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I had never been to one of the Gymboree outlet stores until we went today to the location at the Leesburg Corners outlet mall. So, I really had no idea what the Gymboree outlets were all about. I guess I assumed they would simply have older lines comprised of surplus pieces. I assumed the prices woud be lower.

For the most part, I was wrong. The lines are older, though. In fact, the girl working there told me they are exactly one year behind the retail stores when it comes to which lines they carry. However, the clothing is not surplus or extra. The company actually keeps making the year-old lines for the outlet stores, complete with a unique label system. They even sometimes change the pieces a little, perhaps offering a different color t-shirt to go with a line, for example.

I found the clothing pretty close to the retail end in pricing. I was specifically looking for bike shorts for my daughter to wear under her dresses for kindergarten this fall. I thought they would be up to their eyeballs in bike shorts, since at the retail stores the bike shorts in any given line are usually still there in gobs when the line goes to markdown. They only had three colors of bike shorts today. The clerk said the company just doesn’t send them many, ever.

Overall, I prefer the prices on the current lines in the retail stores — in the back of the stores on the markdown racks.

I met Big Bird once. I was 4, maybe 5 years old. Mr. Rogers and Big Bird and a couple of other PBS characters were all at the local PBS station in DC and my patents took me and my sister.

Big Bird gave me one of the feathers off of his costume. Back then, I had no idea that a genius of a man named Kermit Love had been the one to suggest that Big Bird’s costume be designed so it would lose feathers left and right.

Kermit Love passed away at the age of 91 this past Saturday. He was the costume designers who assisted Jim Henson in the creation of Big Bird and several other Sesame Street characters, like Mr. Snuffleupagus, Oscar the Grouch and Cookie Monster. He also designed the beloved Snuggle bear we all know from the fabric softener commercials.

His design flair was not limited to fuzzy characters though. He also designed for ballet choreographers.
If he have not read his recent book “The Wisdom of Big Bird (and the Dark Genius of Oscar the Grouch): Lessons From a Life in Feathers,” please do. It’s a worthy read.

Flying is stressful in even the best circumstances. I get nervous easily and irritated, even, if the child in front of me is crying or a couple of tipsy businessmen are talking loudly and laughing too boisterously. There are hundreds of us enclosed in a small space and the least we can do for one another is be quiet.

When I started flying with a child, I did what I could to keep her quiet so we would not disrupt the other passengers. When she was an infant, I would nurse her for the ENTIRE flight. It was awkward, but it kept her peaceful and the seating agents were nice about making sure I was seated next to a woman.

I’m a mixed bag of opinions when I see this story about a woman and her autistic child being asked to leave an American Eagle flight in North Carolina. The article I read painted the flight crew as unsympathetic. I imagine they were feeling a lot of pressure from other passengers, though. On the flip side, the mother apparently was not keeping her son buckled in during take off and refused to allow her carry-on bag to be placed in the overhead compartment. She was seated in bulkhead, where there is not a seat in front of you to put your bag under.

While I have a lot of understanding for those who parent disabled children, I also believe you must know the limitations for yourself and your children. If your child is upset by seeing you upset, you have to make more effort than ever to never appear rattled in public. If you need to have your carry on within reach at all times, do not request a bulkhead seat. If your child cannot abide being restrained, perhaps drive or ride the train when traveling. The family in questions did say they will take the train now and I think that is a wise move.

I read some comments by other people on the original report of this story and at least one mother of another autistic child felt that the airline workers should have been specially trained to deal with disabled children and should have given special considerations. Another mother of a special needs child pointed out that the airline still needed to follow FAA rules. One personal called the motehr “entitled”.

I agree that she did seem entitled to special treatment. Many of us live with children that see the world in a unique way. I have to make special plans every time I travel. However, I would never expect it to be OK if my child disrupted other passengers or if our situation was making it impossible for FAA rules to be followed. I do not expect society to make allowances for my life.  The work-around might be difficult for me to accomplish, but it is always there if I look.

I’m visiting with my dad and his wife at his house on the Shenandoah River. Dad is retired, but his wife is not, so I often offer to do the cooking while I am here. Tonight I am just doing rosemary chicken breasts, roasted red potatoes and greens. Dessert will be fun, though. Dad handed me a recipe to “look at”, which means he wants me to make it. And so I will.

Banana Split Pie

Ingredients:
2 bananas sliced
8 oz. package of cream cheese, softened
1.5 teaspoons vanilla
8 oz. Whipped Topping
8 maraschino cherries, drained
prepared graham cracker pie shell
1.5 cups powdered sugar
1 cup crushed pineapple
.5 cup chopped pecans
chocolate syrup

Preparation:

• Line the bottom and sides of prepared pie shell with sliced bananas.
• Whip the cream cheese with a blender and slowly add powdered sugar and vanilla.
• When cream cheese mixture is fluffy, stir in drained pineapple and mix well
• Fold whipped topping into the cream cheese mixture.
• Put final cream cheese mixture into the pie shell.
• Sprinkle nuts on top and then place drained cherries on top of the nuts.
• Drizzle chocolate syrup on the nearly completed pie.
• Chill for one hour before serving.

If I think about it, I will take a picture.

I’m going to make my own pie shell. It’s tastier fresh. And, I may add some real whipped cream to the top of the cream cheese mixture before topping it with cherries, nuts and chocolate syrup.

Not only did “hedge fund manager” Sam Israel think he was smart enough to cheat people out of his money, but now the former scammer rally thinks that people are going to believe he killed himself – even after his former partner got CAUGHT for trying the same fake suicide stunt. What a brainless freak.

Writing “suicide is painless” on the hood of the car he supposedly drove to a bridge so he could plunge to his death was not much smarter. “Suicide is painless” is the title of the M*A*S*H theme song for both the television show and the movie. The M*A*S*H “suicide” was a fraud as well. And, the song itself includes many amusing lyrics when applied to the Israel case, such as:

The only way to win is cheat
And lay it down before I’m beat

Israel’s girlfriend has admitted that she helped him pack up all his belongings and a little scooter into an RV (a.k.a. gas guzzling camper) so he could dodge police with a fake suicide attempt on the day he was supposed to turn himself in for a 20-year prison sentence for defrauding investors. She also helped him get the RV to a rest stop.

He left from upstate New York. You know the creep is running around in Canada. And, unless he brought an awful lot of cash with him, he is going to eventually have to tap into an electronic account somewhere. We already know that he uses the aliases Sam Ryan and David Clapp. Surely, he uses others as well.

In the meantime, he has left behind his girlfriend, who will almost certainly go to jail for helping his sorry rear end.

They are both foolish. She is going to jail and in the end, Israel is headed right back to prison as well. On top of his regular sentence, he will have new charges added in relations with his current scam. Dork.

I voted for Ross Perot. Twice. I happen to love the man. And, I miss having him around the political arena like he used to be.

I take some comfort in his recent public comments that our nation needs to focus more on national debt. Not that I take comfort in our astounding national debt, but I do take comfort in knowing Ross is still out there trying his best offer solutions. Of course, politicians refuse to listen to his wisdom.

Back when Ross ran for president in 1992 he garnered 20% of the vote. That is impressive and I wonder if it is not the absolute best anyone not affiliated with either the Republican or Democratic parties has done in the recent future. (As an aside, it pisses me off to no end when people refer to the USA as having a two party system. We have two dominant parties, but endless other BETTER parties that would do our nations a lot of good if the money of our two mammoth parties would stop trying to crush the little guys.)

My man Ross has a new website all about our national dent. You really ought to check it out. He conjures up lessons we should have learned after the Great Depression. I suppose too many people who lived through the Depression are dead, otherwise we would not be on such a collision course to repeat history.

I have been a victim of road rage before. Granted, most of the time it is just some crazy man (yes, it tends to be makes in my opinion) who tailgates me down the road or blares his horn or flips me the bird. Usually, it is because I am going the speed limit and the drivers want me to go faster. Whatever. I have a kid in my car and no desire to get speeding ticket.

Back when I was graduating college I was actually assaulted. I was on my way to graduation and a woman pulled out in front of me from a parking spot on a city street. I beeped my horn at her. Apparently, she felt the beeping of a horn to be a deep insult. So, she followed my all the way across town, honking and gesturing. I could see her teenaged daughter in the front passenger seat, slumped down in shame.

She followed me all the way to the hotel my dad was staying at and when I parked, she got out of her car and hit me in the face. Can you even believe that? I just looked at her and told her I had her plate number and would call the police. My dad has seen the whole thing from the hotel window and came out to try and help. The woman got in her car and attempted to run over my father. Again, can you even believe this woman? My dad, in defense, pushed off her car and I guess the palm of his hand hit the driver’s side windshield just right, because it shattered into the car.

Heh. Served her right.

She has the balls to drive to the police station and bring a cop back to the hotel. The hotel manager has already told us just to remain in inside and sent my boyfriend ahead to graduation in my car and told the police there was nothing to report. Of course, had we gone outside I am confident that foolish woman would have been arrested for bodily assault. What a flake.

This is all to say that I read an encouraging story in the paper today about a road rage victim who led his attacker right to the cops. David Carrillo was riding his motorcycle when a Lincoln Town Car suddenly swerved into his lane. To avoid being sideswiped, he had to swerve as well. Out of frustration, he slipped the driver of the car the bird.

People do that all of the time and I am pretty sure it’s not illegal. However, what the driver of the car did in response WAS illegal. He swerved again at Carrillo and pursued him.

So, Carrillo went straight to the Dade City, Florida police station and pulled into the parking lot where he was able to report the incident to a police officer.

The fool in the Town Car, 21-year-old Christopher Alan Akins, stopped in front of the same parking lot and yelled profanities at Carrillo. Heh. In front of the cop. Real smart.

But it gets better. When the police officer followed Akins, Akins tried to hit the officer’s car with his Town Car. Then, he drove off, stopped on a dead end street, abandoned his car and then fled on foot.

Piss off a cop, though, and they will find you. Police used search dogs to track him to his home where he was then arrested. Akins tried to tell the cop a girl had been with him and driving the car when the incident with Carrillo occurred. Then, he tried to say his car had been stolen and he had been in a different car at the time. Finally, he told the cop he had not seen his car all day. What a bad liar, that Akins.

Akins faces two counts of aggravated assault and one count of fleeing to elude police. He is being held in Land O’Lakes jail. Bail has been set at $25,250.

I had this book when I was a kid called The Friendly Alligator. It was one of those personalized books where my parents sent in the order form along with my name, address, birth date, names of my friends, some of my hobbies the name of my school, etc. and the book was printed to include all of this personal information about me written right into the storyline.

I loved that book. I still love that book. Despite the fact that I grew up with hundreds and hundreds of children’s books, this may be the only book I kept from my childhood.

When my daughter was born, I was anxious to get her at least one personalized book, too. I actually ordered her a version of the Little Mermaid from the Kids Personally website, based more on the original Hans Christian Andersen version of the story than the glittery Disney version. She adores the fact her anme is in the book, as are the names of her cousin and her best friend. The book names our hometown and all sorts of other personal details. She is as thrilled with the book I ordered her as I was with mine. Of course, I still read her MY Friendly Alligator book, too. She loves to see her mom’s name in a story.

The teaser headline on CNN’s website said, “Firefox fans celebrate release of new browser.” I remember wrinkling up my nose. What an image that conjured for me. Are there people out there on the internet so thoroughly devoid of a real life that they actually CELEBRATE the new version of an internet browser being released? Did users actually put on party hats, blow up balloons, and bake elaborate cakes? Maybe there is a faction that exchanged greeting cards or even those who got together and went out to see strippers last night to express their glee.

Maybe these are the same people who wait in line for days for the newest versions of Apple’s iPhone, just so they can pay significantly more money than other people will pay for even better products only a couple of weeks later?

Apparently Firefox 3 had 1.6 million downloads by last evening. Firefox’s Web site says there are about 9,000 copies of the free web browser being downloaded every minute.

OK, that’s fine. It’s a decent browser. I happen to like Opera better, but whatever floats you boat, you know?

While I like geeks as much as the next person, this next tidbit of info actually soured my stomach: Firefox are allegedly trying to set a world record for most software downloads in a 24-hour period.

What? Who cares? Really, WHO cares? In a world where everyone seems to want instant fame, is this really the coolest thing someone can find to be known for? Most software downloads? Ew.

I am finding my cup of green tea more exciting that a new Firefox version, but that’s just me. I actually have a pretty full like that does not involve placing my rear end in the computer chair

At my age, I thought I knew pretty much everything about myself, especially about my fears. I know I have an irrational fear of snakes and there is pretty much nothing I can do to put mind over matter when faced with one of those slithering creep shows. However, I had no idea I was claustrophobic. I have been on elevators and airplanes with no problem. I know I cannot get out of those situations until I’m told I can get out, and still I’m not bothered.

Today I went to have an MRI. I went once before to have my kidney stones looked at, but it as an open MRI. Today I needed to wear the TMJ “coil” to they can take pictures of my clicking jaw. Therefore I needed to be in a fully enclosed torture chamber, or so it felt. They got me all situated, explained everything in detail and slid me inside. Immediately I started to hyperventilate and freak out in general. I asked to let out and it took a long time to get calm enough to try again. One of the techs in training needed to stand there the entire time and hold onto my leg for me. For some reason, having another human touching me helped so much.

It took me at least a half hour after I left to get my heart rate back to normal. Now, I did have one indication that I might have claustrophobia. I was watching that episode of Desperate Housewives when Lynette gets locked in the freezer of her restaurant with that chef who had the hots for her. Anyway, the angle of the shot when the door slammed closed and they realized they were trapped was so realistic, so accurate in how it portrayed the small, enclosed space that I found I had to pause the show and get up to walk around until I felt calmer.

It’s a given that teen drivers are one of the hazards of the roads. The Tampa area is number one in a recent Allstate study of teen crashes. The study took a look at crash data, claims data, and teen population size in the top 50 metropolitan areas in the nation. Nationwide, car crashes are the number one killer of teens.

Today, there were around 20 local teens from area schools who took turns standing on a lifeguard stand at a busy Tampa intersection. They were looking for distracted drivers who were doing things like driving while they talked cell phones, ate, drank, and did text messaging.

A running count was logged and fed into an 8-foot message board drivers could see while they were stopped at the intersection.
I think this is a worthy exercise for the teens and I can only hope it made at least one driver out there today stop and think about their focus they were placing, or not placing , on their driving. Kudos to the kids who were doing this project. May it remain ingrained in their minds forever.

So, Nick is in jail. Hulk dated a friend of his daughter’s. Hulk and Linda are going through a divorce that has become very public. Brooke has her own reality show coming down the pike, and she actually seems to be the ONLY same member of the family.

And now, the most entertaining news so far: Linda is 48 and is dating 19-year-old Charlie Hill, who went to school with her kids. Yep, he was a year behind Brooke and a year ahead of Nick. Some sources says that Linda met Charlie years ago at church, and while Nick and Charlie were playing sports together. I have to wonder if the school where they met was Clearwater Central Catholic (where Stephanie Ragusa also attended, oddly) or when Nick was younger and went to St. Cecilia Catholic School in Clearwater?

First of all, I am 10 years younger than Linda and I could never, ever date a 19-year-old. A guy that age is still a kid, period. Period. Don’t give me the argument that they can vote and smoke and go to war. Put them in a relationship with a 48-year-old woman and you have another-figure toting around a tot, nothing more. A 19-year-old is a great boyfriend for a teenaged girl or maybe a woman in her early 20s. After that, you’re looking at more than an age different. You are looking at a generational gap that can only be remedied in time.

And is it any surprise that the kid looks like a Hogan? He is overly tanned, bleached blonde, and has probably been to the dentist’s chair for tooth bleaching more than he has for his regular cheek-ups.

Says Charlie as he nervously fidgets with the buttons on his cuffs, “We’re not dating, though. We’re just chillin’.”

I’ve heard he is a local dock worker or an employee at a Wave Runner rental place. He certainly looks like he spends time out in the sun.

It’s like a great big Hogan family carnival here in Clearwater, Florida. Son Nick Bollea is in jail, where a locally jailed female ex-teacher is sending him Pen Pal notes. Daughter Brooke Bollea was hit by another driver a week or so back and made it out with her life and her health. Hulk Hogan and his soon-to-be-ex wife Linda Bollea are in the local headlines almost weekly when it comes to their splashy divorce.

The latest headlines are about Hulk’s Hogan’s recent appearance on the Larry King Show, which John Graziano’s family and lawyers say was simply a publicity stunt used to spin the Hogan family’s version of the story surrounding negative comments Hulk Hogan and Nick Bollea made about Graziano during jail time phone conversations.

Oh, and don’t forget that Linda is asking that Hulk (Terry Bollea) be cited and held in contempt of court for not paying his share of a $4.2 million Las Vegas condo. If that were to happen, both Nick and Hulk would be behind bars in the same jail. Cozy.

Pleas please please, will the gods of celebrity give us here in the Tampa/Clearwater area some more respectable local celebrities to play with?

The new luggage rules are driving me bonkers.

I have luggage. I have nice luggage. But, some of it is too large and too heavy to even bother packing and taking with me when we go north next weekend. I have seats booked on a United flight. My daughter and I can each take one carry-on, one personal item, and one checked bag.

Our carry on bags can be a total of 40 pounds and 45 linear inches. The checked bags can be 50 pounds and 62 linear inches. You figure your linear inches by adding the length + width + height. Check the luggage you already own. You might be surprised to find it is too large. I’m not in the mood to pay $25 for each additional bag I check, so I am packing light.

Packing light might just mean new luggage for me. I am looking at feather light rolling duffle bags. I have found several good options online, but to be quite honest, I can go to WalMart of Kmart and buy 4-piece lightweight sets for less than one of the duffels I have seen online. I could just use the pieces out the sets that work for my needs.

And all the while, I keep thinking about my old luggage out in the garage. I need to at least go measure and weight my smaller pieces. The big bags are out of luck. They won’t be used anytime soon.

I know a lot of you fly to Florida to enjoy our sun, sand, and surf. Make sure you go to the website for your airline and read their luggage requirements. My friend, Christie, booked her flight and had me over to help her pack. When I asked why her multiple bags were so heavy and told her about the new rules her response was, “they did not tell me when I booked the flight.”

Nope, knowing the new rules is up to you. At the airport, they will simply charge you for additional or heavy bags.

I used to be a regular coffee drinker. I actually started at age six. Yes, age six. My pediatrician told my mom to give me coffee with lots of milk so that the caffeine would help my asthma. I learned to love the taste of the bean very early in life.

I was never a coffee fiend. I was a two or three cup a day drinker. It was just enough to keep me happy. And, on the weekends and barely touched the stuff.

In 2000 I went off caffeine as a regular thing. I had read that caffeine helps with migraines, but only if you are not addicted. You may not think that 2 cups a day is a caffeine addiction, but when I went off of it, which I did slowly, I had headaches, gastrointestinal issues, and mood swings. I got sick to my stomach and tired easily. Yes, my body had been addicted.

So, here I am 8 years later. Days like to today quite literally make me have fantasies about yummy caffeinated drinks. I have a fiend who manages a Second Cup location Canada and she was telling me about some of their coffee drinks. I was nearly drooling on my keyboard. How pathetic is that? I’ve been a smoker and I have always been able to easily pass on alcohol. However, a good cup of coffee makes me want to jump off the proverbial wagon.