Category Archives: A day in the life

Things That I Wish Were Better Than They Actually Are

Posted on May 15, 2012 by funnygurl2

Are you ever disappointed in something? You were so excited to see or get something, and then it was just a big letdown? Here are a few of my personal examples.

My number one example of this is the movie The Lake House, starring Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves. I love me some Sandra Bullock (especially in Miss Congeniality, The Proposal, and of course, While You Were Sleeping). I love me some Keanu Reeves (Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, Point Break). I love me some Sandra and Keanu together (Speed). I love me some romantic movie (Hope Floats, Sweet Home Alabama). But The Lake House? I always finish it with a big “Eh”. It just is never the movie that I wish it could be. I keep watching it, hoping it will turn out better next time. But it doesn’t. It even has a dog, which usually makes any movie better.

Maybe the Time Travel confuses me too much. Or maybe the leads lack the right chemistry? Or a bad director? Or the cover art on the DVD case is too teal? There is a chance that it is because I could never seriously believe Sandra Bullock as a doctor. I have some trouble believing her as a bitch in The Proposal. But she raps and gets to kiss Ryan Reynolds, so I let it slip.

I also feel this way every Monday when I watch the CW show Hart of Dixie. In my house, it is known as the bad doctor show.

I will say: Honey, I want to watch something at 9PM. But it is the bad doctor show.

Honey will say: Aw, that show with the female doctor. That is the only show you watch I really can’t stand.

So, why do I keep watching it, do you ask? Well, at first I thought it was because I was waiting for Zoe Hart (Rachel Bilson) to come to her senses and quit pining over George and pick the wonderful (if hillbilly) Wade (Wilson Bethel). But then I realized Wade is way too good for Zoe. Zoe is rude to him like all the time. Then I thought I was watching it because Jamie Pressley is so good on there. Then I remember I am watching Jaime King doing a damn good Jamie Pressley impression. (Am I the only one who remembers when she went by James King and dated Kid Rock?) Then I thought maybe I was waiting for Zoe to leave town and the show could go on without her featuring the rest of the quirky cast going about their daily Bluebell business. But, then I realized the truth. Being that the show was created by Josh Swartz and Stephanie Savage (of The O.C. fame) and stars Bilson, I am just waiting for her to snap in one episode and turn back into Summer Roberts, the character she played on The O.C.

Yes, I have trouble letting go.

That leaves me to my third major repeated disappointment. Hello Kitty licensed products. Just the sight of Hello Kitty’s face brings a smile to my face. It lifts me up on a low day. So, I feel like if I surround myself with Sanrio products featuring her image, that I will be a happier person living a happier life. Except that Sanrio licenses her image to horrible manufacturers! After I had a Hello Kitty sandwich maker that was useless due to the absence of a floating hinge, I made a new life rule never to buy anything else with Hello Kitty’s image. If I can help it. Most recently I slipped and bought a Hello Kitty soap dispenser. As it didn’t have a barcode on it, I believe Meijer incorrectly gave me a deal on it. I figured “How wrong can you go designing a liquid soap dispenser?” It turns out it is rounded on the bottom. Oy. On the bright side, they say we shouldn’t use anti-bacterial soap because it will create super bugs. I told my asbestos friend that I was pretty sure the pink, glittery, bubble-gum scented soap that comes out of Hello Kitty isn’t anti-bacterial. Her comment? “It probably isn’t even soap!”

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Personal Development

Posted on May 10, 2012 by funnygurl2

In my spare unemployed time, I have been working on personal development. It wasn’t a conscious decision. I just have more time to find out about these opportunities being offered. And I don’t have to rush home from a job an hour away to get to them on time. And I am not too exhausted from working 40 hours a week, commuting 10 hours a week, and running my mom’s errands, and doing housework to attend.

I have gone to meetings about genealogy. One was about the basics, which I am already beyond. But that meeting did provide me with the suggestion for the new software I am currently using. The next one I went to was a tour of genealogy resources at the Lenawee County Historical Museum. It helped, but I would need to dive in myself to really understand what is there and how it is indexed, organized, etc. But it was very nice to get out of the house child-free and spend a few hours with other adults who talk about adult things. Of course, recently I haven’t had time to work on my family tree stuff. Spring cleaning is taking up all my time.

Last week I went to SKYWARN weather spotter training. The website says that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s “National Weather Service (NWS), part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, established SKYWARN.” When I went I wasn’t even sure if it was to be a weather spotter, but it turns out it was. If you read Tuesday’s post, you know I have an interest in severe weather. I don’t feel any more knowledgeable than before I went, but they gave me an awesome weather booklet and the secret spotter call-in number. They spent a lot of time on storm cloud formation. Which is good, except I live in the city and am surrounded by trees and other houses. By the time I see a cloud it is usually directly overhead. So, I feel like I could be a more useful spotter if I lived out in the country, but whatever. It makes me feel important.

I love how the booklet says things like “Personal safety is the primary objective of every spotter.” But then the booklet is filled with awesome photos of tornadoes people took while driving around in their cars in weather they shouldn’t be out in. It is like they give you the disclaimer so that they won’t get sued, but they know if you are a weather spotter you have an interest in this and will probably be out in a storm anyway.

One thing I always said I would do if I had free time was to volunteer at the Lenawee Humane Society. But I can’t really do that right now because I would have to take my son with me. Plus, I am sour on LHS at the moment (not their dog care skills or facility, just how they run their fundraising events). And I am sour on dogs, because Parker is becoming unbearable to live with.

My husband is doing personal development too. He has never been confident in his reading/writing skills. He believes the public school system failed him, and I think he may be right (more about our complaints about the school system in a future post). I knew this, so last fall when I saw an ad in the newspaper about free tutoring opportunities, I showed it to him. He got very excited. He called a few days later. Normally he would procrastinate and probably never call at all. Over the years, he has tried buying workbooks, etc., to try to teach himself, but with no real success. They gave him a test at the literacy center. He actually tested high enough that he wasn’t eligible for the program. But one of the tutors was nice enough to agree to help him anyway. See, he reads and writes well enough to get by. But with his new job, it would be great if his skills were elevated to say, what you should know when you graduate high school (which he did). Details are important in his new job. I am hoping the tutoring helps him with that.

All this and raising an almost 18 month-old too. Oy. I guess if you are positive (as in attitude) about the things you like, opportunities to expand your knowledge of them will come along. Who knows, maybe this year I will get to attend Word Camp. (That would be awesome!)

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Reader Appreciation Award!

Posted on May 4, 2012 by funnygurl2


Wow! I won an award! lazyhippiemama nominated me for the Reader Appreciation Award! While I question the authenticity of this particular award, I will gladly accept it anyway. Afterall, lazyhippiemama has been stuck reading my writing longer than we knew that the internet existed.

I would like to thank my husband, my son, my good dog, my bad dog, my car with 192,000 miles that continues to run, my quirky brain for spilling forth nonsense several times a week. But most of all, I would like to thank Coca-Cola and milk chocolate and cherry Pop-Tarts, for without whom I would not be here today to accept this award.

As I have learned is the custom, I would like to now nominate the blogs I enjoy regularly for a Reader Appreciation Award. I would urge them to pay forward the positivity as well to the blogs they enjoy most.

Friffle Thoughts

A Hundred Years Ago

The Shy Comedian

Thank you for my nomination and congratulations to my nominees.

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My Latest Obsession: Artzooka

Posted on April 26, 2012 by funnygurl2

In trying to keep my child both entertained (mom talk for not clinging to my leg and crying) and mildly educated, I was having him watch the Doodlebops every morning. He liked the music. Sometimes he would even dance. We would watch them on CBC—a Canadian television channel. While we live in Michigan, our cable system still offers us the channel out of nearby Windsor, Ontario.

After the Doodlebops, I would switch over to The View on ABC. But after a week of them showing reruns, I got annoyed. So I would just leave my TV on CBC. At 11:25AM is a cute mini show that has kids visiting different areas in the world. I got to see what the stairs inside the Leaning Tower of Pisa look like, learn why people believed that pyramids were cursed, and what a baby black rhino looks like. Then at 11:40AM is a great show called Artzooka.

Artzooka is a show that is aimed to get kids interested in Art. It encourages kids to make Art out of household or recycled objects. Some projects turn out looking cuter than others. It is similar to a cooking show in that the host will start a project, then set it aside and pull a completed one out from under the table. It is also great because the host is cute, in a your-best-friend’s-younger-slacker-brother kind of way.

Host Jeremie


I would have absolutely loved a show like this when I was a kid. Heck, I love it now. My 17 month old son is indifferent. He likes the music. Artzooka also features kid-friendly photography and stop-motion mini movies. It really makes me regret not trying to make my own animation in college when I had access to video and editing equipment. Unfortunately, I did not have any free time to do it. The kids who are hard-core about this show must drive their parents nuts. They encourage you to make art projects out of anything and everything, including staplers and kitchen utensils. I wonder how many parents go looking for the stapler and find it has been turned into Barbie’s snowmobile.

The spaceship my son & I Artzooka-ed.


When I was a kid, I drew and made things all the time. I even had my own set of sharp scissors from an early age (…which I may have misused to carve my name in the leg of a table and attempt to cut my mom’s hair with). I think it is important for kids to learn Art (and music, for that matter). Not everyone is going to be good at sports or math or science. It helps a kid get through school if they can find their niche, what they are good at, even if they won’t grow up to do it as a career. But some will. My friend and I used to turn every project we did in high school into an Art project. Now she is an elementary Art teacher, just as she always said she would be. And I..write a silly little blog and draw silly little pictures for it:)

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I’m not stalking you. is NOW ON FACEBOOK! “Like” that I’m not stalking you and get an update when there is a new post to read. (It is sort of like YOU are stalking ME.)

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Stay-At-Home Mom

Posted on April 24, 2012 by funnygurl2

Although my Facebook profile says I am still Job-Hunting, I have begun to think of myself more as a stay-at-home mom. Every day I meet (more or less) the needs of my son in a timely manner (before Daddy gets home). Then the next day I start all over again with the brand new obstacles my toddler will throw at me.

Things I have realized about being a stay-at-home mom:

–The illusion of getting to do what I want all day long, then wondering where the day went and why my house looks worse than when I woke up.

–I have to fill my day with activities that will fill up my tiny amount of spare time, but that can be stopped at a moment’s notice for a poopy diaper or a boo-boo (ex. watching TV-not good/watching DVD-good; doing taxes-not good/reading a book-good).

–I can only run upstairs to get something when my toddler is asleep or restrained (ex. high chair). He can climb up the stairs, but cannot get back down again safely. Which means I have to carry him down. Which means he cries because he wasn’t done playing on the stairs yet.

–Blog posts will invariably have typos in them, as much as I feel ashamed by them. I would love to put all my concentration into it and proofread a post 20 times before it is sent out over the wire and air, but my attention is elsewhere.

–I have no desire to cook. For the same reason blog posts will invariably have typos.

–The toddler and the pointer and the mutt rule the house. I am just their servant.

–I need a schedule to remember if I already watered the plants this week and to remember if I get a free moment to run the dishwasher. Otherwise I just go “hey, free time” and watch a DVD.

Dry-erase household checklist, anyone?

–Toddler nap time is the holiest time of the day. I can get things done. Unrestricted. As long as they do not cause noise or require me to leave the house or get the dogs riled up so that they cause noise. For a brief amount of time, my son took two naps a day. Now I am lucky if he takes one.

–The guilt of having your son strapped into a stroller at the mall all day can be alleviated by setting them free in the mall child play area. (I never even really paid attention to those places. I just thought of them as germ breading grounds. Which they are.)

–Free community activities are great entertainment. (My asbestos friend shared that with me.) Cheap excuses to get out of the house are good. Especially if they include free snacks or giveaways.

–I must have been insane to think a year ago I could work and do all this too.

–Pop-tarts are so much better toasted at home than they were microwaved and soggy at work. (I didn’t have a toaster at work because I was afraid security would bust me with it.)

–The guy on Artzooka is really cute.

–It is impossible to walk my two dogs with a stroller by myself.

–Laundry and dishes don’t do themselves.

I’m not stalking you. is NOW ON FACEBOOK! “Like” that I’m not stalking you and get an update when there is a new post to read. (It is sort of like YOU are stalking ME.)

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