Dashed

I had all sorts of grand plans for yesterday, but they were dashed when most of the day, after I returned from the airport and immediate dog walk following that, was taken up with doing the blog post and the online photo album of the trip. I am excited, though, because I have lots of things that I want to do and I like the feeling of being busy, but not so busy I am stressed.

This morning, I slept in after getting only 5 hours of sleep the night before and managing to not nap yesterday. The dogs and I will soon go for our walk. I took Eddie on the gentle leader yesterday. Every six months or so, I think maybe he'll prefer that since it seems more humane than the pinch collar. Each time my belief that he would choose the pinch collar could he talk is confirmed.

Before we left for Hawaii, I loaded up my iPod (or so I thought) with a bunch of episodes of This American Life that I'd actually purchased (meaning not free ones ... you only get a single free one each week, so to get a bunch of new ones, I pay 95 cents each for them ... totally worth it). I was determined to make it the least painful flight in history. Unfortunately, I forgot to force a sync of the iPod before I unplugged it and discovered this fun fact when I was on the plane. I was so disappointed. I'm now trying to avoid listening to them until our flight to CO in April.

Speaking of which, we have officially booked our trip for the fabulous brunch of RG & JG - yahoo! We'll spend a couple nights with my mom, then a couple of nights in Denver. I'm pleased with this booking as we used our United miles for the tickets and I earned the 800 miles I was short of a free ticket through dining dollars. After this trip, no more United! How blissful is that? I'm now going to switch my Mileage Plan Dining to Alaska miles.

We caught up on some TiVo watching last night, including American Idol. I'll still watch it this season, but they are no where near as good as last season. Simon Cowell said this when he was interviewed on Oprah earlier this year; after watching Hollywood week, it was confirmed. I am rooting for Chris Sligh, Melinda Doolittle, and Lakisha Jones.

Random Item(s) of the Day
I loved this article called How Not to Talk to Your Kids. It's long, but it's so interesting. It confirms what D and I have been saying for years when we discuss the culture that seems to have developed in America where people only tell their children positive things. They seem to be afraid to tell their kids when they're bad at something, or that they failed and need to try harder. Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating that people should make their kids feel badly about themselves, but it's like we've taken things way too far in the other direction. Anyway, the gist of the article is that the culture of using constant, non-specific praise is actually holding back kids. According to the study the article is reporting on, saying things like, "You're so smart," to kids only serves to hold them back and prevent them from trying more challenging things. Saying more specific things and praising the effort or the action involved in something has a much more effective results.

This article about eating more fish than recommended during pregnancy was also interesting.

To the researchers' surprise, children of women consuming the most fish showed significantly higher verbal IQs at age 8 and fewer behavioral problems than youngsters whose mothers consumed only the amount of seafood recommended in the United States.