Fonts

I've always been very interested in lettering, calligraphy, fonts. Sometimes I find myself just taking to a piece of paper and scribbling out some letters much like an artist may doodle in a sketchbook. Maybe it's in the genes. My grandfather made electric signs for a living.

My sister told me about a film on the font Helvetica. A font you've probably seen several times today as you've gone about your daily routine. Take a look at this tidbit from the film. Fonts are fabulous (and powerful). Very cool.

27 and cheese sandwich

Not sure why it's taken me so long to discover that cheese sandwiches are delicious. I've had grilled cheese, and those are good too. But a simple wheat bread, New York cheddar cheese, dijon mustard, and pickle sandwich is quite wonderful. Wouldn't you agree?

On another note, I was doing some internet surfing for baby goods and I came upon some dad t-shirts with the follow sayings on the front, including On Daddy Duty, This Dad Does Diapers, This Dad Gets Up. Made me get thinking about some other things a dad t-shirt could say (think back to your middle school days):

3am

baby crying

diaper needs changing

no sleep for days

rocking for 30+ minutes

no calming down

dark outside

NO FEAR

Ready for Spring

We got to visit NM this past week, the the weather was nice. Made me excited for spring.

Conversation piece

My growing belly has become a conversation piece. I mean that in a good way. There's something about the joy of expecting that makes people feel at ease. When it's clear you're having a baby it seems that people feel an instant connection with you and the next thing you know they're telling you about their experience, whether it be a mother sharing her miracle of becoming pregnant after going through unsuccessful infertility treatments, a father telling you how it is to raise a little boy, or the younger people sharing stories about when they were kids or what their nieces and nephews are like.

I have talked to people at my office, people I have worked around for 2+ years and never said a word to, now that I am having a baby. I have discussed with people, who I usually have "skim the surface" conversations with, the ins and outs of parenthood. I have been asked how I'm feeling about 3 or 4 times a day by people who I simply smiled at while passing in the hall. It's interesting how the subject of expecting a little one brings the extrovert out of introvert settings. What is it about having babies, raising babies, and baby subjects that lessens the gap between people? Do you like that lessened gap? Do you not? I'd like to hear.

The Chosen: A Review

Excellent book. Excellent story. The two books I've read by Chaim Potok have both delivered. True, at times I felt like I was reading My Name is Asher Lev again, but that's bound to happen seeing as the background of the characters is similar and some of the themes intertwine, but the author deals with such great ideas and themes that his books are superb. This story deals with two Jewish teenagers who have very different upbringings. One of the teenagers is a Hasidic Jew who is raised by his tzaddik father in silence. While the son suffers under this way of being raised, there's a point to it all and the reader comes to, or tries to, understand it. And that's in a very small nutshell. Good read. Give it a try if you haven't yet.

EQ Pick n' Roll

There's nothin' like a night of Elder's Quorum basketball for some sports entertainment. Complete with short jerseys and smack talk.
Made me want to play some basketball myself. It's been a while. At home growing up, we had a court outside on the east side of the house. We spent hours playing basketball. We'd play til it got dark outside and we could hardly see the ball. We didn't have short jerseys, but on occassion I would be wearing some short shorts. My brother called them my seventies shorts, because when I would try to defend him, they'd look all John Stockon like. We were true basketball players I tell ya.

Discontinued?!?

When at the grocery store, Jess and I like to look for deals,...heck, we love to look for deals. Jess is the best at finding them (while he's busy checking out all the mustard flavors or the latest iteration of stuffed olives); because most of the time, I just rush through the store to get the shopping task over with (I'm working on changing this mentality). Some of the deals we find are in the form of discontinued items, "33% off!" the little sign declares to us with an explanation point. So we check it out and decide. We've picked out some doozies. Paul Newman's Lime dressing looked promising (maybe it was his charming face on the bottle), but when we tasted it, we knew the discontinuation was a sound business decision.

A few days ago, however, we found a discontinued item that saddened me instead of excited me. Nature Valley Vanilla Yogurt bars.

These things are delicious! How could they be getting rid of such a product? The vanilla creates the perfect bit of sweet with the savory granola. A match destined for success, or so the execs at Nature Valley and I thought. Not so. It looks as if the strawberry and blueberry flavors are hanging on, but vanilla's gotten the boot. We bought a couple of boxes and revelled in our deal. Too bad vanilla's had to make it's exit at a little over $2 a box.

Thanks George

Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.
-George Bernard Shaw

Year of the Ox

The last week of January, I got to celebrate the New Year (based on the lunar calendar) with lots of friends and acquaintances. We hailed in the year of the ox with delicious food and superb traditional and non-traditional Chinese performances. At the end, we received a red envelope with candy in it to give us good luck throughout the year. Tradition says you should keep the red envelope for all of that good luck.

I'm definitely keeping the red envelope. This year's going to be a good one.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

For Valentine's day one year, my dad bought each of us a package of chocolate covered strawberries from a chocolatier downtown. Each package contained six strawberries and man, those strawberries were delicious. Because I love to make things last and I try to savor all treats, I saved my strawberries for about a week (allowing myself to eat just one a day). This is normal for a girl who used to put all of her Halloween candy bars in a beauty case under her bed every year in order to enjoy them throughout the following months.

On the fifth or sixth day, my strawberries started to have a fizzy kind of taste. Like someone had added carbonation to them. Turns out, fresh chocolate covered strawberries should be eaten within three days or else they start to ferment.

Lesson learned: during this month of chocolate covered goodness, eat those strawberries within three days but save those chocolates for later.

photo from i.ehow.com