Yellow Wallpaper

I have been forcing myself to get more sleep for the past few nights and I'm feeling a lot better. I also realized yesterday why I was in such a bad mood for the few days before that. This kind of thing happens once a month, and has for the last 20 years, so you'd think I'd figure it out by now. We have a copy of this book on the new book display, and every time I look at it I feel a little thrill. That guy's tight pants are sexy! I'm beginning to understand why people sometimes go a little crazy after a relationship ends. It's been nearly a year without any physical affection in my life and I definitely miss it. Not that I'm planning on going out and doing anything stupid, but it is a bit tempting. (And no, I'm not going to read the book. It's probably not as exciting as the cover) On a somewhat related note, one disadvantage of living in a college town is that many of the cute guys around here are a lot younger than me. I don't feel that old, ...

Mr. Fob and I celebrated our anniversary today with a real, live date. I think we should do that more often (well, not quite as expensive as today's, but something where we actually leave the house). I guess I need to be more proactive about making some sort of regular babysitting arrangements. In California we worked out a nice exchange with two other couples and had a regular date night for a while; it was great. Today we went to see the musical Children of Eden at BYU. I'd never heard of it before, but it was written by Stephen Schwartz, who is more famous for Godspell and Wicked . I was pleasantly surprised by the production; the story and music were great and I thought the performers did a fantastic job. The costuming and staging were really cool too; I can see how it could be a big show, but they took a more minimalist approach that worked well. After that we decided to try out our trendiness by eating at Pizzeria 712 here in Orem. I like food quite a bit, but confess ...

Friday night we stayed up really late having one final blow-out party with our good friends Theric and Lady Steed. We were both pretty wasted yesterday, Mr. Fob especially since he needs more sleep to function correctly. But he still deep cleaned the house yesterday, including the bathrooms, the windows, and all the floors. And he's been taking care of the arrangements for utilities for our new house and scavenging dumpsters for boxes to start packing. Plus today I got several complements on S-Boogie's cute hairstyle that I had to deflect back to him and his artistic skills. The reason why we were up so late partying on Friday (not just our impending move) was the release of The Fob Bible , a collection of writings by members of Mr. Fob's writing group. I was impressed looking through the book at the variety of things in there and their quality. I've also been impressed by Mr. Fob's devotion to the craft of writing and the great friendships he's maintained along...

This afternoon I was in Costco heading for the checkout when I rounded a corner and saw a large display of this lotion in front of me. A few years ago my dad brought back some Ahava products for me from Israel when he went on a business trip. I loved them, but after doing some research discovered that they are somewhat expensive and harder to get in the US. So I haven't used it since, but I do occasionally think about how nice it felt and smelled. Costco has a 14 ounce bottle (I think) for only fourteen dollars, which really is a great deal, but it still isn't the best price for lotion. My usual lotion is quite a bit cheaper than that. Plus I just bought a giant bottle of some other lotion at Costco two weeks ago. I haven't opened that lotion yet, so now I'm seriously considering taking it back and spending the money on some luxury for myself. I don't always have to go for the lowest price or the best deal, right?

I know I've done a post like this before , but I thought it was time again to highlight some of my favorite things: 1. Dove clinical strength deodorant I've always had serious sweating issues, but when they recently introduced more powerful deodorant I was reluctant to try it due to cost reasons. Sweating while in Seattle hasn't been too much of a problem for me, but since we've made a move to the desert I decided to spend the money on it. And I can say that for me it really works. Today we spent a few hours out in the sun at a picnic and exploring Wheeler Farm and I still ended up with a wet shirt, but that was the first time this whole trip and the rest of me was incredibly sweaty too. Other than that, it's been great. 2. Natural Cheetos I was also completely skeptical about "natural" chips, and I still think they're a marketing ploy, but these taste delicious. Little Dude is also in love with them. Their flavor is a lot like Pirate Booty, but I like...

I haven't been posting as much because things have been busy getting started teaching again (more on that later). But I wanted to pass along some of my favorite things that I've discovered lately: With some Christmas money (well, gift card) we finally got a laundry sorter . I'm in love with the fact that my laundry room is now organized and we don't have piles of dirty clothes and random baskets hanging around. The other day at Ikea we picked up these bibs and they are perfect for Little Dude. I love the fact that they stay on and they cover up his entire shirt and sleeves. So nice! By the way, if you live close to Ikea and don't have any of their kids' dishes , you really should pick some up. They are cheap and durable. I recently discovered Cinnamon Wheat Thins and they are my new snack of choice. Not too sweet, but just enough to feel like a treat. We also checked out Baby Signing Time from the library and I really like it. I was a little skeptical becaus...

I am about to confess one of the ways in which I am hypocritical, judgemental, and basically a bad person. I'm sorry to disappoint all of you, but I'm not perfect. When I was a small child we did not have a television set at all. Apparently it broke before I was born and my parents never got around to fixing it. When I was about 8 or so, my dad bought a car from an old man who decided to throw in a TV as part of the deal. I remember that one of the first things we watched was some Disney movie of the week about a guide dog for the blind. It made me cry. After that, we had a variety of random old television sets until I was about 13 when we got a real, brand new TV. My parents just replaced it last year with a giant flat screen. I have always said that I'm not a big fan of television and I don't watch it that much. If we had not received one as a wedding gift, I'm not sure when we would have gotten around to getting one. But, since we have one and we have cable, I wi...

Do not buy an economy sized box of 150 diapers without being able to try them first. S-Boogie goes through 3-4 diapers per day, which means we'll be using them up for nearly a month. Unfortunately, Costco only sells their diapers in the enormous box so we took a gamble and lost. I love their baby wipes, but within the last 5 days or so we've had several incidents of leakage from wetness as well as at least one leaky poopy diaper. I'm sticking with Luvs, they make me happy and they don't leak like this. If anyone wants to buy a nearly full box of Kirkland diapers, email me (it's at the bottom of my blog). They're size 5, so for kids over 28 pounds (I think that includes you, Tolkien Boy :))

A few weeks ago I got a coupon in the mail for a Thai restaurant a few blocks away on State Street. It's been pinned to my bulletin board taunting me ever since, so last night I decided that we needed to ignore our budget woes and go out for Thai food. I think it's called Bangkok Grill, and it hasn't been open for a very long time (well, maybe a year). When we first got there, the entire place was empty, which was kind of nice since we had S-Boogie with us. It also meant that our service was fast and we got all our food quickly, another plus. The food, however, was only OK. We wanted chicken satay, but they were out of chicken so we got pork. The meat was so-so, I thought, but the peanut sauce was very tasty. We also got a green curry with beef and some Pad Thai. The curry was fairly good too, but the Pad Thai definitely wasn't my favorite. The amount of fish sauce on it had crossed the line from delightful accent to nauseatingly rotten flavor. We put the rest of our pe...

Wow--this has been a crazy busy week! I spent Monday and Tuesday involved with the whole Jeopardy! thing. Then on Thursday Master Fob got an acceptance letter to the library program at the University of Washington, and on Saturday got rejected from Hawaii, so now we now know for sure where we are moving this fall. And on top of all that, we had a pretty fun and busy weekend. Friday: During the afternoon we went to see Master Fob's sister perform in the Living Legends alumni talent show. We actually had to leave early because S-Boogie desperately needed her nap, but the numbers we saw were fabulous. I think my favorite one was put on by five original members of the "Lamanettes" from the early 1970s. They performed in white fringed pantsuits and danced to a souped up version of "Cherokee Nation." It was awesome. Then Friday night I went down to campus and dropped S-Boogie off at the pow-wow with Master Fob's sisters while I went to the annual Spanish Trivia...

Two posts in one day--my readers must be feeling very special. I just wanted to let you all know that if you haven't tried yoga yet, you really should. I've been trying it off and on over the last few years, and thanks to the lovely prenatal yoga video that I got (thanks TK , by the way), I've discovered how much it helps when you feel yucky. It really does. I also love my prenatal video because it has a segment on pregnancy massage, which I talked Master Fob into watching/practicing with me the other night. It was wonderful. I know what we're going to do for our weekly date for the next 17 weeks or so. You don't have to be pregnant to enjoy yoga, though. I highly recommend this DVD, which really doesn't cost that much money. It's a lot easier to learn from a DVD than a book, and this one has a nice bonus feature that is a quick 15 minute workout that practices many of the things explained in the longer segment of the video. Even if your roommates look at ...

Today we needed to stop by the mall here in Orem in order to pick up some ink cartridges we had filled at Island Ink Jet. We dropped them off last night, but the dude was taking much too long to refill them. So I decided to give in to my cravings for french fries and take S-Boogie to lunch at Chick-fil-A . Many years ago my sister introduced me to Chick-fil-A at the mall in Maryland. I immediately fell in love--they truly have the best chicken nuggets, french fries and lemonade ever made. I know they are a chain restaurant, but they have a very nice business philosophy and refuse to let any of their franchises open on Sundays. And they are giving out small board books with their kids meals. I can support a place like that. Also, this morning for my Don Quijote class we went to Special Collections at the library and looked at the exhibit on Don Quijote and the history of reading . It's pretty cool--and if you are on campus you ought to stop by. They have lots of cool old books on di...

My parents were both in town for the weekend, so we went to the zoo today. I decided to try using S- Boogie's harness, since she doesn't like her stroller much lately and it's hard to see the animals when she's sitting in it. If we take her somewhere without having her strapped in the stroller or into a shopping cart, we tend to have the same conversation about fifty bazillion times: "You can either walk and hold my hand or I will carry you." Which means that she either: (1) holds my hand but lets her legs go limp until I let go because I worry that I pull her arm out of the socket, (2) lets me pick her up but then contorts herself like a rabid octopus, or (3) runs away giggling maniacally. Hence, the leash. When I got it out of the bag and put it on her, I immediately felt very self conscious because I know some people who saw us were probably thinking I was crazy. But, it was actually a very nice set up for both of us. She could run all over the place, and...