Cupid Will Not Be Defeated.

Every year, starting in mid-January, Hubs and I have a conversation about how we really don’t believe in celebrating Valentine’s Day.  Because we’re cynics, see.  Virgos.  And Valentine’s Day is one of those holidays we practical types poo-poo.  You’ve heard all the arguments.   … Created by Hallmark. Just another consumer oriented holiday that couples have to stress out about.  We should show we love each other all year not just on February 14. 

But this year when we had the conversation, Hubs boldly asserted that I protest the holiday outwardly, but that inwardly I really love it.  I am, he insisted, a closeted fan of Valentine’s Day.  For evidence, he noted that I always give him a gift (usually handmade -like a CD of all ten years worth of “our songs” or a photo collage of pictures of us).  Plus, he observed that I have a disproportionate and unexpected amount of regard for Outkast’s ”Happy Valentine’s Day.”

After taking this all under advisement, I decided he  may be right.  So let me proclaim it.

 I ACTUALLY THINK VALENTINE’S DAY IS KIND OF SWEET.

Now that we have that out of the way — Some celebratory Valentine’s Day Randomness.

You can send an e-card to your sweetheart that plays Outkast’s Happy Valentine’s Day.  All the lyrics of the song make me smile, but my favorite part:

Ya won’t believe in me, but you would fancy leprechauns or groundhogs.  No thank you, Easter Bunny. (There’s all this talk about Santa Claus, but see love will rule supreme.)

If you want to make a CD for your sweetie of appropriate songs of the month and the holiday the ThingThrowers started a list last week that might assist.

Or, you and your kids could write your own Valentine’s Day rap using these … really crazy mad-lib lyrics from the songwriters at FamilyFun.com.  

Last year, I linked to my then-favorite and topical episode of The Office where Kelly and Ryan hook-up, but unfortunately it’s been removed for copyright reasons.

Feel free to join me in my love of the holiday of love in the comments. Maybe we can start a movement.   How are you celebrating?

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At least one thing is improving.

I have some kind of weird dental or sinus pain. That’s my excuse for not posting much this week. Tune in next week to see whether I can come up with something more creative or if I’ll have to resort to “the dog ate my flash drive.”

In the meantime – go take this quiz to celebrate that there’s only one week left until Lost resumes.

I am a bit happier with my results this time. Last time I didn’t fare as well.

Find out Which Lost Character Are You at LiquidGeneration.com!

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I don’t know what it is, but I know it’s cold.

Here in Minnesota it is cold.  Every Minnesotan I encountered today agreed.  It’s cold.  Today is just one of those days you have to comment on the weather to every person you see.  One of those days when, according to the word on the street, it is colder than a bejesus.

Having heard the phrase a couple times today.  Man, it’s colder than a bejesus out there.  I got to wondering — What, actually, is a bejesus?

And, since I like nothing more on a cold day than a good research project (actually, I do find that cold weather seems to drive me, almost instinctively, to refined and processed carbohydrates, and I really can’t get enough warm sugary treats when the mercury drops below zero, a fact which, I think, supports my hypothesis that there is a scientific reason why women who live in warm climates can stay thinner, but I digress), I took off my mittens and fired up Google.

A Bejesus, according to the Online Slang Dictionary is “An expression of surprise or alarm.”

Well, um, yeah.  No offense to the writers of said Dictionary, but I knew that much.  What is a bejesus?

“Slang” says Answers.com “used as an intensive.”

Again, less than helpful.  I guess, what I am really looking for, dear Google, is the etymology of the word Bejesus – when did bejesus become an intensive and why?

Since Dr. Jacques Bailly is nowhere to be found I try Google again “etymology of bejesus.”

Merriam Webster is slightly more helpful, letting me know that it’s a noun and that it is an alteration of the phrase “By Jesus.”  And, depending whether I look at Merriam, or another source it appears we started using the term in the late 19th or early 20th century to say things like, “the bear scared the bejesus out of me.”

Even though I still don’t know what it is, I am willing to bet that if I came toe to toe with a Grizzly Bear, my by Jesus, and any other part of me that could, would depart the scene post haste.  But I still don’t know when we decided that a bejesus is very cold.

I am about to research it further when I stumbled on this, The Bejesus Quarterly, several webpages of proof that you can waste a lot of time on the internet, and perhaps evidence that there are people in the world who have more time on their hands than even me.  I give up.  My hands are too cold to type.

Tomorrow’s research project – determine what is, in fact, the coldest part of a witch’s anatomy.

Posted in Everything Else | |

Throwback Thursday

Elsewhere in the mommyblogging world, bloggers all join together and do things like “Throwback Thursdays” and “Wordless Wednesdays.” So far, I haven’t participated, but since I do love posting old pictures of me and HLS, I decided I may jump on the Throwback Thursday bandwagon with still further evidence of why she got to be crowned the cute one.

Since I can rarely be wordless, though, don’t look for much on Wednesdays.

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Where’s Steve Irwin When You Need Him?

Or, How I Spent My Internet Break, Part One of Three

Day One:

I expect Day One to be easy.  We have the first in a series of Fabulous Christmas Parties to attend as a distraction.

Major snowstorm hits.  Babysitter cancels.  We decide Hubs will go alone to the party.  I am home alone with sleeping kids on a snowy December night.

No big deal, I think, I’ll just catch up on blogs and in Face … Damn.   I try to remember what I was going to do with this time, but I end up curled up on the couch watching Sweet Home Alabama on cable.  I also flip to GAC.

Apparently, GAC has a market for products peddled by Billy Mays.  That guy needs to use his inside voice.   In other news, I find I’m still in love with Gary Allan, but think it’s a shame he’s always releasing songs like Airplanes instead of songs like Nickajack Cave.  But, what do I know.

Day Two:

I’m born again.  I wake up to more than a foot of snow, and I shovel.  If I were blogging togay, I would pen a witty, thoughtful piece about how quickly motherhood changes.

See, I Shoveled.  Alone.  Uninterrupted.  With three kids at home and Hubs away, I cleared the entire driveway of snow.  And while I shoveled, the kids played, and sledded down the hill in our yard.  Alone.  Unattended.

A feat of independence on this grand a scale is unprecedented in my 6 years of parenting.  I touch the light at tunnel’s end, and it feels snowy, cold and fabulous.

Day Three: (Don’t worry, I get less verbose as the time passes.)

I find that a personal internet ban is rather difficult to accomplish at work.  Skipping the procrastinative value of the internet at home is one thing, but at work?!  As I suspected, I am an internet addict.

Withdrawal sets in.  I shake.  I quiver.  I imagine intoxicating conversations happening in the threads of ALOTT5MA without me.  I envision new Facebook friends piling up in my cue, desperately wondering why I haven’t accepted their friendship.  I wonder whether Adam Bonin and Jennifer Weiner had their baby.

Just as I am about to break, to cave, to seize my mouse and storm back onto the superhighway, I get an e-mail at my work address that saves my life. (more…)

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The Latest Collision

Big Idea: Taking time off from the Internet will free up time to make the holidays a picture of Rockwellian perfection.

Real Life: After all three kids finally recover from the stomach flu, I spend hours making a huge, memorable Christmas meal only to have them consume four pickles and a bun.

Yes, I successfully managed to avoid the Internet for a whole month. Yes, I have returned to reading and posting, and, yes, I have a detailed report in the hopper, but it’s on a portable drive I left at work. I know you are waiting with bated breath, but, patience people.

Happy New Year!

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