My Political Message of the Day

As many of you know, our dear friends and the god-mommies of our children, Carin and Hillary, were legally married this past June. With overflowing tears of joy, Jason and I were honored to be part of this amazing day when two people that love each deeply were finally able to come together as wives.

Now the legality of their marriage is being threatened by Prop 8 on November’s ballot.

The supporters of Prop 8 have launched a 20 million dollar ad campaign that is hitting this week. The ad I saw this morning had a person proclaimed the “horrifying news” that they will now have to teach about gay marriage in schools! With the economic crises, lack of available and affordable health care and the many other real and pertinent issues facing us this election year, the fact that this is even an issue amazes me.

But No on Prop 8 needs help to rebuke these ads. No On 8 is leading the campaign to DEFEAT the ballot measure that is intending to amend the California Constitution to PROHIBIT marriage for same-sex couples.

If you can, please take a few minutes to donate a few dollars to No on Prop 8 – anything helps and everything is appreciated!

Please click on the link below to join No On 8:

http://eqfed.org/equalityforall/join.html

Consumer spending in Encinitas Up, Thanks to me

It's been awhile since I have truly been excited for the opening of a store. The last time was when H&M finally came to So. Cal., but even still, that doesn't match the giddyness I had when I learned that my coveted Lululemon was moving into my LOCAL shopping center thing-a-ma-bob. The shopping center which is pretty much closer to me than Target is. SWOON.

I've heard the tales of Lulu.. and had the pleasure of shopping one last year in San Fran. Alas, 6 months pregnant and I couldn't quite get the whole experience. But because I'm naturally drawn to insanely over-priced things, of course I've been NEEDING Lululemon pants. Need. Not want. NEED. Physical need. Totally. I swear.

I was practically drooling on the covered-up windows before they opened, and you know it, I went on opening day.

HEAVEN.

Do you have those fantasies of doing yoga and/or pilates and just looking perfect and cute? Perfect pants, cute headband, great ass and perfectly put together? That's the dream that Lululemon helps you achieve. Well, maybe not the perfect ass, but it made my ass look a helluva' lot better.. YEE HAW. Worth it right there!

I was worried that it was a mistake taking Jason with me. I thought his eyes would pop out of his head when he saw the price tags on things and give me that "If you spend $ on that I will divorce you and take the kids" look. But thanks to the all hot yogafied, spandexed chics running around, I walked out of the dressing room and he said "You look good! Get 'em!"

The thing was, they were a size 6 so that pretty much insured my purchase with or without his consent.

So Welcome to Carlsbad Lululemon - I'm sure that you will be taking a lot of my hard earned dollars from my bank (if I still have a bank..) in the upcoming years of our relationship.

Dear Blog

Dear Blog,

I'm going to start off by saying that right now, I'm afraid of you. There. I said it.

It's been 3 weeks since my last post, and I'm not sure what to do now. Do I just post like I've been posting everyday? Do I explain/excuse my absence? Can we go on the same way or have things changed drastically now that we've been apart for so long? Or are things different and strained. Do you no longer look at me the same way? Am I going censor myself and feel awkward telling you things? Or can I go back to being myself.

See, you kinda violated me. My relationship with parts of the internets has been bruised and while I'm trying to put on a smiley face and move forward, but can I treat you the same way?

I guess I'm going to try.

Moving forward. Talking to you again. In any spare time I may have between my 30 hours work week, 2 kids, karate, swim lessons, t-ball and life in general.

XOXO

HMBGirl

pics!

www.flickr.com SDBeth's September 2008 photoset

Taken... again.

Damn you - you marketing types! With all your words, and expressions and phrases that make me feel like I NEED something. Not just want it, not just think it's cool, but NEED it. A need that stems from the pit of stomach and erupts from my head in a fiery mess.

I am the ULTIMATE consumer. I love things. All kinds of things. Things that will make my life better, my hair shiny, my skin glowier, my baby less messy and way cuter. I am a marketer myself, so I read all the labels and get physically excited when I see something that may be the answer to all my problems and desires. Like heart palpitations excited.

Yes, Insane, blah blah blah, I know.

Last week I made a stop at Babies R Us, which if you have been lucky enough never been to, is like Baby Mecca. You need it or want it, they have it. Except for the car seat that we needed last October, but whatever. They have it all. My Dad exasperated for 20 minutes after visiting one for the first time. The man who traveled across EU on a Norton and bathed in the Ganges river in India in the 60's kept going on and on about how his "mind was blown by that store". Go figure.

Zoe, now almost 10 months (sniff..sniff) is eating up a storm these days. She's almost, dare I say it, chubby. That girl will eat ANYTHING you put in front of her from noodles to tandoori chicken. (wow, 2 references to India in one post!) The one product I DESPISED with Lucas was the high chair we registered for. To put it frankly it was a messy piece of shit. From week one of watery rice cereal I wanted to throw it out the window. I moved Lucas to a booster as soon as I could. So imagine my detest when I had to pull out that old, blue POS to feed my precious baby girl in. But alas, I was told that I could not drop $200 on the Svan. So, instead I bought a pretty cute, basic little wood highchair from Ikea. It's perfect, but it is also tray-less, which honestly not the end of the world since it pushes up nicely to the edge of our (also Ikea) kitchen table. It even matches. The only down fall is that the mess is not contained to the tray. Stuck on bananas and cheerios end up all over... surely SOMEONE must make a product to solve this problem?! Shopping to the rescue again!

The first thing I seek out is the Kiddopotamus Tiny Diner mat . It sticks! It catches! Its won a couple of awards! It sucks!

Why does it suck? Well, the "tight suction to the table".. yea. Hmm. Lookie there. The 9 month old could pull it up, thus spilling Joes O's on the floor and crying because, WTF? She's hungry and I give her a plastic mat.

My thought was, "wow, I put the mat down on the table, then I just pick up and clean the mat!" Sounds good, right? No. The truth is, I have to scrub the shit out of clean the mat, clean up the mess under the mat from where the baby pulled the mat up and squashed bananas on, clean up the high chair, and clean the floor from the tossed about O's since we have the ONLY dog in the world that turns his nose up at baby tossed cereal.

All this and it's only 8:30 am.

So at lunch, I decide to try out my next item of easy eating, the Boon Catch Bowl. Listen to the description and tell me it doesn't sound like it may solve all the worlds greatest problems:

The Catch Bowl is the perfect way to help first-time eaters control little spills. The built-in food catcher extends toward the child, funneling runaway food back into the bowl. Made from easy-to-clean soft material, the food catcher flexes when bumped. To help avoid bigger spills, a suction cup bottom keeps the Catch Bowl firmly in place.

Key words: control spills, keeps firmly in place, easy to CLEAN. Ok, I will give it that one - dishwasher = easy. The rest. ALL SHITE.

I pushed that sucka down hard. I jiggled it. It seemed secure. Zoe looked up at me questioningly and sweetly reached in an picked up a few puffs and smiled at me.

I turned around to get lunch for me and heard "pop" and "clack clack"

Another mess. Another $15 down the drain.