Блог обо всем и ни о чем…

Yesterday Cameron’s daycare was closed until 9 AM. I am still flabbergasted that a minor ice storm (aka wintery mix) on Friday night resulted in a complete shut down until today. At least I was able to get Cameron to daycare at a reasonable hour and could chug through the rest of my work day. Many other parents weren’t so lucky. Question for my readers, how do you decide who stays home with your kid(s) when they are sick or daycare is closed and you both have to work? DH and I have been trading off depending on work schedules. But we both hope it is a rare occurrence in general.

My friends know how much I love a «meet cute» movie which is why Lifetime is such a good movie channel for me. DH makes fun of me constantly for it. Usually I don’t tape the Danielle Steel or other crime/romance stories but I love, love, love the contrived work/romance situations. The required ingredients include: couple meets cute, series of misunderstandings, multiple montage scenes, some kind of big speech, and happily ever after epilogue scene. If I’m really lucky then it also includes a dance scene. Movies that fall into this category include: 13 Going on 30, The Cutting Edge, Enchanted, etc. So I was thrilled to come across a commercial for Lying To Be Perfect. Before you ask, I only see these commercials during Project Runway or re-runs of How I Met Your Mother. If you like cheesy movies as much as me I recommend you add it to your DVR list. Totally cute!

I’m about halfway through a great book about kids and eating that Laura recommended: Child of Mine. It’s already helped re-adjust my mindset about feeding Cameron. The biggest takeaway for me? Cameron is responsible for eating. Yup. Seems like common sense, right? But between breastfeeding, pumping, bottles and all the rest I ended up in a bad place thinking that I needed to be able to control how much and when she eats. Now I know better. So thanks to Laura for her recommendation!

I recently opened a savings account with BigFinance. DH and I already had a checking account but because of a few special offers and other considerations (despite a piss poor interest rate) I decided to open a savings account too. When I set it up online I didn’t have DH’s social security number handy so I opened it by myself and planned to add him later. The catch? I can’t just add him online or through the phone. Nope, they have to mail me a form that we sign and send back and about two weeks later he can see the savings account information online. I’m also annoyed because they sent me a separate ATM card. Um, why can’t it be linked to my current checking account? So I have to carve out some time to call and figure it all out.

In good bureaucracy news I receive my new passport. I think it took about 3 weeks total between mailing the completed form and receiving my new and old one back. So I have to give it up to the US State Department. Good job guys! Now if I have to flee the country I don’t have to file for an expedite. Question: have any of you gotten passports for your kids? How does that work? I assume exactly the same way but it expires faster?

Enough randomness for the day…I’m off to go wrangle BigFinance. Wish me luck!

Looks like the temperatures are finally going to warm up this week. It’s been the longest cold snap in Charlotte in decades. And I’m so pleased we got to experience it during our 3rd winter here. Unfortunately I leave for NYC today and will be there until Thursday night. So I won’t get to enjoy 50+ degree weather until I return.

What else does that mean? My first American Idol recap of the season will be late. Sorry, folks! With business dinner and drinks, not to mention the lack of a DVR in my hotel room I won’t be able to watch the first two nights of auditions until this weekend. Perhaps one of these days I’ll look into a sling box….

Good news on the American Idol front, however. Turns out that everyone else hated the Top 36 and Wildcard format just as much as this faithful recapper did. So the producers have decided to go back to the Top 24 format with 12 guys and 12 ladies squaring off. The claim is that the audience gets more emotionally invested because we see the performers more often prior to the Top 12. I’m just happy that it might help with my American Idol pool rankings. I’m still hesitant about the 4 judges. Last season Simon didn’t get to weigh in on every performance and since I agree with him 95% of the time it was distressing for me. I also wonder who will take the Paula role over now that she is gone. There really has to be a judge who pours on the sugar as an antidote to Simon’s bitterness. Well, not really bitterness but that metaphor ran away from me. Y’all know what I mean.

I’ve been surveying my library to determine what books I can purge and how to turn it more kid friendly (read: store more toys) for Cameron. I’ve also packed two hard cover books for my trip to NYC. All in all it makes me lean towards one day getting an eReader. There are some pretty cool ones that were showcased last week in CES. Here’s a link highlighting a few. I am far from an early adopter. True, I got a Tivo way back in 2005 but even then it had been out for a few years. My biggest concern is that I want to make sure all my fantasy books get published in the digital format. And in strolling through Amazon I would estimate that only 30% are today. Anyone also struggle with this decision?

Cameron and I went to a birthday party for one of her play group friends this weekend. He turned one and his parents threw him a little party. It was timed perfectly for Cameron’s nap and she enjoyed playing with «new» toys and tasting ice cream for the first time. It also got me thinking about what to do for her first birthday. Our house isn’t very well set up for entertaining unless we were outside. But late March isn’t a great time to have a BBQ. Perhaps we should just do something low key with a trip to Discovery Place or some other kid friendly venue? What did you did for your kids’ first birthdays?