How to get straight As!

It's easy. Go to the college where my husband works. They dish 'em out like candy. I'm so annoyed.

I try not to vent a lot and turn my blog into a stomping ground of things that frustrate me, but seriously, this university "policy" is on my nerves. They don't really have a "policy" its more of a "the way things are" type of thing. Unwritten, non verbalized way of how it works.

And this is how I understand that it works: The University has an excellent graduate program for excellent students who excel in everything they do. Excellent!

Except that excellence is just code for "we give them all As". Key word: Give.

My husband teaches students who already have been through middle school, high school, junior college, university undergrad school; they have Bachelor's degrees, job experience and proved themselves worthy of being admitted to the Master's program. Impressive, eh? Yeah, I thought so too. Until... I saw some of their work. And I saw my husband making squishy faces while reading their papers they turned in to him. And I realized that their written academic presentations were not much better than the essays he brings home from his middle school. These people are in the masters program? How did they get there? Shoot, how did they get out of the 8th grade?

The end of this term, my husband sat with a huge stack of final projects in front of him and he was scowling. He looked over and said to me, "these are all crap!" All but two got an A. I don't get it. I don't know how or why, but it happens that way. It just irritates me so much. I worked so hard for my grades and they weren't As all the time.

Not all students come out of class with an A. Some get an A-. OOooooOOOOooo, poor students! Apparently, A- is cause for academic review or something, and a B is just insultingly bad, and I'm sure the university doesn't want to waste a lot of time with those "bad" students. Just nudge them over the line. I wish I knew how they decide that everyone gets an A and how an A- is cause for review. I know if the teacher gives out too many "bad grades" he gets his ass chewed. Then his boss does.

Now that I know all this, I know where I'm going to get my master's degree. Yes, to the excellent school for excellent students who do nothing but excel in every excellent class. Then they go on to get excellent jobs with excellent salaries because they are so excellently excellent and win the job with that excellent transcript. And if I don't get a masters at this excellent school, I might end up working for one of these jerks who just purchased their degree. So, that's what I'll do. Can't beat 'em, join 'em! Buy a degree! Who has time to earn one?

Boy, I'm gonna catch hell for writing this, but I'm gonna hit publish post anyway.

"V"

Hello, Mary's Blog Fans. Mary's husband here. I'm taking over the keys to the blog today. I noticed this new TV show "V" is a remake of an 80s show by the same name. Remember that one? This one seems the same with updates. Here are my thoughts on the new V show and my predictions:

It is all pretty predictable--and that Nazi-like allegory is still there. The son of the main character is signed up to be part of the "Hitler Youth" and I'm sure will eventually sell out his own mother to the "V's"

In fact, Here's how the rest of the series will go:

* The son will develop a romantic (albeit one-sided) relationship with the hot little blonde V as he continues to lie to his mom about being involved.

* As she leads him on, he begins to rise up in the ranks and gains more V trust.

* Eventually, the hot little blonde V will start to show some feelings for him, and reveal the truth of her reptilian heart, OR, she will go all psycho on his arse and reveal how she used him like the tool he is--THEN reveal her reptilian side. Either way, THAT is when this tool will realize Mom was right all along.

* Meanwhile, the younger priest will become more involved in the underground resistance--helping to lead it and gaining intel from the FBI agent. Also-- The priest will at some point end up killing his older Priest mentor--who is actually a V himself.

* The turning point will be when a large portion of the population realizes the true intent of the V's (to turn us into soylent green), and a V revolt erupts. That revolt willl involve the internet and hackers (because using the internet can solve anything) taking over tv stations for a worlwide broadcast of some video evidence that the V's are lying about who and what they are and why they are here. That might be the black guy ripping the human skin off his reptilian arm live on camera.

* By now, the jilted son has switched sides and provides valuable intel about the V embassy so the resistance can blow it up, which they do almost simultaneous to the "Here is the Real V" tv broadcast. Result: chaos and mass anti-V sentiment ending with multiple attacks against V's, (with lots of scenes of 15 year old cars getting blown up) and prompting the V's to use their superior weaponry in defense.

* Season-ending cliff-hanger scene will be of the cute bitch V leader with a nasty pissed off Nancy-Pelosi looking expression (or maybe Hillary) telling the weaselly reporter that if the humans want war, the V's will bring it.


...and there will be no season 2

Chicken Nuts

That's what we just had for dinner. Rice, Sauce and Chicken Nuts.

I told Gracie that we are having Chicken Nuggets and she replied, "Chicken Nuts! I don't like Chicken Nuts!". She ate plenty of them though, so she does like Chicken Nuts!

Actually, I served up some General Tso's Heat and Eat Chicken Nuggets. It comes with some spicy sauce and says right on the box: "Just Add Rice". Coupled with Minute Rice, it's a quick and easy convenient dinner. Not gourmet, but we don't eat it very often. Not that we eat gourmet very often either... I think we should have General Tso's Chicken Nuts more often now that Gracie is a big fan.

Of course, now, I will always think of them as Chicken Nuts.

A Work in Progress

I cut up piles of jeans! Old jeans that didn't fit anyone, worn out jeans, stained jeans, maternity jeans, baby denim dresses, you name it, I chopped it into squares 6"x6". I couldn't really make the squares bigger because the girls are too skinny to wear jeans that have legs wide enough to cut larger than 6" across. Took me about a month to cut all the denim that we had that was worthy of going into a quilt (meaning it was not worthy to wear!).


Here is a 9-patch block laid out. Dark, light, dark, light, dark, light... and so it goes. Square #7 is where I will lay and "interesting" square in the block. Plenty of those!


So far I have four 9-patch blocks done. I am identifying them by the shade of the center square and as you can see I have one dark and three light. I will alternate the dark, light, dark, light so that the pattern is consistent. But, for today, I just laid out the blocks that I have done to show you, and it happens to be that I have one more light than dark so the pattern is a bit off in this layout. No worries, I won't sew them together like that! I am happy with almost all of my corners!

I have a king size red flannel bedsheet that I will use for the backing, and I will put jeans pockets in the bordering blocks. My husband has been asking me to make a denim jeans quilt for years; it isn't my favorite fabric and I've always thought a jeans quilt would be too bulky, boring and ugly. I'm happy to say, it's a fun project and I look forward to taking this quilt camping!

It's coming along! A big warm denim quilt for the hubby will soon be a reality! And since it will be made out of the family's old jeans, it will have some extra coziness to it!

Cluck! Cluck! Cluck! Ribbit!

Here I was worrying about swine when I should have been worrying about fowl! Turns out, Libby's illness this week was not swine flu, it was Chicken Pox.

Libby had her 12 mth vaccinations last month. 15 days later (last Sunday) she developed a fever and began her fever and flu-like symptoms. Friday she was splotchy and polka dotty. Saturday was more of the same. Her irritability increased, separation anxiety heightened and she wasn't happy. Saturday her skin looked a lot better, clingy as velcro with static. Now it's Sunday morning, we shall see how she is today. Hopefully, her skin will be cleared up and back to normal, but it could still take a day or two.

Not to be left out of all the attention, Gracie says she has a frog in her throat. Ribbit!

The Bed Saga

*Click on photos to see the whole photo, my blog layout isn't allowing the entire photo to display in the skinny main column. I am trying to find a new template; in the meantime, click the photo then hit the back button to return.

We bought a new bed 4 years ago. We really needed it, our Queen sized bed had body dents and we wanted to get a King size. We had that Queen for ten years.

We kept the Queen and gave it to Katie; she had it in her room upstairs for a couple of years and then moved it downstairs. Now it's in South Carolina. I think it's been moved and shaken around so much, it shook out some of the dents. I'm sure it's forming new ones now. But, it'll do till the kids can buy a new bed of their own.

So, we got a new King bed four years ago. Sept 16, 2005 to be exact. I remember because that is also the same day that we found out Gracie was going to join us. Big Exciting Day!

Turned out that the bed wasn't so great. It was thick with memory foam and I always felt like I was drowning in it. I couldn't roll over so I"d wake up and fight my way out of my memory foam hole to readjust myself. Ick! Then, it started to sink almost immediately and we exchanged it for another one with no memory foam pillow top, but had the same result. At least it didn't suck us down like the pillow top did. After three years, it felt worse than our Queen did. We were both waking up sore and weren't sleeping well. It took us a full year of looking, actually a bit more, but we finally just bought a new King size bed.

Two weeks ago, we plunked down a fortune at Ortho Mattress for a new box spring and mattress. It's supposed to be amazing and hold up perfectly. After the first night on it, we both felt pretty good. Neither one of us thought it was amazing though. We decided to give it some time.



Well, I still don't love it. It's been two weeks. The thing has a hard as a rock raised middle. I think that's because of the box springs coming together in the center, but still. I have to stick to my own side. The mattress people don't realize that "my side" is 3/4 of the bed! I can't have this hard line limiting my space to only 50%.

And it has "Memory Foam" on the top layer over the springs. Springs, I like! Memory Foam, ugh, I do not like that stuff! Especially since it doesn't remember. It's a rubbery foam that doesn't bounce back, it slowly oozes back to shape. But it squishes under your body so that when you roll over, now the bed is lumpy from your previous shape. At least the foam isn't deep. And it's rubbery, which makes me sweaty. Gross. Why can't a person get a bed without memory foam in it these days? The memory foam people are taking over the world! And I seem to be the only one who isn't thrilled about that.

So here we are, in another expensive uncomfortable bed. I tell ya, I'm ready to just put a pad on the floor and camp out!

I also got Libby a new bed. She refused to sleep in her pack-and-play any longer. Every time I would bend over to lay her down, she woke right up. There must have been a magnetic force in there that jolted her awake. And it started to sag under her weight anyway, so it's time for her to get a real bed.

When Gracie reached this age, we gave her the twin bed and moved it into our room putting it up against the wall and using a bed rail for the other side. Our bedroom is crazy big and our King bed plus the Twin bed next to it lengthwise fit just fine. It's an odd room.

So I thought about buying Libby a twin and doing that again, but I also had a crazy idea that maybe a toddler bed would do. This is nuts because I've always thought toddler beds are silly. They look like a toy. But trying to fit two twin beds into Grace's pink room someday might prove to be a challenge, so I considered how a toddler bed in Gracie's bedroom would be a better fit someday. After we move it out of our room. It was food for thought anyway.

I checked prices online. A Toddler bed costs as much as a Twin! Plus you still have to buy a crib mattress for it. Ah-ha! I'll check Craigslist! It's very active in our area. Sure enough, there was a pink princess toddler bed with a mattress for $35. Well, for that much it's worth trying to see if Libby will sleep in it and to see if I like it as opposed to a "real bed".

We picked it up and it's the cutest thing! She sleeps great in it for half the night, then she gets up and comes to bed with us. That's better than she was doing in her little playpen during the last month. She slept all night in her new little bed a few times too, and it is so much easier to lay her down because I don't have to stoop. I'm surprised! I like this cute little bed!


The dog likes it too. If the baby isn't sleeping in the toddler bed, the dog is. She fits very nicely on it too. I guess if it doesn't work out for Libby, then Sandy has a new princess bed just the right size. It seems to be working out just fine for Libby and once she starts to sleep through the night consistently, we can move her little bed to the Pink Room and the girls can share. I'm looking forward to that!

So, that's the saga of the beds as it is now. We have a new King that we are not in love with and Libby has a new Toddler bed that she likes well enough. Gracie got new sheets, we can't leave her out!

Overdose of Cute!

I mentioned the Baby Halloween Party that I took the kids to last Friday, but I didn't tell you about it!

It was fun! There were aprox 40 mommies there and 50 babies. Some moms have two or three babies, so there are always more little ones than big ones. This baby play group is under the guise of being a breastfeeding support group, but really, we're just a bunch of mommies having fun. The group meets at the hospital twice a week and there is a Lactinazi Lactation Consultant (she is also a Doula) who is employed to lead the group and help women with any breastfeeding issues they might have. The moms start off coming for breastfeeding support and end up coming for fun. We chitter-chatter, show off our babies, brag about the latest milestone, plan playdates and outings, trade coupons and recipes, and we had a Halloween Party.

Here are some of the uber-cute babies in their costumes: