Current food obsession

Those of you who know me know I am not a fan of Wal-Mart. However, I had to stop in the store over the weekend to pick up a few things. I noticed they have started stocking Great Value brand organic soy milk in 2 quart containers. I'm always on the lookout for the best tasting chocolate soy milk, so I purchased a carton. I opened the carton when I got back to my car, and finished half the carton before I pulled into my driveway.

YUM-O!

Death to trolls

The family went to see Spiderwick Chronicles a few weeks ago. Of course, I have been having dreams about trolls appearing in and around our toilet. In my dreams, I've been knocking them off with a wooden handle from a toilet plunger, but they persist. If you have any ideas on how to keep them from coming back (again, these are dreams I'm talking about), please feel free to share.

Passing the torch

It is official...my son can also inflate a balloon with his nose. My daughter can play "Ode to Joy" on the recorder with her nose. Is this a dominant gene? Hmmmmmmm.....

Joke telling, Asperger style

H: Mom, I want to tell you a joke.
me: Okay, I'm ready.
H: If your friends jumped off a cliff, would you? (he laughs) Isn't that funny?
me: What? That isn't a joke.
H: Okay. If you had a friend named Cliff, would you jump off him?
me: (chuckling) Uh, was that your joke?
H: Yea! Wasn't it funny? (he laughs)
me: Uh.....(trying not to smile)
H: Okay, here is another one! If all of your friends were named Cliff, would you jump off them? (he is laughing hysterically)
me: (laughing now, at the absurdity of this)
H: (encouraged by my laughter)If you were named Cliff, would your friends jump off you? If your friends were named Cliff, and they were on a cliff, would they jump off themselves? If your friends.....

On and on it goes, for roughly 20-30 minutes, because he doesn't know how to stop.

Thanks for coming to the comedy club. Don't forget to tip your waitresses!

You may not know him by name, but he has probably already hugged you.

At least one hallmark of autism is some type of sensory problem. This, you will find, can manifest in several different ways. For example, some people can't deal with loud noises, while others can't function if their clothes are scratchy. Equally as varied is the way autistic people deal with sensory overload in order to find a comfort level which allows them to function. You've probably seen a kid who rocks back and forth, or a kid who spins like a top.

My son is a hugger.

Actually, it is more accurate to say that he needs to be sqeezed. Frequently. Oh, and it really doesn't matter if he knows you. I'm just warning you. His doctor belives it is a symptom of not "feeling" one's body...a heady, drunk "medicine head" feeling. For those of you who haven't felt that way/don't know anyone who can't "feel" their own body, think Jerry Lewis in the Disorderly Orderly. Okay, that should give you a fairly accurate picture.

Temple Grandin is a fascinating success story in the world of autism. She, as a teen, invented a squeeze machine to help her relieve anxiety attacks. She describes the squeeze machine here: http://www.autism.org/hugbox.html

For many people, like my family, this device would make too big of a dent in the family savings...and probably take up too much space in the family room.....so the other option is the weighted vest.....



Now, I haven't personally seen one of these yet, but I'm going to guess there are pockets for the addition of weights. I'm interested to know how much weight can be added. Can I add enough weights to keep my son from running toward a person to hug them? Can weights be added to prevent my son from running and JUMPING onto a person to hug them?

If anyone has had experience with the weighted vest, I would be interested to hear your comments!

Grocery shopping

Can anyone explain to me why we are lacking for a decent (and competitive) health food store in this metropolitan area? Seriously?! It is at least a two hour drive for a good selection of wheat free/gluten free products. I find it hard to believe that our area (Peoria/Bloomington-Normal) cannot support a larger health food store than the one we have. The local store I currently use for wheat free/gluten free products has been out of stock on several items the last few times I've been in the store. So, I've placed specials orders, left deposits for my orders, etc. Which means phone calls to the store to follow up on orders, and extra trips to the store to pick up what I need. By the way, the local store is approximately 20 miles away.

Yes, I could probably order this stuff online, but I haven't found a vendor (yet) who allows orders for anything less than a case quantity. I don't have room to store cases of this stuff in my house. Also, I will not commit to purchasing a case of anything if I'm not sure I'll like it, ya dig?

What is the rush?

As I was shopping today, I needed assistance at a specific full service counter. I rang the bell on the counter, to alert whomever was in the department that I needed help. While I was talking to the associate helping me, another lady interrupted me to ask the associate for help. The associate understood the rudeness of the interruption because the associate (not the other customer) apologized to me and asked if I would excuse her for a moment. This type of interruption seems to occur more frequently than it used to. Why the shift in civility, folks? What in the world is going on that makes "ME" the most important person in the room? Can I just add, also, that the other customer was an older woman? I would have expected a younger person to be impatient. I would have expected a harried mother with three kids in tow to be impatient. I would never expect the older woman shopping by herself to be impatient.

I have also seen this behavior in the mornings, as I drop the kids off at school. Each year the school gives the directive for dropping off and picking up kids at school, to prevent traffic jams and unnecessary accidents. By the 2nd week of school, drivers have taken leave of their senses...making not one single file line of cars (as directed), but two lines with some parents in such a hurry that they try to sneak in between two rows of parked cars because they are in a hurry. A hurry for what? This just doesn't make the slightest bit of sense to me. The car in the middle lane is in a hurry, which is why they sneak into the middle (and only empty) lane, but they have a van full of kids who are slow moving. So, now we have three lanes of traffic where there should only be one. And, instead of speeding things up, everyone is suddenly moving slower to make sure they aren't going to be hit by someone else's car. Sigh.

Miss Manners, is there a polite way to respond to this?

By the way, the customer who interrupted me today needed a pillow case for a travel pillow.