Sorry to be Picky, But...

On today's View Joy started in about Kennedy and the Cuban Missle Crisis and she said that she remembered it and she had seen the movie... "thirty days" and Whoopi chimed in with: "Thirty days in May".... okay folks. I was born in 1975, but I do know that the Cuban Missle crisis happened in OCTOBER. BTW, "Thirty Days in May" is a colloquial reference to the Indy 500 (and there's a book by that name about the race, too.)

Can we please do *some* research here, people???

Pain au Chocolat....

The latest issue of Real Simple magazine has a simpleton's version of Pain au Chocolate (ala pillsbury crescent rolls and tollhouse chocolate chunks). Yup, that was it, put a bunch of chocolate chunks in the center of a crescent roll triangle, fold up the sides of the triangle to make a little pocket and pop it in the oven. About 10 minutes later--- voila! Warm gooey chocolate. Not much in the dessert realm can beat that.

Real Housewives of New York City!

Okay so I totally love this show. (I'm also a fan of the Real Housewives of Orange County) but what's with this being the "season finale"? They only had like five episodes... well, at least next week there's a reunion!

BTW, have you heard the news that Project Runway is moving to Lifetime?? I don't know how I feel about that.

Third Time's a Charm...

Another photo has been chosen for an art exhibition! One of my black and white pictures from our trip to Venice has been chosen for the annual Juried Photography Exhibition at the Mills Pond House Gallery of the Smithtown Township Arts Council in St. James, NY on Long Island! Woo-hoo!

Ratatouille!

Tonight we had Ratatouille again. (Thanks to the Gourmet Cookbook! Which does, indeed, have every recipe you'll ever need in it.) Served over couscous with roasted potatoes and a nice loaf of crusty french bread. Yummy- who knew vegetarian eating could be so tasty? It almost makes one want to snap up one of the infamous Moosewood Restaurant cookbooks. Almost.

Dinner and all that....

The other night I made Green Curry Chicken! One of my personal faves. Inspired by the recipe found in New Thai Cuisine by Nathan Hyam. I do add my own touhes though, like incorporating potatoes (ala massaman curry) because everything is better with potatoes. I also used red peppers (in addition to green peppers and onions), yellow squash and zucchini. I served it with a bit of cilantro-lime basmati rice.

Today I made german chocolate cake cupcakes thanks to a recipe from the Mom. Who knew you could make german chocolate frosting with eggs, sugar, half and half, pecans and coconut (well, the pecans and coconuts make sense, but I would have never guessed about the eggs and half and half.)

I was going to make ratatouille tonight but I have copped out (after the cupcakes) and am going to put it on the menu for tomorrow.

Today has been a good movie day... both The Da Vinci Code and You've Got Mail...

Wagon!

Today we ventured to Ikea and the gi-normous Babies r' Us/Toys r' Us at the infamous Exit 13A (this after a lovely lunch en plein air with the Husband-- what, it was 70 today, who wouldn't want to lunch outside?)

We ended up coming home with: i) a case of formula, ii) a case of 24 small ready-to-feed bottles, iii) a Fisher-Price tiger/basketball contraption, iii) a toddler sized table and two chairs, iv) a child's sized picnic table, all of this in addition to the Maclaren and Bugaboo which permanently live in the trunk. Before going to Ikea I had thought that I might have to tie something to the roof, but who was I kidding? I've got the wagon (and I was, after all, hauling child-sized furniture, but still!) I was pretty impressed that we fit everything in and had room to spare!

Mission Accomplished!

It has taken me since October 21, 1999 but I have finally truly worn off on the Husband. Last night he actually quoted a line from a Woody Allen movie!

Zootopia...

Yesterday we visited the Turtleback Zoo in West Orange. Unfortunately, the Zoo is somewhat under construction and a number of the animals were still in their winter habitats where ever that may be and were not on display-- (case in point, alligator habitat? There was one lone duck, no gator, hopefully they'll remove the duck before the gator get's back...) But, there were also a couple of neat animals like these gigantic woolly buffalo things and some kind of mid-sized cougars. The cougar enclosure looked relatively new, but upon closer inspection I would have to say I was hopeful that the cougars were well fed as the enclosure looked to be really just a giant net with a two foot high electrified fence around it. I'm sitting there with Miss B about 15 feet away from a pair of cougars and it really didn't look like that much was holding them in. Big kitty plus little fence equals: mom and baby getting the heck out of there and back over to the llama section.

There was also a "petting" zoo, though arguably the sheep and goats looked a bit shop worn, so we didn't encourage any actual petting. Miss B did seem intrigued by the donkey and chickens, though and before leaving we went on a little train ride which she really enjoyed. I would have had a bit more fun myself on the train had it not been for Stosh and his mom sitting in front of us. Stosh (who is five but looked seven, at least) thought that every pile of sticks the train went by was a beaver dam but most importantly, Stosh's mom was clearly looking for someone to talk to. I soon learned when Stosh was potty trained, what his first words were, when he got his first tooth, how his school teachers say what a large vocabulary he has, even though some of his pronunciation needs work, and how Stosh's grandparents feel about all of these things.

After the zoo we hit up a lovely little playground in Millburn and tried out the swings which Baby enjoyed all of which resulted in quite a good nap on the ride home. So much so, in fact, that Baby even slept through my quick trip to the drive through at none other than White Castle.

Congestion Pricing....

thankfully has been defeated... now if only someone can get Corzine out of left-field with his proposal to raise turnpike fares by almost 800% we'd be in business... (oh, and let's not forget his plan to get rid of NJ's Department of Agriculture, so much for that whole "garden state" thing...)

Food & Wine!

This month's issue of Food & Wine boasts the "World's Best Recipes" and I have to hand it to them, I never expected to see recipes for Yemenite flat breads, Circassian Chicken Salad, Neapolitan Meatloaf and Lemonade Slushies all together in one place at the same time.

Oy!

Yesterday we had our new carpet runners installed on our staircases. When I was doing the research for all of this I measured the steps and had guestimated that it should have been about $600 per staircase for materials. Unfortunately, after the flooring folk's measurement guy came out and once we got the actual quote it turned out to be over $3200. I was a bit gobsmacked but for some reason I assumed that I measured wrong.

Then, once the installation was completed I noticed that we had quite a bit of excess carpet left over. 55 linear feet to be exact. It turns out they charged us for 86 linear feet. We needed 31 linear feet. Thankfully, they took it back quite easily and most appologetically. 55 linear feet at $32.90 per foot, quite a savings and proof that my original math wasn't that bad after all.



As for the rest of the day, I got a great pedicure at Koi Spa (with Husband watching Miss B)... but for some random reason I got a giant headache on my way home. Four hours of napping and heating pad sitting, finally I'm feeling better. I also have downed a *lot* of water. Me thinks I was a bit dehydrated...

Update on Chris Isaak!

We have tickets, though oddly, they're standing room... I've been to the Nokia Theater before... its a bit of an odd venue... it should be interesting....!

From the People Who Brought You "Hindi for Pre-Schoolers..."

"Friday, April 18th at 8pm, Ladies Nite Out, all-male revue at the Hightstown Fire Department!"

Am I the only person who finds this a bit odd??

Chris Isaak!

Tickets go on sale tomorrow at noon. The show is August 20th at the Nokia Theater in Times Square. Okay, I have four months to find a baby sitter!

Help Me, Tooth Fairy, Help Me!

Alas, we have finally hit pay dirt, or in this case, enamel. Miss B's first tooth is breaking through the surface (and actually, adding to the tooth-induced cranky, it would appear that both bottom front teeth are trying to come through at about the same time...) Baby Orajel? Let's just say that's working about as well for Baby as the lone ambien did for me during labor.

Stein Mart

Have you ever been to one of these places?? They recently opened a new one in Franklin Township in what used to be the old Stop n' Shop (alas, a new, "Super Stop n' Shop" was built in the adjacent shopping center). Anyhoo, I got a coupon in the mail and thought I'd check it out as there are Stein Marts in Atlanta.

Let's just say the whole thing was a little touch of Atlanta in the middle of Somerset County. I've never seen so many bright colors, patterns, bedazzling and bad lace in one place north of the Mason Dixon Line. The only recognizable brand name in the whole store was one small Michael Kors rack (but this was like no Michael Kors wear that I've ever seen). Needless to say, we can cross this store off our list.

Opening Day!! (One day late...)

Go Yanks!

Real Time Dinner Blog!

As we speak, I am enjoying tonight's dinner! (The Husband has gone upstairs to put Miss Baby down for bedtime...) I've made Penne alla Vodka based on the recipe on page 217 of the Gourmet Cookbook. It has been just a little over a year since I made this, and it has been too long! The recipe is ridiculously easy. I add more tomato puree, cream and vodka as otherwise the portion sizes are a bit too small. I've also made a caesar salad, with red grapes. Yummy!

Paperback Wrapper...

The same woman also guessed "Spanning the Bible" on this evening's Wheel of Fortune.

Correct Answers: Paperback Writer and Spanning the Globe.

Smitten Kitchen

It's been almost four years now and we've finally decided to step closer to taking the plunge.... of remodeling our kitchen. By remodel I mean gut, or more possibly, firebomb. That being said, we are completely enamored of our appliances (other than our gas cooktop) and noting that due to electrical problems in our current wiring (see: original installation by Edison, Thomas A.) our "double" oven is technically more of a "single" oven, with lighted storage compartment.

Alas, the local Home Depot was sponsoring the "Ultimate Kitchen Event" wherein, if you spend X amount on such-and-such you get some sort of discount on Y, etc., etc. It's been so long since we scheduled our original measurement I've completely forgotten what discount it was that motivated us to finally do this in the first place.

Part A of this process entailed a strange little man coming to measure our kitchen and utility room, even taking pictures. While he did measure a lot of the aspects of our kitchen, he apparently didn't measure the existing cabinentry or appliances, which has caused somewhat of an issue with our "design consultant" (more on that later...)

Once the measure was finalized we made an appointment to visit the store. In preparation for this visit we perused four years' worth of "This Old House" magazines looking for design ideas and dug up all of the specs for our existing appliances. We also had the hard wood floor guys come back and give us a ball park estimate on refinishing the existing floor (note to self-- we really don't want to find out that what lies beneath the existing floor is either a) dirt or b) the remains of Claude Musselman, thus refinishing, rather than replacing, is our option of choice).

Unfortunately, it would seem, any prep work we did was all but in vain. Once we met up with our "Design Consultant" she made every attempt possible to convince us that the design plan we had in mind was ridiculously impractical and even more simply put: stupid. What about the work triangle? She mused, she, after all, is the "expert"! Why, her design even has room for hidden garbage cans next to the sink and a cubby for a microwave! (Needless to say, Design Consultant doesn't quite grasp who she's dealing with).

We tried to hold our tongue, but only after getting into a semi-argument about why we didn't need to lower the ceiling in our utility room. Then we had a small blow up about whether we could move the door to the utility room. Design Consultant baffled at the concept that the interior kitchen wall is concrete. The initial meeting was more stressful than a conference call from The Job!

We took about an hour and a half (which was frequently interrupted by other customers and various phone answering by DC)... then we rescheduled for a second visit.

In our second visit, DC actually put together a design plan which was somewhat in accordance with our request. Indeed, there is an island and she did have the fridge and stove at opposite ends of the room (work-triangle be damned!) A few moments into our visit, however, DC received a phone call from one of her other co-horts in the design department. From DC's end of the conversation all we heard was an aggravated "these people are real pains-in-the-asses" sound, which was clearly in response to the person on the other end asking, "how are things going?" Only moments later we got into a battle of wills over whether or not there is a three inch waste pipe running behind one particular wall of cabinents. She was convinced it could not possibly be there, as the cabinents are clearly 24 inches from the wall, as depicted in the photos. We said, but there is a waste pipe that comes from the bathroom above and it exits the house on the other side of the kitchen, trust us, the pipe runs *behind* the cabinents. We've seen it, we know it exists. No, you're wrong, it can't possibly be there. (Fact: cabinents are 27 inches from the wall. 24 inch standard cabinent bases, with 3 inch gap... so much for the "photos").

This was much like when DC was convinced that I just *had* to have at least 18 inches of countertop on either side of my existing cooktop. I said, nope, I have not more than 12 inches. She whips out the photos and proceeds to tell me that I have no concept of space.

I went home, just to prove she was wrong and measured... I have 12 inches of countertop on the left side and 15 inches on the right side (however, that fifteen inches is taken up with a utensil bucket, kitchenaid artisan stand mixer and a 3 piece set of Emile Henry bowls so actual usable space is about 4 square inches.

Anyway. DC is then telling us that we don't want marble, it stains. AND, when we told her that we wanted to move the fridge from one wall to another she insisted it was impossible to do so. We also noted that we didn't want any wall cabinents in between our two windows, instead preferring a flat screen tv. DC actually said that she would "compromise" with us and let us have the TV instead of the wall cabinents, but only if we keep the fridge where she had originally intended it.

It took every fiber of my being to keep from asking her just how much of this remodel she intends to pay for....

So, that's how its been so far. We have yet another appointment this Friday wherein I'll have to break it to her that *YES* I do want to move my sink to beneath the second window, despite the fact that DC claims that "no one really looks out the window when they're using the sink." I beg to differ, when your kitchen is effectively in a hole and the window is at ground level, you'll notice you do tend to look out it. AND I'll also get to try and convince her that a) we don't want undercabinent garbage facilities and b) we are the only people in the developed world that do not use a microwave. Wish us luck.

It's Not You...

I liked this article in the Times today. I guess I have some nerve given that I've noted on the sidebar of this page that I'm currently reading "STori Telling..."

Ye Old Incompatible iPod...

I know I've written about this before, but I just get a kick out of it every time. This evening I'm adding to my iPod. Who would have ever guessed Vicki Carr would be iPod'd at the same time as LL Cool J? Ladies Love Cool James! :)

Letter of Day

We switched over to Verizon Fios on Thursday. During the conversion process it was rather traumatic-- we lost PBS for a good couple of hours which meant that we had no idea what the letter of the day was. Then, once our new cable was up and running it turns out that we have lost our Delaware/Philadelphia PBS station which means no more Sesame Street at 10am. Then, just to add insult to injury, in the family room, the Verizon guy completely forgot to even program our new DVR box and when we try to watch *any* PBS station they're "unavailable". When I called Verizon this afternoon the representative actually said she was shocked that we're getting any tv reception at all in the family room as the installation tech failed to register the box with our account. I think it's just the PBS gods trying to make us feel guilty for not donating.

Rolling Blackout...

This is an interesting concept... a rolling blackout around the globe on Saturday at 8pm local time. Go out and see the stars!

Save H20 Part Deux

Today we went to return the cable boxes to Comcast. A Saturn pulled up into the space next to us. It had all sorts of "save the planet" type environmentally themed bumper stickers. Ironically, the woman driving it had to leave it running while she went into the Comcast office. I don't think it was because she was in a hurry.

Fun Day....

Yesterday Miss Baby and I headed into the city for a visit with Thisbe, the Wee Kraken, Call Me Mommy and Baby! As always it's wonderful to see the ladies and babies and we had a nice lunch at 40 Carrots. Unfortunately, The Job crept in via Blackberry. I did, however, feel some vindication in being able to send a semi-snotty email to a partner at another firm, all the while, standing in line at the checkout in the baby clothing department at Bloomingdales!

Fortune Cookie!

This evening we had PF Chang's.

My fortune was: "A friend in the market is better than money in the purse."

In this market? Not so much.

Interesting!

410e9th has added a voting button in which blogreaders (such as yourself) can vote on whether 410e9th is taking this blog too personally, or not personally enough! Do go and cast your vote (what a fun web-gizmo!)

ps. usually I'm just trying to get to a punchline (but Hillary does scare the bejeezus out of me!)

pps. I thought it was awfully lame when today on "The View" none of the women on the panel could remember that Bill Richardson was the Secretary of Energy. I'm guessing then they certainly couldn't recall any of that whole "Wen Ho Lee nuclear espionage scandal...."

Oh, Dear

Apparently, a number of well known companies have be put on the S&P Watchlist, including (gasp!) Loehmann's. (No, not Loehmanns! We love Loehmann's!) and, oddly enough, the Chiquita Banana people. Hmpf.

Breakfast for Dinner!

We have leftover ham. A lot of leftover ham. For years I've been hearing my mom say how she uses a hambone when making split pea soup. That's the plan for Wednesday, tonight? Tonight we used leftover ham for..... (drumroll please...) Eggs Benedict! Woo-hoo! I got ciabatta bread from Wegman's (instead of using English Muffins). I fried up pieces of ham (sliced thanks to the Husband), poached eggs and then made hollandaise sauce (okay, that was from a mix). On the side I made hashbrown potatoes with red peppers (ala Sarabeth's...)

Not a bad first benedict effort, if I may say so myself!

Yay!

Oddly,

today we saw a wild turkey crossing Promenade Boulevard. Nobody ever asks why the turkey crossed the road.

Happy Easter!

Bauk, Bauk!

Itsy Bitsy Yoga!

Is on again for tomorrow. We'll see how it goes. Last week was a surprise success, with seemingly fun moms, tots and a nice instructor. (Though the parking situation at the Gym was awful.... really, everyone goes to the gym at 9:30am??)

The project continues!

Today, after but a few moments of checking through one of the cabinents in the family room I uncovered our old VCR. I've gone ahead and reserved the first three movies through the NYPL online. We'll be getting started pretty soon! Who's popping the popcorn??

NYPL!

The library card has arrived.

SAVEH2O

The other day we were out and saw a first generation Prius loaded up with a bunch of environmental bumper stickers and sporting the vanity plate: SAVEH2O. Do you think the NJ vanity plate charge is waived when your plate is a PSA?

A More Perfect Union...

Okay, so I know I'm going to get stoned to death by a jury of my peers for this one, but what the heck.

This is a link to Obama's "A More Perfect Union" speech, which he apparently mostly wrote himself. Question-- how is it that someone who can prepare such eloquent speeches and profess concepts of unity and understanding and hope possibly could have sat through the diatribes of Rev. Wright for so long if he really objected to the "offensive" portions of their content? From an intellectual level alone you'd think you'd either say something to the guy or get up and leave (long before now). I think this would all make a lot more sense if he just did a David Patterson and came clean-- all he has to say is that he was just going to church to make his wife happy. That, to me, is a more plausible explanation. ;)

ps. this is, in my opinion, another reason for the importance of the separation of church and state. Unless it's Shirley MacLaine, it's always a deal-breaker for me when politicians have prominent spiritual advisors. But that's just me.

Why, Mom,

are you interrupting me while I'm watching Wheel of Fortune??

Yee-Haw!

All I have to say is, the pony's been booked.

A lot's been going on,

but no blogging.

Saturday marked my first mom's day out since December (I don't count the two bar taking days...). Last time I hit the town with the Dad, seeing the Homecoming and hitting up Sarabeth's for brunch. This time it was catching up, chatting and shopping with Leda and Mel! A fun time was had by all, and we must do it again soon!

Sunday Miss B and I headed up to Connecticut to see Thisbe in her show! Leda, Demetri, Mel, Mike and Moritz also hit up the matinee so it was quite a fun event! Thisbe was fab and Miss B really liked the music and all of the singing (though we did have to head out to the lobby on a number of occasions as Baby wanted to join the chorus).

Today was a fast-paced day of lunch with the Husband at Panera, a visit to Babies r' Us (where we snagged a truly adorable baby Yankees cap!) and grocery shopping at the Wegmans. Leave it to the Wegman's cashier to put my loaf of pepperidge farm bread in the same bag as a five pound sack of potatoes. Furthermore, my baguette arrived home at a 45 degree angle. Clearly this man had an issue with carbs.

On the meal front, it's been a fun past few days. The other day I made a great tomato bisque soup thanks to an organic tomato soup from WF (doctored up with some special ingredients including a can of fire roasted tomatoes, a bit of cream and some various spices), a nice caesar salad and herbed goat cheese toasts. Then we had do-it-yourself soft tacos, and finally, rounding out Friday night with sliders and french fries. I had been using 80/20 ground beef from Wegman's (Bobby Flay had recommended 80/20 on the burger episode of "Throwdown") but instead this time I got 85/15 from WF and it was really great! Tonight we did Croque Monsieurs with a nice salad (topped with lemon vinagrette from one of Ina's cookbooks). I'm still getting back into the swing of theme weeks. I've gotten some great cookbooks from the Mom recently (including a Jamie Oliver and two Lidia cookbooks, so we'll see what the future holds!)

Cutie!

Kung Fu Cable

For the past three days the cable in the family room has been broadcasting the sound about a good 10 seconds ahead of the picture. While watching animated children's programming the difference doesn't seem too bad, since cartoon mouths usually onnly move marginally to match the words anyway but it has been pretty disturbing to watch regular tv. I feel like I'm perpetually in a badly dubbed chinese movie.

Other tvs? Fine.
This tv when watching a DVD or a Tivo'd show? Fine.
Switching from Comcast to Verizon? Can't happen soon enough.

I'm going to get you a library card...

So, the game is on. Today I signed up on the internet for a NYPL library card which will give me access to those Best Pictures not yet on DVD! This, thanks to the fact that the NYPL will give a free library card to anyone so long as they live, work, own a business, own property or go to school in New York State (let's hope that the new Governor doesn't make any changes to these policies ;) Thanks to the fact that I maintain a work office in the city, I filled out the form and was all ready for my card! Not five minutes after I sent in my application I got an email back from the folks at the NYPL. The email indicated that they wouldn't be able to send my card out of state to my home address. I'd either need it to be sent to my work address or I'd have to pick it up in person. So I gave a call, figuring I could arrange for a pick up since if it went to my work address god only knows when it would get forwarded home. I spoke to a lovely woman and I mentioned that I was working part-time and that it would be a while before I would be able to get mail from work. I couldn't even get out the suggestion that I'd pick it up before she said, "I'll mail it to your home." Yes! Now when I go to pick up my reserved tapes I'm going to have to show proof of my NY address. I'll be digging up a business card and then I'm good to go!

Top Chef!

It's Back! Woo-hoo!

Mark Your Calendars...

the local mom's group sent out this reminder:

Mark your calendars, Hindi for preschoolers tomorrow at the W. Windsor public library!

A New Endeavor...

The Husband asked the other day if I was having a hard time unwinding from the bar exam. I responded that I thought I wasn't having any problems, but then realized that over the past week I had made appointments with every kind of contractor known to man (carpeting, cabinent/countertop people, hardwood floor restorers, fencing installers, mason/stone pointing people), read a 315 page nonfiction book, caught up on two months of periodicals, entered two more art contests, began making felt play food for Miss Baby, and prepared a full punjabi dinner (both meat and vegetarian).

So maybe there was something to this idea that I haven't been able to properly relax since taking the bar. Since taking care of Baby and working part-time from home leave me with such a lot of personal time, I've decided to watch all 80 Best Picture Academy Award winners. Why not? I can do it while knitting (Dad-- your pumpkin hat is almost done!) Below is a list of the winners. Part of the challenge of this project is a) finding all of the movies on VHS or DVD and b) locating where I put my old VCR. Oh, the other rule? I have to watch them *in order*. If you have any of the movies below that you wouldn't mind lending, it would be much appreiciated! Oh, and of course, progress will be reported on the Blog.


Wings
The Broadway Melody
All Quiet on the Western Front
Cimarron
Grand Hotel
Cavalcade
It Happened One Night
Mutiny on the Bounty
The Great Ziegfeld
The Life of Emile Zola
You Can't Take it With You
Gone with the Wind
Rebecca
How Green Was My Valley
Mrs. Miniver
Casablanca
Going My Way
The Lost Weekend
The Best Years of Our Lives
Gentleman's Agreement
Hamlet
All the King's Men
All About Eve
An American in Paris
The Greatest Show on Earth
From Here to Eternity
On the Waterfront
Marty
Around the World in 80 Days
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Gigi
Ben-Hur
The Apartment
West Side Story
Lawrence of Arabia
Tom Jones
My Fair Lady
The Sound of Music
A Man for All Seasons
In the Heat of the Night
Oliver!
Midnight Cowboy
Patton
The French Connection
The Godfather
The Sting
The Godfather Part II
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Rocky
Annie Hall
The Deer Hunter
Kramer vs. Kramer
Ordinary People
Chariots of Fire
Gandhi
Terms of Endearment
Amadeus
Out of Africa
Platoon
The Last Emperor
Rain Man
Driving Miss Daisy
Dances with Wolves
The Silence of the Lambs
Unforgiven
Schindler's List
Forrest Gump
Braveheart
The English Patient
Titanic
Shakespeare in Love
American Beauty
Gladiator
A Beautiful Mind
Chicago
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
Million Dollar Baby
Crash
The Departed
No Country for Old Men

Interesting....

Tim Yeo of the Financial Times notes, "the most important though so far largely overlooked consequence of Fidel Castro's long-awaited retirement is its significance for golf." Tiger Woods, watch out. Who knew, in addition to baseball, ol' Fidel is a PGA pro??? (Actually, Tim claims that Cuba's the next Pebble Beach... intriguing.

Friday Night...

It's 10:56pm on a Friday night and I'm watching "The Making of Miami Vice"-- not even the Don Johnson version, but the Jamie Foxx Colin Farrel one. This does not bode well for the weekend.

We're Back!

So, now that the bar exam is over we can go back to real cooking! Tonight we had Chicken Makhani with Naan (from WF) and homemmade potato Samosas! I had seen a recipe in Real Simple for the samosas using (oh, my god...) left over mashed potatoes and ready made puff pastry. Needless to say I did not use left over mashed potatoes, but I did use Pepperidge Farm ready made puff pastry. For the samosa innards I boiled golden potatoes that I had rough cut. Once boiled, I drained the potatoes and added petite sweet peas, fresh cilantro, olive oil, garam masala, ground cumin, mustard seed, salt and garlic salt. I also diced a jalepeno and added that as well. The samosas were really good, though I think they could have stood for a bit more spicing.

Hmpf....

Nothing says "glamorous afternoon" quite like ordering 60 pounds of cat litter on the Internet.

Gemini's Twin...

This week's US Magazine horoscope for Miss Baby indicated that she is a techno-junkie. "Geminis, like you and Natalie Portman, need to put down the Crackberry". I guess it's not all wrong, Miss B does really enjoy playing with the remote control, cordless phone and she would certainly chew on our cellphones/blackberries if given the opportunity.

Where There's a Will....

So starting last May, for 85 days, Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman rode through Africa for their "Long Way Down" trip/documentary. For fans of "Long Way Round" this was quite exciting! I found out about the BBC website documenting the trip last summer (and added a perma-link, shown on the left side of the page...) and had been waiting this fall to see if the show would be carried on any stations here in the US. Unfortunately, only BBC Two seemed to air the episodes. Then I kept my eye out for the DVD-- no luck. Finally, we did a bit of research and decided to just order the damn thing from the LWR website. We've finished watching the DVD and now I'm starting to read the companion book (also unavailable in the US until June, but I managed to get a copy thanks to Amazon Canada!) Here's to looking forward to Long Way Up!

Random Musings on the Bar Exam...

So, now that the exam is over, I have a few thoughts...

First, it was kind of funny when the nice gentleman sitting next to me on Day One (who had just taken NY the day before) asked if I had just taken NY too. I was able to answer-- "eight years ago."

Second. Today I was doing the essay portion of the exam via laptop. At the end of the morning session there was quite a bit of delay on picking up exam materials, etc. I was one of the first people whose materials were taken. I asked the proctor if I could leave to go to the ladies room. I'm met with "I'm sure you really have to go, but I'd hate for you to miss any important instructions." Yeah, okay. I then proceed to sit for five more minutes both while my bladder is expanding rapidly and my lunch hour is ticking away. The room starts to rumble with "why can't we leave-yets" and then the head proctor gets huffy about making sure people don't want to lose their exam answers. I'm thinking, lady, at this point I don't care if you lose my answers! Finally, they let us go, but not until after the other room full of testakers have been dismissed. What does this mean? Line at the ladies room. Why is it that women always take so long in the bathroom? (With the corrollary to that being they never put in enough bathrooms for women in public places?) For years on end I had prided myself on never having to pee outside of the house. I had the bladder capacity of a camel. Then comes childbirth. What could make this situation worse? Having to listen to "We've Only Just Begun" by the Carpenters, in Muzak while waiting in line for the bathroom.

Other thoughts? Having to bring loose m&ms in to the exam room in a giant ziploc bag as a way to discourage people from both i) cribbing notes on the wrapper and ii) discouraging making paper crunching noises seems a bit like administrative overkill.

Adventures in Babysitting....

During yesterday's bar exam session the cleaning ladies were scheduled to visit the homestead while Mom was watching Miss Baby. When we left the house I really didn't even think about the fact that the alarm was on. At our lunch break we called and checked in with the Mom and all was well. When we finished our exam session in the afternoon, the Husband's cell phone had a voicemessage from a random 800 number. We called home to check in and the Mom didn't report that anything was amiss. We checked the voicemessage and heard that it was our alarm company telling us that there had been an alarm call and that the person at our house couldn't verify any of the secret code information and as such, the police were being called.

As we were getting ready to call the Mom back to alert her to the police visit, I noticed that the call from the alarm company had been placed over two hours before. When we got home, we got the whole story.

Before the cleaning ladies arrived, Mom realized that she'd need to disarm our burglar alarm in order to let in the cleaning ladies. The Mom checked in with Dad for the code. Unfortunately, the code, as remembered, was incorrect. When the cleaning ladies arrived, Mom opened the door and the alarm went off. Punched in code? Doesn't disarm. Alarm goes off. AlarmCo calls, Mom can't verify. AlarmCo asks whether perhaps the cleaning ladies would have the code? Mom, rightfully asserts that if she doesn't have the code, why would the cleaning ladies have it?? Alarm eventually stops going off, but now the doors are closed and Mom realizes she can't open the door to let the cleaning ladies out without setting the alarm again. Next thing you know? The police show up. They pound on the door and demand to be let in. Mom opens the window near the door to let them know that she can't open the door-- the alarm will go off and she doesn't have the code. The police say that they have to come inside to make sure that everything is okay. Next thing, they're asking Mom whether someone inside the house is making her say that everything is okay.

Then, the police ask whose car is in the drive way, and is that person forcing Mom to keep the door shut? Now Mom, with Miss B has to go and get Gloria (chief cleaning lady) to confirm that everything is okay! Next, the police want to see Mom's license, which (because the door can't be opened) she has to shove underneath the window screen!

Then, Mom tells the cleaning ladies that they have to stay at our house until I call back from the bar exam to give her the code (what a great fact pattern to test False Imprisonment!), Mom calls Dad on this one and Dad reminds Mom that she can't hold the cleaning women hostage. Luckily, after a bit of back and forth, the Mom and Dad recovered the code. Cleaning ladies can go free and, as the SBPD said, "that was the strangest alarm call I've ever been on."

Something's telling me we'll be getting a bill in the mail.

It's Over!

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist. And like that... he was gone.

We're all...

tired of studying...

Michael Clayton.

What can I say, George played a cross between the guy from Syriana and Danny Ocean. Love George as a general matter but this flick? Not that great. Liked the ending and everything but it was a long time coming and nothing really shockingly new about the legal profession here. It reminded me of The Insider, except not nearly as good.

Hmpf.

Tonight Miss Kitty was watching Golf. She actually made it a bit interactive when she reached up and pawed at the TV screen when the Golf Channel did an aerial shot of the course. I guess she liked the look of the greens. Perhaps she took her savings from having worked at Taco Bell and has scheduled a tee time at Pebble Beach. You never know. It could happen.

Tax Deductions...

I had a bag of odds and ends (baby clothes and mugs and other knick knacks) sitting in the laundry room for the longest time. The other day in the mail I got a postcard from the Lupus Foundation seeking donations of household goods. Last night I went on to their website and scheduled a pick up for this morning (love the internet!). I indicated that my goodies would be in the driveway. My confirmation email told me to put the items out before 7:30am. I put the bag out on our front steps early this morning (as it was too cold for me to actually put the bag in the driveway-- but I figured they'd find it.)

Coincidentally, my Mom is coming to visit. My parents like to travel light, so she's shipping her clothes up via FedEx.

This afternoon my Mom asked whether her box of clothes had arrived. I told my Mom that I hadn't heard FedEx, nor had I seen a box, "oh, and by the way, did I tell you I left a donation for the Lupus Foundation?"

This chain of events made Mom a bit nervous as FedEx had sent her an email saying that the box was delivered at 10:30am. Needless to say her first instinct was that the Lupus Foundation had taken both my bag of goodies and her box of clothes.

I happened to be in the car while we were having this conversation and I drove right past the house-- thankfully, FedEx box was on the steps, garbage bag of odds and ends, nowhere in sight. "I Love Lucy"-Esque Crisis Averted. Priceless.

Cuckoo

Last night I walked through our entry foyer on the way upstairs and a small round brown object caught my eye. It was on one of the throw rugs and it kind of looked acorn-ish. I admit, I was being lazy, the lighting wasn't that good and I wasn't about to pick it up for closer inspection. I told myself it was probably an acorn, didn't want to attribute how it got there and went about my business. This morning I was walking up stairs and I saw another one. "Oh, no." I thought, "Is it some sort of bug cocoon?" (I hate bugs). "Why on earth are there two of these things? What is invading our home?!?" I decided I would be brave and take a closer look. Mystery object? Cocoa Puff.

The Husband brought Cocoa Puffs upstairs as a snack last night. It isn't clear whether he was leaving a trail back to the kitchen a la Hansel and Gretel or if the Cocoa Puffs knew that their fate had been sealed and decided to jump ship.

Satellite...

The errant spy satellite is expected to be shot down on Wednesday around 10:30pm, ET near the Pacific coast of the U.S.

MSNBC's coverage notes, "complicating the effort will be the fact that the satellite has no heat-generating propulsion system on board. That makes it more difficult for the Navy missile's heat-seeking system to work, although the official said software changes had been made to compensate for the lack of heat." Which basically says to me that the missle could just as easily take out some poor schmoe with an ipod in Oregon.

Window!

Skills.

So suffice it to say we were having some difficulties today which led us to think that attempting to try a cloth diaper would be a good idea. While we have tons of cloth diapers (as they are convienent for use as burp cloths) we don't have any pins and I don't actually happen to know how to properly fold one. At the time that this grand plan arose it was not amenable to internet research. Thus, I called upon the only similar skills I know-- scarf tying, thanks to the little Hermes "How to Tie a Scarf" book. I'm not quite sure whether our friends in Paris would be mortified or proud to learn that their handywork has been put to use with diaper folding. I made my initial fold on the diagonal, in order to maximize the size of said cloth, put Baby in the middle, wrapped both ends around her waist and tied a knot. I then proceed to fold up the point of the diagonal towards her mid section. What ho, nothing to tie it to. Do I have diaper pins? Of course not. I didn't even know where I could locate a safety pin. But alas, I am a lawyer, so of course, I have a house full of random sized Binder Clips. Yes, not only can a binder clip serve as a "chip clip" in the event of a snack emergency, the small size can be a makeshift diaper holder in a diaper emergency.

wow.

Right now we're sitting in line at the drive-thru at Wendy's and the line of cars is actually so long that it is outside of the parking lot. They *really* need to build another fast food joint around here.

Crank.

So, for those of you who have seen the above-referenced Jason Statham flick, this is to let you know that this evening we realized we had our own Crank on our hands, or in this case, "Crank-y". Miss Baby was very exciteable and wound up before bedtime tonight, such that merely sitting and playing with toys was wholly unsatisfying. Nope, she needed adrenaline. Had we a baby bungee jump she would have gladly partaken. She wanted to be bounced, carried around while mom was running through the house singing, carried around by dad while running to chase after mom, jumping up the steps, floating up to the ceiling, dancing (with assistance) to a tune reminscient of "Shake your Booty" by KC and the Sunshine Band.

Reasons to Love Jamie Oliver...

Who else says things like: "I've got recipes for leeks, man, that'll blow your mind."

Random!

Check out the illicit cultural property website which appears to be keeping track of art theft, etc. around the globe. Oddly interesting.

Down to the Wire...

Even though we are getting close to bar exam time, tonight's dinner was a fun one... mini cheeseburgers on Hawaiian rolls with waffle fries! Woo-hoo!

More Movies We're Not Going to Go See...

Jumper, with Hayden Christensen. As MSNBC states, "Christensen, in particular, has an astonishing emptiness to him on the screen, somewhere between a 1950s Hollywood contract player and a 1990s Czech gay porn star." Exactly! So god knows why George Lucas cast him as the young Darth Vader!

The Code...

So this evening it is becoming ever increasingly difficult to study Contracts as my study materials keep refering to the UCC as "the code" and all I can think about, of course, is the Da Vinci Code. Damn Tom Hanks!

How to Beat the High Cost of Living...

This is right up there with movies of my youth like "The Increible Shrinking Woman"! Anyway, its on Retroplex!

Congratulations,

Wee Kraken!

This is a Response Post...

In response to 410e9th.

First- a question. If the "basic democratic platform is formed around the notion of providing social safety nets for the lower quartile of Americans, greater economic opportunity for the middle 50% and paying for it, at least partially, by increasing the burden of the upper 25% (especially the top 10%)" how is Hillary's proposal ofrequiring illegal immigrants to pay fines and back taxes consistent with this platform? Unless there are some illegal immigrants in the upper 25% or top 10% of the population (you know, all those illegal Swiss banker types...)

That being said. How would a democratic candidate earn my vote? By recognizing that the "middle class" and "upper middle class" make a lot more today than in the past and thus maybe they're targeting tax increases at the wrong people. Why not embrace abolishing the tax code and enacting a flat tax?

Besides all of that. Hillary just scares me, plain and simple. You're right I phone banked in '92, yada, yada. I believed the hype. I was a complete Clinton supporter. Then the rug came out from under me. The whole Monica Lewinsky thing. I'm sorry but Bill Clinton lied to Congress. I don't care what he lied about or why, to me it just goes to show that the power of the presidency made him think he was above the law. He lied about something as stupid as Monica-Gate, how could he be trustworthy at all? The Clintons claimed that they would be doing all of this "good" but at the end of the day they were (and are) just as money and power hungry as the Republicans, but without the tax cuts.

The man should have been impeached. There you go. That's how I feel.

As for Hillary? She hung on with Bill. Why? Because she's even more power hungry than he is and without a drop of charisma.

How can a person who hails from Illinois, was the first lady of Arkansas justify that the right next step is to become a Senator from New York??? Why? Because Moynihan's seat was up and NY is one of the most powerful states in the union. God forbid she actually rise up through the ranks of Congress by being a representative from a state where she has a connection to the constituency and then become a senator in due course. Nope, she stuck with Bill and so her reward was a Senate seat.

Further, the Democratic party focuses on all of these wonderful social programs which we'll get the benefit of, but during the Clinton administration what did we get that was really beneficial? Yes, the economy was good, but was that by virtue of a social agenda? I didn't receive any exceptional federal grants or loans during college (and certainly not during law school) and I of course earned too much upon leaving school to benefit from any interest deductions on my taxes for the student loans I did incur. Want to work in one of those programs where you qualify for Federal Loan forgiveness? The income which qualifies you is so paltry you certainly couldn't successfully live in Manhattan, heck one might even be priced out of Omaha.

Obviously, no one these days likes George Bush, but within just a few months of his taking office I got a check from the federal government for $300. That was a nice check to get.

As for Barack Obama-- he seems truly like an idealist and that's great but at the end of the day the man has about as much viable political experience as a Boy Scout Leader.

This all being said, the Republican pool isn't much better. Huckabee. Well, I don't even think you need to go beyond the man's name (a discussion of the whole "evangelical" thing is scary enough) and while John McCain would have been a viable candidate years ago, the fact that he would be entering as the oldest first term president is certainly not a good thing.

I don't know what to tell you but I don't think the options out there are good and I'm certainly not looking forward to higher taxes to supposedly fund "benefits" which I'm never going to see.

ps. glad the necklace was a hit. ;)

What I Heard on MSNBC...

Here's a link to Hillary Clinton's speech from El Paso this evening.

Below are a few excerpts, with my thoughts.

"I see an America where everyone willing to work hard has a job with a rising income."... so we can collect more tax from you.

"I see an America where health care is a moral right, not a privilege." Okay, I'm all for health care for everyone, but I think that needs to be done by requiring ALL employers to make benefits available and by making insurance companies lower premiums for folks who work part-time or are in lower wage jobs. That being said, as I'm studying constitutional law for my bar exam prep, no where have I found a constitutional right to health care. I hate to sound like Ron Paul, but really. It's not there.

"They will not have the door slammed in their face because of the costs of higher education." Hillary says that for young people, they shouldn't have the cost of higher education be a barrier for entry to college. Of course not, but by the same extent, let's make sure that if you earn what we consider to be "too high" of an income after you get out of college, you'll not get any tax deduction for all those student loan interest payments you'll be making.

"In my America, we're going to make sure that the federal government gets back into loaning people money at a low interest like they did when I went to school instead of the student loan companies." Guess what, Hil. The Federal Government does loan money, unless your parents "make too much" and you don't qualify. Those would be the same people who you'd like to raise taxes on so you can fund universal health care. What do you say, will you lower the financial thresholds for government loan funding? Will government loans be made available for people going to law school and med school (yeah, right.).

And, with regards to the illegal immigration problem, Hillary thinks that the road to citizenship should certainly be paved with things "like paying a fine for coming here illegally, like paying back taxes" do we not see a theme here?? Now she even wants to get more tax money out of illegal immigrants-- probably the people making the LEAST amount of money out of everyone....

Best In Show...

So we managed to make it to MSG and find the Thisbe family! Yay! A fun day was had, but note to self and all other dog loving families out there-- the more kid-friendly day is definitely Day Two at Westminster.

Bad Day at Black Rock

Today is the day that we go to Westminster! Unfortunately, the day has not gotten off to a great start. First, its like 18 degrees outside (at least its sunny). This means we're very bundled and Ugg boots are on all around. As we're getting ready to go down stairs and head to the car, Miss Kitty hacks up breakfast on the second floor landing. Ugh. Nothing says "joy of cat ownership" more than cat puke in the morning. Next: trying to find snowsuit, finally locate snowsuit just in time to change monsterously stinky diaper (which indeed required full outfit change). Am too tired to climb stairs so I use spare outfit from diaper bag and jeans from dryer (thank goodness!) Get bundleme from dryer. Bundleme has of course managed to come completely unzipped and is now in two pieces. Attempt to reattach bundleme while in garage where it is approximately 25 degrees. Baby in car (check), maclaren in car (check), diaper bag (check). Car keys? No car keys. Back in house (what about that train you're supposed to catch??? Forget about going to the bank for extra cash-- looks like you'll be using one of the "thousands" of Bank ATMs convienently located at a Duane Reade in Penn Station...) Aha! I have a valet key. It starts the engine but won't lock the doors... At least it gets me to the husband's office where I can pick up spare keys.

Get spare keys. Find space at station. Pack Miss B. Into maclaren (where, mind you, bundleme velcro has become like steel and I can't properly allign shoulder straps... Attempt to pay for parking. I have a twenty. I need four singles. (Otherwise I'll get stuck with 5 parking tokens...) I buy my train ticket figuring I'll use the change for parking. I get back multiple sacagawea dollars (and one Susan B.). Score! I have four dollars (in coins).

Parking token dispenser only accepts dollar bills. Its just like the French tollway. No coins, just bills (and of course, no credit cards!). As I'm dealing with this... Train pulls away. That was the 11:18. We were supposed to catch the 10:50. Go to train station cafe, trade in my coins for dollars. Pay for parking. Figure we'll catch the next train. At 11:41. That's where we are now (at Newark Airport). Its making every stop. I also just finished eating cottage cheese while riding backwards. Miss B is blissfully asleep (best way to experience NJ Transit). Its got to get better, right?

Westminster!

It's official, we are getting very excited about our upcoming trip to the Westminster Kennel Club dog show on Monday with the Thisbe Family!

Duplicity!

Today Miss Baby and I visited the Big City to go to an open casting call for the new Julia Roberts/Clive Owen flick Duplicity. We waited in line for quite a bit and chatted with the wacky tall man in front of us in line (who kept telling bad jokes) and the nice Ukrainian girl behind us (who was an extra in "I Am Legend!"). As usual when going to an open call for background actors the mix of people was rather unique-- a true cross-section of Manhattan! Here's a shout out of thanks to everyone (Ukrainian girl especially) who helped us manuever the Bugaboo up and down the steps into the church auditorium and here's to hoping we all get called back!

Go Rudy!

Yes, that's right, as of 12:59 am I was one of 460 people in Middlesex County to vote for Rudy even though he dropped out of the campaign!

Boo Boo!

MSNBC has an article about "loveys" and the lengths that parents will go to to replace them if lost. Luckily, Boo Boo (pictured, in Venice) has never been lost, but thanks to the Mom and Dad, Boo Boo has been replaced and replicated many times over, despite being made from a pattern sold only in the seventies. I excitedly anticipate Miss B's development of a particular affection for a stuffed something. So far Grover is in the running, but really, the field is still wide open.

660!

This is post 660! I don't know why but I find that interesting. Baby is napping at the feet of Grover.

Super Tuesday...

We finally got in our W-2 forms today, which means it's tax time. All I can say to anybody out there who will be eligible to vote in the primaries on Tuesday is: DO YOUR TAXES before you go to the polls. Maybe what you see will influence your vote.

In the Democratic Debates last night Barack Obama indicated that he wouldn't mind having to pay a bit more in taxes in order to fund certain of his programs (including his health care proposals).

Given that we don't qualify for the child tax credit (earn too much), can't deduct student loan interest (earn too much), got our "energy savings" rebate reduced by almost 90% (earn too much) and our AMT burden increased by $7,000 from last year (when for four months out of the year I essentially had little to no income) tells me that perhaps we're all paying a bit too much in taxes as it is.

If no one won tonight's MegaMillions jackpot the next drawing will be for $102,000,000. I say let's have a national lottery, abolish the tax code and institute the old Steve Forbes' favorite flat tax.

Romney's New Policy

I had a discussion yesterday with the Dad about politics. He mentioned that Mitt Romney's new way to deal with the deficit is to sell Montana. I thought it was a brilliant strategy. If we sell Montana to Mexico we can deal with the illegal immigration problem at the same time!

More Thoughts...

There's a show on this afternoon called "Amazing Births"... the description indicates that one of the vignettes will be about a Girl Scout who assisted her mother in delivering a baby. My question: what kind of badge do you get for that!?!

Today Martha is doing a Superbowl show. She was demonstrating a chicken wing dish with Eva Longoria and she actually called the marinade a "Mar-in-ahdd".

Lucky Number Slevin

We watched this the other night. Aside from the suffocation scenes (which I could have done without) I actually liked this flick and thought it was much better than the reviews.

The Bronze Age

Today Miss S has moved into the realm of tool usage. Now previously she has exhibited an understanding of simple engineering principals (as in when she tilts the large stool towards her when she is in her high chair in order for the desired toy to slide into her grasp), but today she actually used a taper candle as a bat in order to knock over a photo frame.

Stuff!

Miss Baby and I visited C & G Casting for a casting call for extras for "Confessions of a Shopaholic"...

Jerry O'Connell is actually pretty funny in Carpoolers... who knew?

Cobb Salad-- we had it for dinner tonight... not bad at all. I used two kinds of bagged greens and then included a chopped yellow pepper, red pepper, cherry tomatoes and a red onion. In addition we put ham, hard boiled eggs, diced avocado, sharp cheddar cheese and blue cheese chunks (not to forget croutons, of course). We put a bit of WF's organic ranch dressing and served with a loaf of french bread. Light but tasty!

US Men's Figureskating...

I started watching the beginning of the US Men's Figureskating championships on NBC. They began with an interview of fur-collar clad Johnny Weir. Then Bob Costas, reporting from the ice, began talking about the great rivalries involved, and the personality clashes between Weir and Evan Lsyacek. I swear, it was right out of Blades of Glory!!!

Oscar Watch

While we love to watch the Oscars for the whole red carpet fashion thing, after seeing the Golden Globes get wrapped up in an hour with Billy Bush, it made us think that perhaps a change in format due to the writer's strike wouldn't be such a bad thing. The Husband took it a step further and suggested that they should just scroll the winners' names in a crawl along the bottom of the screen while Yolanda Vega is reading off the lotto balls. It could kill two birds with one stone, or lotto ball, as the case may be.

Street Photography!

One of my photos has been selected for the exhibition "Street Photography" at the Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, CO. The show will run from March 28-April 26th.

All things Muppet!

It's the Muppet Wiki!

Check it Out!

Bigfoot's moved to Mars!

Jeopardy, sponsored by bad taste...

Tonight's episode of Jeopardy! was sponsored by both: (a) Super Colon Cleanse (really) and (b) Steak-Umm.

Lamps!

I love when Jeopardy! has great categories, like "Lamps".

Pretzeltown

Miss S has a cold. She didn't sleep well last night and has been stuffy, stuffy, stuffy all day. While watching the AFC Championship we had all kinds of snack foods and decided to give Miss S. a treat-- some salt free pretzels to munch on. Given that she's got no teeth yet one has to be rather vigilant and make sure to substitute a new pretzel every time that the old pretzel has become so soggy from gumming that it has lost structural integrity. We went through probably six or seven pretzels. Once snack time was over it was clear that a bath was in order, as Miss S's trip to pretzeltown was quite messy.

At the Angelica...

So, the other day I watched La Vie En Rose (aka "La Mome"). My god, it was awful. I mean don't get me wrong, I can totally see why Marion Cotillard won the Golden Globe as she did have quite a Charlize Theron-like transformation into Edith Piaf, but other than that. Ugh. They killed off Gerard Depardieu within the first 20 minutes and once into adulthood Edith wasn't a very nice person! Anyway, I couldn't even sit through it and I was in my own family room. And considering that I have sat through Camille Claudel which clocks in at almost 3 hours, I think I have a history of past patience with random French biographies...

3-6pm CNN: Ballot Bowl

"Uninterupped coverage of the presidential candidates campaigning in South Carolina, Nevada and Michigan." I turn this channel on and what's on? A Kia commercial. So much for "uninterrupted".