weekend

lest you start to think that the pregnancy has turned me bitter from my recent law & order and target rants, i should post something pleasant (actually, i really am extremely moody but i won't go there). we had a lovely weekend full of family and friends. my brother was in town which was great, we spent time with my parents and aaron's, we went to the farmer's market. the weather was swell, it was just really nice.

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the farmer's market:

fun truck full of honey (forgive how blown out it is, i wasn't exactly checking my camera settings!):
andie loved laying in the middle of a street that was blocked off. eating the spoils of her market trip. i prefered the banana bread, mmmmmm:
grandma & grandpa with andie, who is clutching the candies grandpa bought for her (the kid can smell candy a mile away, even amongst the vegetable):
grilling with fam:





grandma barb got the kids art projects to work on:




aunt julie and emery:
i've seen this look before, the "snap that picture and you're dead meat" look. but my mom never checks my blog, so i'm posting it anyway:

c'mon target, why ya gotta do me like that?

over the weekend our family attempted to get some new patio furniture. hours and hours in several different stores, testing chairs, reviewing prices, yelling at children playing tag instead of sitting quietly (hard to blame them-did i mention hours and hours?) we finally settle on a target set that even had a sale on the chairs. after finally tracking down someone to help us, we are informed that "we don't have any more of that table." ooo-kay. "can you check if any other stores have it?" ...checking... "i'm sorry, no, there aren't any." oo-kay. "what about the chairs that are on sale?" "there are only 2 of them." 2????? "do you ever sell the display?" smiling sweetly still, "no, we don't. not unless the set is discontinued." what???? she even tells is that another table we were looking at is out of stock and as she wanders off we're left only to believe that target doesn't actually have any of the merchandise it's hawking in it's giant patio furniture section and one can spend an hour scrutinizing and sizing up (and yelling at children), only to find that "no silly, you can't actually BUY the furniture! but go ahead, admire it, add up all the numbers, sit in the comfy gliding chairs, but DREAM ON SUCKERS!!!!" i mean geez, she might as well have said that right?

i'm normally all about the target. singing it's praises, touting its dibs, prizing it above all others. but now......i gotta say, i'm a little disappointed. the store we visited before actually had a system that made a bit of sense---display what you have available, sell the display once it's the last set in stock, then it's gone and you're done. nothing left to tease innocent patio furniture shoppers.

so, the search continues.

and while it may have humbled my target opinion a little, i know myself-i can't stay away. i'll be back next week, going through the dollar bins, checking out the exotic soda selection, perusing the bedding. but the patio furniture, well, that's a different story.

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**new website***

my new photography website is here! well, maybe, almost, it's possible. the entire transition can take up to a few days but eventually it should be completely visible and usable. you can check for it by clicking on one of our family pictures in the right column.

yay!

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dear law and order

dear law and order (in all your incarnations),

i realize it's hard to find good actors out there, there are probably only hundreds of thousands of them going to casting calls when they aren't waiting tables. however, do you think you might try a little harder not to recycle the same ones on your various versions of law and order, and maybe not so frequently? for those of us who are fans, or those who have been watching since law and order was the only incarnation of the show, it's not only a little insulting but a bit distracting.

i turn on your new episode of law and order this evening and within the first ten minutes of the mystery i say to myself, "self, isn't that the same guy who played the dense guy who had been set up by his evil brother to commit murder as a kid?" and it might not have been so obvious if i hadn't just watched this very episode earlier this week. why? because at any given time on any given channel on any given day a law and order episode is playing. it is rerun ALL THE TIME. and sure, the episode was probably from law and order's "criminal intent" genre and originally aired three years ago, but that matters very little when in one week i get to see the same actor on variations of L&O playing different characters in the same week.

and this is not the most blatant of your indiscretions law and order, oh no, not only has this occurred with other characters who portray criminals (and i'm sorry, but once i start an episode and notice that the officemate of the guy who's dead had been in law and order before, it's pretty obvious he dunnit), but there are more flagrant fouls to note also. runner-up would have to be jerry orbach. not only the father in the screen gem dirty dancing (and has from my mom's hometown, wow!) but he played detective lenny briscoe for 12 seasons before he passed away. i'm sure you didn't think anyone would remember that during season two he played defense attorney frank lehrman. nah, and it's not like he's recognizable at all.

and then there's s. epatha merkerson, who has played the chief of police since 1993, but in years prior to that she's the mother of a boy who's killed. talk about a great promotion! you guys must have really been impressed with how well she answered the door, grieved for her child and answered police questions. "you know, that mom in the crack house was really talented, i think we should forget casting calls for the new police chief--get her in here!" and you know, i really shouldn't blame you, i was especially moved my her performance as 'reba the mail woman' on pee wee's playhouse when she was starting out. you go girl!

in your defense law and order, your show(s) has been on for a seriously long time and by now you have been through a ton of actors- even a guy i used to work with at the ice arena is credited as "copy clerk" in an episode from a few years ago. he had a few lines and everything. and now that i look at his bio--he was actually in another law and order episode two years later as a different character.

so, in conclusion ladies and gentleman of the jury, i propose to you that while law and order is an awesome show--i myself have ownership of the first season on DVD--i think the casting people take we, the viewing audience, for idiots. if you're going to throw the same actors back into a show, maybe have them play the same character or make it part of the plot. or if you're going to continue with this practice, maybe try not rerunning every single law and order ever made on every channel, which only draws attention to it.

and now that i've missed the show that started this letter, i think i should add the p.s.--the guy who was in tonight's episode who i had already recognized from a few years ago was also in yet another law and order episode when you check his bio. three different characters? come on. i rest my case.

sincerely,

your biggest fan

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untie me!

i've heard stories all my life about my famous tantrums as a kid. my parents love to remember when i was three and threw a huge fit because my mom was at the hospital after having given birth to my brother and i took a nap and by the time i woke up visiting hours at the hospital were over and we couldn't go see her. or how i would scream because i had to "BUCKLE MY OWN SHOES!!!", or i'd throw a fit in walgreens and my mother would have to walk away while i kicked and screamed and writhed on the floor. it wasn't pretty. sometimes i would get so upset that they would have to put me in my room in the apartment house we lives in. unfortunately, it was an old house and there was no way to keep me in there, no locks on the door. so they would tie a rope around the door knob and tie it to the radiator just outside the room in the hallway. i would get the door open about two inches and push my little face into the opening and scream ( a la jack nicholson, "the shining"): "UNTIE ME!!! UNTIE ME!!!!" really, it wasn't pretty. and it's amazing no one else in the nearby apartments didn't call children and family services on the parents who tied their poor child up.

i tell you this because it would seem that i'm definitely getting a taste of my own medicine 20+ years later. andie is quite the fit-thrower. she's a screamer, she has been known to throw herself down kicking and screaming, she makes insane demands, usually for candy and sweets and when rebuffed unleashes all her pent up three-year-old angst. her screaming usually includes either the phrase, "DON'T SAY THAT TO ME!" or "YOU'RE NOT MY BEST FRIEND!" but that's just the tip of the iceberg.

i have always said that the so-called "terrible two's" are nothing, it's three you should worry about and we're there now. sigh. maybe she'll get it all out of her system before #3 arrives. it's doubtful but i need to think positively right? and while i'm dreaming, maybe she'll be one of those perfect teenagers too who makes all the right decisions, consults her parents before doing anything crazy, decides not to jump off that bridge because all her friends are doing it. .........maybe.....

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rent this movie!!

you have to see "The Prestige". aaron and i watched this movie on a whim several months ago and now they've been playing it frequently on our Encore movie channels so i was lucky enough to see it again recently. it's just amazing. it's the kind of movie you'll want everyone you know to see, it's good to see with someone because you'll want to talk about it later, you'll want to watch it again immediately to catch the nuances you missed. and it has hugh jackman, christian bale (probably one of my top 5 favorite actors ever, he's brilliant), michael caine, scarlett johansson, & david bowie (the man is still gorgeous and he's great in the small part he has in the film).

this movie came out around the same time as "The Illusionist", also about magicians (and who knew that magic was such fascinating movie material?), which starred edward norton, rufus sewell, jessica biel, & paul giamatti. i even postponed my accolades for "the prestige" until i had seen this one *just in case* it was better. but no way. while a completely different movie, of course, i found it plodding and predictable and had to restrain myself from getting involved in online message board debates comparing the two. and yes, i know how lame that makes me. but i didn't actually post, so that should be redeeming.

anyway, go see it, it's awesome :)

michael caine & hugh jackman:
scarlett johansson:


christian bale:
david bowie:



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a couple of my loves

i had the greatest dream last night. i'll just say it involved the love of my life-the one that isn't aaron. and about a month ago i had another dream about him too, where i went to see him in concert but it ended up being at the holiday inn and no one was really there so instead of him singing he just danced with me. it was really nice. and then the dream got more bizarre and somehow i got stranded at the concert which turned out to be in a holiday inn really far away and i had to hitchhike home, meanwhile my old friend, red-head-heather from college calls to tell me she's having a baby but it's not a good thing at all and she needs help. it was quite a dream. i don't know if it's being pregnant or what but my dreams are just crazy lately. but i will accept any and all of the tom petty ones. how loverly.

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anyway....i just wanted to pass along a new family favorite of ours. my parents have had these the past couple times we've been to their house: dibs.


they are so fun! there are 60 pieces in each container and while it doesn't seem like a lot, for $3.19 our family had a yummy, mess free dessert for a couple nights, which i thought was pretty good. they have lots of flavors, we got the peanut butter ones. and they're totally calorie and fat free. okay, they aren't but they're so good you won't care!!!

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baby, miley cyrus, internet, games

well, all is well here, nothing big to report. kieran & andie are great, we're all gearing up for summer around here and i admit i'm looking forward to just hanging out and siting in a waist-deep kiddie pool myself.

i'm about 13.5 weeks along and doing just fine, even that is pretty boring. i'm happy to be done with the first trimester, i was a little queasier this time around and alternately barely ate at times or had to have a quarter-pounder and fries. and i've been in the drive-thru pretty much every other day.....somehow i still managed to lose two pounds. i think i've discovered the perfect diet pill--it would be something that made you just a tad bit nauseous after you had about five bites of a meal. anyway, you still wouldn't even know i'm pregnant yet, i'm not showing at all, still in my same exact clothes. but i'm pretty sure i'll go from nothing at all to absolutely huge--i'm the kind of pregnant woman that when i'm six months along people are asking things like "are you sure it's not twins?" or "are you due any day now?"

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i've been looking at baby names which is really fun and i'm reminded of how frustrated i am by that stupid miley cyrus with the disney show. in years past one of my favorite names was miley, it was elvis's girlfriend's name in blue hawaii (though spelled 'maile'). but *now* there's no way you can use that name, that cyrus girl is everywhere! darn it. and what really makes me mad is that her given name was destiny (puke). wish she'd just kept that one and i could use my not-so-popular blue hawaii name. if the baby is a girl, that is. who knows and we're hoping to wait until he/she is born to find out......it's going to be hard though.

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our internet is driving us crazy. for almost a month now we've been having problems and it seems to be getting worse. we've replaced our modem and router and it still just suddenly goes out in the middle of something. this morning it was fine for hours but in the afternoon and evening it will go out every other minute! the crazy thing is that it shows that everything is still connected and we shouldn't be having a problem, yet pages just stop loading. if i were stronger i'd heave the computer out the window and be done it. .....well, no i wouldn't but it's nice to picture in my head.

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i'm addicted to solitaire on my computer. now that i type it out i realize it makes sense--with the internet constantly going down my useless laptop has to serve a non-connected purpose and good 'ole fashioned solitaire has found me again. i've gone through solitaire phases before but i'm really hooked now. it's the only card game i know how to play and i can't say i'm very good at it, but it passed the time until our 'net starts up again. i've started picturing myself playing in some fictitious solitaire tournament and winning the whole thing. and before you go thinking about what a huge geek i am, let me turn your attention to aaron. i think it's time i out him on his webkinz addition. for those that aren't aware, webkinz are cute little stuffed animals that you purchase and then you go home and login to the webkinz site and care for your virtual pet. you play games to earn "kinz cash" or something like that, and then you can feed the thing, buy it stuff, etc. the thing is--it's for kids. and aaron plays the webkinz games all the time. he's earned kieran's frog so much money he should be retired in florida by now. i support him (but totally make fun of him) as long as he's not competing in these games with ten year old kids. he isn't but when he starts to tell me about the jewels he's collecting for "the legendary crown of wonder" i start to wonder.......it's definitely geared toward kids. but damn those enticing computer games.

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