September 2006 Archives

Ah yes, Fall TV season is upon us once again. This fall TV season is different than any other TV season I've ever seen. And not because of the slate of enticing new shows, or the anticipation of returning favorites, or the demise of sadly-missed shows ... But because now I have a kid and TV watching just ain't the same as it used to be. Darnit. We prepped for this, tho - we knew things would change. In September 2005, we purchased the DVR (or rented, whatev) service from Brighthouse. We tinkered around with it, messed with settings, just played around. Little did I know it would become a Godsend for an entertainment junkie such as myself.

We started out DVRing an episode of something here and there. Maybe a Law and Order Criminal Intent that was re-running on A&E and we didn't have time to watch the whole thing. Maybe one of Alton Brown's Good Eats so we could catch the tail end of Wheel of Fortune (where I would summarily whip the contestants bums in the final round). Maybe the VH1 top 20 video countdown so we could see what was cool and "in" and pretend that we were still hip and relevant.

Then it got a little more serious. We set the DVR to tape our regularly watched shows on a schedule. Even if we had the time to watch a show, we'd wait til the DVR finished, so we could watch the show sans commercials. It felt like we were very efficient TV junkies when we were able to fast forward thru the commercials. Hey, we were saving 8 minutes per 30 minutes of TV programming. We felt so smart, so accomplished, so ahead of the curve.

Even tho Owen was born last year during the regular TV season, we managed to watch all our shows we had DVRd in a timely fashion. We'd get home from work, play with him, feed him a bottle, get our dinner ready, put him in his entertainer (when he was old enough) and watch our shows from the previous night while eating dinner. Then when we were done 22 or 44 minutes later, we'd hang out with him and play and do all that stuff. Not to mention (but I will anyway), when I was on maternity leave, I'd just watch my shows during his marathon feeding sessions. It was a great schedule.

Then the summer re-run season occured. Over the summer, Owen started eated solids and quickly moved to real people food. He started eating in a high chair. He started scooching. He started crying if we held him too long, since he wanted to be out and about. He really started to want to "walk" everywhere. He started crawling. So gone were the days of playful moments in his exersaucer. And it was OK by us. We were moving around, staying active, rolling on the floor, playing. And the TV stayed off. We did start watching Psych over the summer, but that was at ten p.m., so we'd watch it (on DVR, of course) after Owen went to sleep. And of course, we watched Project Runway, but that was also a ten o'clock show. I DVR'd It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia and Hex to watch later... but of course, that's still sitting in my DVR player, unwatched.

And so now the fall TV season is upon us once again. Along with the above mentioned shows, Studio 60 is sitting in my DVR. As is Law and Order (all three of them) and Dead Like Me (Sci Fi started showing it). And tonight is My Name Is Earl and The Office are on. And I kinda wanna see Ugly Betty. What am I going to do next month when Lost comes back? And Veronica Mars? And when 30 Rock debuts? I need a bigger damn hard drive - or at least another 3 hours in the day.

So I don't know if I've blogged about this before, but since all our entries are kaputnik now, I'll rethink these thoughts that I am about to revisit - and rethink.

So I sometimes wish I had a computer strapped to my body.

Like, how cool would it be to think, oh dang, I need to make car reservations, and just go and do it. Or like, man, who is this lonelygirl15? Or more so - I often think of things that I want to blog about. Like, Oh Yeah! That'd be an awesome blog entry, awesome! And by the time I get to a computer, I've either a) forgotten what I was going to blog about, or b) when I start to write the entry, it doesn't match what I had in my sweet imagination. <<-- PARAGRAPH 3

So to spare you a tired, unoriginal, not-that-funny potential blog entry, I won't recap what I had in my head. I will, however, point you to a blog I discovered yesterday. It's pretty damn funny. It's John Mayer's blog. Yes, the dude who sings songs with such lame lyrics as "Your Body is a Wonderland" - I mean, really? But I gotta say, I love love love loved his first album - even the wonderland body song. Recently, we were in Atlanta and every other street is Peachtree this, Peachtree that (very original, I know) and I made the comment of "Wow, I feel as if I'm in a John Mayer song," and I don't think anyone got it. Oh well. That being said, his second album was good, too, but I don't know if I can get into John-Mayer-the-Artist-with-the-Long-Scraggly-Hair-Cause-It-Makes-My-Blues-Music-Sound-More-Real. BUT - I do love his sense of humor, and love that his blog is very topical. I mean, come on, making reference of Perez? And Trent? He's frickin' awesome. :) When I get my LINKS page back up, I'm gonna make a link for his blog. Then my blog-y will be a wonderland.

And yes, I know that there is such a thing as a Blackberry and I could have accomplished everything I wrote about in paragraph 3 (I clearly marked it up there). BUT, I'm lame, and can't really spend the money on a blackberry and service. I've got a kid now and he's taking up all my expendable income anyway. Dangit.

Holy Motherfreaking Crud -

From ABCNEWS:
(there is a pic on that link!)
BIG FREAKIN BABY

NORWICH, Conn. Sep 14, 2006 (AP)— Oh baby! Marie Michel's fifth child was one for the record books. Michel gave birth to a 14-pound, 13-ounce boy Tuesday at William W. Backus Hospital.

Backus officials said the newborn Stephon Hendrix Louis-Jean broke the 18-year record for the biggest baby ever born at the hospital by 1 pound, 13 ounces. He was nearly 23 inches long.

"He's built like a linebacker," said Dr. David Kalla, who delivered the baby by Caesarean section.

After nine months of carrying Stephon, 36-year-old Michel said she was more tired and happy to have given birth than all the attention her baby was receiving.

"I was miserable," Michel said. "I couldn't sleep at night. My 13-year-old son had to help me get in and out bed."

The baby's size came as no surprise to his mom. Michel's oldest son weighed 9 pounds at birth, her 8-year-old twin sons each weighed 8 1/2 pounds and her youngest son, age 3, was nearly 12 pounds.

Michel's husband, Vijens Louis-Jean, a truck driver, was coming from Florida to see his son.

Less than 24 hours old, the baby was fitting into clothes for a 6-month-old and was too big for newborn diapers.

"I have baby clothes but I don't think they will be able to fit," Michel said. "I think I will have to return them."

Hi y'all -

Sorry I haven't blogged much lately or responded to comments posted on the blog. I have been meaning to, but life has been busy. Have been in the office all week in face to face meetings. But I did make it a point last night to stay up til 11:30 p.m. and get the captions on these.

I've updated his milestones for all months and August pics. Again - a Meine Kleine Weblog exclusive before it is made public to the general population!

http://owenspictures.dell.shutterfly.com

Hope you all are well.

hugs,
A.

So when we went to Atlanta this past w/e, we rented a minivan. A minivan. Our friend in Atlanta suggested we rent one so the five adults and one child could all ride in the same car together. In comfort. So while looking for rentals, I searched and searched for a good size SUV that could hold all of us. My excuse was that minivan rentals were just ridiculously priced! But lo and behold, I found one from Thrifty Car Rental that was only $135. For four days. (of course, when we got there, the lady talked us into an upgrade - "you do want rear vents, don't you? you don't want your passengers to suffocate, do you? i'll give you the grand caravan." and when she raised the price to $199 (lies, lies, lies, it turned out to be $200.13) and saw my disappointment, she bumped us to the elite Chrysler Town & Country ... ooooo big whoop. Oh, and on top of that, they gypped us on four gallons of gas. Effers.)

ANYWAY - Ryan didn't like the van. But I did. Not driving it or anything. Cause come on, it's an American car and drove pretty crappy. But I LOVED the spaciousness of it. I loved that I could walk from the front seat to the middle row (which had two captain's chairs as opposed to an actual row) and from the middle row to the back row. The back row was adjusted so the backrest was leaned way back and it seemed like you were on a mission to mars type ride. We didn't get a chance to fix that, but it was ok, cause it gave you an excuse to lean waaaay back and close your eyes.

Ryan says that I liked it cause I am short. He's smart, that one. What else did he say? Oh yeah, that because I'm "small" (God bless his heart for that comment), that it probably felt like a luxury RV to me. Hardy har har. Eh, probably. It was definitely cool going from front to back and back with no problems. Owen didn't care one way or other, i think. Although it must have tickled him pink to see us in the back back row from his rear-facing seat in the middle row. Cute kid.

If you want to see some pics of the trip, Annie has them on her blog. And you can see just how damn cute Owen is. Ha!

But that being said, I don't think we'll be purchasing a minivan anytime soon. Hey, it's just the three of us. I think our Camry will do us just fine for now.

So I've been TAGGED!
Dang, books - I used to read all the time ... let's see if i can answer these.

1. A book that changed my life: The Bible (King James Version or New Living works, too). I converted to Christianity back in junior high (none of this "middle school" bull for me). My parents flipped when my sister converted, so I kept my newfound religion on the DL. One day, I had a little mini bible in my purse. I missed the school bus so my dad drove me to school. I left my purse in the car by mistake. He picked up my mom from work later that morning. They discovered the purse in the car and parked under a tree in a random parking lot and proceeded to rifle through my belongings. They found the bible, a note I had written to my best friend detailing all the celebrities I had a crush on (Alec Baldwin, Matthew Ashford (Jack from DOOL (come on, people, that's Days of Our Lives)) and Harrison Ford (this is back in '89, ok - the days of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Regarding Henry - not the geriatric Harrison Ford of today with the diamond stud in his left ear)), and geez, something else, I can't remember. When I got home, there was hell to pay. They demanded to know why I had a bible of all things in my purse. I surprised myself with my own quick thinking (then again, I had all day to fret once I realized I left my purse in the car - I knew my nosy parents would snoop through it) - "Well, you see, we're studying world religions in my history class, and my group is doing the Bible." That satisfied them. What bugged them more was my list of hotties. They didn't believe me that Matthew Ashford was a celebrity, so they thought I was getting it on with some kid at school. Yeah, no. But how cool would that have been? ac + ma 4eva!

Wow, that was a long answer. I promise that the others won't be as long. But even still, I'll put my answers in the extended entry ...

ALL THE PICS are HERE.
Well, really, CLICK HERE.

photo 1
photo 2
photo 3

will post better ones if i find them.

Edit - am finding them.

From ONTD

VANITY FAIR blurb and PICTURE of COVER.

gawker1
gawker2

Wow, apparently, there are TWENTY TWO PAGES of photos in the issue of Vanity Fair. Next time you're in the checkout line - check it out!

Anyone else think they are photoshopped?

My blog, my blog, my lovely lady blog. We had some problems. Alas! Woe is me. :) When I have time, I'll fart around with it to see what I can do. In the meantime, I'll leave you with an epiphany I had. A revelation of gigantic porportions that came to me in a dream.

I know what is up with Suri Cruise.

Basically, I had a dream. And Katie was institutionalized, like in a mental hospital maternity wing or something. And i was called in to help out with the kid. So i get there and katie is like, tore up, i'm telling you, to' up from the flo' up, tore up, you know. so they hand me the kid and it literally is like 8 inches long. and the baby is alive, and moving a little bit and it's just so teeny and i'm like, wth? and everyone is like, oh, she's so small cause she's a preemie. and i'm thinking, but isn't this kid like 5 months old now? what's going on? and they tell me she was like the size of a lima bean when she was born, so she's really grown a lot. ohh kay.

but then i figured it out - something just wasn't right - so i looked closer - and the baby was an animatronic object!!!! the folks at ILM (industrial light & magic) did some great mojo on making that baby. so then i go into katie's room in her ward and her bad taste (aside from agreeing to the TomKat sham) was blaring - she had posters of Ashlee Simpson up in her room. And so i'm looking around and i see these pictures of a baby with one side of it's face disfigured. like half of it is just scrunched down or something. but the face is all blurry, too. and not photoshopped blurry - but that's just how they came out in pictures. like there was a ghost on top of it or something.

then ashlee simpson comes into the room gushing about the animatronic baby and how cute it is. i'm thinking that this is the biggest sham of the century. huge.

anyway, that was my dream. and if you read this, i'm impressed cause it's an old blog entry that i've only just now updated with the dream. but then again, i'm sure i'll tell some of you about this particular entry cause i wanted to share this dream for a while. i had it on thursday night, august 31st, mind you, before the suri pics came out. wanted to blog about it, but unfortch, my blog was down. but now it's up. so here it is. or rather, there it was. my dream.