As Seen On TV

A few weeks ago, I did something I have never done before. I ordered something I saw advertised on TV on one of those cheesy commercials. I ordered the Debbie Meyer Green Bags. The commercial must have just been on during one of those times when I was particularly angry about my produce going bad because I bit. I was a bit skeptical of course because the commercials are so cheesy and so is the website. Plus I’m not altogether sure that the website is secure for ordering with your credit card. But I was THAT mad about rotting strawberries that I didn’t give a shit. I just ordered. (Then I got clued in to the fact that you can now buy them at Walgreen’s and Target so I’m kind of kicking myself for my knee-jerk reaction.)

My main complaint about them is their shape. The package comes with two sizes, medium and a large, but they are long rather than wide. This is fine for loose fruit like cherries or berries, but it’s really hard to get grapes in them unless you pull them off the stem. And if you can find the time to pull all your grapes off the stem to store them, I salute you. Or I give you the finger. Maybe the one finger salute. I’d really like to see them shaped more like the traditional zip top bags you can buy at the store. The commercial shows a head of iceberg lettuce being stored in them and I have no clue how anyone would get a round head of lettuce into one of these long skinny bags.

One of the first things we tried in them was a big bag of cherries. We had them for well over a week and they were still as fresh as the day I bought them. There are, of course, a few caveats. First, you have to start with dry produce. No putting wet produce in them. So if you choose to wash the fruit before putting it away, you better let it sit out to dry thoroughly, except letting fruit sit out sort of defeats the purpose, no? Also if you have say a strawberry or a blueberry that is already going south, it does no good. So check the fruit and don’t put anything already bruised in them. And I just chuck the stuff in there and wash what I need as I use it. I have always done that with produce so that is really no change in routine for me.

But my favorite thing about them is what they do for bananas. We go through a lot of bananas around here, as I suspect many homes with toddlers do. I always end up at the store mid-week for more bananas because they go bad well before we can eat them all.  I had heard that if you separate your bananas rather than leaving them in the bunch, they spoil slower, and that is somewhat true. But if you separate them and put them into these Green Bags, you will be amazed at how long they last.

One little picky thing, though is that on the commercial and on the website they show tomatoes on the bags in the fridge. Tomatoes do not EVER go in the refrigerator unles they have been cut. A whole tomato will get all puckery in the fridge, but leave it on the counter and it stays fresh. Now, I’m not saying you can’t put your tomatoes in a Green Bag,  just not a Green Bag in the fridge. No way, no how. But I have a laundry list of nit-picky things like this about the kitchen storage and cleaning and such. Don’t get me started on that. It just makes me look crazy.

Cupcakes Like Crack

Ever since Sprinkles Beverly Hills came to Dallas, we’ve had it a few times. In my opinion, it’s ok. I don’t think it’s the end all be all of existence but if we happen to be around there, and there is time, there is no reason not to stop in. Some of the varieties that I’ve tried, I’ve flat out disliked. In general, I tend not to like most frosting, but I really don’t like most of their frosting. My normal favorite is cinnamon sugar, which has no frosting at all.

But today, after our trip to the lawyer to get our wills signed and notarized, we felt that lunch was warranted and since we were there, a stop at Sprinkles was in order. And they had a new flavor which I just HAD to try. Chocolate Marshmallow. It’s a chocolate cupcake with marshmallow cream in the center, and frosted with chocolate ganache. This might be one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. It’s like a Ding Dong only much much much better. The chocolate in it is dark chocolate which I don’t even like, and I like this cupcake. I’ll be back down there next Saturday for a pre-beach wax and I think I’ll be buying about sixty of those suckers. Forgive me Trainer Dave, for I have sinned.

On an unrelated note, Bridget fell out of her toddler bed twice last night. The first time, we heard “Thump…. WAAAAH!” (deja vu all over again) and went up to find her sitting on the floor bawling her little eyes out. She was not hurt, just scared. It took me a while to get her calmed enough to go back to sleep but she did. Then about 1 a.m. I heard the THUMP again. But no crying. When I went in to her, she was standing up with the most pissed off look on her face. It was not pretty after that, she cried for at least half an hour. I tried to explain to her that if she kept her head on the pillow, she would not fall out of bed. Must have worked because she has not fallen out since. Who knew she was so practical?

Safety First?

How do you put a price on the safety of your child? Where do you draw the line? We all know that you do everything you can to keep your child safe, but at what cost, both financial and psychological?

Our house is baby-proofed but within reason. We can’t figure out a solution for the top of our stairs because the wall and the banister are not lined up - no gate we have found can do the job without serious construction work. So we have opted to just keep Bridget away from the top of the stairs. She is never up there without us and we have to rely on that. We do keep a gate at the bottom of the stairs and use cabinet latches. But we can’t keep those corner guards on the edges of the coffee table because Bridget pulls them right off and chews on them. So we have to do our best to teach her to be careful and try to keep her from running near it. We can’t get rid of the coffee table. I guess we could but we choose not to because we don’t want to live that way. It even has glass in it! I know you think I’m a horrible mom but I refuse to get rid of it.

There you have some instances where we have made a decision about our daughter’s safety that is not of the “we’ll do anything including covering every surface of the house in bubble wrap and sleeping on air mattresses on the floor” variety.

I did check that the plastics in our house that Bridget uses are BPA free. But I confess that I don’t know the difference between a pthalate and a paraben. I shallowly use California Baby wash on Bridget because I like the smell. I keep meaning to replace her lotion with something “safer” but haven’t yet. Why? I can’t say. I guess because I just haven’t run out of lotion and needed to buy more. I don’t think the hoop-lah is made up; I believe that until we can know for sure these things are safe without a doubt, it’s just better to be safe than sorry. And yet, I have not banished these chemicals from my house. There is even a wonderful site out there to help with this endeavor. Go visit the lovely ladies at Safe Mama to get started. One of these days I will finish what I’ve started.

So I’ve shared my dirty little chemical secret. And yet, one thing has me up on my safety high horse.

Tonight, Jake and I decided that it was probably a better idea for me to drive his car, a sedan, around on my many errands during the day since it gets much better gas mileage than the SUV. Except that Jake’s car does not have a car seat in it. We just always make sure that if Bridget travels, it’s in the SUV. For her usual car seat, I spent hours researching the safety ratings and spent a significant amount of money on the seat. I never bought a second one because I didn’t want that much money tied up in two car seats, one of which would never get used. But now, it seems necessary. I surely don’t want to be lugging that thing from the car in the garage to the one in front of the house.

To that end, I set out on the quest for a second car seat, but a less expensive one. And I just couldn’t do it. I could not bring myself to buying anything other than the seat I had satisfied myself has the highest safety rating. I mean, if something were to ever happen to Bridget while riding in a car seat that I felt I cheaped out on, I could never forgive myself. I’d always wonder if I could have saved her if I’d just spent that extra money.

Why do I have a bug up my butt about the car seats, when I have just admitted to the whole internet that I am a slacker on baby gates and edge cushions and chemicals? Is it because the effect of a car seat is more immediate and undeniable, whereas the chemical thing is more abstract and someday? But how does that explain the lack of a gate at the top of the stairs? These are all important questions.

Tell me, what are your parenting or environmental hot topics and what do you blow off that other people worry about?

Sunday Show and Tell #4

I’m still on my travel tangent this week. But this time I’m all about preparation. Today we went to The Container Store to buy two things. One hour and $170 later, we emerged triumphant. We got the two things, of course, and so much more.

They are having a travel sale and did a groovy little demonstration of some of the products. Jake was really impressed with a few things and since I had missed most of the presentation walking around with Bridget, he asked one of the presenters to show me again. And this thing? This kicks ass!

Let me go on record here and admit that I am the world’s worst packer. Thankfully I married the world’s best. When we go on trips together, I always just pile all my stuff up and Jake packs it all for me. It’s very handy. The only problem is that when we arrive, I never know where anything in the suitcase is. But it’s a small price to pay. Anyway, if this product impressed Jake, a very seasoned traveler, it had to be cool.

This is the Pack-It Folder. The gist of it is this: It has a board to help you fold your shirts, pants, etc. perfectly and then you can put several items and it keeps them folded flat and unwrinkled. This particular one will hold I believe 12 items. I always have issue with packing because unlike most men, I don’t know what I’m going to want to wear each day and I like to have options should plans or weather or my mood change. But when space is at such a premium, I end up leaving things I want to bring in an effort to save space. But now with this lovely invention, I can bring more options in the same amount of space if not less.

Now, if I can just figure out how to trim down my bathroom products. I hate being such a stereotypical girl, but I use a lot of things. I don’t just use toothpaste and deodorant. But I got some goodies at TCS today that will hopefully help.

Now I’m all ready for Mexico. At least, I have all my travel products.

Prickly Situation

Lately, I’ve been trying to find an alternative to shaving. I don’t mind shaving. I don’t cut myself or anything. But lately, even though  my legs feel smooth, you can see the little speckles of the hair beneath the surface of the skin. So even if I have just shaved, you wouldn’t necessarily think so to look at my legs.

The other day I did a test with some tweezers, and it seems to work - the hair was gone and no tell-tale black spot there. But there’s no way I have time to tweeze the hair on my legs. That’s like bailing out Titanic with a thimble. Yesterday I bought an epilator. I tried it out and I have a mixed review. It hurts, I won’t lie. But it’s not unbearable. The other complaint I have is really not the fault of the product. I think my hair wasn’t quite long enough to work right. But it was do-or-die time with the hair. I was about to cut Jake when he rubbed his legs against mine in bed at night. So I had to go over and over some spots to get the hair to come out, when I probably should have waited another day or two.

I’m reserving judgment for now. Right now, I have some red splotches that I assume will go away soon. If this doesn’t work, I’ll have to think about waxing my legs. I don’t mind that since I doubt it will hurt very much. But it will take a long time, don’t you think? I’ve never tried it. I’ll keep you posted. I know you’ll be waiting on pins and needles.

We are a Wii Family Now

Yesterday we went a little bit crazy and bought a Wii. The most amazing part of this story is that I was the one who wanted to do it. But it looks like a lot of fun and maybe something we could do together, rather than having Jake upstairs on his gaming computer (yes, he has one computer - the only PC in the house - specifically for playing games).

I have only gotten to mess with it just a little bit but I really like it. I don’t imagine you’ll find us playing guitars or anything but so far we’ve had fun with bowling and baseball. I have my eye on the boxing though. That’s got to work out some aggression, don’t you think?

A Product Review of Sorts

When I was last at the dentist, the hygienist gave me a gentle slap on the wrist when I told her of my unbridled love of Listerine. She told me that the alcohol in it dries out your gums. That doesn’t sound good, does it? She told me instead to use Crest Pro-Health rinse because it’s just as effective but contains no alcohol. Since I’m uber sensitive about my teeth lately, you know, because I’m spending like five grand to fix my jaw and bite and smile, I’m inclined to do what she tells me. Except floss my teeth. Don’t look at me like that. I last flossed my teeth on Christmas Eve when Jake was sick and Bridget was in bed and I was staying up late to work. But seriously with braces it takes me 45 minutes to floss. I’m not exaggerating either - I timed it. I don’t have 45 minutes at night to floss, but next time I do, you bet I’ll get right to it.

Pardon my tangent.

Anyway, I started to use this rinse and I can’t decide if I like it or not. It still stings a bit, but not quite as badly as the Listerine. But honestly, isn’t the pain of Listerine like a dental form of self-flagellation? Like a little bit of masochistic  bedtime behavior that you’re not embarrassed to tell your family about.  This stuff leaves the weirdest taste in my mouth. Or maybe it’s more of a feeling than a taste. It’s hard to say. And it lasts for hours, this taste/feeling. No matter what I eat or drink, my mouth still feels sanitized. It’s good in some ways, namely it really makes you not want to eat since everything is going to taste weird.  Which is good if you want to reduce your caloric intake. But eventually you could get scurvy and lose all your teeth which would defeat the purpose entirely. So instead, I just use it at bedtime, rather than both at bedtime and in the morning.

The best thing about that is I have excellent morning breath. It’s amazing. Like crazy fresh morning breath. To the point that if I were to forget to brush my teeth in the morning, you probably would not ever know it. Not that I would ever do such a horrific thing. I mean who does that? Forgets to brush their teeth. Sheesh. Gross. OK so I’ve done it a time or two in my life. But not in the last year.

So weighing pros and cons - an odd feeling-taste that makes you not want to eat or drink versus the excellent morning breath.  Help cut caloric intake versus getting scurvy and losing all your teeth. I’m still on the fence. I’ll have to get back to you.

This was really helpful, wasn’t it? You don’t have to thank me. I help because I love.

I Don’t Feel Like a Diva

First, if any of you reading this post have a penis, I suggest you click away now. Seriously.

OK, now that we got rid of the men folk, I wanted to share that I recently bought a Diva Cup. The reasons for this are varied  and as much as I’d like to say that it was purely for environmental reasons, that would be a lie. That was a big plus, don’t get me wrong, but the main reasons had more to do with the fact that I’ve been getting these chronic yeast infections and frankly, there may be some link to tampon usage in that. (If there were any men reading this despite the warning, that plume of smoke you just saw was them running away to scrub their eyes of the words they just read.)

So I bought the thing and waited until it was time to use it. Today was that day. Another kick in the ass by the gods, I might say after yesterday’s adventure, but I long ago learned not to take getting my period as a personal affront.  And I’m just not sure. I don’t seem to be…. doing it right. I have no trouble with insertion, like I thought I would, but I can’t get it situated right. It’s not uncomfortable at all, and I don’t mind the removal and all that, but since I don’t get it situated correctly, it leaks.

I’m reserving judgment. I’ve got too much going on in my head right now to worry about this. I’ll go back to the prior methods and try again when I’m not wound up this tightly.

Did I mention that when I bought the thing, it came with a commemorative lapel pin? So we can identify each other on the street? “Oh, are you a Diva? I’m a Diva too! Let’s go drink some General Foods International Coffees and discuss our cycles!” Well, maybe after next time I can proudly wear my pin.

Dear Wedding Guest:

This time seven years ago, you bought me an OXO salad spinner. I know this because the item was marked as “purchased” on my bridal registry. (I understand that you were under no obligation whatsoever to purchase a gift from the registry, and would have been thrilled with whatever choice of a gift you might have made, be it on a registry or not.) However, I am a bit confused because now, seven years later, no OXO salad spinner has made its way into my cabinet. I can only imagine that when you purchased the item, you immediately saw its usefulness and innate coolness and decided that you simply must have it for your very own. I can’t say that I blame you. It is very useful and cool. Or so I imagine it might be. But since I don’t actually own one, I can’t say for certain.

At this point, I’m in a quandary and seek the counsel only you can provide. Should I go ahead and shell out the $24.99 (strangely, the same price it has been since it was added to my registry) for my own salad spinner? Or do I hold out hope that the one purchased all those years ago will show up on my doorstep, maybe delivered by Tom Hanks after it kept him company when his FedEx plane crashed on a desert island? Every time I pass the salad spinners at Target, I wonder about this. And every time I serve soggy salad I wish that I had one.

I realize at this point, you probably just feel weird about the whole thing.  I don’t mean to call you out or anything. I just want dry salad.

But if you decided to replace the salad spinner with a large check, then forget I said anything.

Love and smooches,
Spuddy Buddy

Score!

First of all, you guys ROCK! Thanks so much for all your help and tips on finding baby pants for my skinny minnie.

Today I took a trip to Old Navy. I had looked online over the weekend, and saw tons of cute things but none of the information online mentions the adjustable waist in the pants for Bridget’s size (12-18 months) so I didn’t want to order online. But when I was in the store, the angels sang and I found so many pants with the adjustable waist! Unfortunately they were out of a lot of the pants in 12-18 months, but that’s ok.

I spent a ridiculous amount of money but I got a ton of stuff and it was all cheap, and Bridget is really now outfitted for a good long time. The pants are a bit long but they can be rolled up and I’ll probably get a lot of wear out of them.

So thanks so much for all your tips. I have a lot of options now!