Oh.....You Meant THOSE Eggs!

BARBIE BOOK BACKLASH: 

Some parents are upset about the character's latest hobby. In the new Barbie book, "I Can Be A Computer Engineer" she designs a computer game. But when questioned by her sister Skipper, Barbie says while the idea is hers, she needs help from 2 men to write the computer code. She also accidentally gives her friend's computer a virus & can't fix it without a man's help. Some parents say this gives girls the wrong idea about their ability to have careers in computer engineering.

Did you know she was originally designed on a 1/6 scale making her (if life size) 5'9" tall with a 36" chest, 18" waist and 33" hips.

Barbie is 55-years-old and hasn't aged much over the years.

An entire generation, who now have children and grandchildren grew up with this doll in their midst and the women seem to be doing just fine. It may be time for the complainers to look inside themselves and see where their problems live.

It should be up to parents to guide their children.

And just so you know, I was not playing with my Cousin Donna's Barbie. I was checking out her boobs and contemplating her lack of vagina. See, I was interested in anatomy at a very early age.

"I thought I was going to a Tupperware party?"

Fashionable New York professional women gathered at a first-of-its-kind “egg-freezing party” where they sipped champagne while learning how to scientifically put off motherhood until they decide that they’re fully ready.

Dubbed “Let’s Chill,” the event was sponsored by a company called EggBanxx, which is cutting the cost of egg freezing and marketing it to young go-getters who want to be ready for kids later in life.

I don’t have a significant other . . . but I hope to one day and have kids,” said attendee, Donna Kanze, 35, of Manhattan, who has a career in the technology sector. She’s already signed up for egg freezing.

“I want to take my fertility into my own hands, rather than put pressure on the person I have my next relationship with,” she said.

“I don’t want to be in the position when I’m in my late 30s and panicking because I haven’t found the right man and I’d compromise and take anyone off the street!”

Kanze’s feelings were widely echoed among the 70-strong crowd of young women who attended the company’s $45-a-ticket egg-a-paloooza at the NoMad Hotel in Midtown.

When EggBanxx’s marketing director Leahjane Lavin, 34, announced that she just underwent two cycles of egg freezing herself, the crowd whooped with approval.

“The pressure is off, and I feel so empowered,” she said of her feelings after she socked away her eggs for a later date. “I can now concentrate on my career and becoming who I want to be before having children!”

During the event, the attendees got a crash course in egg freezing, such as how the ovaries must be stimulated with fertility drugs for 12 days before the eggs are harvested while the woman is sedated.

EggBanxx’s prices average between $6,500 and $7,500, compared to between $13,000 and $15,000, the amount it claims could be charged elsewhere.

At that price, egg freezing can make life in New York’s notoriously tough social scene a little less stressful for more people.

“I don’t want to keep thinking about my biological clock,” said Nancy Noel, a 32-year-old nurse. “I’d rather store my eggs now while they are young and healthy and use them when I’m older, say around 39."

Women now have the ability to do anything, with or without, a man. I think it's time we put Barbie controversy behind us and let her simply be a plastic doll.

We bought our first mobile phone in 1994 it looked like a WW2 walkie-talkie.

Wanda used a little traveled semi-deserted back road to get home from her office. One evening she had a vehicle problem that resulted in riding with a stranger and returning to a truck with a smashed window. We went phone shopping the next week.

That back road is long since closed, the main freeway streamlined and enlarged and we've gone through a dozen cell phones.

But no matter the increased capabilities and improvements our phones still serve one and I think the most important function; keeping us in touch and hopefully safe.

Wanda sends me a text when she is about to leave the office so I know when to start dinner. OK, I also have time to arrange things to look like I was doing something constructive during the day.

4:55 p.m. text sent: Probably here till 5:15

5:30 p.m. My phone chirped. A call not a text was coming in from Wanda's cell.

Wanda never uses her phone while driving and she always calls the land line from her office. This was very unusual; I thought it may bad news.

"I'm stuck in traffic, we're not moving and all lanes are stopped. I don't know how long I'll be. Go ahead and eat without me."

I told her I would slice the salad ingredients slower, cover them and wait.

5:50 p.m. I received a call on the land line.

"We're still sitting here, stopped. There was a multi-car accident in front of us and a fatality. I'm glad I got held up at the office tonight, I was going to leave a little early. They're saying we should be moving in about an hour, so around 6:50."

At this point I took my salad out of the fridge and ate dinner.

6:53 p.m. text sent: Maybe open at 7.

Meanwhile I was pacing the floor imagining what a freaking mess I would be stuck in that. I felt helpless as I watched two on-line traffic sites and monitored the California Highway Patrol. Wanda seemed fine playing free cell and listening to Richard Diamond.

7:03 p.m. text sent: Still here double wrap salad going to have cereal.

A fatal multi-vehicle accident shut down southbound Interstate 680 near Arthur Road and caused a major traffic jam Tuesday evening as California Highway Patrol tried to reroute drivers to Highway 4.

The crash was first reported around 5:15 p.m. Tuesday night after a Honda Pilot side swiped an Acura, lost control, hit another car before rolling over and landing on its roof, said Officer John Fransen. A total of five people in three cars were reported to have been involved in the crash.

All people suffered injuries and a 66-year-old passenger of the Honda Pilot was pronounced dead at the scene.

The accident prompted officials to close all southbound lanes of Interstate 680 and quickly backed up rush-hour traffic. Northbound lanes remained open, but delays were expected.

The southbound lanes were reopened around 7:30 p.m., but traffic was backed up until about 8 p.m.

Wanda got home a few minutes before 8 last night, she'd been up since 4 a.m. Rain was forecast for the morning commute so it would be a slow one. Still wearing her jacket and work clothes she was already thinking about leaving early the next day.

She changed, got her dinner and we talked about a woman our age that would never see her children and grandchildren again. We talked about family that now had to mourn. 

Wanda told me how lucky she was to be home. 

Then we finished watching The Lego Movie.

We eat what I like to call Big-Ass-Salad once or twice a week. Last nights included Romaine lettuce, salmon, Gouda cheese, sunflower seeds, avocado, hard boiled egg, apple and celery. 

When I was putting the salad together last night I noticed something. I was giving Wanda the more tender leaves of the lettuce and keeping most of the center stalks for me.

As well I should.

She deserves a Hell of a lot more than that.