A little bit o'Heaven...

Just 1 week from today, my work buddy JB and I (NOT RWCG who sits in front of me!!) will be jamming with the Dave Matthews Band in Cincinnati...

We have been looking forward to this for MONTHS. I can't even begin to tell you how much we BOTH need to get away for an evening, and there's no better way that I can think of to spend that evening away!

How my week is starting off

You’ll all be happy to know that my mentor (who sits diagonally from me), RWCG (who sits in front of me) and I apparently have our mojo back (kill me now), because we’re all wearing green tops today….   Last week, Monday we all wore green, Tuesday was pink, and Wednesday was green again.  RWCG was VERY disappointed to come in Thursday and find that I was dressed in a gray t-shirt, my mentor was dressed in blue, and she in pink again.  “Aww….   Well that’s okay.  We’ll get our mojo back soon.”

People walking down our aisle notice this, too, and feel the need to stop and comment on it.

RWCG also brow-beat her live-in boyfriend to get a puppy this weekend.  Oh the stories and pictures we’re being regaled with today!!  They (read she) named it Tinkerbell, and the pictures she has show it dressed (OMG!!) in a pink doggie t-shirt that says ‘Princess’.  She wanted to get this puppy ostensibly for her two sons, who are 6 and 8.  He (the boyfriend) didn’t want one; hasn’t wanted one and has always said no when this has come up in the past (he works at the Casa de Insurance, also, so I always get to hear both sides of the story).  It’s his house they live in, and he’s allergic to dogs and cats, but she’s talked him into it, and now he will be getting shots or something, so that he’s able to breath at home, all so that her boys will have a puppy.

Talk about true-love…

Potty Training redux

Since the boy is now 30 months old, we figure it's time to try again. God help us.

We've checked some books out of the library, including one called Toilet Training in Less Than a Day that involves something about you having your toddler teach a doll to use the potty, complete with doll-sized diapers and raisins as doll-poop in the diaper.

The mind reels.

It does not, of course, help that we're starting to get comments from my mother-in-law. Comments like "Well, when you finally decide to start with him, let me know, and I'll get a potty just like you have, so we can work with him when he's over here, too." and "You know, I had twins, and they were both potty trained by the time they were two!"

It's so nice to have such a supportive family.

We have this:

on DVD, which we could only find on Ebay. We've watched several times with him. It has a catchy little theme song, complete with an Mtv-like video of ultra-cute little ones singing the Potty Song both before and after the feature cartoon. It's not bad, as far as potty training aides go (not that I'm an expert).

And we broke down, because that's what parents do, and bought him this:

because he of course loves Elmo. What is it about Elmo with the kids? In case you haven't seen this one up close and personal, Elmo comes complete with his own sippy cup, potty, book on going to the potty, t-shirt and yes, a little pair of Elmo-sized tighty-whitey's. When you squeeze his left hand, he tells you he's thirsty, yada, yada, yada. If you put the sippy cup in his mouth and press down, he glug, glug, glugs, then goes through the potty routine... you get the idea. Quite often, though, as you're walking through the house, and usually when we've been gone somewhere and are returning home, we'll come upon Elmo laying on the floor looking like this

which can be very disturbing, because you're just not quite sure what's been going on. We're pretty sure the cat has something to do with it, but have yet to catch her in the act.

And, of course, we have the requisite small, plastic potty for him. When we sit him on the potty, though, he starts to cry and whimper, looks up at you with the big puppy-dog brown eyes and says 'Get off?'. Is it possible that he's actually scared of the potty? I'm starting to wonder. Maybe now, in fact, is not the time to start this again.

Shouldn't things like this be instinctual? How is it that cats somehow know to go to the litter box without much cajoling, yet it takes so much effort to teach humans to use the toilet? If anyone knows the answer to this, please enlighten me.

where do I sign up?

Seen on a bumper sticker while out and about today...

From Maidink... something interesting to make you think (and to make me not have to come up with something witty to write about).

To those of you who'll read this and think 'Oh my God!' as your mouth drops open, I apologize. Probably more info than you ever wanted (so who am I to complain about the best friend talking about her boyfriend's yoo-hoo, right?).

GRUB-OLOGY
What is your salad dressing of choice? Catalina or Green Goddess

What is your favorite fast food restaurant? McDonald's There's just something about their breakfast food...

What is your favorite sit down restaurant? I've forgotten what sit-down restaurants are like, since our son always throws a fit when we go.

On average, what size tip do you leave at a restaurant? If the service is good, 20-25%.

What food could you eat every day for two weeks and not get sick of? Pizza. Or salad. Or both.

Name three foods you detest above all others. plain, cooked spinach, mushrooms, fish that isn't covered by at least a 1/2 inch of breading

What is your favorite dish to order in a Chinese restaurant? General Tso's chicken

What are your pizza toppings of choice? Onions, green olives & bacon

What do you like to put on your toast? Butter & peanut butter, in that order

What is your favorite type of gum? Good, old fashioned Dentyne

Number of contacts in your cell phone? 57 (oh my God!), but over 1/2 are work related, and it includes all the doctors, both mine and the boy'sn

Number of contacts in your email address book? 15

What is your wallpaper on your computer? A picture of the boy

What is your screensaver on your computer? Whatever came with the computer when we bought it.

Are there naked pictures saved on your computer? Nope

How many land line phones do you have in your house? 1

How many televisions are in your house? 2

What kitchen appliance do you use the least? Believe it or not, the microwave

What is the format of the radio station you listen to the most? NPR. There are no good music stations around here.

How many sex toys do you own that require batteries? None... as in I don't own any. (Is that sad?)

BI-OLOGY

What do you consider to be your best physical attribute? My eyes

Are you right handed or left handed? Right handed.

Do you like your smile? Yes. I have very nice teeth.

Have you ever had anything removed from your body? Yes

Would you like to? Other than all the excess fat, no.

Do you prefer to read when you go to the bathroom? Nope - get it and get out is my motto (no pun intended).

Which of your five senses do you think is keenest? Can intuition be considered a sense? If not, then sight.

When was the last time you had a cavity? never (don't hate me because I have good teeth)

What is the heaviest item you lift regularly? my son

Have you ever been knocked unconscious? not that I recall... hmmmm.....

MISC-OLOGY

If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die? Absolutely not.

If you could change your first name, what would you change it to? No, I've finally gotten used to Ruth

How do you express your artistic side? Writing, papercrafts

What color do you think you look best in? brown

How long do you think you could last in a medium security prison? I'm pretty scrappy... I'd say 20-30 minutes.

Have you ever swallowed a non-food item by mistake? no

If we weren’t bound by society’s conventions, do you have a relative you would make a pass at? Heaven's no. The thought of that makes me gag.

How often do you go to church? 2-3 times per month

Have you ever saved someone’s life? no

Has someone ever saved yours? no

DARE-OLOGY

For this last section, if you would do it for less or more money, indicate how much

Would you walk naked for a half mile down a public street for $100,000? I would give it serious thought, what the hell. And a lot would depend on what street it was.

Would you kiss a member of the same sex for $100? Probably

Would you have sex with a member of the same sex for $10,000? As long as I could pick the girl, I would probably give it serious thought...

Would you allow one of your little fingers to be cut off for $200,000? Both pinkies? No. Just one? Maybe

Would you never blog again for $50,000? You betcha (sorry, my dear loyal readers)

Would you pose naked in a magazine for $250,000? Ummmm...... no

Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1000? No. The after-affects just wouldn't be worth it.

Would you, without fear of punishment, take a human life for $1,000,000? Never. But, if that human life touched, harmed, or did something very bad to my child, it would be a freebie. (Maidink's answer to this was such a good one, that I'm going to use it, too.)

Would you shave your head and get your entire body waxed for $5,000? Sure, why not.

Would you give up watching television for a year for $25,000? Absolutely.

Useful bits of information...

Just in case you were curious... a remote control will not work once it's gone through the washing machine. Luckily, there are stores locally that sell remote controls for satellite systems, so we don't have to order one directly from the Dish Network and wait for it to be shipped.

Because God knows we couldn't live without the remote.

Ruth 1, Right-Wing Conservative Girl 0

Having the type II Diabetes requires me to go to my doctor every 3 months to have various blood tests done.  Not fun, but necessary.  I went mid-June to have this done.  Normally, the doctor calls about a week to week and a half after I’ve been in and we talk about the results on the phone, then I stop in and pick up any new prescriptions that I might need.  After two weeks and still no word from the doctor, I called in… and called in… and called in… each time leaving a message for one of the Medical Assistants to give me a call back, yada, yada, yada.  

Last week rolled around, and still no call back, so I just went ahead and made an appointment to go in.  Slightly inconvenient, yes,  but not a big deal.

Yesterday, I got a message from one of the Medical Assistants…   “Hi, this is Tanisha from Dr. Bennett’s office.  I saw in your chart that you had blood work done about 3 weeks ago, and I wanted to make sure you’d had a chance to go over the results with someone.  Give me a call back.”  I was at work when I got the message.  Annoying?  Yes.  But it kind of made me laugh at the same time.  I’m tired of getting pissed off about things.  I called back and left a message for Tanisha saying nicely  that after calling several times and not getting a call back, I’d finally just come in to see the doctor for the results, so everything was taken care of.  When I hung up the phone, Right-Wing Conservative Girl in front of me decided to add her 2 cents…

“Now, see, if it was me, I don’t think I would’ve been so nice.  I think I would’ve said something more like (in a snotty voice) ‘Well, Tanisha, after calling over and over again and not getting a call back, I finally just gave up and made an appointment with the doctor last Friday.  But thanks for calling.”

Me:  “Well, see, that’s the difference between you and me.  I do my best to try to not piss people off…”

And then I went to lunch.

I just love my new bitchy self…