TV Talk

These questions were from a few days ago from Miss Zoot, and I liked them so I’m doing them now. That’s in the rules, right? Rules, heh. Anyhow, I  saw them on Mama Bub and thought I’d play along.

Did you watch TV growing up? What is an obscure TV show you loved that was maybe short lived or that NO ONE has ever heard of?

I did not watch much tv. I don’t know why, except that my nose was usually in a book (I know, not much changes, right?). I remember watching Reading Rainbow and Jem (I almost burnt the house down when my parents left the house with me in charge of the sausage cooking on the stove while I was watching Jem. They came home, the house was full of smoke and I was still perched slack-jawed watching Jem.) Do you remember Picture Pages? I loved Picture Pages. And Dinosaurs. Not the Mama!

What is one TV show you loved that everyone HAS heard of?

Blossom, Clarissa Explains it All, Are you Afraid of the Dark?

What TV are you watching now that you would recommend to EVERYONE?

The tv I watch is the same shows I’ve been watching for 10 years, and I wouldn’t recommend new episodes to anyone. I’m just watching until my shows are canceled, but I’m not good at picking up new shows so I figure eventually I’ll be watching nothing.

What is a TV show – past or present – that cracks you up consistently?

Friends, Big Bang Theory, New Girl.

Do your kids watch TV? Are there shows you love too and sometimes watch when they’re not around? Are there shows you hate and you REALLY wish they didn’t love them so much? 

I don’t really like the kids’ shows. They love Tumbleleaf and Peep and the Big Wide World, and last night they decided to watch an episode of Caillou (gag me). Kids movies: yes. Kids tv: no.

Do you limit your TV or your kid’s TV at all? How do you make sure your entire family isn’t sitting around binge watching Gilmore Girls all weekend?

The boys watch tv at aftercare, but we don’t really turn on the tv when we get home until after the kids go to bed (unless they are playing a Wii game), during the week. Monday through Thursday, they watch one show before bed (Mon/Wed Spencer gets to pick, Tues/Thurs Henry gets to pick) and on Fridays we do movie night with popcorn and I usually pick the movie. When we drive to Disney on most Saturdays, they watch a movie, and on Sundays we have football on and sometimes I let them watch movies in my bedroom. Mornings that one of the grownups gets to sleep in, the other grownup usually lets them watch a movie on the portable DVD player in their room.

Apparently I’m raising my children to be as out of touch with pop culture as I am. Sorry, boys.

Friday ... five? ish?

1)      I realized this morning that Henry has been playing us on the pull-up issue. I had suspected that he was replacing his pull-up in the mornings, but I couldn’t really prove it. I put the new ones out of reach, but didn’t really pay too much attention. This morning he left his old one in the hallway but still had one on his bottom so I knew without a doubt that he had switched out for a dry one so he could drag my hand to his diaper and say “look! It’s dry! Can I get a sticker on my sticker chart?”

2)      I’m trying to decide when I want to get my Christmas tree down from the attic and start slowly decorating for the holidays. I don’t separately decorate for Thanksgiving because I just love all one holiday season. My husband is an “after Thanksgiving” tree person, but last year we compromised by putting up the tree before T-day but not decorating until afterward.

3)      I’m taking a timeout from a project that is testing my nerves right now. And I think I’m going to have to take it home this weekend which I REALLY didn’t want to do but I just don’t see any way around it.

4)      We have tickets/Groupons to a local Greek festival at an orthodox church here. I have no idea how it will be, but we thought it would be a little something fun. Maybe it will be a lot o ffun, maybe it will be a little fun. We shall see.

5)      I’m low on topics today. Have a good weekend, play a little basketball.

Answers to questions

Let's not let me kid myself, I totally stole today's meme from Kristabella. But I liked the questions, and I like Kristabella.

1. What did you do 10 years ago

It saddens me that 10 years ago was a drop in the bucket. I’m feeling so very old. 10 years ago was 2004, which means I was working middle management in retail and coming home to my now-husband (then still boyfriend) to cry almost every night. It was bad. Otherwise I don’t think anything noteworthy was happening 10 years ago. It seems to me that that was around the same time I met my best friend (via the internets and a dire need for a pair of shoes!) and she’s one of the best things to ever happen to me, so there’s that.

2. Five items on my to-do list today

Nearly the exact same things on yesterday’s to-do list, because I left it at work and didn’t do jack (that’s a lie, I made milkshakes, dinner, went to Target and got Lego storage, helped Spencer sort his Legos and gave the kids baths. But the only thing I did from my to-do list was go to Target.)

1)    go through the kindergarten stuff (I have this enormous box of kindergarten stuff because every piece of paper that ever came home went in the box. I need to pick a couple things to save for Spencer and chuck the rest – this task will need wine.

2)    Get mail done: I have a couple packages and cards that have been in my car waiting patiently to be mailed and I really need to get that taken care of.
3)    Make dinner. Tonight is shrimp and grits.
4)    Clean my dresser. Guys, I cannot for the life of me put my own clothes away. I pile them on my dresser until I can’t see over the top of them, and then I buck up and clean up the mess. I need to break the cycle but I just can’t seem to do it.

5)    Do any work that I bring home. Because I didn’t yesterday and I’m hopelessly behind. I need to catch myself up by Friday. Friday! It can be done.

3. Snacks I enjoy

I am not really a snacker. I like sweet treats, so I’ll often take something to bed with me like a mini candy bar or a cookie, but during the day I just don’t snack very often. I’d rather have real food. I did find those mozzarella Cheez-its – those are marvelous crunchy pats of butter, basically.

4. What would I do if I were a billionaire?

I’d move, and I’d have a pool and a housekeeper. I’d probably still work, but probably in a less-paying, less-stressful job. I’d spend more time with my kids (ideally, not sure in practice). I’d travel and take my kids fun and interesting places.

5. Places I would live

Probably still here, as all our family is here and I can’t take my kids from their grandparents. If I could uproot the entire extended family? South Carolina, Pacific Northwest, San Diego. What I’d really like is to live in one of those communities where you can walk to the grocery or to Starbucks or the playground or bookstore or bar. I want to live in a walking community with lower humidity and moderate temperatures (or at least pool). That. Is what I want.

Looking forward to breakfast

Ever since we’ve had children, we’ve had a tradition of having Christmas breakfast at our house with all the grandparents and immediate family – my in-laws, my mom, my dad and his girlfriend, my brother (and his girlfriend), and my sister when she deigns to come. It’s lovely to have all the family over for a nice sit-down breakfast and then opening of the presents all together. What we usually do is let the kids open their stockings before everyone gets there, and we open all the rest of the presents after breakfast (yes, they “allow this”. They’ve never known anything different)

So for the past couple years, I’ve been wanting a full 12-place set of dishes specifically for special occasions such as this. I didn’t want them “Christmassy” because I’d like to use them other times as well, but we don’t have any nice dishes. We didn’t register for anything when we were getting married because seriously – who uses their wedding china? Besides my MIL, anyhow. It turns out some china would have been nice.

I have finally picked out a set, and it’s on clearance so hopefully I can get it (I’m trying not to get my hopes up until it’s actually ordered. It’s simple and pretty, and I think with Christmas chargers and linens it can dress up very pretty.

(crate & barrel)

Okay, I’m excited.

Time change issues and Halloween documentation

My only problem with the time change, really, is how it messes up my internal food clock. I’m trying to get back on the healthy eating/maybe some random exercise wagon, which I know if somewhat of a lost cause when we’re hitting the home stretch of holidays that require stretchy pants. I got to work this morning and realized someone had eaten my breakfast yogurt (a coworker owned up to it, we have a dorm fridge in our department and there are three of us who bring in the same kinds of yogurt, it was an honest mistake). However since I was out a yogurt, I had no choice but to eat a cookie that I brought in, right?

I made Halloween candy cookies this weekend and brought some in for coworkers – they are just oatmeal cookies, and where you would add nuts or chocolate chips or raisins I added two cups of chopped chocolate bars. It worked out marvelously and I’ll have to make a second batch before I rid the house of Halloween candy. I promised my husband when I whisked half the cookies out of the house to bring to work.

But back to the internal clock – I ate my cookie, and it’s 9:48am and I’m starving for lunch. Or more breakfast, or something. I wasn’t that hungry this weekend and didn’t eat much at mealtimes, but now I feel like I could eat everything I had this weekend in one sitting. Probably not looking good for lunchtime, right? I’m thinking of digging into my lunch for a few bites of something to tide me over.

And because I didn’t share it on here previously, here are the boys at Halloween:

I made most of Henry’s costume (except the front part of his mask) and Spencer borrowed the Gryffindor robe and tie from a friend so it was a pretty easy (and cheap) Halloween. I worked out the school theme Halloween (nursery rhymes, if you remember) and S went as Yankee Doodle. I ordered him a tricorn hat and added a feather that we glued macaroni to. He wore it with a plain white polo and jeans, and was happy enough with the outcome.

I’m glad I didn’t say screw it and send him with his regular costume – last year for “book character” theme everyone was allowed to wear whatever, but this year the one boy who brought his Ironman costume wasn’t allowed to wear it. Poor kiddo.

Books I read: October

Holy crap, I read a lot this month. It was wonderful too - I didn't really feel like I was not doing things because I was reading, but there was just a lot of great things to read and I tore through them. I did get annoyed that I can only have 15 items out at a time on Overdrive and yet there is no way to return them when you're done. I maxed out, it was sad.

reread:
49. Into the Woods - Tana French
50. Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
The Likeness - Tana French (I didn't put a number to this because it's on September's list; I got halfway through before the ebook timed out and I had to wait to get it again.)
51. Faithful Place - Tana French
52. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer - Michelle Hodkin

New:
65. Magic Burns - Ilona Andrews I really got into this series and read all of it - I'm not going to comment on my thoughts for each book/novella in the series, but I really liked it. Very kick-ass female lead/supernatural romance without all the orgies and crazy sex of Laurell K Hamilton.
66. Silver Shadows - Richelle Mead LOVED this new book.
67. The Girl with All the Gifts - M. R. Carey This was twisted and I really didn't see the ending coming and the character development was top notch. Quite excellent
68. Blood Charged - Lindsay Buroker I'm liking this series better as it keeps going.
69. Destiny Unchosen - Lindsay Buroker (novella) Eh, I'm still not sold on this series. But I love LB, so I'm in.
70. To All the Boys I've Loved Before - Jenny Han This was a sweet teen romance, good stuff.
71. The Sky is Everywhere - Jandy Nelson Oh my, I think this was my favorite of the month. It was so wonderful, and even though I rarely cry I actually did for this one. So perfect.
72. If I Stay - Gayle Forman Meh, it was okay - overrated? melodramatic, but sweet.
73. Thorn Fall - Lindsay Buroker
74. Anatomy of a Misfit - Andrea Portes I read this because it was being PUSHED on Overdrive. It was okay. Dragomir should not have been used - it's not common enough a last name for me to ever not associate it with Vampire Academy.
75. Magic Strikes - Ilona Andrews
76. Magic Bleeds - Ilona Andrews
77. Magic Slays - Ilona Andrews
78. Magic Mourns - Ilona Andrews (novella)
79. Gunmetal Magic - Ilona Andrews
80. Magic Gifts - Ilona Andrews (novella)
80. Magic Rises - Ilona Andrews
81. Magic Breaks - Ilona Andrews
82. A Monster Calls - Patrick Ness This. Save this for when you need a cathartic ugly cry. I knew where it was going, I thought I was not going to get involved with the characters, but even though I knew where it was going, I was seriously choked up in the "don't wake your sleeping husband with your sobs" sort of way.

Starting late seems to be a thing for me

I forgot about NaNoBloMo, or whatever it is, until tonight when I thought about reading my blog feed before it backs up again and Lo! People are blogging! Every. Day. :)

Last year I didn't commit to blogging every day, but I did commit to commenting on all those blogs. It was exhausting but I felt like hey, I love comments - these people like comments too! I might try again this month, if I can.

Today we found out that Spencer was not telling us crazy stories. What story, you may ask? A couple times a week he told us that his friend from school/aftercare was moving to our neighborhood. Then he said that friend was moving next door. Mind you, he actually told me this before I even knew my neighbors were leaving.

So you can imagine our surprise when the boys were playing out back and Spencer said "It's so-and-so!" and C said "no it's not, you just think so because they're speaking Spanish" and I stuck my head out the back door and wouldn't you know it, SO-AND-SO WAS IN THE NEXT DOOR BACKYARD. THEY BOUGHT THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR.

So. On one hand, it's very exciting for my six year old to have one of his best friends is now going to be living next door. We don't know many people on our block so he's never had a lot of friends to play with, and now he'll basically have a built-in friend. On the other, having an extra child over is EXHAUSTING, and now it will happen so much more! After F left (they are in the process of moving, over this month), a new neighbor girl came over to play (or mostly to yap at me for an hour about her entire slightly-scary life story and holy crap that girl talks) and we invited the girl from down the street out, so I basically had five kids today and how do you guys with more than two children do it?