We are slated to get another 12" or so of snow starting tomorrow.  WTF?!?!  I have nowhere to put this snow, people!  And the roads are still not recovered from the last bout.  So far the only saving grace is that work is closed tomorrow as well, so at least I don't have to take time off to stay with the kids while they have no school.  Who knows when they will get back to school, if at all this week.  One school system already closed for the week.  I also made a run to the grocery today, so we should be good on food.  Assuming that I can cook all this stuff on the gas grill if we lose power. 

I may be a New Englander, but this shit is getting tired real quick. 

So, for those of you who don't live anywhere near the DC area, we got some snow this weekend.  (If these storms don't stop coming on the weekends, I will have to hurt a weather god.)  About 28 inches, or so, I heard.  More than I needed, that's for sure.  And I wasn't wrong about that backache.  We lost power yesterday for about 15 hours and this led to the realization that I will always be sure to have a gas grill with a burner on it and we really need to figure out a way to get a woodstove put into the fireplace.  It did get pretty cold in the house, but at least we could put all the food outside and it wouldn't spoil.  I didn't expect to see a snow plow until tomorrow, but some little bobcat things came by tonight, so I'm good to go to the grocery tomorrow for a milk restock.  Assuming they have milk.  

Anyway.  The result of 2 days housebound is that you get a snow picspam.  I can tell you are excited.  I know I am.
( Snow, snow, snow )

And finally, one last kid pic (of course).  Presenting... the Potter kids!
( Click here for 2 of the 3 kiddos... )

Well, we are in the beginning of the "Snowmaggedon", as I understand it, where 2 feet of snow is not  unlikely.  It was snowing a little bit 9 years ago too, but nothing like this.  Right about now in 2001, Jarrett was just about 30 minutes old and I was probably still on the operating table feeling a bit loopy.  And now, he's 9.  It's our last year of single digits.  Man, the time has flown by.  I think he had a good day, and we are having a party with his friends in 2 weeks, so the birthday loot will continue. 

So, Happy Birthday, Jarrett!!  I hope you have a great year at 9.  And I hope it doesn't go by so fast that we miss it.




(This is Jarrett in the big snow we had in Dec. which may be the small storm of the winter.)

I am working from home today (and should really be reading more about how to write federal regulations), but I just had to stop by and celebrate because apparently Daria will be coming to DVD this year!!  Yay!!  God, I adored that show.  Well, I'll just have something to add to my gift list for this year.  

Oh, also -- they are predicting we will get 2 feet of snow tonight/tomorrow.  There goes the weekend.  I foresee many backaches from shoveling.  Urgh.

I stream-of-consciousnessed the Grammys on Sunday and it was late so I saved it, but didn't post it live and just now realized it.  So, late and probably irrelevant by now, here are my oh-so-important thoughts about the Grammys:

(ETA:  I cannot get the LJ cut to work at all.  My apologies.)

I think this is the first time I’ve seen Lady Gaga’s face without glasses. Weird.

How can Taylor Swift still be surprised to win these awards? I mean, I guess it’s kind of cute, but it also seems a little disingenuous.

Was going to do a post on KBell and Josh D., but I’ll just do it here – I loved VM and Josh was fairly charismatic in Las Vegas, I think they are fairly likeable in general, but they don’t seem to be picking the best movie projects. This last one is getting awful reviews, which I don’t think is all their fault, I mean, the poster is horrific all on its own. I guess some actors/actresses have to be those actors/actresses who are in the just sort-of-okay projects, but it’s kind of sad for these two, I guess.

Beyonce covers Alanis. Huh. Has she done this before? What’s with the crazy hair interlude?

Is Pink doing this again because she thinks not enough people saw the MTV awards? I thought her trapeze act was amazing then (especially since she was obviously singing live), but this is very similar. Still a great show, though. What an outfit! And how does she sing while spinning? How did she get wet? Is everyone under her getting wet too?  (ETA -- I heard later that they were and they were not amused.)

Something happened to my thoughts on Jamie Foxx. It was along the lines of “Could there be more Auto-Tune on this song? Who is that short, rather heavy woman dancing around? And now Slash? WTF?” I’m not sure if other things went missing as well. Seems like it, but I’m not sure how or what they were about. Huh.

I do not like this “Fairytale” song. It also seems like Taylor’s voice is a little bit flat, or something. Stevie Nicks? Good grief.    It’s like that “Crossroads” show on CMT. But I guess Taylor’s shirt-thing goes well with Stevie’s style. And then they made Stevie sing that horrible “You belong with me” thing about the bleachers. Taylor is basically too old to be singing that song and Stevie is totally wrong for it. Was the band supposed to be that quiet? It was not doing anyone any favors.

I feel I’m missing something of this MJ song/tribute without the 3-D glasses, but such is life. Celine’s dress is kind of horrible, but Carrie’s is kind of awesome. Is the celebrity audience all wearing 3-D glasses? Beyonce is, but no one around her. Different parts of the audience are different, apparently. And some people may have brought their own glasses. 

I heard they are re-recording We Are the World after the Grammys. It has great potential to be either awesome or a huge mistake. 

How exactly can people still vote on the song for Bon Jovi when they’ve already started playing? I guess if you’ve played a song enough, you can launch into it basically immediately. Did they say earlier that Bon Jovi has never played at the Grammys before? That just seems wrong. Oooo – going old school with the song.  

What is Mos Def wearing? What is with this pairing anyway? For the Rap/sung collaboration? Yeah, because Rap and Opera is the collaboration they are talking about. Who’s the little person going with Jay-Z? Is that Beyonce’s nephew or something? 

That organization guy talks too much. 

Ricky Martin rises from the dead to come on the Grammys with Lea Michelle. And Beyonce beats out Taylor again. Kanye is getting no chances to interrupt tonight. But B’s earrings are over the top. And how does that dress not get caught on everything she walks by or sits on?

Maxwell with short hair – I’m not sure I would have recognized him. 

Russell Brand needs to button his shirt just a smidge. Somehow the singing on this Les Paul tribute seems a little bit out of synch with the singer and the sound. It’s something to do with the background track? 

Quentin Tarantino’s “accent” is ridiculous. Maybe he should have been a circus ringmaster. Did anyone else lose the sound during Lil’ Wayne’s bit? Oh, and now Eminem. Is it some sort of censoring of the language?

Lady Gaga’s outfit is hysterical!! And Taylor wins. Not totally surprising, but she beat some pretty stiff competition. And is Colbie Callait the only guest on the album, because she got some billing too. 

And it’s over. Whoo!

Gakked (I still have no idea why that is the word) from afrocurl :

What was the #1 song the day you were born? Search the date and then post your #1 song on your LJ - preferably with a Youtube vid if you can find one!

So, to show how old school I am -- Roberta Flack -- Killing Me Softly with His Song.

I do not know how to embed YouTube videos, so here is the link for Roberta singing the song many years after my birthday:

Well.  That made me feel old.  Off to watch some TV!!  In a minute.  Warning -- spam coming your way.

Exhibit A:  I'm not sure what was off for me tonight with the Bones episode. 

( Read more... )

Exhibit B:  Leverage needed more... levity, maybe.  ( Read more... )
TV has just not been thrilling me lately.  That does not make me happy.  TV is supposed to be my main escape from the mundane that is my life of work and kids and laundry.  Something is definitely off.

I don't think I've posted about TV in a while, so here's the wrap-up of what I can remember for today:

Life Unexpected -- ( Read more... )

Human Target -- ( What show does this remind you of? )

Bones -- ( A few spoilers...maybe. )

I did have an IMdb moment when J and I were discussing Mr. White and he thought he might have been Robin Wood from Buffy, and I said no, he was on Judging Amy, not that J would know him from that show.  I didn't even watch Judging Amy.  How do these things stick?  

Modern Family -- I do like this show.  This is the one comedy I have added this year and I like it.  It's just so well done and the throw-away things are amazing.  Phil I could kind of do without, but what can you do?

God, what else have I watched?  I don't know.  That would seem to be enough, and yet... I have a bunch of stuff on the DVR still to go -- not including the Dollhouse stockpile.  Two episodes each of Grey's and Private Practice (which I still can't believe I still watch -- it's like an illness), a Numb3rs, last night's Leverage, another Human Target, the Mentalist.  Thursdays are a bitch, I tell you.  

Oh, anyone think that that Deep End show is any good?  Everything I've seen about it says that Tina Majorino is too good for that show.  That makes me sad.

Well, I have to say, not too much of the show was memorable.  These are the 10 that stick in my head -- mostly superficial, I admit.



( Very mild spoilers. Very mild. )
So, there you are.  It actually kind of gave me a headache.  Well, I need to run off to bed -- I am actually getting a 3 day weekend and I don't have to wake up in the dark, but I shouldn't get greedy.

 

Just a very quick post to say that I was very happy to have Chuck back on my TV!  But technology foiled me again and my 8 PM recording schedule was overloaded, so I must now find a time to watch tonight's episode on-line.  Urr.  That said, glad to have the show back!

Also, HIMYM was fun.  ( Minor spoiler thingy... )

Last, how cool was it that ( Another minor spoiler thingy about TBBT... )

Okay, off to bed.  Two meetings in a row tomorrow AM, and something to get done by 10.  Plus a party surprise to set up by 11.  No pressure. 

Part of being grown up, and being a grown up, is seeing that your parents have their insecurities and issues too.  And I'm not talking about anything major or disastrous, but I still remember the first time my dad asked what I thought about one of his work situations and asked me for my advice.  I realized that I was a grown up.  And that also meant that my parents were stopping some of those things your parents do to protect you from seeing the things that are going wrong in their lives. 

Right now, my mother's work life is getting totally screwed over and it is pissing me off.  It's making her really sad, but it's pissing me off.  And my dad feels responsible. 

( Cut for my ranting to get this out of my system. Click if you feel the need to read about small town mechanations. )

My mom is coming for a visit next weekend to see the new house and I will give her a shoulder to lean on, yet another reminder that I am a grown up. 

Well, I am off to make lo mein for dinner -- I went to the Asian market yesterday and bought some roast pork and baby bok choy, so I am going to enjoy dinner.  Even if the kids hate it.  Phooey on them!  I'm the grown up!  I will dictate the menu!  I dictate so little else around here, sometimes.  

I got the Glee CDs for Christmas and what I want to know is how they picked what to put on them.  I know that Quinn sang at least 2 songs and neither of them are on there.  There are also actually a few songs that I cannot remember the context for on the show.  So, then I'm all distracted when I play them trying to figure out what scene they were in (Don't Make Me Over and the 2 Smile songs spring to mind).  My relentless need to know can sometimes not be a good thing.

ETA:  Okay, so I'm obviously not paying attention -- Just found one of the Quinn songs.  Although, I think I like the Madonna one better.

We made it back after another long 10 hour day in the car.  Well, and stopping to get out of the car.  We did a different route through CT and it worked well, although we had snow to contend with for about the first 3 hours or so.  But now, I have a sore throat.  I can't get sick until after the 6th -- this week at work is insane. 

One last thing:  your kids can always surprise you.  And sometimes in a good way.  While we were at my parents', Jarrett (8) and Elliott (5) were sitting on the stairs while the grown-ups finished dinner and griping at each other about something.  When asked what Elliott was doing that was causing Jarrett's problems he replied that Elliott was being "obstreperous."  There was a beat, and then I looked around and said "Did he really just say that?"  And apparently, I was not hallucinating.  Where he learned it, I don't know, but apparently he also knows the correct usage.  Huh. 

Well, I've survived another year.  And now 2 years on LJ, even.  I don't know what I used to do with my life before LJ and fanfic.  What did I do with all the free time?  I hope the few of you out there reading this have a great 2010, that good things come your way, and that any resolutions you make you succeed at. 

I am not really one for resolutions just because the follow-through is pretty rough, but I think I have a few that hopefully aren't too ambitious:

1)  Try to maintain the weight loss I had this year (kind of in the hole already thanks to the holidays, but I hope once I'm back into regular life that I can rebound).

2)  Try to make connections for my kids with other kids in the neighborhood -- have more playdates.

3)  Try to stay connected with my hubby and maybe even find a babysitter that's local so that we can have a night out now and then.

There.  That seems relatively do-able.  Fingers crossed!

Greetings from the slowly thawing north!  Yesterday it felt like -8 degrees F, and this morning when we woke up, it was 2 degrees outside.  My boys were pretty shocked by the cold.  But they still managed to have ice cream after lunch at Friendly's yesterday (totally a growing-up flashback for me), because when in New England, you eat ice cream -- no matter what the season or the temperature. 

We made the drive okay, but if anyone can explain to me why Waterbury, CT is allowed to be a traffic nightmare for decades on-end, I'm ready to hear it.  I cannot stand driving on I-84 through CT.  I think I may have an alternative, but we'll see.

J is off with the boys to see the "squeakquel" to Alvin and the Chipmunks.  Better him than me.  But we are going to get to go out to dinner tonight.  Just us.  Can't remember the last time that happened!  I'm looking forward to it. 

I have eaten way too much this past week, though.  I'm going to have to be very vigilant when I get back to real life.  My parents even said something complimentary about my weight, which is virtually unheard of.  Wow.

My dad's retirement from being CEO of his agency is effective on Jan. 1, so that is a big deal.  He's been trying to clean out his office and not feel too badly about all the changes that the new person seems to be rolling out that he disagrees with.  He'll still be working part-time with the agency on some special projects, so I think it might actually be worse for him than a clean break, but he wouldn't know what to do with himself if he quit cold turkey. 

Well, there's the brain dump of the day.  Gotta run and actually participate in life not on-line again.  Ta!

Phew!  Made it!  This was actually a very quiet Christmas for us -- no visitors this year, for a change, so it was much less stressful for me.  But we had our share of meltdowns yesterday and today.  The kids hauled it in, as per usual.  Jillian's gift from Santa was a shopping cart and it was immediately being pushed all around the house upon discovery.  Jarrett and Elliott seemed pleased with their haul, as well.  They've gone through a large portion of the gifts already.  There are lego remnants floating around the living room.  This was just phase 1, however, as on Sunday we are driving up to NH to see my parents (a long 8-10 hour drive) and stay for about a week.  There will be more presents there. 

I did pretty well today, myself.  I got a new massive jewelry box, which I needed to help alleviate the clutter of the top of my dresser and accommodate some of my grandmother's jewelry I inherited.  I still am using my old box and have things which didn't fit, but it's a definite improvement.  I also got the Cake Wrecks book.  And if you haven't seen the blog, you must!  (Go, now!  Come back later.  I'm fine with it, I promise!)  I also got Glee CDs and my best gift was probably J's gift of Season 1 of FNL (I know!!) and the promise that HE WILL WATCH IT WITH ME!  This is huge.  We hardly ever agree on TV and he hasn't ever watched with me, but I still gushed to him anyway.  But, Season 1, people!!  Whoo-hooo!  

And I think the best part of this year was that my boys actually had their own ideas of what to get their parents and their siblings for Christmas and they were appropriate and thoughtful for the person receiving them.  Amazing!  Elliott decided he wanted to get his dad a shirt for his favorite football team (which sucks this year) and Jarrett -- and Jillian, although she had no knowledge of it -- went with the theme.  And Jarrett saw me surfing the web one day looking for a specific piece of clothing and remembered it for x-mas.  And both boys got their sister something she really likes, as well as something for each other that was not just based on their own likes.  Again, amazing!  Sometimes your kids can really make you proud.  

Well, tomorrow is packing day.  Wish us luck.  The weather on Sunday is supposed to be pretty good, so we have our fingers crossed that it won't take forever to get up the East Coast.  Hopefully, we'll be able to connect up in NH and my web time won't suffer too much.  Just in case, Happy New Year, everyone!!

In case you haven't heard, we had a bit of a snowstorm on Saturday.  We got about 20 inches or so (as seen on my deck). 

( More on the snow and it's fall-out... )

I did manage to get out today to go to the White House.  I had somehow gotten a ticket through a lottery at work to see the Christmas decorations and I decided that since I had never been, and the Metro was running again, and I wasn't even missing work, I needed to go.  Especially since my co-worker who was supposed to go with me got snowed in and couldn't make it.  I did run into a friend and her husband when I was there, so it was kind of nice and non-lonely after all. Here are a few pics:


( Click for a few pics from my trip today... )

I still am not done shopping for J and I need one more thing for my dad (I did buy something small today while I was out, and then totally left it on the train coming home.  Urgh!), so I will hope that the streets are even better tomorrow night when I will have to go out and about to try to finish my shopping.  And of course, the mailman hasn't been since Friday, so all my x-mas cards are now late.  Why are holidays so stressful?

ETA:  Oh!! I almost forgot!!  Happy Birthday to afrocurl !  Roz, I hope you have a great birthday!  Mwah!

I really need to go to bed, but I just have to say that this is possibly one of the longest weeks EVER!!

• Work has sucked way too much for only 3 days and shows no signs of improving. I really am beginning to hate people. Not so much with the holiday spirit.
• I have gotten bad health news about 2 people in my life this week -- one close and one removed, but anytime you hear bad news about a childhood friend, it makes you feel just awful, I think.
• My Christmas shopping is stuck and not improving, but hopefully, tomorrow I can make a dent in it. Thank goodness Toys R Us is open till 1 AM. Sheesh. If only Jay was more into toys.

Okay. Venting over. I hope you all are having a better week than I am. And one last thing: queen_haq , thank you so much for the cookie! I kept meaning to get back to you and all that, and yet -- epic fail. *sigh* Anyway, I appreciate very much that you thought of me and it made me smile. Happy Holidays to you!

Glee made me so happy tonight! I had to go out looking for a happy Glee icon. Spoilers ahoy!!

( Read more... )

You know, I am not sure how I feel at all about the Will/Terri/Emma things. I think I would do just fine without that aspect of the show, actually. I am sad that the show won't be back until April, though. Now, I can totally look forward to watching Bones tomorrow!! Yay, Christmas episodes! Yay, ( Oh, just in case you haven't seen the previews.... ) I have my fingers crossed that it will live up to my hopes.

Wheee!!! I love it when I am loving TV!!

Somehow my DVR seems to never get emptier, but I realized that I can blame those kids and their Pokemon and Backyardigans and Sesame Street and something called Gormiti. I managed to watch much TV in the last few days since we've been home, but I still have more than enough to keep my in my chair. Anyway, a few thoughts on a few of the programs:

Glee: ( Read more... )

Bones: ( Read more... )

Grey's: I just wanted to say that I am now caught up and watching the last two episodes did not make me cringe. Huh. I am really not sure what to do with that, but I was definitely surprised. The older episode did make me realize that my work-wife and I have had to separate because she is now my boss. *sigh* The sacrifices we make.