new zealand: like lord of the rings

We just came back from our only planned LOTR tourist thing: a trip to Edoras. It was fantastic. The company we booked with is the only company that has permission to drive on the land up to the top of the hill. Suh-weet. Beautiful trip. Great company. We have been to middle earth. They had this really cool map up on their stopping station wall of LOTR filming sites throughout NZ. We may stop by Hobbiton......

Posted by jennj at 12:27 AM | Comments (0)

greetings from new zealand!

As usual, we're finding ourselves saying, "Let's move here!" while visiting a foreign country. This happens every time. This country is amazing and we've only seen a tiny part of it so far. The sun is especially brutal down here and we've got 45spf sunscreen on. Anyway, off to do more fun stuff!

Posted by jennj at 03:59 PM | Comments (6)

only girl on planet who got a macbook air for valentine's day

Suck it, bitches.

Last weekend we went to the Apple store to check out the MacBook Air. When Jobs announced it, I was like, "it looks nice, but whatever." But the moment I touched it at the store, I wanted it. It reminded me of my old, silver powerbook. It was the same size/screen as my current MacBook, so really, what would I be sacrificing? It was lovely. Of course I didn't get one.

Until last night. Nbh surprised me for Valentine's Day!! Whee! That was a complete shock. I heart him. I'm going to have the coolest laptop on the plane.

Posted by jennj at 08:15 AM | Comments (8)

real world armageddon/deep impact-like action

All right, President Bush, I like the idea. Anybody else kinda excited about the missle to be launched at the satellite currently falling to earth?

Posted by jennj at 08:05 AM | Comments (2)

is it just me? or is this jane fonda thing blown out of proportion?

I'm not saying she shouldn't apologize. I mean, seriously, we all know that there are certain words you just don't say on television and so you have to be mindful about what you say. But she was talking about The Vagina Monologues. The chances were high something was going to be said that might upset a segment of the population. I'm just sayin'.

Posted by jennj at 07:53 AM | Comments (0)

really? really.

I'm sitting in a meeting with three male co-workers and a male consultant is explaining a grid on a powerpoint slide. He's pointing out what the low/low quadrant means to us (re: company) and then gets to the high/high quadrant and says, "This high/high quadrant is your family jewels." *blink* The male co-worker's look at me. I look at them. I giggle. They giggle. And then the consultant says, "Well, um, you know what I mean. I mean, every family has jewels!" He's just made it worse. More giggling ensues. We eventually move on.

During this one of the co-worker's sent me a blackberry message with, "He said family jewels. Heh. Heh."

Love it.

Posted by jennj at 09:00 PM | Comments (4)

it's official: cpap masks are sexy

Today was "Super Doctor Friday" wherein I had four doctor appointments. I took the day off. Anyway, on the way to the third doctor I realized that I was going to be way early. Since I'd already read through my "NZ Let's Go" guide that morning, I needed something else to read. The thought of reading a magazine at the doctor's like "Geriatric Times" or "All Mother Stuff All The Time" made me ill. I decided to stop at a mini-mart and pick up something more to my liking: People magazine. That's _my_ kind of fluff. But they didn't have any. Even though it's not a magazine I usually read, I picked up Allure. Out of all the magazines there, I'm not sure why I picked it. Maybe it was it's allure. Yuk. Yuk. But I'm glad I did folks.

When I flipped the page to the start of an article about sleep problems, I saw it. But I didn't believe what I saw so I did a double (nay, triple) take. And then it hit me: I really was looking at a picture of a woman in lingerie, lying on a bed with a CPAP mask and tube artfully displayed next to her (nbh scanned the pictures for me so you can see what I'm talking about). *blink* How freakin' cool is that? Read the extended entry for my letter to the magazine and a little more insight into why I am so happy about it. Warning: Sappiness ensues.

Dear Allure,

I could kiss you. I think you accomplished a first in the history of mainstream beauty magazines (any mainstream magazine, actually). What would that be? You included a CPAP mask and hose in a picture with a lingerie model (“The Sleep Cure” February 2008). I have never seen this before. CPAP manufacturers don’t even show the masks on people in their ads, it’s mostly a pencil sketch of a head and the mask superimposed on it. Even they can’t get it to look human and normal. Thank you. And it means a lot to someone like me. One of the stigma’s of using a CPAP machine is the ugly face mask. The whole thing is ugly (I’ve asked the manufacturers to come out with designer CPAP machines and masks, but nobody is listening). I cried when I got my first mask and one of the main reasons I did was because I was scared that my husband wouldn’t continue to find me sexy. I shouldn’t have to pick between using a device that will save my life (literally) and feeling normal and sexy. It’s been two years and he still finds me sexy and I’m over the embarrassment of using it, but to see it in a picture with a beautiful lingerie model just made me feel so good. Thanks for making me feel normal, accepted and sexy. I’ve put the picture up in my house and have shown it to friends and family whenever possible. The only complaint I have about your article is that it doesn’t mention sleep apnea! What a great opportunity you had to get more awareness out about this disorder.

Warm regards,
XXXXXX

Posted by jennj at 02:41 PM | Comments (1)

preparing for the trip

A number of activities we're doing on our NZ trip involve wearing a bathing suit. I had to go buy a new bathing suit BECAUSE THE OLD ONE IS THREE SIZES TOO BIG! Whee!

Posted by jennj at 02:14 PM | Comments (3)

i heart my crockpot

I got a crockpot from nbh for Christmas. When it started getting cold around Thanksgiving I decided that warm, homey meals would be good and a crockpot would be necessary. Ask and ye shall receive. At this point, almost every weekend I’ve taken at least one day, if not both, to make something. Most recipes have worked out, however I’m finding that I have problems with the recipe ending up with too much liquid. I know I’ll get it all worked out, it’s just a matter of experimenting. My favorite dishes so far was the vegetable curry, spicy bean soup and pulled pork. I haven’t made a chili yet, but my friend Kristin provided a good recipe. I think I’ll make that this weekend. What’s also nice is that we have dinner for multiple nights and we freeze some of it too.

I’ve realized that my favorite dishes are the colorful ones. I made a rosemary, chicken, onion and apple stew last Saturday and it just didn’t look pretty (apples had been peeled, so no skin color even). It tasted fine, but it didn’t make me happy. So now I’m making sure the recipes I pick will be pretty and colorful. And that makes me happy. Crockpot sparklies.

Posted by jennj at 09:36 PM | Comments (2)

star wars action figures

TenStar Wars toys that look like celebrities.

Posted by jennj at 07:04 PM | Comments (1)

super bowl ads and BMI

I believe I said this last year and the year before, but I'm making it official: Gone are the days of spectacular super bowl ads. I blame TiVo. I don't miss them, mind you. Because of TiVo. Building a buffer to avoid commercials is one of the things I heart about TiVo. We probably ffwd'd through most of the ads (which were mostly selling trucks anyway) looking for any that looked interesting. Some were kinda cute. But unmemorable. I think that at this point, if a company pays $1 million per 30 seconds (or whatever the obscene charge is) they're stupid.

On another note, there was a commercial with Shaq. He was a jockey in a horse race. So I saw an internet ad this morning about whatever product he was pimping for and it said something about how Shaq is 7'1" and weighs 321 lbs. I got it into my head to calculate his BMI. I went to wikipedia, and there it lists his weight as 325. Which makes his BMI is 31.6. This means he's officially obese. I find this ironic, considering his TV show last year called "Shaq's Big Challenge" in which he spotlighted six obese children to help them lose weight and eat more healthy.

Now, we all know that Shaq is probably mostly lean muscle and not fat. But my point is that BMI is such a bullsh*t number. Before the weight loss this past year, would you have considered me obese? If so, well, don't tell me. :-) If not, well, you would be wrong. According to the BMI scale, I was obese. So, do you think that BMI is all it's cracked up to be? What would you consider healthy?

Update: Yes, I know BMI is for average people, not pro athletes. I still think it's bullshit. I would rather eat healthy, exercise regularly, have good blood pressure (working on it!), good cholesterol, good triglycerides, no sign of pre-diabetes, more muscle than fat, etc. than have an appropriate BMI. If I end up with an appropriate BMI, okay, but that's not my goal.

Posted by jennj at 11:33 AM | Comments (6)

lawrence of arabia in high def

One of my favorite movies evah is Lawrence of Arabia. HDNet movies is showing it in High Def, premiering Feb. 10. Suh-weet.

Posted by jennj at 11:47 AM | Comments (6)