Month: July 2007

My mind = mush

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I wonder if the aspartame I’ve been consuming daily really does cause brain tumors like the rumors suggest. I’ve been very forgetful lately. I keep leaving the washing machine door open when I start a cycle so it doesn’t spin properly or dispense the fabric softener. This has happened at least three times in the past three weeks.

Then I left Peanut’s cage open again last night and she got out. Thank god she’s a super hamster and she wasn’t hurt! This time we found her in the downstairs bathroom behind the toilet. I swear I am the worst pet owner ever. What is going on with my brain? I told Joe I’m worried I’m going to leave the curling iron on one day and burn down the house. He told me not to worry because, “you don’t leave things on, you just leave them open”. Thanks, hon.

Duh

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I bought a really cute water bottle from Target the other day so I could keep my Crystal Light cold while at the office, and possibly cut down on buying all those water bottles which are bad for the environment.

The new bottle holds 24 oz., so I filled it up and added two of the lemonade-flavored water bottle packets to it. Well, I took my first sip yesterday morning and it tasted funny to me. I thought maybe I was tasting the plastic of the bottle, but it really didn’t have a smell to it when I purchased it. So then I started getting paranoid that the gel inside the fake ice cube stick it comes with was leaking into the drink because it tasted way too sweet.

It didn’t occur to me until later in the day that the average water bottle is 16.9 oz., not 12 oz. like I had assumed, so I had added enough sweetener to flavor nearly 34 oz. of water. No wonder it tasted horrible! Sometimes I swear I’m not that bright.

Outlet Mall

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We visited the Chicago Premium Outlets in Aurora this morning. It’s a really cute outdoor shopping area, but I’m not so sure most of the stuff there would truly qualify as outlet prices. Nothing there seemed terribly discounted to me. Despite that, I enjoyed walking around and checking out all the stores.

I was really excited about the Skechers store but the shoes I’ve been dying to try on didn’t thrill me after seeing them in person. Bummer.

We ended up buying some yummy stuff from Le Gourmet Chef – a roasted pineapple and habanero dip and a bread dipping set that comes with 4 dipping saucers and spices that you add to olive oil for dipping. They are smart at that store – they put out all these free sample stations so you get hooked and have to buy something. I don’t think I would have bought either had I not been able to taste them first. The dip starts out sweet from the pineapple and then turns spicy. It’s really good. And then the olive oil spices… mmmm…. well I love bread dipped in olive oil and cheese so this is even yummier.

Flyers

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We took the kids to a minor league baseball game last night. It was a Schaumburg Flyers game to be exact, and the event was through my employer. Each employee got a free ticket plus $15 in what they call Bearon Bucks, which is good for purchasing concessions (which are expensive as all hell, let me tell you.. we went through the $15 and then some quite quickly). We also got the additional seats at a discount.

Schaumburg Flyers game

Even though it rained most of the day, by the time we got to the ballpark the skies had cleared up. It was an interesting experience as I’ve never been to such a small park before. The only thing that always irks me about sporting events is how no one ever just sits and watches the game. They are constantly talking and getting up to get food, use the bathroom, whatever. Since we were seated at the end of our row we got up so many times to let people by that I lost count. Other than that, it was fun, even though they lost. They ended the night with a decent fireworks show. By the time we got home it was 11 pm! On the way home we drove past a miniature golf course we’ve never seen before, so I’ve added it to my list to check out.

I heart nature

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A little earlier today Joe was on the phone with his sister when he motioned to me to look out the window. Lying on a tree branch was a squirrel. We weren’t quite sure if it was our squirrel since it’s been a month and half since we’ve last seen her. We had started to think she may have ended up as roadkill.

All doubt was erased, however, when I opened the patio door and she jumped down and bounded toward me. I threw some unsalted peanuts out for her to munch on. She was a little more hesitant and smaller than the last time we saw her. I think maybe her absence was because she had babies! The neighbors came outside, spooking her, so she ran back to the tree and laid down on the branch, looking toward the peanuts sadly. I went upstairs to take a shower and when I came back the peanuts were gone and so was she. Hopefully she’ll be around again soon.

Oh and as I looked outside I saw a beautiful Eastern Tiger Swallowtail flutter by. Too bad I couldn’t get a photo of that; they seem to be so rare around here. Here’s a photo I took of one last year.