It's almost April and it was snowing in Seattle today. It didn't stick but to a few blades of grass, though. I'm sure school children were disappointed but I was relieved. If the snow sticks then I'm stuck at home since we live on a huge hill and it would be foolish of me to try and drive in the snow with a baby in the car when I don't have to be anywhere in particular.
I have been going to the gym 4 days a week and I've been enjoying it. Gasp. It is shocking, I know. Today I set my bike's workout program to Kilimanjaro and put it at level 3 instead of 2. I think they need to rename the Kilimanjaro workout to Mt. St. Helen's (pretty easy since the top was blown off and you can practically drive to the top).
After I do my half hour on the bike I do 150 crunches. I'm going to have to do crunches for a long, long, long time before any muscle is able to be felt through my layers of mommy belly. At least I will know there is muscle under the flabbiness. There wouldn't be so much flabbiness if I would alter my diet a bit.
Oh how I like me some food. Chocolate and anything with cheese. Not together. No chocolate covered cheese sticks, please. A dinner of cheese sticks followed by a Black Forest milkshake from Burgerville would be heavenly. We don't have Burgerville in Seattle. It's a shame but it is really best for me if they aren't within in easy driving distance.
The Tillamook cheese burger, the black forest shake, the Walla Walla Sweet Onion rings are all so, so, delicious and all so, so bad.
I think I'm hungry. This breastfeeding is a double edged sword. It helps you burn calories quickly but it also makes you really hungry. I'm at equilibrium right now. I eat a lot and burn a lot of calories via breastfeeding and the gym.
Oh, I can eat dairy again! Sweet, sweet dairy. Yum, yum, yum.
I am really looking forward to eating vanilla ice cream in Mexico. And guacamole but that hasn't been forbidden - I'm just looking forward to it. That and a mojito and a lime margarita or two. Mas mojito, por favor. Mas guacamole, por favor. Mas ice creamo, por favor. I hope the resort has a gym so I we don't have to buy an extra seat for me on the way home.
Alright. I am going to go forage in the kitchen for something to eat. There's no Tillamook cheese or black forest shake fixins in the house so I may just have an apple.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Bye Bye Swing
Last night was Gavin's last night in the swing. Ryan noticed he was listing in the cradle this morning; he tries to sit up then kind of flops over to the side. I'm afraid he will pitch out of it even though he's strapped in. I was kind of afraid of what this evening held for bedtime since he would have to go down in his pack 'n play - a large flat immobile surface without lights or music. At first he smiled and 'talked' in the pack 'n play and kicked his feet and squirmed from side to side but once we turned out the lights he fussed for a few minutes then he fell right to sleep.
Next we will have to buy a crib but I'm not ready for him to sleep in his room. I really like having him with us in our room. So the pack 'n play will have to work for now.
There was another first tonight. Rice cereal! Woo-hoo! I called his doctor to ask if he could start solids because he quit sleeping through the night. At first I thought he was waking up because of the teething but I don't think that's the case since he wakes up, eats and goes right back to sleep without any fuss. Well, that's not completely true. As I lay him down he lets out one half hearted cry but as soon as his body hit the contoured shape of the swings cradle it was lights out.
So the doc said rice cereal and applesauce, nothing else. I had to run to Rite Aid to buy new nipples for the bottles because we only have the slow flow nipples that certainly wouldn't allow rice through. Oh, I just realized we should have moved up in nipple flow size when he turned three months old. Oops.
When I was standing in the baby aisle staring at the bottle and nipples I realized I didn't know which one to buy and which brand would be compatible with our bottles so I called Crina as Alexandra is a couple of months older than Gavin and she would know which one I should buy. Crina wasn't home. I bought the fast flow bottle with the cross cut instead of hole.
After preparing the bottle with the rice I gave it to Gavin. Man, was he ever squirmy and demanding with the bottle. Sheesh! I've never seen him chew on the nipple like that before. Normally he just guzzles the milk.
A couple of minutes went by before I put the bottle right side up and saw that he hadn't swallowed even a drop. The crosscut nipple didn't wasn't big enough for the rice/milk mixture to go through. Thank God for sippy cups. I went and fished out a sippy cup from the bin of future eating utensils for Gavin and he got his first rice cereal and his first sippy cup on the same night.
Now he just needs to sleep until 7:40 am since he went to bed at 9:40 pm. Please, please, please let him sleep until morning. Please.
Next we will have to buy a crib but I'm not ready for him to sleep in his room. I really like having him with us in our room. So the pack 'n play will have to work for now.
There was another first tonight. Rice cereal! Woo-hoo! I called his doctor to ask if he could start solids because he quit sleeping through the night. At first I thought he was waking up because of the teething but I don't think that's the case since he wakes up, eats and goes right back to sleep without any fuss. Well, that's not completely true. As I lay him down he lets out one half hearted cry but as soon as his body hit the contoured shape of the swings cradle it was lights out.
So the doc said rice cereal and applesauce, nothing else. I had to run to Rite Aid to buy new nipples for the bottles because we only have the slow flow nipples that certainly wouldn't allow rice through. Oh, I just realized we should have moved up in nipple flow size when he turned three months old. Oops.
When I was standing in the baby aisle staring at the bottle and nipples I realized I didn't know which one to buy and which brand would be compatible with our bottles so I called Crina as Alexandra is a couple of months older than Gavin and she would know which one I should buy. Crina wasn't home. I bought the fast flow bottle with the cross cut instead of hole.
After preparing the bottle with the rice I gave it to Gavin. Man, was he ever squirmy and demanding with the bottle. Sheesh! I've never seen him chew on the nipple like that before. Normally he just guzzles the milk.
A couple of minutes went by before I put the bottle right side up and saw that he hadn't swallowed even a drop. The crosscut nipple didn't wasn't big enough for the rice/milk mixture to go through. Thank God for sippy cups. I went and fished out a sippy cup from the bin of future eating utensils for Gavin and he got his first rice cereal and his first sippy cup on the same night.
Now he just needs to sleep until 7:40 am since he went to bed at 9:40 pm. Please, please, please let him sleep until morning. Please.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Scary
Quick story.
Yesterday I was playing with Gavin in his exersaucer. I played with the attached toys with his hands hoping that he would start to play with them on his own because right now he will only play with his Sassy rattles that I put directly in front of him. He is only content to be in the exersaucer for 15 minutes before he melts down.
After showing him how to play with the toys and leaving him with his rattles I took the few remaining minutes I had to go and make myself some lunch.
I washed and sliced a Pink Lady apple (yum) and sliced some Parmesan cheese to go with the apple (double yum) when I heard the sound of one of the attached toys! It was the round clear plastic tumbler with colorful beads in it. Baby spins the tumbler and it makes one heck of a noise.
I was so excited to know that Gavin turned it with his hands all on his own whether or not it was intentional but the sound of the tumbling beads was immediately followed by a scream and cry.
Super Mom flew into action and ran into the living room to see what was the matter.
Nothing was the matter.
The sound of the beads scared the living daylights out of him. It was the saddest, cutest thing you could see. Fat tears were welling up in his big beautiful blue eyes then cascading down his equally fat cheeks. He raised his arms slightly when I came over for me to pick him up. It was so precious.
That's all. It was cute. He made a toy make noise then freaked out because it made noise.
Oh. I almost forgot! Gavin rolled over today. I almost missed it, too. He was laying on the floor squirming like babies do and next thing you know he pushed himself up and was suddenly on his back. I need to go put that in the baby book before I forget.
Yesterday I was playing with Gavin in his exersaucer. I played with the attached toys with his hands hoping that he would start to play with them on his own because right now he will only play with his Sassy rattles that I put directly in front of him. He is only content to be in the exersaucer for 15 minutes before he melts down.
After showing him how to play with the toys and leaving him with his rattles I took the few remaining minutes I had to go and make myself some lunch.
I washed and sliced a Pink Lady apple (yum) and sliced some Parmesan cheese to go with the apple (double yum) when I heard the sound of one of the attached toys! It was the round clear plastic tumbler with colorful beads in it. Baby spins the tumbler and it makes one heck of a noise.
I was so excited to know that Gavin turned it with his hands all on his own whether or not it was intentional but the sound of the tumbling beads was immediately followed by a scream and cry.
Super Mom flew into action and ran into the living room to see what was the matter.
Nothing was the matter.
The sound of the beads scared the living daylights out of him. It was the saddest, cutest thing you could see. Fat tears were welling up in his big beautiful blue eyes then cascading down his equally fat cheeks. He raised his arms slightly when I came over for me to pick him up. It was so precious.
That's all. It was cute. He made a toy make noise then freaked out because it made noise.
Oh. I almost forgot! Gavin rolled over today. I almost missed it, too. He was laying on the floor squirming like babies do and next thing you know he pushed himself up and was suddenly on his back. I need to go put that in the baby book before I forget.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Teeth and Feet
Gavin's teeth, my feet.
Gavin has not one, not two but three teeth coming in! His two bottom teeth and one of his upper front teeth. This is naturally making for a grumpy baby with copious amounts of drool. I thought he drooled a lot before but now it is non-stop. There is a drool spigot that is left on - you could probably wring out his bib.
Despite teething and being grumpy for large parts of the day and waking up every 3 or so hours at night he still manages to give some pretty cute smiles and near laughs throughout the day. We've only heard him give a really good belly laugh a few times. We try to get him on video laughing but the second the camera comes out he quits his cute behavior and stares intently at the camera.
Well, I'll have to continue this later. I hear him waking up. He's going to be a hungry boy...
I'm back.
I had bible study tonight with my girls and we actually did our study, too. This week we were discussing reconciliation from chapter 8 from the study, Revival: ... I don't remember the rest of the title. We talked and talked and talked some more; it is what we do best. I don't know what I would do without my girlfriends to talk to every week. I would explode from the build up of words trying to escape my mouth.
So, to make this post even choppier I'm going to dive right into the foot topic.
I think I posted earlier about my feet. It all started because a friend wanted me and another friend to run a half marathon in September. I pushed the decision on to my friend who hates exercise even more than me. When she actually sounded interested I realized I had to do something, anything and fast.
In all seriousness my feet have bothered me for years. I didn't think there was anything seriously wrong with them other than maybe they had a touch of arthritis or something.
The or something turned out to be bunions. I used to think a bunion was a gross old lady growth like a wart or something. Wrong. It is when your foot changes shape because of a loose joint. The big toe drifts out of place and causes pain at various points on the foot.
Mr. Podiatrist x-rayed my foot and said the bunion is moderate to significant and there are a couple ways of fixing it. Orthotics - think old lady/grandma shoes, steroids for inflammation and injections in the toe of cortisone - something like that, or surgery for a permanent fix.
I'm 31 years old. I will NOT wear orthotics. As is I can't wear heels without great, great pain. If I have surgery I will be able to wear heels out to dinner.
Oh, happy day! And I will be able to walk up a hill without pain.
So I've opted to have the bunion fixed surgically. They take out a joint in the foot and fuse the bone and other joint together and the fix is 95% effective. While they are monkeying around in my foot they are going to repair a torn tendon in my ankle, too.
Here's the catch: the recovery time is 6 weeks. Maybe 8 with the additional repair of the ankle.
Here's the added wrinkle: I have a baby who depends on me.
Another dilemma: I will not be able to put any more weight on the affected side than just to tap the floor with my toes.
'Nother problemo: Stairs. I will not be able to leave the house because I would not be able to carry Gavin in his car seat (or not in his car seat for that matter) down the stairs on crutches.
Solution? Mother-in-law. Maybe. I hope. She doesn't know about any of this yet. I am hoping I can go stay with her for the first 2 weeks after surgery because I will be pretty much bed bound for the first two weeks.
The second two weeks I will be able to get around the house but will still be confined to staying inside as I will be unable to get Gavin in and out of the house.
Silver lining on the cloud: help. I can justify hiring someone to help with household chores for 2 solid months. Woo-hoo!!!
Speaking of hiring help, I am so tempted to hire a professional organizer. I know one person who does it and she would be a dream. It would be so nice to just give everything a place and set up systems so those things would stay in their place. Ryan and I are pretty good about sticking with a system but are not so good at implementing the systems.
This organizing feels like something we need to do before Gavin gets any older and acquires more stuff.
And about stuff, how do we teach him to not value 'stuff' when we ourselves have so much of it? His nanas and grandpas, aunts and uncles and our friends are all going to want to buy him stuff. We don't want more stuff, we don't need more stuff. I was thinking about birthday parties and holidays. Is it too extreme to do no gift birthday parties? Or request that if people insist of a gift that it be a book or clothes or a donation to his college fund or a donation to charity? Grandparents are going to shower him with toys that it will be overkill for everyone else to do the same.
Argh. We will be so unpopular. Oh, well.
Gavin has not one, not two but three teeth coming in! His two bottom teeth and one of his upper front teeth. This is naturally making for a grumpy baby with copious amounts of drool. I thought he drooled a lot before but now it is non-stop. There is a drool spigot that is left on - you could probably wring out his bib.
Despite teething and being grumpy for large parts of the day and waking up every 3 or so hours at night he still manages to give some pretty cute smiles and near laughs throughout the day. We've only heard him give a really good belly laugh a few times. We try to get him on video laughing but the second the camera comes out he quits his cute behavior and stares intently at the camera.
Well, I'll have to continue this later. I hear him waking up. He's going to be a hungry boy...
I'm back.
I had bible study tonight with my girls and we actually did our study, too. This week we were discussing reconciliation from chapter 8 from the study, Revival: ... I don't remember the rest of the title. We talked and talked and talked some more; it is what we do best. I don't know what I would do without my girlfriends to talk to every week. I would explode from the build up of words trying to escape my mouth.
So, to make this post even choppier I'm going to dive right into the foot topic.
I think I posted earlier about my feet. It all started because a friend wanted me and another friend to run a half marathon in September. I pushed the decision on to my friend who hates exercise even more than me. When she actually sounded interested I realized I had to do something, anything and fast.
In all seriousness my feet have bothered me for years. I didn't think there was anything seriously wrong with them other than maybe they had a touch of arthritis or something.
The or something turned out to be bunions. I used to think a bunion was a gross old lady growth like a wart or something. Wrong. It is when your foot changes shape because of a loose joint. The big toe drifts out of place and causes pain at various points on the foot.
Mr. Podiatrist x-rayed my foot and said the bunion is moderate to significant and there are a couple ways of fixing it. Orthotics - think old lady/grandma shoes, steroids for inflammation and injections in the toe of cortisone - something like that, or surgery for a permanent fix.
I'm 31 years old. I will NOT wear orthotics. As is I can't wear heels without great, great pain. If I have surgery I will be able to wear heels out to dinner.
Oh, happy day! And I will be able to walk up a hill without pain.
So I've opted to have the bunion fixed surgically. They take out a joint in the foot and fuse the bone and other joint together and the fix is 95% effective. While they are monkeying around in my foot they are going to repair a torn tendon in my ankle, too.
Here's the catch: the recovery time is 6 weeks. Maybe 8 with the additional repair of the ankle.
Here's the added wrinkle: I have a baby who depends on me.
Another dilemma: I will not be able to put any more weight on the affected side than just to tap the floor with my toes.
'Nother problemo: Stairs. I will not be able to leave the house because I would not be able to carry Gavin in his car seat (or not in his car seat for that matter) down the stairs on crutches.
Solution? Mother-in-law. Maybe. I hope. She doesn't know about any of this yet. I am hoping I can go stay with her for the first 2 weeks after surgery because I will be pretty much bed bound for the first two weeks.
The second two weeks I will be able to get around the house but will still be confined to staying inside as I will be unable to get Gavin in and out of the house.
Silver lining on the cloud: help. I can justify hiring someone to help with household chores for 2 solid months. Woo-hoo!!!
Speaking of hiring help, I am so tempted to hire a professional organizer. I know one person who does it and she would be a dream. It would be so nice to just give everything a place and set up systems so those things would stay in their place. Ryan and I are pretty good about sticking with a system but are not so good at implementing the systems.
This organizing feels like something we need to do before Gavin gets any older and acquires more stuff.
And about stuff, how do we teach him to not value 'stuff' when we ourselves have so much of it? His nanas and grandpas, aunts and uncles and our friends are all going to want to buy him stuff. We don't want more stuff, we don't need more stuff. I was thinking about birthday parties and holidays. Is it too extreme to do no gift birthday parties? Or request that if people insist of a gift that it be a book or clothes or a donation to his college fund or a donation to charity? Grandparents are going to shower him with toys that it will be overkill for everyone else to do the same.
Argh. We will be so unpopular. Oh, well.
Friday, March 07, 2008
Erupting
It's not big enough to take a picture of otherwise I would but... Gavin's first tooth is popping up! Woo-hoo. I only knew it was there because I felt it when he was chewing on my finger. It is his bottom right little tooth. He's only 4.5 months so it is a little on the early side for him to be sprouting teeth but it's going to be so cute!
This new addition to his gum line is probably the reason he quit sleeping through the night. Poor little guy - it hurts. I remember how uncomfortable it was when my wisdom teeth tried to push their way up through my gums (I say tried because as soon as they started I went and had them pulled). I didn't find the process painful; everyone told me it was going to be super painful. Of course I did have vicodin to take for the pain which I did take the first day and a half; after that I realized I was taking it pre-emptively and maybe I should stop and see if I actually needed it. Nope. It wasn't so bad.
I sure was loopy, though with the sedatives. I remember the nurse asking me to count to 10 as she gave me the medicine. I think I made it to 3 before everything went black. After what felt like the best rest of my life a strange woman (the nurse) was looming over me all fuzzy like telling me to wake up. Through my slitted eyes I saw her and my mom, also very fuzzy looking and my friend Matt. I didn't care who was in the room. I wanted to go back to sleep. So I just shut my eyes again but that darn nurse wanted me to leave!
At this point I knew I was heavily sedated and wanted to know if there was an elevator we could take down to the parking lot since I knew there was no way I would be able to make it down the stairs that I used to come up to the office earlier in the morning.
I clearly asked the nurse, "Is there an elevator?" What everyone around me heard was, "Ish air vadr?" I could not understand the bland looks I was getting from everyone because I was articulating my words so very clearly. Realizing they were all dense and couldn't understand the spoken word I took to sign language and spelled out elevator - no one knew sign language so I can't confirm I actually spelled the words correctly or not.
Realizing they didn't know ASL (I only know the ABC's) I started gesturing with my hands to show doors opening and closing. I guess Matt figured out what I was asking and told me that we were going to fly down to the parking lot. I don't recall if I glared at him or not.
Getting outside was a blur but the next thing I remember is facing a seemingly insurmountable obstacle: the curb. Standing tall at 8 feet, or so it felt, the curb looked really, really far down there. My mom and Matt each took a side so I could step down. Whew. That was scary.
When we got home mom fed me my pain pills with some milkshake. My face was numb, almost as numb as my brain. I couldn't manage the spoon so mom put the pill on top of the ice cream on the spoon and put it in my mouth. Then she did something that I find HILARIOUS!
When I drooled some of the ice cream on my chin she scooped it up with the next spoonful of ice cream and put it in my mouth. I guess I will always be her baby.
Speaking of mom, she and dad are coming up tomorrow for a brief visit. I am excited to see them and really excited that they can hold Gavin and entertain him so I can fold the 4 baskets, hamper and dryer full of clean clothes. Good times.
This new addition to his gum line is probably the reason he quit sleeping through the night. Poor little guy - it hurts. I remember how uncomfortable it was when my wisdom teeth tried to push their way up through my gums (I say tried because as soon as they started I went and had them pulled). I didn't find the process painful; everyone told me it was going to be super painful. Of course I did have vicodin to take for the pain which I did take the first day and a half; after that I realized I was taking it pre-emptively and maybe I should stop and see if I actually needed it. Nope. It wasn't so bad.
I sure was loopy, though with the sedatives. I remember the nurse asking me to count to 10 as she gave me the medicine. I think I made it to 3 before everything went black. After what felt like the best rest of my life a strange woman (the nurse) was looming over me all fuzzy like telling me to wake up. Through my slitted eyes I saw her and my mom, also very fuzzy looking and my friend Matt. I didn't care who was in the room. I wanted to go back to sleep. So I just shut my eyes again but that darn nurse wanted me to leave!
At this point I knew I was heavily sedated and wanted to know if there was an elevator we could take down to the parking lot since I knew there was no way I would be able to make it down the stairs that I used to come up to the office earlier in the morning.
I clearly asked the nurse, "Is there an elevator?" What everyone around me heard was, "Ish air vadr?" I could not understand the bland looks I was getting from everyone because I was articulating my words so very clearly. Realizing they were all dense and couldn't understand the spoken word I took to sign language and spelled out elevator - no one knew sign language so I can't confirm I actually spelled the words correctly or not.
Realizing they didn't know ASL (I only know the ABC's) I started gesturing with my hands to show doors opening and closing. I guess Matt figured out what I was asking and told me that we were going to fly down to the parking lot. I don't recall if I glared at him or not.
Getting outside was a blur but the next thing I remember is facing a seemingly insurmountable obstacle: the curb. Standing tall at 8 feet, or so it felt, the curb looked really, really far down there. My mom and Matt each took a side so I could step down. Whew. That was scary.
When we got home mom fed me my pain pills with some milkshake. My face was numb, almost as numb as my brain. I couldn't manage the spoon so mom put the pill on top of the ice cream on the spoon and put it in my mouth. Then she did something that I find HILARIOUS!
When I drooled some of the ice cream on my chin she scooped it up with the next spoonful of ice cream and put it in my mouth. I guess I will always be her baby.
Speaking of mom, she and dad are coming up tomorrow for a brief visit. I am excited to see them and really excited that they can hold Gavin and entertain him so I can fold the 4 baskets, hamper and dryer full of clean clothes. Good times.
Monday, March 03, 2008
Found
Gavin 'found his voice' a couple of weeks ago. He started babbling and sputtering. It melts my heart. Within the last few days Gavin found that in addition to making sounds he can regulate the volume with which he expresses himself verbally. It pierces my ears.
Ladies and Gentlemen, we have here a screamer. Screaming is a fun activity that can tell Mom and Dad, "I'm having a blast!" or, "Wow! My hands are fun to suck on!" or, "Wow! I have a cute Buddha belly!". Screaming also indicates, "I'm hungry." "Didn't I tell you I was hungry two seconds ago? Feed me! Feed me NOW." "I'm tired and not happy about it!"
He and Ryan are sleeping right now; I should go to bed now before it gets too late since Gavin has taken to not sleeping through the night again. It's no where near as bad as it was before we had our two weeks of 10 hours of sleep from the tyke. Now he 'only' wakes up somewhere between 2:30 and 4:30 and then again between 6:30 and 7:00. Fortunately he still likes to go back to sleep after eating but he does like to scream really, really loud before he succumbs to the sandman. I had no idea babies scream so much. It is insane!
By the way, a couple of weeks ago I posted about what I thought was a grammatically incorrect question on a Barnes and Noble book display that read, "Whom would you have coffee with?" I asked my friend Tyler who is a technical writer if that statement/question was indeed wrong. It is not incorrect although he did say grammar snobs (my words) would not choose to word it that way. So I'm a grammar snob who is very guilty of poor grammar herself. Would that make me a grammatical hypocrite or guilty of grammar hypocrisy?
Sunday, March 02, 2008
Saturday, March 01, 2008
Broken
My TiVo remote is broken. Ryan disagrees. He thinks it needs new batteries and I think he's wrong. The remote worked fine for well over a year on one set of batteries that we changed out last month when the remote started acting up. Here it is one month later and the remote only works at random which kind of sucks when you try fast-forwarding through commercials and it just keeps fast forwarding long after you hit the play button. Of course I don't just press the play button once or twice I jab it over and over with my thumb each time with a little more force. After many attempts the next logical step is to hold the remote at a different angle, then stand up and move closer to the TiVo box.
Nothing worked.
I just wanted to veg and watch a little TV before I went to bed. I could watch TV live but I don't want to watch just any show that is playing, besides what is playing on a Saturday night that is any good? My real beef is that I would have to endure commercials. Lame-o.
Hm, I'm feeling a tad grumpy so I think I will take this time to vent about some stuff that in the grand scheme of things are really not that important.
A person who buys a TiVo, or any brand of DVR, usually does so because they want to skip commercials. They don't care about the products being pushed. Of course ad agencies and the companies selling their products get concerned that they are spending big bucks to promote their product during a TV show that we would otherwise die without and we the viewer/consumer are just going to see the commercial in a blur as we fast forward past it.
What is their solution? To put advertisements in the TV show folders (kind of like on your computer - if you watch "Lost" and have more than one episode recorded it will have a folder labeled "Lost" and when you go into the folder each episode is labeled and at the end of the list of the episodes will be a star and an invitation to view a cool new product).
TiVo is not a free service. We pay for it. We pay to not watch commercials. Then TiVo, while charging us for its service to have this great technology where we can skip commercials, allows advertisers to sneak their propaganda in anyway. Sure, we don't have to open the advertisement but it is still annoying - like pop up ads on the Internet.
So, if you happen to watch a commercial that is advertising another show you will often see a green thumbs up picture in the corner of the screen that says, "Push (thumbs up picture) to record". Nothing will make that thumbs up picture go away, not even pushing the thumbs down button.
Then, the last in my little list of rants, is the ever irksome pop ups that spring to life at the bottom, or top or side of your screen while you are watching a show. We all encounter the pop ups. I hate the pop ups. They are distracting and if they are big enough they can obscure subtitles at the bottom of the screen.
See, none of the annoyances are life shattering.
Ryan needs to fix the smoke detector in the downstairs bedroom. It keeps chirping. It may need new batteries but I don't know where the batteries are. Besides, I'm afraid if I try to put in new batteries I will set the alarm off and wake up Gavin. I'll just have to live with the incessant chirping until I go to bed and hopefully the sound of the fan will drown out the sound.
Know what else is annoying? Animal fur. Seriously. Do they have to shed so much fur all the time?
We have two cats, Gwen and Bob. Gwen is a beautiful white cat; a beautiful fat white cat with long fur. Bob, Gwen's sister, is a tortoise shell calico with even longer fur than Gwen. Then we have Kea, the yellow lab. She deposits lots and lots of short yellow fur and the fur from her soft white fuzzy undercoat.
I sweep the floors every couple of days and collect enough fur to knit a small sweater. OK, I've never knit a sweater, small or otherwise, but it looks like it would be a sufficient amount. Heaven forbid I neglect to sweep midweek for if that happens we have tumbleweeds of fur floating about the house. It is too much.
One day our pets will die; hopefully not all on one day - that would be very, very sad. We figure Kea will go when Gavin is between 7 and 10 years old and the cats will be a few years behind the dog although Gwen is such a lard bucket that she could go when ever. Anyway, after the pets die and teach Gavin about life and death, he and his siblings will eventually want more pets. They can have more pets but they can not have a long haired cat! They can not have a dog that sheds!
I'm very tempted to shave the cats. Very. Our local PetCo doesn't do cat grooming so I need to find someone who does and take the cats in for a good trimming. I don't want to make them bald. OK, I want to make them bald, save their head and tail, but I won't go all the way to skin. We won't bic the cats.
I just heard a car door; Ryan must be home. He is not going to like the state of the TiVo remote since he is going to want to watch TV after a grueling game of soccer.
Turns out he is also annoyed by the smoke detector. Also a little annoyed at me since I didn't do anything to the smoke detector and that I didn't try new batteries in the remote.
Eh.
Nothing worked.
I just wanted to veg and watch a little TV before I went to bed. I could watch TV live but I don't want to watch just any show that is playing, besides what is playing on a Saturday night that is any good? My real beef is that I would have to endure commercials. Lame-o.
Hm, I'm feeling a tad grumpy so I think I will take this time to vent about some stuff that in the grand scheme of things are really not that important.
A person who buys a TiVo, or any brand of DVR, usually does so because they want to skip commercials. They don't care about the products being pushed. Of course ad agencies and the companies selling their products get concerned that they are spending big bucks to promote their product during a TV show that we would otherwise die without and we the viewer/consumer are just going to see the commercial in a blur as we fast forward past it.
What is their solution? To put advertisements in the TV show folders (kind of like on your computer - if you watch "Lost" and have more than one episode recorded it will have a folder labeled "Lost" and when you go into the folder each episode is labeled and at the end of the list of the episodes will be a star and an invitation to view a cool new product).
TiVo is not a free service. We pay for it. We pay to not watch commercials. Then TiVo, while charging us for its service to have this great technology where we can skip commercials, allows advertisers to sneak their propaganda in anyway. Sure, we don't have to open the advertisement but it is still annoying - like pop up ads on the Internet.
So, if you happen to watch a commercial that is advertising another show you will often see a green thumbs up picture in the corner of the screen that says, "Push (thumbs up picture) to record". Nothing will make that thumbs up picture go away, not even pushing the thumbs down button.
Then, the last in my little list of rants, is the ever irksome pop ups that spring to life at the bottom, or top or side of your screen while you are watching a show. We all encounter the pop ups. I hate the pop ups. They are distracting and if they are big enough they can obscure subtitles at the bottom of the screen.
See, none of the annoyances are life shattering.
Ryan needs to fix the smoke detector in the downstairs bedroom. It keeps chirping. It may need new batteries but I don't know where the batteries are. Besides, I'm afraid if I try to put in new batteries I will set the alarm off and wake up Gavin. I'll just have to live with the incessant chirping until I go to bed and hopefully the sound of the fan will drown out the sound.
Know what else is annoying? Animal fur. Seriously. Do they have to shed so much fur all the time?
We have two cats, Gwen and Bob. Gwen is a beautiful white cat; a beautiful fat white cat with long fur. Bob, Gwen's sister, is a tortoise shell calico with even longer fur than Gwen. Then we have Kea, the yellow lab. She deposits lots and lots of short yellow fur and the fur from her soft white fuzzy undercoat.
I sweep the floors every couple of days and collect enough fur to knit a small sweater. OK, I've never knit a sweater, small or otherwise, but it looks like it would be a sufficient amount. Heaven forbid I neglect to sweep midweek for if that happens we have tumbleweeds of fur floating about the house. It is too much.
One day our pets will die; hopefully not all on one day - that would be very, very sad. We figure Kea will go when Gavin is between 7 and 10 years old and the cats will be a few years behind the dog although Gwen is such a lard bucket that she could go when ever. Anyway, after the pets die and teach Gavin about life and death, he and his siblings will eventually want more pets. They can have more pets but they can not have a long haired cat! They can not have a dog that sheds!
I'm very tempted to shave the cats. Very. Our local PetCo doesn't do cat grooming so I need to find someone who does and take the cats in for a good trimming. I don't want to make them bald. OK, I want to make them bald, save their head and tail, but I won't go all the way to skin. We won't bic the cats.
I just heard a car door; Ryan must be home. He is not going to like the state of the TiVo remote since he is going to want to watch TV after a grueling game of soccer.
Turns out he is also annoyed by the smoke detector. Also a little annoyed at me since I didn't do anything to the smoke detector and that I didn't try new batteries in the remote.
Eh.
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