Media-crity

Tis the season for top-10, 20, 50, 100, etc lists. I’d like to do one, but I don’t know what to write about. Anyone have any suggestions?

It’s also the season for Christmas movies. Whee! I’m apparently a communist because I can’t STAND A Christmas Story. My top 3 Christmas movies of all time are as follows:

1. Elf
2. Miracle on 34th Street (the remake)
3. The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (the original cartoon)

Maybe this weekend I will do my top Christmas songs. Tomorrow I plan to start a new (totally unoriginal in the world of blogging) feature to help keep me on track for the great blog staring contest.

This post is really disjointed cause I’m kind of feeling disjointed. Since we moved into this apartment a little over a year ago, we’ve had our routine. Me on the couch with my laptop, Nate either in the living room chair or in his office just off the living room. Now, though, our furniture is gone and we’re watching the same show on opposite ends of the house because we have things to do in the rooms we’re in (him: painting, me: setting up my office). Except he gets to watch in HD and I have it in regular old broadcasting on my old 13″ TV from college. We’re still shouting things across the house to each other. I bet once we settle in again and I’m using my office more we’ll be IMing each other across the house. We’re cool like that.

I’m kind of annoyed because I’ve really gotten into Grey’s Anatomy, which airs Thursdays from 9-10. However, the #1 top show in our world is Scrubs. Scrubs is coming back tonight with the season premiere. At 9. GAH! I think we’ll probably watch Scrubs and try to catch Grey’s tomorrow when it reruns.

Our landlord came over earlier and took a look in the cracks in the wall to make his recommendations. He’s really cool. It anyone’s looking for a 1-2 BR apartment in WH, let me know. We chatted for a bit, he gave painting advice, and he left. He and his wife are kind of where I see Nate and I in 5 years or so (they’re a little more than 5 years older than us). He’s really excited that we’re painting and what we’re planning. I am too. And I mean how many landlords are actually EXCITED about their tenants painting? Usually that’s forbidden. I mean, really it’s free labor. In the craziness of the wedding, we considered moving downstairs because we liked the paintjob better! Then we stopped being braindead and said … duh. We can really just paint ourselves! I mean, I could see a big corporate landlord with a boxy building wanting all of his apartments to be stark white blank slates, but this house has a cozy charm and it deserves a paint job that fits it.

I priced out furniture delivery options and to order the stuff online, it’d take 7-14 days and $350. To go to New Haven, buy it, then have them deliver it, it’s same-or-next-day delivery and around $100. Plus we can buy the curtains, blinds, and throw pillows right away, as those can’t be ordered online.

Then we went to Lowe’s and Home Depot. God I feel stupid in home improvement stores. I decided to go get the rest of the supplies while Nate waited for the paint. Well, in that time, I managed to find a 4″ plastic putty knife. That’s it. I don’t know how to find half the crap I need in those stores. Hey, mom, remember when we spent hours there, wandering from end to end? I don’t even remember what we were looking for.

Well, no turning back now, Nate’s out there now painting the woodwork. This is what husbands are for, huh?

What’s left
Originally uploaded by Ms. O’Brien.

Don’t you wish you had two handsome guys in your living room destroying your couch?

After MONTHS of my iBook getting a crappy wireless signal, I finally decided to do something about it. It used to work all over the apartment, then it started to only work in the living room when I got it back from the great display replacement. I was told by a Mac-knowledgable friend that they had probably screwed something up and it’d need to go back to Apple. Well, I had no desire to send my baby off again, so I just sucked it up and dealt with it. However, now that we’re getting our living room to be more functional than college-dorm-y, I want to use my office rather than the couch. So I did some research online, found a couple of solutions, tried them, and voila! I’m at full signal strength from the living room (where the router is) to the office (way on the other side of the apartment). I feel like I could throw a party and dance and do cartwheels. FREEDOM once more!

Too bad about this damn migraine. There were some really strong cleanser fumes at work today and they did me in.

Oh, but here’s the awesome part. Some Girl Scouts rang our bell. COOKIES!!!!!

We just gave our loveseat and chair the old heave-ho. We have the couch, too, but considering that took 3 people and the removal of the door and hallway light fixture to get it IN here, we were not attempting that on our own. Fortunately, our bulky waste permit is good for 2 weeks, so we’ll get some help with that later.

After exhaustive hands-on research in the IKEA lab, we’ve decided on the following:

This chaise:

This loveseat:

and other pieces as we decide we need them. It’ll certainly open up our overstuffed room a bit!

We’re painting the room “Madeira Red” (that’s what Olympic Paints calls it anyway, it’s sort of a maroon/burgundy). To tie it together, we;re getting throw pillows and curtains in this print:

I’m pretty excited, though it’ll be a lot of hard work. We’ve timed it well so we’ll have no furniture to really worry about while we’re painting.

Yesterday we finally got to meet Miss Stella, as evidenced by the photopost below. She’s a sweet, quirky little pup. She loves to lie on her back and kick her legs in the air.

Unfortunately, she also REALLY enjoys chewing and biting. Her teeth are the same as a german shepherds, so she’s got quite a bite on her. I was sitting on the floor with her and Nikki and she just walked up and bit my stomach! That was in addition to arms, fingers, wrists, shoes, shoelaces, pants, rings, bracelets … basically anything she could get her teeth on, including her own legs. She’s also just so adorable that you deal with it. She’s not very cuddly, except when she’s tired. She has a HUGE personality. She’s very smart, too. We were all in the living room, so the gate was up, and she started running FULL TEAR at it, stopping short just before she hit it, like she knew that it would topple and make a loud noise and was debating whether freedom would be worth that.

She’s quite wiggly, so she’s hard to take a picture of. Much like Jimmy, really. Here she is when I picked her up to make her stay still:

Awww!

Don’t you know That’s illegal?
Originally uploaded by Ms. O’Brien.

This lady pumped her own gas and held up the line

Hello from New Jersey!
Originally uploaded by Ms. O’Brien.

Nate and Stella the monster

So yeah, it’s technically Saturday. However, you got two posts on Thursday, and I haven’t been to bed yet, so I hope this doesn’t put me out of the running for the great blog staring contest.

The reason I’m home so late, like some rock star, is Thanksgiving 2. We all got together at Carolyn’s, made an AWESOME feast, ate, talked, laughed, hung out. It was just great. Plus, there was a puppy there for a little while. A tiny little 10-week-old black pomeranian named Bailey. Sweetest puppy! We were all playing with him with a wiffle ball and it was juuust about too big to fit in his mouth, unless he got it at the right spot and could use the vents in the ball.

Carolyn also opened her birthday presents. Lisa, she loved the jewelry! Thank you!

Okay, time to get my wine-soaked husband to bed. We have another puppy to meet tomorrow!

We’re home from Providence, actually been home for about two hours. Dinner was lovely, as usual. Nate’s mother can really cook, and she seems to have passed some skills onto him, so yay me! All the fixins that Thanksgiving is known and loved for. Mmmmm. Mom, you were missed.

We got a bit of a late start because we intended to make bread before we left, but hit a few snags. One being that we realized we were out of unsalted butter. So, Nate mixed up the ingredients we DID have and I scurried off to Shaws which … wasn’t nearly as horrific as I feared. I actually got out quicker than I would on any random Shaws trip, though there weren’t any more lanes open than usual. When I got home, Nate finished up and we put the bread in the oven. Nate called his mother to give her an ETA, but she said that we should just bring the pan with us and bake it there. This has to be the first Thanksgiving I’ve ever been to that was actually running on time.

The weather was awful to drive in, but we didn’t hit any traffic, so that was good. We ate, talked, had dessert, then hit the road home. We had stupidly forgotten Claritin in the rush and Nate’s allergies were starting to go. It was just as awful driving home, but still no traffic! We took 84 –> 384–> 6 both ways so I waved to Lisa both times we passed her street.

In the car on the way home, I asked Nate if he’d think I was crazy for wanting to just stay in tonight (we had made tentative movie plans) and watch Grey’s Anatomy and er and he said no, so that’s what we’re doing. Well, right now Nate is shooting some kind of robotic creatures in his video game, but in a half hour we will watch TV.

Tomorrow, it’s back to work for a half-ish day, then Thanksgiving: The Return at Carolyn’s. No Black Friday for me! *shudder* I admire those who do it, the dedication it takes. They probably get awesome deals. Me, I’ll just be sleeping until I have to get up for work. You’ll all be getting wedding albums for Christmas this year anyway.

Yeah, the weather is awful. Ugh.

But I’m still excited about mashed potatoes and turkey and gravy!

To fill today’s blog requirement, I shall share what I am thankful for. In no particular order!

1. My husband
2. My mom
3. A better relationship with my dad
4. My job
5. My friends
6. Well, that I’m here to celebrate Thanksgiving at all. And that I’m healthy enough to enjoy it to the fullest. So thank you, St. Francis. And thank you, body, for surprising me and being strong enough to fight.

So everyone drive safe and hug your family and friends and anyone else you’re spending the day with!

Yeah, so I updated the layout a bit. I’m still tweaking it, but the basic structure is there and works so I’m happy. I also like my apple.

This is pretty funny. MSNBC anchor Alison Stewart got married recently and honeymooned in Rome. She wrote a blog here about how the TomKat hoopla invaded her honeymoon. This part in particular amused me.

The fates were also throwing a karmic boomerang my way. I did, after all, hound the two of them for an interview on the day they got engaged when I was reporting for the “Today Show.” And just three weeks earlier, I’d donned a wig to play a sedated version of Katie Holmes on Halloween for “Weekend Today.” So, they infiltrated my honeymoon. Okay. We are even.

In other blog news, the NY Times did a fascinating story about the college kid behind TVNewser. Isn’t that kind of the dream, to be writing a little blog to amuse yourself, and then find yourself vaulted to infamy, being handed the personal cell phone numbers of network execs and getting invitations to sit on panels on CNN? Okay, maybe it’s just my dream.

Aaaaand, to bring it back to TomKat, here’s a hilarious post about MSNBC’s “breaking news” reports on the big wedding day. I love MSNBC probably more than the average person, but this is ridiculous!

Alan briefly discussed cranberries and linked to this Yahoo! News story yesterday. Well, he also discussed some smarty-pants political stuff, but I went right for the cranberries because I love them so much. Here’s a recipe that sounds tailor-made for those holiday get togethers, especially with the crock-pot part.

Once the punch has simmered, set the slow cooker on low to keep the drinks at perfect sipping temperature down to the final serving.

Prep: 10 minutes Cook: 4 - 6 hours (low) or 2 - 2.5 hours (high)

8 inches stick cinnamon, broken into 1 inch pieces
6 whole cloves
5 cups white grape juice
2 2/3 cups water
1 12 oz. can frozen cranberry juice concentrate
Cinnamon sticks for garnish (optional)

1> For spice bag, cut a double thickness of 100% cotton cheesecloth into a 6 or 8 inch square. Place cinnamon pieces and cloves in center of cloth. Bring corners together and tie with clean string. In a 3.5 to 5 quart slow cooker combine spice bag, grape juice, water, and frozen juice concentrate.

2> Cover; cook according to times listed above.

3> Remove the spice bag; discard. Serve immediately or keep warm on low-heat setting for up to 2 hours. Ladle punch into mugs. Garnish with cinnamon sticks, if desired. Makes 18 half cup servings.

I was poking around on The Courant’s recipe exchange cause there are sometimes some good ones and I found this fantastic sounding soup that just made me drool. I can’t wait to make it. I even got a hand-held stick blender at my shower! Anyone know where I can find some parmesan cheese rinds?

• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

• 1 large onion, finely chopped (about 2 cups)

• 1 large carrot, finely chopped (about 1 cup)

• 1 large celery stalk, finely chopped (about 2/3 cup)

• 3 cans cannellIni beans, 15 ounce cans

• 6 cups low-salt chicken broth

• 2 teaspoons fresh sage, minced

• 2 2-by-2-inch Parmesan cheese rinds

• 3 ounces prosciutto, thinly sliced

Heat oil in a heavy large pot over medium heat. Add onion, carrot and celery. Sauté until vegetables are soft, about 10 minutes. Add beans, broth, sage, Parmesan rinds and prosciutto. Simmer over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally until flavors blend and soup thickens slightly, about 40 minutes.

Using tongs, remove cheese rinds.

Purée soup in processor or blender or with hand-held blender. Season with salt and pepper. Ladle into bowls, and serve, passing grated parmesan cheese and additional olive oil separately.

I will, however, be leaving out the onions and the celery, and I will add some ditalini. Does anyone actually LIKE cooked celery? I find it repulsive. It’s in the soup I’ve been eating for lunch and I just fish it out and dump it in the trash.

This weekend I saw something over and over that really kind of disturbed me. Children being left alone in minivans to watch movies while their parents shopped. As far as I could tell, the DVD players were all integrated with the vehicle, so there at least had to be a key in the ignition. Also, as far as I could tell, the kids in the van were quite young– under 10. What about the very large risks of either a very curious child starting the car or a car thief just smashing a window and driving off? Remote possibilities, probably, but still enough to make me do a double take at this practice.

And I don’t know, maybe there was a parent or a teenaged sibling somewhere in there, I didn’t really study the cars for long for fear of being pegged a pedophile or a car thief myself. That would only take away the possibility of the curious child, not of the opportunistic car thief/kidnapper. These cars were all in darkened parking lots, parked quite a distance from the door (I know, because I was parked next to them). Also, it’s cold out after dark these days. The cars didn’t seem to be running, which means that there was no heat in the car. This wasn’t just a quick run-in-run-out either, because the cars were still there when I finished my own shopping, which was at a rather leisurely pace.

C’mon parents, there’s gotta be another option.