This must be from The Onion, right?

Nope.

Okay...then the person responsible for approving this must be going to hell, right? right? If you live near the Great Lakes, you may want to avoid swimming in them until at least 2012.

A BP refinery in Indiana will be allowed to continue to dump mercury into Lake Michigan under a permit issued by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.

The permit exempts the BP plant at Whiting, Ind., 3 miles southeast of Chicago, from a 1995 federal regulation limiting mercury discharges into the Great Lakes to 1.3 ounces per year.

The BP plant reported releasing 3 pounds of mercury through surface water discharges each year from 2002 to 2005, according to the Toxics Release Inventory, a database on pollution emissions kept by the Environmental Protection Agency that is based on information reported by companies.

Bical Gripper Water Shoes

Oooh! I love these Bical Gripper Water Shoes (scroll down past the sandals) so much! I love these cute pink skully ones, these high tops are fun, and these Mary Janes are wonderful.

Pink caterpillars!

The sizing on them is "unique", so be sure to check the size chart before ordering.

(via Alpha Mom)

Stop! Linker Time.

Utterly fantastic squirrel tray. (via the Scoop)

Very cool DIY Captain's Bed using an IKEA LACK shelf.

Gigantic Cupcake Mold!

Towel patchwork quilt - via not martha

Glow-in-the-dark cross stitch! - also via not martha

How to make Limoncello via The Kitchen

How to poach chicken

Wishing it was the weekend

I got spammed up the wazoo yesterday by someone promoting something that rhymes with dilf horn. Yoinks! Thanks to Shan for the head's up.

I keep meaning to upgrade my MovableType software but it involves backups and file transfers and a big amount of time. I downloaded everything I need but I haven't allowed myself the time to do it. So then I spend an hour cleaning up spam. Yay me!

In other news, I got my haircut on Saturday and I'm not loving it. My stylist has long, curly hair and you'd think she know how to cut curls. Alas, she cuts it as though it is straight. I know it's a bad cut when I start eyeing the scissors.

Also, I'm wearing capri pants today and I really should have shaved my legs. Maybe if I walk really fast all day no one will notice.

Work is busy, busy, busy. Aaron and I have not started packing. Sophie's still cute.

Daddy! Don't get us!

One of Sophie's favorite games of all time is to play "Daddy! Don't get us!!!" I pick her up and she hugs me tight and then we run around the downstairs while Aaron chases us. She especially likes when we stop and listen for Aaron's footsteps. If he manages to sneak up on us? Screaming and giggling ensue. The girl? She likes to be scared. As long as one of us is there hugging her.

She also plays "Mommy! Don't get us!" and "Otto! Don't get us!"

She is also incredibly strong and flexible. She loves to flip upside down. When I hold her feet while she's upside down, she instinctively knows to arch her back and stretch out her arms so she can see the ground. Her very limber cousin does flips with her daddy in which they face each other holding hands. Then she jumps up, wraps her legs around him, leans back and flips her legs over her head. Sophie saw her do this a couple of weekends ago and, because this is a much revered cousin, has asked us to flip her over and over again. How is this little thing not even two yet?

There are times when she seems so huge and strong and other times when she is still my tiny little girl with the softest cheeks in the universe.

21 Months!

Another big month with lots of talking and imaginative games.

We are trying to not let the stress of the house buying/moving effect her. Too much.

She is so much fun to be around. Very funny sense of humor and her games are becoming much more elaborate. She sang the full ABC song with us before bedtime the other night. I've noticed a lot more singing, in general. Songs she makes up that have words from songs we sing to her. Very cute. Very hard to catch on video. We saw my whole family last weekend for my sister's son's birthday weekend. Tons of fun. Amazing how many babies of different ages all running around the house. It was barely contained chaos and we all had a great time. Sophie's older cousins seemed to love the fact that she was talking to them and running around. She's a lot more fun to play with because she joins in their games and play. She seems so much taller and yet there are times when she is so tiny. I love that I can make her giggle and that she's in on the jokes.

And now some photos. My sister took these last weekend.

Is it just me, or does Sophie look older than 2 in these photos?

These are my photos from this weekend:

Blog Me

I won't be going to BlogHer this year but I thought I'd join in the fun.

Ten second introduction to me:

Greetings! I live in Western Massachusetts with my ex-Navy (submariner) husband, Aaron, and our whirling dervish of a toddler daughter, Sophie. We also have two very annoying, and very lucky to also be sweet, cats. I dabble in extravagant event cakes, crafts, drawing, painting and prank-playing. My best prank involved Ambesol and my husband's toothbrush. Oh, and then there was the prank that involved a reinactment of a key scene in "The Exorcist". Go ahead, join in the chorus: "Poor Aaron".

blogme2007

Antagonistic Foot

Oh man. This video had me crying with laughter.

Stupid dog.

via iamnot

NASTY

I think I would die.

A doctor found five bot fly larvae living on Dallas' head, near the top of his skull that after a few weeks after a mosquito apparently placed them there, had become active.

"I'd put my hand back there and feel them moving. I thought it was blood coursing through my head," said Dallas, of Carbondale.

"I could hear them. I actually thought I was going crazy." Dallas said he likely received the larval infestation while on a trip to Belize this summer. Adult bot flies are hairy and look like bees, without bristles. One type, dermatobia hominis, attacks livestock, deer, and humans.

Mmmm, Bazaar

I finally opened an Etsy shop of my own. Right now there are lovely necklaces and soon there will be other hand-crafted goodies.

I will also post any new listings on my other site: Mmmm, Bazaar.

An Orange sings Carmen

Remember this one? I remember being fascinated with the flower eyelashes.

(via Best Week Ever)

Sophie says...

Wednesday hit over 90° here with about 95% humidity.

Needless to say, the house was steamy when we got home. Aaron's been working nights at my company a couple of days a week and this was one of his work nights.

Scene: around 6:00 pm, trying to get Sophie ready for bed. She's naked and running circles around the upstairs. I turn the A/C on in our bedroom and blast it to cool things down.

Thump, thump, thump, thump - naked Sophie runs into the bedroom and finds her way to the air conditioner on full blast. She stands in front of it - arms held straight out at the sides, belly out and says:

"I LOVE dis! I LOOOVVVE it!!"

Ceci n'est pas une link

Tyvek lunch bag made with a Fed Ex envelope.

Aaron and I are both into Hell's Kitchen - we've watched the last two seasons and try not to miss this year's episodes. I'm sad that the past winners aren't exactly living the promised dream life.

A shopping bag made from a t-shirt! (via not martha)

Yeah, why DO they get three month's off?

The House

I've been trying not to say too much. Partly not to jinx things and partly because the stress was draining every bit of energy from my ability to function.

I just wrote this to my sister and please excuse me while I just cut and paste some of it here:

I'll try not to bore you with too many details. It's been quite stressful and surreal. But we've now, finally, agreed on a lower price with some things being fixed and it seems like things are stabilized. I met the realtor from HELL the other day. It took all the self control I could muster not to slash her tires on the way out of the house. She's the mother-in-law of the listing agent who is out of town this week. Both work for the same firm. Very convoluted intermingled family mess.

I think I grew about 5,000 more gray hairs in the span of a week. I got sick, my face broke out. Ugh, stress.

It's getting hot in here

Oy, it's muggy. Bubbelah, I'm schvitzing.

House stuff is still moving along. Offers, counter-offers, etc.

I'm lucky that my office space is air conditioned. As soon as I get home, however, clothes are peeled off, Sophie's down to a diaper (or less) and we move very slowly until it is time for bed in our air conditioned room. She's been sleeping with us for the past week or so until this deadly heat breaks. No, we're not buying another air conditioner.

23 Ways to Beat the Heat. I especially like the idea of freezing rice in a sock and sticking it under the covers.

My Morning Child and other news

I've mentioned before how we somehow ended up with a morning person. Sophie is AWAKE every morning at 5:25 on the dot. It's like a switch, one minute she's fast asleep and then *click!* wide awake.

She woke up in the best mood this morning. Yesterday was grumpety grump central. Whining and arguing and stubbornness. Today? She was awake and being silly and giggling and we found ourselves in the kitchen this morning before 6 with Sophie literally running in circles around us. Aaron and I just looked at each other and laughed.

It is POURING outside right now. I'm looking out the windows at work and it is pitch black. Thunder booming and torrential rain. In so many other parts of the world if you heard thunder like this, you'd run for a bomb shelter.

Aaron and Sophie had to drive me to work today because my car wouldn't start. The battery terminals are covered with corrosion. Which is kind of a testament to Honda cars. I never look under the hood at the Civic because it just runs and runs and runs. If it had had more issues in the last few months, I would have been under the hood and I would have seen the crusty mushrooms of corrosion. Because I had parked behind our other car, there was car pushing and moving all my things to the CR-V and strapping Sophie in and trying to explain that Mommy's car is broken. "Good job, Daddy! Pushin' Mommy's car! Is broken! I fix it!" Lucky for us she was in such a good mood.

The house inspection went well yesterday. There are things to be fixed in the house and now it's down to figuring out who is going to pay for the bigger issues. The seller is apparently an electrician but there are problems with the outlets he installed. There are also some piping issues (old cast iron pipes) and one roof needs new shingles. Yes, asbestos, yes, lead. Both of which can be dealt with pretty easily. The sellers were smart to deal with most of the cosmetic stuff first - new 1/2 bath, new kitchen, great paint job. Distracts you from the pipes and electrical issues. A good thing to remember if we ever sell this house. Even after the inspection, we're both pretty excited about it. We hit it off with the inspector (he, Aaron and our realtor got into a lengthy discussion about military history and submarines) and he gave us a lot of great advice on what to tackle and what to let slide for a bit.

My friend, Andrea, watched Sophie at our house with Andrea's two girls. (Thank you, Andrea!) I'm so glad we didn't bring Sophie to the inspection. It would have been way too distracting and she would have been very bored. We spent a lot of time in the basement and she doesn't like basements very much.

I love Boobs!

Update: Bidding ends 12:01 AM on Saturday, July 14th. That’s one minute after midnight, not noon. Bid there or be square! You know you love boobies, too!

I donated one of my one-of-a-kind papier mache bowls to the Boob-Ha-ha auction happening starting Monday, Monday, Monday! Proceeds from the auction go towards fighting breast cancer.

Breast Cancer - Boo!

Boobies - Yay!

So, head on over, starting Monday the 9th, there will be lots of fabulous crafts on which to bid. Photos! Jam! Purses! Quilts! Food!

Update: Bidding ends 12:01 AM on Saturday, July 14th. That’s one minute after midnight, not noon. Bid there or be square! You know you love boobies, too!

Fretag

A link I forgot to post earlier in the week: make ice cream with two Ziplock bags

I haven't posted in a week because things are a bit crazy around here. Crazy at work, crazy at home.

Aaron and I are in the midst of trying to buy a house and, as it's an older house, there are a bunch of inspection/estimate appointments to set up. Today and tomorrow are full to the gills with inspections. Cross your fingers that everything is above board. We are excited, but all of these phone calls and all the research into things like asbestos and lead and steam or hot water radiators is making me a little apprehensive.