Something Rotten in Disneyland

Regular readers will know that we watch far more than our fair share of the Disney channel. Particularly "Playhouse Disney."

Last month they were running a new commercial which included the phrase "Fabuloso Friday." I remembered Ze Frank using the phrase "Fabuloso Friday" a very long time ago, in his series "The Show."

Well, he sent them a letter, and as far as I know nothing came of it... Then, just a few minutes ago we had Playhouse Disney on again (we really need a twelve step program...) and I saw a commercial for this. Ze Fronk. Cooking with Ze Fronk. Immediately after they stole a phrase from Ze FrAnk.

Really? Are they kidding? Is there a Ze Frank fan working for Playhouse Disney? Has this fan caved under the constant pressure to do something new and interesting every month and decided to just lift ideas from Ze Frank?

As a writer, I take plagiarism very seriously. I am appalled that Disney would so flagrantly plagiarize someone whose work I like and respect.

I'd call for a boycott of all things Disney, but I don't think my kids would survive it.

It's particularly ironic that Disney is doing this, in light of their own zero tolerance policy toward people "borrowing" ideas from them... (even though they've "borrowed" and screwed up virtually every fairy tale in history... I doubt they're paying royalties to the estates of the Brothers Grimm).

When we talked about the first "borrowing" incident, someone in Ze's comments posted a link to this video:



It's one thing to borrow a phrase, made up of relatively common words. It's a whole different thing to "borrow" someone's NAME.

Take 'em down, Ze! If I were a lawyer, I'd represent you for free. Since I'm a mom, my contribution will have to be continued careful monitoring of "Playhouse Disney." Yeah, it's research... Not lazy parenting! Research...

(The lack of links to Disney websites in this post was careful and deliberate).

PS - 12 pounds.

Halloweenies

I'm not going to keep boring you with my diet, but I'm TEN POUNDS down since Sunday! I called the doctor's office this morning, because people kept telling me to, and asked the triage nurse her thoughts. "Could they have slipped a tapeworm into my fiber supplements?" She said as long as I'm not passing out, I'm fine. She suggested that I up my calories (from 1500 to 1800) and I'm like, "No thanks, this is working just fine for me." I can do this until Christmas. By then I'll be a very cute little elf. I am going to have to ask Santa for a whole bunch of really cute, really little clothes! Ok, enough about that. Reading about someone else's diet is about as much fun as reading about a root canal, right?

Meanwhile, the Halloween pictures are stuck on the CF card, so I'll have to wait until BJ gets home and reminds me how to get them off of the card to show them to you.

However, I have to take a minute to complain. What's with the kids in the white t-shirt and jeans and slicked back hair who are 50s dudes, who don't even have a pack of Pall Malls rolled up in their sleeves? Where's the realism?? And what about the "hobos" who are wearing an old flannel shirt and jeans. At least put some dirt on your face and mess your hair up. Put in a little effort, ok? And I'll tell you what, the next teenager who comes to my house is getting a Trick, instead of a Treat. Seriously. Get a job and go buy candy if you're over 15, ok?

What's your cut off age for trick or treating in your family?

I did manage to get some serious cleaning of the kitchen, dining room, and living room done while BJ has been out with the kids. I worked up a sweat, so you know it looks better. The Roomba is hard at work picking up the dog hair. Yeurrgh. I really need to vacuum and stuff tomorrow. People walking past the house in black pants are getting covered with dust and fur. It's just wrong.

What did you do tonight?

The news I'm listening to just suggested that people get in line to vote this weekend. What is this, a rock concert? Everyone I know has voted early. I haven't had the opportunity, because Allison was sick last week. But, I'm going to vote Tuesday, and if there's a line, well, that will just be weird.

Playing Catch-Up

I was at a conference all day today for work (we got an award that's two pieces of glass, and there's no way to hook them together. I guess we need some superglue?! But it's pretty and it's an award, so whatever...) and I'm trying to quickly catch up on my e-mail, blogs, and SP before I take the kids to get pumpkins to make into jack o' lanterns tonight...

I wanted to address a couple comments real quick, though, lest they get old...

Anon 1 - Jen is one of my best friends, and when she says, "I told you months ago," I know what spirit she intends it to be taken in. When you've known someone for 18 years, you get to use shorthand. Besides, she's been on WW for a while, now, so she knows what she's talking about.

Having known someone for 18 years makes me feel extremely old.

In other news... A little old lady was coming up the hill into town in front of me, and was going 35 in a 55. She pulled over, then was shading her eyes and bending forward as I passed her. I thought, "OMG, old lady having a stroke!" and pulled over. She looked just like BJ's grandmother. As I approached her car, she started to get out. I started to run, thinking that she was confused and about to walk into traffic. "ARE YOU OK?" I shouted as I approached. I couldn't hear her reply. "What's wrong, what's wrong?" I said, taking her arm.... "I just wanted to take some pictures..." she said, showing me her little disposible camera.

I felt kinda stupid.

Anon 2 - Long time readers of ye ol' blog know that I'm a huge advocate of eating locally. Our food co-op just ended for the year (I still have a few random things in the crisper). We buy our beef from a relative who raises cattle about an hour south of here, and it's grain fed, no hormones, no antibiotics, etc. etc. We drink the ultra-expensive organic milk (you thought GAS was expensive this summer - $6-$7 a GALLON for this stuff!!). Thanks for continuing to beat the drum!

ChicagoGoebel - I said a year too. MG went for 28 months, and Claire is still going at 19 months, the little addicts. I nursed through my whole pregnancy with Claire and for 9 months after Claire was born I nursed both of them. IT SUCKED (pun intended) and I highly recommend that no one attempt it, holy carp...

Seriously, someone needs to start a 12 step program for extended nursers. The first step is admitting that your mom's boobs have a problem...

Tootsie - I'm trying to stay around 1500 calories. It's not much, but I'm doing ok so far. SparkRecipes.com has a recipe calculator, and you can share your recipes with the rest of the class and EASILY add them as a "custom food" in your daily menu.

Stupid conference totally blew my diet today, even though I scraped all the cheese off of the sandwich, only ate half the fries, and just nibbled at the dessert. I should have asked for the veg plate, but it was a wrap that was mostly sprouts, and I hate sprouts, and it looked terrible. Oh well, I did ok, and tomorrow's another day.

Wait a minute, tomorrow's Halloween. Screw it, Saturday's another day.

We're going to go get our punkins now. Couldn't do the punkin patch this year, because everyone's been sick this week.

WFMW: Shrinking

Regular readers of ye ol' blog will know that I've been hinting around about something called SparkPeople for the past couple of days... I wanted to save the full description for my WFMW post, so that I can share this tool (which is, essentially, what it is) with as many people as possible.

First, a little background... I started gaining weight with puberty, but unlike most of my peers, I didn't gain the height to balance it out (I'm 5'4"). And I love to cook, and I love food. And I really, really hate to exercise. Fast forward to 32 years of age, and I find myself with a lot of weight to lose. A lot. Like 85 pounds.

That would be IMPOSSIBLE for me to admit on the internet, for all the world to see, if it weren't for SparkPeople.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Over the years I've tried joining a gym (expensive, and absolutely no change in my body whatsoever), dieting (usually long enough to go to the store, buy all the diet food, see the Oreos, decide to "treat myself," eat the entire package of Oreos, loathe myself, and swear that dieting doesn't work.... HAHAHA!), Weight Watchers (lost 10 pounds over the course of several months, HATED the meetings), aerobics (kill. me. now.) and so on.

Here's the thing - I've always started these things from a point of discouragement and feeling beaten and desperate - never out of excitement or enthusiasm, never from a point of strength.

Then I heard about SparkPeople. Married friends of ours had each (EACH!) lost 20 pounds in a MONTH using the COMPLETELY FREE SparkPeople program. Clearly this required further investigation.

I joined Sunday. I've lost 4 pounds. I've learned how to eat better (I am not going to bore y'all with endless stories about what I ate and how much and blah blah because you're here to see cute kids, not hear about my diet. BORING. But Monday I thought I'd been really good, even though I was up in Grammaland I only ate about half what I normally would at dinner, and I ordered the healthiest thing on the menu at lunch - I overdid my target calories by about 1100. And I thought I'd been good! It was really eye opening). I got up and exercised Monday and Tuesday. I bought a Swiss ball to help me exercise. I bought a yoga mat. I planned what I was going to eat when I went out for lunch on Tuesday BEFORE I left the house, and I stuck to it, and felt GREAT afterwards...

It's a very good thing.

Here's how it works -

Under myNutrition, you can get personalized menus (which you can totally customize - let's say tonight is fish and spinach, but you hate both, you can click on them and substitute chicken and broccoli instead, and it doesn't let you substitute ice cream. Hahaha... You can also add custom food, which is handy. I added my morning coffee and copied it to every day). It keeps track of calories, carbs, fat, and protein. It prints reports so you can see how you've done over time. There's a "quick track" area to keep track of how many glasses of water you're drinking, and how many servings of fruit and veg you're eating. It's a very powerful tool for keeping track of what you're putting in your mouth. I had no idea I was mindlessly eating so much (and that I was eating so much even when I thought I was being mindful!). You get points for tracking your food and reaching your goals (water, etc.). It prints your grocery list for you, so that you don't even have to think when you go to the store. I've paid for things (like Saving Dinner) to do that in the past. This is still free, and fully customizable. And it covers all three meals plus one snack a day, where Saving Dinner was just dinner.

Under myFitness, you can enter how much cardio and strength training you've done each day. It recommends various activities for you based on what equipment you said you had available. If you don't like crunches (and really, who does?) you can swap them out for some other exercise that's more comfortable. You get points for tracking your exercise. It prints reports, too.

Under Weigh In you can enter your weight and measurements (you can fully customize this, too, if you want to keep track of the size of your thighs, it allows you to put in a place, and it will graph it along with the standard chest, waist, hips, etc). I can't even tell you how reinforcing it is to start to see that line go down, down, down.

There is a vast community of people on SparkPeople, too, and they're very positive, encouraging, and AVAILABLE 24/7. I've been posting a lot (you get points) in the group "DONE being the fat girl!" (ha) and the main message boards. If you wake up at 3 am and want to eat every Oreo in town, there's someone there, online, to talk you down.

There is a library of information about nutrition, health, and fitness. If you don't know how to properly do a reverse crunch, you can watch a brief, commercial free video that will show you. If you want to learn more about abdominal adhesions, you can find out, for free (and get points). If you want to compare 1/2 of a banana to 3/4 cup apple slices, in terms of nutrition, you can (personally, I'd go for the apple). If you want to see exactly how much that 1/2 cup of fro yo is going to put you over your calories for the day, and what you're going to need to give up in order to fit it in, you can.

People, I am telling you, I have NEVER been this motivated about anything weight loss. Ever. I only wish this had existed for the year before I got married. I might not have been the wide bride.

Did I mention that I've already lost 4 pounds? Since Sunday? That's half of what I lost doing Weight Watchers for like 3 or 4 months, and SparkPeople is FREE.

In a nutshell, SparkPeople is like Facebook with a purpose, and every bit as addictive. My username is Amy0526, and I really hope that if you want to change your life, you'll join SparkPeople and "friend" me. Because I am DONE being the fat girl. I want my kids to grow up with a healthy, strong mother who teaches them how to stay healthy and fit. I want to be able to play with them until they're worn out. I want to be BJ's trophy wife :) . And I want you to come with me.

Shrinking Works for ME! Visit Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer for more WFMW tips!

Angelina Ballerina

(This is what's going on in Grammaland, and Gramma says that she isn't sending Mary Grace home until she's 13! I asked her on the phone, "No, really, when are you bringing her back?" and she said, "I don't know. I'll call you. Bye." Hahah!)