Why?: A Rant

So we went out to celebrate Eric's birthday at a restaurant we rave about. But this time around, there wasn't much nice to say.
The biggest problem was finding food on the menu that Ariel would have eaten. I'll be talking about this restaurant in particular, but it applies to all sit down restaurants in general.
Why, oh why don't these places have options available for little ones (2-5 age range)? It might be a tactic to prevent families with young children from dining or it could be that no one cares. But I'm a mom. I care.
As I perused the menu searching for something to order for Ariel, I was outraged at the lack of anything on the menu. Even a child who was in the target range of the kids' menu (6-12) wouldn't have eaten what they offered. There was no macaroni and cheese for crying out loud!
I quickly searched the side dishes and found nothing that my picky child would eat. Nothing edible in the appetizers either. When the waitress arrived, I asked if there were other options other than what was on the menu (truly, I was looking for a fruit cup/bowl). She proceeded to tell me that I could order a kids' meal and take home what Ariel didn't eat (which would have been everything). Then she pointed out the all-veg side dishes, going on and on about the broccoli casserole they had. Seriously? What child in their right mind is going to eat broccoli, not matter how much cheese is drenched over it?
Albeit to say, until Ariel is like 3, we'll have to bring food from home for her to eat. She did have some fluffy, delicious, honey-butter croissants. So at least someone was happy.

I Heart Link!

Disclaimer: If you are disturbed by a non-existent love affair with an animated character, then this post is not for you.

For anyone who has had the unfortunate opportunity to experience my quirkiness, knows that I am irrevocably, obsessively, and otherwise fantastically in love with Link. Don’t ask me why, maybe it’s the ears. I know most people will think I’m a total nut job, but if guys can fantasize about Lara Croft, then Link can save my life any day.

The latest installment of the Legend of Zelda series was just announced the other day. “The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword” is due to be released sometime in 2011. All I can say is, “I have to have it.” Ever since the debut of “Ocarina of Time,” I’ve had all the LOZ games in my possession during debut week. Crazy, right?

Link has come a long way since the first LOZ on Nintendo in 1986. I don’t count the games for the Gameboy platform, as it could never do Link any justice as far as his good looks are concerned. Link was cute then, in a flat, two dimensional kind of way. But his hotness factor was elevated with the time warping, flash forward of “Ocarina of Time.” Then the engineers slapped us all in the face with that insipid, ridiculous, cartoon version of our Hyrulian hero in “Wind Waker.” If you ever have the displeasure to see a pic, vomit on it. He looks horrible! I swear there must be more complaints written about his looks, than there were actual game walkthroughs.

Obviously, someone was listening because in “Twilight Princess” Link became a hunkalicious taste of animated eye-candy! Don’t call the psch ward, I swear I’m ok. It was all I could do to keep the drool off my chin while I played. Great game, BTW.

While “Skyward Sword” looks great, the engineers must have stopped listening to the fans. While Link has retained most of his “Twilight Princess” looks, there is that slight “Wind Waker” cartoon sheen about him. Not happy. But they have plenty of time to fix the problem before the game is released. *hint, hint*

Anyway, it looks like an amazing game. Happy hero video awaits.

p.s. And how can you beat the music! I think that the score/soundtrack of most of the Zelda games are are definitely worthy of an Oscar (in my non-professional, yet musically trained opinion). beautifully composed. Beautifully played. Beautiful.

Say My Name

So, now that we know our little one will be a girl, now comes the "fun-filled" adventure of finding her a suitable name.

Wait a minute . . . I thought these kids came with their own names. Like the Cabbage Patch dolls. Xavier Roberts even signed off on it with his signature tattoo. No? Ok, ok.

While we've shared Shortstop's gender, we will surprise you with her name after she's born. Life wouldn't be any fun if we told you everything.

We have narrowed our list to five first names with matching middle names. One day, we'll be absolutely certain about one of them, then the next day we'll totally change our minds. I'm afraid that we'll be taking our list into the hospital with us and going down the list to see which name fits her the best. Hmmm . . .

But here is the criteria we're using in the naming process:

1) Any name in the top 50 of the Social Security list, for the past three years, is OUT

2) Her name can't be easily shortened to a cutesy little nickname

3) We're looking for rhythm and fluidity

4) Her name must be easy to pronounce and spell

5) We're looking for something uncommon and unique, but not ridiculous (silly celebrities)

Despite our drama, Eric and I are having fun looking through baby books and auditioning names. Keep your fingers crossed!

Emergency

I think that if you can have a mid-life crisis (around 50 yrs old), what's to stop you from having one in your quarter-life (sometime around 25)?

I think I'm having a quarter-life crisis.

May factors have contributed to this psychological assessment, but ultimately, I think it comes down to three main events.

1) role as a not so desperate house wife- I have been out of work for over a year and while I enjoy being at home with Pazu, my sense of self worth has been swirling down the toilet. Most of us dread going to work on Monday mornings, but you know you have a place in the world. There is someone who depends on you to enlist your intellect and charm to get a job done. Even if you get paid peanuts, its a good feeling to be wanted. Applying for a job online seems to be a waste of time. Unless you mention key words somewhere in your application, your resume gets sent to some digital graveyard. Good luck trying to contact human resources to follow up. What's is so wrong with my resume that someone hasn't said, "What a gem! This girl is gold. Someone call her immediately."

2) the degree field - both of my degrees are in exercise physiology. In undergraduate school, I had these crazy ideas about promoting health and wellness and keeping up with the sports world. But is this what i want to do with the rest of my life? What do I want to be when I grow up? Who do I want to be? Hecked if I know, hence the crisis situation. This might be tied into event #1 with not being able to find a job in the field, even though I'm 100% qualified. I know that I want to be a writer (please see post title "screaming hallelujah"), but unfortunately it might be a year after you complete a book before you see one red cent. Bummer.

3) motherhood- so I thought that my next adventure might be in the role of mother, but the road to baby bliss has been a recurring nightmare of the Atari game "Pitfall." I'll post the more intricate details of this in a later post. While Eric and I know that our day will come, we've been trying for 2.5 years with marginal success. I try not to get upset, but what really burns me is when two people, who may or may not love each other, who probably are not married, mess around and end up pregnant. It seems that the people who most desire a child are denied, while those who don't end up with one. It's funny, so where's the punch line?

So what do I do now? Pray. And pray some more. I have to believe that God has a plan for me, but I've never been a good student of patience.

God Bless the Solider Dads

So our friend Joe called today to announce that he and his wife, Angela, will welcome a baby boy into the world.

I already knew this, as I am partially psychic when it comes to guessing the gender of my friends babies. I'm 6 for 6!

So all this baby talk brings up an interesting question. Is the phrase, "It's a boy/girl" politically correct? I mean and baby isn't an "it", he or she is a person. Wouldn't it be more PC to say, "He's a boy?" Someone contact Hallmark and get this changed.

Here's another pet peeve. Asking someone what their baby's sex is, seems so unattractive. Asking about a baby's gender, sounds so much more appealing. It would be an uphill battle to get the world to change this bad habit.

Good Luck to Joe who leaves for Iraq on Monday.