Is there such a thing as gender equality? Now that I'm pregnant, I have become more dependent on my husband for those "manly" things that I can't do myself. For example, Grant has to get things down from tall shelves, especially heavy things, to prevent the possibility of falling. If it's over 20 pounds, he has to lift it from the trunk of my car. Picking up dog poop? It's definitely a man's job now. As is cleaning the toilet (gag).
However, along with his increasing responsibilities, I've noticed he has been dishing some of his former "female" responsibilities onto me. I've been cooking more and doing the dishes. And, I don't think he has done laundry himself since I have become pregnant. Shopping for the baby? He's definitely not interested. Decorating the baby's room? He did the paint and installed the closet organizer (after much nagging on my part)... the touch up, well, I guess that is left to me (after not being done for 2 months).
There are some things that make gender "equality" impossible (such as opening pickle jars) for many of us. Other things, I think, have gotten better. I'm very blessed to have a husband who normally does his fair share of chores, does not spend all our money on his interests, and who is supportive of my career. He is kind and respectful. I hope that all my friends find the same type of support and equal partnership in their relationships.
Grant sent me the following clip, which made me laugh and made think about the way "equality" is defined in our relationship. The clip is a lot more interesting, by the way, than my sappy post. Enjoy!
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
These are a few of my favorite things...
I like it when it's sunny.
I like being around smart people.
I like it when my husband brings me coffee in bed.
I like payday.
I like it when people post comments on my blog.
I like presents.
I like surfing and snowboarding.
I like to laugh.
I like getting a pedicure.
I like nice wine.
I am in a good mood today and am grateful there are so many things out there that I like. I notice that a lot of blogs talk about things people don't like (including mind) and I thought it would be a nice change to talk about what I do like.
Of course, this blog isn't just blubbering about what I like. I read an article last week about a study that showed that people rated wine based on the price, rather than the taste. For example, they gave people the same wine but just changed the price. People rated the wine with the higher price as better! The full story is below.
This makes me question some of the things I like. Have I been sucked into a high-price mirage? Can a 20 dollar pedicure really be as pleasurable as a 40 dollar one? Is a Coach purse truly worth more than one from Target? Can I trust my own likes? I think I am going to focus on experiences more than products this year. The experience of riding a wave, of drinking a great cup of coffee (sorry, but the vanilla creamer is worth the price), of watching a sunset, of being with my family. Those are things that are worth it, no matter what the price!
With wines, does price = pleasure?
Researchers at the California Institute of Technology and Stanford University published a recent study showing that people were more likely to prefer a wine they thought was expensive, versus the same wine labeled at a lower price. Even their brains reacted differently; they registered more activity in an area of the brain related to pleasure when they thought they were drinking a $90 bottle of wine than when they drank the same stuff labeled at $10.
But here's the kicker: When they didn't know the price of the wines, they preferred the least-expensive one.
Keep that in mind when you're shopping for wines. Don't automatically equate high price with high quality. It's true that many pricier wines are superb, and that the world's very best wines never cost $5 or $10. But in Consumer Reports blind wine tests, in which our expert testers know neither the label nor the price, some relatively inexpensive wines earn the highest Ratings. Conversely, some $20 or even $30 wines garner mediocre scores.
I like being around smart people.
I like it when my husband brings me coffee in bed.
I like payday.
I like it when people post comments on my blog.
I like presents.
I like surfing and snowboarding.
I like to laugh.
I like getting a pedicure.
I like nice wine.
I am in a good mood today and am grateful there are so many things out there that I like. I notice that a lot of blogs talk about things people don't like (including mind) and I thought it would be a nice change to talk about what I do like.
Of course, this blog isn't just blubbering about what I like. I read an article last week about a study that showed that people rated wine based on the price, rather than the taste. For example, they gave people the same wine but just changed the price. People rated the wine with the higher price as better! The full story is below.
This makes me question some of the things I like. Have I been sucked into a high-price mirage? Can a 20 dollar pedicure really be as pleasurable as a 40 dollar one? Is a Coach purse truly worth more than one from Target? Can I trust my own likes? I think I am going to focus on experiences more than products this year. The experience of riding a wave, of drinking a great cup of coffee (sorry, but the vanilla creamer is worth the price), of watching a sunset, of being with my family. Those are things that are worth it, no matter what the price!
With wines, does price = pleasure?
Researchers at the California Institute of Technology and Stanford University published a recent study showing that people were more likely to prefer a wine they thought was expensive, versus the same wine labeled at a lower price. Even their brains reacted differently; they registered more activity in an area of the brain related to pleasure when they thought they were drinking a $90 bottle of wine than when they drank the same stuff labeled at $10.
But here's the kicker: When they didn't know the price of the wines, they preferred the least-expensive one.
Keep that in mind when you're shopping for wines. Don't automatically equate high price with high quality. It's true that many pricier wines are superb, and that the world's very best wines never cost $5 or $10. But in Consumer Reports blind wine tests, in which our expert testers know neither the label nor the price, some relatively inexpensive wines earn the highest Ratings. Conversely, some $20 or even $30 wines garner mediocre scores.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
futbol americano
Today we watched the Chargers game at one of my friends' homes. In the spirit of full disclosure, this was the first game I've watched all season! And now that the Chargers have lost, it is the last game I will watch this season. Grant and I spent some time talking with a guy from England at the game, who had some interesting commentary on American football, including:
-how it's the only sport where fat people are considered athletes (Though Grant countered that sumo wrestling also idolizes fat people. However, after a quick discussion, they agreed that sumo wrestling cannot be considered a sport.)
-how it's a lazy sport (Why throw the ball when you could kick it?)
-how the cheerleaders are less interesting when they have to wear parkas (Poor things, it's freezing outside!)
-why wear pads and helmets? Rugby players go without. There is not enough blood in football.
I always appreciate meeting people from other parts of the world and learning new perspectives. Next time I want to skip out of watching a game, I have four new reasons to give besides just having a headache! :)
-how it's the only sport where fat people are considered athletes (Though Grant countered that sumo wrestling also idolizes fat people. However, after a quick discussion, they agreed that sumo wrestling cannot be considered a sport.)
-how it's a lazy sport (Why throw the ball when you could kick it?)
-how the cheerleaders are less interesting when they have to wear parkas (Poor things, it's freezing outside!)
-why wear pads and helmets? Rugby players go without. There is not enough blood in football.
I always appreciate meeting people from other parts of the world and learning new perspectives. Next time I want to skip out of watching a game, I have four new reasons to give besides just having a headache! :)
Thursday, January 10, 2008
My favorite 2007 e-mail forward
Thanks for all the Emails! As we close out 2007, let me thank all of you for all those emails this past year.......
I must send my thanks to whoever sent me the one about rat shit in the glue on envelopes because I now have to use a wet towel with every envelope that needs sealing. Also, I now have to scrub the top of every can I open for the same reason.I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl (Penny Brown); who is about to die in the hospital for the 1,387,258th time. I am now broke but that will change once I receive the $15,000 that Bill Gates/Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their special e-mail program .
Or from the senior bank clerk in Nigeria who wants me to split $7 million
with me for pretending to be a long lost relative of a customer who died in the States.I no longer worry about my soul because I have 363,214 angels looking out for me, and St.Theresa's novena has granted my every wish. I no longer use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day. Thanks to you, I have learned that my prayers only get answered if I forward e-mail to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes.
Because of your concern I no longer drink Coca-Cola because it can remove toilet stains. I no longer can buy gas without taking a man along to watch the car so a serial killer won't crawl in my back seat when I'm filling up I no longer go to shopping malls because someone will drug me with a perfume sample and rob me. I no longer answer the phone because someone will ask me to dial a number for which I will get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica , Uganda , Singapore and Uzbekistan ..Thanks to you, I can't use anyone's toilet but mine because a big brown African spider is lurking under the seat to cause me instant death when it bites my ass.
And thanks to your great advice, I can't even pick up the $5.00 I found dropped in the car park because it probably was placed there by a sex molester waiting underneath my car to grab my leg. If you don't send this e-mail to at least 144,000 people in the next 70 minutes, a large dove with diarrhea will land on your head at 5:00pm this afternoon and the fleas from 12 camels will infest your back,causing you to grow a hairy hump. I know this will occur because it actually happened to a friend of my next door neighbour's ex-mother-in-law's second husband's cousin's beautician. By the way... a South American scientist after a lengthy study has
discovered that people with low IQ who have infrequent sexual activity always read their e-mails with their hand on the mouse. Don't bother taking it off now, it's too late!
I must send my thanks to whoever sent me the one about rat shit in the glue on envelopes because I now have to use a wet towel with every envelope that needs sealing. Also, I now have to scrub the top of every can I open for the same reason.I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl (Penny Brown); who is about to die in the hospital for the 1,387,258th time. I am now broke but that will change once I receive the $15,000 that Bill Gates/Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their special e-mail program .
Or from the senior bank clerk in Nigeria who wants me to split $7 million
with me for pretending to be a long lost relative of a customer who died in the States.I no longer worry about my soul because I have 363,214 angels looking out for me, and St.Theresa's novena has granted my every wish. I no longer use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day. Thanks to you, I have learned that my prayers only get answered if I forward e-mail to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes.
Because of your concern I no longer drink Coca-Cola because it can remove toilet stains. I no longer can buy gas without taking a man along to watch the car so a serial killer won't crawl in my back seat when I'm filling up I no longer go to shopping malls because someone will drug me with a perfume sample and rob me. I no longer answer the phone because someone will ask me to dial a number for which I will get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica , Uganda , Singapore and Uzbekistan ..Thanks to you, I can't use anyone's toilet but mine because a big brown African spider is lurking under the seat to cause me instant death when it bites my ass.
And thanks to your great advice, I can't even pick up the $5.00 I found dropped in the car park because it probably was placed there by a sex molester waiting underneath my car to grab my leg. If you don't send this e-mail to at least 144,000 people in the next 70 minutes, a large dove with diarrhea will land on your head at 5:00pm this afternoon and the fleas from 12 camels will infest your back,causing you to grow a hairy hump. I know this will occur because it actually happened to a friend of my next door neighbour's ex-mother-in-law's second husband's cousin's beautician. By the way... a South American scientist after a lengthy study has
discovered that people with low IQ who have infrequent sexual activity always read their e-mails with their hand on the mouse. Don't bother taking it off now, it's too late!
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Ring in the Drama!
New Years Eve was fun for us... we ended up doing the Hornblower excursion, complete with dinner and dancing. At midnight we saw the great fireworks show over the city, from the boat. It was a lot of fun and a nice, romantic way to spend our last childless new year eve.
However, the evening was not without drama. My best friend avoids making any plans on "high expectation" nights like new years because of the "inevitable" letdown. Well, I was able to witness this letdown first-hand with two separate, but equally intoxicated and humorously wicked couples.
The first was in line for the boat. The woman behind us looked like she came right out of Playboy. She was really attractive, fake boobs, fake blond hair, etc. Her boyfriend was not as attractive, but isn't that almost always the case? Grant tells me they are in a 415v, code for a verbal altercation (the neat thing about us both knowing codes is that we can talk about other people when they least suspect it!). Anyway, the fight was pretty bad. She didn't want to go on the cruise (no cheap trip, either, tickets were nearly 200 bucks a piece). She wanted to hang out with her friends. So, she ditched him. Poor guy went back to the counter to see about getting a refund, but they don't do refunds, so he was out of luck. Grant noted, you always pay with women like that.
The second encounter was with the drunk white-trash couples sitting next to us. First of all, both women were in their 40s and somehow managed to squeeze into ill-fitting 1990 satin prom dresses. Not a pretty sight. One of the husbands text messaged his ex-wife before dinner and all shit broke loose. His current wife got up and threw her chair and had a major meltdown. I watched with great amusement, but the older gentleman on the other side of their table was not amused. He told the husband, "can't you make your wife shut the fuck up?" Wow, that was great, especially because the guy looked like an old British dude from an Agatha Christy novel; not the one you'd expect to be starting a confrontation with a drunk white trash dude 30 years his junior!
The guy, although highly annoyed (at this point the wife had thrown about 4 tantrums) said, "Hey, what do you want me to do, throw her off the boat?" At which point Grant said, "Yeah, that would be great." Ha. I had to remind Grant that he was on a date and that starting a fist fight would land him in the brig...For a moment though, I think he was excited about the possibility of knocking someone out. Well, those two ended up fighting somewhere else on the cruise ship and we had a nice, peaceful evening.
One thing I learned about dancing pregnant (I haven't danced since I was 5 months) is that my belly is big and I bounce off my partner. Grant, of course, thought the bouncing was funny, so he purposely stuck his belly out so that I would repel off of it after every turn. After a while, I felt like a teatherball and we went upstairs to watch the city from the top of the boat. I think that was Grant's plan after all!
Next new year eve I am planning on returning to our tradition of doing nothing. Maybe renting a drama rather than watching it live. And definitely having some champagne!
However, the evening was not without drama. My best friend avoids making any plans on "high expectation" nights like new years because of the "inevitable" letdown. Well, I was able to witness this letdown first-hand with two separate, but equally intoxicated and humorously wicked couples.
The first was in line for the boat. The woman behind us looked like she came right out of Playboy. She was really attractive, fake boobs, fake blond hair, etc. Her boyfriend was not as attractive, but isn't that almost always the case? Grant tells me they are in a 415v, code for a verbal altercation (the neat thing about us both knowing codes is that we can talk about other people when they least suspect it!). Anyway, the fight was pretty bad. She didn't want to go on the cruise (no cheap trip, either, tickets were nearly 200 bucks a piece). She wanted to hang out with her friends. So, she ditched him. Poor guy went back to the counter to see about getting a refund, but they don't do refunds, so he was out of luck. Grant noted, you always pay with women like that.
The second encounter was with the drunk white-trash couples sitting next to us. First of all, both women were in their 40s and somehow managed to squeeze into ill-fitting 1990 satin prom dresses. Not a pretty sight. One of the husbands text messaged his ex-wife before dinner and all shit broke loose. His current wife got up and threw her chair and had a major meltdown. I watched with great amusement, but the older gentleman on the other side of their table was not amused. He told the husband, "can't you make your wife shut the fuck up?" Wow, that was great, especially because the guy looked like an old British dude from an Agatha Christy novel; not the one you'd expect to be starting a confrontation with a drunk white trash dude 30 years his junior!
The guy, although highly annoyed (at this point the wife had thrown about 4 tantrums) said, "Hey, what do you want me to do, throw her off the boat?" At which point Grant said, "Yeah, that would be great." Ha. I had to remind Grant that he was on a date and that starting a fist fight would land him in the brig...For a moment though, I think he was excited about the possibility of knocking someone out. Well, those two ended up fighting somewhere else on the cruise ship and we had a nice, peaceful evening.
One thing I learned about dancing pregnant (I haven't danced since I was 5 months) is that my belly is big and I bounce off my partner. Grant, of course, thought the bouncing was funny, so he purposely stuck his belly out so that I would repel off of it after every turn. After a while, I felt like a teatherball and we went upstairs to watch the city from the top of the boat. I think that was Grant's plan after all!
Next new year eve I am planning on returning to our tradition of doing nothing. Maybe renting a drama rather than watching it live. And definitely having some champagne!
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