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May 31, 2008

Karsten's birthday party Part 2

Turns out Karsten's green(er) birthday party is morally questionable.

Karsten had gone to a laser tag party earlier in the year and decided that's what he wanted to do for his party too. Sounded good to me. I didn't have to host a bunch of 7 year olds destroying my house. I had never played laser tag but had been invited for team building exercises at work.

When my mom asked what laser tag is Andy described it as "shooting lasers at targets on each other." My mom looked a bit shocked.

Now one of the mom's has told me laser tag goes against everything they teach their children and they cannot participate in the laser tag but her kids can show up for the cake part.

Ohhhh no.

Will Karsten's party turn the kids into mass murders or desensitized human beings?

I'm torn between people over reacting but also appreciating the parents' concern. This could be our last laser tag trip. Or not. I'll see how the whole thing goes down tomorrow.

And for the record, I asked my British friend Mike yesterday about his thoughts and he said he was surprised that Andy and I would host a laser tag party for our seven year old. Any one else care to comment on the moral state of laser tag for American children?

Posted by jana at 11:47 AM | Comments (3)

May 29, 2008

Get your 80s fix for free today. You 80s junkies know who you are.

Amazon.com: If You Leave: MP3 Downloads: Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark OMD's "If You Leave" is a free MP3 download at Amazon today. The Ducky hair cut you'll have to pay money to get.

Posted by jana at 10:47 AM

May 28, 2008

The Fresh Finder

Peak-Season Map at Epicurious.com Found this great "in-season" map at Epicurious.com today. I can hover over my state and find out what fruit and veggies are in season for the month and then link to recipes for those items. Wonderful. Even better? Hubby has an office near the Pike Place Market so he can be my veggie mule.

Posted by jana at 12:41 PM

Gringo-izing the Bento

Amazon.com: Zojirushi Mr. Bento Stainless-Steel lined Lunch Jar, Silver: Home & Garden I am wondering if I could cram a p-b-and-hold-the-j in one of these, with some cheese puffs on top. I basically want to gringo-ize a bento box for my kid's lunch pail. He'd have to give up the cool Spidey lunch sack but the benefits would be no more plastic bags for his lunch. Better for the environment and better for his health. Maybe someone would want to etch some fancy stuff on it to make it more 7-year-old friendly? Could be cool.

Posted by jana at 10:56 AM | Comments (3)

May 27, 2008

Opening night of row boat season

Princess "no nap" Britta pouted when she didn't catch a fish with her Barbie fishing pole. Hmpf!

Regardless of catching fish or not, I am excited the weather has finally gotten nice enough that we can enjoy the outdoors. Welcome sun.

Posted by jana at 7:45 PM | Comments (1)

May 21, 2008

If I so aspired to be the coolest mom

Introducing picpoket clothing c/s media channel « picpoket™ clothing c/s Imagine if my hoodie played videos how cool I would be at the kindergarten.

Posted by jana at 9:20 PM | Comments (1)

May 19, 2008

My son is starting to assert his style

Amazon.com: Children's Shoes - rhino shoes / Shoes: Apparel I was shopping for some old school Adidas for him. He had me do a search for Rhino shoes. This is what he found. I wonder if he'll notice when I buy the Adidas.

Posted by jana at 8:58 PM

May 17, 2008

Enjoy the amazing weather

No fill flash for you photography purists. I'm anti-flash for the moment.

Posted by jana at 12:37 PM | Comments (1)

May 15, 2008

Britta on the ferry

Posted by jana at 8:50 PM

Making homework look fun

Posted by jana at 8:42 PM | Comments (1)

May 14, 2008

Sickly Hot

The worse I feel the better I look. After being sick and then stressed out I have lost some lbs. I was worried I was going Skeletor Jana but my husband said I look hot.

This is sad.

It is sad because I like to eat and I like to be healthy. One day I will want to eat again and will weigh at least ten pounds more. I will be healthy again. I will work out again and maybe gain some muscles. I won't be as "hot." (And btw, thanks for telling me I look hot, Andy. I do like to hear that.)

It almost makes me not want to start eating again, and that is not right. I'd really hate for Britta to ever be underweight and want to stay there. It is sad for our culture not to appreciate a few more healthy curves.

Also I had told some of my friends that I would not post anything about my weight again but I am hoping that this post won't be as irritating. I'm just trying to reflect on our culture and how it starts to unhealthily mess with my psyche.

Posted by jana at 6:49 AM | Comments (4)

May 11, 2008

Happy Trance Mixed Tape

Yesterday I twittered that listening to the Beautiful Girls song by Sean Kinston 16 times... or many more... made me happy.

Today in my inbox Marcus [insert last name], an actor, model and DJ in NYC sent me an even better version. See, he is still really cool. As Andy said, "he never did belong in B-town." I won't tell you how the new song is better, you'll just have to hear for yourself. Let's just say my favorite band and a song from one of my favorite shows is in the mix.

I'm testing out this new site I found called Mixwit. It would be fun to add more songs to my mix but for now there is just one.

Now go on and get happy.

Posted by jana at 6:21 PM | Comments (1)

May 10, 2008

Happy Mother's Day to you too!

I haven't been expecting anything at all. I've been too busy being in "survival mode" for the last six weeks that I hardly remembered it is Mother's Day. But this Mother's Day weekend is shaping up...before it is even Mother's Day. My neighbor Ursula made an awesome video of Karsten "surfing" with Andy and Britta in the kayak. See: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aga_mum/2479534774/

Andy must read my blog because he commissioned the most amazing necklace for me from my other neighbor Tiana. (Photo coming as soon as I upload it.) LOVE it.

My mom dropped off all kinds of treats and the kids have some surprises waiting for me. Mo and Brenda are recruiting me for a girl's night out too. Laura Beth dropped off some weird stuff to shove up my nose when I get sick again. Thanks (I think).

Thanks everyone. You all know how to make me feel special and I couldn't appreciate more.

Posted by jana at 12:44 PM

May 9, 2008

Karsten goes green(er)

I found this company called ECHOage that I am using to coordinate Karsten's birthday party this year. A quote from the evite for Karsten's birthday:

You are invited to help change the world today. It's easier than you think.

Instead of bringing a wrapped and packaged present, please RSVP and give a secure online gift. Your payment will go toward the purchase of ONE special gift for Karsten and help support ONE meaningful cause.

Together we will be helping Nourish America - a charity that makes sure that hungry kids get enough food to eat.

ECHOage will arrange everything for you.
No need to drive, shop, wrap or even pick up the phone to make a donation.

Can't wait to see you at my ECHOage party!

Karsten picked the Nourish America as his charity he wants to donate towards because it helps feed kids. He has also picked out his one special gift, the Trade Federation Lego set. So far so good. I hope he realizes the extent of what he's getting into when he only gets one present.

Posted by jana at 8:53 AM | Comments (1)

May 7, 2008

Project 365 is back

I lost two weeks worth of photos and then I got a new camera. I figure the best way to figure out this new piece of machinery is to use it every day. On the agenda for the weekend: reading the manual and figuring out the manual settings.

Posted by jana at 8:32 PM

May 5, 2008

Diva vs Geek: which is more expensive?

Since the purchase of my geeky new camera I've been buying all kinds of stuff: camera case, filter, and memory card. That's doesn't even begin to cut it for all the accessories for it that I really want to buy. I ran across a $2k lens that looked pretty sweet!

As for my hair, shoes, makeup and clothes... not sure that being a diva is any more expensive than being a geek. In fact, I am willing to take a gander that being a diva is more cost effective than being a geek.

For some reason I feel better now.

Posted by jana at 3:53 PM | Comments (1)

May 3, 2008

Whoa, it's magic

If I had know the wii has magic powers we may have gotten one sooner.

Spell #1: I was making dinner tonight and Karsten wanted to play the wii. I told him if he put away all the toys he and his friend PJ got out he could play the wii. For the first time ever I didn't have to stand over him or set the timer. He even cleaned up his room without help from me.

Spell #2: I put a sweet potato fry on Karsten's plate. "You have to eat at least one bite." There was a "no way, no how" moment that got turned around once I said, "no wii." "Ooooookaaaaaaaaaaaay." Really? Really?

Magic.

Posted by jana at 8:08 PM

May 2, 2008

Too late to polish the blog for Marcus

Me: Who is this person you sent my url to? (Andy cc'd me on an email he sent to someone but there wasn't a name attached.)

Andy: Marcus [last name]!

Me: Do not send my url to Marcus [last name]! He was the coolest guy in our high school and I don't need him to read my pity posts or any other dumb stuff I write about.

Andy: Well stop writing pity posts and dumb stuff.

Hi Marcus! Welcome to my dumb blog, if you're reading this. Hope to see you at the reunion next year. I'll try and be cooler in real life.

Posted by jana at 1:03 PM | Comments (2)

May 1, 2008

New camera report

See previous post as to why I have yet to upload or hardly take any photos from my new camera.

Yay, I got a new camera!

It is the ultimate geek camera and there's a lot to learn. Should I shoot in RAW or just leave it to the default jpeg? What is this Active D-Lighting? How do I override the flash? Why would I want to turn off the VR setting on my lens? What lens should I buy next?

I realize this is a whole new game from my days of loading film into my camera. Now I can simulate any type of film per shot. It is going to take me a long time to get this thing figured out.

For now I'm just happy to have a higher quality lens!

Posted by jana at 10:37 PM | Comments (1)

Welcome May

I am ready to stomp out April 2008 once and for all. This past month beat me down and spit me out a whole 8lbs lighter. The kids have also been sick and I hate to think that they might be any lighter too. A round of milkshakes for all the Kleitschs! My life is too carefully crafted for so much fever and vomitting in one month.

I tried thinking about if any other month in my past has been so crappy. I recalled my senior year in college when my car rolled off a cliff but landed on a giant tree branch and was saved from destruction. Yeah, that month was worse, but not by much.

A quick poll of a few friends suggested I didn't need tranquilizers, but perhaps a few life changes. Hopefully those changes will happen soon.

May is already better. I commuted to book club via the beach, sat outside around a fire with my wonderful bookish neighbors. Karsten is finally back to his rowdy self and on his way to school again tomorrow, or at least by Monday. Things are looking up.

Posted by jana at 10:09 PM | Comments (1)