On movie theaters and a movie-themed Friday Five

About a month ago our church decided to pull up its roots and move to another venue, with the notion of expanding. The idea on the whole is both scary and exciting, and all-around rather positive... except for the current venue. A movie theater. While at first glance that may sound really cool, and while it IS kinda cool for special, once-in-a-while occasions, it's really not all that it's cracked up to be for regular, weekly use. The one we rent every Sunday morning is really poorly suited for something like a Sunday service. It's too dark, it's too difficult to move in and out of your seats (because there is no center aisle), the floors are sticky and nasty, and it just feels plain awkward to be looking down on the stage at the pastor. And the more I go, the more strongly I feel that a theater, especially this one, is not a really ideal venue for church, especially not longer-term.

The upside is that it's close to our home, and the kids really love having Sunday school in a theater, so Todd enjoys it more than usual. That keeps me going (otherwise, I'd just stay home and listen to the sermon mp3s once they're posted on the website).

... and then I came across this post in LiveJournal's customers_suck community, and am even more convinced than ever that I *really, really* don't want to attend church in a theater... or even see a movie in it!

http://community.livejournal.com/customers_suck/28167874.html

Egad!

And if you're not too grossed out, here's a long-missed Friday Five to cap off the week of daily (weekday, anyway) posting-- woo hoo! Let's see if the trend holds ;-)

1. What’s your favorite sports movie?
2. What’s your favorite romantic comedy film?
3. What’s your favorite animated Disney movie?
4. What’s your favorite non-Disney movie musical?
5. What’s your favorite stranger-in-a-strange-land / fish-out-of-water movie?


1. Considering I don't have much interest in sports, period, I can't really think of any sports movies I've actually *watched*! I did see "Remember the Titans" on TV a couple times, and that was pretty good. Or, if cheerleading counts, then "Bring it On" is definitely one of my faves :-)

2. So hard to choose a favorite, but among my most-loved are the Meg Ryan romance comedies-- "When Harry met Sally", "Sleepless in Seattle" and "You've Got Mail". I'd have to pick "You've Got Mail" as my number one. I adore the characters, it really romanticizes New York City, and has an awesome soundtrack!

3. Oh this one is easy-- "Wall-E"! :-) I think I've watched it well over a dozen times just in this past one-month span :-D I'm thoroughly enchanted by M-O, the little cleaner bot.

4. Ugh. I can't stand sports, but I abhor musicals even more. I absolutely hate having the movie interrupted by a bunch of silly singing and dancing. Like that ever happens in real life. Just get on with the damn plot, already! I want to know what happens! Funny that the question asks for "non-Disney" musicals, because just about the only musical-type movie I can remotely stand ARE the Disney movies, and even then I don't find the interruptions any less annoying.

5. I'm not really sure what type of movie that is supposed to describe. But one of my number one all-time favorite movies is "The Negotiator", and I suppose it kind of fits the bill, with the negotiator assuming the role of the hostage taker in a daring effort to clear his name. Does that count? :-)

How about you?

The Great Inconsistent Sizing Conspiracy

Men have it easy. They don't succumb to female hormones. They don't deal with monthly visitors. They can pee standing up! And they can buy clothes (be it online or in a store) without having to try them on.

Unless it was for a pretty standard, no-frills piece of clothing like a plain T-shirt or sweatshirt, I dare not buy clothes online, where I do not have a chance to try them out. Allan, on the other hand, has it easy. He can buy pants because they are sized by waist and inseam, and he knows his measurements. He can buy shirts based on neck size and sleeve length. If those standard sizes don't fit, more often it's because of a change in his own physique, not because of a particular manufacturer.

Not so with women's clothing. It boggles the mind how widely and inconsistently women's sizing varies from one manufacturer to another. I can run the gamut from Small to Large, from size 4P to size 10, depending on the item of clothing and on the manufacturer. One company's size X is another company's size Y, which prevents me from ever giving a blanket answer to the question: "what size are you?" The answer is, quite honestly: "it depends". It's a tiny bit easier to estimate sizing when it's in terms of actual numbers instead of S/M/L/XL, but not much. And some brands even use ODD-numbered sizing instead of even (like Bongo jeans), giving me yet another range of numbers to keep track of :-/

Some clothing lines even accommodate differing stature among women, which is great because pants are a source of frustration for me: they either fit well but are too short, or are the right length but too loose. But even then, their versions of "tall" are inconsistent. Some are longer than others. I found this out when I ordered a pair of "tall" jeans from JCPenney, only to find them bunching around my feet, whereas the "tall" sizes in Bongo and Gloria Vanderbilt are a perfect fit.

This is true even of bras! You would figure that since bras are sized almost like men's clothing (by chest girth and cup size), it should be fairly consistent. Nope. Among varying brands I've also run the gamut from a 32 to a 38. And of course, cup sizes are never consistent because they hinge on the chest size. A 32A is not the same as a 38A (that is, assuming the latter can even be found!) There's another point: why do bra manufacturers assume that larger chest girth = larger cup size!?!? Not every flat-chested girl is a waif. Not to mention the fact that most women are asymmetrical and may need two different cup sizes at once! But that's for another rant... oh wait, I already did: http://blogs.grab.com/hellykwee/380443

So, what IS the deal with this vast inconsistency in sizing women's clothes? Is it just a conspiracy to get women to come into the stores to try on new clothes, thereby enticing them into purchasing more when they actually see it in the stores? Kinda like the impulse-purchase reason behind all the candy stocked at the checkout counters.

It is annoying, to say the least. I envy Allan's ability to pick up a shirt or pair of jeans, examine the label and then throw it into his shopping cart. No wrestling out of his clothes and shoes in a dinky little dressing room. Sigh... it's not penis envy, it's clothing-shopping envy! ;-P

It's all relative

Wasn't it Einstein who coined this anecdote to describe relativity: "Sit on a hot stove for a minute and it feels like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour and it feels like a minute"?

We're certainly feeling it now! For a 1-bedroom apartment, 750 square feet is nothing to sneeze at. But no matter what kind of unit, a 750-square-foot living space really isn't all that large, especially for a family of three.

Still, it took moving out and then dragging all the little things out of the apartment, plus cleaning up every nook and cranny (including stuff we don't normally touch during our weekly cleaning!) to make the place seem very, very large indeed. There seems to be a vast array of items to clear out of shelves, closets and cabinets. And the cleaning seems endless.

Nothing quite like clearing out a place completely and scrubbing it from top to bottom, to make it feel so spacious and vast and... endless.

Just a few more days, and it'll all be over, then we can relax... until it comes time to move out of and clean our new, 1000+ square-foot apartment in the distant future-- eep! Really makes me rethink the idea of getting a 2000-square-foot home, when we can barely handle living spaces half that size! ;-P

Wardrobe staples

Today's post comes from Plinky.com, a great source of little ideas for posting whenever I feel like writing but can't think of what to write. They're not always deep, thought-provoking questions, but even a short post keeps the writing juices flowing, right?

And the Plinky question I've picked for today is:
Share your wardrobe staples.

Well, anyone that knows me knows that I'm not really much for fashion. I wear what is comfortable and looks nice on me. If I'm going to fuss about something, it's going to be my hair... and even then, only because it's so unwieldy and difficult to manage.

Jeans are always good. In different colors: blue, black, brown... they are comfortable, wear well, and (the darker colors especially) can be matched with just about any top: t-shirt, polo shirt, sweater, business casual blouse; or any shoe: boots, sneakers, flip-flops, high-heels.

Another staple is a good, warm vest. They are such a nice way to keep warm without having to deal with the bulk of a jacket or sweater. Now... if only I could convince my son of the same thing! :-P

One staple I've recently discovered is a skirt. I picked up a nice black skirt over the summer to wear at Old Spanish Days Fiesta. And while it fits the "Old Spanish" theme nicely, it is also generic enough for me to wear every day, not just during Fiesta. The material is a nice, thin cotton that breathes really well and stays surprisingly cool in the summer, yet keeps me fairly warm in cooler weather. I've never been much for wearing skirts before, but this little piece is really turning me on to wearing it more often! :-)

And finally, I always have to have a nice comfy pair of sweatpants to wear around the house. Jeans may be comfy enough for wearing to the office all day long, but not comfy enough to lounge around the house in.

With this cold weather descending on us, and the new apartment staying as cold as it does, I'll have to soon add "Snuggie" to my list of essentials. Wait-- does that actually count as part of my "wardrobe"? Hmm, considering that I'll probably be using ("wearing"?) it frequently, maybe it does ;-) Time to go shopping this weekend!

How about you? What are your essentials?

Internetless weekend of moving and other things

Despite being internetless all weekend (we won't get hooked up at our new place till Wednesday), I surprisingly haven't undergone too many withdrawal symptoms. I was too busy this past weekend enjoying the new place and reading quietly.

Ah yes, the new place. Saturday morning the movers arrived to haul the furniture and other heavy stuff from our old apartment (including the computer) to the new one. We spent the rest of the day arranging it and putting other little stuff away. And we got to spend our very first night in our new place!

First observation: it gets COLD in there. Whereas our old apartment usually stayed at a comfortable 78 degrees and never dipped below 70 unless you left the windows wide open all night on a winter night, this new place barely got *above* 70... during the day. When we woke up on Sunday morning, it was a shivering 61 degrees, and every window and door had been shut tight all day! The good news is that come summer, it'll be nice and cool. Unfortunately, Santa Barbara gets more cold days than it does scorching hot days, so our gas bill is certainly going up :-/

As I said, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I didn't really miss not being able to get online. I was either too busy to worry about it, or found myself enjoying being able to relax on a real couch (not a futon!) for the first time since Allan and I have been together, and just reading quietly while Allan watched DVDs on his laptop in the other room. Bliss!

Sunday was a lost day, as we were in church in the morning and then off to a baby shower in the afternoon. 3 of the couples in our small group are expecting babies within a month of each other, starting in January. Today was the first baby shower. Having just had Todd over 5 years ago, I knew that practical items would be the most useful when the baby actually arrives. So our presents were the most boring, unglamorous of them all: packages of onesies, a pack of diapers, and a basket of bath items. More than that, I remember the one thing I really appreciated about my sister-in-law's baby gifts: she had thought ahead and gotten us *bigger* clothes. Figuring that the expecting couple would be lavished with all sorts of newborn outfits, I made sure the onesies and the diapers were larger, so they'd have something onhand when the baby outgrew them.

Of course, with my usual unimaginative self, I got all 3 couples the exact same thing. Now that the first shower is done with, I guess the next two couples won't be surprised when they see my present :-/

It's funny how people react when they learn that your friends and peers are having babies. This led to a lot of queries to the other couples in our small group who do not yet have children: When are you going to have kids? One of them even received a box of his old children's books from his mother-- a hint? ;-) And although Allan and I already have a kid, we aren't spared from the questioning, either. It's just that the question is slightly modified: When are you having a *second* kid? ;-)

Back to the grind. We still have stuff to move out of our old apartment-- mostly bathroom stuff, kitchen stuff, and miscellany stuffed into the closet throughout the year. Then there is the cleaning of the place-- gotta make sure it's in tip-top shape before we turn over the keys by Friday! I can't wait for next weekend-- we can sleep in and do NOTHING, now that we don't have to worry about hauling stuff and cleaning :-) That's the kind of weekend I like!

Resolutions

So, Tabitha is starting a bucket list of her own-- the fad in question happens to be "101 things to accomplish in 1001 days". Much too ambitious for me-- by the time I could come up with 101 things to do, I'd be halfway through my 1001 days ;-P

But I have decided that there is one thing that I would like to start getting in the habit of doing (and no, it's not blogging more often-- I think I've beaten that one to death, and hey-- so far, not so bad. Not quite everyday, but maybe I'll get there. And even a constant few times per week isn't too awful, is it?)

Go to bed earlier.

I hear my fellow internet-addicts laughing out there.

Now, the thing is-- I normally don't go to bed till around midnight. And that means getting settled INTO bed at midnight, reading a book for a little while and then conking out, usually at 1:00am. The main reason for this is Todd. It's a twofold reason:

1. He isn't dry at night yet. So he wears diapers to bed. But he urinates enough during the night that he'd fill up a regular diaper to overflowing if left on for the entire 10 hours he's in bed. So, about 1/3 of the way through the night I have to change him. Since I typically put him to bed around 8:30pm, this means changing him around midnight. You get the drift-- change him any earlier than that and it does no good, as the diaper is still fairly empty, and whatever I put on him will be the one to overflow.

2. Todd never gets enough to drink at school, and this is compounded by the fact that he's away from us from 8am to 5pm everyday. By evening he is clearly dehydrated. So the only times we can really make sure he gets enough to drink is in the evening. Well, if he goes to bed by 8pm, that really only leaves 2-3 hours within which to pump him full of his daily allotment of liquids. Which, going back to #1, means a fuller diaper at night because we can't always get him to drink it all early enough before bedtime that he would be able to let it all out in the toilet before going to bed.

Anyway... it makes it really hard to go to bed much earlier than midnight.

But now Todd is starting to get by on less sleep, so I can put him to bed an hour later than I usually do. This helps us regulate his "catch-up" drinking in the now-longer evening. Plus, I normally wake up about 3-4 hours after falling asleep, anyway. I shuffle to the bathroom, get a drink of water, and check on the boy, who has usually kicked off his covers by then. Now this "midnight shuffle", as I call it, can coincide with the time I normally have to change Todd's diaper. Which means I can get to bed earlier.

Nothing drastic, mind you. I'd be happy with going to bed just one hour earlier, say, by 11pm, and winding down with a book and falling asleep just around midnight. That's a whole extra hour of sleep, and that can make all the difference in the world!

So... let this be my "1 for the rest of my life" little drop in the bucket list-- to get to bed early each night.

It's 10pm now. Most of the evening chores are done. I can even relax a little, provided I pry myself away from the computer ASAP! Let's see if I can keep up this trend! And let's see how that translates to my overall health and productivity during the day! :-)

Moving, part 2

Okay, so my attempt at writing more frequently isn't off to a good start, but this time I have a good excuse-- my computer is sitting on the floor, and that isn't very ergonomically correct. Why is it on the floor? Because this weekend we took apart the desk that it normally sits on and took it to the new apartment.

Hard to believe that it was only a summer ago that we first moved from our cramped, 400-sq-ft 1-bedroom apartment in family student housing (which was built in the 1950s) to the spacious, modern, 750-sq-ft 1-bedroom apartment (built in 2003) near work. I blogged about it here not long after we moved in. It was exciting to be able to stretch out in our new place and have room to move about it, especially in the kitchen!

Since then, Todd grew and we added a twin bed to the bedroom, moving the queen bed closer to the wall to make room for it. Other than that, the original layout has changed little.

After a while, though, things started feeling cramped again, and after resigning ourselves to waiting a while longer so we could save up more money after our toe-dipping into the house-buying pond, we decided we might as well stretch out a little more and upgrade to a 2-bedroom in the same complex. We ended up scoring a really nice deal on a unit that's in the building right next to ours. According to Allan, the front doors are only 100 steps apart.

This marks our 5th in-town move together, and as we always do with such moves, our leases overlap by about a week or so, allowing us to gradually move into the new place-- taking a few boxes of things from the current place to the new place, and then bringing the handful of empty boxes back to be reused for the next trip. It's really convenient to be able to spread out the moving in several short trips-- and it's handy not to have to hunt around for dozens of moving boxes. It also makes the rest of the move cheaper-- for when we hire movers to move our big furniture, that's ALL they are moving (no boxes of little stuff) and it goes much faster.

We spent this weekend hauling stuff over. All the desks are at the new place. Half the clothes and almost half the books are, too. A few more storage boxes and the rest of the books and other odds and ends lying around the house and we'll soon be ready for the movers to haul our beds, TV, bookshelves and washer & dryer from one building to the next.

And, as we always do with our moves, we take the measurements of the floorplan of the new place and then arrange our furniture on it to best optimize the space. Last year I discovered we could do it online instead of painstakingly drawing it out on graph paper. This year I discovered that you could simply upload a picture of the floorplan, set its scale and stick furniture on that image. Here is our current plan for laying out the furniture in our new place (as you can tell from comparing it to the old one, we've since acquired a dining table and are expecting delivery of a new couch and extra bookshelf tomorrow):



Click on the image for a larger view.

Oh yes, and THIS time, I finally managed to take pictures of the apartment empty. Now I just have to take pics of the place when we're all settled in, and I can post a before-and-after series.

When don't kids wear you out?

It's the darndest thing. Yesterday morning Allan left to go see his Dad in the hospital in LA. Which meant that I was on my own that evening and this morning. Normally I'm already pretty worn out by 9pm, just getting everything done: shower the kid, feed him, get his homework done, do reading, practice karate, put him to bed, plus getting his lunch and uniform ready for the next morning, tidying up the kitchen, taking my own shower... and that's with Allan helping with some of the chores.

Not last night. Nor the last time, 2 months ago, when I had Todd to myself while Allan spent the night in San Bernardino. Oh, I was tired, but strangely enough, not only was I not MORE tired (because I didn't have hubby around to divide the work), but I actually felt LESS tired than I normally do on weeknights. Why is that?

Well, I've observed that when Allan is around, Todd goes nuts. He's a pretty active kid to begin with, but for some reason, he seems a lot calmer when he's just with me. There have been many a time when I've spent a nice (relatively) quiet day with him, only to have Daddy come home and the energy levels ramp up about 1000%. Whereas we often have to remind him about ten times to do something, when he's just with me it seems like I'm only repeating myself 5 times. And it's no wonder I'm so worn out at the end of the day-- it gets tiring, chasing after a human cyclone that could give the Tasmanian Devil a run for its money!

But then that begs the question of WHY Todd gets more hyper when Allan joins the fray.
Here's my theory: testosterone poisoning. Yes, yes, I know-- all men suffer from it, but I think those hormones waft through the air and get absorbed. You know how women who live in close proximity to one another tend to have their monthly cycles sync up? Well, I think it's a similar effect, only with testosterone. Why else would Todd go nuts everytime Daddy arrives on the scene? ;-)

The upside of all this is that I actually get to enjoy having my little boy to myself at times, rather than being too worn out to have fun with him. Hm, perhaps I should send Allan away more often ;-)

Does anyone else notice a similar effect with their kids/kids they've observed?

Okay, trying again...

Back in September I had every intention of blogging more often. I was feeling inspired, had some ideas of what I wanted to write about beyond the usual "Helly's monthly updates" and was only lacking in time. Before I knew it, October had flashed by, and here I sit, over a month later and nary a blog post written. Even Todd's baby diary is woefully out of date (but at least I have all the notes jotted down on a sticky, waiting to be transcribed onto electronic form!)

I realized that it had turned into a vicious cycle. A few days after I posted my last blog entry, I was teeming with ideas, and put them aside because I couldn't find a chunk of time to write. When I *did* find some time, I realized that the mood had passed, and that I would have more to make up for it, which in turn only fed my reluctance to actually *start*. And there started the cycle-- stop writing, feel guilty about it, feel overwhelmed by all the updates I want to post, postpone writing, begin cycle anew...

There is some truth to keeping the "wheels oiled" by writing everyday, or at least with frequent regularity, even if I don't think I have anything to write about. It gets (and more importantly, KEEPS) the creative juices flowing.

So, here I am, trying to start afresh. Maybe I should start some kind of "blog accountability" group with one or more folks, kind of like people do with diets and exercise-- keep each other accountable for writing regularly. Anyone interested? ;-)

And, to cap it all off, another one of my "postponed for so long it's crammed into one long rambling entry" updates:
Todd is adjusting well to first grade. He's enjoying school and even his after-school care program has so few kids that he gets pretty individualized attention. He and I visited my parents over Halloween weekend, where he dressed as a pumpkin and got to enjoy his first-ever trick-or-treat adventure, casing all the houses I used to visit when I was a kid. It was great seeing all our old neighbors again and catching up.

We took a venture into the housing market in October, working with a realtor and looking at homes. Next thing we knew, we'd put in an offer on one, but then financing didn't work out as well as we'd initially hoped. So now we're upgrading from a 1-bedroom to a 2-bedroom in the same apartment complex. Gives us room to stretch out and still save money.

Our church decided to expand from its building to a bigger venue, so right now we're meeting at a local movie theater. I don't really like it-- I think a theater (especially the one we're in) is a poor setting for something like a Sunday service-- hard to see, hard to move around in, too dark. At least it's just temporary, or so I hear, anyway. The upside to it is that this theater is much closer to our apartment! :-)

Santa Barbara is truly a small world-- a couple weekends ago we enjoyed a "Parents' Night Out" which our church sponsors every month. In October the kids enjoy a Harvest Party while the parents go out to dinner. Last year it was all church parents. This year, since we've opened a preschool, it was mainly preschool parents, the majority of which don't go to (our) church. So it was nice getting to meet some new parents... including one that works at Citrix Online, too! How about that! ;-)

Allan's uncle unfortunately passed away a couple weeks ago from complications due to the H1N1 virus. The media may overhype it (as it tends to do), but when it hits this close to home, you gotta admit that maybe all that attention is warranted. Our little family has gotten over its own bout with colds/seasonal flu last month.... just in time to get well and get free flu shots at work. So far, so good! Fingers crossed it stays that way the rest of the winter.

The remainder of this month promises to be busy. We pick up the keys to our new place on Friday, and two weeks after that we have to vacate our old place, so the next 2 weeks will be a flurry of moving (since we're moving to the building next door, it should be relatively easy to move a few boxes of stuff each day-- Todd's wagon should get plenty of use!) and cleaning, cleaning, cleaning! Then comes the Thanksgiving holiday and wouldn't you know it-- the last month of the year shall soon be upon us!

Let's see how many entries I get written between now and then, eh! ;-)

Funny Spam IM

We've all received our fair share of spam emails. They range from Nigerian scam letters to ads for Viagra to admirer emails from "hot" girls to phishing scams. Pretty standard fare, and always to be found in my Junk folder, though occasionally one or two will slip past the spam filter and make its way to my Inbox.

Today I received my first spam IM. Apparently my Yahoo screenname is linked to my Dad's name (not entirely sure why, I may have used my own Yahoo email address when signing my Dad up for something long long ago). So every once in a while I get friend requests on Yahoo from people I don't recognize. I usually ignore them.

This time, however, the spammer was persistent. Despite my hitting "ignore" to the friend add request, it proceeded to IM me. I stared in fascination as the text appeared, sentence by sentence, before me-- almost as if a real live person were actually typing it!

Here's a transcript of the conversation (with my Dad's name changed):

[09:46:36] donaldsonxahaf: hey
[09:46:55] hellykwee: hi
[09:47:05] donaldsonxahaf: Hey Roger*
[09:47:27] donaldsonxahaf: This is difficult for me to do because I'm shy..but I have a crush on you, i have been sending you emails but no response
[09:47:49] donaldsonxahaf: I've never been able to tell you for reasons which you would quickly identify as obvious if you knew who this was.
[09:48:08] donaldsonxahaf: With that said, I want you to guess who I am, and approach me yourself.
[09:48:28] donaldsonxahaf: To help you out with your guessing I made a few pictures and videos with "Roger" written on my body.
[09:48:55] donaldsonxahaf: They're kind of risque photos so I had to make a private profile. look at my screen name on your buddylist and you'll see the link in my status update or you can look at the top of this conversation window. it's for your eyes only
[09:49:19] donaldsonxahaf: My username in the members area is "RogerandME09" (It's a free website but you might need a CC or Debit to verify your age because I had to. Sigh.)
[09:49:44] donaldsonxahaf: once you are inside search for me. I want you to guess who I am and then approach me yourself. I'm shy and this is the bravest thing I've probably ever done, but you need to do the rest.
[09:50:08] hellykwee: sorry, i don't put my card number into websites to verify age
[09:50:09] donaldsonxahaf: i wont ever be able to get on yahoo messenger again this is my only day so come talk with me on the website
[09:50:23] donaldsonxahaf: Kisses, Secret Admirer
[09:50:32] hellykwee: haha, you're funny
[09:50:38] donaldsonxahaf: AWAY MESSAGE - Waiting 4 My crush.. Won't back on here. FOR EVERYONE - If you read this you HAVE TO pull out your cellphone and text the word BARNABAS to the short # 70542. Follow the instructions. If you do this, you are voting for me to win the "hottest person ever contest". HELP!!! i need 1 more vote. If you vote for me tell me and ill love you 4ever

I was laughing too hard at the time, but now I kinda wish I had interjected some commentary of my own earlier on, just to see how well-programmed the spambot was to to handle real-time conversational responses.

Ah well. It gave me a good laugh for the morning. And I have to admit, I was pretty impressed that the grammar and spelling were pretty good-- makes a nice change from the ordinary grammar-error-riddled spam mail we're used to receiving! Someday I will post about the snail mail (yes, you read that right-- SNAIL mail) phishing scam I received a couple years ago...

Honest service is hard to find

It occurs to me that in the service-oriented industries whose services we frequently consume, it's very difficult to find an honest, reliable provider. And I don't just mean a friendly smile in your local fast-food establishment, I'm talking about professionals to whom you shell out big bucks for important services. Auto mechanics and plumbers come to the forefront of my mind as an example. As do doctors, dentists, lawyers, realtors, mortgage lenders... all these folks charge a pretty penny for their services, and if you wind up with a bad product/service, it's more than just a bad meal or experience you can shrug about-- this is significant investments of your time, money, and health. Even hairstylists fall under this realm-- while not as life-threatening as a doctor who carelessly prescribes you meds or as bank-breaking as a lawyer who bilks you of hundreds of dollars for idle "work", it's still annoying to come out of the salon with an awful haircut because the stylist didn't know how to work with your hair type.

This is why, twice a year, we pile into the car and make the hour-and-a-half (with good traffic) drive to see the family dentist. Dentists probably rank right up there with auto mechanics for being notorious for doing unneeded work (and charging exorbitantly for it) under the assumption that the average consumer doesn't know any better, and won't realize that he doesn't *really* need this procedure done, or that there is a cheaper alternative. I've experienced my fair share of them when I was at UCSB, whose health insurance policy forced me to use the on-campus dentists. Speaking of health insurance, that expensive thing didn't give me coverage worth crap-- I still ended up paying loads out of my own pocket, especially with dental care. Might as well have seen a non-campus dentist and paid out of my own pocket-- probably would've been cheaper that way! But... that's another rant, for another time.

The reason we travel so far to see our dentist is because he's one of the few honest types you can expect to find. He does his own cleaning, keeps detailed records of the condition of your teeth and compares them from your last visit, and generally prefers to keep an eye on potential problems rather than jump straight into fixes that might not even be necessary. He also mounts LCD monitors on the dental chair so you can see your own X-rays onscreen right after they've been taken. How handy, and much easier than straining to see the film he's holding up against a light on the other side of the room ;-)

There's a crack in one of my back molars that has gotten worse since the last visit. It's not a great cause for worry, but if anything hard gets inside that crack, it could serve as a wedge (think how the wedge shape of an axe head enables it to split wood) and crack the tooth in two. Our dentist didn't outright tell me that I should get it fixed, but gave me a few options: 1) a crown (more expensive, but longer lasting) 2) filling (cheaper) or 3) do nothing-- and just take care not to bite down on anything hard on that side of my mouth. I think at this point it is obvious that work probably should be undertaken on that tooth, but even then he was reluctant to push treatment, since my tooth was still in good shape. Still, prevention at this point is a good idea, and the fact that he wasn't ramming "OMG, you've GOT to get this fixed ASAP!" down my throat makes it that much more palatable.

Time to make an appointment soon...

An honest, reliable, friendly dentist. Hard to find, and well worth the long drive from Santa Barbara to LA twice a year :-)

Friday Five -- sleeping :-)

It's been several months since I've done a Friday Five, hasn't it! Anyone still willing to play? :-) Well, I guess I'll throw this out there and see how it goes.

After being accidentally awakened earlier than planned this morning, I thought this set of Friday Five questions was especially appropriate. I'm sure most of you can guess my answers to these questions already, but hey, indulge me for a moment!

1. What is your morning routine?
2. What is your nightly routine?
3. Do you like to listen to the radio when you sleep or have it quiet?
4. What do you like to sleep in?
5. What is the first thing you think about when you wake up in the morning?

1. Well, when I had to adhere to a stricter schedule in my former life and use alarm clocks, I'd set it for approximately an hour before I had to get up, so I could hit the snooze alarm about 5-6 times before finally waking up enough to stumble out of bed. These days, I simply try not to snap the head off any poor soul who happens to cross my path when I first get up ;-) Other than that, my routine is pretty straightforward-- wash my face, brush my hair, brush my teeth, throw on clothes and dash out the door. Breakfast to be eaten at work.

2. Eat some yogurt so my tummy isn't rumbling, brush my teeth (and tongue-- what's the deal with dairy products sticking so tenaciously to your tongue!?), change my son's diaper, set a glass of water and eyeshades within easy reach on my nightstand, and then wind down by reading in bed.

3. Quiet! And I mean dead silence. I don't keep earplugs onhand everywhere I go, for no reason!

4. My bed, of course! :-P Oh, wait... ;-) Comfy flannel pajamas are the best. No socks unless it's terribly cold... which, given that I'm in Santa Barbara and in a well-insulated apartment, doesn't happen often.

5. Hearkening back to my answer to #1: trying not to cause lasting damage when I RAWR at the first person I encounter. I also hiss at the sunlight and think of one of my favorite quotes: "If God had meant for people to enjoy the sunrise, he would've made it at 11:00 am!" Truer words were never spoken!

(in case you couldn't tell already, I am NOT a morning person!)

How about you?

Of babies and time

Wow, two posts in a row ;-) My previous post talked about not having enough time to write, and it's no surprise that kids play a large role in time-sucking. I don't mean that in a bad way. It's tiring, but well worth it. And it can even be fun at times! ;-)

This weekend, while driving back to SB from LA, with the boy and all his stuff in tow, I talked with Ben, the founder of Not One Sparrow, who recently had a new baby himself. He's still in that bleary-eyed-stupor stage where on the one hand he's enjoying fatherhood and even marveling at his little miracle, but on the other has finds himself too worn out to really appreciate it or understand when people say "Enjoy it now, it won't last". I figure, people who say such things either 1) don't have kids themselves or 2) have kids so old they've long forgotten what it's like to take care of helpless babies, unruly toddlers, and defiant kids. Selective amnesia-- they only remember the good parts.

With a five-year-old, I'm still well into the "hurry up and grow up" stage of parenthood, so I could still sympathize with Ben. I told him how I celebrated with glee the day Todd learned to buckle up by himself in his car seat. It may not be a big thing, but when you're running several errands and constantly have to climb into the back seat to buckle him up each time, it gets tiresome!

When I was younger, I'd always imagined I'd like to have two kids. Ideally a boy and a girl. I had it all figured it out-- I'd space them about 5 years apart so that the older one could help take care of the younger one. Then I grew up, and y'know, actually HAD a real kid. And promptly changed my mind. Of course, there were times as Todd was growing older, that I'd see him playing with younger kids, get broody, and wistfully think to myself, "he'd make a great big brother". There were times when I felt sorry for Todd when Allan and I were so busy with day-to-day things, he felt neglected because nobody was playing with him. Having a sibling to play with would ease that. Then I'd look at the messy house, look at our shrinking checkbook (for being as small as they are, these little critters cost an arm and a leg!), and feel the weariness as we plop down to rest after he's gone to bed (with house chores still looming ahead of us) and reality would set back in ;-)

Three of the women in our young couples small group at church have become pregnant at around the same time. Come January/February there will be babies galore. Of course, people naturally turn to the non-pregnant women in the group and start asking when THEY will have kids. And since Todd's old enough now, people also turn to us and ask us if we're having ANOTHER one. Hahaha... funny, people! :-P

I think that if I were able to be a stay-at-home mom, *maybe* I'd give more serious consideration to having another kid. But, we made the decision a year ago that Todd would be it, so here we are. An only child. Just like his mama. And the only grandchild... on both sides! Now who would want to part with that kind of attention? ;-)

Is this thing on?

Hello? Does anyone even read this thing anymore? I guess I can hardly fault anyone for not doing so, considering I hardly ever post here. Though I've mostly been too busy to really miss it, I do occasionally think wistfully back to the heyday of my Grab blog and Myspace blog, which really wound up being more of social gatherings, and when I wasn't lacking for things to write about.

Nowadays it seems that one of 4 (5?) things happens:

1. I can't think of anything to write about
2. I can, but I just don't have time to sit down and collect my thoughts
3a. The things I think of are minor and more fitting for my Tumblr blog, Twitter or Facebook.
3b. Related to #3: often when I've written a one-or-two sentence summary of what's on my mind (mostly thanks to FB and Twitter), I find it somewhat unnecessary to delve into more detail here.
4. The things I think of are worthy of more long-winded blogger posts, but are either about Todd, and therefore go into his blog, or about work, and therefore go into my (private) work rant blog.

I wonder what it is about the period from 2005-2008 than brought on such a flurry of ideas. Maybe it was inspiration from other people's posts. Maybe it was a combination of random musings, daily goings-on and silly memes and quizzes. Maybe it was partly because my readers kept me just as entertained.

Then there's the time factor... it's no coincidence that 2008 was when things really started ramping up with Todd-- starting school, starting karate, then eventually swim lessons. 2008 was when we found Hope Community Church and our small group. 2008/2009 was when I really started getting more active on Facebook, with its status updates allowing me to more frequently and efficiently broadcast what's on my mind. I also think that once I stopped getting into the habit of writing frequently, I just couldn't get back into it, even when I did have time.

So, as you can see, 2009 was a pretty sparse blogging year. Hopefully that will change :-) We'll see!

Another month, another slew of updates

Wow, has it really been a month since my last blog post? I guess Facebook's statuses make it easy to keep the world informed on what's been going on with me. Even my Tumblr blog has lain fallow for a while!

So, what's been going on since my last update (the wedding in the mountains near Santa Cruz)?

It started off with the annual Tech Group volleyball tournament, where I opted to watch and play Bocce Ball instead :-)

I also enjoyed a week of bachelorette-hood as Allan took Todd and accompanied his dad on a trip to see family in Oklahoma. Todd went fishing almost everyday and enjoyed it immensely. I enjoyed the peace and quiet of an apartment all to myself-- which stayed a lot cleaner than it normally would!

I've also been taking a singing class all summer, through the adult education center at Santa Barbara City College. (if you read my Tumblr blog, yes, this is the class with the fellow student who has a lovely voice but needs to learn to keep the volume in check) It's a bilingual beginner class, so we learned English and Spanish songs, mostly in preparation for the annual Old Spanish Fiesta Days in Santa Barbara. Our class actually got to perform on Friday, Aug 7 at the SB Courthouse's Sunken Gardens. We dressed in traditional Spanish garb and sang a few songs, many of us using fans to hide the printed out lyrics --> fans make great cheat sheets! My friend Leah took the class with me (as did her parents), and she and I had fun learning to do "A Whole New World" together as a duet, and performed it in class during one of the last weeks.

Our Fiesta performance was pretty much the culmination of our class, and the following week, Leah and I got together with some other friends of ours for a night out singing karaoke at Old Town Tavern. Last time I was there was on my birthday 3 years ago, I'd forgotten how much fun the place was, with 2 pool tables and a HUGE selection of songs! We arrived early enough to have a few turns at the mic ourselves before people started trickling in, and before I knew it, the wait time had lengthened to about 10 songs! We had a blast either way, and though Allan and I were amongst the first to leave, it wasn't until almost midnight that we did.

Allan and I have been spending the past few weekends looking at open houses in Santa Barbara, getting ideas for homes. Some interesting stuff out there, but despite the burst housing bubble, home prices are still outrageously expensive here. It IS California, after all-- and Santa Barbara on top of it all. We remain convinced that the best and most cost-effective way to go about this is to purchase land and build a modular home on it. We've actually spoken to an agent and discussed pricing details, looks like the anticipated cost will actually be a little lower than I initially anticipated in that post, mostly due to a recent drop in the land price :-) Still lots to look into and learn!

Not a whole lot else-- talk about a swift-moving August! Summer is soon over and in 2 weeks Todd will come back from LA and resume school, and we'll be back to the daily routine of school, karate lessons, swim lessons, homework, and all that other busy-ness that raising a little kid entails :-)

Where does the time go!?