Baby Safe Ball Shaker

Terribly funny. For those times when you just can't take it anymore.


New BabySafe Ball Makes Shaking Your Infant Guilt And Injury Free

The hottest baby toy is what?

Introducing the hottest selling baby toy on Amazon.com right now, Sophie the rubber giraffe. Not to be mistaken for a dog toy, this giraffe is soft to the baby touch, light and easy to hold and when you squeeze it, it squeaks, er, I mean, makes a "happy sound"!

Rachel was in Europe and picked one up for little Mia's first birthday. Mia liked it all right. I guess for a teething baby, it might come in handy more.

Anyway, for all you mom's out there, this is probably old news. But just in case you're looking for a good baby gift, look to the rubber giraffe. It doesn't look like much, but apparently, millions of babies agree, it's a winner.

Lois, Mom clip

This is such a great clip from the irreverent but hilarious animated sitcom, "Family Guy."

Modern Life

I love my new apt. It is a cute brick building. Wood floors. Big kitchen. Big bedroom. Lots of space all around. And super close to campus. It's an older building and with that, comes the absence of some of life's little luxuries, although now in these modern times, these items wouldn't really be considered luxuries, but rather, basic necessities.

While much of the apartment has been upgraded, two little features I have become accustomed to are: a garbage disposal and a dishwasher.

When I signed the lease, I was very aware that these two amenities were not included in the apartment, but, just as I had thought I could live without a washer/dryer way back when, I mistakenly assumed the same thinking I could do without these two luxuries this time around.

Such an absence has burdened me much. Now when cooking, I have to remember that anything I dump into the sink, I eventually have to fish out with my hand. And while I used to enjoy washing the occasional cup and bowl, it's inconsequential compared to washing ALL of the cups, bowls, plates, pots, pans and utensils, ALL of the time! Washing a lot of forks individually blows.

I realize that it may sound as though I am complaining, which is why I propose this challenge so you too, can feel my pain.

For one week, assume everyday business in your kitchen, except that you do not have a disposal nor a dishwasher. Experience for yourself the difficulties so many endured before the dawn of modern kitchen appliantry. I am certain that you, as have I, will learn quickly how fortunate we are to live in this day and age where we don't have to pull mushy scraps and leftover yuck out of the kitchen drain regularly and where dish-pan hands are a thing of the past. Then, you will be grateful.

It is times like this where I anger at the thought of my mom who continues to use her brand new, state-of-the-art, dishwasher only as a drying rack and still covers the drain of the In-Sink-Erator to catch food and other debris. Grrr...

Mia hears food

Mia is a food fiend. She is nuts about food and gets angry when she sees food but can't have it. She has super food senses and it seems that she can spot food from far away. My dad loves to just sit and watch her eat.

At 11 months, she is also an avid walking. I gave my mom a bag of treats I brought back from China and Mia immediately perked up when she heard the crinkling of the bag.

Faces without names

Pretty much my whole life having friends, my dad has never been able to remember any of my friend's names. Granted, when I was little, I had one friend and he didn't have a problem remembering what she was called, but as soon as I started accruing more and more friends, the less he was able to identify who was whom.

Since fourth grade, I pretty much had the same friends up through high school. Most of them, I spent all my time with and talked to on a daily basis. My dad would pick them up for sports, answer the phone when they called, greet them when they dropped by. Yet, he was never able to put a name with a face.

To my dad, all of them had one name. Specifically, one of friends was named Maren and in his mind, all of them were called Maren. Ariane, white and tall, and Mylinh, Vietnamese and smiley, were the two I hung out with the most, yet to him, they were both named Maren, who was white and red-headed. For some reason, he just couldn't get them straight.

And it's never really gotten much better. My two close friends in college were Holly, white and blond, and Kyong, Korean and short. Although he didn't call them "Maren," they only became, "the one who showers long time" and "the one who showers long time friend".

So, this weekend I am in Seattle and as I was driving in, I called my dad to let him know what time I would arrive.

Me: I'm almost home, dad.
Dad: Oh good good. Did you drive alone?
Me: Yes.
Dad: No good. You didn't bring um, he, what, uh, he, um...
(At this point, I can bail him out and give him the name he is looking for, or choose to let him continue to fish for it. This time around I let him try to figure it out.)
Dad: ...um, he, what, he, um, eh...What his name?
Me: Kyle.
Dad: Yes! Kyle. He come?
Me: Nope.
Dad: Oh.

Granted, he hasn't spent a ton of time with Kyle, but he knows who he is, he asks about him often, and he's met him several times. Plus, Kyle and I have been dating for almost a year. But that's usually how it goes. He racks his brain, throws out names and hopes he picks the right one.

Bless him. At least all my old school friends know my dad well enough that they've excepted the fact that they are all Maren to him.

Noticeably Asian

Today I leave for China on a trip with my MBA program. I've pretty much been looking forward to it all summer and although it feels like summer is over because I am now back in Eugene which makes me feel like I'm back in school, I definitely still have some good vacation time left!

The China trip is a two-week study tour the business school at Oregon takes pretty much every summer. This year we are visiting Beijing and Shanghai after which I am extending my stay in Asia with a week-long visit to Thailand before heading back for the start of school at the end of September.

Today we had our Orientation and sat through several hours of speakers giving us a crash course in the Chinese language, a brief history of China, and the political and economic climate. The morning was quite uneventful to say the least, but it ended with a bang!

In our last hour, we had a Chinese native marketing researcher speak to us on sports marketing in China. As our Managing Director answered some of our questions about our trip, I noticed her "eyeing" me from in the periphery, but chose to ignore it as it was a familiar sort of "eyeing" she was doing. To be specific, it was the kind of "eyeing" that said, "You are Asian, as am I. Automatically, we have a lot in common, especially if you are Chinese, such as myself."

I have become very accustomed to this sort of "eyeing" and I prefer to ignore it more than anything. When I am being "eyed", I think to myself, "Listen, just because you're Asian, as am I, I don't really care. I'm sure that all we really have in common is the fact that we are both Asian but that doesn't automatically make us BFFs." I suppose it's such like when you pull up next to someone on the road who is driving your same model car and for whatever reason, they wink at you or give you a thumbs up or some other sort of indication of approval that you both have so much in common because you're both driving a Honda Accord. Admittedly, hybrid drivers may have this inherent connection, but for the rest of us, not so, and doubley, awkward in the moment.

So, today, as I was sitting in this room, ignoring the "eyeing" going on, our Managing Director introduced our guest Chinese speaker, then turned the time over to her.

She briefly introduced herself and then asked, "You are all going to China, right? Has anyone ever been to China?" She looked around the room full of white Americans. And me.

"Anyone? Has anyone been to China?"

We all sat there either shaking our heads, no, or just staring at her because no, no one has been to China.

"Anyone? None of you have been to China?" she asked again peering around the room, eyeing me with each pass.

Silence.

And then she did it. Argh!

Looking right at me she said, "You. I noticed that you are Asian."

A bit caught off guard and immediately amused, along with the entire room, I sat up and said, "Um, yup. Yeah. I am Asian."

"You have never been to China?" she asked.

"No. I have not. I am actually Korean, so you know. Yeah."

"Oh, I see."

Yes. Don't we all. I could stop laughing for at least5 minutes. Everyone got a great laugh out of it.