Wait For It...

Yesterday and today I BAKED and WORKED OUT! Whoa.

The working out probably isn't very surprising to anyone who knows me since I used to work out religiously. However, since I had Audrey and Dan moved, it has been so hard. Now that I am a full-time student, I have a little more time. And, my health depends on it. I've been having back spasms on a regular basis and hopefully the increased movement and stretching will help. I'm sure it will.

I baked dark chocolate pumpkin muffins and they are pretty darn good. And healthy! Whole wheat and all that :).

What to Watch With Your 3-year-old?

I've been wanting to find some shows and movies that Audrey and I would BOTH enjoy watching. After being forced to overhear the hell known as a "Strawberry Shortcake" show, I decided it was time. Even though some are very good, I get tired of animated films a la Disney, etc. Last night we watched the documentary "Babies" and we both thoroughly enjoyed it. Looking for more like this.

Desperation

I am indifferent to the daylight savings controversy, except when it comes to putting your child to bed. When it's light out until 9:30+, it's just about impossible to get your child in bed by 8pm. But I decided I would not be conquered. I borrowed some black-out curtains from my sis and put the regular curtains on top. You'd think that would do it, but noooooo. The little bit of light that peeps out on the sides makes Audrey think it's recess time. Well, there's nothing duck tape can't fix, right?

Slow Down and Simplify

I rented my house for the fall. I've been wavering for a couple of years about doing this and moving to an easier place to live (smaller yard, less space, etc). It's all a part of my "Slow Down and Simplify" life plan. I will miss my house - I've been here for eleven years! I was "this close" to purchasing a new house this week, but it fell through (suspicious smoke stains w/o reasonable explanation). So, I am moving to an apartment! I am moving to one of IU's apartment complexes, which is about 99% international. I'm really excited to meet new friends from all over the world (especially for Audrey)! Another thing I love is that the rent includes everything, so no surprises when it comes to utilities... and no home repairs to do! I hope we'll have many wonderful experiences that I can blog about. Stay tuned...

Want to Know the Key to Happiness? Because I Have it!

Here it is: Stop watching political pundits and the news (and reading news blogs)! Seriously. CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, your local station- they are all horrible. Pundits and broadcast news “journalists” exaggerate EVERYTHING by over 1000% and cause so much fear in our country. But you want to stay informed, right? I know, me too. My recommendation: Jon Stewart. Yes, his show is a comedy, but its news portion are based on real events and he is an equal-opportunity critic. Many think he leans left, and I think he does as well, but he has NO PROBLEM calling out both (all) sides for their ridiculous stupidity. Also, the NewsHour on PBS; people think they lean left too, but I think it’s the closest to bipartisan news as you’ll get on TV. Anyway, my level of happiness has increased significantly since I started limiting myself to watching / reading (online) news to once a week.

If you do want factual news, you are more likely to get the “real” story several weeks after the event occurs. “We regret our error” notices are not prominently shown and there are TONS of them (and  that's only if they actually admit the mistake). Like when we said, “100 died from this horrible accident,” we actually meant 13 people were mildly injured. “Sorry to those people who had subsequent heart attacks and died due to our irresponsible reporting.”

Below is a gem from 2010; the publication took almost a month to admit that the picture is of the wrong man, and that the man in the picture is still alive and he didn’t kill anyone. Could you imagine? Seeing a headline, “Jane Doe Responsible for Killing 430,000 People,” and the picture of Jane Doe is YOU!!!!

The publicatons's apology: The picture above right illustrated a front page story about the death of the Nazi war criminal, Samuel Kunz, on 23 November. We have since been told that the image is not, in fact, that of Samuel Kunz, but the Croatian actor Ljubomir Jurkovic. We are happy to make the position clear and apologise to Mr Jurkovic for the error.

Photo and story credit here