Three things:

1. Haagen Dazs has a few new flavors, and while they are not Jeni’s, they are super tasty. I picked up 2 pints last week, the Mayan Chocolate, which is dark chocolate with cinnamon, and the caramelized pear and toasted pecan , which is one of the best store bought ice creams I have ever had. The pear is apparently a limited edition, so I would highly recommend picking up some as soon as possible. Your life will be made better by these ice creams.
2. I was listening to the Lightening Seeds while on a short road trip with Oliver. The Lightening Seeds were one of my favorite bands during the period between the second semester of my sophomore and junior years of high school. I like to bring back past loves for the nostalgia value occasionally, and I had the funniest memory come back to me when Joy came on. I had just turned 17, it was the second semester of my junior year, and I was spending the night a friend’s house whose dad was out of town for the weekend (she lived with just her dad). Her boyfriend had abruptly broken up with her in the totally devastating way the 17 year old boys were accustomed to doing. When I got there she was wrecked, crying and listening to Joy over and over again; it was a cassette, which meant that she had to keep rewinding it. I told her that she had enough of the self torture, took the tape, put in the Ramones and we made cocktails with Hi-C Boppin’Berry juice boxes and vodka, got a little bit buzzed and watched Valley Girl 3 times in a row. It was one of the first few times I had ever drank, and I remember having that excited and slightly scary feeling of having a bit of autonomy that happens when teenagers are first left to themselves.
3. I was giddy in that memory when we got back from our short trip only to have it ruined by the sounds of “A Prairie Home Companion”. We stream WBEZ on Saturday mornings; the line up is just perfect: Car Talk, Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me, Sound Opinions, This American Life, and Re-Sound. It is so good, it is hard to leave the house, so we find reasons to putz around, listening all morning. I left the stream going while out, so it was on when I got back. I had to feed Oliver so I did not have time to shut the stream off; I was forced to listen to the show for about a half an hour. I have never really listened to "A Prairie Home Companion" before and it is truly an awful show. I have never been a fan of Garrison Keillor, and now I like him even less.

Naptime Schmaptime

Household tip #1

A few days ago I splattered some bleach on my favorite pair of charcoal grey pants. I haphazardly seized upon a moment to clean up the kitchen while wearing said pants, and the catastrophe occurred. It made me a bit sad, and not being too crafty, I wondered how I could save them. If these were black pants, I would have dotted over the spots with my trusty chunky Sharpie, like I have done many times in the past, with decent results. But these were not black, they were grey, and Sharpie does not make a trusty charcoal grey chunky marker (damn them). Suddenly it occurred to me that I could try to turn my favorite pair of charcoal grey pants into my favorite pair of black pants with some dye! Genius, I know. I bought some black RIT dye and read the instructions very carefully. I am really not very crafty, I am prone to using super clue to fix ripped seams, and using Sharpies, staples, etc on my clothes, so using some RIT dye put me right up there with Martha in my mind. I did learn how to use a sewing machine, once, in home economics in junior high, but the effect was less than mental floss. According to the instructions, you need to use the whole bottle of the dye with a pound of fabric, so I gathered up some of my older comfy black tee shirts and yoga pants to throw in with the catastrophe pants. The result was beautiful, seriously. I am totally impressed, and feeling so super crafty…not Ready Made crafty, but above super glue crafty. My pants look really good black, and the charcoal seams did not dye, and made this really cool look, and my old black clothes look brand new. I am just so proud of my handy little homemaker self!

Learning to eat

So far, the hardest part about being a parent has been teaching Oliver how to eat. Swallowing food does not come naturally to babies, and I am not quite sure of the best way to communicate this to the little man. It is proving to be a riot of a learning experience. Babies can be such little drunken monkeys sometimes, it is total comedy.

It is so bizarre

There are squirrels running all over the neighborhood and all over the Chambana area. I keep wondering what squirrel poop must look like, and why have I never seen it? My whole life, I have lived where there are loads of squirrels, and I have never seen their poop, nor seen proof of it. So mysterious.