All that's missing is a turkey leg and cup of mead

Well, it was a pretty typical Friday. Play time this morning, new samba musical instruments purchased, short-lived nap to frustrate me, a crying fit because she wanted to go to bed, and oh yeah, Jon and Emily are now among the walking exhausted, i.e., new parents. Their baby boy, Benjamin, was born early this morning, and they're all doing well! Emily rocks, and I'll tell you why: she texted me when she went into labor and had received her epidural ... and, she answered the phone this morning when I called to congratulate her voicemail, fully expecting to get the message service, but instead was greeted by, "Hey you. How's it going?" All I could say was, "You are a frickin' rock star! I don't think I talked to anyone on the phone for days after I had Sydney!" I'm excited to call her back in a few days, once they're all home, to chat about it in more and better detail.
But allow me a moment to brag about my own kid (in a rare post focused on the center of my days). First of all, this afternoon, when I asked her, "Where's Sydney's mommy?" she smiled and ran over to me, gave me a tight hug and poked me in the chest. Also, when asked later who Sydney's daddy was, she ran over to Brian and gave him a big hug, too. And I wasn't kidding about the samba musical instruments. The best part (and evidence that she is brilliant and just choosing not to speak quite yet), was after we played with the instruments for a while, I loaded the samba CD that came with them so we could hear some musical accompaniment. My child, I will have you know, when hearing any one of the instruments on the CD, would pick up the corresponding instrument and play it, too. I sat there, literally, fascinated to watch her listening so closely, judging the instruments in front of her, and then picking up the castanets when the castanets where being played and the maracas when the maracas were being played. Frickin' amazing. Watching the development of her brain in her actions is the most fascinating thing I've ever seen.

Rare Marilyn Monroe photo

Isn't this one of the best pictures you've ever seen of Marilyn Monroe? I'll admit to not being much of a fan, but I can appreciate natural beauty when I see it. And the more natural shots of Marilyn have always been the best, I think. This one is recently re-discovered, and taken from silent film images from her final movie, I don't remember what the title was. I like the subtle grace of it, don't you?

I watched P.S. I Love You last night. It was really good, but I was not planning on crying throughout the entire second half of the movie! And my goodness, who doesn't fall terribly in love with Gerard Butler after having seen it? No one in this house, that's for sure! Katy really liked the book, and had suggested I read it, but I think I won't, since usually, for me, reading the book after the movie sullies the movie's impact. I wouldn't want my thoughts of the movie to be ruined because of the book's (inevitable) differences and the like. I feel the same way about watching a movie after having read the book too, so don't think it's a one-way thing for me. In most cases, it's book or movie, either one or the other.

A dry, arid landscape ... kinda like here

I love that the United States is again being represented on Mars. That's awesome, by the way. However, I've been so consumed with a couple different movies in my mind lately, that every time the new little machine on Mars is mentioned, I can only think that: a.) I hope it's got water, food and oxygen for the first manned mission, via Red Planet; and b.) the government had better let us know if a Decepticon shows up in any of that footage, as one does in Transformers. Other than that, I imagine it's all good on the fourth rock from the sun, and I'm intrigued by what they will learn from this mission.
Just so you know though, I still just want to go into space, not so much Mars or anything, but definitely just into space. Actual space, too, not one of those anti-gravity planes. I want a ride in the space shuttle. Mars is too much adventure ... even for me.

It's not you, it's me

It's not that I'm interested in breaking up with any friends as of now, it's just that the article I just finished reading on USAToday, com is a really well-written, candid and frank approach to ending a friendship. Seriously, read it here. It's a fresh look at how to best end a friendship, whether it's you doing the breaking up, or you being the recipient of the break. I like how, still, the best way to end a friendship is to just stop communicating with the person. But still, it makes me wonder about a few people that I've lost touch with, and how, more times than not, it's a mutual case of ending the communication. Some people, of course, I would love to hear from again. But others, well, it's okay that they're no longer in my e-mail addresses. It's weird how, when you sit and think about it, you can probably see in your head the demise of most of the good (and not-so-good) friendships you've had. It's totally true how every friendship is as much a relationship of the heart as every boyfriend/girlfriend. In a lot of cases, you see these people every day, or less often but still regularly, and then, for whatever reason, they're no longer in your life. It would be really sad if we all weren't better people for every experience we've had with them. Wow, this became all philosophical and disjointed without too much time spent on it, didn't it? Anyway, I thought it was a refreshing and good article tackling a subject we've all had to deal with in our lives.

Now I've got eight friends

Dude, I just spent an hour messing around with my Facebook page, only to decide that I like it fine the way it is and that I don't need any of those fancy applications and stuff. So that's an hour lost of my life, and all I have to show for it is a sore knee because I've been sitting awkwardly on the bed and a back pain because I've been leaning over a laptop staring unblinking at the screen ... oh yeah, and my eyes hurt because I haven't blinked much. Anyway, as far as pages go, I think mine is pretty simple and basic, but that's the beauty of it. I think I'll add a photo album pretty soon, viewable only by my friends though, because I don't like the idea of pictures of my kid on the Internets for the world to see. I'm protective like that.

Facebook applications I've filled out, added, then deleted:
Places I've Been
100 Things
Send Cupcakes
U2 Lyrics
Moods

Notice my flip-flop tan is returning, too

You see those toes there to the left? Those are freshly groomed, freshly scrubbed and loofahed, and freshly polished toes ... the toes of a happy and content person this evening. Yes, we were ridiculously disappointed by our babysitter, who contracted some kind of stomach illness Friday night and therefore canceled on us all weekend. We soldiered on. Yesterday, when faced with spending time with a baby we were very much looking forward to spending the day without, we instead ventured out to North Scottsdale for a day of outdoor shopping and lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. Today, we wandered around Tempe and tried out Kabuki.
But my highlight of the day, quite obviously, was my pedicure. Of course, I had to wait until Sydney was napping and Brian was sure that she wouldn't need anything outside of her crib until I got home, but still, stopping at Starbucks and then enjoying a perfectly lovely pedicure was a fantastic way of spending my afternoon. I can say, in all honesty, that this is the first real "me" thing that I've done for at least a month ... maybe even six weeks. It's a really well-done pedicure, too. I hope it lasts a long time ... or at least the two weeks until I go back.

These rain drops is numbered

So we're having what they've been calling a "severe weather" situation. Yes, in Arizona, it's severe weather. In Boston, it's called a rain storm. But whatever the reasoning and exaggeration, we are loving the actual weather that's going on today ... and it's supposed to be continuing tomorrow. I'm hoping that it keeps up through the weekend, but I'm pretty sure that flight of fancy will be dashed sometime on Saturday. But as it stands right now, I'm wearing a sweatshirt, sitting on my bed with a curled up dog, and a chilly breeze is flowing through the sliding door. My kid's cozy in bed in some long pajamas, and my husband is cooling on the sofa in a t-shirt and boxers because this could be the last time he's cold in months because "this place is like hell."

I've had some journalism/grammar issues lately with the world, and I've just got to spout off about them in the only forum where I can do such a thing. So, in the movie, Chaos, I ran into a crazy brick wall at the very beginning, which killed the entire premise as being decent at all. It's random, but the opening credits roll over newspaper clippings of an event and the subsequent consequences of the event. The headlines of these pieces ... were totally off. The capitalization was completely and absolutely wrong, and the entire time they flashed across the screen I could do nothing but correct those problems in my head. It made me angry. Would it have killed the movie guys to have an actual journalist or editor look at these "clippings" before they created them for the screen? Huh? Would it? Lazy, is all I can say.
Also, you know those new t-shirts at Gap? Those fancy, artist-rendered shirts? Here's the promotional text: In celebration of the Whitney [Museum of American Art] Biennial, Gap has collaborated with visionary artists to create a collection of limited edition t-shirts. What's bugging me about this? The t-shirt designed by Rirkrit Tiravanija is a bold piece of plain white with one statement commanding the whole shirt: "The days of this society is numbered." Okay, kids, since when does being a visionary artist mean you can just fly in the face of proper grammar and say, hey you, I'm going to say this wrong ... and I'm going to put it on a t-shirt in a hugely popular store! It's so painful, and every time I walk past a Gap window, my head hurts. The Gap web site wouldn't let me copy the image, or I would be making you all look at it, too.

I'm almost giggly over it

Color me excited, my dears, as it looks like Brian and I may get out without the kid and actually go see a movie this weekend! And, given the opportunity, what movie would you all go see? I know what we're going to check out! You bet, the new Indiana Jones movie! I've always been a huge fan of the franchise, and am so excited to see this one! There are so many cool things going on, by the looks of the preview trailers, that it sure does look like it will rock! Of course, there are the killjoy movie reviewers out there who are already saying it's not that good, but whatever. I dig Indy and all his adventures. I'm all over this movie!

Kristi rocks the house!

Actually, as I blog this, I'm watching the last 20 minutes of Dancing with the Stars. Right now, they're showing the Jason Taylor and Edyta Sliwinska montage. We'll get to the results when they happen.
But before that, I'll tell you that this cold is kicking my ass. I would say that I'm feeling better tonight because I really should be after three full days of sickness, but I'm really not. My nose is still stuffy, my head's still foggy, and the cough is even worse. On the bright side though, I just took a yummy dosage of Tylenol Multi-Symptom Cold and Cough Nighttime. As I read through the "Drug Facts," I was happy to see the phrase, "May cause marked drowsiness." Now that is what I need tonight! For whatever reason, the NyQuil hasn't been doing it for me and I've had a rough time sleeping. And not just me. Apparently, I was a "noisy sleeper" last night. To that, I say, Whatever. He's a noisy sleeper every night.

Rock on! Kristi's won Dancing with the Stars! This may have restored my faith in the voters, especially after last season's Helio/Mel B. debacle. And happiness begins again in September, when this insanely ridiculous, spangly spectacular, and fantastically fabulous show is back!

It's a two-hour finale tomorrow night

It's 8:10 p.m., and I'm standing in the living room doorway. Brian glances over, then returns to his SportsCenter, but says peripherally, "You're loitering. Your show must be over."
I say, with an air of melancholy, "Yes ... it is. I'm about to get my vote on."
And that, my friends, is the beginning of the last voting process I'll take part in until the next season of Dancing with the Stars, or, you know, the first Tuesday of this-coming November.
After an, I'll say it, lackluster Finals show, I've done my voting for who I think should be the next champion of DWTS. I haven't changed my mind, you know. I hope it's Kristi. I think that both Jason and Cristian had an incredible challenge put forth to them by the ice skater, and unfortunately, they just couldn't keep up. Cristian showed some weakness in tonight's contest, and sadly, all that was due to the one-armed dancing that has been so awesome the last few weeks. And Jason, well, Jason just doesn't belong there. He's said it himself, as recently as last week, and I don't think he really has the desire to win it all. I actually feel bad for Cheryl and Edyta. Both pros definitely deserve to be in the Finals. It's just such a crapshoot as to what celebrities they're going to get. I think both got a lot farther with their star then they thought the would. And for that, they all rock.

My DWTS voting (5 votes allowed):
Kristi Yamaguchi ~ 5 votes. It's cutthroat time, people. Vote for who you want to win it, and don't hold back. It's all or nothing, and Kristi got my all.
Cristian de la Fuente, Jason Taylor ~ 0 votes. They got my nothing.

I break from my tradition of only posting DWTS photos on Tuesdays in an effort to increase the good mojo for Kristi. If I put up both Jason and Cristian's photos tonight, that will leave only one more photo to be posted tomorrow. That would be Kristi's. And that would be after she's secured the win.

Ah, yes, the desert

So not only do I have a cold (why, oh why did the goddesses decide that I needed a cold this week?), but it's also getting to the weather when we all sit around and say, "Why the hell do we live here?" I hear that it got to 107 degrees yesterday, and should be about the same today. I think it may cool down to, I don't know, 100 or 99 degrees in a couple more days. I'm so over this already. This summer is just going to suck right out loud. And it hasn't even officially started yet.
Of course, as Brian said when I mumbled, "I hate it here," this morning, "You actually really only hate being sick. That's what's making the heat worse. But don't misunderstand, I hate it here, too." And that's truly what the issue is, too. I just really hate being sick. And being at not-100 percent when dealing with an 18-month-old ball of energy is even more tiring.

Seven books in four months

Ugh. It's late. I should be in bed right now.
Anyway, I was talking to Katy the other night about the end of television season, and how much I was going to miss having that daily drain on my brain. I told her that I didn't know what I was going to do with myself. And then she said something fantastic: "You could read, you know. Don't you have a big pile of books to read?" She was almost like a weird, Captain Obvious thunderbolt in my head. I thought, and admitted, "Hell yeah. I got a ton of stuff to read!" And so now it will be in writing. You see that list of books over there to the left? The one that hasn't changed, by addition or subtraction, in several months? Well, I pledge that it is now my "Summer Reading List," and that I will finish at least half of them before I am allowed to buy any new books, and that by the end of the summer, they will all be finished.
Wow! How's that for an ambitious goal?
I know that I can read that much in such a time period, but it's been a long time since I've done it. And I certainly haven't done it since a special little person entered my life a year or so ago. It's amazing how much of a self control-motivated challenge this will be for me. Can I make myself read every night, as I would watch television? Can I soldier through the books that have clearly been collecting dust on my bookshelf when there are new tomes out there just aching to be purchased? Ack! Can I peacefully resolve this conflict in my book-addled mind?

Still, there are 10 more in the kitchen

I stopped by a new cupcake shop today. It's called Sprinkles, and is located here in Scottsdale. [Editor's note: This photo is not of a Sprinkles cake or any other shop mentioned in this post.] Well, since we were trying the place out for the first time, I picked up a nice assortment of the cupcakes they had on sale ... carefully avoiding those that contained banana. Seriously, a cupcake with banana in it. Who would ruin a perfectly wonderful cupcake by putting banana in it? Some freak in the back of a Sprinkles shop, apparently. Anyway, I got a couple dark chocolate, some red velvet, a vanilla, a cinnamon sugar, a black and white, some lemon and a mocha. So far, I've only tried the dark chocolate.
I'll tell you it was okay, but truthfully, these fancy cupcake shops just don't do it for me. I mean, I like walking in and seeing all the little fantastics laid out in a case just waiting for me to take them home, but when it comes down to actual enjoyment of the little cakes, none of them beat the easy, cheaper, basic cupcakes found at any grocery store bakery counter. I'm serious, they just taste better. The frosting is yummier, the cake is better and the whole experience is just far superior. So I think I'll tip my hat to the cheap and easy, no-frills cupcakes at Albertson's and Vons, thank you very much. Sure, Sprinkles, Cupcakes and Lulu's Cupcakes are all really special, but at the end of a day chasing a kid, all I really want is a tasty treat I can shove into my mouth and feast on with all the joy of an 8-year-old, you know?

Free to marry who they want

Can you see how the world is beginning to right itself in anticipation for a new president? First, the Red Sox win two World Series championships, then the seventh Harry Potter book was published. Following that, the polar bears are finally listed as threatened. And now, today, comes the monumental overturning of the gay marriage ban in California! Huzzah!
It's ridiculous that such a thing was ever banned in the first place. Here's the scoop, via AP:
In a monumental victory for the gay rights movement, the California Supreme Court overturned a voter-approved ban on gay marriage Thursday in a ruling that would allow same-sex couples in the nation's biggest state to tie the knot.
Domestic partnerships are not a good enough substitute for marriage, the justices ruled 4-3 in striking down the ban. Outside the courthouse, gay marriage supporters cried and cheered as the news spread.
"Today the California Supreme Court took a giant leap to ensure that everybody — not just in the state of California, but throughout the country — will have equal treatment under the law," said City Attorney Dennis Herrera, who argued the case for San Francisco.
But still, there are the killjoys out there. Seriously, who does it really hurt for people to be happy, in love and married? Why are those against it so determined to keep a segment of our population discriminated against? What good does it do those people to keep other people from doing what they want and marrying whom the want? Wait ... is this about God again?
A coalition of religious and social conservative groups is attempting to put a measure on the November ballot that would enshrine laws banning gay marriage in the state constitution.
The Secretary of State is expected to rule by the end of June whether the sponsors gathered enough signatures to qualify the marriage amendment, similar to ones enacted in 26 other states. If voters pass the measure in November, it would trump the court's decision.
And in a rare show of, I don't know, let's call it "smarts," we have this:
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has twice vetoed legislation that would've granted marriage rights to same-sex couples, said in a news release that he respected the court's decision and "will not support an amendment to the constitution that would overturn this state Supreme Court ruling."
Jeez, people, just let people be.

He finished in just over three hours

Okay, I wasn't going to post this photo, because it's not of Mom finishing the mini-marathon, but then I decided, "You know, I'm super proud of my big brother for finishing the race, too!" So here he is, my friends, my brother, Jeff, finishing the mini-marathon last weekend!
Again, I can't express how bummed I am that there's no picture of Mom or Lizzie crossing the finish line. But they did it, too, and I can only imagine that they looked a lot like how Jeff did, but you know, more like themselves.
Yay Jeff!