Odds, ends and Craig's List

First of all, thanks for all the compliments - you guys were way too generous. There's a reason I didn't have pictures with any of the other female residents (like I'm twice their size and they'd make me look bad). I really would have been happy if that last 12lbs of baby had come off, but oh well, at least it's not twenty-five anymore. And we had a great time.

Sorry to make you look at those pictures all week long, but I spent most of this week laying around in a over-dosed haze (serious back issues), so I avoided trying to write any coherent sentences. But I do have a few things to be grateful for, I'm realizing. Like the fact that my babies are ridiculously good eaters. I haven't found anything yet that they won't eat. I sometimes wonder if it's that they eat tastier food than I ever used to let Cash eat (like the occasional mac 'n cheese, chicken nuggets, etc). But then I realize they don't just eat that, they eat everything. Spicy, bland, salty, vegetabley, whatever. And Cash was never a bad eater, so it's only when I have friends tell me how nice it is that they eat that I realize, yeah, I sure don't have to worry about them not getting enough nutrients. And they don't really say stop. I mean, sometimes you can tell when they're done, but not that often. So maybe I'm over-feeding them, but sometimes when I think I'm done feeding them and I go to eat something, they get all kicky in their chairs and excited thinking it's coming for them and then mad when it's not. We could probably safely assume they got their eating genes from my side of the family. :)

And it must be paying off. When I took them for their one year check ups this week, when we came in, the nurse said, "Wow! They're big for twins!" I said I was pretty sure they were big for any baby. And yes, they were in the 90 - 95th percentile for pretty much everything and weighed in at 25 and 26lbs. Yeah, no wonder my back hurts.

In other gratefulness - all of you who said just get the exterminator were right. Such peace of mind! I can't tell you how nice it is to leave food out for more than 30 seconds without fear of invasion! Luckily our landlady was cool about it and got right on it. Ahhhh. Relief.

Then there was my Craig's List find of the week. I've been looking for a water table for the kids for quite some time. I thought it would be fun to put on our balcony, especially when it's hot and humid, since it may be as much outdoor activity as they get - me sitting on one side of the glass door in the air conditioning watching them while they splash water on themselves out in the 100% humidity. Our neighbor in Milwaukee had one and Cash loved it. So I've been watching Craig's List for a while to see if one came up. Well, this week I finally saw one for $20. Not an amazing deal since they are only $34 new, but at least it was a little cheaper and it was the only one I'd seen in months.

So I get in touch with the lady. She lives on South Beach. In a house. That tipped me off - woah, this lady has money. And makes me think of course - why does she even need $20 for this stupid toy? So I go over there to pick it up. Yep, three cars home in the middle of the day, all various forms of mercedes. Money.

I see the water table just outside the front door. She comes to the door and I say, you want $20 for it, right? She says yes, so I hand over the money. I go to pick up the table and notice it's filthy - in, on around and under. "Um..." I sort of look back up at her. "This is all muddy and I have to take this thing into my condo..." She still just looks at me for a minute. Then she says, "Well, it's an outdoor toy." I'm like, "Um, even so, I'd still have to pick it up and put it in my car..." I see a hose on the ground. "Can we use your hose to clean it off?" She says yes, and goes and turns on the water. I'm standing there sort of looking around and after a minute she says in sort of this hello?? voice, "There it is." "Oh," I say really surprised. She's expecting me to clean off her dirt at her house. I'm still a little stunned by her nerve, but I pick up the hose and start trying to hose it off - while not getting it on my pink shirt and white shoes. I see her shying away, also trying to not get dirty and I have a hard time not just "accidentally" soaking her with the hose.

I hose forever and it's still totally muddy and nasty, but my kids are in the car and I don't feel like doing this anymore. So I sort of give her a little bit of a dirty look, a sarcastic "Thanks," and I get out of there.

I'm going to blame it partly on the fact that I was just ornery because I was in pain, and it was yucky and raining out which worsened my mood, but when I got home I shot her back an email (I know, why do I care, and why didn't I just let it go?) that told her I was disappointed that her table was filthy and I felt she should have cleaned it or sold it for me cheaper if she expected me to clean it myself. Especially to make me be the one to clean it at her house. I said that instead I dragged mud into my car, on myself and into my shower where I had to spend 15 more minutes cleaning it. I told her if she sells things on Craig's List again, she should just keep that in mind.

She emailed back and said that if she had known I was in an apt vs a house, she would have cleaned it more thoroughly. But how was she to know?? And, she didn't help me clean it because she was dressed and ready to go meet a client (that is total crap - she was in a freaking sweatsuit). She said that even if I had to rinse it off a little $20 was still a totally great deal.

Resist! Give it up! Apparently I can't. So, I email her one last time and said I was over it now. I'd said my peace and I had no hard feelings. I told her I was planning to use it out on the balcony, but even then, no one wants any one else's old dirt. I also said that I guess we saw it differently - I didn't think $20 was an amazing deal for something that's only $34 new, espeically since most things I see on Craigslist are less than half price. And I obviously wasn't expecting to be hosing off mud either, otherwise I wouldn't have worn white shoes and a pink shirt. Then I wished her the best and said it was fine. (Ok, the no hard feeling obviously wasn't really true, but I was trying to make amends a little since I knew I was kind of being a jerk and what if I run into her again someday?)

Ok - really. It must have been the medication talking. Who really feels like they have to go demanding justice when it's just a stupid old toy anyway! And what do you expect from Craig's List!? But seriously, was I a little overboard or was that really lame of her?!

But while I'm on the subject, while I was in the middle of writing this post, I ran across an amusing post a friend wrote about free finds on Craig's List - which is something I have been laughing at so much lately. Always such random things on the free list. Free adult diapers. Free magic show tickets. Free lamb-face pillow with a link taking you to an in-depth video of the totally featureless, possibly 12" lamb-face pillow. Free Britney Spears tickets (???!!! I didn't get them). Free bald tires. Free massages. In your house. (Wait...um...creepy?) Dwarf hamsters, catholic workbooks, bellydance classes, neutering, Dog Fancy magazines, free broken junk, free broken junk, free broken junk....

Yeah, really. What was I expecting from Craig's List?