Friday, November 20, 2009
Miley Cyrus, what is your problem?
UPDATE: I just read that Miley's tour bus crashed and killed a person today. I feel sorry for her, but I wonder if she herself even feels bad. She acts so spoiled and entitled, I'd be surprised if she even felt sadness over it. Lets hope so.
RIP, Eastwick
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Dreamy TV Woman Pick of the Week: The Good Wife
I love this private investigator! What a bad ass! She is gorgeous and smart and drinks like a dude, and always wears high leather boots.I also love her depth-- though she's tough and confident, she is not above being surprised or frustrated, like when she's under the L train, cars whizzing by-- and she's got her telephoto lens out and she's trying to get a shot of a license plate but the subject drives away before she can...
Wednesday's Exciting Moments in TV Production: Our Cups Were Half Empty
Our kitchen stock lady (every floor had one) was on the ball. She got new shipments before we ran out. There were so many snacks, we had to eat some of the supplies just so the order would fit in the cabinets. We would have tasting parties, where we'd sit around the kitchen counter and taste the different flavors of granola bars (almond? or honey nut?) to determine which one was the office favorite. We sent around email reviews of the different coffees- there was a "jungle blend" that seemed to appease even the most picky of coffee connoisseurs.
We remember this period as the golden age. The time before people from other floors realized our abundance and began stealing entire boxes of our snacks. But once this started happening, it was as though the floodgates had opened. People started studying what our office hours were, and would come by to steal our food after hours. A few times, they were caught: once a man from a different floor came and took an entire carton of milk, and walked away with it; another time a girl came by and walked away with as many boxes of coffee pods as she could carry. Our 4th floor, west-elevator bank area became known, generally as, "the kitchen."
Our stock lady responded by having locks put on the all cabinets. Then the editors from the 5th floor learned how to pick them with safety pins. We began hiding boxes of snacks under our desks, but they found those too. They sought the crumbs like rats.
Our kitchen started going through snacks so quickly, the company began putting restrictions on how much we could order. And then the recession hit. And our big lovely company decided against spending thousands of dollars a shipment on its employees. In the end, we were only left with coffee pods and coffee cups.
The bad economy distracted us quite a bit from our snack drama. Although, the empty cabinets made us feel even more like modern-day Tiny Tims during the holiday season.
Immediately after the storm (December 2008 was the season of layoffs), we were left in the deserted office with only our lonely thoughts and our paper coffee cups. Signs went up around the kitchens to "conserve supplies, bring your own cups." Whenever I read that sign, I pondered the rude, frustrated tone of the office assistant that had to create it.
Over time we began to obsess over our supplies yet again.
By chance, I visited another floor's kitchen. I took a paper coffee cup from the plastic sleeve, filled it with water, and walked back to my desk. As I walked, I felt something different about what I held in my hand. The cup felt bigger. I looked down, into the depths of the cup-- my reflection seemed deeper, farther away. And then it hit me:
The cup from the other kitchen was bigger.
We were clearly no longer the company favorite. Our cabinets were empty, and our cups were smaller. I raced back to our half-empty office and made the announcement. My co-workers vaguely looked up from their seasonal-depression slumber, they roused. I repeated my announcement. Someone ran into our kitchen, grabbed a cup and placed it next to the one I held. We were astonished. We took a picture. We forgot, for a moment, our sadness and our insecurities.
Today the "days of the snacks" sound like local folklore when we speak of it now. But there it is, part of our personal/corporate history. I wonder when those times will return? And what will our future "golden eras" look like?
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Two by Two
Monday, November 16, 2009
For All You Nesters
It seems to be coming up in several conversations and posts recently, so I thought I would link to this great website that will give you lots of good decorating, renovating, etc. info. Love it! AND….their house has a pink room. So it makes mine seem ok……
Girl Wednesday’s Features
I looove GW’s new dreamy man of the week feature and am holding out until she includes the following:
I don’t get a chance to watch Criminal Minds all that much, but it has an absolutely amazing, quirky cast of characters – all of whom I seem to relate to in one way or another. But Shemar Moore (who plays Derek Morgan) is some eye candy I can’t keep my eyes off of. And he’s a smartie to boot! (some of you, not me! thankfully, may remember him from the Young and Restless. Let’s hope that you, in fact, are not one of those people. But he does have a “I smelled a fart” soap stare in this pose). Still ymmm.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Last Meal
I am not for the death penalty, but I think it's kind of strange that we maintain this 'last meal' tradition. It doesn't bother me that much, but the people these convicts murdered didn't get to choose and enjoy their last meals, that's for sure.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
What Really Grinds Wednesday's Gears
Tonight on the local evening news I learned of a "real danger" known as "orthorexia," and I just want to say- this really grinds my gears.
Really? Eating too healthy? That's like suffering from "not being lazy," or from "getting too many straight A's." I hate when people suffer from these conveniently flattering disabilities.
I've known one too many girls (sorry, yes girls) who claim to suffer from orthorexia. Though I've never heard them use the term "orthorexia." It usually sounds like, "I don't like salad dressing." Or, "Oh I eat fruit for dessert."
Gosh, that really grinds my gears.

Two please.
Girl Wednesday's Pick: Dancing-in-Her-Apartment Song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ync5XfNNPo
Two Norwegian dudes made it. Here they are in concert:
Wednesday's Exciting Moments in TV Production: I Love L.A.

This past weekend brought me to Los Angeles where a producer-friend of mine and I did some filming of a local personality-- a DJ/break dancer/actor/model.
I have a really fun job.
At this club, Boulevard 3, there was a white lucite stage that raised behind the glowing, neon bar and patrons watched and cheered from the surrounding dance floor and the mezzanine balcony as the performances ensued...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IM-WjhOZdTY&feature=youtube_gdata
Break dancing is back!
Dreamy TV Man Pick of the Week: House MD

I could say that for me, it's his acerbic elitism, the way he tackles only the most unsolvable medical mysteries, his Nikes, or his love for rock n' roll, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit that what I love most about Dr. House is the possibility he represents that there really is a doctor out there who can figure out and cure almost anything.
Conceived in the likeness of my beloved Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Gregory House is all business. And even limping down the hospital hall on his cane, even while reduced to the everyday details of his desperate Vicodin addiction, and most recently, putting himself out there at a costume party, only to be rejected by his love- hospital administrator Cuddy-- he is still so dreamy.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
My new obsession
I, similar to GirlFriday (with her fondness for Ethan Allen interior decorating), have an unhealthy obsession with real estate and furniture. I don't know when it happened. Probably some time during all the craziness of wedding planning when I realized that after the "big day" was over, I'd have lots of free time to plan the "ever after." I'm sure HT could tell you when he first started noticing the longer period of time I would spend pouring over the Pottery Barn Catalogue. . . I'm surprised he hasn't started throwing them out before I get home like I do with his Griots' garage car-washing supply catalogues. . . but I digress.
Somewhere in the last two years, I have really, really started to want to buy a home. It has something to do with throwing upwards of a few thousand dollars away in rent each month, but it also has to do with just wanting walls I can paint and rooms to decorate, and a big red front door with an antique looking knocker.
HT and I spent the better part of Sunday afternoon wandering around a little haven outside of DC where we'd love to be able to buy a place. We clip-clopped along brick sidewalks and popped in and out of cafes and boutiques trying to avoid strollers and dogs, smiling families, and tourists. We sat for clam chowder looking out at the potomac, somewhat exhausted from our prior evening's activities and wished that we could just plop down right there, put down roots, and stop all the what-ifs that come with the ACTUAL headaches of homeownership.
The problem with the obsession is that it's fun right now. We haven't broached the topic with lenders, we haven't really, earnestly, tried to figure out what we can afford, and we haven't set foot across a threshhold yet. And I'm certain that once we make those steps, my tone might change. But right now, home to me is clapboard and blue shutters with a red door and crooked, colonial front step. And filled with pottery barn furniture. . .
Monday, November 9, 2009
Choose or Lose
If you could go back and keep Taylor Hicks from making it to Hollywood week on American Idol, but it meant Wesley and Princess Buttercup wouldn’t get together, would you do it?
This is a great link, check it out – I’d love to hear your thoughts. Are there any you would definitely choose?: http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/movies_without_pity/the_box_better_questions_they.php
Bad Sports
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC-pF3OHY1c
Friday, November 6, 2009
Amen
Producers shouldn't act nor enable others to do so
In similar "my favorite TV shows" developments, Roxy Olin who now appears on MTV's fake reality show, "The City" has what looks to be a recurring role on one of my favorite favs, Brothers & Sisters.
I mean, she's okay. But whenever I see her on the show, I can't help but think about the fact that her parents are actors on the show, and I believe her dad produces and/or directs.
I don't know if it's just my knowledge of the situation that ruins it for me (probably) or she really does kind of suck and is extraneous. If you're on a reality show it seems pretty obvious that you are trying to act and be famous, and so here, it's kinda like, you could cut the nepotism with a knife.
It's fun and delicious when shows/films do a good job with casting, but it can really mess things up when they let it slide.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Weddings and more
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Dreamy TV Man Pick of the Week: The Mentalist
Girl Wednesday's Picture-Perfect Weekend

After a planned pumpkin-picking weekend with Girl Friday got rained-out, I had another opportunity with my boyfriend and some friends from work-- and seized it! Behold, my picture-perfect autumn weekend.....
Location: Long Island, NY
Corn Maze!!
(I'll admit, this was my most anticipated part of the trip, but I decided that while beautiful, the corn maze needed a little edge. Maybe nightfall could have been rapidly approaching and we couldn't find our way out, or a devil-possessed serial killer was chasing after us, or we consumed a bottle of vodka while trying to find our way out).



Pumpkins!


Pies!



(photos courtesy Si Hobbs)
Wednesday's Exciting Moments in TV Production: Safe Cavin!
This Wednesday I bring to you the aftermath of my funnest, wildest moment in TV production to date: cave exploration.
For a weather story on a cave flood from 1979, I went back to the original cave where the story took place. I met with the original rescuers (pictured with me, left) and crawled through scary-small places of the wet cave in northern Georgia.
Because Georgia had been hit with so much rain just days before my adventure, I was really nervous. But once inside, I didn't panic at all! In fact, I had a great time and would do it again in a heartbeat.
"Safe cavin," as they say. Or as that one guy says- the guy in the red jumpsuit. He signs his emails that way.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Like a chaperone at a high school dance. . .
My parents have ALWAYS been tech-savy. My dad was on the internet when all there was was compuserve and text-based message boards accessed using MS-DOS. He had a "portable" compaq computer roughly the size of a carry-on suitcase which my brother and I used to successfully conquer Math Blaster and the first version of Where in the World is Carmen San Diego. We had a cable modem as soon as they were available in the boonies, and they rigged wireless internet throughout the house faster than you can say linksys. They talk to my nephew across the country on a webcam, and they've got more cables wired into their new house than most office buildings.
Lucky for me during college, they never got in to InstantMessager or bothered with Friendster, MySpace, or even LinkdIn (though I'm probably wrong on that one). I called them once a week, e-mailed occasionally, but their virtual presence was relatively minimal. But now they have iPhones, macbooks, and facebook profiles. When I check status updates from my blackberry, I can see my mother's musings or learn my father's evening plans. My mom spent her entire visit to see my nephew taking and uploading pictures with her iPhone. My brother started chatting with me this afternoon on FB to try and determine how to launch a war against the adult infiltration of facebook.
Don't get me wrong, why shouldn't parents and other adults be able to reap the same reconnecting benefits we all enjoy about facebook. We all enjoy the random friend request from your childhood neighbor or the congratulatory message from the roommate you've lost touch with. I'm just weirded out knowing how much I stalk people on facebook and wonder if my mom and dad are now doing the same to me and my friends. And then there's the fact that the ever-growing facebook population that makes me wonder if we'll reach a point where parents and children communicate by Facebook message, notifying eachother of locations or curfew changes via status message. Who'll need chaperones if apple invents an iPhone app that tweens carry with them while their parents wait at home watching on the webcam?
After drafting this post last week, I ran across a CNN.com article yesterday discussing the trend among tweens lying about their age and bucking the membership agreements for social networking sites: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/11/02/kids.social.networks/index.html. Perhaps there's some real truth to my predictions. . . Frightening.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Beeeeuuutiful
When You Miss a Flight
1. End up not making it to my destination
2. End up not making it home for days
3. HAVE TO PAY OUT THE ASS to prevent 1 or 2. Or in addition to 1 and 2.
But over the weekend, I had the pleasure of seeing what happens first hand. BoyfriendFriday was scheduled to go home Sunday afternoon. Or so we thought. But on our way to breakfast Sunday morning, a cursory check of the flight time lead to a discovery of a 6:40 AM flight. Not a 6:40 PM flight. Oooops. My bad.
Anyway, here’s what happens when you miss a flight. NOTHING! It’s grand. They just put you on the next one they have available (that you want) and you pay a $50 change fee (geck, but it could be worse). So he flew home at 6PM. No problems.
I can see how missing a flight at the holidays could cause a problem, or other airlines may be worse, but overall, I have been worried all those years for nothing. Not a really exciting story, but a good piece of information for those of you who get to the airport 2 hours early……..
But I do have some good stories about running to planes carrying my rolling luggage (it’s so much easier if you’re in a hurry to carry rather than try to roll, navigating kids, curves, and transitions to the moving walkway) to be greeted by a plane full of cheering people (they cheer when you get there because it means they can finally leave – it’s not like I’m a celebrity. Although I tell myself that).
Friday, October 30, 2009
On The Road Again
Crazy Town
Ethan Allen Style Quiz
Good morning friends!
I wanted to share with you one of my favorite wasting-time activities. I love home decor, and although I have never actually purchased anything from Ethan Allen, I really like their stuff. On their website, they have a Design Quiz, which helps you determine what your home decor point-of-view is. It's not perfectly scientific-- I take it over and over again and often get different results-- but I still think it's super fun. I hope you enjoy it! You can access it here.








