Na Na Bleh Blo Mama

I didn't ever dare type it, afraid of jinxing it, but Amelia was sleeping through the night. WAS. For the past week or so, she's been waking up again at least once. I am so useless in the early morning hours. It takes me a long time to shake the fog of whatever dream I was having and accept the fact that I'm going to be up for awhile. Sometimes I just lay down in Amelia's room and try patting her head through the slats of her crib to see if I can somehow sleep and pat at the same time without her starting to scream again.

Last night, I stumbled into her room at about 3:15 and dazedly started to rub her back to quiet her down. I had been having some sort of Aesopian fable of a dream that involved spice mills, cranberries, and Thanksgiving turkey and I'm pretty sure that at one point I told Amelia, "Shhh, no crying or the turkey will think we've stolen the cinnamon!" Seriously. I really said that.

She tried crawling around in her crib for awhile, turning completely around at one point and telling me very seriously, "Na Na. Bleh-blo Mama!" I am not fully fluent in Amelia-speak, especially not in the wee hours. I understood the "Na Na" to be "night night" and the Mama part, but could not for the life of me figure out what "Bleh Blo" meant. I tried giving her the stuffed lamb, thinking maybe she was trying to say Baa Baa, but when she stood up in her crib and expressed her rage with a screaming tap dance, I knew that wasn't right.

She finally went to sleep after about an hour, without the bleh blo. I only realized this morning that she probably wanted her pillow moved to the other end of the crib. An hour of sleep lost due to a mistranslation.

I really hope this phase is short lived. I really wanted to find out what happened with that turkey and the cinnamon.

check!

I stole this from Lisa who borrowed it from someone else who borrowed it from someone else. Behold, the power of the internet! Giving idea-less bloggers an easy entry. We all know that the real appeal of these lists isn't to find out what I've done, but to answer the questions for yourself. Feel free to post the list on your own site and make it official.

A list of life adventures, I bolded everything I've done:

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said “I love you” and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise (I think it's a little pathetic that I've never been able to stay up all night long.)
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game (I've been to a couple of pro basketball and baseball games. Can't say they were that much fun.)
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa.
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars (When I first read this I thought it said stairs and I almost replied, "No, but I've peed under them.")
20. Changed a baby’s diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne (Hence the peeing under stairs.)
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer (I don't know about this one. It's entirely possible we do right now and I'm just blissfully ignorant.)
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk.
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe.
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs (It didn't take long, I think I had about 11.)
57. Pretended to be a superhero (I used to have Wonder Woman underoos.)
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Played touch football
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured an ancient site
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played Dungeons & Dragons for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an “expert”
83. Got flowers for no reason
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music (OK, it was in a booth at 6 Flags. That counts, right?)
87. Eaten shark
88. Kissed on the first date
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently well enough to have a decent conversation
95. Performed in Rocky Horror
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Touched a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Touched a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions (Thus far.)
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident(Well, fender bender. )
150. Saved someone’s life
151. Finished a marathon

It's not easy being Green

We've been limping along for the last couple of years with our hand-me-down cars from our parents. Both Andre's parents and my dad were incredibly generous in giving us cars to get us through the belt-tightening years when the money was pretty tight. In an unfortunate confluence of events, the cars (both with over 130,000 miles on them) had gotten to the point that they were in need of seeeeeerious repair. So, we bit the bullet, traded them both in, and bought a hybrid for Andre to drive to work.

He's been reading some of the forums populated by other hybrid owners and I've come to the stunning conclusion that hybrid owners are not Green, they're Dorks. The forums are populated by men who are all trying to best one another by getting the best overall gas mileage and best gas mileage for a particular trip. The dash of the car has a MPG display that tells you exactly how many miles to the gallon you're getting second by second, and over all MPG on the odometer and also on the tripometer.

I just know these people aren't watching the road, they're watching their displays while driving. They're experimenting with things like drafting off trucks on the freeway and shifting into neutral while coasting. One guy reported that he did things like turning off the car completely to coast down a hill. My illusion of peace loving hippies doing their part for a healthier tomorrow was completely shot. Driving has become a video game being played by total maniacs.

Andre swears he's not going to worry about his MPG. Yet. I know him. He's a gamer and I just know that little display is going to be very tempting. Please pray for the other drivers on the road.

Vote!

Please.

Here's a little video I found on a couple of different blogs today. Sing along and then go vote.