Whiny Wednesday December 26, 2012

I was thinking that maybe we wouldn’t need Whiny Wednesday, what with it being the happy holiday season and all that. But I’m a realist at heart, so here it is.

Happy Whiny Wednesday to you!

Whiny Wednesday – Christmas Shopping December 19, 2012

Last weekend I realized I couldn’t put off my Christmas shopping any longer (especially as many gifts need to be sent overseas,) so off I ventured to my local shopping street.

On a quest for a gift for a friend, I found about a dozen things I’d like for myself, and absolutely nothing for her. Three shops later and I was still drawing a blank. Finally, knowing I had to get something, I pieced together some silly items I thought she might enjoy.

Then, in the very next shop, I saw the gift I was really looking for. I bought that too and will just have to find suitable recipients for the other gifts.

So, here’s what I’d really like to do this year: I’d like to send everyone on my gift list a card explaining that their gift will arrive sometime in the next year. Then, as I’m going about my business and I see the perfect gift, I can buy it and send it, knowing it will be appreciated. Doesn’t that seem like a much better idea and more in the spirit of giving than combing the stores for any vaguely suitable gift?

It’s Whiny Wednesday, and I’m managing to keep my Christmas spirit generally up. How about you?

Whiny Wednesday December 12, 2012

Well, we knew it was coming, and here it is. Last week the feted royal couple, William and Kate, announced the impending arrival of the royal heir.

I’m happy for them, I really am, because I could not imagine them having to through any sort of infertility issues in the very, very public eye.

But I can’t say I’m looking forward to the coming months of baby mania. Holy moly, if the wedding excitement was anything to go by, it’s going to be brutal.

Fortunately, there will hopefully be some humorous respite to ease the pain, such as Snooki offering the Duchess motherhood advice. Um, yeah, Snooki, why not offer up some style advice while you’re at it?

It’s Whiny Wednesday and I’m not feeling especially charitable towards celebrity mothers today. How about you? What’s on your mind?

 

Whiny Wednesday: Small Annoyances December 5, 2012

Isn’t it amazing what the human spirit can endure? Every day the news is filled with stories of triumph over adversity. Even among ourselves, we’ve been through a lot and yet we’re making our way through it, and we’ll come out the other side intact.

And yet sometimes I think it’s the small annoyances that are going to kill me: The incorrect bill that takes an hour-long phone call to rectify; the imperceptible leak in the water cooler that slowly floods the kitchen; the cell phone/computer/car that stops working for no good reason, then suddenly decides to work again after you’ve already missed the call/deadline/appointment you were supposed to make.

In the big scheme of things, these inconveniences are nothing. They’ll be gone and forgotten in no time and won’t make much difference to the overall scheme of my life. But when they back up one behind the other, I swear it’s enough to raise my blood pressure to dangerous levels.

Luckily, we have Whiny Wednesday, our weekly release valve for all that’s wrong in our worlds. My whines are many but minor this week. How about yours?

Whiny Wednesday November 28, 2012

Thumbing through last month’s Real Simple magazine, I came across an interesting snippet of information. According to research led by Carnegie Mellon University, adults with children are 52 percent less likely to catch colds than childfree adults.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t the news of my inferior immune system that got my goat. It wasn’t even the article’s suggestion of my overall inferiority in its closing line: “Yet further proof that parents are superhuman.” (Um, no. They’re just exposed to more viruses that their kids bring home from school, so they build more resistance. Basic biology.)

No, the thing that’s prompting my whine this week is that yet another magazine that started out as a magazine for women, is drifting more and more towards being a magazine for moms. Is nowhere sacred?

It’s Whiny Wednesday. What’s needling you today?

 

Whiny Wednesday: Politics November 21, 2012

Now that the election is but a mere distant memory, it’s safe to come out and have a whine.

According to a pre-election article in the Huffington Post, Kansas House of Representatives candidate, Brandon Whipple was denounced by the Tea Party for not having children.

Literature distributed in Wichita, read: “Can someone with no children really understand your family’s needs?”

In defense of the campaign, the head of Kansas for Liberty said, “If you have no experience in an area, it is hard for you to make informed decisions in an area.”

It’s this kind of small-minded thinking that makes me despair for the future of this country, however, there is hope. The people of Kansas apparently didn’t think much of this pathetic personal attack either. Whipple won the seat easily.

So, now that’s off my chest, over to you. It’s Whiny Wednesday. What’s got your knickers in a twist today?

Whiny Wednesday November 14, 2012

Some weeks Whiny Wednesday is my favorite day of the week and some weeks I have not a care in the world to whine about.

This week I have a list…and it’s long…but I’m too darn tired, crabby, and hormonal to even get started.

But don’t let me get in the way of your whine this week. It is Whiny Wednesday after all, so knock yourself out.

Whiny Wednesday: Household Duties July 11, 2012

I am the only person in my house who ever replaces the empty toilet paper roll. I am also the only person who ever thinks to replenish the emergency supply that is usually kept close-at-hand. Our toilet paper stockpile is kept in a cupboard – a cupboard that is all the way across the other side of our disproportionately large bathroom.

I don’t wish to lower the tone of this blog, so I will leave you to figure out the consequences of this for yourself.

Today is Whiny Wednesday and this is my whine. What’s yours?

Whiny Wednesday: Skunks June 13, 2012

We have a skunk family living under the house behind us. It’s so fun to watch them scrabbling around in the garden with their little tails stuck in the air, all attitude. I’m not foolish enough to get close, but from a distant, they’re terribly cute…

…until they dug up my vegetable garden.

I came out the other day to find my pepper plants all felled, my tomatoes tunneled under, and skunk-sized holes among my Swiss chard. There was dirt and seedlings flung far and wide.

 

Trying to maintain a good attitude, I am grateful that I even have a garden in my urban environment, and that there are critters that get to share this space. But, as it’s Whiny Wednesday, I’m dropping the Pollyanna act for today. Grrr.

What are you muttering about between gritted teeth today?

Whiny Wednesday: [Bleep]ing Hormones June 6, 2012

Three words today – or rather, three letters: P.M.S. (or P.M.T. for some of you.)

After having a complete and utter meltdown over a missing phone headset yesterday, the ONLY thing that could restore me to a dignified human being was a bag of sweet potato fries and a can of lemon soda. Salt, sugar, and carbs. That, plus sending myself to bed early, like a cranky toddler.

It’s amazing the power of hormones. They can reduce an otherwise rational, level-headed woman to a blubbering illogical mess, and they can prevent a healthy young woman from producing viable, fertilizable  eggs.

It is Wednesday today, and I am SO whining about this today.