More Thoughts on Project Runway

I thought Jay McCarroll, last season's winner, was being a little hard on the contestants when he guest judged last week. There was really no call for that.

I love Heidi Klum. For one thing she's married to Seal, one of the coolest musicians ever. And she makes pregnancy look beautiful, glamourous, and fun--which it is. And she reminds me of all that's wonderful about Europe and European people.

Why didn't I ever get into sewing? My mother taught me when I was a kid and I could have kept up with it. Same with knitting, which my grandmother taught me.

At this point I will predict that Daniel and Chloe will be in the top three. It's really hard to say who the third will be...I think the judges would like it to be Santino but he keeps disappointing them.

Wednesday nights can not come fast enough for me!!!

Project Runway Comments

I love that this season seems to be moving towards a final competition between the happy gay roomates. Santino or Kara are on their way out. Daniel seems to be the frontrunner at this point...his designs have stood out all along even though he didn't...



Diana's futuristic lingerie from a few episodes back:



I think she was just too ahead of her time:

Everyone sometimes has a bad day, and often that day falls on a Monday. This past Monday was so unlucky for me it became comical after awhile...

Andy woke me up at 4:30 am when he left to work in Miami for the day.

On the way out, he slammed the front door shut behind him which woke Merritt up. This was just shy of 5:30 am.

I opened the dishwasher to unload the clean dishes and found the bottom was still full of water. I had to rerun the whole thing to get it to drain.

I did four huge loads of laundry. Each one seemed to come out of the dryer wrinkled. At one point I got confused and put clean clothes back in the washer that was filling with water.

All day long Merritt had gastrointestinal issues.

On my way to Judy's condo for dinner there was a big anti-choice protest going on at a major intersection. The solemn-faced protestors and their stupid signs were extremely annoying.

At dinner I got delicious chicken caccitore all over my absolute favorite shirt.

When I got home there was an astronomical electric bill waiting for me in the mailbox. It is the first one of the new year and FPL was kind enough to include a info sheet about why 2006 rates are going to screw everyone equally.

Note: I am not selfish enough not to realize that my idea of a bad day would be total paradise to many people in other parts of the world.

Twenty things I've really been enjoying recently:

1) Nail polish.
2) Beauty products that smell really good.
3) When Merritt takes a long nap.
4) When Merritt sleeps late in the morning.
5) When I lay on the couch and Merritt lays down on me with his thumb in his mouth and we stay relaxed like that for a while.
6) When the house is quiet.
7) Getting an hour and a half massage.
8) Eating frozen Ghiardelli dark chocolate bars because it's good for the baby.
9) When Andy doesn't work for an entire day.
10) When something new or returning grows in my garden.
11) When I hear some obscure song on the radio that I love.
12) When my parents are happy.
13) When it's warm enough to go to the beach in January.
14) When someone I love has a birthday and I discover they have an Amazon wishlist.
15) When I accomplish things on my to do list.
16) Throwing food together which results in a surprisingly good meal.
17) Not being stressed about how much money I spend.
18) Getting notes on my blog.
19) Hearing true stories about celebrities from people who actually know them.
20) Glancing out at all the shades of green in our backyard and spotting one beautiful point of red: a solitary cardinal hanging out in the palmettos beside the feeder.

Infographic from The Onion...

Merritt has a strange bite on his belly, a small dot surrounded by patches of redness. It's been there for over two weeks. So I took him to the doctor this morning and he couldn't tell me what it was, just that it was nothing to worry about and to put hydrocortisone on it. Along with the bite he's had mild diarrhea and major diaper rash, but those are probably unrelated. Or maybe not. I have suspected it is a spider bite but tonight I realized it could also be a sting from one of the little Florida scorpions we see in the house occasionally. An article I just read stated that most spider and scorpion bites happen when kids leave their clothes on the floor, the bug crawls in, and then they put them back on and get bit under the fabric. Needless to say I will never leave another item of clothing on the floor for the rest of my life.

Lisa sent me some cool stuff today:

Woman Inside and Out.

Computer Programmer or Serial Killer? I failed this miserably.

In the next few months we will move Merritt into the playroom so the baby can have the nursery. Andy's mom is helping us out by painting--since it used to be my office/studio, the walls were in bad shape. We picked a gorgeous green called Summer Picnic. Next we'll do a fun border of cars and other vehicles in primary colors, then put together his new furniture. My biggest challenge will be to clear out all the junk I've stored in the closet.



I needed some cold weather maternity clothing and as usual Old Navy had some sweet stuff at affordable prices. I'm at the point where I look cute in maternity tops but if I wear regular ones I just look fat. Today I wore a new one in a lovely raspberry color, not a shade I usually go for but one that should definitely become a bigger part of my wardrobe.



Seeing Merritt's room come alive with a colorful coat of paint has definitely stirred an urge in me to someday do something with the boring white walls in the rest of the house. I'd love to paint our bedroom a pure passionate red, but Andy would never go for that in a million years. He is all about neutral earth tones, nothing too striking. Which is probably easier to live with in the long run.

My main resolution for 2006 is to prepare five family dinners per week. I think it's really important in mental and nutritional ways to have this time together and it's never too early to get in the habit. One night a week Andy is cooking and the other will be dining out or ordering to go.

My other resolution is never to shop at Walmart again. I have a hard time staying away from that place, the prices on groceries can't be beat, but I just cannot stand the negative energy in that store and often the one thing that I go in there for, like organic whole milk for Merritt, is out of stock.

Today I finally updated Merritt's web site with some photos from the past few months.

The most amazing picture that Erin took while she was here was this one of Merritt's hands and my pregnant belly. He likes to stick his finger in my navel and the other day he even tried to feed it a piece of his baloney.

This has been a really enjoyable couple of weeks (dare I say HOLIDAY season). Christmas was fun and relaxing. My one gift to Andy this year was a Roomba Discovery robotic vacuum and it totally rocks. Except it doesn't like area rugs. But otherwise I'm in love with the little guy. His one gift to me was a lovely black pearl bracelet. Merritt was a bit overwhelmed by the excitement and piles of wrapping paper of Christmas morning and requested an early nap by waving good-bye to everyone. That afternoon the sun came out and it has been increasingly warm and beautiful ever since, nice enough for the beach.

We had loads of family and friends come to visit. New Years weekend we had over twenty people in our house at once. I caught the cold that's hitting everyone down here hard but I powered through. New Years Eve we were lucky enough to have several babysitters so Andy and I, Mary and Kevin, and Erin and Grant could go out for sushi and celebrating. I was the designated driver and got to watch while everyone drank to excess, yet I was sick so still felt like shit along with them all the next day. Erin took a bunch of great photos of that night and portraits of Merritt. He had fallen on his face on the pavement a few days before so he looks a bit rough for wear, but still unbearably cute.

I'm happy to announce that the junk food crazed, constant PMS mood of the first few months of my pregnancy is officially over. I'm feeling much, much better mentally even though I've been sick. Merritt seems to have the cold now but as usual it's easy to confuse with teething. We had his fifteen month check up and the doctor is still quite positive about his weight gain and overall health, except he does have a slight heart murmur that might need to get checked by a specialist if it doesn't go away by eighteen months. As of his most recent measurements Merritt is in the fiftieth percentile for height, tenth percentile for weight, and NINETY FIFTH percentile for head circumference.

File this one under weirdass spam messages:



-----Original Message-----
From: Yummy [mailto:yummy@mem40now.com]
Sent: Sunday, January 01, 2006 2:59 AM
To: connie@tuskart.com
Subject: Yummy, Yummy Yam Bags....


Young Beautiful Hot Charnie One Model Who Will Take Your Breath Away
It might be said now that I have the best of both worlds: a Harvard education and a
Yale degree.You look at any giant corporation, and I mean the biggies, and they all
started with a guy with an idea, doing it well.
Images - this time point the quality, the action,
the close ups - more, better here and dirtier !

There is nothing wrong in using people. The success never uses people except to
their advantage.

Don't waste your chance to are see beauty in the very prime of life !

http://mem40now.com/dil/
Take no thought for tomorrow for tomorrow shall take thought for the things of
itself. [Matthew 6:34]It was a woman who drove me to drink, and I never had the
courtesy to thank her for it.


also you can go here to stop our communication
http://narp.mem40now.com/u?id=16470600R&c=F&l=%2A