1:00 sounds good to me.

mark + mr. sam = tlf.

Mr. Sam, a recently aquired head from a pile of donated heads at Hub-Bub, captivated Mark on a recent night at the Ryba house. Mr. Sam's dreamy eyes, yellow lipgloss, and 70's shag are extremely hawt. He also fits perfectly in our new stroller.

whoooo. whoooo.

Lately an owl or owls have been hanging around our backyard whoooing in the early morning hours. The cats get freaked out, and the whoooing is quite loud. The other morning it sounded as if one of them got into a fight with another bird, and jungle-like noises ensued. Before we heard the owls, we found other evidence of their presence: extraordinarily mutilated corpses of squirrels on the path from our front to back yard. At first I was infuriated with the cats, thinking they were sadistic monsters to inflict that kind of carnage. Then the whoooing started and it all made sense.

Last night, as Aaron and I slowly paced the neighborhood on a labor-inducing walk, we saw a giant pink bow attached to someone's house. My staunch, anti-traditionalist perspective inwardly cringed at the sight of the bow, knowing that soon one will undoubtedly appear on OUR porch. When I asked Aaron for an alternative idea, his brilliance impressed me for the millionth time:

"Why don't we just save the placenta, and hang it on the porch by the umbilical cord. Once the owls start circling and feasting, people will know it is okay for them to visit us and the baby."

I laughed so hard I nearly had the baby on the sidewalk. The mental image of hoards of owls swarming a dangling placenta on our porch remained with me for the rest of the walk.

smiling faces. beautiful places.

media whorin'.

Recently, The Link magazine published an article entitled, "Who's Next in 2008", which is intended to highlight young leaders in the Upstate. Somehow I am included in this list of people. I was also called "Spartanburg's Pusher" in the article, which is hilarious because

1) It makes me sound like a drug dealer
2) I am shortly about to learn a lot about pushing

Anyways, I sent the link to the article to Aaron, and here was his response:

You just can't keep your mug out of the papers huh!

By the way, thanks-be-to this article, I think I found the PERFECT name for BGR:

"Velverly"

An original hybrid between Velveeta cheese and someone named Beverly.
Or perhaps a voluptuous, elderly, Beverly.

I guess one of the Who's Next people is named Velverly. His comment caused me to nearly fall off the pink exercise ball I sit on at work, as I was laughing so hard. I hope BGR inherits some of her dad's humor. If so, there will never be a dull moment...

oh. my. god. becky.

HAVING A BIG, DELICIOUS BACKSIDE IS GOOD FOR YOUR HEALTH

Doctors have known for a while that people who gain weight in their belly are more likely to develop health problems like heart disease and diabetes than people who gain weight in their hips and backsides. They just didn't know WHY.

Well, now they do. Researchers at Harvard Medical School have found that the type of fat that collects around the hips and rear . . . called subcutaneous fat . . . actually helps regulate blood sugar and speeds up a person's metabolism. But visceral fat . . . the fat that collects around a person's stomach . . . doesn't create any of the same health benefits.

Basically, that means that if you collect fat in your butt, your candy-coated backside is actually helping you stay thin in every other part of your body.

It also makes you less likely to develop diabetes than someone who collects fat in their stomach.

In other words, having a big, delicious backside is actually GOOD for your health. Scientists are now trying to figure out which specific substances make subcutaneous fat healthy so that they can develop a drug to copy the effect. (Yahoo News)

Thanks to Rogers for this. Suddenly, I am not feeling as sinful as I sit at my desk inhaling Peanut Butter Puddle ice cream.

belated fer-grats and back fat!

This is an extremely belated post to congratulate the fabulous, talented and burgeoning Kerry Ferguson on the impending arrival of BabyFer. Kerry's insights and friendship have been invaluable to me over this crazy baby journey, and going through it with her has been such an amazing experience.

Some ladies and I threw her a little shindig last month to celebrate BabyFer #2. We had our toes painted, we gorged on Pizza Inn (Kerry's pregs-craving) and then wrapped it all up with an ice cream cake emblazoned with the thick pink words "BACK FAT!" and numerous types of cookies and chocolates.Our non-cliched, back-fat-themed baby shower activity was decorating onesies for BabyFer. Some of us took...ahem...EXTREMELY creative liberties with the project...

All in all it was a great time.

Thus, in the immortal words of Gretchen Maultsby,

***HAVE A GREAT BABY, KERRY!***