Seven Quick Takes

Let’s see if I can do an entire quick takes without talking about Jansen or pregnancy…

1.
Remember in kindergarten and you’d have conversations with your friends about your favorite color or favorite animal or favorite way to scrunch your socks?

The other day we were in the car and Stephen started making this awful noise with his throat. It was like a low grumbly groan. I asked what he was doing. He said he was making a noise, and kept going. It was awful. “Please stop making that noise. It’s disgusting.” He replied, “Man!! But it’s like one of my favorite noises!” I asked him if he was six.

2.
Here’s a fun fact. I mentioned that one of our former foreign exchange students was in town. Last week she went to Austin with some friends and told us that she was able to get into bars and drink. Since Europeans swap their dates, it looks like her birthday is February 11, 1989 (2-11-89) when it’s actually November 2, 1989 (11-2-89). Stupid Americans!

3.
Does anyone know how to go about selling a clunker car? We have one that isn’t really drivable but I know there are people out there that buy them. How do you find those people? How do you transfer the title. You guys are the smartest people I know and you always have answers. Don’t let me down!

(Yes, I know we could donate it. We did that with our last car. That’s a last resort because we are poor and we could use a few hundred bucks.)

4.
For the most part, our garden has been a failure this year. All of our tomatoes have been eaten by ants or snails or aliens, we’ve only harvested a whopping 5 strawberries, our broccoli and carrot seeds were dug up by the squirrels before they even had a change to do anything, and I realized I don’t even really like parsley all that much.

But, ladies and gents, we grew a cantaloupe! A real live, edible cantaloupe! I didn’t take a picture of it when Stephen picked it because it was small and looked funny and I was certain that it was full of bugs or poison.

But Stephen said he thought it was ready, despite its tiny size. So he picked it and carefully cut it. He took one bite and didn’t like it. I smelled it and it smelled like Heaven. We realized that Stephen never likes cantaloupe so he can’t really be the judge. I was too scared to try it because, well, what if it is poisonous and I kill my baby all because of a tiny cantaloupe? So I did the only thing that seemed rational. I took it to my dad. He tried it and said it was good and not deadly. My uncle tried it and agreed. So then I tried it. Fantastic! I’m so proud!

5.
I got a coupon for a free snack sized Dreyer’s Slow Churned ice cream. I got it the other night and came hom and had it after dinner. LAME. First of all, it’s like the size of a shot glass. Second of all, it’s lighter than air. They advertise that it’s 1/2 fat, but I’m sure that’s because the other half of the container is filled with air. Not a fan.

6.
Over the weekend I read Love the One You’re With by Emily Griffin. I’ve previously read her other three books Something Borrowed, Something Blue, and Baby Proof. I wasn’t a huge fan of the Something Borrowed but I read Something Blue because I bought them as a set and I couldn’t just ignore an entire book. That wouldn’t be fair. (Books have feelings, you know.) Then I borrowed Baby Proof from a friend of mine (I still have it… about 2 years later…) and I kind of liked that one. In fact, I’m about 95% sure that’s the book I read the name Jansen, although it was spelled Janssen and used as a last name. (This doesn’t count as a Jansen reference.) So when I saw she had another book out, I wanted to read it. My SIL gave it to me for my birthday back in November and I just got around to reading it. HORRIBLE. I hated it. My hatred for it is probably magnified because I’m married, but I think I’d hate it even if I wasn’t. Anyone else read this book? Did you hate it?

7.
I had a really long, weird dream last night. I won’t tell you all about it but I do want to mention that at one point in my dream, we found out that my friend Lyndsey was on the cover of US Weekly. I’m not entirely sure why but I think it had something to do with “chic Texan attire.” She was wearing a white fedora with a silver top and sparkley silvery white long shorts with heels. I don’t know…