Time to freeze the donuts

The only thing I miss about the Chicago area is Dunkin Donuts. So last night as we were waiting to board our plane at O'Hare, I bought a half dozen: two Jelly, two Boston Creme and two Chocolate Frosted Cake. Those are my three favorites; I got one to eat now and one of each to freeze. Call it the Great Donut Experiment of 2008. I wrapped each of the three donuts separately in foil, sealed them in their own container and put them in our freezer, which reads 0 degrees F. Check back in a week or so, when I'll thaw the first of the precious discs of doughy, creamy goodness and find out if it's possible to enjoy them more than a day or two back in California.

2007's rant of the year

Nursing bras: they all suck. What's going on here? A woman wants her bra to be three things: supportive, flattering and comfortable. With a nursing bra you're lucky to get two out of three (flattering is never one of those), which is still bad, despite what Meatloaf says. I've tried dozens of nursing bras, priced from $12 to $50 and none of them are satisfactory. They ride up too high or too low or the straps show. Why can't someone come up with a decent nursing bra? I love nursing my baby and want to do it as long as I can. But I don't think that should force me to wear crappy underwear for a year...

"Automatically becomes portable when carried."

That was the statement printed on the cardboard surrounding a CD case we saw today at Big Lots. I really should have taken a picture.

Sobering stats on teen pregnancy

The rate of teen pregnancies went up last year for the first time in 15 years. No one knows why yet. A guy from this org was on NPR the other day and was asked, predictably, if abstinence-only education could be blamed. He said abstinence-only had been pushed for at least five years, so that can't really be the main reason. So it's a mystery until experts can delve into data on contraception rates, abortion rates, etc, among the teen pregnancy groups.

Beyond that here's some old but still staggering news:
* Half of pregnancies in the U.S. are unplanned. Yes, HALF. You read that right. HALF! One out of every two!!!! Sadly, 40 percent of these end in abortions.
* Three in ten females will have had at least one pregnancy by the time they turn 20. Again, yes, you read that right: 30 PERCENT. THIRTY!! Three-zero! Nearly a third of these end in abortions.

Yeah, this is what we need

"The FCC has never attempted such a brazen act of defiance against Congress," said Democratic Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein. "The law does not say we are to serve those who seek to profit by using the public airwaves.

"The law says we are to serve the public interest," Adelstein continued. "And the public has repeatedly told us they are not interested in further media consolidation."

One in five Americans...

can't point out the U.S. on a world map? I know a kindergartener who can name all seven continents!

foo-koo-DOUGH-may

Well, this has been quite a week: The Cubs signed a splashy free agent for the second year in a row. They finally said good-bye to Mark Prior. And Sammy Sosa wasn't accused of using steroids.

Aerosmith's actually making news!

And the sex appeal of Steven Tyler continues to elude me (see comments).

What I want for Christmas

A combination GPS, heart rate monitor, cyclecomputer, cell phone and MP3 player. Might as well throw in a 2-mp camera. Of course it would upload all my ride data to some web software to track my routes, speed, calories burned, etc.

Holiday madness

Here's our holiday party schedule:

Today: an afternoon open house with our friends in San Jose
Tomorrow: "glugg" (some kind of authentic Swedish beverage) fest at our
friends' house here in RC
Tuesday: auction/holiday party at Open Gate
Thursday: hubby's company party
Dec. 15: the mothers' club annual holiday extravaganza (games, crafts,
cookies, pics with Santa, etc)
Dec. 17: playgroup cookie exchange

We're contributing to the madness by having a NYE party at our house, but only so that we don't have to find a babysitter.