Wii Fit

There was a request for my promised review of the Wii Fit. Of course, some of ya'll have your own, and some of you have played with ours.

Overall, I really like it. There are a few things I would change if I could, but since I'm not any kind of hardcore user, I really don't mind them.

On the plus side, I like the nice stretching exercises and the yoga, it makes yoga and stretching more challenging to try to keep your center of balance in a certain range while you're doing it. So much harder! I also enjoy the games, although some of them are so hard for me that I really haven't gotten anywhere with them. The board is extremely sensitive.

Speaking of how sensitive the board is...the crazy little narrator guy has no problem telling you "your balance is off center", "you are unbalanced" and, to my pregnant friend Mel (there is no setting for "I am pregnant") it said "You are obese!". We are looking forward to the next time that Mel and Bob come over so we can shock the Wii Fit with all the weight she has lost in just a few weeks after having baby Sam :-)

Would the Wii Fit really help you lose weight? I don't think it would, because there isn't much cardio, it's mostly stretching. There is a jogging game but it depends upon you putting the WiiMote in your pocket while running in place, and I have already figured out that you can trick it by sitting on the couch shaking it up and down. However, since I am now in my 30's, what I am supposed to be doing is getting more strength training than I did in my 20's. So, I think it is nice to use in the mornings when I do West Coast shift and it is too hot to go outside and exercise.
I give it a thumbs up!

Large gaps

I know I have had large gaps in posting. It's hard for me sometimes not to post about things I might think because I know they will offend people who read my blog. Here are some things I am pretty sure I cannot blog about because someone I know is bound to 1) disagree 2) be offended or 3) begin to dislike me due to what I believe is right for me in these areas:

1. Children or babies. Whether to have them or not have them. How I (or we) feel about various aspects of raising or birthing them or not doing either.
   
2. Politics. I realize I pretty much can't write about my opinions so I might not blog most of October. All I can tell you is, make sure you are reading the web site and the statements of faith your candidate posts there. Or lack thereof.
3. Living in Texas. And how I feel about it, particularly around election time.
4. Sports. This is not to avoid offending people, this is because I do not like sports, I never have, and I never will. I am not interested. I will never be. So you can imagine how fun the fall is for me in Texas.

So, give me a few days to think of some neutral things to talk about. Don't worry, I'm all over it.

UPDATE REGARDING: Please send your contact info

You might have received my email, Facebook message, or Twitter regarding the loss of all my Address Book data including phone numbers and addresses of everyone I know.

However, my husband (who is a genius) restored it! He had hooked us up with Mozy a long time ago, which had been doing regular updates and had an update pre-delete which he was able to restore!! So amazing! Everything is back! Hooray!!

Green: kitty litter and trash bags

I'd like to follow up on a few past posts about my search for green kitty litter and environmentally friendly trash bags.

Trash bags
As noted before, the BioBag, while it is a great idea, continued to biodegrade inside my trash can in the kitchen within about 72 hours, so that every time I went to take out the trash, half the bag was gone and I had a mess inside my trash can. So, now I've found the Enviro-Bag, which is a trash bag made out of those thin plastic grocery bags recycled through school recycling programs. While I realize that these bags still don't biodegrade like BioBag would, this is supporting two really good things: reusing and school programs. So, ethically, I feel that this is a good alternative for us.

Kitty litter
This was a more difficult search. I am now on my third brand, but I am thinking right now that the third time might be the charm! Right now we are using something called "World's Best Cat Litter". It does seem to hold the odors well, and the particles, while larger than traditional litter, are not as large as the other brands I tried, and not as sharp and pointy when I step on them with bare feet. It's biodegradable and clumping. I've filled both the litter boxes with it so far and it is working great!

So, I am excited about these new developments. In other "green" news, we have currently lost all our sources for waste vegetable oil, which is what we have been running our Mercedes on. If anyone reading this knows someone who owns or works at a restaurant in the DFW area who would have access to waste veggie oil, please contact me. Otherwise, we are kicking around the idea of selling the MB.

Nat and Me

My dad took this awesome picture of me and Natali, it is my favorite.

Green Automatic Dishwasher detergents - FAIL

Much like my search for a green kitty litter, my search for a green automatic dishwasher detergent has not gone well. I have tried 2 so far, Earth Friendly Products Wave Auto Dishwasher Gel and Seventh Generation Dishwasher Gel. Since we rent our home, we don't have control over the type of dishwashing machine that we have, and ours isn't the newest. However, with regular (non-"green") dishwasher gels, we have never had any trouble getting the dishes clean. With both of these green products, we had to actually completely scrub everything we put into the dishwasher before running the washer. Not pre-rinse, but actually pre-wash completely. And even then, somehow both these products managed to deposit more detrius back onto the dishes and glasses than they went in with. When using them, I had to wash the dishes before putting them in the dishwasher and then again afterward. What was the point of wasting all that time and money in the dishwasher at all?

Here is an example: I made fried okra last night and I used a stainless steel slotted spoon to scoop the finished okra out of the pan. That is all I did with it. There was nothing encrusted on it, it was just greasy. I wiped it with a soapy sponge before putting it into the dishwasher and then I ran the dishwasher. When I took the spoon out, it was still completely covered in grease. I had to get a non-green cleaner and scrub it, because my green hand-dishwashing liquid didn't work either.  Argh!

So, I had to go to the store today and buy non-green automatic dishwashing pellets so I can go back to having clean dishes. Very sad. I want to be green with the dishes, really I do...but it doesn't make sense to wash everything 3 times!

On a related note...I have 2 barely-used bottles of green automatic dishwashing gel...anyone want them?

UPDATE: I continue the search with 3 more green automatic dishwasher detergents here.

Finding Walmart

Despite how much you might think Walmart is everywhere, there are a few places it is not, and one of those is the middle of Dallas.  We have been told in the past that this is because Walmart will not build in what it considers urban areas, and the center of Dallas where we live is very urban. There is not really any space for the huge concrete mecca a Walmart needs, and the demographic of people in Central Dallas is such that there is no call for a Walmart. We all know white people love Target and hate Walmart. There are 3 Targets within 10 miles of our house. What we do have is Walmart Neighborhood Markets.

Why was I trying to find a Walmart? I thought maybe they would have stepping stones for our backyard at affordable prices. I have tried all the Home Depot and Lowes around here and I can't find anything affordable (i.e. adding up to less than $300). Also, did you know that Walmart-brand cake mixes are the only cake mixes manufactured that do not contain partially hydrogenated oils? I learned this from my friend Millie. I think everyone knows how I feel about PHO's. It is a lesser-known fact that I love cake, and that I can't eat it without be angry about the PHO's in it. I know I could probably get the cake mix at the Walmart Neighborhood Market but I wanted to find the stepping stones and maybe a nice galvanized tub for the backyard.

If you search Google Maps for Walmart Supercenter near Dallas, TX you will notice that while the mailing address of these results are  technically "Dallas", those are actually the outlying areas of Dallas and if you knew the area, that they are actually suburbs. Using Walmart.com and searching on our zip code yields a Walmart on Hwy 30 which says it is 4 miles away but that must be "as the crow flies". So I ended up driving around 10 miles to a Super Walmart in Plano. I drove all the way there and they did not have stepping stones or galvanized tubs. They did have the cake mixes, so I bought 2, and also a tub of icing because Walmart-brand icing is also the only one manufactured that does not contain PHO's.

When I was in the Walmart, I was amazed by how freaking huge it was. Seriously, the aisles are wide enough for around 4-5 carts abreast. Am I just that small of a person? I felt like I was walking in a gigantic wasteland of prepackaged goods. Is it because I am accustomed to shopping in grocery stores and Targets where things are much more compact? I don't know. I was also freaked out by the fact that children's underpants were about 5 feet from an aisle of Doritos and other snack foods...does that seem weird to anyone else? Is this normal? At Target there is the "clothing" area and then the "food" area...underpants and chips do not coexist!! I am trying to think of other things that were specifically scary but it was overall just very disorienting. After everything inside being so huge, the gardening area was tiny and understocked, I was disappointed. 

And that is my adventure in Super Walmart. 

Also on the way there in 100 degree heat, it became apparent that the AC in the Mercedes no longer works. But that is another post :-)

"Who's Your City" maps - this explains so much!

Today on the radio I heard and interview with this dude Richard Florida, who wrote a book that came out today called "Who's Your City?" about the impact of where we live on our lives in general. You can read an excerpt from it here.

But I laughed out loud when I took a look at his interactive maps, the Personality Map showing where people with different temperaments live!


I don't think you'll be able to see the whole map on this blog, but I just want to point out that while it's possibly good that not as many neurotic people live here in Dallas, we also have no Agreeable People. I could have told you that!!

Seeing Natali, scooter gear

I finally got some more pictures uploaded to Flickr, among them are new pictures of Natali from this weekend when we took a quick trip to Longview.

I love that funny face she makes! It looks hilarious with the new teeth coming in! :-)

Also, a few pictures here of all the pieces of scooter gear which have finally come together. Here we have me in my helmet and motorcycle jacket, which is mesh and has great airflow, but also has full built-in armor for protection:

And here is the latest addition to the bike itself, a specially ordered license plate which I hope will help people with their frustration when they're stuck behind me, since I can only go 30 mph max:

I'm hoping you can see it, but it says "IM SLOW PLS PASS"!

I cannot brain today

Since I forgot to bring my camera up to the coffee shop to upload pictures, here is something I found really funny today:

A new baby!

Yesterday we finally got to meet Samuel Paxton Sutton, the new son of our friends Mel and Bob! He was very cute and slept most of the time. I have put some pics of Christian and I with Sam Paxton on Flickr:

(This is when Mel was telling me about the epidural and how the anethesiologist came in with an entire bucket of needles)

*note - there is a picture of Mel and Sam together but for privacy, I have restricted viewing of that picture to Friends and Family, so if you want to see that one, make sure you are logged in the Flickr site and that you have requested to be marked as one of my "Friends" or "Family".

I hope everyone has a great 4th of July! We caught the Addison Kaboom Town fireworks on the way home from the hospital last night, we stopped in a parking lot with the radio on the simulcast to watch. Hopefully tonight we'll go to one of the two fireworks displays here in Dallas as well.