mashed potatoes crusty french bread frosted flakes chocolate chip cookies twix bar brownie new york superfudge chunk salt bagel dried pineapple fettucine alfredo french fries ketchup fudge sauce

Now I have that out of my system. Back to my lunch of chicken breast over lettuce with zero carb ranch dressing.

Weigh in #1

Well, 4 days of South Beach Diet under my (shrinking) belt, and though I never want to see another scrambled egg, I weighed in at 126.8 this morning. It's easier this time around, I am simply having eggs and a home-made turkey sausage patty for breakfast, salad and cheeses/deli meats for lunch and picking a vegetable-rich dinner from the SBD cookbook. Snacks are celery with soft cheese or a handful of almonds. A lot easier than gagging down that awful V-8 juice every morning like last time. I really do need to add in some exercise, I was mortified to find that I have cellulite on my thighs. I got some when I was pregnant but figured it would go away. I don't wear shorts much so I never noticed. Though I walk with the kids to the park from time to time, pushing the combined 60 pounds of child plus the weight of the double stroller, I am trying to get myself on the rowing machine each day. For me, that is a lot harder than changing my diet. I've never really enjoyed exercise and it takes up valuable napping time.

What I'm reading

In an effort to get back on the road to Swimsuit Shape, today I bought The South Beach Diet Cookbook. I've only had a chance to sit down with it long enough to make dinner, but so far, it's very motivational. Though we are not officially back on the diet, I'm making a Phase 2 Oven Fried Chicken with Almonds (still in the oven) and have roasted up a can of garbanzo beans per another recipe. The garbanzo beans smell great as they're cooking and are a good thing to have around instead of a handful of goldfish crackers. To fully embarrass myself into actually losing the weight, I'm reporting that I'm 129 pounds today, up from 119 in November. Ugh.

"Good Bye"

No, not my blog - I've finally said my goodbye, in a stilted, robot-like male voice, to AOL after nearly 10 years. I have no regrets, I've been meaning to cancel my account for a long time and just kept putting it off, making sure I had changed my email address with absolutely everyone. I've got a free Yahoo! account now and am perfectly happy with it, except for when some numbnut friend of mine sends me a gigantic MIME file internet joke (that I can't even read because I have a Mac) and it fills up my allotted MB, like an elephant in my little virtual apartment.

The customer service people at AOL, it's their job to convince you to stay when you call (yes, you have to call, you can't simply click a "cancel" button) to tell them you've had enough of them and their creepy "AO" logo, reminiscent of the spooky pyramid-topping eye on the back of a dollar bill. So poor Jason at AOL, it was his job to ask me why I was quitting after 9 years and 8 months of "You've Got Mail". I could have gone on about the spam, the cost, the speed or lack thereof, but I simply told him I didn't need it anymore. When I first encountered the Internet in 1994, I needed a little help interfacing, and AOL was a nice friendly ride to the great electronic void, like carpooling with your next-door neighbor. (I also used the short-lived eWorld for a while. Anyone remember eWorld? ...anyone?) I no longer need the help.

The funniest part of the farewell phonecall with Jason was that I was required to give the answer to my secret question in order to prove it was really my account I was closing. Nine years and 8 months ago, setting up my AOL account and my secret question, I apparently had quite a sense of humor, or perhaps had a few too many cheap beers in me. My secret question was "How fresh are you?" and the answer, which I had typed in as a younger, sillier me and never expected to be saying over the phone, to Jason or anyone else, is, of course, "Like having fresh panties every day." (Which was, once upon a time, the advertising catch phrase for Stayfree or Carefree or some other feminine product. Really.) I'm glad Jason got a good laugh over it, since he wasn't able to get his commission for keeping me on as an AOL member.

Catching up

Well, I'm back. A sincere thanks to the blog readers who kept checking up on me - both of you. ;-) I promise I won't give up blogging completely without notice, and I'm making an effort to update more often.

What has happened since I last blogged ... Well, I turned 35 over the weekend and had a great celebration. It had all the ingredients of a perfect birthday - massage, kid-free time with the hubby, and friends over for dinner (pizza). I'm not even going to brood over my age. So there.

We've had a really sick winter in our household, due, no doubt, to my daughter being in preschool and bringing us home all sorts of ooglie booglies from the other kids. It has been a constant stream of colds, sinus infections and coughing. I'm expecting an engraved Thank You note from the Kleenex company any moment now.


Ebay's been taking a lot of my free time, though I don't begrudge it a bit. I've gotten really good at spotting a bargain and being able to turn it into a good profit. Like the .50 SPCA-sale shoes now on eBay for for $42.50 and still going. By the way, if you have an ugly-as-heck big-headed Blythe doll from the 70's lying around, you know the one where you pull the cord on her back and her eyes change color ... you might want to ship her out in exchange for a nice wad of cash (alas, not my auction). Plus then your recurring nightmares might end.

EBay is a hobby for me, kind of a game, maybe even a little like gambling. I try to do my eBaying "in the cracks" of my day so I don't take away from family time, photographing and listing while the kids are napping, checking auctions and emailing buyers after the kids are in bed, wrapping and packing while the children are eating breakfast and hubby is in the shower.

I love eBay, not only the selling but the buying too. I am a saver and environmentalist at heart, and I love the idea of re-use. And then there's my well-documented obsession with vintage Fisher Price toys. I find a set from time to time at a garage sale or (even rarer) thrift shop, but eBay is the vintage toy store collectors only dreamt of in the pre-internet days.

If you love old stuff of any kind, you've got to love eBay. Antique glassware and china, vintage board games and dolls, '80s Izod Lacoste shirts, '20s bakelite jewelry ... you could spend a lifetime haunting antique and resale shops for that certain something or get it on eBay in a few clicks. You can get brand new designer clothes if you can't get to a mall or if they're not sold near you. You can buy used, indestructible plastic toys for a fraction of what they cost new. My kids don't mind used toys, if it's new to them, it's new, and a toy is a toy is a toy.

Besides being an convenient place to buy and sell, it's a fascinating window to the world. There's always something fun ("Addicted to Ebay Barbie"), appalling (a halted auction for 3 Vietnamese girls), controversial (Girl Scout cookies) or downright amazing being bought or sold.

Sure, you have to pay shipping. Sure, you have to look out for scammers. Yes, you can't turn an item over and examine it from every side. Still, it's truly a worldwide marketplace and with a savvy eye and good communication between yourself and a seller, you can avoid the pitfalls. I have been eBaying since 1998, and I have had one bad purchase, which I ended up settling with the seller for a partial refund. As a seller, I always recommend that a buyer purchase insurance if the item is over $15. If they don't buy it, I usually will, to cover my own behind. This paid off recently when I shipped an electronic toy that supposedly was working, but not working properly, when it reached the buyer. I had insured it at my expense and for $1.30 saved myself having to reimburse the buyer $35. Also, I purchase Delivery Confirmation for items I sell for over $25, or if I have a "gut feeling" about a buyer, to save me from the buyer claiming they didn't receive it.

I don't understand the anti-eBay sentiment I so often see. Is it viewed as a bunch of opportunists selling overpriced junk to idiots? Idiots unbeknowingly selling valuable attic treasures to opportunists? I don't talk much about my eBaying to my friends, which is probably why I write so much about it here - it's my outlet. I've brought it up a few times here and there in conversations - "hey, did you know the XYZ you are going to throw away sells well on eBay" or "Where did I get my Little People collection? Mostly on eBay" - and almost always get a little snort of disgust. When I mentioned to the owner of a failing antiques shop in our little town that she might try selling on eBay to capture a larger market, she gave eBay the blame for her still, dusty shelves. Not one person I have personally spoken to has been interested in hearing any more about it, and I'm baffled. If you hate eBay, let me know why.

A case of the bloghs

Why haven't I dropped in to blog? Partly, been busy. Being a mother of 2 little ones, something simple like a dentist appointment can kill all the free time you have in an entire day. So last week, an extra work day at my daughter's co-operative preschool, a dentist appointment and being a little under the weather basically took up my entire week. Oh wait, during nap time one day, I peed, washed the lunch dishes and pushed back my cuticles before one child or the other woke up. Blogging while children are awake just isn't in the cards either. The little one fancies snapping the laptop shut with a bang, whether my hands are on the keyboard or not, and the older one, only 3, already knows to drone "this is booooo-ooooring" if she is left on her own for more than a few moments.
So, what's the other part of my bloglessness? Well, eBaying, selling everything that isn't nailed down and some things that were, nails and all. Been a little glum lately too, and I'm not sure why. Some days I feel that completely washed-out exhaustion as if I've been crying, but I haven't. I know I'm depressed over my cousin's partner, Kelly, the one with an inoperable lung tumor. I feel sad for my cousin, for Kelly, for their son; I feel somehow guilty. I'm looking forward to Spring because I am inconvenienced by Winter; Kelly is looking forward to Spring because if he is there to see it, he is still alive.

A Half-Day in the Life

I love reading blogs because they let me get in someone else's skin for a while. Jump on in mine for half a day. You might want to wear your grubby jeans and bring some hand wipes.

4:15 a.m. Wake up to baby crying. Cringe in bed with husband while baby "cries it out". We are determined to unspoil him, as we have created a bad habit of wee hour milk cocktail parties.
4:35 a.m. Baby goes back to sleep.
5:15 a.m. I go back to sleep.
6:22 a.m. Wake up to daughter calling for "Mama". Unprecedented late hour. If I hadn't lost that hour in the middle of the night, I might feel rested. Warm cup of milk for her, warm bottle for baby, who is now also awake, change night diapers and get children dressed for the day.
7:00 a.m. Breakfast, prepared by my husband. Coffee, blessed coffee, eggs and toast for us, Cheerios with yogurt for the shorter set. Eat while spoonfeeding my son.
7:10 a.m. Phone rings. Husband and I look at it with dread. Early hour phone calls, like late night phone calls, never bring good news. It's my cousin with bad news about her partner of 15+ years. Just past his 45th birthday, he went to the hospital with chest pain. The cause: a softball-sized lung tumor. Yesterday, he went for surgery to have it removed. Except that when they opened him up, after cutting 2 ribs and breaking another 2, they found the tumor wrapped around his aorta. Inoperable. They closed him back up. He does not yet know. My cousin is 36. Their son is 4. I don't mean for this to be the "all fatal illness, all the time" blog, but the world is screaming at me: LIFE IS SHORT! so I am screaming it back. Go hug someone you love.
8:00 a.m. Clean up breakfast dishes, fold laundry, shower, dress, do hair and makeup, kiss husband goodbye, do daughter's hair, compile 6 shoes, 6 socks, and 3 jackets and get them on respective owners' bodies.
8:45 a.m. Daughter, son and I rush out, late for preschool. Drop daughter off a few minutes late, chat with some parents, pick up gift card for school's fundraising auction, lend daughter's extra coat to child who forgot his.
9:10 a.m. Return home with son, stopping to mail package at post office on the way home.
9:30 a.m - 11:00 a.m. "Quiet" time with only 1 child. Fix snack, put baby on table while I check my running eBay auctions. Email high bidders, post 4 new auctions, wrap and address 2 sold items.
11:25 a.m. Pick daughter up from preschool, arriving 5 minutes early to make up for being late at the beginning of the day. Pick up collages, fingerpaintings, crayon drawings from cubby, load everyone back into car.
11:45 - 1:00 p.m. Pound pavement for school auction, son in stroller, daughter tagging behind scuffing her heels. Spend 15 minutes talking with owner of local coffee shop while taming children attempting to run amok, leave with $5 gift certificate. Drop by ice cream shop to pick up promised donation to find owner has "stepped out" for half an hour and has not left gift certificates. Talk with taqueria employees who suggest I leave my written information about the auction. I may as well leave it in the trash can, but I leave it with them anyway. Son is screaming bloody murder in the stroller, so we go home and I make a note to return to the ice cream place another time.
1:15 p.m. Return home for lunch. Prepare pizza for everybody, even though it's high carb and I feel like a bloated beast. Let the kids watch "Dora the Explorer" from 1:30 to 2:00 while I write this blog.
That's it up until now. Is it bedtime yet?