Brain Dump

There's been nothing super worthy of a whole blog post going on this week, but lots of little things of which I'd like to take note.  First up - my friend Suzy stopped by a few days ago with a gallon of Chick Fil A lemonade and this:

You just gotta love having friends like that!

I picked up this book today because Bubba was watching videos on my phone.  That was a little before 1:00 pm.  I finished it a little before 6:00 pm.  It's that good.  There were a few bathroom/snuggle/snack/discussions about Thomas the Tank Engine's activities/water breaks in there too.

Yeah.  I read FAST.  I'm not one of those people who just skims either.  I read every word and have excellent reading comprehension - at least, I did when they used to give us those standardized tests in school.  ;)  I'm lucky in that respect.

I read something online this week where someone called herself an "avid reader" because she had read 24 books in the past two years.  That's not an avid reader.  That's a lackadaisical one who likes books.  Still, it's better than being one of those people who "isn't into books" because "they have more interesting things to do."  Um... so do I, but I still read.  Better to not be one of those dummies (and yes, I've met them) who actually brag that they've NEVER read a book.  How is that even possible?  How is this a point of pride?

There was this one line that jumped out at me as I was reading:

My husband and I were having a - shall we say, disagreement? - a few days ago when I uttered pretty much that EXACT sentence.  It is HARD and CONSTANT work being me.  I have this illness and I pretty much have to fight it all the freaking time just so I can seem normal and no one will believe me or remember that I have this illness!  I can't even take anything for it right now.  UGH.

A few pages later there was another blurb that got me - "I know there is nothing to panic about.  And that's exactly what makes it so much worse."  This is why people with anxiety disorders/depression/OCD want to beat the shit out of people who tell them stuff like "just relax!" or "let it go!"

Maybe that's just me.


I ordered this cutie from Etsy last week.  How could I resist?  I take surveys online and for each one I do I get three bucks put in my PayPal account.  I only get two or three a month (if I'm lucky) so it's not like it's a whole lot of money, but it paid for this and it pays for the occasional iTunes purchase.

We haven't bought a lot of baby toys.  Pretty much just this and Sophie the Giraffe.  I figure we have some stuff from when Bubba was a baby, and babies don't really need a lot of stuff anyway.

My son, being three, doesn't understand that it is possible to WALK places.  He has two basic speeds - running and asleep.  I've been trying to get him to at least walk in the house, and despite repeated falls and crashes, he won't stop.  The other night he totally faceplanted on the living room rug so now he has rug burn on his nose in two spots.  I tried to get a picture of it and this is what happened.

The landscapers came by this week.  They trimmed all the bushes (hooray, because I cannot reach the tops right now!), mowed all the grass, did some weed whacking, and dug out all the grass and weeds in the flower beds out front.  While I will miss my pretty flower bushes, I have to admit they were looking kind of  unruly and besides - the sun had basically fried all the flowers by this point anyway.  We've had pretty consistent over-100-degree-temperatures here the past few weeks.

They laid down weed cloth blocker stuff and put these little plants (which I picked out - they were going to put PALMS in there - GAG) and gravel in their spot.  What would have taken me a couple of weeks to accomplish they managed in just a few hours.

I would have preferred mulch to gravel, but hey - this way I didn't have to pay for it and it does look worlds better.  Also, now no one can complain about the grass in my flower beds, so the HOA can suck it.  The landlord also replaced the faulty sprinkler controls with a new box so they work now and our lawn can be watered.  He also had a roofer out to work on the back patio.  It was sorta starting to show it's age and crumble a bit in spots.  Someone else will be out this weekend to scrape the underside and refinish it.  This place is coming together!

My prompt for the Photo A Day challenge a few days ago was Snack.  This is what I photographed:

I KNOW.  I'm hanging my head in shame, because I truly know better.  Cheese in a can?  That's like, a sin against cheese.  I don't even buy American cheese!  I think Colby is a sad excuse for cheese.  My parmesan must come in a wedge stamped Parmigiano Reggiano on the rind or it's deemed unacceptable to me.  I'm dreaming of a ham, apple and brie panini as my first meal once this baby is born.

Yet, it seems that if I'm pregnant enough, I'm down with the Easy Cheese with Fake Bacon Flavor.  This is the kind my mom used to buy when I was a kid, back before bacon was as trendy as it is now.  Bacon Easy Cheese on Nabisco Bacon Flavored Crackers.  I haven't seen either in a really long time, so when I spied this on the shelf at the Walmarts (OF COURSE) I didn't think twice about grabbing that processed goodness.

It was dang tasty too.