Custom Option

Maybe everyone else already knew this, but I just figured out how to customize my Gmail background. Every time I open my email now, I see pretty pink cherry blossoms. This is much nicer than the other drab background I had before.

I happened upon this because I am in the midst of showing my mother-in-law how to use her new laptop. Wow, that's an exercise in patience. We are making progress, slowly and steadily. At least it's better than the time I had to show Cory's grandmother how to use her computer. That didn't go so well.

Happy Birthday, Husband

My husband is one of those people who would skip their birthday celebration if it was allowed (too bad it's not allowed in this house.) It's not because he's one of those annoying people that complains about getting older each year but instead he'd rather do without the fuss. That's kind of his personality in a nutshell. He's not as good at receiving as he is at giving. If that's the worst thing, someone can say about you, I'd say you're doing OK.

So happy birthday, my love. Here's to another wonderful 31 years of health and happiness.

P.S. About 5 years ago we were on a plane on his birthday, en route to the Bahamas with friends. I committed the ultimate offense in our marriage by asking the flight attendant to announce his birthday over the loud speaker. In my defense (is that a legal defense) I was drunk but I'd do it again. That's what makes our marriage work. I annoy and he gets annoyed. That's our special kind of love.

Misery Loves Company

Pretty funny website where people kvetch about shit that's gone wrong.

This one is my favorite so far:
Today, I asked my girlfriend why she can't treat me like the way I treat her. She said, "because you love me more than I love you." FML

Do You Think This Is Weird

I ordered a salad today from a local place. It was one of those places where they mix the salad up for you. The guy waiting on me was friendly, making small talk while he assembled my salad. When he finished mixing it up, he commented, "This is a lotta salad" to which I replied "I'm a lotta woman." Dead silence. My filtration system clearly needs a tune-up.

Work's for Jerks

Sorry I've been so lax in posting this week. Work has been crazy. Things to note this week include the Lost premier last night. I watched 1/2 but need to watch the rest tonight. That show is wacky. I am currently reading a really good book, The Girls from Ames. I highly recommend it (Thanks to Molly for recommending it to me,) I just finished Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth. Great if you like short stories. And she's a local writer so her Cambridge and Natick references are not lost on me.
Back to work for now but I'll write more later. I hope you're all having a great week. We made it through January!

Babies Having Babies

Has anyone had a chance to catch this gem on Lifetime? I've been blessed to watch a couple of minutes while flipping through the channels this week. Wow, it's all you would expect from a Lifetime movie: totally unrealistic dialogue, awful melodramatic acting, sensationalized 'factual' events, b-list actors... you get the drift. But damn, Camryn Manheim looks good (well, good for her.)

(If you don't remember the story from last year, you can read about it here.) Regardless if there was this so-called pact or not, the fact remains that teen pregnancy spiked at Gloucester High School and some teenage girls were intentionally trying to get pregnant. At the time, the national media picked up on this like the vultures they are.

So this begs the question, why is the public obsessed with teenage pregnancy? I am guilty as charged. Initially, I think shows like 16 and Pregnant did a good job of showing the real challenges of teen motherhood. But then MTV took it a step further (as they always do) and rewarded some of those moms with a follow up show, Teen Mom (thus extending their 15 minutes of fame.) Now they're doing another season of 16 and Pregnant. We can't seem to get enough of the train wreck. It's definitely a curious phenomenon.

Jezebel covered this topic much better than I can: Read more here.

Optical Illusion

This is awesome. Be sure to read the text of the post.