May 5th, 2012

P366: April 29th – May 5th

I don’t know if this was a busy week or a slow week or what. All I know is that after a few days of Spencer getting shortened, interrupted and generally crappy sleep, I’m exhausted. I don’t even remember the beginning of this week.

Sunday

And these are just the books that were in my nightstand drawer.

Monday

Off Roading

Tuesday

He's a bit puzzled.

Wednesday

bouncy fish park!

Thursday

Bookstore legos > home legos

Friday

Pajama painting.

Saturday

No amount of coffee can save today.

linking up with Amy

May 4th, 2012

Lemon Life Lessons: Karaoke Edition

I have a new feature: fictitious questions from imaginary readers. Yay!

Dear Lemon:

That’s your name right? Lemon?* Why else would you have such a dumb blog name about you and your two babies. I know you used to do a lot of karaoke, even though you have never mentioned this on the blog. Do you have any suggestions for which classic rock songs a person should never, ever pick even if they think they sing them the best ever when they are alone in their car?

– Clancy Wiggum

Why yes Clancy, I do have some thoughts on this topic. How ever did you know?

Amy’s Top 5 Classic Rock Songs You Should Never Karaoke If You Aren’t in a Karaoke Competition and maybe not even then…

1. Oh Sherry Journey Why? First of all, it starts with an acapella into. That would be a bold choice, too bold.  Also, Journey songs are really hard to sing.
2. Take It On The Run REO Speedwagon This song has a crazy weird musical interlude that lasts way longer than it should. And there is more singing after the music so it probably won’t fade out. It’s long and awful, you’re just going to have to stand there knowing everyone is mocking you for picking a super awkward song.
3. Take It To The Limit The Eagles Slow. Boring. And the take IT part that you picked the song for? Well, it doesn’t happen all that often. Might I suggest
4. The Joker Steve Miller Band Surprisingly tuneless. This is an excellent drunken group sing, just don’t attempt it solo.
5. Imagine John Lennon Just don’t. No one ever even likes covers of this song when pros do it. Exception: wedding karaoke See also: Hallelujah Jeff Buckley version. Leave it to American Idol auditions people.

*My name is Amy. I have one child. My blog is called Baby Baby Lemon as a (misguided) Simpson’s reference.

Happy weekend everybody!

May 3rd, 2012

BlogHer Book Club: You Have No Idea

Can I just say how much I love participating in BlogHer’s book club. The variety is great! I realized while reading this book that I haven’t read many books about celebrities, either biographies or autobiographies. I’m more likely to read something on an historical figure than a movie star. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed You Have No Idea, the celebrity based book by celebrity Vanessa Williams and her no-nonsense mother Helen.

I was pleasantly surprised and thoroughly enjoyed the book. She did include some “shocking revelations,” but mostly I just liked reading the story of a celebrity’s life where I only vaguely remember their rise to fame. I honestly had no clue that she was a trained actress. I remember her Miss America win, scandal and subsequent recording career, but when she started appearing in acting roles, I (erroneously) assumed she was a model/singer turned actress.

Without giving too much away, the book updates the rest of her life, professional and personal, until the present day and her current work on the final season of Desperate Housewives. I follow pop culture in as much as I read some shows, read some blogs and subscribe to entertainment weekly. I consider myself a generalized aficionado. This book is great; a breezy (for the most part) read with enough insider information to make the famous part engrossing and personal struggles that keep the pages turning.

I’ve had some questions about BlogHer Book Club and thought I would answer them here. You do not need to be running BlogHer ads to particpate. I’m not. You are provided the book and compensated for reading the book, writing the post, spreading the word via social media and participating in discussions on the BlogHer site. You are not required to like the book, but you are required to finish it. More information about the book club can be found here and a sample discussion page is here.

This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own.

May 2nd, 2012

12 in 2012 – May + April in Review

Let’s see how April turned out:

Goals for April

1. Call dentist I’ve had a broken back molar for awhile. It doesn’t hurt, so I’ve been avoiding the dentit, but I’m thinking I can’t put it off any longer.CALLED, 2 Fillings & 1 pulled wisdom tooth. Ouch.
2. Clean Oven This one? Dumb move. I accidently set my oven to self-cleaning and then quickly turned it off. However, my oven door stayed locked so I figured I might as well add this to the list because I would have to run the cleaning cycle to get the door unstuck. Which I did today and it seems the oven blew it’s thermostat fuse or something and the oven part of my stove no longer works. This is why I don’t clean things. DONE – ISH? After a nearly $200 repair from using the self cleaning cycle, I am never cleaning the oven again.
3. Clean out middle dresser drawer I have tank tops shoved in a corner of it and no clue what is in the rest of the drawer – WHOOPS. Forgot about this one. Not done.
4. Paint numbers on Spencer’s bins This was part of the big reorganization last month, but I never finsihed the last part. I didn’t do this because I can’t figure out what kind of paint to use on those synthetic canvas-like target bins. A test spot of acryllic craft paint flaked right off.
5. Exercise 12 times My goal is 3 times a week, but I thought writing it this way would keep me from quitting if I missed a week or something. Already done 2 days and it is only the 2nd. Woot. I kicked this ones ass. Now to keep the momentum up and maybe look at my diet in May.
6. Clean out front yard section for sunflower patch. I had a huge plot of sunflowers the summer I had Spencer. It was so beautiful, but I let the spot get overgrown. I bought some seeds. Time to take back my yard. PARTIALLY DONE.
7. Reorganize cabinet under phone in kitchen. This one is a disaster. It started as baking stuff and seldom used cookware and morphed in to beverage storage and all sorts of things that make no sense and fall out when I open the door. – DONE
8. Clean out nightstand books. I think I need a little come-to-jesus meeting with my book situation and I need to just get rid of the ones I am never actually going to read. DONE
9. Deal with odd socks. Hopefully, after my book overflow is dealt with, I can use my bottom nightstand drawer to hold odd socks until I think of a better solution. I am attempting to wash everything in my hamper ever time, but somehow I still have odd socks. It is so frustrating. DONE
10. Get new lampshade for bedside light. Yay! A fun one. – DONE
11. Mail back/return all outstanding items. I have a few things that have been sitting waiting to go back to Zappos. Since early February. DONE
12. Cook something from 3 cookbooks I already own. I need to either use my cookbooks or put them away. The internet has rendered my cookbook collection fairly obsolete, but I still love them, however, they sit idle, collecting dust. I forgot about this one. Completely. I also cooked a bunch from Real Simple, so maybe I should do one thing or the other.

Tasks for May (I think I am going to roll some over from April this time.)

1. I’m going to be bold and just add Clean Out My Dresser. It has to be done. Maybe I’ll find some cute clothes for the summer.
2. This is a do-over from April – paint the numbers on Spencer’s bins. The tape is in even worse shape than it was in April.
3. Start vegetable seeds with Spencer. I have the stuff, just need to start the seeds so they’re ready when we get the garden fixed up.
4. Keep exercising. I think this might be a permanent additon to the list.
5. Time for a book purge! Too bad they’re so expensive to ship or I would do a shop my bookcase on the blog. Well, I could do that. Shipping a book is about $1-3 media mail. Plus maybe a buck for the book. Let me know if anyone is interested.
6. Dare I do TWO fitness goals? Attempt the Bob Harper Yoga Warrior dvd.
7. All sorts of boring cleaning tasks this month. Clean out my bathroom cabinet.
8. Don’t buy any books. Unless they are a gift. Or maybe for Spencer using credit card points.
9. Clean the office/guest room {including under the desk}. This is a total cheat because my sister is coming to visit and I have to do this one.
10. Shred the shredables. I need to get our paper situation under control.
11. This is one of those things that most people like and I hate: get a haircut, just a trim I think. I’m still growing out a bunch of scraggly layers.
12. Find a dish drainer that fits in my sink. Or convince my husband that we need a new sink. Either works for me.

Riveting play by play of cleaning the cupboard.

Things I Read

• Fifty Shades Freed: Book Three of the Fifty Shades Trilogy What can I say – I read this for no reason other than being a completist.
• You Have No Idea (BlogHer book club. Review up tomorrow)
• Hollywood in Heels I’m glad this one was free. It’s a fluffy life of an it girl in hollywood sort of book, not my favorite. Plus, the constant references to her vagina as a “peach-ca” was excruciating. Is that a thing? I’ve never heard it.
• Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge This is a fascinating book, the oral history of grunge. As someone who was in high school when grunge first went main stream popular and it loved it, reading the backstory was amazing.
• Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: (A Mostly True Memoir) I love the Bloggess. I loved the book. I wish there had been more about her childhood/early years. Also. Knock, knock motherfucker.
• Spencer got a new book and it is the best kid’s book I’ve seen in a long time. Hippopposites: the art is adorable and the opposoites are a challange. Sets inlude opaque/transparent and free/caged.

Movies/DVDs watched – This was a slow month.

• Finished Season 1 of the Killing and almost caught up to the currently airing Season 2 via On Demand. So far, I really like it. I know a lot of people complained about the end of the first season, but I liked it. It is a little slow paced and I think it is well served by watching on dvd rather then when it actually airs.
• The Descendants (technically we watched this 5/1, but I really wanted to watch it in April so I’m counting it) This was good. I see way it was lauded, but Clooney has reached the level of stardom where I really can’t forget I’m watching George Clooney in a movie and lose myself in his character. I might read the book. Has anyone read it?

So, how was your April? Do anything fun?

This post contains amazon affiliate links. Click them and make me millions. MILLIONS. Or do what I do and open a new tab.