Swimsuit Identity Crisis

So -- the first day of Spring has come and gone.

What does that mean?

Flowers, April Showers coming, pollen, allergies, deciding between Zyrtec, Allegra and Flonase...

Oops, sorry, not the direction I was headed.

It also means that when you go to the clothing retailers, the first items that will catch your eyes will be SWIMSUITS. I'm still shivering in a sweater...how do they expect me to be in the mood for trying on a swimsuit?!?!?

Or worse yet, appreciating how I'd look in a swimsuit?!?!?

I told Dave yesterday that this year I need to get at least one new bathing suit.

"What's wrong with the ones you have?"

Where do I start?

I have 3 bathing suits. The elastic is going bad on my favorite one (circa 2002, got it at Land's End overstocks right after Jacob was born). Ever had elastic go bad on a suit? I don't mean the waistbands or arm holes, either...I mean, you give that Lycra a good stretch across your backside to put it on and when you take 'em off, the fabric doesn't retreat....

So I want to replace the Land's End one.

When you look in the stores, here's what is available (courtesy of Roxy):


Sorry folks, I'm TOO OLD to be dressing like this at the pool/beach now. I can't tote around 3-year-olds, don an inner tube alongside Jake and jump into the pool in it, either.

Here's more my speed:

Like the skirt?

Cost-wise, they're about the same. I'll end up spending about $100 no matter what. Dave can't believe that. But if I can get 5 years out of it, then it's like buying a $20 suit every year for 5 years, right?

My Pez Peeve

My boys love Pez.

"Hey, I love Pez, too...I don't see anything wrong with that."

Yeah, I remember getting Pez dispensers when I was little, and I remember loading it up with the candy, and then gobbling it down.

"Those were the days, indeed. They seem like reasonable gifts for the boys..."

I got each boy an Easter Pez dispenser for their Easter baskets. A Pez dispenser comes with 1 or 2 blocks of candy, then I also stuck a "refill pack" of 6 more blocks into each basket. Really, it isn't that much candy. Trust me. 150 calories total.

So here are the Pez dispensers...cute, huh?

From 2008 03 27 Pe...

I guess I'm not as young as I used to be. Jacob is pretty good at loading his dispenser, but Timmy needs help. Timmy's gone through 3-4 of his 8 blocks of Pez, and I SWEAR, with every block since this past Sunday, I've been plagued with the VERTICAL PEZ. Allow me to demonstrate:

So here's one of the Pez dispensers...this one happens to be Jacob's:


And this is an example of the "Vertical Pez":


Usually I end up with the vertical Pez when I'm just about done with loading, and all those other candies end up popping out while I'm adjusting the vertical one.


And finally, here I'm showing that Pez dispensers must have shrunk over the years -- I can't fit my fat fingers into the dispenser to adjust those $%^& Vertical Pez! My pinky barely fits.


Jacob's received several Pez dispensers over the past couple years -- Disney characters, Halloween, Christmas, etc. He probably has 4-5 of them. He never really had any problems.

Now that I think about it -- Jacob never asked me to load up the dispensers...he merely ate the candy straight out of the packaging.

This Easter Timmy received his first dispenser, and the very first thing he did when he was given his first loaded up dispenser Easter morning was flip the head up and attempt to suck the candy out with his mouth. All he did was gum up the dispenser.

"MOMMYYYYYYYYY! It's BROKENNNNNNNNNNN!"

So I fix it. Remove the slobbery one, wipe down the offended area...queue up the remaining Pez.

Then, about 2 minutes later, he somehow got a Pez candy way up into the Lamb's head (imagine a Pez shoved up into your brain!).

"MOMMYYYYYYYYY! It's BROKENNNNNNNN! AGAINNNNNNNNNN!"

When you brain your Pez dispenser, the head stays in the "up" position and you can't advance the candy until you get the one out of the head. I had to use a seafood picker-thingy to break the candy into pieces and shake the pieces out. Sigh...

And all the while when I'm loading, cleaning, breaking, shaking with Timmy's dispenser, he's hovering over me: "Are you done yet? Are you done yet?"


I don't remember Pez being this difficult...really!

It's Been One of Those Days...

I've been sorta, well, SLOW today. Last evening at about 11:30pm, I received an e-mail from my friend Susan in Norfolk about her seeing news of one of our high school classmates getting killed in Afghanistan. So I did a little research and found out that our friend, William Jefferson, was an Air Force Combat Controller stationed at Pope AFB just south of here. The work he did for the Air Force was pretty high speed and among the most dangerous for Airmen. He was in Afghanistan when his vehicle was struck by an IED.

I was pretty upset at the news and didn't sleep too well last night. Since I worked all day on Sunday cleaning the house, plus mowing the lawn and doing some landscaping, plus making a nice Easter dinner...I was pooped. But my mind was too busy to rest well.

So I've been very sluggish today. I helped Susan pass the word about Willie's death to some of our other high school classmates, and I was able to get on the phone with the public affairs office at Pope AFB and found out about a memorial service scheduled on Wednesday morning. I think I'd like to go...I just need to arrange child care and reschedule a parent/teacher conference and I think I'll be set.

Dave suggested dinner out for the family tonight, and while at dinner he mentioned that he didn't think I'd take Willie's death so hard, considering I'd NEVER mentioned him before. He's right, I hadn't. Willie wasn't exactly a close friend, but we had many classes together during our 4 years of high school.

Upon reflection, last night I had realized that in the 6 1/2 years since we'd first invaded Afghanistan, and in the 5 years since we'd entered Iraq, TSgt Jefferson is the first combat death that's struck a personal chord.

Also, my kitchen laptop died yet AGAIN. Another hard drive format, another reinstallation of Windows XP -- which has to be followed by Service Pack 2, Wireless card adapter, IE 7.0, and an Anti-Virus. That's just so I can hop back on here and write this to you. But it's back up, by some miracle.

Early bedtime tonight! Stay tuned for updates on the ant farm (it's still going strong!), getting the house "Staged" for going on the market in early May, and my struggles with Pez.

Happy Easter #2 -- Egg Hunt and Dressed for Church

Happy Easter #1 -- Dyeing the Eggs