So, some people from work took me to lunch and they asked me what I wanted to eat. Somehow I got to thinking about hot dogs (things that I cannot eat now that I am preggers). Anyway, I was talking about how I buy Hebrew National Hot Dogs...they are Kosher and they have no by-products. This got me thinking.
They are Kosher right? So they are blessed. So is each dog individually blessed, or are they collectively blessed? Is a Rabbi employed to do the blessing, or are they just inspected and then signed off on? What is the process?
If a Rabbi IS employed to bless said dogs, does he have the same genuine blessing interest in each dog, or is his job and task so redundant that the blessing is not heartfelt. I mean, when I bite into a juicy Hebrew National Hot Dog, am I a biting into a dog that was poorly blessed?
These are things I think about and wonder about throughout the day.
About Me
- Mel
- California, United States
- I'm the wife of a firefighter, a mother of two wonderful kids and a full time employee with a crazy busy life. But hey, at least I'm not bored :)
My mother-in-law and her husband presented the "kids" (that would be us) with a very generous and WONDERFUL gift...a family cruise to Mexico!!!! Both David and I were super excited because we had always wanted to go on a cruise and have never had the opportunity to take advantage of the experience. Because of this we were up bright and early to arrive at the Port of Long Beach to await our opportunity to board our first cruise.
There was a bit of a wait before we were able to board. Apparently when you go on a cruise the last cruise passengers are departing and then shortly after that the next cruise passengers (aka us) are able to board. However, true to everything we have heard about cruises the food NEVER stops...for either the departing or arriving guests.
We tried to get a cute picture, but Caiden was a bit uncooperative
Anxious and excited to board what I had built in my head as "the LOVE BOAT" excursion...growing up watching the classic TV show I was ready and willing to run aboard and find Gopher, Captain Stubing, and of course Isaac. :) I half anticipated Julie to be there with a bright smile greeting me and handing me the ship’s activity sheet.
Of course before this part of the adventure could begin we had to take in the sights and sounds of the Port of Long Beach – which lucky for us included the ever impressive Gay Car Club – which just so happened to be there. Did I mention that our Ship’s name was “The Pride”? hehe *insert inappropriate joke here* Anyway, I love looking at old cars, so I took a few pictures of my favorites. I should have taken a few pictures of the car owners who were dressed the part – matching their cars…including the bell bottoms and loud pants for those 70’s cruiser cars.
When we first got aboard I was disappointed to see that Isaac, Julie, Gopher and the rest of the gang would not be joining us, but there was no time to dwell on it. We had a mustard drill to do. Now I have heard about these in the past, but I had never experienced one. It was a bit anti-climatic. We all ran down with our flotation devices on, stood in front of perfect strangers who we were then instructed to practically step on so we could fit more people. We all stood there looking forward until these obnoxious loud tones went off and then we were dismissed. To be honest, I don’t really see the point. I thought they were going to discuss safety measures in case of an emergency – you know kind of like they do on an airplane “Your exits are on the middle, rear and front of the plane…”. Hmm…not sure the whole point of this drill, but I am sure that there would be utter pandemonium if there actually WAS a TITANTIC-like event. One interesting note is that Caiden had to wear a bracelet that stated his mustard station at ALL times.
Then there was our room. VERY nice and rather spacious. We had a nice room with a balcony overlooking…well of course the ocean…duh. It was very nice. I have added a few pics for your viewing pleasure.
Our Room number
We had a few moments to enjoy before we were sailing off into the sunset…of course we had a lot of exploring to do, and Papa Jim had MANY questions to answer for Caiden.
As you can see…Papa really tired him out. It was a VERY eventful first day.
It's Midnight...I am OFFICIALLY OLD! :(
Ok, so it's actually 6 minutes after 12am. This means that it is now August 31st. This means that I have aged another year and have officially made it OVER the hill. :(
What is a girl to do? Well, apparently avoid sleep and learn the new VISTA system on her new computer in an effort to post some pictures on the blog.
I can’t believe I am 31 years old. Is it really all downhill from here? 31…just say it once or twice. It doesn’t roll off your tongue as easily as 30, and when you are 30 you can convince yourself that you’re not THAT old because you just STARTED the 30s. You’re at the beginning. No longer can I live with THAT charade. Sigh…
So what will today hold? Who knows…so far it has consisted of me sitting her trying to desperately to figure out this new computer so I can post some pictures, while Dave is playing something called the AV weekend…yes a WOW thing. Sigh…should I invest in some depends and cane now, or should I wait a day?
I JUST got my computer back today, and JUST plugged it in. I am so excited. Anyway, I will work on uploading all of the pictures from our cruise, as I have a backlog of pictures now.
In the meantime, I was at work on Friday when someone sent this to me. I started laughing because I thought it was so true...I can SO relate.
It is an article that MSNBC did entitled
Game widows grieve ‘lost’ spouses
Mates have become consumed with ‘World of Warcraft,’ Second Life
I laughed so hard. They actually have a support group for wives whose spouses are SO consumed with this game (AKA WOW) that they feel as if they are grieving their loved one. I can SO relate. It is a sickness for some people. I swear the house could be burning down, and I would get an evil glare with a "I can't log out right now because I am in the middle of a quest with 4 other people counting on me".About a month or so ago, Dave and I went out on a date and ALL he talked about was the WOW game. It's cute that he gets so excited, but really a grown man with a computer game? Sigh...
Of course I immediately called David and told him of this story. I was laughing the whole time. Funny thing though...he didn't think it was so funny. In fact, he got a little miffed. Huh, go figure.
To add fuel to the fire, Dave has reached a whole new level of nerd-dom. He actually went out and bought some kind of contraption that allows him to handsfree talk to people on his game while he is playing. It's a headset, and I think it is called Ventrillo. sigh.
All I'm saying is that I can't wait until Dave gets to level 70 and then he can dump the game altogether. He only has 10 more levels to go. I am also praying that the WOW people don't come out with ANOTHER expanded version of this game.
Just to pique your interest I will copy and paste the intro sentence to this article below:
Though their spouses and partners haven't gone to the great beyond, these particular widows and widowers say their loved ones have gone someplace that's almost as distant and unreachable. Some have left this world for the "World of Warcraft," others have forsaken this life for "Second Life" and still others have been taken away by "EverQuest," "Final Fantasy XI" and "Dark Age of Camelot."
It's actually quite sad if you really read the stories, as someone wrote that they have now spent over $1,000 on marriage counseling that doesn't seem to be working because her husband can't give up the game. She said they have been together for 11 years and had a few children as well. So, for all of you gamers out there...is it REALLY WORTH IT? Fast forward to 10 years later while you are still working on reaching the final level of whatever expansion they have come out with, by yourself on the couch with potato chips for dinner. Where's the family? Oh, they went out for dinner 9 1/2 years ago and somehow never came back.
All fun and games aside, apparently this can be a very dangerous addiction, and one that the American Medical Association actually considered adding as a "formal psychiatric disorder". A Reno couple was arrested after letting their children nearly starve to death while they were playing a role playing game.
You can read the full story by clicking on the below link.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20397322/
I have been doing a lot of looking at things from different perspectives lately. I have also been doing a lot of stressing out. One of my friends sent me this (thank you Katie) the below link and it really helped me. I thought it was absolutely beautiful and made me feel calmer.
You don't have to, but you I would encourage those of you having bad days, and even those of you who aren't take a moment to look at this website and the presentation embedded.
It is absolutely beautiful.
www.interviewwithgod.com
Have you ever had those days that you feel that you should NEVER have woken up or gotten out of bed? I have had those kinds of days lately and I am GOING TO LOSE IT!
For starters we have the pool issue (see previous post), then we had some family issues yesterday which were very stressful and unnecessary, work is always stressful, then I get a call from my insurance company from a fender bender that I had in 2005 (no airbag deployment) where this guy filed a lawsuit for $23,000 against me. Apparently in CA there is a 2 year statue of limitation for filing a suit and since the statue passed in early August. He filed a suit on July 30th. I am covered by my insurance, but still another thing to worry about.
To top it off Dave is working some very serious Hazmat thing where he has to be in a suit of some type. Because of this they check them periodically (medical check). Apparently, his blood pressure was too high and they couldn't seem to get it down so off to the ER he went.
I hate today. Is it almost over?
So it appears that our pool guy is getting away with stealing our money. He has taken our money, cancelled his phone lines, moved from his house and put it up for sale.
Dave went to see a lawyer yesterday and he basically wanted upwards of $5000 to do anything. It was so frustrating because he told Dave $3500 and then when I got on the phone there were all of these hidden charges. When I started questioning him (quite aggressively because I was miffed) the lawyer seemed to lose his ability to speak in coherent sentences. If grilling from me causes this imagine how he would react in court! Honestly!
Anyway, basically what we learned is that we can't put a lien on his house because we didn't do any work on it. We CAN place a judgment which would consist of getting a lawyer (which they said we could sue for the entire $52,000 it costs us to do the pool), but the problem is that since the criminal courts are so bogged down they are not prosecuting civil cases (which is what we have). In a nutshell, it would be close to impossible to get a judgment against him prior to his house selling.
The last resort that we have and can exercise is to have him and his wife (both owners of the company) arrested for Fraud. This would be the most cost effective option, but Dave is concerned of retaliation. Since they know where we live he is afraid that the pool guy will poison our dogs or do something to our house. He is also concerned about what would happen to the children. Kevin and his wife have two small kids.
I don't know if I have lost some compassion or something, but I think they should have thought about that prior to stealing our money. I just don't think that it's fair that someone should be able to get away with something like that. Not to sound childish, but it's so unfair!
We have hired someone to look into his financial background to see if it is even worth pursuing the lawyer thing (with a different lawyer of course).
Any suggestions?????
I recently got back from vacation (a cruise to the Mexican Riveria - pictures to be posted shortly...my sister is fixing my computer so I don't have it to post things with), and returned just in time for my doctor's appt.
Well, we found out!!! We are having a GIRL!!!!! Caiden will be so happy because he wanted a sister! Dave, to be honest looked like he was watching paint dry when we were watching the ultrasound. The ultrasound tech positioned it on the baby (like the baby was sitting on a glass coffee table) and then threw up the words "It's a girl". Of course I was cheering. Frankly I would have stood up and jumped up and down if I didn't have goo all over my belly with the ultrasound equipment emanating a picture for us.
The only glitch was that my placenta was in the front as opposed to the back. They call this Placenta Previa, which can be concerning. If this is persistent it can cause bleeding, and will lead me to have a C-section (which you all know I am EXTREMELY opposed to since I am the "all-natural-no-needles-thank-you-very-much girl). The doctor said that I should not be concerned at this point, that she thinks that the placenta will move into the appropriate spot, and things will be fine. She said they typically don't take measurements or look at placement at this stage (4 months), and that the ultrasound tech was just being nice and taking measurements. She said not to be concerned, but you know me, always the worry wart.
Anyway, wanted to deliver (no pun intended) the good news. I am SO excited, and Dave is now too.
Gigi (my mom) was kind enough to buy us tickets to go to the Circus, so of course I played hooky from work, and off to the circus we went. We had gone 2 years ago, and it was still a lot of fun.
Caiden still was a bit apprehensive of the clowns, so we didn't get any pictures with them this time, but seemed to really enjoy all of the acts.
Bella the clown was the star of the show
This was our clown. We had to yell BLUE so that our BMX biker would win!
The old man clown...hehe
cute fluffy doggies perform
Elephant on a stand?
Husband and wife get shot from a cannon...what better way to bond?
Self portrait of the three of us. I know its a bit dark
Fire clown - My mom bought him this fire jacket and he REFUSED to take it off.
He was so completely spoiled as we ate everything in sight, including pretzels and cotton candy! yummmy :)
Caiden and I with the silly hat
Gigi shares with Caiden
And Caiden returns the favor
There was so much to see, and so much to do. We arrived early so we could see the pre-show which included an elephant painting a painting (which they sold later), and acrobats, clowns, horses and dog acts, and even some zebras! It was nice to see them up close and personal, and the cast was so nice.
The guy on stilts was pretty good
This one even jumped rope
The elephant who paints
The elephant's creation
Caiden entralled
Caiden and I
The hoola hoop girl. She ended up hoola hooping with all of these
Tightrope walkers
Gigi and Caiden
Is my glorious hat still there?
Fashionable circus hat...it's the latest thing you know :)