Dan and Jen’s Blog

Look at this picture closely. 

OK, I don’t know if this is true, or an urban legend, or whatever, but a co-worker forwarded it to me.  And then we discussed the plausibility of such an occurrence.  Was the lettuce not washed or just washed in dirty water?  How fast does a frog grow from the size of something that noone would notice to what looks like a fully grown adult?  Do frogs eat whatever was in that bag (spinach or lettuce)?  Because I thought they only ate bugs.  But obviously not as tadpoles.  What the heck do tadpoles eat?  It became quite the hullabaloo.  You’ll get tons of hits if you google “fresco lavado.”  Regardless, the picture completely grosses me out and gives me the heebee-jeebees.  That’s right, the heebee-jeebees.  And I love bagged salad (so convenient!), though not so much if it contains this little bonus.

I’ve noticed those equal sign bumper stickers many times before, but today when I saw one during my commute home, I resolved to unearth the mystery.  A quick google search of “equal sign bumper sticker” ended my quest.  It’s the Human Rights Campaign.  I was really excited because I thought that had something to do with the suffering of people in China, North Korea, Iran, or other places where human rights are non-existent.  Not so.  It’s an organization working for equal rights for gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals.  Just in case you were wondering.

Our friends Amber and Phyllis are co-authoring this really helpful and biblically-minded blog series on birth control and family planning.  It’s very instructive and I learned several things.  I highly recommend it, regardless of your phase in life.

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six
Part Seven

This temp job is awesome! - I have to admit, I’d totally be fine with someone paying me to fly around.  The sad thing is, it doesn’t look like it’s meeting its purpose anyway.

Packrat doesn’t even begin to cover this - Take a special note of the walking sticks!

They’re nine years old for crying out loud - Good grief.

Gender issues are getting worse - A 15-20 minute operation to have your life irrevocably changed.  How will these men feel about this in 20 years?

I’m not the greatest wife in the world, but even I can see this is totally jacked up.

 Here are some interesting excerpts:

Can a piece of paper save a marriage? One suburban Boston couple figured it was worth trying so they entered into a legal agreement to manage a major source of tension in their relationship - money.

and:

Postnups, while much less common than prenuptial agreements, are gaining in popularity. Nearly 50 percent of attorneys polled by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers reported an increase in the number of postnups from 2002 to 2007.

 and:

Postnups might be used to determine who owns assets, set a budget for household expenses or remove a business from the table in the event of a divorce. Couples also have used them to decide such things as how often the mother-in-law gets to visit or how many boys-only weekends the husband gets to take.

Yes, this post is actually about violently flushing toilets.  We have auto-flushers at work, which I love because then you don’t have to flush the toilet yourself by kicking the stick thing or,  heaven forbid, touching the little handle that hundreds of people touch right after they do their business and before they wash their hands (if they wash their hands at all).   Have you ever noticed, especially on auto-flushers, how violently the flushing is?  They’re loud (I always feel like it’s screaming at me, the sound is akin to the water sucker things at the dentist), often there are little sprinkles of water on the seat post-flush, and you think there’s a good possibility that the water is going to escape the bowl and come and attack you.  I seriously wonder if toilet juice is going to get on me when I don’t get out of the way quickly enough. 

An interesting op-ed came out yesterday (not an April Fool’s Joke, though) regarding the economy and the media.  For those of you who hate Fox News, please try to keep an open mind.  Click here, here, and here for more on this.

So two Sunday nights ago, I finished the second pink sock.  It was exciting because it felt like the first “real” thing I’ve ever knitted, even though that’s ridiculous because I’ve knitted scarves, washcloths, a toddler poncho, baby booties and a hat, fingerless gloves, a stocking cap, and whatever else I can’t think of right now.  Nonetheless, it felt significant because I guess I don’t really consider myself a real knitter yet.  And yet it was slightly anticlimactic.  Perhaps because it took me so long to finish them.  Or maybe because I was so tired.  Oh, well.  I have several projects on the pike.  Like I told Dan, I’ve decided that I really need more free time.  But I don’t think Zappos will see it that way, wonderful employer that they are.  So I’ll squeeze in knitting in there somewhere.  Enjoy the pics.  Here’s a link to the original post, which has more pics.

I was doing laundry yesterday and while getting a dryer sheet, I fumbled the Stain Stick and knocked it back behind the washer and dryer.  I contemplated just leaving it there until we move (could be years!) and just buying a new one, but I really like my washer and dryer, they are new and beautiful machines and I wouldn’t want something to happen to them because I was lazy and allowed Stain Stick to explode or mold and fester back there.  So I went to Dan and sheepishly gave him the news.  And then we both went to our tasks of constructing our retrieval tools, Dan physically and me mentally.  Dan tried attaching a suction cup to the vacuum attachements with scotch tape.  That didn’t work because those suction cups suck at sucking.  Then I suggested making a loop out of packing tape and attaching it to a broom handle.  Dan immediately saw that the broom was too long.  So, we attached the packing tape (Jen) to the end of the vacuum attachments (Dan) and rescued our Stain Stick!  Yay, the beauty of marriage and complementing each other.

Proposal Gone Awry This is nuts!  I want to know how someone who is this careless with any $12,000 item has $12,000 to spend on something like this.  Also, it’s kind of telling that the woman won’t talk to him until he gets another ring.  Sheesh.

Flying Trampoline Ok, this story isn’t actually that weird, but it reminds me of my own experience of a box-spring smashing into my car while I was driving to work one day.  Only by popular demand (leave comments!) will I give details.

Sour Grapes Why do people think they can win these things?  As John Mark would say: RidONculous!

That’s a Bad Marriage This is so messed up.  I guess the alcohol had a lot to do with it, but still.  I’m so grateful that I’m married to a sweet loving husband.