I am mommy – hear me blog (and blog, and blog and blog)

What is it with all the “Mommy blogs” around at the moment? There seem to be millions of them, and they all seem to be hawking the same products – it seems that companies are now exploiting the whole mommy blog scene with trips and freebies in return for favorable reviews. Just about a week ago, I browsed through some of these blogs, and every single one of them had an opinion on why it’s OK to let your baby watch “Little Einstein” videos. Oh, and pictures from their trips to Little Einstein headquarters.

 

I think last month is was Campbell's soups. Maybe next week it’s be Marlboro – apparently as long as these ladies get an all expenses paid trip to somewhere, they’ll hawk anything for you, and it gets around the lousy restrictions on advertising, right? Stay tuned for “Why smoking in your child’s face is actually OK” posts.

 

At first it was comical, even reassuring to read the dispatches of moms around the US. now it’s just another advertising thing, and like all adverts, it gets old in about 30 seconds.

 

Also, I think companies (if they’re going to do this stuff) need to choose their bloggers a little more wisely. I don’t automatically trust someone just because they’ve squeezed out a couple of screaming brats (and from some of the stories on these blogs, screaming brats is the correct term). In with the advertising pitches, I’ve seen everything from “cute” descriptions of bad behavior to “cute” descriptions of even worse parenting.  Apparently the kids are a commodity here just like everything else on the blog. Wonder what will happen when this mommy blogging flash in the pan finishes and the kids grow up? Oh – that’s right. Their obnoxious childhoods (and in quite a few cases, lurid details of their potty training, etc) are stuck on the net (and in some cases, books in print) forever and ever. Think that’s not embarrassing to a teenager?

 

So I’ve decided I’m done reading the mommy blogs. They’ve gone from mildly entertaining through slightly worrying all the way to slightly worrying and for financial gain – in short, the progression of all fads on the internet. My advice to the “mommie bloggers” out there? Find a new trick – fast.

OK…

So yesterday’s post was a tad bit psycho-revengy. Sorry about that. It’s just sort of consuming me more than it should – especially since I’m going to lunch with some of my ex-colleagues tomorrow. Nice ones, and I hope some of the nasty ones don’t show up. OK, maybe I’m a little bit worried that some of the nasty ones will show up. More tomorrow – after the “event”.

Still no job….

 

But thinking about it, I still wouldn’t go back and do it differently. Actually, I probably would have done one thing slightly different. If I’d have known the company I worked for was going to play so dirty, I would have screwed them over instead of being nice about everything. It’s too late for revenge now, except for getting to tell everyone I meet about what an awful state the company is in, and how to buy from them would be the biggest mistake ever. It’s not bad top say it if it’s the truth, right?

It’s cake time!

What better Valentine’s day activity than making an awesome cake?

 

Iz and I made this last night:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Following the directions on Bakerella,  we actually managed to make something pretty cool – and it was really fun to make (and we just happened to have some of the “chocolates” - which as you can see, Iz designed - left over to eat last night). OK, I know it doesn’t look as fabulous as hers, but we were pretty pleased with it, anyway.

Oh please please please please please!

 

I’m hoping the light that’s currently a faint glimmer at the end of the tunnel isn’t another oncoming train. I can’t say anything more right now for fear of falling flat on my face before I even get started (especially since it depends on the help of people I hardly know and several random things going right when I need them to), but if this works out it would be a dream come true!

A little Public Service Announcement

 

If it’s as cold as it was here in Maryland last night (a gazillion degrees below freezing), you might want to consider leaving a tap or two to drip overnight.

 

Or, of course, you could spend your Saturday morning with a hairdryer, gently warming every inch of copper piping in your house(and just outside, because your neighbors don’t think you’re crazy enough) hoping to hell you don’t make something even worse happen, like a burst pipe. Or maybe the burst pipe happens anyway, I’m not 100% sure. At any rate, after you’ve gently warmed enough copper pipe, you’ll hear an almighty clunk and some rumbling that sounds uncannily like a child falling down the stairs, and you will have water again. After a quick check to make sure that you have water, and a child that didn’t fall down the stairs after all, you can take a well deserved break.

 

So far, nothing worse happened, or at least I don’t think so. I have running water in all the right places but none on the floor, and I’m fairly sure that’s how it’s supposed to go. From now on I’m going to leave a tap dripping overnight, because I’m not doing that again.

So it’s time to update…

Even though there’s really not much to write about. Well, there is, but I don’t really know where to start., so I’m going to take it slowly, category by category.

 

Personal stuff:

- Still job searching, getting kind of discouraged by the whole process. I apply and apply, and even get interviews, but I can’t get anyone to bite. I’m starting to think that there’s a specific reason for that, but hopefully that reason won’t exist after the next few months. It’s frustrating. I need a job to pay for any retraining onto a new industry, but I can’t get a job because I’m in competition with a gazillion other people for each and every job. If I could train for another area, I could apply for more jobs, but I can’t, because I can’t afford the retaining.

 

- Christmas was awesome – we had a family Christmas with my Mum and Dad visiting, and I relaxed for the first time in I don’t know how long. Pictures to follow, possibly, depending on how lazy I get. So don’t count on pictures showing up anytime soon (although I’m trying Windows writer, which means at least I have a desktop icon to guilt trip me into blogging).

 

Bigger stuff:

 

So it’s time for the inauguration on Tuesday. Unfortunately we have plans on Saturday (Iz has a birthday party to go to) – I would have liked to take her down to Baltimore where Barack Obama will be appearing Saturday afternoon. I’m so excited about this – we’ll finally be rid of the idiot Bush. I’m just hoping that America as a country really can change, because what I see sometimes is so really screwed up. What still needs to change are attitudes, and there’s a long road there. America is still definitely a country with a lot of intolerance – not just racial, but religious (it’s OK to be a fundamentalist Christian, but try being anything else in this “Land of the Free”).

 

My thoughts on the whole thing are a bit jumbled right now – somehow I feel bitter towards a lot of what I’ve tried to embrace over the last ten years or so. I’ve been through periods where I feel that England and the US are very similar, and then there are times when I feel that for two countries that share a lot of things, you couldn’t live in a more alien society. Maybe more about that in an upcoming blog post, because it should probably be explored.

 

OK – so apologies for the blog post about nothing, I promise I’ll come up with some good subjects soon.