Quick pop-culture check-in:

MUSIC: NEW ARCADE FIRE???? Also, Spike Jonze was inpsired fully by their album "Funeral" when he made "Where the Wild Things Are". Somehow, just by watching the trailer, I could feel the influence of the music.

LIVE MUSIC: A free sitter coincided with a local band, Lost in the Trees (I featured them on my sidebar not too long ago), collaborating with Daniel Bernard Romain who is a...jazz/funk/fusion violinist? Anyway - great locale, tasty drinks, and pretty, soaring stuff.

WORK MUSIC: Ah, Mozart's Requiem. Fire, confounding the righteous, eternal, perpetual light...it's got it all, mostly in minor keys! What's not to love?

FILM: We finally rented, on many people's recommendation, "Happy-Go-Lucky" (thanks Lynn). And...I loved it. I kept waiting for something bad to happen. One of my friends admitted that she even googled the plot mid-movie to make sure there was not going to be a horrible death. But no, the movie is about someone who tries to stay happy. Who is positive. Who keeps her chin up. Who is maybe in serious back pain, in danger from a stalker, is unlucky in love, is witness to child abuse...and it looks like she'll be ok. She may even find more happiness...there might be newer, happier things coming down the pike! Everything and nothing happens and there is fine acting and beautiful shots of dear London (especially Camden Lock). Thank you Mike Leigh.

BOOKS: I need glasses real bad. Still, I'm reading "Girl With a Dragon Tattoo" and getting into it! Sweden! Who knew???

CABLE: We saw the new BBC version of "A Room With a View." Um, no. No, Andrew Davies, you may not f*ck around with E.M. Forster that way and make him all Ian McEwany!!

MORE CABLE: We've made our children "Top Chef" addicts. Not. good. Still, if Robin doesn't go home this week, I'll...I'll...oh, I'll keep watching.

AND...MORE CABLE: Ok people, I tried. I tried to watch "The Tudors". Jonathan Rhys-Meyers has nice lips, there's a lot of boobage, JEREMY NORTHAM for God's sake....but yeah no. If anything, the opening sequence would do me in every night we put in the DVD. It reminded me far too much of a far better period piece, and not in a good way.


Satans Alley Trailer - Watch more Funny Videos

Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream

Ingredients
2 cups whipping cream (I used light cream)
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup sugar (I might add a bit more - maybe 3/4 c.)
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (I would cut this to 1 1/4 tsp or even less)
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup pumpkin puree
Instructions
Gently heat the cream, milk, sugar, spices and salt over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved and bubbles form around the edge of the pan.
Stir warm cream into the pumpkin along with the vanilla.
Chill the mixture in the refrigerator until cold.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Freeze in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions.

MY GOD I LOVE THE INTERNET

Because I'm trapped in the house with a sick child, and I already cleaned for 10 minutes and made dinner, I surfed around the Facebook and laughed at how I had something like 75 invitations to various causes and fan groups, etc. I joined 1/3 of those, and then did some Twittering, because guess what, I got chosen to test a new Twitter tool and I am feeling very Twitter-snobby about it. Then, natch, I went on YouTube. And I found something that I had no idea the rest of the world treasured, besides my husband and me. It was a great Internet day.

There was once a television show called "Just Shoot Me" - it wasn't even very good, and I don't know why we used to watch it! In one episode, they had a bizarre story line involving a special needs friend or relative of the star (who, now that I think of it, was in "Sex, Lies and Videotape", a movie I really loved, and now I know why I watched "Just Shoot Me".) and the story was maybe somewhat humorous? However, the guest actor, David Cross, was very humorous. And he uttered a line that, to this day, is uttered in my home maybe twice a week MINIMUM. And apparently in homes across this great world of ours:



I had the pitch wrong. I am still glad to see this again. The children won't believe it.

She Wolf Appraisal

My son in particular loves this song:

Shakira - New Music - More Music Videos

My husband in particular loves Shakira. For obvious reasons (her ass).

I love the video for her amazing isolation skillz, and I love the song for its excellent potential to be on this year's version of our "Spooky Toones Halloween Mix" cd.

BUT.

(not BUTT).

But she is IN A CAGE. And her "wooooo" wolf howl is weak and kittenish. Shakira! You have a lasting relationship with a powerful, important man! You danced with Beyonce and held your own! You continue to put out hits and have been at it for a while! YOU USED THE WORD LYCANTHROPY IN A SINGLE. So don't demean all these accomplishments by dancing in a cage and humping.

I won't be showing the children this video. There's a feminist in the closet...let her out so she can breathe.

Oh hai! Where have I been? Oh, just around here, tending to various life events. Daughter's in a cast, son is upset about it and getting stressed from the pressure of his football position and the boredom that is 4th grade after a wonderful 3rd grade year, and husband and I are too tired to hang out.

Plus, our little date nights* are officially over now that daughter can't play soccer.

*We had little date nights - literally an hour - for a few weekends there. One drink, one app. It was blissful, reasonably priced, and really maintained the marriage. Daughter went with us on the last one and it was....not the same. I mean, she's interesting company, but...

On the good times front, we had a visit from our baby niecelet this weekend and enjoyed her very unique view of the world. That kid is something else - funny, smart, and her own girl. PLUS THE CHEEKS.

As Wife of the Year, I dropped my husband and son off at the Alma Mater's homecoming football game en route to the ER when daughter's arm needed attention.

BAW birthed a baby!!! On a dime!!!

And this weather, oh, this weather. A cloudy, windy day yesterday...cold, and with tinges of color and with a scent of sap and smoke.

Fall, you challenge me, but I am not blind to your charms.

Brand Loyal: Detergent

I have a rash. It is very bad. It will not go away. And it might mean the end of my brand loyalty with The Finest Laundry Detergent, Gain.

Just finished a round of antibiotics - nada. Applying steroid cream daily - no effect. Thinking about giving up Gain - can't do it.

It smells right. No, I don't buy the "Island Tropical Breeze" scent, just the basic happy laundry goodness. Our old house is kind of stinky, but the laundry smells good. And when you are doing as much laundry (football) as I (soccer) do (hand-me-downs out the butt), you want to have some kind of heightened sensual experience.

Also? Powder, not liquid.

I can tell that this is a moment in time that I may always remember...I know I must switch to some eco-freako hypo-allergenic unscented brand.

Dammit.

A Little Flat, but a Big Moment for the Avett Brothers

Brand Loyal: Halloween Treats

Mellowcreme Pumpkins. Brach's ONLY. I laugh that there is a Wikipedia entry, and better yet, a picture there with the caption, "a candy pumpkin". Check it out. Better yet: a mellowcreme pumpkins blog. I understand, I do! They are so creamy (cremey) and tasty. I tried to wait until October 1st to buy them but the fracking Harris Teeter put them on sale.

Boy, I've really shot my wad with this brand loyal meme by doing Halloween this early.

Brand Loyal: Face Cream

I am brand-loyal.

I try to buy organic and paba-free and high fiber, etc. but sometimes I just stick with the brand, no matter what.

In the case of Yes to Carrots, however, I get something I like + something that doesn't have whatever evils are in facial creams. The product I get, C Through the Night, is more expensive than almost anything else I buy for my skin care regimine. But it smells nice, doesn't make me sneeze, and has a lovely texture. Plus, when my husband gets in bed he can ask me, "Did you say Yes to Carrots?" and I can say, "Why, I sure did!".



Have I noticed a difference in my face? Well, I do get compliments on my skin a lot. Though I still struggle with seborhheicceia dermatoititsiscis, the unspellable disease that I have, there does seem to be a nice even tone most days.

My poor parents and my poor in-laws all experienced flooding in Georgia this week! What a mess. I am hoping for quick clean-ups and no repeats.

We had quite the deluge ourselves the other day, but today is hot and dry and boy did that make me cranky during carpool. I refuse to run the a/c during my somewhat brief carpool wait.

Though I did run the a/c during piano lessons, and that resulted in a dead battery. I did what any self-respecting suburban wife and mother would do and called Triple A. I love Triple A. Thank you, Triple A! I have never waited longer than 30 minutes for AAA to arrive and save me. I could make some analogy to AAA being like the sexy boy toy you always wanted, but my heart isn't in it because I am too hot.

Dr. Horrible Wins Emmy!

It's long. It's kind of sad. It's worth your time. Thanks, Jimmy!

Representative Joe Wilson, Serena Williams, and Kanye West. These folks? Reminding me how NOT to be.

We all know I have mixed feelings about organized religion and faith in general, but if there is one thing that church does each week it is that it reminds me. Reminds me what being a good person is all about, reminds me to take care of my fellow man. I want to be about love, kindness, support, and forgiveness. I fail at it hourly, daily, yearly, but that's what I work towards.

I will close this uppity post with a letter my friend's dad wrote her.

Dear Daughters,

Perhaps the past few days' events will prompt America to re-examine its "me first" behavior, which seems to dominate these times. First, a supposedly well-mannered Eagle Scout from America's most mannered city (Charleston, SC) heckles the American President on the floor of our Capitol. Then Serena Williams threatens to stuff a ball down the throat of a line judge who called a foot fault (which Serena does all the time!) and did so to the tune of 2 F-words and the brandishing of her metal racket (her 2nd; the first had been broken to smithereens by a previous display of temper and foul attitude!).

Both have stimulated condemnation. But both have released an avalanche of supportive commentary, heavily sprinkled with vitriolic anger - racial, religious, stereotypical name calling, etc. Where have we come from? Moreover, where are we going?!!!!!! We seem to have become a society of spoiled brats who speak before we think. Anger is a proud badge. It's always someone else's fault. We all need to bring this home...and think. More is wrong than an questionable line call or an imperfect health plan.

We need help!!!

Dad

Do you grow tired of NY Times links? Um, too bad for you.

For here's one of the Times critics talking about "All About My Mother" which was my favorite film that year, and still ranks in my top five of all time. The video is only a few minutes long but it speaks in large part to what is amazing about the movie.

Crisis

Every day this week has featured a crisis. Some pretty big, most small. At what point do you just call the week a wash and pretend it's over? Cause I'm at theoretically AT that point, and it's just Thursday afternoon.

Today's crisis was not immediately taken care of, as I was in a meeting and didn't listen to my friend's message on my voice mail. But when I did, my meeting partner and I rushed to her aid.

She had seen a rat.

Now, it turns out that the rat was in her yard, dead. Her dogs may or may not have killed it. (Good one, pups!) The rat was smallish. And though the day was hot and thus smell-inducing, we arranged quickly for someone to not only come remove the rodent, but to come and bait traps in case he/she had little friends.

Still. A rat is a rat. And we live in a well-appointed (infested) neighborhood and my friend cleans a lot, and it rocked her world. The house reeked of Clorox when we arrived to save her.

But truly: what is really rocking all of us suburban moms' worlds is the start of school. The start of schedules, logistics, juggling, negotiating, fretting, celebrating, shopping, paying, fundraising, emailing, typing, talking, talking, talking, socializing, meeting, driving, driving, driving, and waking (up early). My friend with the rat happened to have just sent her oldest to college, her middle to high school, and her youngest to middle school. IN ONE WEEK. No rat can compete with that horror.

So my meeting partner and I went over and consoled, and remembered the dead rat whilst simultaneously rejoicing in his/her demise. We all said a mantra over a jar of roses (from a perfect neighbor's yard)....to wish our children well, to help us relax and enjoy this wild life, to have rat-free homes, and to thwart the tropical storm currently brewing off the coast of our state.

And then we all left to drive carpool.

Countdown

My daughter could not be any more excited about middle school, which starts tomorrow.

My son is also excited, and he's got great friends in his class, and his buddy Ytwo K is in there too (I KID YOU NOT), and I was told that we "won the lottery" in terms of teachers.

My poison ivy is even clearing up.


Oh, and OMFGMFJCGDG is Mad Men off to a ridiculously good start or WHAT?






I finished my depressing-as-hell book and am enjoying the mindless pleasures of another one.


A much-anticipated Netflix DVD arrived. HA HA hahaha HA HA! (spoiler alert)


Check with me next week to see how I'm holding up....but for now, I think I can hang with the best of them.

I Haven't Even Seen "Pulp Fiction" (but I knew you would want to see this)

Sorry no posting... the following all decided to go nuts this week: PTA, work, children's sports, and the dust and dirt in my house. But I didn't want to let the monumental event of the summer go unnoticed:

Mad Men premieres season 3 on Sunday night!!! AMC is a great place to visit, and they even have an iPhone app.

Jon Hamm's publicity tour has been a great success, apparently. Perhaps you enjoyed his mad baseball skillz....

Have you Mad-Menned yourself yet? Men'd?




Here's my daughter (notice the doughnut):


Also, which character are you - a quiz. At first try I was Roger Sterling. Then, Betty Draper. But don't we all want to be Joan?



Finally, those of you in the city - why not go watch in Times Square, with a brooch and some kitten heels? (can you believe this marketing campaign??)


I leave you with the Fug Girls, who always say it best:

"Ahhh, yes. That's the stuff. I feel SO MUCH BETTER. I'll take one of each. "

Salad Days

My children always wrote "Salad" as mom's favorite food on those preschool quizzes (they also wrote "jazz" as my favorite music and "wine" as my favorite drink, and "be a mommy" as my favorite thing to do).

Salad is truly one of my favorites, and I'd be a hell of a lot better off if I ate it more exclusively. Not so hard to do this time of year. As I eagerly anticipate the Nora Ephron film "Julie and Julia", based on Julie Powell's blog that I used to read fairly faithfully, and Julia Child's life that I have admired from a distance, I find my thoughts moving towards slower, fresher food. It's easier to prepare and plan for such meals in the summer. Come fall, we'll be scrambling to boil pasta water, but for now, we're debating which salad we'll mix up using the heirloom tomatoes my husband picked up at a local market yesterday.

Nora, by the way, attempted Julia's salade nicoise on Good Morning America. YUM.

Our tomato debate is between the following from The Minimalist at the New York Times and his 101 recipes for summer salads:

2. Mix wedges of tomatoes and peaches, add slivers of red onion, a few red-pepper flakes and cilantro. Dress with olive oil and lime or lemon juice. Astonishing.


19. Mix cooked cannellini or other white beans, chopped cherry or grape tomatoes and arugula or baby spinach. Lightly toast sliced garlic in olive oil with rosemary and red pepper flakes; cool slightly, add lemon zest or juice or both, then pour over beans.


44. Make a crisp grilled cheese sandwich, with good bread and not too much good cheese. Let it cool, then cut into croutons. Put them on anything, but especially tomato and basil salad. This you will do forever.


45. Halve or quarter cooked artichoke hearts (the best are fresh and grilled, but you can use canned or frozen) and combine with cherry tomatoes, bits of feta or Parmesan or both, olive oil and lemon juice.

(If you click through to The Minimalist's article, do not miss the video on salad dressings. He advises adding a tablespoon of honey to a balsamic vinaigrette, and I love it!)

Also, a great salad blog post from Mighty Girl. Maggie Mason loves Oprah and while I don't, really, I liked the O magazine salad chart included in handy pdf form linked in this entry.

I feel like Tipper Gore. Because my son has been watching....SportsCenter. The last three reports have been about murder, gangs, and drugs, and here we are on the cusp of September! Truly, is there nothing else to report?