"Will that be paper or plastic, Ma'am?" "Uhh..."

For my last poll I asked you "Paper or Plastic?", and I also added the reusable bag/tote option which has become so popular. Here are the results:

Paper--3 votes

Plastic--8 votes

Reusable container--1

Whenever I shop at Hy-Vee Grocery I get asked the question, "Is plastic alright?" And you know what? For me it's NOT alright. I am a paper person. Yes, plastic bags have handles, and admittedly I will carry 10+ bags on my arms so that I only have to make one trip from the vehicle to the house whereas you can only carry 2 bags of groceries MAX with paper bags. But I still would rather have paper bags. I use them inside my garbage bag in the trash can to provide an extra layer of protection. But more and more places don't offer paper bags anymore. Whenever you shop at Walmart or Target you only have the plastic option. I like having the choice.

Speaking of Walmart, have you ever noticed how flimsy their plastic bags are? They almost ALWAYS rip, and there is usually a hole in the bottom. I use my plastic bags as garbage bags in my smaller trash cans in the house, so having a hole in the bottom is a huge inconvenience. I have to examine every bag before I use it to make sure it doesn't have a hole. Also, the associates put like only 4 items in each bag, so you end up with 25 plastic bags for one shopping trip.

I also use cardboard totes and cloth bags, when I remember them. That's the difficult part about those reusable containers:  you have to remember to bring them with you to the store. And my uncle reported at our Christmas gathering that people usually don't wash their cloth bags, and thus the bags are getting full of bacteria. And then you put your fruit and veggies in them and...well...you get the picture. So if you use reusable bags make sure you wash them from time to time.

Time for a new poll!

They've become quite the fans.

As I've previously mentioned David and I are watching Star Trek: The Original Series. But what I didn't say is that shortly after we grownups began watching the show Paige and Emma became interested in it as well. At first Paige didn't understand that Spock's name wasn't "Spark" as she thought. And both girls ask a lot of questions which highlight how little they actually understand of what is going on. "What is Spock's last name?" "Well, what's his first name?" "What is Kirk's name?" "Where are they?" You get the picture.

But despite those drawbacks we've all enjoyed watching the show as a family. The girls like it so much that Saturday morning P&E decided they were going to play "Star Trek". Paige was Spock and Emma was Kirk. Paige had me put blue eye shadow on her lids, both girls wore the correct colored shirts, and they made phasers out of pipe cleaners. They also added their own shirt emblems. I thought they did a great job.

Here are their "models":

And now for the girls' representations:

I told them to make serious faces. ☺ Emma had an actual Star Trek pin on her shirt (it belonged to David in his youth), but Paige had to get creative with hers. A Pontiac emblem substitutes nicely, don't you think?

Even two year-olds like Pandora...

...provided you make them a Blue's Clues station. ☺ Abby saw one of her big sisters listening to Pandora Radio during school, and as soon as her sister took off those headphones Abby jumped at the opportunity to try them out for herself. So I created a radio station of children's music for Abby, and she sat in the brown chair and listened for 15 minutes--which is almost an eternity in toddler years. ;-)

"Phasers set to stun."

Captain's Log. Stardate 64513.1

This past year David and I embarked upon an adventure; an adventure in television and film. We vowed to watch every Star Trek movie made and watch them in order. It took about three weeks for us to get through all eleven movies, and afterwards we found ourselves wanting more Star Trek. We decided then and there to watch all the television series as well, and once again we figured we'd best watch them in the order they aired.

After a little searching on Netflix we discovered that The Original Series (the first series) was available on DVD. So for the past few months we've navigated through almost the entire first season. Along the way we've uncovered some universal truths regarding the show:

1. Almost every episode includes a trip down to a planet. Why? Because where else can the extras die so conveniently?
2. Red shirt = death. Unless your name is Uhura.
3. Every planet has a number in it's name. Apparently the future suffers from a lack of originality, and with a great name like "Omicron Ceti" you don't want to waste that on just one planet; you better use that on at least three.
4. Spock will pronounce that something is "fascinating". This is so that we, the viewers, know that he has solved the mystery in his mind.
5. The female crew's uniforms invite inter-ship romance. The ladies wear dresses, and the dresses are so short that the women are forced to wear bloomers underneath. No female above the age of 2 ought to be wearing a dress with bloomers.
6. Despite the immodest attire there is surprisingly little romance amongst the crew. If there is romance between crew members it won't last. In one episode two crew members were going to get married, and 10 minutes into the show the man died!
7. That pretty blond wearing the dress that has no sides to it? You can be assured that she's Kirk's love interest for that episode. Most of the female extras are scantily clad. Even if they aren't important characters they'll be wearing 1/2 a dress and full makeup. Did this show cater to men or what? I know I often prepare dinner wearing pin curls and with smoky eyes. ;-)
8. If Kirk gets into a scuffle he'll rip his shirt. The Federation probably had to employ an ensign simply to darn Kirk's clothing.
9. The stunt doubles don't look like the actors they are replacing. And the director didn't seem to mind if the audience could see the obvious change.
10. All the information you need is on a 3x2" cartridge. Want to read the ship's log? Here:  take this red rectangle.
11. The stardates don't make sense. One episode it's stardate 3025.3, and the next episode is #2124.5. Scotty must have kept the Delorean down in engineering.
12. Every episode features a recap/reflection time around Kirk's captain's chair. You can be assured that Bones and Spock will be there, standing around Kirk while he reposes, and their banter will include a reference to Spock's robot-like persona.

Is it "illogical" to love this show?! I think not! ☺

Abby's 2nd birthday

On Sunday, December 12 Abigail celebrated 2 years of life. We were to have a birthday party for her on Saturday with my parents and David's parents, but unfortunately God predetermined for southern Minnesota to experience a massive blizzard that day. Instead we tried for Sunday. Well, the roads were still nasty so no party that day either.

But being as it WAS her birthday, and church was cancelled due to the storm, we decided to gather with David's parents at their place and have cake and ice cream and open gifts. Admittedly it was difficult to even get out of our driveway. Perseverance!

Since Abby LOVES babies I ordered her a baby cake.



 She of course was thrilled with the baby on her cake.

 Name one child who DOESN'T prematurely sample their cake? ;-)

 Abby with her new purse from Gram-gram. Abby has to make sure that she has the wallet with her purse at all times.

 David and I gave Abby a baby. She sleeps with it every night.

 ~
A few days later, once the roads were back to winter "normal" I took the girls to my mom's place. There Abby opened gifts from my mom and step-dad.

 Mom gave Abby a Pillow Pet.

Abby also received a figurine of a girl holding a number 2. Abby likes holding the little girl and inspecting her.

~~

I know every parent says this, but it really is amazing how quickly children grow up. They advance from being little stoic lumps to crawling and then running and talking in such a short span of time. And when they begin to speak they have such cute little voices. (Except when you have to listen to them shout "NO!" for about the 37th time that day...) Pretty soon they're telling you stories and asking you to paint their faces "like a chipmunk".

Speaking of which, I have to go draw a chameleon on Paige's face. ☺ Toodles!

Tea time [poll results]

This past year David decided that he was going to begin drinking tea. Somewhere online he read that green tea is very good for your body. So instead of consuming 2 cups of cappuccino each night, which is full of sugar, he was going to drink tea. He jumped into his plan, and so far has been committed to it. At first he stuck with one or two flavors, but being adventuresome by nature he quickly branched out into imbibing many varieties. Now he drinks a lot of tea each night; it's not unusual for him to have 5 cups. We even had to clear out cabinet space in the kitchen so we could have our own tea cupboard to house all our boxes of tea.

Of course with David's new found love of tea he wanted me to join him. I was to give up cappuccino along with him and join the tea bandwagon. I was not thrilled about this prospect. I had previously tried iced tea, and I did not enjoy it. But being the excessively supportive wife that I am (shameless plug for myself ☺) I decided to give tea a try. I tried several flavors, and I soon discovered that I somewhat like tea. I liked it enough that I was drinking it every night right alongside David. But after awhile I realized that I was craving cappuccino. No matter how much stevia or sugar you dump into your tea cup it simply cannot rival the smooth goodness of French vanilla cappuccino. I have quit drinking tea. :-|

This scenario is what made me think of my last poll. According to the results most of voters drink tea in some form: either hot or cold. A couple of you don't, and I can certainly understand why. Tea seems to be like coffee in that it's an acquired taste.

My next poll is one that I feel I might be recycling. But since I cannot remember which polls I've used besides the one from last time I am using it again...possibly. ☺

Thoughts on Austen

Since the girls and I were off of school this past week I found myself with ample reading time. So I read not 1 but 2 Jane Austen novels. Admittedly I've read them before, but after reading a few books I haven't read previously I like to read at least one story that I really enjoy. Thus I read Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility.

While reading any 19th century novel one can't help but notice all the archaic words or the formal way in which people spoke. For example: if you are experiencing something that has caused you to react in a positive way you would probably say, "This is great!" or something to that affect. But surely the words, "Is there a felicity in the world superior to this?!" would not exit your lips. And while reading these novels I begin to implement their manner of discourse [did you like my synonym for "conversation" ☺?]. My diction and grammar dramatically improved over this past week. I found myself sending texts like this: "I hope you had an enjoyable night." instead of simply writing, "Did u have fun?" I think I even was able to formulate an entire sentence without using the word, "yeah" or my other variant "so...yeah". ;-)

Reading Pride & Prejudice made me yearn to watch the movie again. Now, if you're a P&P fan you probably have an opinion upon which movie version is better: 1995 or 2005. I like the 2005 version myself, mainly because of the music. And I also like how the producers depicted Longbourne as more of a farm. Oh, and also because I don't own the '95 version. ☺ No matter your favorite they are both equally enjoyable. [Oh! There. I used "enjoyable" again.] David watched with me, and we still laughed at the dialogue despite this being something like our 5th viewing of the movie. David commented though, "You really have to pay attention to what they're saying because they talk so differently." I then informed him that the '05 version features dumbed-down dialogue.

Yesterday morning I finished Sense and Sensibility, and now I will have to watch that movie as well. I don't know about you, but when I read a book that I've seen a movie version for I always visualize scenes from the book the way they are shown in the movie. So I could see Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson having their famous "You're not married." scene in Barton Cottage. And I saw Kate Winslet tripping on the downs and Greg Wise coming to her rescue. I think I will watch it today!

I first read one of Jane's books (S&S) 15 years ago and instantly I fell in love with her. I know that she and her novels have become somewhat of a fad lately. The bookstore has hundreds of spin-off novels; I own a few myself. But in another 15 years my "approbation" of her will still be as high as it is now, and if Jane were alive today I feel assured that we would find one another "truly amiable".

Thoughts on Chutes and Ladders

Whoever created the game Chutes and Ladders did not have children.

Things started out innocently enough. "Mom? After dinner can we play Chutes and Ladders?" Emma asked. I answered, "Yes". Emma brought up the game and set it up. I stated, "I bet this game will last at least a half an hour." If you've ever played Chutes and Ladders you know why I said that. You think you're doing well because you've landed on the big ladder and climbed up towards the top of the board. But then on your next turn you end up sliding back down to level three. Thus the game starts to rival Monopoly in length.

Anyway, I was wrong. The game lasted 5 minutes. This was because I somehow managed to avoid every slide, even the dreaded top row. Emma was dejected. As soon as I got near the top she said, "You're going to win [said with a frown]," Afterwards I asked her if she wanted to play again. She said she did so we started a new game. Well this time Emma was destined to hit every slide on the board. I didn't think her frown could get any worse, but I was wrong again. It didn't take long for me to win once more. Emma's enthusiasm to play completely fizzled.

Now if you have children and you also own this game you're probably thinking to yourself, "That's happened to us SO many times!" or something to that affect. Because it's very true; this game is incredibly depressing, especially for children. The box says "An Exciting Up and Down Game for Little People!" It ought to say "A Game to Teach Your Children the Joys of Losing!" What were the developers thinking when they created all those slides? Something like this: "Oh! I have the PERFECT idea for a kids' game! Let's make a game where the kid thinks they're about to win, but then we'll make it so that they have to basically start all over again from the beginning. We'll then let them THINK they're going to have a chance at winning, but instead we'll keep squishing their hopes of a victory like it's a detestable bug. Oh man! They'll love it!!"

I think Chutes and Ladders will be going back on our basement game shelf to collect dust again for quite some time.