#401 - TLG's Bubbles

I love bubble baths, and The Little Guy (who loves all things water-related) has always enjoyed them too. Usually we use Johnson's Bedtime Bath (purple bottle) or Avon's kids bubble bath. This evening, we tried a new bath product: Johnson's baby bubble bath & wash (in a blue bottle). The scent is on the fruity side for me - upon opening, I said "Hey! It smells like fruit salad!"... but TLG didn't seem to mind it. It had plenty of bubbles to start, but once we started using soap to wash (I used our regular soap, not the new product), the bubbles just about disappeared. We'll use this bottle, but I think next time we'll go back to our tried and true favorites.

#400 - Healthy Tree

In the early summer, we noticed that one of the five trees in our backyard was growing brown clumps on the branches near the budding leaves. Concerned, I took a sample to the state agriculture office to ask about what kind of fungus it was and how to get rid of it. I became even more concerned when instead of a fungus, they told me we had an infestation of teeny-tiny bugs that were slowly eating the tree! They told me the only way to get rid of the bugs was to wait until fall, when the leaves fall off, then remove the clumps by hand. This would avoid removing large branches of the tree (which would be bad for the tree) and would get rid of the bugs. So today, I spent 30 minutes standing on a ladder pruning a tree. The branches are pretty high on this tree, so I really only helped two branches today, but every little bit helps, right? We have a long way to go out there before the snow arrives, though. Whew!

#399 - Good Karma

We went out to dinner tonight at one of our favorite places, Red Robin. As I was helping the little guy unbuckle his carseat, I noticed a loud hissing noise nearby. It turns out we had just driven over a large nail and the rear passenger tire was going flat. My wonderful hubby got out the spare, took off the old tire, and then... couldn't get the spare tire on because of a crack in the parking lot that we were parked on. I called AAA, and while I was requesting help, a perfect stranger brought a flashlight over and started helping my dear hubby re-position the car jack to try again. He said he's a police officer and he helps lots of people with their cars, and his wife waited patiently while they worked together to replace the spare and put the pieces back into place. We didn't catch his name at all, but I wish him tons of good karma and owe him a big debt of thanks.

#398 - Sesame Street Love

Today a memory I wrote about my experience at Muppetfest (in 2001) was published online in USA Today's story about the 40th Anniversary of Sesame Street. I submitted the story on Monday, not really expecting to hear anything, and they called me on Wednesday to double-check the spelling of my name and hometown. They said there was a chance it would be in the print edition as well (it wasn't, I checked)... but it was exciting enough to be included in the other great stories that readers sent. I'm proud to be a part of the celebration!

#397 - Opa!

For lunch today, I tried a Greek restaurant called "Opa." A co-worker and I were on a work errand at lunch time and decided to stop in. The place is pretty small, only a handful of tables inside with a few more outside. I tried the large Greek salad, which came with a warm pita. It was delicious, romaine lettuce covered in feta cheese with some tomatoes, artichokes, kalamata olives and peppercinis. My co-worker had the spanikopia (spinach pie), which looked really tasty, with a small Greek salad. The man who took our order seemed like the owner, he was a little gruff with the woman waiting the tables but he warmed up once everyone had been served. He even brought us lemon cookies for dessert though we didn't order them! This place isn't really near my work (it's across town in the Costco shopping center) but if I'm ever over there again I'd go there for another bite.

#396 - When There's a Will...

Today, my amazing hubby and I finalized our wills. People have been telling us since the little guy was born that we needed to have a will, and it took us until now to actually do it. We started a few weeks ago with a consultation with the lawyer to discuss our wishes, then we had a second meeting to go over everything and ask questions. And boy, did we have questions! Legal-ese does not come naturally to me. And today was just a quick meeting to look everything over a final time and sign it all. Whew! As my hubby said to the lawyer, "I feel very grown up."

#395 - Wii Fit

After almost a year of looking at the box (purchased late last year, if memory serves), today we got out the Wii Fit and tried it out. It comes with a balance board and a CD with a bunch of different games (yoga, balance games, aerobics and strength exercises). The little guy LOVED it, especially the ski jump and running games (boy, did he ever run!). One cute thing he did, after running in place for about 10 minutes with the game, he said he was sweaty and he wanted to take his shirt off. It was so funny the way he said it (I know I'm not describing it right, just take my word for it.) I liked the hula hoop game, the yoga stuff, and the ski games. My wonderful hubby was preoccupied watching football today and tending to his knee - did I mention he had knee surgery 10 days ago? - so I didn't see him do many activities. I hope once his knees are recovered this will be something we can all do together. One complaint I have so far: we haven't figured out how to get more than one player in a game at one time, so when we want to take turns, we have to back all the way out and start over. That will get old, so I'm hoping we can figure that out soon. But overall, I think it was a hit!