The Girl in the Red Sweater

You may or may not have noticed that I’ve changed some of the categories for the new year. I never could keep up with the “relaxation and stress” articles or photo posting. Instead, this year I’m going to write more about scooters — my continuing passion — and post the projects I’m working on.

I couldn’t post this one until after Christmas, because it was a surprise for Hubby:

Hubby just finished a calculus course before Christmas, and he wanted cool stuff for his office, so I designed and made this clock. All I had to do was buy a clock from Walmart, work out a bunch of calculations, and use my plotter to do the rest.

I see scooter clocks in the near future!

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I couldn’t believe it when I opened my Happy Meal. Inside the usually-worthless little plastic bag which seems to be designed to frustrate kids and parents everywhere, I found this:

Not only that, the Happy Meal bag (what happened to the boxes?) was actually stamped “25th Anniversary.” For a moment I felt old.

Then I just grinned and chowed down on the wonderfully salty French fries, knowing just where I’ll put the pony: on my desk next to Speedy!

In case you can’t tell from the photo, Speedy Gonzales is a Pez dispenser. The coolest Pez dispenser ever.

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…to Keller Graduate School. Hubby decided awhile back that he was going to get a masters degree there, so I’ve been poking around looking at their classes. They have an I.S. management degree with a concentration in e-commerce, which will give me the credentials to teach as well as some extra knowledge to help me with my new business.

I get to take a class in January and February, then take a session (8 weeks) off for the little one, and then I can hop right back into it. Hubby has to take some of the same classes for his MBA, so we can kind of go through it together.

I’ll have to wait and see how my business goes and how much of a handful this squirmy little kid is going to be to figure out just how long it will take me to get the degree. It’s 15 classes, so taking one class at a time would stretch it out to two years and 8 months, but I bet I’ll be able to double up and finish sooner.

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Scooter Prints will officially go online on November 30, offering scooter decals and bumper stickers on opening day. Scooter shirts are in the works for early 2009.

What started out as a weekend project — my Buddy scooter decals — has blossomed into over 100 designs.

Initially, Scooter Prints will offer 12 designs. Then each month, we will feature a new category. Just a few of the designs will be leaves, leopard print, flames, hearts, and smiley faces, in a variety of colors. No two scooters will ever look alike. There will be matching helmet sets and even car sets for those who want to be truly color coordinated.

There will also be a monthly decal design contest - whoever submits the best design idea will receive a free custom decal set featuring their design. If you’re not the designer type, contact Scooter Prints now with your ideas and they just might end up in the first 12 designs!

So hold on just a few more weeks. The scooter decals are coming!

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I’ve had it with trans fat.

There is simply no reason we should be bombarding fat with extra hydrogen atoms in order to turn it into oil. It’s just not smart.

I had accepted the fact that people were willing to eat unhealthy foods in order to save some money. I had even accepted the fact that eventually some of the food I ate was going to be partially hydrogenated.

But then I was reading the label on my crackers.

Crackers.

What on earth do they need to put hydrogenated oil into crackers for?

The revelation shocked me so much that I started reading the nutrition label for everything I eat. Generally, I glance at the label, but with things like crackers or bread or even candy, I hadn’t been in the habit of scrutinizing the ingredients, just the calories, carbs, and protein.

Then I saw it on my package of Skittles.

Why do the even need to put any oil at all in Skittles, let alone fully hydrogenated oil?

I happen to know that I’m sensitive to trans fat. It makes my whole digestive system feel like crap. And even if it doesn’t make you feel bad, it’s not good for you.

So do yourself a favor and look at all the nutrition labels. Or buy organic food. I worry some about pesticides, but I can accept a bit of it — the reason I buy organic food is that it never has anything hydrogenated or with MSG or anything else nasty like that.

And makers of Skittles, crackers, and all other things that I have not even discovered to contain hydrogenated oils yet, I will gladly pay an extra 20 percent for a product without hydrogenation!

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The flower scooter decals I made for my Buddy have become so popular that I am now selling them. And don’t think they will be all-girl designs, either!

I have about 80 different designs in mind so far, from dragons to stripes to monkeys. All the decals will be available in about 5 reflective colors for extra safety, and about 10 non-reflective colors to fit tight budgets.

If you are looking for scooter decals, could you please answer a few quick questions in my Scooter Decals Survey? The more people who answer, the more designs I can offer to fit your exact needs!

Update: The scooter decals and bumper stickers are now available Scooter-Prints.com.

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Long weekends are always good. But this one is particularly enticing — it’s the first weekend Hubby has had off from school in months!

We’re going to the Renaissance Festival (what woman doesn’t adore going to a Renaissance Festival?) tomorrow, then a steak cookout with family.

And in case that wasn’t enough to look forward to, Hubby surprised me with tickets to the zoo for Sunday! (What woman doesn’t love to go to the zoo?) Then, he proceeded to treat me to dinner — a really delicious one at Red Robin — and a movie.

Talk about lifting my spirits. And there are three whole days of weekend left!

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I never plan to live in the Whole Other Country again, but there are certain things you just don’t have up north. Here is a countdown to what I miss:

10. Sweet tea with lemon and lime
9. Dinner-and-a-movie theaters
8. Fried okra
7. Fresh fruit from Mexico
6. Whataburger
5. Cheap avocados
4. Chicken Express
3. HEB
2. Taco Cabana
1. Breakfast tacos!!!

Hmm, you would think I was starving or something… oh, wait, I am! But that’s really all I miss, besides my friends!

Top 5 things I don’t miss about Texas:

5. Aggressive drivers
4. The economy
3. One-way access roads
2. Yield signs at every corner
1. The weather

Funny how big an impact traffic can have on your outlook on a place.

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Besides job hunting, searching for morning sickness cures has been my primary use of the internet for at least a week. I’ve also sifted through a lot of books, and here is what I’ve found so far:

Nausea Cures, and how well they work for me on a scale of 0 (not at all) to 10 (total cure):

• 9 - Wearing anti-nausea wristbands, like you use for seasickness
• 8 - Snacking every hour or two, so my stomach always has a little in it
• 6- Eating 10 crackers in bed before I get up
• 6- Taking my prenatal vitamin just before bed
• 6- Avoiding fried or greasy foods
• 6- Avoiding MSG, which is in most fast food
• 6- Eating gentle foods like rice, dry toast, and crackers
• 6- Sucking on Preggie Pop Drops - fast but not long-lasting
• 6- Drinking cola - Blue Sky brand from Whole Foods has no caffeine, but drink sparingly since the phosphoric acid makes it hard to absorb the calcium you need
• 5- Switching brands of prenatal vitamins
• 5- Drinking ginger ale
• 5- Drinking room-temperature drinks instead of cold ones
• 5- Eating protein, especially with carbs, like lunchmeat on crackers
• 5- Drinking from a cup instead of a bottle (this prevents gas, which triggers nausea)
• 4- Prenatal yoga
• 4- Ginger snaps or ginger ale

Cures I haven’t tried, but that many people recommend:

• Drinking gingerroot tea - I haven’t tried it because my herbal book said you shouldn’t have any until after 8 weeks
• Cut down on iron - it seems to bring on nausea in the first trimester
• Snack when you have to go to the bathroom at night

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There has to be a legitimate way to work from home.

Without paying somebody hundreds of dollars up front to learn the “secret.” Without having to peddle some kind of weird products or make cold calls. Maybe without sitting on the phone at all. After all, a lot of things are possible with the internet.

If anyone knows of a legitimate opportunity, I would love to hear about it. In the meantime, I’ll keep trolling CareerBuilder, and Monster, and Craigslist. And maybe when I recover from the repulsion of all the scams I found yesterday, I’ll peruse Google again.

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