What a Difference Two Years Makes.

Happy Second Birthday Little Dude!

Zenni Optical: A Cheap Pair of Glasses (or three) Review

I am as blind as a bat.

I am also somewhat cheap.

Each year I need to have the prescription updated in my glasses or I face the wrath of constant headaches and nausea. The problem with this is the outright expense and the fact that I get sick of my glasses after a year and want new frames. Usually this costs me $400 - $500 a shot with all the scratch and UV coatings added in. I do not necessarily purchase designer frames nor do I go to a ridiculous ’boutique’ optical store - so really my cost is quite normal.

Now that we have The Dictator and The Deuce is fast approaching I have come to realize that children are very hard on my glasses. They are always dirty from sticky little hands and more then once I have outright thrown an old pair out because someone broke them. I have also always wanted prescription sunglasses (because I break the clip-on or lose them almost immediately) but the cost of such an item has been prohibitive.

I have been looking online for a while at glasses, and one day Googled Cheap Prescription Eyeglasses and was taken to at least 6 different sites offering wicked deals on glasses. After doing some research online and reading reviews I decided to go with Zenni Optical for my first foray into the cheap eyeglasses world.

Zenni Optical is a company that is registered in the USA, but your glasses will come from Hong Kong. This made me a little nervous at first but the overall reviews were favorable so I decided to go for it and order 3 pairs of glasses.

I have always wanted a completely rimless frame but with my high prescription I needed to upgrade to such a high index lens that they just were not a financially viable option (considering I may hate them). At Zenni Optical you can pick the color of the metal and the actual lens shape and size, the ones below are the exact ones I purchased. They showed up with beautifully polished lenses and my prescription was bang-on. Maybe even better then what I got for $500 here in Hickville City. I like them, but I am pleased I never paid $800 here for them, because they really are not worth it.

Rimless Frames with Upgraded Super High Index Lens/UVA and UVB coatings/ Anti Scratch $40.95

Next I picked something a little more sassy then I would normally choose, since they have almost a full frame on them I decided to go for the regular lenses. I am very very pleased with these glasses.

Burgundy fashion frame with regular lenses with UVA and UVB coatings/ Anti Scratch $34.95

Finally I picked a funky frame to turn into sunglasses (upgrading to sunglasses lenses is under $8 extra, unlike other places who want to charge a $150 for tinting on top of the prescription). These are great and I love them, but next time I will choose a larger frame for sunglasses to get more coverage.

Prescription Sunglasses with regular lenses and with 80% Grey tint and scratch coating $35.85

In every pair my prescription was bang on and the quality of the lenses seemed perfectly fine to me. The lenses were all nicely polished on the outside edges (note my last pair of $500 glasses did not polish the lens edge leaving them looking dull and cheap - a big deal if you have coke bottle lenses like me). They were well assembled and all fit pretty well right out of the box with minimal tinkering.

A few tips if you do go this route:

• Get a copy of your prescription from the eye doctor. By law they have to give it to you. Maybe go for a whole new eye exam and start fresh.
• Make them also measure your pupillary distance and give you those values. Often they will try to tell you whoever sells you your glasses will do it for you but I told them I needed them to order custom made goggles through work.
• Have some patience. It took a week to get my glasses made and then another 1.5 weeks to get to Canada. I have heard of much longer time-lines, but at under $40 a pair I was OK with waiting.
• Take a good look at your glasses. Measure the width, lens height, temple arm length and bridge so you get an idea of what will fit similar online. I also took into account that I am usually drawn to rectangular glasses with the hinges close to the top and not in the middle. These things all come into play when choosing a frame online.
• Don’t be too set on the color that appears on your monitor; it will likely be a bit different when you get them since not all computer display colors the same.
• If you are squeemish depending on online glasses initially, remember they are cheap online and maybe try ordering your “backup” pair or get some sunglasses to see how it all goes.
• They have children’s frames too, and you know how expensive those can be and how often they need replacing.

Also keep in mind: Total invoice including shipping, eyeglasses cases and nice microfibre cleaning cloths for each pair: $118.65 (American funds). For. Three. Pairs. Of. Glasses

Totally worth it.

The Golden Hour

About a month ago we moved The Dictator into a big boy bed. This was monumental for us since the little bugger was risking life and limb daily getting in and out of his crib (with the side-rails all the way up). We figured it would be a good time to take the crib apart and put it away before The Deuce arrives - just so The Dictator would not think we were giving ‘his’ bed to the new baby and get jealous.

Before the move The Dictator was well known for sleeping in until at least 7:30-8:30am every morning without fail and for taking 2 to 3 hour naps each afternoon. If he did wake up early he would play by himself quietly until we came to get him - which was super nice since I usually snuck a shower in before I got him out of the crib. NOW the little stinker has started waking up between 6:15am and 6:21am (ooohhh big time range; 6 minutes) and screaming for Mama at his door (we had locked him in his room at night so he wouldn’t wander around the house or fall down the stairs).

Last night I decided not to lock him in his room. This turned out to be a very. good. plan. The Dictator slept until 7:20am and then came to my room and crawled into my bed until 8:00am.

That golden hour of extra sleep and morning cuddles with a sleepy toddler (and the snoring dog) totally made my day.

Me me me…….

I was sent this Meme by a couple different readers. Here is how to do it:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

(since I totally suck and didn’t read the directions I used the first page of google image results for my photos - it works OK too but my results would have been pretty cool with a flickr search)

The Questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

Now I know I went to high school yet the search returned photos of children working…. hmmmmm…. And the hat? It was the only photo that was not of me when I typed in my flickr name - so it got there by pure default. Most suprising? My first name is also a brand of hard core trucking CB radio. Go Figure.

I am a winner. And a total loser.

It has been ages since I won anything. Seriously. The last time I won something it was a pair of jeans from a McDonalds Playland birthday party when I was 6 or 7 years old. They featured Ketchup and Mustard stitching. They were SO HOT I can’t even find a photo of them online.

Imagine my surprise when I found out from Haley-O that I won an award winning Clek Olli car booster seat from her Cheaty Goodies give-away site. This handy little item will be much appreciated when The Dictator hits 40 pounds and we need the other car seat for The Deuce, or to use as a second seat for the Grandma’s vehicles. Check them out they come in a ton of fun colors (leopard? zebra? I thought they only existed in my shoe wardrobe - now I can have them for my car too!) and interchangeable seat covers for easy cleaning.

Now for the loser part.

The Dictator didn’t go for a nap until 2:15pm today - and by 3:30pm he was up asking for milk. He doesn’t usually drink milk - odd I think. So I gave him 2 cups (YES 500 mL! or a half litre! and he drank it ALL!) of moo-juice and somehow convinced him to go back to bed. I am watching him roll around in bed with his monkey - so I think I am going to be the biggest loser on the nap front today. Which sucks because The Deuce in Utero is totally tiring me out and making me nauseous today

Dammit he just opened his door. I guess he is up for good.

United Airlines Blows Goats in Las Vegas.

In the last week I have spent 3 nights in Las Vegas with my Mom and Stewart on a “Girls Only but Stewart Can Come too Shopping Holiday”. Although it was a real treat to get away I do have a little ranting and raving to do about the holiday.

United Airlines/Ted has to be the second worst carrier I have ever flown (Worst? America West! Hands down biggest goat-fucks ever!). Although the staff in Hickville City and Denver were fine (totally excellent in Denver) and Flight Crews were great;  the airline staff in Las Vegas had to be the slowest, laziest and worst we have ever encountered (funny how my issue with America West was Las Vegas based…. hmmmm).

The Las Vegas ticket agent was likely the slowest person I have met in my life. It played out like this:

Scene: get to the counter and produce the online printed tickets for 3 people - 2 flights each; so 6 tickets total. Nita puts her suitcase (which is the largest of all 3 suitcases) on the weigh-scale.

Ticket agent takes tickets and decides that the tickets need to be ripped apart from the paper they were printed on so that they will be standard ticket size. One by one he fold the paper 8 times slowly over and over to create a crease to rip on. He then picks the paper UP and rips it - not smart enough to hold the damn ticket against the counter after folding one time and RIP…… seriously it took close to 10 minutes for him to shoddily rip 6 pieces of paper. In the meantime for the full 10 minutes my suitcase is on the scale and he is looking at it.

ticket agent: Your bag is too heavy. 58 pounds the limit is 50 pounds.

Nita: the other two bags are way underweight - can’t we just call it even?

ticket agent: Nope

Nita: how much to add the 8 pounds?

ticket agent: $100

Nita falls over throwing a fit (not really).

ticket agent: Just put 8 pounds of stuff in your Moms bag then it is all even. (like my Mom wants my dirty panties in her bag - yuck).

The fucker agent made me take the bag off the scale to transfer the items (previously the airlines would let you pull out the 8 pounds and transfer it instead of guessing like we did) and put them in my Mom’s bag. So once we guessed mine down to 50 pounds he tossed it on the convayer belt without even letting me lock the damn thing up. There was a 700$ purse in there with no lock on it! Ugh.

Now, I totally understand the weight restrictions (my father busted his back as a baggage guy all his life) but seriously this was a medium suitcase (not large) with nothing heavy in it. Way too many airlines have dropped the 75 pound baggage down to 50 pounds (YAY WestJet - still 60 pounds). What really irked me is he kicked us out of line so he could help other people. Hey asshole? You spent 10 minutes ripping 6 tickets - I don’t think customer service is your forte, so quit faking it. Oh and you could of told me that the bag was overweight since it sat on your scale for 10 minutes while you ripped the 6 tickets.

We finally get to the gate to see out flight is delayed 30 minutes. Not too big of a deal but we have under an hour in Denver to make our connection to HickVille City - and the ground crews in Denver are not exactly known for getting your plane to the gate on time either. It is already starting to look like we will miss our connecting flight.

Stewart (being an Air Traffic Controller) stands in line for the gate agent to find out what is going on and if we can rebook out connecting flight for a later time that night (or the next morning). After standing behind another customer (who is slightly stupid, fakes not knowing English and is rude as well) from HickVille City who needs to get the same flight info; the staff gets fed up with him and closes the wicket right in front of Stewart. During this time Stewart hears them blaming the delays on Air Traffic Control. This royally pisses Stewart off since he knows better. ATC does not delay aircraft; over-scheduled Airlines in over-scheduled Airports cause flight delays. By blaming delays on Air Traffic Control airlines do not have to be responsible for providing you compensation (or hotels overnight) if your flight is screwed up. Convenient hey?

Finally we board the plane. I am sitting in row 12. The cabinet that houses the drop down oxygen mask over my head has opened and the man beside me is trying to close it. We all know that this will cause further delays if a flight attendant notices it. They notice it. Now we have a mechanical delay (25 minutes) which now makes the airline liable for our hotels in Denver that night. Small YAY!

A mechanic shows up with no tools to fix it, and we joke with him to duct tape it closed. He says he can not do that and goes to get “clearance” to do a repair. Guess what the repair was? Tape. Didn’t stick but whatever - I got moved to upgraded seating. After that we sat on the runway for some time for the “paperwork” to show up so the plane can take off.

When we got to Denver we electronically got our tickets for the next flight that was available (the next morning) and headed to United Customer Service to see what if any compensation was being offered for the night.

The staff was awesome and pretty organized considering almost 100 people missed their connections. We were sent to a pretty nice hotel in Denver and given vouchers for breakfast the next morning. Since we would not get our luggage back (it was going to take 4 hours to get it) they provided toiletry kits with everything you need to not smell funky the next day. Needless to say we had to sleep naked that night (which seriously I do not do naked) but overall it was pretty good (except for the pussy ass cab driver to the hotel).

So what did I learn?

• Flying out of Las Vegas on any American airline is a gong show.
• Denver seems to be a nice city - I think Stewart and I will do a mini holiday there soon.
• Flying when pregnant and still fighting morning sickness = not too fun.
• I need to wear more comfortable shoes in Vegas.

Next Post: about the shoes…..

Buying Some Sanity $25 at a Time.

A few weeks ago, on a peaceful quiet Saturday night I had some time to myself. My Mom (Danielle) had The Dictator for the night under the assumption that I was going to an adult birthday party, which I fully intended to go to until a massive freak spring snowstorm hit. No way was I driving to a different town on those roads so I ended up staying home in an empty house until midnight when Stewart came home from work.

What did I do with the 7 hours alone? Pedicure, bubble bath or do my hair? Watch a chick flick? Read? Nope. I caught up on all that stuff that never gets done all at once around the house. I cleaned bathrooms, washed floors, vacuumed (even though that is Stewart’s job), prepped a nice dinner for the night, emptied the dishwasher, ironed all the laundry, washed and put away 3 loads of clothing and bathed the dog. It was a productive night for me, and usually things never get done in bulk like that around the house. Like any mom I get what I can done during The Dictator’s nap and sneak 45 minutes to myself - but that means there is always a list to tackle and that I never feel finished.

The best part of getting all this stuff done is that for almost a full week I felt caught up. I lost that clusterfucked feeling that I tend to get when I see a full dishwasher and the dryer is buzzing at the end of the cycle. I had the mental capacity to prepare decent meals every night that week because I wasn’t running around during nap time trying to make the house presentable; naptime was a chance for me to prep a great dinner and start some of the cooking. I played with The Dictator more because I wasn’t trying to sneak 5 minutes to fold laundry and empty the dishwasher. These little things really changed how I felt about my day and how my day would inevitably go.

This last week the clusterfucked feeling has returned. I have no desire to cook and I feel like I am not caught up again. That brought me to thinking that if I had help one morning a week (not relying on the Grandparents for this one - they help me so I can work 2 days a week when Stewart can’t be at home) I would feel more in control and caught up around the house. I thought of hiring a maid service - but really that could run us $500 a month and to me I would rather put that money into our mortgage payments.
Enter Bonnie

Bonnie is a 14 year old darling girl who adores The Dictator and loves to babysit. She lives by us and has siblings that are much younger then her, so she is great with little kids. Bonnie even stops over some evenings to play with Emmett after dinner, and she wears him out chasing him around the yard. I watch her pick him up when he falls, hug him when he is upset and steer him away from danger (which is his middle name). I adore her and her family - they are really great.

I really have no need for a babysitter and quite honestly I don’t like leaving The Dictator with anyone other then the grandparents. BUT, I sure could use a Mother’s Helper one morning a week from 9am to 1pm while I get all that stuff done around the house and get a dinner started. So this week I am going to see if Bonnie is interested in helping out with The Dictator one morning a week (during the summer break -and maybe a weekend day in the winter) while I am at home getting caught up around the house.

This could be my sanity saver and make me a better mom too.

Hypocrisy and the Evil Trifecta

First is a confession. I am a hypocrite.

Now for an important announcement brought to you by The Dictator.

We will be welcoming The Deuce into our family around December 3, 2008. Feel free to show up a bit early Deuce, since your older brother was almost 2 weeks late.

I have spent the past four weeks battling at least one of the evil trifecta of pregnancy at any one time. Fatigue, nausea and irritability; I am your bitch. Smells and meat totally gross me out right now, yet for some reason I have a painful craving for Panago pizza. Chicken Club no tomatoes and Tropical Hawaiian to be precise. I went a full pregnancy with The Dictator without a single craving. The craving things that are not in your house thing just is not fun. Nope. Not at all.

Currently I have the fear of twins, that could be because my friend was just here with her twin boys or it could be because I have been feeling fetal movement already (at 10 weeks); which Dr. Google says can be a sign of a multiple pregnancy. Did I mention multiples run in both sides of my family? Twins and triplets. I doubt it is happening here though.

So in a nutshell I have been to lazy and pukey to post lately. But I promise I shall get better at this soon.

On the bright side, if the Canadian Food Inspection Agency needs someone to sniff out Mad Cows or rancid meat in filthy restraunts, I am your girl!

The fear

I have a fear. No it isn’t the pain childbirth (62 hours of labour and a shitty non working epidural with 4th degree tearing? been there done that) or untimely death or spiders. I have a constant fear of my teeth falling out.

I like to blame my parents and the fun they had with pulling their dentures in and out of their mouths when I was a kid. They thought it was so funny to see me try to take my teeth out too. It could also be because I knocked my front tooth out as a kid when I stole my neighbours roller skates and tripped over the laces onto hard cement and endure having a new filling popped in it every few years. That and I am prone to getting cavities, something about thin enamel and deep molar pits. I dunno.

Anywhoo, I have a recurring nightmare that my teeth are falling out, and although I know that your teeth falling out is supposed to “mean something” in dream speak I really think it is a black and white thing for me. I am seriously freaked that I could lose my teeth.

Because seriously? I think my teeth are one of my best features - at least they don’t gain weight.

These are my confessions…..

I love to blog, really I do. BUT, I find the Mommy bloggers out there are divided into two distinct groups:

• those who read the books (which I like to call the fear mongering books), know it all and are not afraid to tell you how to do it (this group can usually be found bitching at Linda and Kristin in the Parent Dish comment section)
• those who are getting by day by day and happily bend the rules in the books to their advantage and personal sanity

I confess I am definitely one of the latter group. Here are my confessions:

• My son had a bottle at every nap and bedtime until he was 18 moths old
• He also was on formula until 18 months old
• My son almost never slept through the night (and remember my medical specialty is Sleep!) until he was 18 months old - I got up nightly to feed him, sometimes several times (feel free to cry a little tear for Stewart and I)
• The Dictator still has a soother - though mostly at bedtime
• I let my child watch The Backyardigans so I can put away laundry
• The Dictator gets to play in the tub beside out shower while I am in the shower
• I give him chocolate sometimes to bribe him to be good
• Ditto with the gum
• And the mints
• I am excited my son likes Bologna - because he hates meat. I think deli meat is better then nothing at all….
• I have to hide vegi’s in his food to get him to eat enough
• I make many of his meals in advance and freeze them so I do not have to cook from scratch every day
• I am pleased he likes cucumbers because they are easy to make - some kids steal a banana at the grocery store to munch on. Me? I unwrap a cucumber and he goes hog wild.
• I let him have temper tantrums - because some days I have no idea what to do about them
• I threaten him with time outs when he is acting up - and usually follow through if the behavior continues
• I put tape over some of his toys speakers so I do not have to listen to the noise
• The Dictator gets to play on the deck while I stay in the house to wash dishes
• He eats ice cream most days after dinner
• I still rock him to sleep at nap time (because I like love to - not that I have to)
• He still eats baby cereal as a bedtime snack
• When we are out and about all of his snacks are usually the “pre-packaged” variety
• I add chocolate milk to regular milk on the days he refuses to drink just plain old milk
• At dinner, we have been known to give him apple juice or milk in a small wineglass so he won’t ask for our wineglasses

I am sure I could add way more to the list. For the Moms out there what are your parenting confessions?

And to round it all up - a personal confession of my own.

• Some days I drink wine at 9am after a long night shift at work before heading off to bed.

I am an awesome Mom, really. Just ask my adoring son