Jami's Friday Feast

Feast 162 Appetizer How are you today? Not too bad. I'm a little tired because I got to bed later than I meant to, and I had to get up early. I'm looking forward to going camping, but I'm a little worried about leaving Eddie for two whole days. Soup Name 3 television shows you watch on a regular basis. Scrubs, My Name is Earl, Simpsons Salad What’s the scariest weather situation you’ve experienced? A tornado that hit while I was in college. It took the roof off of the apartment building right off campus, about a block from where I lived. Main Course If you could wake up tomorrow morning in another country, where would you want to be? Guatemala, getting another perfect baby. Dessert What do you usually wear to sleep? Depends on the weather - hot: t-shirt. Cold - full fuzzy jammies and socks

Jami Catches Up

Whew, it's been awhile since I posted. Thanks to a busy week and a minor computer issue, suddenly it's been a week with no post. Apologies. First, congrats to Lori - this week's winner of Jami's Word Game for her excellent use of last week's word, "vexatious" - see her use in the comment section of this post. Lori doesn't have a blog (as far as I know) so no link, but way to use the word, Lori and keep up the fine work! Lori recently taught me the word "chaplet" which actually came up in a conversation shortly thereafter. Three weeks, three different winners, are you next?? I know you can do it. This week's word is: turbid [tur-bid] 1. not clear or transparent because of stirred-up sediment or the like; clouded; opaque; obscured: the turbid waters near the waterfall. 2. thick or dense, as smoke or clouds. 3. confused; muddled; disturbed. This is a new one on me, I'd heard of "turgid" but never this one. Best of luck, post your entries and I hope you win. Other brief notes: We're going camping this weekend and I can't wait. I so need a break and there's not much that's both cheap and totally relaxing as drinking malt-ternatives around a campfire. However I am also totally dreading the part of the weekend that is leaving Eddie for two whole days. I've never been away from him that long (since he came home). He's all excited, he loooooves going to Grammy and Pop's house, it's all he's talked about all day. So I may be crying into my malt-ternative. I'm out of Sue Grafton books. I thought she'd finished the alphabet (she writes the A is for . .B is for . . . mysteries). I counted on a nice full 26 books before I ran out, she started writing these in the 80s, after all and I go to get T and it's not even released yet!! There is a 200+ person waiting list!! What the $*%#? Where's my *$#%^ "T", Sue?? "S" came out two years ago, I read way faster than that! Grrr. This happens to me with every author. I'm not even a huge mystery fan, it was just something to keep me busy between other books and now I'm out. So sad. Does anyone else think OJ Simpson is some sort of criminal savant? Commits a double-homicide, gets away with it, commits some more felonies (sure, 10 years later, but still) and makes such idiotic remarks as "I thought what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" (um, I doubt they said that to encourage you to come to Vegas and commit armed robbery; I think they were going more for the legal, but perhaps less moral activities) and something about how could people say he'd think he'd get away with a crime (hmmmmmm). Sigh. Please, OJ, muster what little dignity you have left and stop breaking the law. Please. Here's the story of a woman who tried to eBay her two kids (just for a couple of days). I can't imagine what could go wrong with that. Having kids leads you to say things you never thought you would, like "Please quit rubbing cheese into your hair", "No chasing the dog with pliers!" and "You're lying, you did poop!" I had a dream last night, the details unimportant, but the cool part was that it had a soundtrack - all Monkees songs, too. So now, I guess we're all caught up. Don't forget to post your entries to the word game here. Peace out, I gotta go catch a tiny lunatic and try to convince him to go to sleep.

Jami Announces a Winner

Congrats to my dear friend Paperback Writer who won this week's Word Contest. Not only because she was the only entrant, but also for using it on her hubby in the middle of the night, when all new vocab should be tried out. I'm happy he didn't panic and grab his baseball bat to go after the susurrus. Way to go, PW! I'm ever so proud of you! I'm hard to deter, so even though PW has been my main player, I'm going to keep going and assume it takes awhile for these things to catch on. Perhaps susurrus was a bit too ambitious? This week's word: vexatious vek-sey-shuhs 1. causing vexation; troublesome; annoying: a vexatious situation. 2. Law. (of legal actions) instituted without sufficient grounds and serving only to cause annoyance to the defendant. 3. disorderly; confused; troubled. I have complete faith that this week, there will be something you find vexatious. All you have to do is tell someone about it and post it in the comments! Rules for the game are here.

Jami Forgot to Title This One, Then Came Back and Typed This

Maybe it's me, but it seems like everyone in the world has their act together better than I do. I can't keep the house looking right (I'd slam the door in your face if you dropped in on me now - or else entertain in the car, which at least is clean), I am always out of something, I have a list that never seems to get any shorter. Is it me? Please tell me that everyone thinks that they are the incompetent one and that the rest of the world is more organized. What soothes my soul, at the moment, is my neighbors' yard. It's not a large yard. It's not even medium. It's small, if we're being generous, and yet they've been working on this landscaping project for at least the past year and a half. We can't figure out what it is they're even trying to do anymore and we're too polite (or chicken) to ask. First they ripped out a couple trees, dug out a large area, then seemed to stop. They've done several things that have gotten half-finished, and then un-done, and in at least one case, re-done. The man of the house is frequently out there doing what looks like very hard labor, and when he's done, usually one of two things is true: 1. You can't tell what he accomplished or 2. The whole thing looks worse. The thing is, I love them for this. On days like today when I feel like I'm running as fast as I can and still losing ground, I look out the front window and think "I'm not the only one who can't get my life in order." Currently they have a half-built wall with a few (extra?) blocks semi-artistically arranged on top, either waiting to be installed or possibly put away when this wall comes down. As much as I like them, I sort of hope this yard is never finished. It gives me hope.

Jami Sees A Sign

I always enjoy signs that are confusing, misspelled or just wrong. Here's a few I've seen in the last week or so: Please Use Toilet Paper Sparringly on the back of the stall door in a public restroom - I'm not sure how one uses TP in a fighting manner, but I'd prefer just to use it for the intended purpose, in a nice, peaceful way and then go about my day. Our milk comes from local dairy farmers who, as far as they know, do not use rBST posted above the dairy section at a grocery store. -I'm concerned about the farmers not knowing for sure if they use rBST. Are the cows slipping out at night to go doping? Do rival farmers slip your cows the rBST so that they'll fail the drug testing? Full Monkey Back Guarantee in an ad in one of those free papers -I threw this out, forgetting that I wanted to save the ad. I believe it was for some service on your car. I'm not sure how dissatisfied you have to be to get your full monkey back, but you sure don't want a partial monkey refund.

Jami Practices Extreme Self-Control

For those who aren't aware, my son is adopted. He was born in Guatemala and came home at age five months. Even before we chose to adopt, I've always been very pro-adoption. To me, there is something inexplicable beautiful about a family coming together for a child who might otherwise not have one. That being said, I'm not a militant adoption-friendly language Nazi, chasing people down and informing the ignorant. I'm not touchy about it and I really don't spend much of my time or my son's time thinking about it. There are times however . . . . This morning I participated in the local library's Flea Market. It's generally the same "core" group of women who pack up their stuff and make a few bucks two Saturdays a year. I'm the youngest, and sometimes by quite a bit. At the table next to me, two of the regulars and one new woman ate their lunches and gossiped. One of the women has an adult son - he and his wife are having trouble conceiving. Woman 2, practically a "lifer" at the Flea Market, demonstrated some misunderstanding of some of the fertility treatments, and then the conversation turned to adoption. Were they going to adopt? I drifted closer, not wanting to butt in, but rather well-informed on the process. Woman 1 said they'd considered it, talked to Catholic Charities, were still trying to "have their own". Ugh. It's minor, but that's one thing that annoys adoptive parents. Woman 2 says "What do you think about all these overseas adoptions?" Woman 3 says something about there being lots of children who need parents. Woman 1 says it's too expensive (true). Woman 2 says that they've closed Russia for adopting (this is sort of true, but not really) and that's a good thing, because all those kids have medical and emotional problems and they don't tell you (partially true, but rare). Then she said that you pray so hard to have a "normal" baby, why purposely have one that isn't? Annoyed, I tried to think of a polite way to admit that I'd been eavesdropping and correct the mis-info. Before I could, she said "Really, all those adoptions from other places. I mean, it's not even the interracial thing, but why go buy a baby from some other country that's got all sorts of problems when you could get a regular one right here in Pittsburgh?" I actually felt my face getting hot, and wondered how red I looked. I walked as far away from them as I could be and still be manning my table. If you don't know, there is not much that's more offensive to most adoptive parents than saying that you "bought" your baby. And I'm not even going to get into the "regular" one. Woman 2 continued, now on a roll, "There are so many babies available because so many teenagers are having babies now and then giving them away. Of course, you know that's why there is so much infertility, too. These girls have babies, or abortions, when they're teenagers and then you can't get pregnant when you want to." So much is wrong with that I don't know where to start. And can you believe I didn't even flip her off? I am so mature.

Jami's Friday Feast

Feast 160 Appetizer When was the last time you visited a hospital? My doctor's office is in a hospital, that was July. Soup On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being highest, how ambitious are you? That's a hard one to answer, because I have a lot of ambition, but it's not business-centric, like some people might assume. Let's just go with 6.5 Salad Make a sentence using the letters of a body part. (Example: (mouth) My other ukulele tings healthily.) This here umbrella might break. Main Course If you were to start a club, what would the subject matter be, and what would you name it? I don't know. Probably a group of people who want to come to my house and eat fattening food and play board games. We could call it Phat Gamers or something. Dessert What color is the carpet/flooring in your home? Which room? Living room/dining room is "pottery", kitchen/bathroom - different shades of green. Bedroom - brown

Jami's New Game, The First Winner

I started this New Word Game here and promised to announce the first winner today. I was tempted to give the nod to PW who is trustworthy and since she said she'd do it, I believe her, but since she didn't post the conversation and the rules clearly state you do, I declare the first winner to be . . . . ME! Just because my use was in the actual comments. This'll be the last time I win, so if you want to be a winner, and I know you do, read the rules again and play this week with the word: susurrus su-SUHR-uhs A whispering or rustling sound; a murmur. Now go play!!

Jami's Third 33rd Birthday Celebration, In Three Acts

I've turned 33 and therefore celebrated three times, as that seemed most appropriate. The first of course was the Picnic, my annual 29th birthday celebration. Then my family had a pizza night at my mom's house on my actual birthday. Mmmm, pizza!

Finally, this weekend was Girls' Night Out in honor of Jami's Birthday. Aerie took charge, inviting us to start the evening at her house, where she'd baked me brownies and procured some high quality champagne.


We chilled there for awhile, shooting the breeze and enjoying the brownies and champagne (it's a good combo). After a couple hours, we decided to hit a local tavern which turned out to have a very nice deck. So we had more drinks and chit-chat under the stars.



Finally, we headed to Eat'N'Park. If you've never been, Eat'N'Park is a chain of restaurants that serves basically comfort food and/or fried things. M split the appetizer platter with me (think large plate of fried things) and it was yummy. We'd lost one girl by then.



The evening ended about 1:30, when I crawled into bed with a belly of fried foods and alcohol. Can't ask for more than that!

Jami Supports Free Enterprise

I love to see kids with lemonade stands (or Kool-aid or iced tea, whatever). There is something so very wholesome about selling plastic cups of powder-mix drinks (with an ice cube, if you're lucky) and I always, always stop and buy a cup. Last year, one set of go-getters had set up a karaoke machine and were actively hawking their product "Ice cold, DELICIOUS fruit punch. This stuff is good. This is the stuff we ask our mom to buy, not that other stuff that isn't as good. It's blue, it's yummy, you'll love it. We have Lime, too. It's green and cold" I sat and listened to the main sales-girl while I sipped my green, cold, lime and was convinced that I had to try the fruit punch, too. Several times I've seen kids selling other things with the beverages, too. Crafts, friendship bracelets, art work. I like that - bring 'em in with the icy cold drinks, then make the big sale. Today I saw several kids, folding chairs and a table out on the sidewalk. They waved furiously as I approached, so I pulled the car over. I didn't see any cups or pitchers so I rolled down the window and said "Whatcha selling?" Two of them yelled "HOT DOGS!!!" I was taken aback. I've never seen that. According to the older-looking one, a hot dog cost a dollar, so I dug out a greenback. The boy produced a foil-wrapped plate from under the table, took out a bun and handed me a plain hot dog, no condiments offered, no napkin, plate or wrapper. I wrapped it in a napkin from my glove box and stuck it in my purse. Good for them - $1.00 per sale, instead of the usual 25 cents for a cup. I remember the times I tried that. We lived on a dead-end street, so not much traffic. I remember figuring that there had to be like, 20 cups of lemonade in the pitcher and at a dime each, that was two dollars for each pitcher I sold. I also remember the lesson of having worked all day and only making a few bucks. It's why I think all kids should have a lemonade stand. I won't be one of those "extra lesson" parents who charges kids for the kool-aid and cups, either. You still learn. This is what America is about. You work and you earn and that's how it goes. If you believe in something, like little kids earning their own money, you pay a little more (like 50 cents for a cup of Lime), and everyone wins. God bless America. I'm going to go eat my hot dog from my purse.

Jami's Friday Feast

Feast 159 Appetizer Using only one word, how does grocery shopping make you feel? Poor Soup What is your favorite part about the season of Autumn? That's tough, I love fall. Is it the football? The foliage? Getting to wear sweats again? Our anniversary is in the fall. I guess all of the above. Sorry Salad Have you ever had any bad experiences online? I ordered something from eBay that never arrived. I believe the woman who sold it was making them and hadn't actually made it when I won. After a month of exchanging emails with her (where she ALWAYS had some excuse) I disputed it through PayPal and won. Main Course Name three things that make you happy daily. My son, the Husband and diet Coke Dessert What one household cleansing or organizing item would you not want to be without? Clorox Clean-up. I use it on everything.

Jami's New Game

Here's the game - every Thursday I'll post a word. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to incorporate the word into your conversation at some point during the following week, and then post the following in the comments for that Thursday:

• The person you were talking to (description is fine, like "coworker" or "aunt").
• The sentence you used, in context.
• When/where the conversation happened.

Then the following Thursday, I'll announce the winner. There's no prize, just pride. I'm going to judge based on:

• Proper usage, and that means not "this week's word is . ."
• Creative insertion. Yes, that's objective, but it's my game
• Recipient of word usage. For example, talking to my 2-year-old is less impressive than using it with your CEO.

That's it, so tell your friends and get to speakin'. Today's word is: oscillate

os·cil·late os-us-leyt 1.to swing or move to and fro, as a pendulum does. 2.to vary or vacillate between differing beliefs, opinions, conditions, etc.: He oscillates regularly between elation and despair. 3.Physics. to have, produce, or generate oscillations. 4.Mathematics. (of a function, sequence, etc.) to tend to no limit, including infinity: The sequence 0, 1, 0, 1, … oscillates. 5.to cause to move to and fro; vibrate. –verb (used with object)

Have fun!

Jami, By the Numbers

Today, I am 33 years old, and, in honor of my changing to that numbers, here are a few more about me: Birth date: 9-5-1974 Height: 5'7" Weight: Um, let's see, I was 100 lbs when I started college, let's figure I gained 1 pound a year, so 115. Married: 1 time, 1 guy, on 10-12-1996 Children: 1, age 2 Siblings: 1, age 28 Jobs I've Held: 14 (includes baby-sitter and Mom, excludes unpaid internship) Longest Friendship: 23 years, with M Newest Friendship: Probably Lexi and Heidi, about 5 months Cars I've Owned: 3 Houses I've Owned: 1 --Mailing Addresses: 7 Trips out of the US: 5 Types of Pets Owned: 5 (dog, fish, gerbil, bird, hermit crab) Oceans I've Been In: 2 Arrests: 0 Traffic Accidents: 2 --Where I Was At Fault: 1 Jury Duty: 4 --Picked for Jury: 0 Companies Sold or Closed While I Worked There: 2 Movies Appeared in: 1 --Payment for Appearance: $40, plus free lunch First Big Purchase (over $100): $150 - 13" TV for my dorm room, still going! Remotes In My Living Room: 6 --That Work: 4 Trips to Vegas: 3 Fillings: 3, I think Age I Got My Driver's License: 17 --Tries it took: 1 Toilets in My House: 2 grown-up toilets and 1 training potty --Bathrooms in my house: 1 Types of Milk in my Fridge: 3 Songs on my iPod: 291 Phone Numbers Stored in my Cell: 57 --Numbers I Deleted While Counting for This: 3 Email Addresses I Check Regularly: 5 (including the Circle of Friends one) Fruit/Veggie Servings I've Had Today: 0 Cans of Pop I've Had Today: 2 Blog Posts as of Today: 354 (on this blog) --"Blog Friends" I've Made: 3 --Friends I Had Before I Started Reading Their Blogs: 2 Well, that's about all I can think of off the top of my head. I hope you enjoyed this numerical picture of me. If you want, feel free to pretend I "tagged" you with this and pass it on, making me finally, finally immortal.

Jami Ages Gracefully

Sigh, it's the day before my birthday. Don't get me wrong. I looooove my birthday. This past weekend was the social event of the season - Jami's Fifth Annual 29th Birthday Picnic. However, as much as I love my birthday and try to be sure that everyone is aware that TOMORROW IS MY BIRTHDAY, I also have recently realized that I am, actually, old. I know, I look young and hot and you can't believe that I'd think, even for a moment, that I'm old, but here's how I know I've crossed the line: dental routine. That's right, I have a 5-step night-time ritual for teeth care; it's a dead giveaway. See, the younger you are, the less interest you have in tooth care. Let's say you're 10. You brush your teeth in the morning, because you'll do anything to delay going to school; at night, if your mother reminds you several times, you'll stick a wet toothbrush in your mouth, move it around for approximately 10 seconds and put it away. Then, by college, you're probably into brushing regularly without being prompted. Having had 3 different roommates and plenty of close friends I stayed over with, I'd have to say that I don't recall anyone flossing or using special rinses. The exception was Babs on my dorm floor who rinsed with salt water because she was prone to really bad mouth ulcers. There were still nights that you went without brushing, even, because you were tired or intoxicated or pulling an all-nighter and you slept sitting up but with your head down on the book. Now, here I am at 32 years and 364 days old, and I floss, then brush, then use the Listerine, then rinse with water, then swish the Act. I feel guilt if I skip even one of those steps. If I'm too tired (or intoxicated, some things never change) to do one, I promise myself that I'll do it in the morning, and I do. Sigh. And now, I'll graciously accept all birthday wishes.

Jami Screams for Mothers Everwhere

An Open Letter to Car Seat Manufacturers. Dear Large Corporations Who Depend on Brand Loyalty, Let me start by mentioning that I get, completely, that your products keep my kid safe and I'm all about that. I appreciate it, I do, that you work hard to design a better, safer car seat, and I even appreciate that you make them adjustable so that I don't have to spend a hundred bucks every time my son grows an inch. However. . . . For the love of Pete, can you make one of these that I can adjust, or clean, or take out of the car without requiring an advanced degree in engineering and 17 different screwdrivers? Trust me, we moms are stressed out enough without the unbelievable frustration of going through your "clearly" (note the sarcasm) spelled out 38-step process where you can't tell if you've missed a step or done incorrectly until you have the seat back in the car and the kid strapped into the seat and the car is rapidly approaching 110 degrees inside and the only way to fix it is to take the kid back OUT, detach the 15 point safety straps, undo the 38 steps and redo them all! See, I guarantee that if you did make one that is totally safe and can pop right out of the back seat so I can vacuum up the top few layers of cookie crumbs while I throw the juice/spit up/random stain covered seat cover in the wash, I'd not only buy your brand of everything, but I'd tell every mommy I know how fan-damn-tastic your seat is. And then we'd all be happy. Just saying. And don't get me started on the (expletive deleted) jerks who designed the back portion of Eddie's crib light/music thing so that it doesn't work when you really, really need it to and it falls off at totally random intervals (though usually in the middle of the night) with nice loud THUNK!!! Thanks so much, Eddie's Mom