I didn’t believe this service existed until I visited the website of www.bagborroworsteal.com.  The concept is that yes you, plain Jane, can frost yourself in today’s hottest looks as well.  They have everything from jewelry to handbags and sunglasses, watches, the list goes on.  The items promise to be trendy and perfect and you RENT them.  They tout themselves as the netflix of accessories.  The monthly rental fee ranges from $25/month to $400/month.

I saw an ad for this service in a magazine and began talking about it at work.  The idea intrigued me.  Then I found out that one of my distant coworkers, who always looks fabulous, participates in this service! Aha, now I know your secret! But it’s safe with me, I think it’s an awesome idea, especially if you know you have an event coming up.

A few of my concerns would be – what if someone stole your fabulous rental bag while you were at a party? What if you love the bag so much you don’t want to return it, can you opt to buy, like a rent to own? How much do you have to pay if the item is lost or damaged?

If the policies of rental service were sound, I may be interested in signing up for this service myself, especially if you average out how much you spend on accessories in the year (and my guess is that we aren’t all out buying $1500 handbags) – so for the same cost, you might end up with a more fabulous wardrobe than you would otherwise be able to afford.

Stores make plenty of money from kids on Valentine’s Day, but the cards they have to offer show very little personality. The teacher gives a list of names to each student and they address a card to each one and bring it to school on Valentine’s Day. Cards come in all shapes and sizes in the store, but they all have the same basic feel to them. Here are a few card ideas that will be different than the usual store bought cards.

Everyone loves getting mail. I visit the mailbox each day with expectation of what may be inside. Your kids can give their classmates the same feeling with a mailbox Valentine’s Day card.

Small craft boxes can be covered with white paper to resemble a mailbox. Kids can paste X’s and O’s and hearts to the outside. Inside the mailbox put a homemade card that says something that your child likes about each of them even if it is only the color of their shirt. Add a small treat inside the mailbox to put an even bigger smile on the children’s faces.

Stickers decorate cards just as well as drawings. Using scissors that create decorative edges, cut hearts and other shapes out of cardstock paper. The shapes can be pasted on a larger piece of cardstock and given that special touch using stickers. Be sure that your child doesn’t forget to write the name of each child on the card. He or she can even make one for their teacher.

Send each child in his class a teddy bear gram. Small Valentine’s bears can be purchased at the dollar store. They have bears with clear plastic slots on the front for a wallet size picture. Instead of a picture slip a folded Valentine’s Day message in the pocket. In addition to the friendly message, each child gets a teddy bear to love.

All kids like to get chocolate on Valentine’s Day. Wrap several candy kisses in aluminum foil and shape it like one giant chocolate kiss. Write a note for each classmate on a long slip of paper and roll it up. Attach one end of the paper to the top of the foil kiss. If you’re short on time or your child has a large class, the messages can all be the same to remove the need to uniquely address each giant kiss. Kids can write something cute on the paper and sign their name.

Traditional cards are okay for classmates, but if your child has an imaginative mind, let them exercise it with these ideas. Make Valentine’s Day in the classroom exciting and new.

For years I have been fascinated by super-morbidly obese people.   You know, the ones that have to have their wall sawed through in order to remove them from their house.  I recently watched “World’s Fattest Man” – a story of a man, Manuel Uribe, who lives in Mexico and is cared for by his girlfriend and his mother.  His starting weight was 1200 lbs. and his current weight is around 800.

He lost 400 lbs. using the “Zone” diet.  He has not left his bed in 5 years and is washed by an array of nurses, etc. and seen by the public and doctors (he even runs a clothing business from his bed) – this dude has turned down the offer of gastric bypass surgery and has opted to keep up w/the diet/bed exercises even though he has not lost any more weight over the past year.

I think most people have a variety of feelings for individuals like this, my guess is it ranges from pity to disgust.  I go back and forth myself.  The biggest benefit of me watching these shows is to aim to NOT become like that and stay on my weight watchers program, I’m down 37 pounds so far and have 70 to go to reach my goal weight.

On one hand, you have to recognize that something must be pretty wrong in his head for him to not only get to this point (not leaving his bed and just getting bigger and bigger) but also to STAY that way for so long.  I think any overweight person can recognize the part of their personality that would like to just chill in bed with some bon bons and watch t.v.  The difference between the super-morbidly obese and regular fattys is that us regulars continue to live life, out of the need to watch kids, pay bills, etc.  Duty calls, either get up off the couch and answer it, or look forward to the fire dept. sawing you out of your house.

Both the original show and the updated show of the World’s Fattest Man made me feel compassion for him and a sadness at realizing that his life is slipping away day by day while he watches it from his bed.  I don’t even know this person and that depresses the hell out of me.  I can only imagine he MUST feel a fraction of that sadness and loss.  Just when I focus on that aspect of it, I swing back the other way and go “come on! you did this to yourself and you are refusing any kind of help!”

Meanwhile I have an episode of “half-ton dad” to go watch…what I would like, is for someday to have obesity be a thing of the past and then there will be no need for these documentaries that I can’t seem to quit watching.