Peanut butter sandwich made with jam

How do you feel about the PB&J spreader? Unclutterer regularly makes fun of "unitaskers" and some of the commenters on this one got a little fired up. Apparently there is room in the market for a PB&J spreader, even one that looks like a pregnancy test.
Due to popular demand, I am here to share with you my PB&J technique so that you no longer need either cross-contaminate jars nor use two knives: spread the jam on slice #1, wipe the knife clean on slice #2, then spread the peanut butter on slice #2. Also, I lied about the popular demand part.

No news is good news?

The top story on the front page of the Los Angeles Times both yesterday and today:

The Lakers' most recent loss against the Celtics, and Kobe walking off the floor during the last 3 seconds of the fourth quarter.

"This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper," and all of that.

I do feel a small amount of personal sorrow for the pathetic (probable) ending to the series, but I am just curious; isn't there anything else going on in the world?

Read all about it

You may know about my involvement with ELIZA magazine. This fledgling fashion magazine has just made it through its first year: not bad, considering the fact that most new magazines don't. Its namesake is Eliza Doolittle--you know, that classy dame from My Fair Lady who is also, completely coincidentally, up on the header of my personal blog. I promise the name isn't why I joined the ELIZA staff...well, maybe it piqued my interest. I first found out about it on blogs like Tales from the Crib, Musings and Misadventures, Armelle Jewelry, and Your Heart Out.

Currently ELIZA is offering a free subscription for a year (four quarterly issues) to any blogger who does the following:

1) Write a post about what you love about ELIZA.
2) Include a link to the magazine's Web site (elizamagazine.com).
3) Send the post URL, along with the name and address where you'd like to receive your free subscription, to info@elizamagazine.com.

You don't need to have lots of readers, but it does need to be a public blog.

If you're unfamiliar with ELIZA but would like to participate, here are some suggestions to become more familiar:

To see a full list of stores that carry ELIZA (mainly bookstores and newsstands--available in most states), click here. To check out the Web content, you might want to start with the blog, or with this list of featured articles from past issues. I have used the site's Resources page several times when looking for clothes online. If you're into MySpace you can check out its profile there--it also has a group on Facebook. For even more info, you can also try an Internet search for "Summer Bellessa" (the EIC) or "Eliza magazine."

An answer to a question I get asked a lot: The editor-in-chief of ELIZA (tagline: "Modest. Modern.") is LDS, and most of the staff and advertisers are members of one religion or another, but it is not marketed toward or written for members of the LDS Church or members of any church. It's for women, professional or not, all with an interest in fashion, with a small portion in the past two issues aimed at moms (e.g., kids' fashion layouts and ads; a few articles relating to motherhood).

The magazine itself is very pretty. I have seen the layouts, articles, and editing in the actual magazine become noticeably better with each issue. It's really fun to read!

Anyway--there you have it. Participate if you'd like to!

Remember?

Remember when I used to post on this blog?

It happened a few times.

I was telling my husband last night that I've been feeling somewhat of a blogger's block lately. When I made my personal blog private and started this blog on the side, I thought I would have plenty to say on both. Turns out, I don't. It's hard enough sometimes to think of stuff to post on the O.G. blog. But I'm going to try to get better at it.

I'll buy you a diamond ring, my friend, if it makes you feel all right.

Yesterday I read about Heather Mills's $48.7 million winnings from her divorce battle with Paul McCartney, representing herself in court since the lawyer she fired couldn't quite get her the amount she wanted. That's about $34,000 per day of their 4-year marriage, if you wondered. Coincidentally (or was it . . . ), later that afternoon in the car, "When I'm 64" came on. I'm not the first person to point out Paul most likely didn't have a messy and public divorce in mind when he wrote that song. He seemed to be focusing more on Vera, Chuck and Dave bouncing on their grandmother's knee. Maybe I'm totally off and he was going for irony all along, but I doubt it. It probably isn't much consolation to either Heather or Paul that they could easily rent separate summer cottages in the Isle of Wight. Okay, maybe to Heather.

I know, I'm such a gossip. I wonder if it would have been as public if it weren't the British press involved. I ain't sayin' she a gold-digger, and for all I know, Paul is a big, big jerk. I guess only they know what went on between them. But I feel bad for the guy. Well for both of them. I mean if I were divorcing a gazillionaire and planned to raise his child I would want a decent paycheck from him. Most of all I feel bad for their daughter. And for Paul and Linda's kids and grandkids. What a life, right? You would think money could at least buy one of them happiness. At any rate it is making me sad.

Only happy endings, that's the recipe

Depending on whether you're an "old-school" reader of Wave Hello Again you may or may not know about my single radio-contest-winning experience, wherein I won free movie tickets for the year of 2005 by predicting 2004 Oscar winners correctly. It's something I like to brag about from time to time, as well as use as the reason that since 2005, my husband and I just have not seen that many movies: we suffered from movie burnout. Still kind of do, really. Who wouldn't after the long-lasting ill effects of Monster-in-Law? All we could talk about during movies like that was the fact that everyone around us had actually paid to be there. Not to mention the amount they had spent on crap movie food. (We knew it was awful because we also got free concessions.)

This year, I must admit I had hardly seen any of the nominees. I did see Juno (nom. Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress), The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (nom. Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing), August Rush (nom. Best Original Song), Enchanted (3x! nom. Best Original Song), and The Bourne Ultimatum (nom. Best Editing, Best Sound Editing). Nothing for Waitress, surprisingly enough; seemed to me like perfect Oscar fodder.

Random thought, I wonder if Ellen Page put "Disappointment" by the Cranberries on repeat and cried in her room after the Oscars. It's what I did after I lost the election for student council secretary in seventh grade.

I freely admit that I didn't really like any of these except for Diving Bell (and, okay, I did like "The Happy Working Song" in Enchanted). In fact I was going to make a joke about how I didn't see many Oscar-type movies this year "except maybe August Rush," then lo and behold it got something other than my jeers. Not that you should take my "film" advice that seriously--Joe vs. the Volcano, for example, is one of my favorite movies, and I may have been heard to call Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed "one of the best of 2004."

I was thinking that 2007 was an "eh" year for movies (and I didn't even see Stomp the Yard) but upon reflection, it wasn't so bad. Actually there are lots of movies I didn't see (many of them Oscar winners) that got huge raves. My inability to handle much gore, sex, or swearing kind of makes me shy away from lots of them.

So, moving on. 2008! Indiana Jones! The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull! (from the Post: "The project has been talked about for years, but [George] Lucas's insistence on building the script around the titular objects--models of human skulls cut from quartz--kept his teammates at bay. Guess he wore 'em down, because here we are, in 1957, the bad guys are the Cold War Russkies, and the hero is a reality-based 64 years old. Not exactly what you'd call catering to the youth market. But they'll show up anyway on May 22.")

Oh, and Be Kind Rewind, anyone? I was in disbelief when I first heard the premise (and the fact that Mos Def is second-billed) but now I am looking forward to seeing it. Maybe I will even pay to watch it in a theater.

Here are a few lists if you are interested in the 2008 movie season.

55 Must-See Movies of 2008
Why 2008 Will Be an Awesome Year for Movies
10 Most-Anticipated Movies of 2008

I guess I'm not as movie-jaded as I thought. I am already mentally booking babysitters for some of these release dates.

"Do I dare?" and, "Do I dare?"

I have a confession to make: well, maybe less a confession and more a statement, depends who's reading. I considered myself pro-choice until I had a baby.

I don't know what changed, really. My politics (moderate to liberal, depending on the issue) didn't especially. Although I believe in the separation of church and state, I also believe that as citizens, our religious beliefs or lack thereof have a fundamental influence on our personal and societal values, and these values have a lot to do with the Constitution, particularly with amending it. Being religious, I have always believed that "the worth of souls is great in the sight of God" (D&C 18:10) while I have also believed that men and women "are free to choose" and accept the consequences of all of their choices (2 Nephi 2:27). Who am I as a perfect stranger to make the choice for another woman just because I vote and pay taxes? Then again, by not speaking out against abortion, am I indirectly supporting it as a practice?

Even conception, pregnancy, and birth did not give me any kind of epiphany. It took actually a few months of taking care of my baby before I started thinking more seriously about what "pro-choice" and "pro-life" really mean and which flag, if either, I wanted to wave over my head. What kind of choices are we talking about? Lots of choices are involved in pregnancy and birth, the very first (and arguably most important) of which is the choice to have sex. Then again, if I decide to be "pro-choice," it doesn't make me "pro-abortion." It also doesn't make me "anti-life," just as "pro-life" doesn't especially make me "anti-choice." But isn't that splitting hairs? Do I need to take a moral stance, as a religious woman, a mother, and a feminist about the sanctity of life versus the sanctity of human rights? Am I weak if I don't? I believe in both, so how can they be reconciled? How did raising a baby raise all these doubts and questions too?

Let's make this a list of questions.

• What does (or should) experiencing pregnancy or motherhood have to do with whether a woman is pro-choice or pro-life?
• Does someone who has not experienced pregnancy or motherhood have the right to insist on legality or illegality of abortion for others? What if they most likely will either experience motherhood or choose to abstain from it?
• What about prospective adoptive parents?
  
• What about men, who never will have that opportunity?
• Does fatherhood count?
• Does experience with, love for, or belief in the importance of families (to society and fundamentally) count?
• How are "pro-choice" and "pro-life" diametrically opposed? How are they similar?
• Can you be pro-choice and pro-life at the same time?
• As a political stance, is either choosing choice over life or remaining neutral tantamount to supporting abortion as a practice?
  
• When does life begin: when the baby breathes on his own? When you can feel the baby move inside you? When you can hear his heartbeat through a stethoscope? When you can see his heartbeat on an ultrasound? When sperm and egg join together? When you decide you want a baby? When, regardless of desire for a baby, a woman is about to ovulate and, being at her most fertile, is physically helped along in the choice to have sex (still, obviously, very much her very own choice)?
• Might education on fertility, menstrual cycles, abstinence, birth control, adoption help prevent abortion, whether indirectly by preventing unwanted pregnancies or directly by preventing abortions? How, specifically? What about availability of hormonal contraceptives? What about access to prenatal care and education for women and girls facing 9 months of an abusive or otherwise unsupportive environment?
  
• Might tighter restrictions on abortion help prevent abortion? What about illegality of abortion?
• What effect do either of these approaches have on constitutional rights?
• How important is the abortion issue to you as a voter, compared to other issues such as the economy, the war, immigration?

As a final note, I don't think many people will read this but if you do, please, refrain from name-calling or finger-pointing (or at least be subtle about it) and try to think about your own answers to the questions, regardless of your overall stance, if you decide to comment! Thank you! I am very interested in hearing from both sides as well as from fence-sitters.

Strike

My favorite chant heard on writers' strike picket lines:

"What do we want?" "Residuals!" "When do we want them?" "Later!"

I have to admit I am sad to see this strike end. This has been a delightful few months for me, free from the temptation of media gluttony, wherein I have turned on the TV maybe two or three times total. I am not trying to be self-righteous--it's just that we only have 3 channels anyway and even when TV writers are working there is very little to watch that leaves me feeling like a more interesting person. Now I have to work a little harder to avoid melting my brain cells.

Grandma's advice

My mom tells a story about coming home from school when she was a teenager and seeing her mom (a mother of 12--yeah, you read it right) lying on the couch reading a book, with a pile of laundry next to her on the floor.

"Never do anything while your kids are asleep that you can do while they are awake," is my grandmother's advice.

Just so no one gets all "I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep" on me, I would like to clarify that I am 100% all for rocking babies and playing with babies for hours on end. But at this point in my life, disorder in my house results in disorder in my brain, and there are plenty of windows of time in my day for doing household chores with the baby underfoot, nearby, or participating. Most days--unless the place is a complete disaster by naptime--I prefer this method of housekeeping over sustaining my energy all day long without a single break.

Granted pretty much every household chore takes about 5 times longer with a small child involved.

So every time my son goes down for a nap and the place is quiet, I get the urge to do something like unload the dishwasher or sweep the patio or organize the linen closet.

However, I try to remind myself of Grandma's advice and proceed to read a book or blog instead...usually with some sort of chocolatey treat within arm's reach. Better yet, lie down and take a nap myself. Ahhhhhh. The dishes can definitely wait.

Redemption song

I have always thought of myself as a Costco type of person. Whenever Costco comes up in conversation I am one to interject, "I love Costco!" and proceed to discuss all manner of Costco goods, even the ones I don't buy. I'll talk about pleated-front khakis, garden statues, and gold necklaces as well as toddler pajamas, gigantic boxes of Cheerios, and caramel apple pie.

Today, however, we went to Costco as a family and the old thrill was gone. It wasn't crowded or anything, and it was a 2:1 ratio adults:babies (always good) but I just wanted to be somewhere else--anywhere, really. All I could think about was how the baby kept screeching and they're trying to sell me "Vitamin Water" and the new box of Tide is twice as high as it used to be so how am I supposed to reach in there every time I do a load?

That said, I not only recommend the caramel apple pie, but you also must try the organic ravioli--in the refrigerated section, not frozen. It is amazing. The chicken kind, not so good, but definitely try the spinach kind. Today I noticed there are two new varieties: eggplant parmesan and tomato-basil-mozzarella. I bought them all. I think the brand name is Monterey something-or-other. Give it a try and you won't look back. At any rate the three containers of ravioli sitting in my fridge are my redemption from the less-than-stellar shopping trip this morning.

Third post

My 1-year-old is exceedingly afraid of the vacuum cleaner. The only way he will tolerate it is if I carry him while I vacuum, and the whole time he stares down at the thing, probably willing with all the telepathy in his tiny toddler brain for it to stop. Fortunately, since we have 4 carpeted rooms, this does in fact fulfill my exercise quota for the day.

I may or may not be able to trace this fear to the fact that once when he was about 6 months old and I really wanted to vacuum his room, I put him in his crib and vacuumed. He was super-traumatized. You should know that he sleeps in a Pack'n'Play so he was face-to-face with the lighted-up, roaring base of the machine going back and forth, back and forth inches from his nose. No wonder he's frightened. I don't know what I was thinking.

Seriously though, if I leave the hall closet open and he sees the vacuum hiding there, unplugged, he starts wailing. He knows. I have tried playing "Hello, Mr. Vacuum Cleaner" (a game I made up which you can probably envision), which so far has not worked. I will let you know.

Or maybe you can let me know if you have any advice. I mean I'm kind of a clean freak and I vacuum often.