To My Gaming Friends: Please Read - I am very worried about husband

Ok, so . . . I am worried. I am worried about Hubby. I really need to hear from all my gamer friends or all my friends that live with gamers. I need to know if this is a guy thing or if just depends on the kind of gamer you are...

Hubby gets so mad at his video games. He screams. He curses. He usually doesn't throw things, but I'm afraid we're getting close. He even yelled at the eldest cat because she meowed too loudly while he was playing. This happens when he gets frustrated with a level and dies or has to redo the level. This is something I just don't understand. When I get frustrated with a video game, I might fuss, but I turn it off for a while and step away from it. I mean, games are supposed to be fun, right? When I made the mistake of mentioning this to Hubby tonight, I got a "Well, aren't you f#@%ing enlightened?"

So I know I probably shouldn't have said anything at all. (DON'T JUDGE ME! I know you are!) Hubby has blood pressure problems already so before I ground him from this stressful game, please let me know your tips for calming him down when he's like this!

I also wanna share my favorite geeky website at the moment. Hubby has ordered shirts from here before, but I'd never checked it out. I now have a wish list }:)

Unexpected visitors

So anyone that has visited our house recently knows that we have been having some draining problems. We've tried every remedy out there, from all the natural fixes to the nasty high powered chemical ones. We've treated just the bathroom line as well as the main line. We had given up with the self-treating and were saving up the cash to call in the professionals.

Today we were having a lazy Saturday. Me getting over my annual season changing bronchitis, watching hour after hour of McLeod's Daughters, my fav Aussie soap opera, on netflix; Hubby in computer room, also with the sniffles & congestion, blowing things up & fighting virtual foes. Then there's a knock at the door. The pizza man had already delivered and we were expecting anyone else. Just to make things more bizarre, it was a white man at our front door. In our neighborhood, that is a rarity! We had been hearing construction type equipment next door all day. The man explains he was a friend of the owner next door and with the guys working on the sewer lines. Apparently the neighbors were having drain issues, too. They'd found lots of all roots and such, but it still wasn't working quite right. With having done everything they could from their side of the property, they needed access to our land now and also wondered if we were having any issues lately. Hubby went out with them and they started snaking our drains too. It was fairly customary around here for neighboring houses to share a line to the main sewer line. So our clogged line was their clogged line. They pulled out more roots and the usual gunk. But then came the goldmine -- the biggest part of the clog was a squirrel. Apparently while the cap was off for one of our "fixes", a squirrel had crawled inside for some reason while the water was low. After they pulled out our dead furry friend, they put the snake back in the drain to make sure that was it. It wasn't. The snake hit what Hubby described as a solid wall! They pushed harder and finally broke through and all the water just flushed out of the lines. This little furry nuts-for-brains had actually pulled a bunch of nuts and food and was trying to store it in our sewer lines and set up a cozy little home.

Why would this crazy squirrel pick down in the sewer lines to set up home? Not anything like what I thought squirrels would look for in real estate. Whatever his reasons for choosing our sewer, I'm glad he picked us. We got our drain fixed for free. If it happens again, we now have the number of a plumber that is really nice and won't rip us off. Sometimes I just love the weird kooky luck that we have!

Big Beautiful Belly Dancing Show

Last night I attended The Big Bellydance Show at Barking Legs with my two best friends, Abigail & Emily. When the announcer said the title for the first time, I snickered and made a joke, wondering if we were only going to see "big bellies". But after watching the show, I had an epiphany. Bellies are amazing! We saw big bellies, small bellies, bellies with stretch marks, bellies without blemishes, pregnant bellies, and smooth bellies. Bellydancing is something I've often thought about taking classes in, being as how I have to trick myself into exercising by making it seem like I'm not exercising, but I've decided against, feeling that I was too fat or ugly and didn't want to bare those parts of my anatomy that I hate so much. I realized watching all these beautiful ladies of all shapes and sizes that in order to be a good bellydancer, you must first indeed have a belly. If you don't have a belly, you don't have anything to shimmy. You have to have something to push out and pull in or there is no dancing going on at all.

So in honor of these ladies' inspiration, I am declaring this week "Love Your Body Week". I am still on my weight loss journey this week, but not because I hate myself anymore, but just because my doctors say I need to because I am unhealthy. I just wanna be healthy. I am now treating my weight loss as I would any other doctor's prescription. I really feel like if I can become a healthier person, all the other things that are chaotic in my life will fall into their proper place.

Love to all my bloggies out there (and your beautiful bellies)!

SHOES!!!!! - Sweet Pea Patterns Guest Giveaway

Shoes is something in sewing that I have never ventured into, but with my first nephew arriving soon, I want to make all sorts of small cute things. I would love to win this giveaway because there are some cute little boy shoes in this pattern. To all the other seamstresses out there, we need to make more cute & handsome things for little boys!!

Sweet Pea Patterns Guest Giveaway

Adult movie vs. Kid movie

Why can people not understand the difference between a kid's movie and an adult movie any longer? Most of the people I personally know the difference and regulate things for their children's age level, but the general population does not. Today, while my house was heating up from the lack of air conditioning, I decided to partake of the local bargain theater's afternoon showing of "Date Night." Just from the title, without even looking at the rating, I know this is a movie for adults. The entire premise of the movie is also the reason to go watch the movie. Go on a date night with your spouse/longtime significant other and laugh at how things have changed from the beginning of your relationship. I greatly enjoyed this movie, but would have enjoyed it a heck of lot more if the lady in front of me hadn't come with her FOUR children. What it looked like to me is that Mom & College-age Daughter wanted to see this movie and since College-age Daughter is going, then there is no one to watch the other kids in the middle of the day. The next eldest child is a boy maybe 12 or 13 years old, and there's another boy who can't be more than 8 or so. The 8 y.o. boy has a twin sister. The twins come in fighting & picking on each other, so Mom sits in between them. The movie starts and it is very funny but let's remember this is a Steve Carell & Tina Fey show. About married people. And married people have sex... or at least, want to and therefore talk about it. Every time they mention sex, gender-specific body parts, or anything of the sort, the 8 y.o. girl twin shouts, "PENIS" and giggles. Instead of Mom getting upset, embarrassed or disciplining the child in any way, she giggles as well. Well at least the first few times, until people started getting upset at the disturbance, and then the lady took the hint and got the girl to pipe down.

I grew up without all this language and violence. I don't feel like I miss out on much. And if I did, I can watch it now as an adult. I am glad that my parents let me be a child. I was horrified one day while substitute teaching to overhear a GROUP OF FIRST GRADERS talking about watching Saw (rated R, then later NC-17) and The Grudge (rated PG-13). I remember when the scariest movie in my entire world was The Gremlins. I'm 30 years old and I know I don't want to watch Saw from the 10 minutes of goriness that I have seen, and the previews & people talking about The Grudge was enough to give me nightmares!

So, parents of the world, please for the sake of the rest of us: take your children to age-appropriate movies. It's okay for your children to just be children. They will be better-adjusted adults, and people around you will like you more. This world is becoming more and more a world I don't understand or recognize anymore...

Official Movie Website – Date Night - Starring Steve Carell & Tina Fey: Home

QGM Unplugged

So I've been without a phone since Friday, because I lost it somewhere at work. We also have no home phone because we didn't feel like we needed it. I knew it would bother me not having a phone, but I had no idea quite how much! I have realized how much I have come to depend on that small piece of plastic & metal. And then to further blow my whole reality away, we lost power today as well. My cousin Jason was visiting and we didn't know what to do! "Let's watch a movie." No, electricity required for vcr, dvd player or Netflix via PS3 or Wii. "Well my laptop has a charge; let's get on the internet." Nope, electricity powers the wifi hub so no internet either. Previously we had been cleaning and organizing the cluttermuck that is my house. (Anybody notice I totally made up a word back there? Trying not to curse, and it's funny to say so . . . hey, don't judge me!) After about 5 more minutes of cleaning, we decided that it was too hot for all that moving around since the house was heating up fast. So after opening some blinds and pulling back some sheers, we kinda had enough light to play cards. We played Munchkin, well Star Munchkin rather, there was much laughing and such, and Jason promptly kicked my booty. Beginners luck I say.

I digress from my original point. Are we all too plugged in our screens? Would my memory be better if I HAD to remember stuff instead of relying on a hunk of plastic? Would we have better relationships, better health, better a lot of things if we weren't so surrounded by plastic and electricity? While I still do want to find my phone, especially since we have no home phone, I would also like to not be so dependent on it when it (or a replacement) does show up.

Losing

Welcome to my new battle with weight. My primary care doctor has been telling me (and my husband) that weight must be lost or start preparing to deal with diabetes in the near future. My neurologist says that my MS will be more manageable with less pounds. Last week, I got completely knocked the freak out by a summer cold. I went to the doctor for my lovely Z-pack to knock this sinus infection back to heck and the nurse and I begin our traditional bit. Step on the scale. Numbers tip. Nurse coyly leaves the big slider on 150 and wiggles the small one all the way to the end. I sheepishly smile and mutter something like "Thanks" or "Nice try", and we move on to the 200's. I honestly don't know if I just don't look my weight or she's really bad at guessing.

This time was a little different. We moved to the 200 and she's wiggling the small slider and we get almost to the end again . . . blink, blink . . . WTF? I'm in total Whiskey Tango Foxtrot situation, Skip poking me to walk to exam room, keep looking back at the end of the hallway, bad place where the numbers 240 just flashed before my eyes . . .

And I can't even blame a recent large meal. I felt like crap and had barely kept down a very small orange poppy seed muffin so they could take a blood sample just before that. The point where we were talking about diabetes and my drugs working better was now 20 lbs ago.

So now I officially have 100 lbs to lose to be at my goal weight. I have 75 lbs to lose before my doctors are off my back. So far my brillant plan is attacking the wii fit and packing my lunch, cooking more for dinner. I know the drive-thrus are killing me. Other than that, I really don't know what to change . . .