Barb’s Burblings

In the morning, I watch tv as I get ready for work. If I’m on time, it’s the History Channel–Civil War Journal, The Most, Modern Marvels. If I’m running a bit late, it’s The West Wing on Bravo. Turns out these two channels have very similar demos; or, at least, similar enough that they run the same commercials. Seriously, I’ve seen that stupid Rosetta Stone commercial at least a million times. I’m still interested in the product, but please, please stop selling me on it.

Anyway, there’s a new one that really annoys me. The narrator says something about people not paying attention when shopping, and shows a blindfolded woman picking a frozen meal out of a freezer aisle. Then she takes off the blindfold and looks at the nutritional information. “300 calories?!” she says, horrified. “And 8 grams of fat!” Then it mentions that there’s this soup that’s only 80 calories! Why are you consuming so many calories needlessly?

Well, first, if I’m buying a frozen meal, I’m probably going to have it for lunch. At work. Where I don’t exactly have access to a stove upon which to heat the soup. And no, it didn’t seem that this soup came in those “Heat in the microwave” containers.

But more annoyingly, really, 300 calories and 8 grams of fat (which is on the high end for a Healthy Choice or similar frozen meal) IS NOT THAT MUCH FOR A MEAL. If you assume that the average person should be eating 2000 calories a day, we’re talking about 15% of the day’s calories. Which seems about right, for lunch. Honestly, I don’t know that 80 calories is going to power me through the afternoon. Maybe if I paired it with someone…which, of course, means I’d be consuming more than 80 calories for lunch. Quite possibly, something at much as 300 calories.

Now, it’s not that I’m anti-soup. I’m not. I frequently have soup for lunch on weekends. I’m just saying that sheesh, people, it’s not like we can live without any calories. Simmer down.

I was killing some time in a Bed, Bath, & Beyond a couple of weekends ago when I came across the display:

I love it. The romantic music, paired with…plungers. Win!

I didn’t plan it, but 5 years ago, on the 15th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, I found myself at the Imperial War Museum in London, where I took this picture of a piece of the Wall. I don’t remember much from 9 November 1989 (I was 11 and in the 6th grade), other than my German teacher being very excited, and I can still see the poster she had hanging in her room for the next 3 years. But watching specials about it and reading about it…it’s so moving. And crazy to think that I’ve lived through such turbulent times. That’s a decent-sized part of why I want to visit Berlin and Moscow. In my lifetime, I’ve seen them change. Which is just crazy.

Anyway, cheers Frau Venus.

For some reason, when I woke up this morning to feed the cats, I started thinking who top 5 current boyfriends are. (Some people might refer to this as their “lists”–you know, the people they can have sex with without retribution from their partner. Since I’m single, I don’t have to worry about that sort of thing.) So, as of 7:15 this morning, here’s the current list:

Boyfriend Emeritus:
Michael Ball
Other Boyfriends:
John Krasinski
Matthew Morrison
John Oliver
Brian Roberts
David Tennant

Hmm, two Brits and three Americans. That seems about right. And in alphabetical order, so nobody’s feelings get hurt.

I met up with a couple of friends to see Julie & Julia on Tuesday night. Since we were coming from three different directions, we decided to just meet at the top of a Metro escalator. Once we were all there, we paused to chat a bit, figure out where to eat, etc. As we talked, I noticed a yellow cone (you know, like those “Wet Floor” contes) flying through the air. I looked over and saw a kid yelling at another. At first, we all figured that it was just some kids fooling around…though it’s risky to throw a cone like that at the top of a Metro escalator during rush hour.

It was when the cone was quickly followed by a backpack–a backpack that hit me on the butt, thank you–and the shouting quickly turned into tussling that we realized that these kids weren’t fooling around. And quickly hightailed it out of there, noticing the arrival of the police. Who stuck around for quite some time, as they were still hanging around when we finished dinner.

All of this is to say that in addition to my legs that are sore after doing lunges the other night, my butt also hurts. It’s just not pleasant. Thanks, hoodlums!

So I was visiting Becca last weekend, and we found ourselves sitting outside a bar on Saturday night chatting. We gradually noticed the total awesomeness of the songs being played–”Humpty Dance,” “Baby Got Back,” “You Say He’s Just a Friend,” and so on. Naturally this led to us compiling a list of songs that need to be on this mix. But I’m opening this up to the public–what songs are we missing? And do you want to send me the songs I don’t have? (The ones I do have are marked by an X.) Because putting together this mix is going to cost, like, $25, and that sucks. And I refuse on principle to pay for “Me So Horny.”

1. Humpty Dance
2. It’s Tricky - X
3. Push It
4. Baby Got Back
5. Funky Cold Medina - X
6. Say He’s Just a Friend
7. Gettin’ Jiggy
8. Shoop
9. Girls
10. Walk This Way (Run DMC)
11. Never Gonna Get It - X
12. Jump Around - X
13. The Dinosaur - X
14. Informer
15. Wasn’t Me - X
16. Bombastic
17. 2legit
18. Me So Horny
19. Da Butt
20. Bust a Move
21. OPP
22. Ice Ice Baby
23. I got a man (Positive K)
24. Back to Cali
25. I’m Gonna Knock You Out
26. Boom (Shake the Room) - X
27. Good Vibrations (Marky Mark)
28. Back to Life (Soul II Soul)
29. Motownphilly (Boyz II Men)
30. Jump (Kriss Kross)
31. Strike It Up (Black Box)
32. My Perogative
33. Poison (Bel Biv Devoe)
34. No Diggity

My little Colin-bear turns 6 today. They grow up so fast! And he’s totally getting friendlier. Trust me! (And ignore the scratches on my arm.)

Happy Independence Day from me and Tom, author of the Declaration!

And as a bonus…Muppets!

Move–complete! Well, sort of. My furniture and Internet connection are all set up at the new place. However, I’m missing most of my dishes and all of my food. But as long as I have the DVR and the cats, I’m all good.

I just checked my horoscope, and this is what it said:

You need to make a radical change in some aspect of your life — probably related to your home. It could be time to buy or sell or just to move on to some more promising location.

Freaky!

(Sorry I’m somewhat incoherent. I’m pretty beat.)

OK. This right here is why I need to clean my keyboard WAY more often.

Honestly, I don’t know how all that fit in there.