Tear Jerker

I recommend to girls Nights in Rodanthe. It was such a tear jerker. It made me think about love, maybe someday, someway I'll meet someone again, no matter how long it lasts. Maybe, scary...

War of the Water Purifiers

Well, the war of the water purifiers is over and we have a clear winner! The Britta faucet mount water filter is on the faucet and the Pur water filter is in the dump.

Since the first day we put the Pur water filter on the sink it would pour water out the little tiny oval shaped window on the front. The Pur website stated that you should seal it with silicone. Funny they knew that and kept selling them unsealed. Why didn’t they seal the little window with silicone at the factory? The refills for the Pur are 19 dollars each and the refills for the Britta are 27 dollars for two. It’s not much, but it’s less. They both cost the same amount to begin with about 20 dollars. I was ready to throw out the Pur piece of junk and saw the Britta at Home Depot with a mail in rebate for $10. I will be mailing that out tomorrow. The only downfall of the Britta is that it drips a bit after you turn it off on the filtered setting, but it’s better than squirting out all over me.

Yay Britta, Nay Pur. And that is the news from the war of the water filters!

Good news

Oh excellent news, the website I have listed as very funny in the Links I Love section,

In the Motherhood

is going to be a television show starting in March. The website clips are hysterical, so I have to assume the show is going to be a riotous hit. Excellent.

The Chocolate Cake Story

We went to the Outback and they no longer have my favorite dessert, so the waitress told me to write an email because everyone was saying they were disappointed and maybe they'd bring the dessert back. So I did, feeling silly and writerly I wrote the following email:
"We went on down to our favorite restaurant, The Outback, as hungry as bears. We had the most delicious dinner imaginable and then were ready to satisfy our sweet tooth for dessert. I don't think you can imagine our dismay to find out our favorite item had been removed from the menu. NO CHOCOLATE TOWER! It was as if the whole experience was suddenly sour and the dinners we had didn't even taste good anymore. The chocolate tower is one of the best reasons for even going to The Outback, you save calories for days to go eat that. It is the best treat ever! Or at least it was. The Outback doesn't even sound exciting anymore knowing you can't top of your meal with the king of special chocolate treats. In the spirit of trying to be good Outback customers, after we whined and cried to the server (who shared our dismay), we order the new Peanut Nutter Butter Pie thing and the carrot cake. Well the carrot cake is good, it's no chocolate tower and is probably not worth the calories like the tower was, but the Nutter Butter Pie thing - yuck! Was the person who decided to replace the tower with that strangely textured unpallatable pie mad as us as customers? On a diet? Fighting with his or her spouse? Or perhaps got an expensive unwarranted speeding ticket on the way to work that day? Please don't punish us for your bad day. I beseech you to bring back the Chocolate Tower. Outback = Chocolate Tower - they just go together! Thank you for listening."

Well I got a response from my Outback restaurant. They are not putting it back on the menu, bummer. But, they shipped a CASE of this cake from North Carolina or someplace and it is in the freezer for me. They are so crazy! I can't tell them I just went on a diet. We actually went last weekend and had a piece. It is so insane and funny! I am now VIP at the Ouback, for cake anyway :) And seriously that pie really isn't good. I kind of feel like an ass now though... Hee Hee Hee

Cool Colors

I was at the periodontists getting my teeth cleaned yesterday and the lovely technician is talking to my daughter. She asks about her favorite class which she tells her is art and they are making homemade journals. My little girl tells her she is using warm colors on hers, oranges, yellows, pinks and reds. The technician (I call her this because she is more than a hygienist) goes on to ask my daughter then, “Well, what are the cool colors?” My daughter responds, “Hmmm, the coolest colors I think are the pink and the white and then I can blend them together and that makes a pretty cool color too.” I had to wait to laugh until she removed the instruments from my mouth. The technician was laughing too, well she asked. We didn’t explain what she was really asking, because hey, pink and white are very cool colors, whatever… it’s cool.

Midterm Anxiety

My Freshman are freaking out a bit this week before their first official high school exams. The proof is two kids called me 'Mom' and one kid called me 'Ms. Paragraph!' It was so funny.

I'm so excited!

Well, tomorrow will begin a huge change in our country. I am so proud to be an American right now, I'm practically gushing. I am lucky enough to work at a school where we had the option of taking our kids down to see the inauguration on the big screen in the auditorium. I can't wait to hear Obama's acceptance speech. I just know we will remember something from it for decades, as we have so many American Presidents inaugural speeches. For example, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

It is so difficult to explain my excitement though and tried with my child today. I think now that Obama will be our President it means anyone who recognizes the value of hard work, perseverance, and who knows that helping others is the best way to help ourselves, can make it to the top in this country. He or she can be a leader no matter what the individual's particular dream may be. I think it shows us that as a country, or even as a human race, we have finally accepted that our diversity is what makes us strong. We accept that we do not all look alike and should not all look alike, that we should have varied experiences in our lifetimes, not cookie cutter existences, and most importantly that we don't have to have the last name of Kennedy, Bush, or even have a family in politics to lead our wonderful country. Obama’s inauguration means to me that my daughter can be a future President of the United States or anything she wants to be, that being raised by a single mom with not a lot of money is no longer an impediment. If a single mother can raise a President any single mother with the desire to help with schoolwork, read with her child, and give her child challenges, hopes, dreams, self-esteem, love, love and more love, will raise a child who can do anything they wish to work hard for. It means any of my high school students, if they work hard and make good decisions, can be whatever they dream.

Of course, all of this could have happened before and could have happened if McCain was President, but money, history, and family power did not win this time. Brains, heart, and perseverance won this time, and we call afford those things no matter who we are. Especially us single mothers with the apartment and car the dream of the house and the better future for our child, we can now start dreaming bigger and better for our children, not that we didn’t before but because now we have proof that the values we strive to convey to our kids work. And not just single mothers, but all mothers. I didn’t vote for Obama because he was raise by a single mother, I voted for Obama because he made me think the status quo could change and dreams can come true.

G-d bless our new President and his family. And G-D BLESS AMERICA!

Redundant!

Happy New Year

Wishing all of you and your loved ones a safe, happy, and healthy 2009.