Prolly All the Time

give a little, take a lot

N. and I discovered long ago that we are not good at making adult compromises.  I use up a shocking amount of my "ability to play well with others" in the work environment.  N. is a very stubborn individual, cut from a no-nonsense Midwestern cloth. Neither one of us were team athletes, so there goes that lesson.  Ultimately, in the past when we have tried to maturely come to a consensus... we each feel like we have lost and slink away to our respective corners of the house to suck our teeth and say snide things under our breath.  I know... tres grownup. But like I have always said, we prolly should not be raising children.

In order to maintain some semblance of happiness her at casa t'pon, we have developed two systems that aid us in the decision making process.  The first is very straight-forward -- ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS. You can not argue with its simplicity.  You can not argue with the results, it is nearly impossible (unless one party is drunk out of their mind) to get a true strategic edge, but you feel that you have more control than a simple roll of the dice.  It works nearly every single time -- flawlessly. 

In an attempt to solve another household dilemma we went to our second system, which we call "IF, THEN"... IF you want this, THEN I get this.  I like to think of this as a way for us to evaluate how much we REALLY want the thing we are fighting for...  and ultimately, everyone feels like they are winning something...  OK, not so much the way reasonable, well-adjusted adults might act, but it works for us.

So, our most recent dilemma.  Will we find out Banzo's sex?  Bean was a mystery and I loved every minute of not knowing...  as I have said before N. considered it a particular brand of torture that should be reserved only for the worst kind of person.  We had originally planned to "R-P-S"this one out...  but instead, I offered the option.  IF N. really wants to know what we are having, I can deal with it...  I guess that have had my surprise.  But THEN, I would like to have exclusive naming rights for the Banzo Bean.  That is right!  Bold move, I know. I want to be able to pick the name for this kid sans input, sans opinion. And just to make sure that I don't get evil spam... N. is more than welcome to make suggestions and turn his nose up at my short list, I just don't have to listen. Honestly, the discussion and give and take for the last round of name selection was about all I could take.  For someone who pretends to care so little about names, N. certainly had A LOT of opinions and precious little constructive to add to the discussion.

So, it looks like I will have a sex to share.  Which leaves you folks only 5 weeks to place your bets. I will tell you that if we go by heart rate, N. will be pleased to not have to pay for a wedding. Anyone got a good feeling out there...

reading is FUN!

reading is FUN!
Originally uploaded by tpon.

I don't often do this... but I am a little ti-ti and I haven't given this kid props in a LONG time.

Could you just eat this kid up! Go ahead, I can wait. Recommendation, if you will indulge me... he tastes great with sweet and sour OR choclate sauce.

Some highlights from the past few weeks:

- He has a new word... FLUSH! a very helpful reminder, indeed. Particularly in the ladies room in the neighborhood Target.

- He flies through the air with the greatest of ease... from coffee table to couch, from daddy to the bed, from crib to floor. If things go ary, the circus is coming through town next month, we have an out.

- His latest fave on mama's iPod... Jane's Addiction "Classic Girl", can't fault the kid's taste on that one.

- This morning, we caught his eating the dregs of a bag of salt and vinegar chips from the garbage can and this evening, he popped 14 keys off tpon's laptop keyboard. That is what two-minutes of unsupervised time will buy you, if you were wondering.

We are having a good time people...

better than wonder bread...

N. and I were watching TV the other day (I know, BIG surprise. As N. likes to point out on a semi-regular basis...  in the event of the Apocalypse or some heinous natural or otherwise disaster, it wouldn't be the lack of running water, food or electricity per se that would do me in...  it would be the death of my best friend, the TeeVee. Oh, I do love it so.)

Anyway, G*M has been running these commercials for "Go Green, Live Yellow", which is the program that supports their Flex Fuel cars -- cars that run on either good old gas-O-line... OR (wait for it...  better than 'lectrcty...) CORN!  Well, 85-ethanol to be exact... but in layman's terms, and lets be clear, I live for layman's terms.

This whole thing seems like a complete no-brainer to me... Are you kidding me?  There are a lot of things that we, as Americans, can not figure out.  Universal health care, education, contemporary art, moderate lifestyles... but corn?!?!?!?

We get corn.

We can grow it in many different varieties, in many states... we can cook the hell out of it...corn flakes, popcorn, grits, corn bread, fritters, corn-on-the-cob, creamed corn, fricassee, corn pudding, Fritos... the list goes on.

I mean, for cripe's sake, people... we were all taught in school that the the Pilgrims got off the boat and the first thing that the Native Americans gave them was CORN.  This is our heritage, folks... it only make sense that we would eventually combine our favorite grain with our favorite past-time, driving big-ass SUVs.

About freaking time...  I think that the corn farmers have been waiting for something to save them from this low-carb craze.