Friday Five/Friday Fiver

Where were you went you heard that Ronald Reagan died?
We heard it on the radio in the car coming home on Saturday from my MILs.

Where were you on September 11, 2001?
Jury duty in Hackensack, NJ (10 minutes from home). I normally worked at 130 Liberty Street (the Deutcshe Bank/Banker's Trust building), but was called to jury duty for 9/11.

Where were you when you heard that Princess Diana died?
I was at a science fiction convention in Philadelphia. A male friend and I were heading back to a hotel room, when we saw a car crash footage being shown on the tv in the bar. We figured it was the local news. Back in the room we were channel surfing and heard about it - at that point it hadn't been announced she died, but it didn't look good. I think it was Brian Williams on NBC that we heard announce it about 12:10-12:30 AM.

Do you remember where you were when you heard Kurt Cobain had died?
My ex (but not then ex) husband called me, at work - I think I was at CS First Boston then. He had a habit of calling me to tell me things like that in the pre-internet days.

Take one for The Gipper: What's your favorite flavor of jelly bean?
I like just about any flavor, except black liquorish :(

Nap

I'm home today - this was orginally part of my reunion -> dutch country trip, but the company my husband consults at is having a picnic today. To be politically correct, he went. At one point it looked like Alan and I could go to, but alas we couldn't. So we leave tommorrow. Sadly, our friend's father passed away last night and the funeral is Sunday. We're not cancelling our trip (although for certain others we would have) but will go sit shiva (kind of like a wake but afterwards) one night next week. (My MIL will watch Alan).

We went to the Children's Museum of NJ this AM. We'd gotten a late start as Alan slept in. He woke up around 4 because he and the crib were soaked. He ate a lot of cantelope before bed and I think the diaper didn't hold it. Changed him - tried to keep him in the bed with me. He was too restless. So I changed the crib sheet and put him back in the crib. And I left to sleep on the couch so Alan would go to sleep in the crib. We both went back to sleep :)

(The crib is next to the bed in the master bedoom. My husband often sleeps on the futon in the second bedroom. It's weird, but we manage.)

It was very crowded with school field trips. Somethings were too advanced for Alan. But he did like somethings - the sandbox, the lighthouse shaped plastic slide, the beads in the baby area. We even drank tea in the castle. (He loved to play drink). I got him a plastic cup and a little reptile for souvenirs. (They had cool mugs with names, but a lot of the basic names had been changed to the new popular ones - I saw Mackayla on one of the mugs - so no Alan :( ). Next time, I'll try to go in the afternoon, maybe there will be more kids closer to his age then.

We then stopped at a mall. Of course the stroller was in Mark's car. So I carried him a bit - Bloomingdales didn't have what I wanted alas, then we went to gymboree. Got 2 items on sale and looked at the look book. The boys line coming out around July looks cute. There's a cute denim coverall that is also practical - hopefully it will be a soft and not stiff denim (it's a garage/mechanics/50s' theme). Went to CVS to get diapers on sale. Then home for lunch (mac and cheese) and nap for Alan.

Got to get laundry into the dryer. I want to pack etc - but can't while Alan's sleeping in the bedroom :(

bold what you hate, then add three more

From elliriel

1. fake childrens' voices in radio commercials
2. detailed voicemails instead of email
3. whiny college students
4. vegetarian bashers
5. holier-than-thou vegetarians
6. Inappropriate Capitalization
7. band t-shirts that only come in black
8. extolling of childrens' wide-eyed innocence
9. lack of continuity in movies/TV
10. email sent on custom graphical "stationary"
11. MS Word attachments instead of ASCII
12. towels with too much fabric softener in them
13. gay people whose only hobby is being gay
14. "this page intentionally left blank"
15. Take Your Child To Work Day
16. sirens on the radio
17. virtual/online petitions
18. rabid Stanley Kubrick fans
19. Jell-O
20. people who identify with Ender from Ender's Game
21. trendy children's names (Connor, Kayleigh, Brittany, Taylor, etc.)
22. electric can openers
23. "utilize"
24. flip-flops worn anywhere but the pool
25. fasting to rid your body of "toxins"
26. people who reek of stale cigarette smoke all the time
27. dressing up for halloween
28. Eudora Welty
29. other peoples' messes
30. being touched by strangers
31. Rabid know-it-all fanboys with superiority complexes.
32. The undead.
33. Uncertainty.
34. indier than thou types
35. being kicked out of places for handing out samples of Gold Fish crackers
36. jam bands
37. fruit combined with meat (pineapple on ham & the such)
38. Candace Bushnell and all her evil spawn
39. hard and/or flat hotel pillows
40. celebrities who insist on having only one name (e.g. Beyonce, Raven, Madonna, Cher)
41a. drivers who tailgate in the right lane.
41b. drivers who use on-ramps as their own personal passing lanes.
42. Carrot Top
43. Thieves/Robbers/Those who steal what is not theirs
44. People who think that having a different point of view makes you automatically totally unAmerican.
45. Media pavlovian tactics designed to make us react a certain way to certain stimuli: like 9/11
46: People who make right turns from the left lane, or left turns from the right lane, or completely disregard the glaringly clear turn lane
47. Celebrities who think they know politics and how the real world operates
48. When a bird craps on you thru your just-opened sun roof
49. Traffic jams caused by Goverment ineptitude
50. People who are cruel to animals and children
51. People who have an attitude just because they expect others will treat them differently
52. people who are nice to your face, but stab you in the back when it suits them
53. people who scream that you're "dissing them" but have no respect for your needs
54. people who leave you hanging out to dry after they've promised to be there for you
55. Spam in e-mail
56. My job
57. Clothing not sized for anyone who has hips or a stomach or any kind of curves and poundage.