Has anybody else noticed how much Gwen is copying early Madonna? “Serious” is so ’80s Madonna I’d be surpised if she doesn’t whip out the Boy Toy belt and lace gloves for the video. (Lame!). I’ve been listening to the tracks on Amazon and I’m not really digging the retro sound; I think some of the reviewer cracks calling it “hellabad” are about right. Only the old-school No Doubt (NxD! Oi!) groupies seem to be salivating over this one.

Bruce and I threw caution to the wind tonight and ate dinner out with the girls. We spent some time wandering around downtown trying to think of a place to eat, until I remembered the one place that’s semi-safe to take them–at which point I exclaimed “DUH! Duh, duh, duh! We should go over to Fresh Choice.” We then spent the next ten minutes laughing at the twins repeating “duh! duh! duh!” in their little toddler voices. We’re having a lot more “hmmm, I didn’t think they heard that” moments.

We went in, and just getting down the line was kind of comedic. I had to fold down out double stoller as soon as we got it in the door, and then we had to whip the twins out and put them in those rolling highchairs as fast as possible. Then came juggling two rolling highchairs, several trays, plates, and a stroller down a line of salad. Naturally they squirmed and screamed to get out of the chairs the whole time–not that either of us had any hands free to control or pacify them–and patently ignored our pleas to please sit down and be quiet, because dammit, they were going to have all the food they could ever want before them in a matter of moments. What were we thinking? They don’t even like real food. We got a table and they finally settled down a little, then immediately gorged themselves on cornbread, chocolate muffins and yogurt. I think I saw them eat maybe one pea each. That was their vegetable group. (They only have a few others: the peanut butter Puffins group, the buttered toast group, the cookie group, and the tomato-basil hummus group).

But hey, it wasn’t so bad. Ms. Somebody’s Mom was there with her fambly too! When I wasn’t picking up crap the girls threw on the floor or frantically trying to get some food shoved in my mouth, we were able to yak about (what else?) Flickr and how addictive it is. She tried to give me hints on her first “Where Am I?” photo challenge, but I still have no idea.

And damn, Fresh Choice’s new pizza slices are awesome.

The last thing I did before bed was check out my new Intermediate Dreamweaver MX 2004 training CD (Who, me? Open Christmas presents early?) and was about to watch the chapter on Pure CSS Layouts. It was a little before midnight. The narrator began: “Just a note here: please don’t begin this chapter at 11 o’clock at night after a long day…watch it in the morning, with a strong cup of coffee.” Ah yes, these guys know the CSS beast. Yes, maybe tomorrow.

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Links! Links!

I’m on the hunt for a used copy of this book, thanks to one of Grace’s photos. Anybody else seen it or read it?

According to this, I should be 500 pounds by now.

Not-so-gentle hints for obnoxious cell phone peeps: Shut Up Already

I wonder how many nannies she has lined up. Not that I’m jealous or anything.

Yummmm. The Breakfast of Champions - lots of fun stuff; test your caffeine IQ here.

ipods Around the World