you met


originally uploaded by katiebate.

My answer: “Good, he’s smart.”

2. What brings out the kid in you?


a frivolous moment, originally uploaded by jenny downing.

My answer: jumping in waves

3. If you could tell him one thing

obama31

My answer: Make us proud.

Your turn.

Aloha Friday: Fashion Statements

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It’s time for another Aloha Friday, the day that you take it easy and look forward to the weekend, in Hawaii and blog land anyway. As you should know by now, over at An Island Life, Kailani decided that on Fridays she would take it easy on posting and ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response.

If you’d like to participate, just post your own question on your blog and leave your link at An Island Life’s blog. Don’t forget to visit the other participants! It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends!

The kiddo got a lot of new clothes for his birthday, which was awesome because he’s starting to outgrow things and we’re still all poor and wouldn’t have done anything about it otherwise. MM loves getting new clothes (maybe not initially along with all the other toy presents) but he really does enjoy picking out his outfits for the day, sometimes in an attempt to get a rise out of me, other times just to exert some form of control. He’s at that fiercely independent stage where he wants a say in what he eats, what color dishes he eats them on, and how he eats it. Likewise with clothes – “No, not that shirt, I want to wear….” For the most part I encourage this – as long as it’s weather appropriate and we aren’t going anywhere special (like church or a family party) I pretty much give him free reign or I’ll give him an option of three or four things and let him pick one. His father encourages this independent behavior even more than I do, which is why lately he’s been coming out of the bedroom looking like this:

Love the top, love the shorts – they are right now probably his favorite two pieces of clothing so together it was like a power suit I’m guessing. I’m proud of his ability to match plaid fabrics, but really? I let it slide until we left the house to go.. somewhere… I can’t even remember and then I blamed the weather and made him change his pants. To be fair, it was pretty cold out.

Anyway, Aloha Friday questions for this week are:

  1. What is your favorite article of clothing or outfit?
  2. What fashion “mistake” to you most cringe at, looking back?
  3. What style do you secretly hope comes back into fashion?
  4. What style do you wish would go OUT of fashion right now?
  5. Would you rock MM’s look (seen above) out in public or allow your children to?

Movie Review: Bedtime Stories

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I have mixed feelings about this new movie starring Adam Sandler. While Bedtime Stories is certainly a family friendly movie (rated PG) it was not exactly what I thought it would be. Yes, it’s a movie about bedtime stories coming true – but not in the fantastical sense that the previews might lead you to believe – for the most part, there seem to be perfectly rational explanations for a lot of things – nothing just pops out of thin air in a magical way – it’s more like the stories become premonitions for Sandler’s character’s real life.

Sandler plays Skeeter  Bronson, whose father built and ran into the ground the hotel he now works in – as a janitor. It had always been his father’s dream for his family to inherit the hotel, but when he proved to be a not so great business man, he ended up selling the hotel to a man who promised to give his son a job running the hotel someday. And then of course, he didn’t quite keep his promise. But with the help of Skeeter’s adorable niece and nephew, a bug eyed guinea pig, and some imaginative bedtime stories, things start to change – and in true family movie fashion, he manages to turn his life around.

I think the only thing that bothered me about this movie is that, despite being funny, Skeeter’s character isn’t terribly likable. He is pretty rude and, well, crude. Don’t worry about inappropriate material – that’s not really an issue – it was just a little disappointing this his character was never really admirable. I guess you could say he was an underdog, but I couldn’t help but feel like he often deserved his underdog status. And even by the end of the movie when he “turns his life around” and learns the lessons that make him a better person – it isn’t really as rewarding as it could have been – he just sort of pulls things together and comes out okay – he gets the girl, but you can’t help feeling sorry for her for that.

I don’t know – I think I’m being overly critical – Sandler certainly has his style of humor and he excels at it – and the movie was good – I laughed all the way through it – it was really just the mom in me who said, “But wait – ” at the end. Your kids will probably love the silly antics – and you grown ups should enjoy it, too. Netflix deems it appropriate for kids ages 7+ and I think I’d agree with that.

I give Bedtime Stories 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Weekend Diversions: A Comical Edition

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So, Friday is here and I have to confess that I found nothing new to divert your attentions with – nothing. To be fair, I’ve kind of had an off week – I didn’t devote very much time to just blog surfing – I haven’t been a good commenting buddy. It’s kind of no wonder – so the diversion pool is a bit light this week and tide us over until next week, which I’m hoping will be more diversional, I’ve decided to round up my top 3 comic strips – a perfect anecdote to weekend boredom. I loved reading the comics in the paper on Sunday mornings when we lived with Dan’s parents and had the newspaper delivered every day (we’re too poor for such luxuries) and there are a couple comics I read religiously here online. So I’ll show you mine and then you have to show me yours, kay?

I’m going to warn you – these are not the comic strips you might expect a girly little mom like me to adore – but I do promise they are good stuff:

Sluggy Freelance - If your “type” leans towards the tall, dark and geeky – or if you are that tall, dark and geeky guy – then Sluggy Freelance is for you – this comic tells the story of two typically nerdy guys and the girls who love to hate them (but mostly just love them) – oh and their talking pet ferret and slightly evil talking pet rabbit – with some sci-fi action stories and some fun current event parodies thrown in. Sometimes this turns into guy humor, or you’ll have a few weeks of “action movie” type plot – but Pete, the mastermind behind Sluggy is a comic genius and this is probably my favorite comic strip. He posts (almost) daily with the occasional filler strips, but if you are new to Sluggy, I recommend starting at the beginning – because you might be lost if you try hopping in mid-strip. The best part about following my advice? This comic started in 1997 so if you do go back through the archives, you will have lots of divertive goodness, likely for weeks to come. It’s been my experience that you can catch up on all things sluggy in about two weeks. Here’s an example of one of my favorite Sluggy moments:


XKCD – Did I mention I’m a geek lover? I’m a bit of a nerd myself and this comic might show my true nerd colors for sure. I’ll freely admit this might be over your head, you might not get it – sometimes I don’t get it either but man some of these strips are just genius, especially his romantic stuff, makes me all teary eyed – and usually I can find the comics funny even if I don’t get the smart people stuff – also XKCD started my love affair with hover captions – which means when you are reading these gems, you’ll want to hover over for added humor on each strip. Here’s an example of a good strip I think anyone can love:


Baby Blues – I’m guessing you’ve heard of this one. I wish I could subscribe to this in my blog reader and get the new stuff, but copyright, blah blah blah… I love them anyway, but I’ll admit I don’t follow it religiously because of all that corporate hoopla. You can read the two weeks old and older comics here. I’m guessing you guys already know about the genius that is Baby Blues, but I couldn’t leave them out of my top 3 because, well, they are in my top 3.

What are your top 3 favorite comic strips?