Talk of the Town

Jeans that aren't jeans

Do you love to wear jeans?  Do you love the comfort of pajamas?  "Then Pajama Jeans are the pants for you," or so the infomercial would have you believe.  Don't tell me you aren't curious about Pajama Jeans girls, because EVERYONE is talking, writing or posting their thoughts on Pajama Jeans - "the sweat pants that look like they were made by a European designer!"

That is if European designers used fleece to make pants that look like cheap-looking jeans.

We only have ourselves to blame.  It started off with college-aged girls wearing flannel pants to Wal-Mart or class.  Before we knew it, our jeans became jeggings.  It was only a matter of time until some comfort-loving fool put two and two together and came up with Pajama Jeans!  That's right, they are sweat pants that look like jeans including rivets and top stitching.  

Listen, just because you're busy doesn't mean you can't look like someone who doesn't care what you look like.  Unlike normal sweats, these Pajama Jeans will set you back forty bucks AND you get a cheap t-shirt too.  It's an offer that's hard to refuse, but I'm holding out until I can buy one pair of PJ's and get a second pair free!

That's right.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up buying a pair of these crazy pants.  It seems like we're all waiting for someone to take the plunge and tell us if its a thumbs up or wayyyy down.  SOMEONE has to jump first.

After all, they can't be worse that Zubaz...can they?

 

Brown on the town

We may be up to our eyeballs in winter, wondering if we will see a warm sunny day ever again or if-in fact-this will be the winter that does us in.  These are the days when we prove what we hardy Midwesterners are made of...although I can't remember at the moment what that is.

Recently I was reminded of an event from a warm summers evening last year.  That was the night a tornado blew through our neighborhood leaving quite a mess and damaged homes behind it.  What I've noticed is a tell-tale sign of exactly which homes suffered damage now that all those homes have been repaired.  

It's the color brown.

As I drive through my neighborhood and many neighborhoods in town, it's obvious the brown siding business is in full swing.  The color is on so many houses, I'm starting to wonder if there is a contest or dare involved!  I noticed because I love this grayish, clay-colored brown tone.  At our home, we have reached the we-need-new-siding stage (actually we were there a few years ago but just haven't bitten the bullet yet!) and I was starting to really get into the brown house-vibe.  However now it's gone too far and I fear becoming just another brown house on the block.  

Oh well, it's just a silly color of paint, but it's back to the drawing board at our house.  

"Kids!  Pick a color!"

Have you noticed too or am I imagining it?  Is brown the "color of the moment?"  

 

Real world salary arbitration

If you are a baseball fan, you know many of the players from your favorite team are currently haggling over their 2011 salary with their bosses.  

What an odd way to ask for a raise.  The player's agent and the representative from the team meet with an arbitrator to plead their case.  For instance the player's agent presents evidence why his client should get $10M.  But the team explains why the player is only worth $2M.  Then the arbitrator decides what the salary will be.

The odd part is the team is being put in the position of arguing why the player they want to continue to employ is NOT as good as the agent says.

Can you imagine if this is how the rest of us asked for a raise?  "Forget the cost of living index boss!  I am a team player who shows initiative to solve problems, doesn't take a lunch break and ALWAYS fills the paper feed on the copier even when I wasn't the last one to use it.  I hear your offer of an extra $750 a year, but what do you say we tweak that offer upwards by about $20,000?""  

Your boss says "You may not take lunch, but you do sit at your desk for 90 minutes and play Angry Birds at noon everyday.  Also you wear too much perfume and you are known as the girl who never replaces the jug on the water cooler when you drain it for your plant."

It would make for an uncomfortable situation during the next team-building exercise, don't you think?

 

 

THIS is news?

The President's State of the Union address isn't until January 25th, but Republican Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York plan to break with tradition and *gasp* SIT TOGETHER during President Obama's speech!  Usually the Jets sit over here and the Sharks are over there, but not this time.

In an effort to foster greater civility in the political arena, the two Senators will sit together and hope other legislators will follow their lead.  What a great idea- demonstrating solidarity toward the country instead of to their party!  

The optimist and the pessimist in me will wrestle it out to decide if this is newsworthy or not.  I really hope this might be the beginning of a new era of working together to solve some tough problems.  

However the phrase 'publicity stunt' seems to fit the bill as well.

What do you say?  Does it mean anything to you or do you think it's just a stunt?

 

 

Kickoff craving

The football playoffs mean one thing to me.  Food!  It's because the football season winds up at the precise time of year I want to snack for 18 hours a day.  

The recipe?  Take three to six hours of sitting on the sofa, add a dash of my lazy bones and a hefty scoop of guacamole and you've got the perfect weekend my friend!

Everyone has their favorite football food, but in past weeks I've realized there is one thing I seem to crave as we countdown to kickoff.  It's nothing less than a Pavlovian response as I've trained my brain to associate the pre-game time with a spicy Bloody Mary.  I started crunching the numbers just before writing this blog and figured out about 97% of the 'Bloodies" I've had in my life preceded a football game.

A few years back when I was just weeks from delivering a beautiful baby boy, my husband and I took our annual trip to Lambeau Field.  Never one to hold up against cravings-let alone pregnancy cravings, I ordered a alcohol-free version of my favorite drink to enjoy as we took in the tailgating festivities.  Of course the people around us didn't know that, so the double takes and comments were one of the best parts of the day!

This weekend my favorite cheese-headed team will (crossing fingers!) continue in the play-offs, so I plan to set up a Bloody Mary bar in our kitchen.  Tell me, what makes the perfect Bloody Mary?

 

Tucson tragedy

In these days following the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the murder of six innocent bystanders I have been nothing short of confused.  

The first I learned of the shooting was midday on Saturday when the occasional Facebook status referenced the event.  By Saturday evening, the news and the web were filled with not only the latest details, but all sorts of connections between the shooting and Sarah Palin, the Tea Party and hate speech rhetoric.  I didn't understand the connection, but I had been busy and hadn't had the chance to sit and read about the situation.

Had the gunman done this 'for Sarah?'  Was there information left behind about his Tea Party-fanatic views?  Were there on line screeds he had written filled with hate speech?

On Sunday when I started to learn more, my confusion grew.  I still didn't understand how the Tea Party was involved.  Why Sarah Palin's name was still linked to the shooting was not clear either.

By Monday, the most I can gather is that a Sheriff made a comment at one of the initial press conferences  about how "hate speech is causing all this violence."  It seems from that one comment, the media firestorm took off.  

When we should be focusing on the victims and those clinging to life, we are debating hate speech and freedom of speech?

What I do know is six are dead-including a beautiful little girl the same age as my daughter.  We have also learned the gunman appears to have had mental issues for quite some time leading up to this event.  

I also understand the level of civil discourse in our nation is shrinking at an alarming rate, but doesn't anyone else find it even slightly ironic that the call to end the "hateful rhetoric" was being 'shouted' from the rooftops?  In my own little circle, the on line postings in the 36 hours following the attack were profane, aggressive and shocking.  The line between hateful rhetoric and a passionate call to change is a thin line indeed.

On the bright side, over the past 12 hours, it seems the tone is finally starting to change to the FACTS of the story.  There are plenty of debates to be held about hate speech, the Tea Party, Sarah Palin, gun control, and hopefully even the cracks in a system or a family that didn't get mental health care to the young man who needed it.

Yes, plenty of time for those debates, but making those items THE story was a big mistake.  

 

The pages of our lives...

Save me from myself!  

In the new year I want to solve some problems.  There are big problems out in the world, both nationally and locally, but I'm not worried about them.  Let some brainiac figure out those issues.

I'm talking about small problems; the kind that gather together and nip at your heels.  The kind that makes me feel at times, like I'm facing an uphill battle.  In the New Year, I'm going to ask for your help solving these little problems.  

Maybe one of you will share the little issue you can't find the answer to.

I predict that when you read what this first problem of mine is, you'll be surprised to hear it's even an issue for me.  However, maybe others will feel the painful sting of recognition and rejoice when the problem is solved.

So what is it that has tripped up my sense of order?  Pages.  Specifically magazine pages that contain recipes, exercises and gardening projects.  These pages clog up my recipe file (wrong size), the inbox on the desk (where should they go?) and flutter about the family room.  Even as I type this I keep thinking- how is this even a problem?  But it IS!  I think I need the information on these pages, but don't know what to do with them.

Save me from myself!  Do you have any organizational tips for me?

 

 

Resolution or lesson?

2011 is off and running and before you know it, you'll hear someone (maybe you!) say "I can't believe how fast January is flying by!"  This first week however is all about resolutions.  Whether you choose to add a new healthy habit or end a bad one, keeping resolutions is a tricky business and I'm terrible at it.

This is what has led me to scale way back on even making a resolution over the past few years.  As I've written previously, this year I resolve to no longer buy cheap toilet paper.  So far, so good on keeping THAT one.

I was thinking about this over the past few days and I came up with a theory about December 31st.  I wonder if instead of resolving to do or not do something in the coming year, it might be more valuable to reflect on the year gone by.  I tell my kids they are only mistakes if we don't learn from them, so maybe I should take some of my own advice on this one.  

What I learned in 2010 was the value of home owners insurance.  From the tornado in the summer to flooding in the fall, having that protection for our home may not have mattered emotionally, but financially, it was wonderful.

A lesson started in 2009 came into focus.  When my schedule was tipped upside down with the loss of a job, calmly allowing the next chapter to come into focus took a LOT of patience.  It was difficult, but like most unwelcome situations, has proven to be worth it.  

Finally, because of the shared experiences with girlfriends my age I learned a woman in her early 40's can experience a strange mix of inexplicably shorter arms, a VERY unexpected pregnancy, and yet still deal with a gigantic pimple on the chin.  Knock on wood girlfriend; you never know what might happen to you!

What lesson did YOU learn in 2010?