The Leen

I thought I’d take the time to respond to some comments that people have left on my blog recnetly. Blog commenting frustrates me; when I comment on someone else’s site, 99% of the time I forget to go back and check to see if they have responded to me or not, so any dialogue that might have developed sort of just falls by the wayside. I don’t know about you, but I want it to be like Facebook in that if someone responds to a comment I make on a blog, it emails me. I’m sure I could do that on some sites, but I’ve never figured it out.

Anyway, I love reading each and every one of your comments, so I always feel bad if I don’t respond. But it seems like responding in the post is an imperfect way of doing it, but making a new post is sort of superfluous. So I guess this will do for tonight, but in the future, I’ll do like all the other bloggers and respond in the comments section of the original post.

Okay, here goes.

Several people left questions on the post I made a while back about diapers. Sorry I haven’t answered yet! Better late than never, right?

Sara asked, “I’ve heard about gdiapers, but I don’t really understand them, I guess. Does just the inner portion get disposed of?” Well, yes. Sort of. Here’s how they work. You have a cloth cover (think t-shirt cotton) that’s lined with PUL, kind of like regular cloth diaper covers are. These covers, though, have a snap at each corner, where you snap in a plastic-y shower-cap-like liner thing. Inside THAT goes what I call the giant maxi pad liner. That’s what catches all the waste. So when you change the diaper, usually the outer cotton cover can be reused, and maybe half the time, the shower cap thing can be, too. You just have to replace the maxi pad part. And you can either flush that part, compost it, or just throw it away. It’s pretty easy, and it’s a good solution for us for when we travel.

Kris mentioned how expensive the g-Diapers are. And, you’re right, they aren’t cheap. But since we use cloth almost all the time, I can justify the cost of the g-Diapers for when we travel. We were in Portland for over a week and I didn’t even go through a whole pack. I try to buy a pack at Fred Meyer (or wherever) when they’re on sale and stock up. The way the sizing is, she’s in the M/L size anyway so it’s not like she’s going to outgrow them.

Kathryn asked in that post whether or not I was intentionally making a pun when I said our plumbing was crappy. Ha, no, I wasn’t, although that’s a good pun.

Kristin asked which kind of cloth diapers we use. Most of the time, it’s prefolds with Bummis covers. I have one Thirsties cover (which I really love; I want more!) and I have two Kissaluvs fitteds, as well as a Sugar Peas fitted. I got those three at the consignment store, and while I love their ease of use, I find that the Kissaluvs give Elanor a rash when I use them. I wonder if they have some kind of residue? I am having issues with my prefolds being smelly, too, but all that is a topic for another post. I love my prefolds. They work well for us and while they were intimidating to fold at first, now I could do it with my eyes shut, no problem. (They do intimidate Brett, though, not to mention our extended families. That’s why I have the fitteds; they’re a lot more user-friendly.)

On 11/2, Kristin asked, “Why do you like wordpress better than blogger?” Annie asked me the same thing via email. I really like the behind-the-scenes stuff better on WordPress. I like the dashboard and controls. I like the plugins and widgets that are available, and that can be used with any design/theme/template. (In Blogger, you are restricted to using one of their themes if you want certain design features. So in the name of convenience, I sacrificed and had a boring boring boring design because it was easier to manage the rest of the features.) I just feel like it’s a more professional, user-friendly interface. *shrug* I don’t know if that’s a complete answer or not, but I just prefer its functionality. It does, though, require a little bit of website savvy if you are going to make a lot of changes and modifications. My teensy bit of knowledge about HTML, etc, definitely helps here. If you have any specific questions, let me know!

In a comment on my coffee post on 11/6, Annie suggested the idea of Brett doing a guest post to show how to make a French Press. Great idea! I mentioned it to him and he said he’s up for it, although it might be a while as he’s going to be traveling a lot for work in the next few weeks. (Again, that’s a post in and of itself…sigh.) So keep your eyes peeled for Brett the Coffee Master’s Amazing French Press Tutorial.

Annie also said she wanted to hear how the massage date went on Friday. It was awesome!! We had an incredible time. It was just what we needed, both from a physical standpoint and from a relational one as well. It was wonderful to just spend time with Brett, and our massages and the water treatment thingy they did were both wonderful. Afterward, we went out to one of our favorite restaurants and each had a big bowl of soup (Soupe a l’oignon gratinee for him, Soupe a la courge rotie for me) and split a half-bottle of red wine and a bowl of french fries. I was so relaxed and happy and buzzed from all of the wonderfulness, you could have rolled me out of there. It was a wonderful evening, and I wish we could do it more often.

Bridget left a comment on my post about links suggesting I check out SouleMama. Thank you so much for the suggestion! Not only is it fun to read her blog because (despite how glad I am to be back in Seattle) I do have a fondness for Mainers, but I also like reading it because I love her sense of style (Annie, you’ll love it, too!) and her general aesthetic. Thank you, Bridget!!

I love reading about everyone’s food quirks, too. Thanks for sharing those. I definitely love Cheez-its, too, Carolyn, and Arianna, your ice cream-milk-marshmallow thing sounds very creative. Kris, I am with you on the bread (I should post my beer bread recipe; OMG, that stuff is so good hot from the oven with butter all over it). Annie, have you had Breyer’s Oreo ice cream? It is like crack to me. And Molly, I like vanilla pudding, too, but chocolate usually wins for me, hands down. (We should make cream puffs sometime; the recipe I use calls for the filling to be made out of vanilla pudding. NOM.)

Okay, I think that just about brings me up to date. If I missed a question, comment here and I’ll answer it for you!