January 13, 2009

I just typed the subject date and realized that today would have been my maternal grandfather's 100th birthday. I always remember his birthday because one year he asked me the trick question - when will be the next time my birthday will fall on Friday the 13th. I thought really long and hard about that before I remembered my birthday is on the 5th. So happy 100th birthday, Grandpa.

Anyway, I meant to open today's blog about a pondering about our global economy. So in this day and age, one can buy an Asian-made child's winter coat on sale for about $35. But when said coat's zipper breaks, one has to take it to an American company and have an American repair it. For about $25-$35. And when you look deeper, you realize this phenomenon is not limited to children's outerwear, but just about all our material goods. It's almost always easier and/or cheaper to replace _____ than to have it fixed. And since I now own 3 broken coats, I'm going to bite the bullet and get at least two fixed. As soon as I figure out where to do that at.

And speaking of material goods, I finally figured out how to get pictures off my new phone by emailing them to myself through the text messaging feature. Yeah, I thought that was a bit complicated myself. But the good news is, they aren't automatically resized and look much better. Here's one from last week, Ariel in the remodeled grocery store bathroom waiting for Adam to pee:



And today started out on a sour note when Ariel emptied her entire bladder on my dining room floor, which thankfully isn't carpeted. I heard something spilling, *then* Ariel piped up with, "I have to go to the bathroom." Seriously, WTH? And it's not like she started and caught herself and finished in the bathroom, it was the whole enchilada.

The rest of the day was not much more exciting. I spent the morning planning Alex's birthday party and making invites while Ariel amused herself with the damn Hello Kitty chapstick. I even caught her applying it on Abby, "Look Dee-Dee, she likes it!"

Ellen surprised us by picking us up for Adam's swim class in Longmont. Ariel did pretty well for having to sit through an hour of swim lessons, except for the part where she had another accident. *After* I asked her at least 3 times if she needed to go potty.

We got home in time to pick up Alex from school and then Ariel went down for a nap. And I made evil Nutter Butters. Mmmmm... Nutter Butters.