Pee Like A Man

Have you heard about the female urination device
that allows you to pee while standing up?


It's a GoGirl!

0-3 or 6-9 Months?

I love babies. And I love baby clothes. I'm one of those people that purposefully walk through the baby department, even though I don't have a baby yet, just so that I can oohhhh and aahhh over the tiny little outfits. So you can imagine my excitement about my three friends, all pregnant at the same time, with their due dates within months of one another. I've been happily shopping for baby gifts! The first gift I bought, was for a newborn girl - the cutest and softest cream Juicy sweater set I have ever seen. I bought size 0-3 months. Of course, when I got home and called my Mom to tell her about the gift, she goes, "Why did buy 0-3 months? Everyone knows that you always buy a newborn baby 6-9 months." Huh? News to me. My Mom said that newborns throw up so much and grow so fast that they usually don't get a lot of wear out of the newborn outfits. So apparently, the rule of thumb is to always buy 6-9 months, so that the baby can get some longevity out of the clothes. OK. But if that's true, if everyone buys the newborn the larger size, won't the newborn look kind of weird in the big clothes for the first couple of months? Or are babies born so big nowadays that they come into the world wearing 6-9 months clothing? And in giving my friend the 0-3 months sweater set, isn't it still a nice gift if she uses it for when the baby comes home from the hospital? Is a baby clothing gift valuable only when the baby can wear it multiple times? I'm fine if the baby wears it once.

Hmmm. I still have 2 more gifts to buy....

The Power of Paper Towel

Last night...

S: Good night mein Schatz.

G: Good night. I love you.

S: I love you too.

(20 seconds later)

G: Oh, I forgot to tell you - I'm really unhappy with the new paper towel. You can't tear off the smaller sections like the old roll.

Arme Kinder

Poor children.

My Mirror Image

Yesterday, for the first time, I practiced yoga in front of a mirror. I went to a very well known and respected yoga studio in DC and to my surprise, even the noon class was packed. The studio was on the larger size with one mirrored wall. When the class started, I felt myself sort of avoiding looking straight ahead, where the mirrored wall was. I felt like as soon as I saw myself, I would immediately start critiquing myself and of course, my body. You know the drill. I wanted to concentrate on the class. So, in order to stop thinking about NOT thinking about looking at myself, I moved a little to the right of my mat and in a narrow space in the mirror, full of other reflections, I looked at myself. Head to toe. And something strange happened. I took me all in and instead of thinking about how much leaner I wish my inner thighs were, I looked at my form. And I thought - I'm doing my best. I feel good in the poses. It's obvious I'm not the most advanced in the class but you know, for where my body is at this stage in my practice - I look good. And it felt good to say that to myself! At that moment, I got it. I realized that is one of the best things about yoga...it's not about what your body looks like. It's not about how perfect you come into poses. It's not about who can meditate the longest. You aren't competing with your neighbor or even yourself. In practicing yoga, you do it just as you are and you determine your own potential. The reward of yoga, feeling good both physically and mentally (achieving balance), is based entirely on you. I felt great after that class and I will go back to that studio. But the next time, I won't avoid looking straight ahead.

Trust your Gut

Yesterday my Mom decided to quickly make lunch, change into her jeans, and head out to run some errands. Exactly in that order. She decided to steam some fish - but in order to make the most of her time, she wanted to steam the fish while she was changing her clothes. So she turned the stove on the lowest setting, just enough to slowly cook the fish, ran upstairs and changed her clothes. She was so focused on her errands, she put on her coat and left the house. When she got out of her truck at the grocery store, she immediately smelled a little smoke. She checked the truck but everything seemed ok so she continued on. In the grocery store, she couldn't get that faint smoke smell out of her nose. When she finished her shopping, she got back in her truck and realized that she still smelled smoke, like someone had been smoking in the truck...impossible. So she sat there, and thought about it but for a couple minutes but couldn't figure out an explanation. Right then, she got a gut feeling that she needed to go home as soon as possible. So she didn't event think about it, she immediately drove home. When she opened the door and smelled smoke, it hit her. She knew. As she walked in the kitchen, she saw the fish, a burnt smoky brick, still burning on the stove.

Play Date Zuhause

For the first time, Denzel had a friend come over to our house for a play date. Bogey, a Pug puppy that lives in our building, and Denzel have been friends since the summer. His Mom and I decided that they both needed an outlet from being cooped up this week, due to the snowy and icy weather. So last night, when our friends arrived, I opened the door and instead of the crazy sniffing and licking and whining and falling all over each other with excitement greeting Denzel usually gives Bogey, Denzel turned into Mike Tyson. He immediately chased after Bogey, snapping at his face and barking. He was trying to bite Bogey. I could not believe my dog. Denzel has never even snapped at another dog, EVER. As I held Denzel back, Bogey, probably confused but overexcited all the same, ran around our house, jumping on the couch, playing with Denzel's scattered toys a bit, and even drinking from Denzel's water bowl. This only infuriated Denzel more. So, Bogey's Mom and I stopped, put the dogs on their leashes and asked ourselves, "What would Cesar do?" Yes, we are both fans. We decided that we totally messed up the introduction. We brought on the stress. First of all, Denzel has never had another dog in our house, his domain. So by bringing Bogey in and letting him have the run of the place while I held Denzel back, was really stupid. He was being aggressive because he was being territorial. And my shock and nervousness - negative energy - only made Denzel more agitated. So we needed to defuse the situation. Bogey's Mom took Bogey out of the house and into the hallway and waited. Then I followed out into the hallway with Denzel. We wanted to let them greet each other in a neutral place first and then allow them to come back into the house together. Denzel was still a little agitated but after 10 minutes in the hallway, the growling stopped and they were back to being buddies. We then allowed Denzel to enter the house first, kind of look back waiting for Bogey to come along, and then we let Bogey enter. It worked! They played nonstop for 3 hours.