Stockpile Savings

So I've been reading up on diaper stockpiling as a way to save money and it's very confusing. Some people say you don't need newborn diapers and some people say you need over 250. Well I've decided to settle for 163 after today's spontaneous Walgreen's purchase.  While looking for some dark chocolate during a break from work today, which I didn't get by the way, I stumbled upon a 90% off shelf.  

 

For a grant total of $1.58 I got infant formula (1.04) and 42 store brand newborn diapers (.54).  All this time I'd been researching ways to save for baby, but as usual the best savings came when I wasn't even looking.  I've been stockpiling honest, babyganics, and seventh generation, but for approximately .01 a diaper I figure I'll take my chances and hope baby's skin isn't super sensitive.  I can't believe this is my life now.  

Pink is the New Black

My sweet husband got me this little beauty for no reason.  I just came home from work the other day and there it was.  It's so small and lightweight and pink.  It's like having a tablet with a keyboard which is perfect for me because I'm not that into the touch screen on my ipad.  I basically just use it as a e-reader.  Now I just need to take the photos etc off my old laptop and take it to best buy for recycling.  I will be taking some time off from work soon and plan to do some nesting while I wait.  Between buying last minute baby things, getting rid of excess baggage, hauling stuff to good will, lots of laundry, and packing our hospital bags, I think I should be plenty busy.  I imagine my new pink laptop will be high on the hospital bag list.  

Inside Out

On the plane ride back from Atlanta last week, I finally got to see Inside Out.  It was a delight.  The premise is super cute and although a lot of reviews suggest it would go over the heads of children, I can understand why kids would have a lot of fun with it.  The characters are great and the movie is visually engaging.  Although I though the message of the movie, that it's ok to be sad sometimes, was awesome, Sadness, played by Phyllis from The Office really got on my nerves sometimes.  She just kept messing stuff up.  I also would have like more screen time for Disgust, voiced by Mindy Kaling.  Overall I think this is a move that 90% of people would enjoy and I had a fabulous time watching.

Extant

I didn't know this was a show until last week and now I watch it every other day.  It's the only show C and I can agree on right now.  He's all about the food network and I'm all about abc family.  I seriously had no idea Halle Berry was on tv now.  Typically I am not a fan of science fiction at all.  For some reason I find this show not only tolerable, but I would say that I'm pretty hooked.  Halle Berry's character is an astronaut who goes to space alone for over a year and mysteriously returns pregnant.  Her son is also a robot.  Sounds ridiculous, but it's actually good.

Down the Rabbit Hole

I read this book so fast.  If Girls Next Door was your guilty pleasure and Holly was your favorite like she was mine then you will eat this book up and sympathize with her all the way through like I did.  For some reason I let myself get caught up in the Amazon reviews and what I noticed is that they mostly wanted more details about her sex life with a 78+ Hugh Hefner.  The one group scene she described was plenty (disturbing) for me and I didn't need any more details.  I do agree with some of the negative reviews the observed a lack of self-awareness on the part of Holly because she didn't seem to acknowledge her own pettiness in certain situations.  Nevertheless, I finished the book liking her even more and finding her to be more relatable than ever.

She describes Hugh Hefner giving girls quaaludes on nights out, pitting them against each other, and keeping them just insecure enough in their looks and value to stay with him.  It makes a lot of sense when you think about it.  How else would this geriatric man get highly attractive women to stay with him for free room, board and $1000/week clothing stipend? He has to not only find desperate misguided woman without many prospects in order to agree to sex, companionship, and a 9pm curfew.  He has to break them down enough so they'll believe no one else will want them and that they are not enough on their own so they'll continue to stay.  

Holly does spend adequate time describing other mean girls in the house and her negative reviewers really take issue with this.  What they fail to understand or possibly didn't read far enough to see is that by the end of her memoir Holly comes to fully understand that this tension between her and the other girls was largely orchestrated by Hef.  As a thirtysomething she acknowledges that it wasn't the other women who were her true victimizers.  I read this book as the cautionary tale of someone who wasted her twenties with and abusive man who convinced her that she couldn't make it on her own and wouldn't be able to find love elsewhere.  I'm happy for her that she was able to extricate herself from that situation.  She and I have drastically different values.  I am a puritanical prude.  But I really admire her ability to cop to her mistakes instead of lying to herself and everyone else by pretending their was anything healthy about her relationship.