The Working Mom

Took this photo a few weeks ago at the annual Hot Air Balloon festival they have here. For some reason, the weekend they schedule this event has consistently seen bad weather – either high winds, rain, lightning. And it’s the one week of the summer that’s consistently bad like that. Makes me wonder why they don’t move the date. You’d think they’d see the pattern there…?

I can’t believe summer is coming to an end. Rachel starts school next week. I had wanted to go camping this summer, and make a small trip up to visit Portland, OR to see if we maybe want to move there. Good or bad, Sam was supposed to be laid off at the end of July and they ended up extending him 2 more months. So the time off we thought we’d have during the summer disappeared. Don’t get me wrong, health coverage and salary are good things – so I’m not complaining. I just wish the summer could extend to when he WILL be officially laid off so we could try to make lemonade out of the lemons we’ll be getting.

WordCamp is just 11 days away (but who’s counting). I still feel good about my presentation, but I am nervous. I don’t know the audience so I have no idea if I’m going to be talking over everyone’s heads, or going over the obvious. (or both) Also, Matt Mullenweg will be there. I’m really psyched about that. I feel like some things are coming full circle – A few years ago, Matt asked me to speak at a panel at SXSW and I turned it down. I feel kind of stupid having done that, but at the time, I was working for a company (not for myself, might have been more inclined to do it otherwise), as well, it meant having to travel there by plane and speak in front of people (obviously) – my two worst phobias: flying and public speaking – all rolled up into one. Anyway, I’m glad I was able to get over at least one of those fears in order to take this on.

Zachary has been fascinated with printable masks recently. He colors them in and then wants to wear them, of course. The problem I’ve run into though is making it so the mask will stay on his face. We’ve tried string, but it doesn’t take much to pull the string right off the mask – usually ripping the paper (and inducing much crying from Zachary). And the string is just a pain to work with in general.

Side story: A few months ago, I had taken Rachel in to get her eyes checked. (She had been complaining about vision issues) They put drops in her eyes and then gave her these “disposable sunglasses” to wear until the drops wore off. Basically it was just a flimsy shaded piece of plastic with these adjustable (and detachable) cardboard “ear hooks.” For some reason, the contraption fascinated me so I saved it. Those sunglasses were lying on my desk when yet another one of Zach’s printable masks ripped.

*Lightbulb moment* – what if I used those ear hooks as a template, and cut out new ones (so I’d be able to keep the original), and just taped the ear hooks on the paper mask so they’re in just the right place to fit over his ears. (You can cut little slits – just the size of the ear hook arm, and adjust the size then tape in place.)

It worked perfectly! I scanned the ear hooks in and recreated the outline using Illustrator. If you use them for your kid’s masks I would recommend printing them onto card stock. (Or printing them out and then using it as a template to cut out the shape from something sturdier than regular paper).

Here it is for your downloading pleasure

Here is Zachary proudly modeling his latest fun mask:

If you’d like to find some fun printable masks for your little one to use with the ear hooks here are a few:

Moshi Monsters – These are very cute little monsters. On that page, if you scroll down, you’ll see the color-in / printable masks. Zach is modeling Diavlo in the picture above.

Activity Village – There’s a few cute animal masks on there – and the site has a bunch of other fun printable activities. Of course, this only helps feed Zach’s printing obsession. (Did I already mention He LOVES printing from the computer!!)

childcareandbeyond.com – There are a bunch of safari themed masks there. My favorite is the Tiger Mask – that one looks really cool.

Fantasy Jr. – Somewhat creepy – but right up Zach’s alley. (Also clicking around there, I found this Dragon Mask – on Animal Jr. (which had a few more cool animal masks) On that Dragon Mask page, it also showed a very cool looking Chinese New Year dragon craft! I know it’s not currently the Chinese New Year, but that dragon looks WAY COOL. We are SO making that very soon!!! – that last site is on Craft Jr., which, as you can imagine, has a bunch of fun kids crafts!)

Nick Jr. has a bunch children masks too, but they’re kind of spread out in different sections. Doing a search on their site though you can see a compiled list.

You have to dream. If you don’t dream you can never learn what it is you want, you can never define your goals. You have to open up your mind to what may seem impossible. You have to be willing to believe that good things can come your way.

The fact of the matter is that most of the time, reality sucks. There’s bills to pay, risks threatening on your every turn. If all you do is focus on reality, you will never move forward. If all you do is focus on the problems that might come up, you will never improve your existence. If you are thrilled with the way things are, then maybe this is okay. Stagnation in itself is not a problem. But if you are not happy, then you have to make change. Life it too short to live it in fear of what might happen, or protecting what you have because you’re afraid to take a risk.

I’m not saying throw caution to the wind and jump off a bridge – but calculated risks need to be taken. I do not believe in a higher power, but that doesn’t stop me from believing that somehow things will work out. Somehow, I’ll find a way to fix the problems that might come up. The reward is worth the risk, and the problems that come up can be dealt with if/when they are a reality.

When you dream, you leave the risks out of the picture, you forget reality, and suddenly you can picture what it is that will make you happy. While you may never acheive that dream to the smallest detail, and things will never be perfect, you need that dream to help define a goal and give you the direction you need to head to.

You also need to continue to dream as you work towards acheiving your goal. By doing so, you allow yourself to adjust your course and fine tune your goal or change directions if you need to. (Sometimes the grass may just seem greener on the other side, and if so, once you start realizing that – change your course).

Because we are human, we are all too aware of the possibility of our own demise. Some completely ignore it – some live in fear of it and by doing so have trouble truly living. There is a happy medium in there somewhere. That is why dreams are so wonderful. Explore the impossible in your dream. Ignore reality just for the moment. You have to know what’s on the other side before you can plot the course to get there.

Faint heart never won fair lady.

When the news broke out about Tiger Woods, honestly I really didn’t care. It was none of my business. He wants to go sleep around, the tabloids report about it. Certainly I thought a lot less of him, but I didn’t have my nose glued to every article about it because I really could care less. (And actually, I would have been fine if they taked a little less about it. Is the news really THIS slow that Tiger’s love life is the most interesting thing to report about?)

BUT I did happen to notice an article this morning about other “disgraced” athletes – Time magazine lists their “Top 10“. Tiger is of course at the top. But what I’m confused about is that O.J. Simpson is number 3. Wait a minute. So a guy that everyone pretty much suspects got away with murder is number THREE. That doesn’t even qualify for making the number one spot?? People really confuse me.

So I finally got out for my clothes shopping spree. As it turns out, I’m not a size 10…. I’m a size 8. (!!!) My initial reaction was “NO FREAKING WAY!” and then I remembered… I’m being played. Big time. Do you remember hearing about that whole “vanity sizing” thing. Oh, yeah. Bummer! Well, the truth is I have *never* been a size 8. I remember when I was in college, and I went through a starvation diet phase – I managed to get myself down to a size 9. I bought a pair of jeans. Neither the diet or that size lasted very long.

So in the last few years, they’ve changed the size scale. But still – I’m sticking with the fact that the last time I had to buy a pair of jeans (which was in 2005 or 2006) I was buying size 16 jeans. I can’t believe the size scale changed since then (if it did, SHUSH! I don’t want to hear about it!) There is also the issue that I tried on jeans from Costco, Walmart (Levi brand), Old Navy, and in all cases the size 10 were too big – size 8 fit. So unless they’re all trying to play to my ego, could I have really gotten down to a size 8?? Being that I am still a size 16 in my head – as far as I’m concerned, this is all just a cruel joke the world is playing on me.

I’ll never know the truth. Either way, I have jeans that fit me, they’re not falling off. They’re flattering, and I feel good in them. That’s all that really matters.

Updated: Actually, I may need to bring these jeans back. :/ The stupid sizing is pissing me off. After wearing them for a few hours they feel too loose. I’m not sure if they’ll shrink or not… but with the vanity sizing these companies have done, and with the weight I’ve lost, I’m just totally confused what I should be wearing. I wish they had a simple chart that would tell you what size to buy based on what your measurements are. Screw generic sizes!!

Maybe it’s not really Spaghetti Squash’s fault. We don’t normally give ourselves our own name. But to whoever gave Spaghetti Squash it’s name has misled an army of dieters.

I dare you to go on a diet forum and make a post that says something like “I know I could do a better job sticking to my diet if I could just eat more pasta!” You will, I can almost guarantee it, bring out some well-meaning but misinformed person who will happily give you this golden piece of advice “Have you tried Spaghetti Squash!”

I have desperately tried to embrace Spaghetti Squash, and I have desperately tried to fool myself into believing that it could replace spaghetti, and coming to the cold hard conclusion that no matter how hard I try – Spaghetti Squash is as far from it’s pasta namesake as green beans is from chocolate. Really. When someone pipes in and says “Have you tried Spaghetti Squash?!” I feel like responding “No. I haven’t eaten poop yet either, but I’m pretty sure it’s not spaghetti either!” (No, I don’t say that but I think it really loud)

Maybe it’s my fault too. I’m such a horrible cook. If I could make delicious homemade healthy dinners, deiting and healthy living would be so much easier. Instead, I grab a recipe for Spaghetti Squash off the internet. And I dress up the VEGETABLE (It IS a vegetable. Vegetable != Pasta!!!! M’kay?) like it’s a drag queen pasta dish, and it tastes simply awful.

So my final conclusion. Spaghetti Squash: You only vaguely resemble spaghetti in shape, but you are nothing like the goodness that is carb-filled pasta. You don’t taste like spaghetti. You don’t smell like spaghetti. If you cook just a minute too long you become a mushy mess and then you don’t even come close to looking like spaghetti. YOU, my fine veggie friend, are an imposter of the worst kind. You make people think they can eat a spaghetti dish that has next to no calories. You fill my dinner with dreams and promises and then you don’t deliver. You are a charlatan. A fraud!!

I dare any of you to come up with a recipe using spaghetti squash that 1) I can make without screwing up, 2) I can make quickly because not only do I suck at cooking, I hate doing it too, so the sooner I’m out of the kitchen and into the dinning room the better, and 3) that doesn’t taste like poo. I dare you. Because I know it can’t be done. HA!

(Just a side note – I am still sick (feeling ok but apparently still have a fever) and still bedroom quarantined. So, because I’m thoroughly bored, here’s what I do for fun. I exercise my brain).

I’ve been having an email conversation with a friend of mine and my dad. My dad, before he retired, was a high school science teacher, he also taught astronomy and continues to be fascinated by it. He sends me emails every now and then with heads-up about various cosmological events: A meteor shower (like we had a few days ago), the visibility of a passing space station overhead, a comet, etc. I’ve been sharing these emails with a friend of mine. The latest email was a link to a video which was absolutely amazing. You have to watch this:

My Dad originally said that perhaps the narrator was wrong in saying that the galaxies were traveling away faster than the speed of light, as anything with mass could not travel faster than the speed of light. A friend of my father’s responded that actually, the narrator is correct because it is not just the fact the galaxies are traveling away – but that the distance in between is expanding, because the universe itself is expanding. (If your brain is starting to hurt – this is how I “picture” this to try and understand it: you know in those horror movies, where the person has to run down a hallway to get away, and as they start running, the hallway strangely gets stretched out and longer… it’s kind of like that)

So this started a long thread of why can’t something (or can something) travel faster than the speed of light and why? Still need to be confirmed on my understanding, but I think it has to do with the belief that as an object’s speed increases, so does it’s mass (still don’t understand why this is) and thus the energy to maintain/increase it’s speed – as you reach the speed of light, the mass increases infinitely as does the required energy – all of which are impossible to produce. But this only deals with objects with mass – Light does not have mass – so it can travel at lightspeed. And what about other things that do not have mass… What about radio waves? Sound waves travel slower than the speed of light.

Then the question of why sound travels so slowly – and that one I think I understand to be because sound is not it’s own “thing” – sound waves are patterns in the air and air particles (or other particles of material that can continue the wave pattern). Without the air or particles (for example like in a vaccuum) – there is no sound. So “sound” is dependent on these other particles for it’s “movement”. (And this movement is just slower than light’s movement) Also, just an added piece of information – as you get further away from the sound’s source, the waves get longer. Think of a pebble being dropped in water – the ripples it forms and how it dissipates the further out it gets.

Later when I was talking to my Dad he added a brief explanation of what “red shift” is (it’s mentioned in the video). Just like sound waves get longer the further away you are (remember that pebble in the water – how the ripples get stretched out the further away you are – or think about an ambulance siren as it passes you, when it’s up close, it’s a higher pitch. As it speeds away the pitch seems to get lower) Light waves also get stretched out the further away you are. With sound, you don’t have to be very far away before it shifts like that, but with light, it is a LONG LONG distance (think millions of light years away) before that shift happens. (Red light waves on the ROYGBV – red, orange, yellow, green blue, violet – spectrum are the longest wave – like that lower pitch in the siren.) So when light shifts over distance, it shifts to the red.

Anyway, you get the idea. So my dad sent over one link which had a great explanation of how the universe is expanding. Even I understood it! LOL! I love discussions like this. I feel like my BRAIN expands. But, there’s definitely a breaking point where I reach my limit of understanding and tune the rest out. That blog looks to be full of some great information. I’ll have to read through it in small chunks so my brain doesn’t expand to exploding. LOL!

Also if your brain is hungry for more: This has some more detailed information about that video above.