Archive for August, 2008
My future husband
So I guess I didn't scare you off, huh? Good! Welcome back!
He doesn’t know it yet but I am going to marry Terrence Howard.
He used to be second in line but I dumped Matthew McConaughey when he got that Camila check pregnant. So now Terrence is my # 1 man.
He is beautiful, he is intelligent (degree in chemical engineering), a devoted single dad to three, creative, and I love his voice. I love watching his movies just so I can watch him and hear him talk, I don’t even care what his lines are, I just like to hear him speak them.
Anyway, you might remember his award winning performance in Hustle & Flow and that song ‘It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp’. LOVED that movie. My ex-fiance and I even had an inside joke from it.
Him: “Who’s in charge?”
Me: “I’m in charge!”
Well now he’s got an album coming out this week called Shine Through It
Listen to this….he gives me chills!
*sigh* Ok, who am I kidding. I’m not going to marry Terrence Howard. But I’d settle for someone like him.
The Dangerous Days of Daniel X
All of you moms and dads with teen or even pre-teen boys, listen up. Bestselling author James Patterson, along with Michael Ledwidge, is on a mission to get these kids into reading. And he’s doing a great job at it with ‘The Dangerous Days of Daniel X’.
I initially took the opportunity to review this book because I thought Bubba would like it. He hasn’t even had a chance to read it yet because I’ve been hogging it. Hey, I wanted to read it first! And I’m glad I did.
Just to give you a brief plot synopsis, Daniel goes on the hunt for aliens on ‘The List’ after witnessing them murder his parents and uses his superpowers, like shape shifting, to fulfill his mission. Its like Superman meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
As I was reading it, I kept thinking of how much it reminded me of Neil Gaiman’s ‘American Gods’. Its a little bit sci-fi but its more like a comic book. Wait, they don’t call them that anymore. What’s the phrase now? Graphic novel! Yeah, that’s it. It’s like a graphic novel only without the graphics. I could even “see” this book being made into a movie in my mind.
I don’t want to get into too many details about the plot and what happens because, well, that ruins it. But I wanted to address the concept of getting teen boys into reading. James Patterson has really tapped into a much-overlooked audience. Most YA (young adult) books are aimed at girls. Look at the popularity of the ‘Twilight’ series. But other than Harry Potter, can you think of a popular series that guys would enjoy?
Aside from drawing these kids in with the plot, Patterson also keeps them engaged with short chapters (hello? sons with ADHD anyone? *raising my hand*) but he also makes references to pop culture that readers will be familiar with which keeps the story modern.
Now I’m fortunate enough to have a son who does enjoy reading but if he didn’t, this would be the book I’d use to reel him in. And even though his reading tastes are a little beyond his chronological age – he’s into Nietzsche, Shakespeare, Darwin, and “quantum physics” or something like that – he’s still interested in reading this one.
But he’s going to have to wait…until I get done reading it again.
No I’m not ok
But thanks for asking.
Its no secret that I’ve been in a slump lately. To be honest, “slump” doesn’t cover it. I’m fighting another round of depression but I’m fighting it really hard so I’m still somewhat functional. I can Twitter, I can write review posts, I can get my work done, but that’s about it.
So rather than email everyone who has asked me what’s wrong, I’ll just try to write a brief and somewhat vague explanation here.
First, I lost my job. My day job, the one that pays the bills until I get more clients. Yeah, its gone. I had to go to yet another court hearing (4 in one month), so they fired me because I’ve missed too much time. Exact same reason I lost my job at the law firm last year making twice what I’m making now and doing what I love. See, I tried to turn a negative into a positive and it became the motivation for starting my own business. Starting my VA business would have allowed me more flexibility and control over my schedule. Unfortunately, its not enough to support my family so I was holding on to the regular job. So much for that.
Then I lost my Princess. I’ve been battling in court over my educational rights which The Sperm Donor and DHHS have both just tried to run over with a freakin’ freight train. So The Sperm Donor and his pitbull attorney requested an emergency removal of my daughter because I didn’t take her to the school by his house which is 30 miles away from my house. I’ll save you from doing the math. That’s 120 miles per day, 2 hours of driving, 5 days a week. I tried to enroll her in our local school but they wouldn’t let me. So I started homeschooling her. I set up a curriculum, signed up for an online homeschooling calendar, bought a few supplies and did what I had to do to make sure she was getting the education she deserves (don’t even get me started on the public school mess from last year that the Sperm Donor put us through). It was going great, she loved it, she learned more in one day here than she had in an entire week at public school. But then, just to be a dick, he goes and gets this order saying that I didn’t take her to school for two days and for some fucked up reason, in his mind, that warrants having the cops show up at my house to take my daughter.
The only thing worse than having your child taken away from you is going to their funeral. There’s a physical ache in my chest, a sinkhole where my heart is supposed to be. I can’t even go in my room because the day she left, she was “hosting a birthday party” for her dolls in my room and they’re all still in there. I went into my room to change clothes the next day and I just lost it. I collapsed onto the bed in tears.
To top it off, Bubba isn’t here either. He wanted to go to a friend’s birthday party. Well in order for him to go, I had to give up my weekend. See, his dad won’t just switch weekends like most normal, civil parents would do. Last year, Bubba wanted to go to a school dance that was on my weekend. I said “Ok, fine, we’ll just switch weekends.” I sent the Stepbitchmother an email saying it was fine with me. Oh but that’s just not acceptable to Bubba’s dad. He forced Bubba to stick to the schedule and said it was my fault that he couldn’t go to the dance because I’m the one that took him to court after he kidnapped my son and I didn’t see him for a year and because I did that, we have this court order that says he’s supposed to be here so by God, he’s going to be here. So this time, I made the sacrifice (I was willing to last year, he just wouldn’t accept it) so Bubba could be with his friends, especially considering his dad rarely ever lets him hang out with his friends. This jerk has even taken time off from work to sit in the parking lot across from the public swimming pool to spy on Bubba. The one place he was allowed to go all summer long and his dad has to spy on him to make sure he’s really there. Anyway…once again, I’m always the one making sacrifices.
So now here I sit until the hearing on Wednesday morning with nothing to do – no job, no clients, no homeschool, no lunches to make, no Hannah Montana or Clifford to watch. I’m just a big blob of nothing. Princess isn’t here, Bubba isn’t here, just me and the cats which is why I’m developing this paranoia about turning into Crazy Cat Lady.
There’s your answer. No, I’m not ok…but thanks for asking.
Hell yeah its an honor!!
Check it out! After nominating a few other people, I made it into the list of nominees too!
Now I just need votes. And I’m going to be very blunt. I can’t afford to bribe anyone. I don’t have any cool prizes, I can’t afford to buy anything to giveaway, I don’t have the kind of traffic some of the other nominees do so I really don’t expect to win or even come close. When it comes to luck vs. popularity, I do better in the blog contests and giveaways that involve luck.
But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to beg and plead for votes. Remember the song “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg”? Yeah, that’s me.
So please please please vote for me. Just go to the HotBloggerCalendar website, go to “Vote for Gals” and towards the bottom of the list you’ll see my name. Click the little circle next to it and cast your vote.
And if I do happen to be one of the winners and I can make it to NYC for the makeover and photo shoot, I’ll bring back souvenirs!
Cereal and yogurt and prizes, oh my!
I love it when I get the opportunity to write reviews of products I already like and new products from companies I already trust. And I like it even more when the companies give me the opportunity to share them with you by providing giveaway prizes. This time I get to do all three!
First, there’s the new Cocoa Puffs Combos cereal. Before I tell you about that one, I need to confess something. When it comes to cereal, I am so far from being a grown up. If I have to choose between something sweet with a cartoon character on the box and something with bran and wheat and some kind of coated cluster thing, I’m going for the stuff that’s going to leave me some flavored milk when I’m done. But now that I have to steal from share with my kids, I’m a little more conscious about what’s in the cereal.
The good news is that Cocoa Puffs Combos is made with whole grain and is a good source of Calcium and Vitamin D. The better news is that this stuff is good! I’m a fan of Cocoa Puffs as it is (see “flavored milk” reference above) but now they’ve added vanilla puffs to the chocolate ones. I hope somebody got a big fat bonus for coming up with that idea!
The other product that we had the chance to try is Yoplait Kids yogurt. Naturally, I jumped on the chance to review it because its already a favorite in my family. In fact, I had a Family Pack of Yoplait (strawberry and strawberry banana) in my fridge at the time and had kiddy yogurt on my shopping list so Princess wouldn’t eat all of mine. Usually, she gets the Dora yogurt or the drinkables or those Go-gurt tubes. But this time, she picked out the Trix yogurt. And she loved it.
Now if you’re worried about the nutritional value of Yoplait Kids, here’s some stats for you. It has brain building Omega-3 DHA and is a great source of vitamins A and D. Yoplait Kids is also an excellent source of bone-building calcium with 25 percent less sugar than the leading kid’s yogurt and no artificial sweeteners or flavors.
Ok, before I get to the giveaway part, I wanted to let you know that you can go to the Yoplait Kids website and get a coupon for $1.50 off. So you saved $1.50 just for reading my post.
You’ve also got a chance to win one of these:
- 1 of 4 coupons for a free box of Cocoa Puffs Combos
- A Yoplait Kids insulated travel cooler and a fun, educational game along with it
All you have to do is leave me a comment letting me know which one you’d like to win. You don’t have to pick between the two. If you’d like to win either one (or both), just say so!
The giveaway will end on Sunday, August 31st. I’ll close comments at 8 PM Central then pick 4 numbers for the cereal coupons and then another number for the travel cooler and game. (Even if you win one of the cereal coupons, you’ll still be eligible for the second prize too.)
Got it? Good! And good luck!
