Why I want to be a cat (a pictorial guide)

Who wouldn't want to be a cat?

a blog about eating (more or less)

Sometimes, Abby has epicurean tastes, like frog legs.

Sometimes, she just likes to eat junk food...like plastic rattles.
(The quality on this picture isn't that great for some reason?)

Regardless, her milk supply is by far her favorite. There's always some serious sucking going on when the bottle is around. It's too bad that pictures don't come with sound effects.

Abby turned 4 months old and marked the occasion with her first ever apple pickin' at the orchard trip. It was also her way cute 4 year old cousin Macy's first ever apple pickin' trip, too. Overall, fun times!

Nice, cool weather brought upon a lovely, albeit brief, nap.

This was by far my favorite apple picking trip ever, and I always enjoy going. It's so cool to share things like this with your child, even if they will never remember. I will.

I needed a mental break tonight, so I hopped over to Panera to pick up something to eat, and yay...Panera is now posting the caloric content of all of their menu items! Fantastic!! It made me feel somewhat gooder, too, that my fav sandwich is *low* on the caloric scale and my fav coffee, a hazelnut latte, is absolutely not that bad for me, forgetting the sugar content, especially compared with the super sweet carmel/mocha drinks. I love Panera!

my once-every-6-years-mood has passed, maybe

I told Ben that this information was not to leave the house, but since he never reads this, he won't know that I'm writing about it. But of course, you are also held up to the same promise. If you want to read my forthcoming revelation, you must promise not to spread this news around. I can't want to tarnish my reputation.

(Disclaimer...this blog explores the painful topic of exercise. Should you find yourself working up a sweat while reading this, please find some good, crunchy dark chocolate to calm down.)

I jogged last night. Granted, in the loosest sense of the word. There was a point on my nightly walk where I ran/shuffled from point A to point B, not once but threeeee times. Three very short times. But thrice, nonetheless. My observations were surprising, especially considering that my basic exercising philosophy entails exercise just enough to be able to eat what you want.

1. I feel heavy when I run. This is one good reason why I don't like it.
2. I did not feel nauseous or have a stitch in my side at the end of any of the three spurts. This in and of itself is amazing. The last time that I chose to attempt to jog, I experienced both. And, I was about 25-30 pounds lighter then and 6 years younger. The 20s are rougher on a person that one would expect!
3. I actually found the perfect time of day to jog, should I ever become possessed as I obviously was last night. Dusk. No one is outside anymore. No one is watching me jog/shuffle.
4. The dang earbud, which doesn't stay in well when I walk, really doesn't stay in well when I jog/shuffle.
5. I wish that I did enjoy running simply for glorious weather like we've been experiencing lately. My daily prayer--Please let me be in shape enough to run just during lovely weather. That's all I ask. Amen.
6. I can see how people dig it as a chance to wind down and clear your mind after taking care of kids and problems all day. It was somewhat, begrudgingly, mentally refreshing.
7. I might just do it again, should I find myself with an Abby free moment at exactly the right lunar moment when the temperature is just perfect.

"I believe that every human has a finite number of heart-beats. I don't intend to waste any of mine running around doing exercises."
--Buzz Aldrin (this coming from an astronaut who must be in peak physical shape, which just proves that exercise is waaaaay overrated)

Inexplicable

My thoughtful pondering of the day include a number of conundrums, including this:

Why do cats enjoy a) staring at the refrigerator and b) sleeping with their noses mere centimeters from it, even when there is a perfectly lovely patch of warm, morning sun one foot to their left?

I would have taken a picture to exemplify my point this morning, but I was busy doing something and then forgot and then the cat moved. So illustrate this one yourself.

I feel all bloggy lately

(a poem with no meter and no apparent talent)

As I strolled across the campus
on a day so bright and sunny
I spied a goodly amount of undergrads
all technologically addicted

I studied them one by one
each with thumbs a flying
with earbuds pushed in their ears
to drown the world out

A revelation I suddenly had
while walking by myself
the difference between the undergrad
and grad student quite succinct

The "younger" set so full of youth
with all their bizarro or namebrand outfits
no social status amongst their peers
unless a technology addict they be

The "wiser" group by one or two
instead of tuning the world out with music or staring at their hands
a stroll from place to place
eyes up with only a laptop to qualify them as "student"

(like tips at a coffee shop, polite snaps always appreciated)