Rory plays a mean air guitar to the "Dan in Real Life" Soundtrack version of the Who song "Let My Love Open the Door". Enjoy.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Penne Alla Papalina
I got this recipe for Penne Alla Papalina from a parenting magazine sent home from the school. I've been wanting to try a Carbonara type of recipe (an egg based sauce), but I was concerned about "cooking" the egg or scrambling it accidentally or, on the flip side, having it be totally raw. I tried this Mario Batali recipe and it was pretty good. I did sort of curdle the egg and then I had a stomach ache, but I was fine and Joe liked it. I love prosciutto and I made this with Pappardelle instead of Penne. I would try again next time with a Penne or some other short noodle instead...the sauce stuck to the long noodles fine, but it was hard to get good bites of peas, prosciutto and pasta together with the longer noodle.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Movies: Fantastic Mr Fox & The Informant!
Last week I watched Fantastic Mr Fox while I was on my forced relaxation and Joe and I watched The Informant! together. He wasn't really into watching FMF since we just watched Where the Wild Things Are...bad Netflix timing on my part...2 "kid" movies at one time was not a good plan.
LOVED FMF - I have really enjoyed Wes Andersons other movies, for the most part, but this one might be my favorite. George Clooney as Mr Fox was, indeed, fantastic. I have to say I liked him more in this than in Up in the Air (sorry, Chris :) ). He was witty, charming, quick, and the writing, as expected, was perfect. It was not really a kids movie (although Shelagh and Rory did watch the end with me and Rory was laughing along). It was cartoon/claymation or something like that, but it was adult-themed. It didn't have any bad language or nudity or sexual themes at all. It did have a bit of violence - gun shots, shot off tail, a little blood, but nothing my kids can't handle now that they are knee-deep in the Clone Wars (more on that later). This was great - add it to your list!
The Informant! was okay. I fell asleep, but it was late and I was tired and on sleep medication. Matt Damon was a pretty good compulsive liar. The chick who played his wife was WAY annoying...maybe it was her dumb haircut and lame clothes. Who knows. The dude from Quantum Leap played his FBI counterpart and was decent (Scott Bakula?) - also a dumb haircut that was distracting. Good plot, but overall slow.
Next up, The Blind Side. I have zero interest in this movie other than the fact that SB won the Oscar for what looks like a mediocre role. Joe likes sports movies and wants to see it. I have to see how far off her winning was so that I'm annoyed based on fact and not on presumption (I'm thinking this is akin to Julia Roberts winning for Erin Brockovich which still annoys me x years later). I'm legit like that. Plus, I have a ridiculous curiosity about her b/c of what is going on in her personal life (like we know the truth anyway). I, unlike other people who said "this was going to happen", liked the idea that she found love with someone totally unexpected and that she turned his world around. I'm bummed for her and the kids. I wanted to think he was way cool and grown up after having met her. Oh well. Maybe Bombshell McGee is lying about the whole thing. Crazy bitch.
LOVED FMF - I have really enjoyed Wes Andersons other movies, for the most part, but this one might be my favorite. George Clooney as Mr Fox was, indeed, fantastic. I have to say I liked him more in this than in Up in the Air (sorry, Chris :) ). He was witty, charming, quick, and the writing, as expected, was perfect. It was not really a kids movie (although Shelagh and Rory did watch the end with me and Rory was laughing along). It was cartoon/claymation or something like that, but it was adult-themed. It didn't have any bad language or nudity or sexual themes at all. It did have a bit of violence - gun shots, shot off tail, a little blood, but nothing my kids can't handle now that they are knee-deep in the Clone Wars (more on that later). This was great - add it to your list!
The Informant! was okay. I fell asleep, but it was late and I was tired and on sleep medication. Matt Damon was a pretty good compulsive liar. The chick who played his wife was WAY annoying...maybe it was her dumb haircut and lame clothes. Who knows. The dude from Quantum Leap played his FBI counterpart and was decent (Scott Bakula?) - also a dumb haircut that was distracting. Good plot, but overall slow.
Next up, The Blind Side. I have zero interest in this movie other than the fact that SB won the Oscar for what looks like a mediocre role. Joe likes sports movies and wants to see it. I have to see how far off her winning was so that I'm annoyed based on fact and not on presumption (I'm thinking this is akin to Julia Roberts winning for Erin Brockovich which still annoys me x years later). I'm legit like that. Plus, I have a ridiculous curiosity about her b/c of what is going on in her personal life (like we know the truth anyway). I, unlike other people who said "this was going to happen", liked the idea that she found love with someone totally unexpected and that she turned his world around. I'm bummed for her and the kids. I wanted to think he was way cool and grown up after having met her. Oh well. Maybe Bombshell McGee is lying about the whole thing. Crazy bitch.
Could This Day Please End?????
8pm cannot come soon enough. Make that 730 tonight. OMG, my kids are being total pains today. Tantrums, teasing, fighting, ANNOYING...I've now taken away the Light Saber, Family Movie Night (we were watching the Clone Wars movie), Cookies from the Cookie basket that our friends sent us today....I have nothing left to take away!
Calgon, take me away...Thank God I bought new ice cream today.
Calgon, take me away...Thank God I bought new ice cream today.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Spring TV: Justified, Parenthood, the Pacific, Treme
With all the home time we've been logging due to our current circumstances, Joe and I are totally caught up with our TV schedule and have started a few new shows.
Justified: I'm 50/50 on Justified right now. This is on FX and is about 3-4 episodes in. It stars Tim Olyphant (Deadwood, a few films I can't think of right now and I'm too lazy to IMDB him - my work PC is slow today) and the creepy dude who played Shane on The Shield (another awesome FX show). Tim O plays a Federal Marshall working in his small W Va hometown tracking down White Power a-holes and other criminals. He is a bit too suave/too-cool-for-school for me so far, but Joe likes it. Plus, it's FX so it's already better than most network stuff. I'll wait it out and see how the season progresses before making a final judgement.
Parenthood: We watched 2 episodes so far and I like this. However, it has sad moments and I've bypassed it over the last few weeks since we have enough sad in our house right now. I'll go back to it though. I will say that I keep thinking of Maura Tierney in the role played now by Lauren Graham and while I like LG, I think MT would have been great. I LOVE Peter Krause although he is a hair whiney in this so far.
The Pacific: This is the miniseries based on the story of WW2 on the Pacific side of things. It was made by Stephen Spielberg and Tom Hanks, who did the same thing with the European side in Band of Brothers, which is perhaps one of the best miniseries of all time (other than The Thornbirds in my humble opinion. I'm sure Joe would vehemently disagree). We've seen BoB multiple times and get sucked in every time it's on regardless of which of the 10 episodes is playing. The Pacific is well done, but I have to say it's not grabbing us into the characters as much as BoB did. Still great though.
Treme: There have been 2 episodes of this New Orleans music/recovery/community show made by the guys who did the Wire. The Wire was so fabulous that despite me having little interest in this show I tuned in anyway and it doesn't disappoint. I'm totally in - it's nice to see Steve Zahn, Melissa Leo from that drug smuggling movie she was nominated for, and the chick from Deadwood who played the hooker/good business woman in that show get some juicy, cool roles. As with the Wire, it's hard sometimes to "translate" some language, inside info, and intricate politics. A friend told me about a blog run by one of the New Orleans web sites that elaborates on these things. I haven't checked it out yet, but I will. Maybe I'm falling for a one-sided view of what is going on in New Orleans; but, based on what I know about the people who put together the Wire from all points of view and with a lot of history and experience in Baltimore, I feel like they are exposing a lot of the day to day problems that N.O. has and continues to face after Katrina.
Also, Party Down Season 2 is starting this weekend. Hurray! Sad to see Jane Lynch and Jennifer Coolidge departing, but Megan Mullaley has signed on and Kristen Bell will be guest starring again which are all good signs. I did hear that the scruffy surfer guy might be leaving for another pilot, which would be a bummer, but I'm still in. It's a great show on Starz that you should tune in for if you have that channel. If not, I think they stream them online and some new episodes are already up according to Pop Candy.
Joe is officially out of Glee - it's too musical soap opera for him. I agree, but I like the unique renditions of songs that they pull out so I'm still watching. I could drop 1/2 the story lines at this point, but Ryan Murphy also did Nip/Tuck so I expected some ridiculousness in the plot.
I also started the last season of the Tudors, which is also complete soap opera. I love it though and Joely Richardson, from Nip/Tuck, is starring this season as King Henry's last wife.
That's it for now. Yes, I do other things in my life. TiVO helps me skip commercials and we really only watch 1 show or maybe an hour and a half-hour show per night. I keep meaning to have a "no TV" night, but whatever. I'm not a total vegetable...I read too.
Justified: I'm 50/50 on Justified right now. This is on FX and is about 3-4 episodes in. It stars Tim Olyphant (Deadwood, a few films I can't think of right now and I'm too lazy to IMDB him - my work PC is slow today) and the creepy dude who played Shane on The Shield (another awesome FX show). Tim O plays a Federal Marshall working in his small W Va hometown tracking down White Power a-holes and other criminals. He is a bit too suave/too-cool-for-school for me so far, but Joe likes it. Plus, it's FX so it's already better than most network stuff. I'll wait it out and see how the season progresses before making a final judgement.
Parenthood: We watched 2 episodes so far and I like this. However, it has sad moments and I've bypassed it over the last few weeks since we have enough sad in our house right now. I'll go back to it though. I will say that I keep thinking of Maura Tierney in the role played now by Lauren Graham and while I like LG, I think MT would have been great. I LOVE Peter Krause although he is a hair whiney in this so far.
The Pacific: This is the miniseries based on the story of WW2 on the Pacific side of things. It was made by Stephen Spielberg and Tom Hanks, who did the same thing with the European side in Band of Brothers, which is perhaps one of the best miniseries of all time (other than The Thornbirds in my humble opinion. I'm sure Joe would vehemently disagree). We've seen BoB multiple times and get sucked in every time it's on regardless of which of the 10 episodes is playing. The Pacific is well done, but I have to say it's not grabbing us into the characters as much as BoB did. Still great though.
Treme: There have been 2 episodes of this New Orleans music/recovery/community show made by the guys who did the Wire. The Wire was so fabulous that despite me having little interest in this show I tuned in anyway and it doesn't disappoint. I'm totally in - it's nice to see Steve Zahn, Melissa Leo from that drug smuggling movie she was nominated for, and the chick from Deadwood who played the hooker/good business woman in that show get some juicy, cool roles. As with the Wire, it's hard sometimes to "translate" some language, inside info, and intricate politics. A friend told me about a blog run by one of the New Orleans web sites that elaborates on these things. I haven't checked it out yet, but I will. Maybe I'm falling for a one-sided view of what is going on in New Orleans; but, based on what I know about the people who put together the Wire from all points of view and with a lot of history and experience in Baltimore, I feel like they are exposing a lot of the day to day problems that N.O. has and continues to face after Katrina.
Also, Party Down Season 2 is starting this weekend. Hurray! Sad to see Jane Lynch and Jennifer Coolidge departing, but Megan Mullaley has signed on and Kristen Bell will be guest starring again which are all good signs. I did hear that the scruffy surfer guy might be leaving for another pilot, which would be a bummer, but I'm still in. It's a great show on Starz that you should tune in for if you have that channel. If not, I think they stream them online and some new episodes are already up according to Pop Candy.
Joe is officially out of Glee - it's too musical soap opera for him. I agree, but I like the unique renditions of songs that they pull out so I'm still watching. I could drop 1/2 the story lines at this point, but Ryan Murphy also did Nip/Tuck so I expected some ridiculousness in the plot.
I also started the last season of the Tudors, which is also complete soap opera. I love it though and Joely Richardson, from Nip/Tuck, is starring this season as King Henry's last wife.
That's it for now. Yes, I do other things in my life. TiVO helps me skip commercials and we really only watch 1 show or maybe an hour and a half-hour show per night. I keep meaning to have a "no TV" night, but whatever. I'm not a total vegetable...I read too.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Poor Rory
We've been seriously housebound for the last week or so and it's school vacation week so I decided to take the kids to one of those bouncy house places this morning. All fun and games until someone decides to flip over the end of a bouncy slide and flop his body all psycho onto the hard mat on the floor awkwardly. Ironically, the almost vertical slide was not the part that got him hurt; but rather it was his flinging himself over the edge when he was done that did it. He cried for a long time, was all sweaty and could not articulate anything to me. I tried to get him to walk, sit, bend over, lift his arms, turn side to side...he was just a mess. Fruit snacks seemed to calm him down enough for us to get out to the car calmly.
I really didn't know what to do - bring him to the dr? bring him to the ER? bring him home to rest? After talking to the Dr's office and Joe we decided to lay him down at home with some ice, ibuprofen, and lunch and see how he's faring this afternoon. Joe's Dad is a chiropractor so we could always head up there for a quick x-ray and back check, I guess. Totally weird injury for a 4 year old. He fell asleep in the car on the way home almost immediately - I kind of wigged out about that and pulled over to make sure he was breathing. He was, of course. I had this quick flash that maybe he had a massive internal injury and was bleeding to death quietly. I guess that was a bit of an overreaction...no harm in checking :)
Here's Rory under a blanket on the couch recuperating.
Here are the kids at the bouncy house place before "the incident".
I really didn't know what to do - bring him to the dr? bring him to the ER? bring him home to rest? After talking to the Dr's office and Joe we decided to lay him down at home with some ice, ibuprofen, and lunch and see how he's faring this afternoon. Joe's Dad is a chiropractor so we could always head up there for a quick x-ray and back check, I guess. Totally weird injury for a 4 year old. He fell asleep in the car on the way home almost immediately - I kind of wigged out about that and pulled over to make sure he was breathing. He was, of course. I had this quick flash that maybe he had a massive internal injury and was bleeding to death quietly. I guess that was a bit of an overreaction...no harm in checking :)
Here's Rory under a blanket on the couch recuperating.
Here are the kids at the bouncy house place before "the incident".
Monday, April 19, 2010
Me & the Kids Today
I haven't cried in 2 days until last night and this morning. I kind of thought "Ok, I'm moving on a bit and maybe the hormones are washing out of me". Not quite. I had a moment last night after the kids went to bed, but was determined to just get up and go to work today. It's school vacation week in MA this week and I figured people would be out at work and it would be a light week. I just want to get that "first day back" over with, ya know?
This morning, I was filling up my pocketbook, which I haven't used since before our loss, and stumbled on the last Ultrasound pics of the baby and just cried. Of course Shelagh walked in and I had to explain to her why I was crying. She is being so stoic and so I tried to let her know it was okay to be sad. This seems to make her mad b/c she does not want to cry for some reason. I told her it was okay NOT to be sad also. She wasn't so mad with that comment and just started hugging and playing with Kelly. I think she is coping through Kelly. Who knows...she's just shy of 6 so it's hard to tell and she's not so forthcoming about it. I continue to try though and Kelly is loving it so no harm I guess.
Joe took these pics this morning after that encounter before I left. I love both pics and they are cheering me up at work today. Don't you just want to eat them up?
This morning, I was filling up my pocketbook, which I haven't used since before our loss, and stumbled on the last Ultrasound pics of the baby and just cried. Of course Shelagh walked in and I had to explain to her why I was crying. She is being so stoic and so I tried to let her know it was okay to be sad. This seems to make her mad b/c she does not want to cry for some reason. I told her it was okay NOT to be sad also. She wasn't so mad with that comment and just started hugging and playing with Kelly. I think she is coping through Kelly. Who knows...she's just shy of 6 so it's hard to tell and she's not so forthcoming about it. I continue to try though and Kelly is loving it so no harm I guess.
Joe took these pics this morning after that encounter before I left. I love both pics and they are cheering me up at work today. Don't you just want to eat them up?
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