Contest Addict

If any of you didn't know, I'm an online contest junkie. Particularly sweepstakes, as I don't really like to do too much to win (although I'm now starting to enter some scrap challenges). But I discovered this Blogroll of contests starting on the Rocks in My Dryer blog and now it seems I must enter all I'm interested in. So guess what I'm going to be doing now that David's asleep? You got it, entering, possibly 300 or so if I can type that fast. Wish me luck!

I HATE Halloween

I used to be so annoyed with my parents when they wouldn't allow us to participate in Halloween. I mean really, one year they wouldn't let us go to our church's "Harvest Party" - their Halloween substitute. Halloween has never been my favorite holiday, but I now just hate it. I hate all of the nasty, gory decorations that are put up in my neighborhood. I'm wondering how David will react next year when he's a little more cognizant of scary. I think they're all disgusting, even the cutsy ones. I hate how snot-nosed kids come to your house demanding candy like you owe them for being neighbors. I hate the constant wailing decorations in the stores, the ones where every time you walk by them they start talking at you in an electronic spooky voice. I'm not particularly fond of the color orange, or of pumpkins, so that just feeds my annoyance. I wish we could just skip it and move on to Thanksgiving, a much gentler holiday. Ok, a much gentler holiday if you ignore the repercussions for the Native American Indians, or whatever it is politically correct to call them now. I know, I'm a social worker, I should know we now call them either First Americans or Indigenous Americans or First People. Or a variety of other things, depending on the monthly flavor. Bet they didn't have stupid holidays like Halloween. Or if they did, I bet they at least got off work for it.

Bring on Gordon!

Ok, I want Gordon Ramsay to come to STL. Seriously, watching his new show, Kitchen Nightmares, makes me afraid to ever eat at a restaurant again. Particularly a Mom and Pop joint, as all the restaurants on this show seem to be scary investment propositions with couples whose marriage has been destroyed by the restaurant. Apparently this means that it's ok to let roaches infest your kitchen, and not clean the stove for months on end. Now I love Gordon Ramsay, and I love the fact that his other show, Hell's Kitchen, has him as the sole judge. See, he actually knows what he's doing, so he tells the cooks what sucks and what doesn't. I like that in the age of nationwide vote-em-off over the internet. I also like that on Kitchen Nightmares at every single restaurant he orders crab cakes as the bellweather - kind of like I do with Pad Thai at all the mediocre Thai restaurants in STL. But apparently he doesn't leave New York or London. Doesn't he know that we need Midwestern restaurant critiques too?

Baby Pics

Ok, so he's a big one year old now. Still my baby. And insanely photogenic. He must get that from Matt. This was taken just a few weeks ago in Sept. Perhaps I will periodically post a few pics, you'll just have to wait and see....

Hi There

Welcome to the new Ehlen blog. I got tired of my Xanga blog, so I decided to do this one. I'll post some baby David pics here soon.