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January 19, 2008
One evening of snow in Atlanta is fun. But more today? Not so fun. Although Ralph would beg to differ.
January 16, 2008
Our first Atlanta snow of 2008 came today. The boys were happy, but confused (since we had told them it almost never snowed here).
It started a little after 5 pm.
And it continued for at least a couple hours.
Now it’s raining. This will mean either a) a layer of ice or b) all the snow will melt by midnight. Either way, I’m fairly certain everyone around here has plenty of bread, milk, and liquor to last a couple weeks. Because guess who gave in to the hype and stopped at the store at 4:00 this afternoon? Gah.
I guess this is what I get for laughing at my family up north when I called them from the back deck earlier this month. And bragged about how nice it was to be sitting outside in January. Stupid karma.
November 9, 2007
A few links about the writers’ strike:
Pop Goes the Library has an interview with writer Jeff Gottesfeld.
Neal Pollack shares Scenes from the Writers’ Strike over at Slate.
And this video, which I posted over at MamaPop earlier today, explains why the writers are striking, in a quick and simple, Schoolhouse Rock kind of way.
November 6, 2007
I’m just not writing much these days.
Clearly, I’m not participating in NaBloPoMo or NaNoWriMo. Home improvement projects, sick kids, sleep, and other real-life adventures have taken priority over blogging. But you can still find me over at MamaPop. I do have something new (blog-related) in the works, and hope to share more on that very soon. Also, I’m working with Stefan and Bill on the 2007 Fids and Kamily awards. There will be lots more on that next week, including (hopefully) some reviews/raves about a few of my favorite kids’ albums of 2007.
One more time-suck/confession — over the weekend, we bought the season one box set of Friday Night Lights, a show we just started watching this fall. Because we live under a rock, evidently, and didn’t catch on to what an amazing show this was last year. I am in love with Friday Night Lights. Why didn’t anyone tell me how good it was? (Okay, about nine of you told me. But I ignored you. Until last month.)
Speaking of box sets, I’m going to be giving away a Scholastic Treasury of 100 Storybook Classics later this month. This is HUGE! And it would make an AWESOME gift for a child, or possibly a teacher who has lots of indoor-recess days. The 16-DVD set includes favorites like Curious George, Where the Wild Things Are, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Corduroy, Make Way for Ducklings, Harold and the Purple Crayon, The Teacher from the Black Lagoon, and lots more. Details on my give-away gimmick coming later this week.
October 22, 2007
One of the many things I love about fall is that it’s the time of year that I start baking again, after months of avoiding the oven. Pumpkin muffins, Halloween cookies, pumpkin cheesecake, apple pie, and soon, a slew of different Christmas cookies and treats. I’ve been busy baking and will stay busy baking from now through the end of the year. Easily. Not to mention the kids’ birthdays in March. Remember last year?
And while I’ve been into baking for nearly 15 years, it’s only been in the last five years (or so) that I’ve gotten very good at cooking. You know, making actual meals, rather than fancy desserts and snacks. But I’ve been doing some fall cooking, too — pot roast, soups, chili, lasagna. For some reason, this kind of fall and winter cooking is more fun for me than spring or summer cooking (which usually involves throwing some chicken breasts or turkey burgers on the grill, or whipping up some pasta salad).
Because we’re at the start of what I consider prime cooking and baking season, I jumped at an invitation to a night out last week with some other Atlanta area mom bloggers that was focused entirely on FOOD. The fabulous Miss Zoot was our hostess, and Danielle of Foodmomiac (who, it turns out, was living in the Toledo area at the same time I was, working at a firm that did Web design for my old employer, and who — quite possibly — was in a meeting or two with me back in 2004) was behind the planning. The event was sponsored by the National Dairy Council and 3-A-Day, and they treated us like superstars.
First, there was wine. And some fabulous hors d’oeuvres (like this one, which I highly recommend). Then they showed us around Super Suppers, gave us snazzy aprons, and explained how we were each going to put together six meals for our families.
Since the event was being held at Super Suppers, I knew going in that we’d be making several dishes. So I was prepared to chop and grate and slice and dice and all that good stuff. But they made it so EASY there. All the ingredients we were using were already chopped or grated or sliced or diced, and each ingredient had a spoon or scoop that was the exact measure of what we needed to put in our dish. It was basically idiot-proof. And there was no actual cooking (although I had told my family that I was going to be at a “cooking thing” all night). I think I made all six dishes in about an hour.
And then they gave us cookies and milk. And more goodies. And when it was time to go, they helped us carry the enormous amounts of food we had made out to our cars.
When I got home, my husband was beyond impressed. He opened the gigantic bag-o-food and marveled at what I had “made” for him. When I told him how easy it was, he was slightly less impressed (with me, anyway), but still salivating over the many containers of food. “This is the best thing that’s ever come from you being a blogger,” he said.
“Better than when I was interviewed by the New York Times?” I asked.
“Oh, yeah,” he said. “We can’t eat the New York Times.”
More pictures here. Bunches of awesome recipes here. And be sure to check out the other bloggers who were there: Sophie, Amber, Sherri, Kathy, Leandra, Michelle, and Melissa.
October 16, 2007
CNN’s Anderson Cooper appeared on Sesame Street this morning. NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams is hosting Saturday Night Live this weekend. These two bits of information made me realize that the line between news and entertainment — which has been fading fast — has nearly disappeared.
In my recollection (and in some quick online research), it seems that the line began to blur in the early 2000’s. It was 2002 when Katie Couric appeared in an Austin Powers movie and on an episode of Will and Grace. (Couric’s Today Show colleague Al Roker has appeared in a number of sit-coms and children’s shows in the last decade, but somehow this seems more acceptable for a weatherman than for a journalist.)
Over the next few years, big changes occurred at the highest levels of TV news. With news veterans like Dan Rather, Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw, and Ted Koppel out of the picture, a new generation of anchors and reporters began re-defining the role. Other factors — 24-hour cable news, all-hands-on-deck coverage of major tragedies and disasters, the popularity of news satire — influenced this as well.
Do you remember a time when news anchors and reporters were just that — anchors and reporters? When they weren’t viewed as entertainers? When they weren’t doing cameos on sit-coms or lending their voices to animated movies? It used to be okay for TV news people to be stodgy, serious, dry, or even dull. But now there seems to be a major effort to make them more fun and accessible.
A few weeks ago, I discussed the branding of news sources (remember the FOX “Fair and Balanced” necktie and the New York Times baby overalls?), and how that made it hard for me to take the news seriously. Seeing Anderson Cooper in a garbage can certainly hasn’t helped:
How did this happen? And it is necessarily a bad thing?
September 10, 2007
Ginger Hendrix is working on a new record! Yea!
Way Out Junk has music from some old (really, really old) kids’ TV shows — Popeye, Rin-Tin-Tin, Mighty Mouse, and Howdy Doody.
Bon Ton has compiled an impressive list of women who write music blogs.
