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<channel>
	<title>Absolutely Bananas: Seattle mom blog</title>
	
	<link>http://www.absolutelybananas.com</link>
	<description>This Seattle stay-at-home mom is the uncontested winner of hoards of imaginary and completely absurd awards including slap-yer-knee funniest blog, all-time best stories, and the highly prestigious "this woman is downright mad" award.</description>
	<pubDate>Sun, 07 Feb 2010 04:39:35 +0000</pubDate>
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		<title>Our dog has hypnotic powers</title>
		<link>http://www.absolutelybananas.com/2010/02/our-dog-has-hypnotic-powers.html</link>
		<comments>http://www.absolutelybananas.com/2010/02/our-dog-has-hypnotic-powers.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 07 Feb 2010 04:39:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>bananas</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[bella]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[dog]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.absolutelybananas.com/?p=740</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A lot of people don&#8217;t know this, but our dog Bella has hypnotic powers.
You&#8217;ll be sitting at the dinner table, eating a piece of pizza, when you feel these strange&#8230; impulses.





Admit it, if you HAD a piece of pizza, you totally would have dropped it.
Related Posts

The dark side of Bella
Dog parks are the new slasher [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>A lot of people don&#8217;t know this, but our dog Bella has hypnotic powers.</p>
<p>You&#8217;ll be sitting at the dinner table, eating a piece of pizza, when you feel these strange&#8230; <em>impulses.</em></p>
<p><img src="http://www.absolutelybananas.com/images/bella1a.jpg" alt="" /></p>
<p><img src="http://www.absolutelybananas.com/images/bella3.jpg" alt="" /></p>
<p><img src="http://www.absolutelybananas.com/images/bella2a.jpg" alt="" /></p>
<p><img src="http://www.absolutelybananas.com/images/bella2b.jpg" alt="" /></p>
<p><img src="http://www.absolutelybananas.com/images/bella4a.jpg" alt="" /></p>
<p>Admit it, if you HAD a piece of pizza, you totally would have dropped it.<br />
<h3>Related Posts</h3>
<ul class="related_post">
<li><a href="http://www.absolutelybananas.com/2009/07/the-dark-side-of-bella.html" title="The dark side of Bella">The dark side of Bella</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.absolutelybananas.com/2009/05/dog-parks-are-the-new-slasher-movies.html" title="Dog parks are the new slasher movies">Dog parks are the new slasher movies</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.absolutelybananas.com/2009/03/she-likes-to-move-it-move-it.html" title="She likes to move it move it">She likes to move it move it</a></li>
</ul>
<p>©2008 <a href="http://www.absolutelybananas.com">Absolutely Bananas</a>. All Rights Reserved. 

<a href="http://twitter.com/bananas"><img src="http://www.absolutelybananas.com/images/twitter.png"/></a></p>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Doppleganger schmoppleganger</title>
		<link>http://www.absolutelybananas.com/2010/01/doppleganger-schmoppleganger.html</link>
		<comments>http://www.absolutelybananas.com/2010/01/doppleganger-schmoppleganger.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 31 Jan 2010 03:58:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>bananas</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[facebook]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[funny]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[vanity]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.absolutelybananas.com/?p=737</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s DOPPLEGANGER week on facebook. And if you don&#8217;t know what I mean by that, clearly you need to get a life.
Doppleganger week is where people on Facebook replace their profile picture with a picture of the celebrity they look like.
Like this,

or this,

or even, this,

Right away I notice a disturbing trend. All my attractive friends [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>It&#8217;s DOPPLEGANGER week on facebook. And if you don&#8217;t know what I mean by that, clearly you need to <a href="http://www.absolutelybananas.com/2009/02/in-defense-of-facebook.html">get a life</a>.</p>
<p>Doppleganger week is where people on Facebook replace their profile picture with a picture of the celebrity they look like.</p>
<p>Like this,</p>
<p><img src="http://www.absolutelybananas.com/images/dopple_2.jpg" alt="" width="557" height="64" /></p>
<p>or this,</p>
<p><img src="http://www.absolutelybananas.com/images/dopple_3.jpg" alt="" width="545" height="58" /></p>
<p>or even, this,</p>
<p><img src="http://www.absolutelybananas.com/images/dopple_1.jpg" alt="" /></p>
<p>Right away I notice a disturbing trend. All my attractive friends are posting profile pictures of these super-duper hot models and celebrities. And I find myself thinking, &#8220;you know, she kind of DOES look like Christie Brinkley.&#8221; And then I read the comments where everyone says, &#8220;You TOTALLY look like Christie Brinkley&#8221; and I start feeling like I want to throw up.</p>
<p>The thing is, I&#8217;ve never been told I look like a celebrity.</p>
<p>Probably because I don&#8217;t. And that wasn&#8217;t even one of my ISSUES until this blasted doppleganger week had to hit Facebook like a tsunamai and give me ONE MORE THING to feel inferior about.</p>
<p>But then I remember this fancy little <a href="http://celebrity.myheritage.com" target="_blank">widget-wadget-whatchamacallit</a> that I played with a couple years back where you could upload your picture and it would tell you which celebrities you look like.</p>
<p>I decide to give it a try, secretly hoping that it will come up with Jennifer Aniston or if I&#8217;m lucky, Angelina Jolie.</p>
<p>I upload my picture, like so:</p>
<p><img src="http://www.absolutelybananas.com/images/dopple_profile.jpg" alt="" /></p>
<p>And I wait for the MAGIC.</p>
<p>It spins&#8230;</p>
<p>And spins&#8230;</p>
<p>and THEN!</p>
<p><img style="border: 1px solid black;" src="http://www.absolutelybananas.com/images/alexander.jpg" alt="" width="646" height="732" /></p>
<p>ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!</p>
<p>DO I REALLY LOOK LIKE <em>THIS GUY</em>?</p>
<p><img src="http://www.absolutelybananas.com/images/alexander-lukashenko1.jpg" alt="" /></p>
<p>Alexander Lukashenko</p>
<p>the President of Belarus?</p>
<p>AND IS THAT EVEN A REAL PLACE?!</p>
<p>I&#8217;m sorry, but I refuse to see the resemblance.<br />
<h3>Related Posts</h3>
<ul class="related_post">
<li><a href="http://www.absolutelybananas.com/2009/12/dear-santa.html" title="Dear Santa">Dear Santa</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.absolutelybananas.com/2009/05/show-me-the-money-the-cj-version.html" title="Show me the money (the CJ version)">Show me the money (the CJ version)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.absolutelybananas.com/2009/04/everyone-has-one.html" title="Everyone has one">Everyone has one</a></li>
</ul>
<p>©2008 <a href="http://www.absolutelybananas.com">Absolutely Bananas</a>. All Rights Reserved. 

<a href="http://twitter.com/bananas"><img src="http://www.absolutelybananas.com/images/twitter.png"/></a></p>
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		<item>
		<title>40 things worse than turning 40</title>
		<link>http://www.absolutelybananas.com/2010/01/40-things-worse-than-turning-40.html</link>
		<comments>http://www.absolutelybananas.com/2010/01/40-things-worse-than-turning-40.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 22 Jan 2010 08:35:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>bananas</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[age]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[jay]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[lists]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.absolutelybananas.com/?p=735</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Next week Jay turns the big four-oh. He&#8217;s dreading it, but I keep telling him THERE ARE WORSE THINGS!
Like, for example&#8230;
1. Being eaten by wolves
2. Getting your leg caught in a meat grinder
3. Poking your eye out
4. Running over a baby bunny or duckling
5. Finding a finger in your soup
6. Irritable Bowel Syndrome
7. Losing the [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Next week Jay turns the big four-oh. He&#8217;s dreading it, but I keep telling him THERE ARE WORSE THINGS!</p>
<p>Like, for example&#8230;</p>
<p>1. Being eaten by wolves</p>
<p>2. Getting your leg caught in a meat grinder</p>
<p>3. Poking your eye out</p>
<p>4. Running over a baby bunny or duckling</p>
<p>5. Finding a finger in your soup</p>
<p>6. Irritable Bowel Syndrome</p>
<p>7. Losing the winning lottery ticket</p>
<p>8. Mullets</p>
<p>9. Being chewed up by hamsters, rats or cats</p>
<p>10. Bed bugs</p>
<p>11. Falling down the stairs</p>
<p>12. Stepping on a rusty nail</p>
<p>13. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114898/" target="_blank">Kevin Costner with webbed feet</a></p>
<p>14. Lice and scurvy. And all that other stuff they used to get on boats.</p>
<p>15. Drinking lumpy milk</p>
<p>16. Taking the <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/" target="_blank">red pill</a>.</p>
<p>17. Getting eaten by a shark.</p>
<p>18. Teenage girls</p>
<p>19. Filet-of-Fish sandwiches</p>
<p>20. The stuff <a href="http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/dirtyjobs/dirtyjobs.html" target="_blank">Mike Rowe</a> does</p>
<p>21. Having gas on an airplane</p>
<p>22. <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;source=web&amp;ct=res&amp;cd=4&amp;ved=0CBQQFjAD&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bravotv.com%2Fthe-real-housewives-of-orange-county&amp;ei=VodSS639JILYsQP34ZGCCA&amp;usg=AFQjCNFfVB2IU44DM6160x1vImdbSUwt8g&amp;sig2=bAHTLu7PsGA-vGcq0ntGRw" target="_blank">The Real Housewives of Orange County</a></p>
<p>23. Comb-overs</p>
<p>24. Trying to figure out how to sync your iPhone to a new computer without losing all your music</p>
<p>25. Taking your baby to get his shots</p>
<p>26. A root canal</p>
<p>27. Anything by Paris Hilton</p>
<p>28. A runny nose when you don&#8217;t have a kleenex</p>
<p>29. Catching your hair on fire</p>
<p>30. Windows XP</p>
<p>31. Paying taxes</p>
<p>32. Accidentally brushing your teeth with hemorrhoid cream</p>
<p>33. the 80&#8217;s&#8230; back in style</p>
<p>34. Having the pilot of your airplane pass out from bad fish and all the other people  pass out too and you have to fly the airplane but you don&#8217;t know how</p>
<p>35. Mean aliens that come to Earth to exterminate human life</p>
<p>36. Throwing up in your mouth</p>
<p>37. Dropping a baby</p>
<p>38.  Stepping on dog poop. In the middle of the night. With bare feet.</p>
<p>39. Lower back pain.</p>
<p>40. Falling down and you CAN&#8217;T GET UP!</p>
<p>See? Don&#8217;t you feel better now?<br />
<h3>Related Posts</h3>
<ul class="related_post">
<li><a href="http://www.absolutelybananas.com/2010/01/pain.html" title="Pain">Pain</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.absolutelybananas.com/2010/01/he-sees-donkeys.html" title="He sees donkeys">He sees donkeys</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.absolutelybananas.com/2009/07/in-the-heat-of-the-moment.html" title="In the heat of the moment">In the heat of the moment</a></li>
</ul>
<p>©2008 <a href="http://www.absolutelybananas.com">Absolutely Bananas</a>. All Rights Reserved. 

<a href="http://twitter.com/bananas"><img src="http://www.absolutelybananas.com/images/twitter.png"/></a></p>
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		<title>Pain</title>
		<link>http://www.absolutelybananas.com/2010/01/pain.html</link>
		<comments>http://www.absolutelybananas.com/2010/01/pain.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 19 Jan 2010 04:35:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>bananas</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[at least I think I'm funny]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[health]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[hypochondria]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[jay]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.absolutelybananas.com/?p=736</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Saturday morning I woke up to blaring back pain.
Back pain so intense that I literally wept as I pried myself out of bed.
One leg over the side. OUCH! Then the other leg. OUCH! Pull myself up to sitting. OUCH! OUCH! OUCH! Ever-so-slowly I ease to standing. OUCHIEMCFREAKINGMOTHERBLASTER!
And so my weekend goes right down the toilet. Instead of Nordstrom [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Saturday morning I woke up to blaring back pain.</p>
<p>Back pain so intense that I literally wept as I pried myself out of bed.</p>
<p>One leg over the side. OUCH! Then the other leg. OUCH! Pull myself up to sitting. OUCH! OUCH! OUCH! Ever-so-slowly I ease to standing. OUCHIEMCFREAKINGMOTHERBLASTER!</p>
<p>And so my weekend goes right down the toilet. Instead of Nordstrom and Starbucks it&#8217;s Heating Pad and Advil. On my Big Fat List of To-Do&#8217;s I got zero done.</p>
<p>Now, <em>not to get all husband-bashing here</em>, but the fact is that whenever I have a crisis of health- like for example I get <a href="http://www.absolutelybananas.com/2009/10/vaccinate-this.html">swine flu</a> or <a href="http://www.absolutelybananas.com/2008/07/my-vitals-may-be-normal-but-im-a-sick-sick-woman.html">Lyme disease</a> or <a href="http://www.absolutelybananas.com/2008/07/hypochondri-what-and-can-you-die-from-that.html">strange and suspicious lumps</a>- I never really feel that Jay is quite supportive enough.</p>
<p>It just seems like he has this air of skepticism about him. Here I am, MOANING and WRITHING in agony, and he&#8217;s looking at me rather like he thinks I&#8217;m <em>making it all up</em>. Or being OVERLY DRAMATIC.</p>
<p>And you and I both know that I am NEVER overly dramatic.</p>
<p>Ok so maybe TECHNICALLY I don&#8217;t have to yell &#8220;OUCH&#8221; every time it hurts. Which is frequently. Which means I&#8217;m yelling OUCH a lot. But I guess deep down I feel that if I&#8217;m suffering, the ones I love should suffer with me. I&#8217;m pretty sure that was somewhere in the marriage vows.</p>
<p>And as I&#8217;m writing this my husband <em>who I was just complaining about</em> comes down and takes my boots off for me because he knows I can&#8217;t bend over without bringing down the roof with my screams of pain.</p>
<p>(ouch)<br />
<h3>Related Posts</h3>
<ul class="related_post">
<li><a href="http://www.absolutelybananas.com/2008/07/my-vitals-may-be-normal-but-im-a-sick-sick-woman.html" title="My vitals may be normal but I&#8217;m a sick, sick woman">My vitals may be normal but I&#8217;m a sick, sick woman</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.absolutelybananas.com/2010/01/40-things-worse-than-turning-40.html" title="40 things worse than turning 40">40 things worse than turning 40</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.absolutelybananas.com/2010/01/he-sees-donkeys.html" title="He sees donkeys">He sees donkeys</a></li>
</ul>
<p>©2008 <a href="http://www.absolutelybananas.com">Absolutely Bananas</a>. All Rights Reserved. 

<a href="http://twitter.com/bananas"><img src="http://www.absolutelybananas.com/images/twitter.png"/></a></p>
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		<title>Hot Yoga</title>
		<link>http://www.absolutelybananas.com/2010/01/hot-yoga.html</link>
		<comments>http://www.absolutelybananas.com/2010/01/hot-yoga.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 16 Jan 2010 06:58:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>bananas</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[hot yoga]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[I'm a woman]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[yoga]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.absolutelybananas.com/?p=732</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Her breath smells of onions and she&#8217;s breathing in my face. Which makes it hard to find enlightenment or even breath through my nose.
&#8220;Breath in!&#8221; she shouts at me, &#8220;LIKE THIS!&#8221;
She snorts in through her nose and raises her elbows, her hands clasped below her chin, and I mimic her.  If I do it right, [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Her breath smells of onions and she&#8217;s breathing in my face. Which makes it hard to find enlightenment or even breath through my nose.</p>
<p>&#8220;Breath in!&#8221; she shouts at me, &#8220;LIKE THIS!&#8221;</p>
<p>She snorts in through her nose and raises her elbows, her hands clasped below her chin, and I mimic her.  <em>If I do it right, she&#8217;ll go back to the front of the class and leave me alone. I hope</em>.</p>
<p>&#8220;Now OUT! Through your mouth!&#8221;</p>
<p>It&#8217;s New Year&#8217;s Day, and I&#8217;m trying Hot Yoga. Also known as Bikram, which always makes me think of Vikram, which is <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTDkho9mJnA" target="_blank">Pheobe&#8217;s made-up boyfriend in that one episode of Friends</a>.</p>
<p>But it&#8217;s not Vikram, it&#8217;s Bikram, and it&#8217;s serious. Seriously HOT. Bikram yoga is done in a studio heated up well over 100 degrees.</p>
<p>I bend myself into a sandwich and huff through my nose, fighting down the urge to run screaming from the room.</p>
<p>When you heat up a room to unreasonable temperatures a funny thing happens to the time-space continuum. Time stretches out like a shimmering heat wave with no clear middle or end. It slows and stretches and goes on forever. I check the clock. What feels like an hour has only been fifteen minutes.  Can I make it? I&#8217;m running out of air!</p>
<p><em>I can breath. I CAN. I am not going to suffocate. Everyone else is doing it. It&#8217;s just HEAT.</em></p>
<p>While hot yoga does give you a good whole body workout, it&#8217;s even MORE rigorous as a mental workout. If you can make it 90 minutes you come out the other end a stronger person.</p>
<p>A <em>dripping-wet-with-sweat </em>stronger person.</p>
<p>The truth is I have never sweated so much in my life. There&#8217;s hot and then there&#8217;s HOT and then there&#8217;s HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO STAND ON ONE LEG WHEN MY FEET ARE SLIPPERY SLITHERY COVERED WITH SWEAT- hot.</p>
<p>I hear the fans come on and with them a fluttering of hope. But no, these are a <em>different </em>kind of fan. These fans circulate the freshly heated air to make sure that no one in the room is cooling off NOT EVEN A LITTLE BIT.</p>
<p>Finally a woman in the back stumbles out. The cool draft from the door makes me shiver with pleasure.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s normal to feel nauseated! Dizzy! Light headed!&#8221; the instructor is saying, &#8220;Just stick with it!&#8221;</p>
<p>I know she&#8217;s a trained professional but I also know that THERE IS NOTHING NORMAL ABOUT ANY OF THIS.</p>
<p>I tuck my elbow under my arm pit, press my foot into my stomach and breath in through my nose.</p>
<p>Only 70 minutes to go.<br />
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