Zombie Hunters: City of the Dead Teaser 1

Steve & Barry's

I've been Bitten (get it? It's funny!) by Steve & Barry's Sarah Jessica Parker line. I love that the t-shirts are not only $7.98 for the most part, but that they run a little long (especially since they're on the skinny side). I bought five different tees that I can actually wear to work, plus one cute little tuxedo-type sleeveless shirt. I also got a pair of gunmetal-colored cargo-type pants that roll up and button to be two different lengths of capris (I must go back and buy different colors so I don't get Old Navy syndrome, where I buy one pair to see how it fits, go back and there are none left). Got a pair of jeans capris, too - two pairs of pants, $14.98 each? Whoo hoo! I will note that the pants are cut way low - almost too low for someone who's borne two children via c-section and isn't exactly built like Ms. SJP - but thankfully, the aforementioned long tees cover it. And hell, with some more Pilates and yoga, maybe in a couple of weeks I'll feel a little less uncomfortable. The clothes are made to be layered, which I also dig.

Methinks Steve & Barry has a new fan in me...

Okay, off to knit more of that hat. I've only got two rows cast on so far, so taking a picture of it wouldn't really show much. Talk to me tomorrow.

Lost - Synchronised events around Plane Crash

This is sooo cool.

Oh My God.

https://www.ravelry.com/account/login

I may never get off the computer again.

Gah!

I know, it's been too long since I finished my BEA blog about my goodies. Does anyone even care at this point? How 'bout I just blog about the books I've read from that pile so far? I've got two down that I'd love to blather on about because they are that good. And I've got a couple of great knitting projects to put y'all to sleep with, hee hee...

First off, I've found another baby hat charity to knit for. You know how much I love knitting up baby hats, and when I visited another knitter's blog, If You Want to Destroy My Sweater (saw her on Knitty Gritty!). She's knitting hats for Hats for Alex and I warn you now, this one is a heartbreaker. Nothing like crying into my coffee at 7 in the morning. All I can say is, no matter how stoic you are, you scroll down enough and you will lose it. I just can't understand how someone can hurt an infant. Any child, really, but an infant? Okay, I'm not going there on this blog.

So I've cast on another adorable hat from the book One Skein and I'll take a picture of its progress later today. And in related BEA news, I'm using the skein I got from Storey Publishing's booth (they publish One Skein and the book they were promoting this year, One Skein Wonders).

More about the actual books from BEA later; I'm actually at work now pulling messages off voice mail and now I need to start my day. Perhaps there will be details of a trip to Steve & Barry's to try on some of Sarah Jessica Parker's line, too... stay tuned!

One More...

Take it all in, baby... notice that two C. Thomas Howell posters mixed in among the Duran Duran ones?

We Interrupt The BEA Blogging to Bring You The 80s...

Yes, those are patterned jeans. And no, those posters aren't randomly up on the walls; I used to have extensive layouts created, assuring that each member of Duran Duran got air time on their own walls. What?

BEA, The Madness Continues...

Okay, so I'd left off as I working myself into a frenzy describing the sweet swag from BEA. So, being mom of the year, most of the stuff was for Will and Alex. I'll pick up where I left off from yesterday...

- The Boy's Body Book, by Kelli Dunham from Cider Mill Press. I told Mike he can give it to Will... and he promptly chickened out. It's a cool book, written basically for ages 9-10 and up, and doesn't cover the terrifying stuff just yet. It's really about being a good friend, making sure boys don't bow to peer pressure, and starts to touch on the basics of just taking care of your body and such. I gave it to Will and offered to read it with him or have him read it and come to Mike or I with any questions. He sat down on the couch and curled up with it, so let's see what comes of it...

- The Castle Corona by Sharon Creech from Harper. Any book with a cover that resembles an illuminated manuscript is going in my bag. Nancy got an autographed copy, the lucky dawg.

- Peanut Butter & Jeremy's Best Book Ever! by James Kochalka from the Alternative Comics table. It's cute, it's about a cat who thinks he works in an office and wears a little hat and tie, and an irritating crow. Heck, I read it before I handed it off to Will. It's cute!

- Soupy Saturdays with The Pain & The Great One by Judy Blume. It's Judy Blume, therefore I must have it. Heck, I may even give it to Will when I finish it...

- The Thief Queen's Daughter by Elizabeth Hayden from Starscape. It's fantasy, there's a dragon on the cover, what's the question?

- Yo! I Know Stuff! Brain-Building Quizzes - Got this from the World Almanac for Kids table; Will is all about those quizzes and bizarre facts. Predictably, he grabbed this one first.

- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie from Little, Brown. I have no idea what this one's about, but it was all over the place at BEA and I had about three different folks hand me a copy. Let me know if you read it.

- The What's Happening to my Body? Book for Boys by Lynda Madras over at the Newmarket Press table. This one is for older boys; I'll hang onto it for a while. Can you guess I'm terrified of having an all-too rapidly approaching 'tween son? I'm arming myself with as much information as I can get.

- Fairy Haven & The Quest for the Wand, by Gail Carson Levine over at Disney Press. This is an example of me getting caught up in the freebie haze. I saw the title, figured it for some good fantasy to read with Will, and grabbed it, only to come home and see that it is a Disney Fairies adventure. After asking Will if he'd still be interested and getting the look of the century, I've decided that this will be a lovely addition to my 5-year old god-daughter's library.

- Nightmare Academy by Dean Lorey from Harper. Yeah, baby. Demon on the cover, spooky funky font - Will and I are all over this one.

- Pirate's Passage by William Gilkerson from Trumpeter. Yes, these books are in fact for Will, do you doubt me? He happens to be developing stellar taste in his literary genres.

- Alex and the Ironic Gentleman by Adrienne Kress from Weinstein Books. Another hot one at BEA, tons of them being given out. Kid frees his teacher from pirates. Whoo hoo!

- Homework Helpster Grade 3 from the Black Dog & Leventhal table. Cool little homework helper with its own little prop-up stand. Will gave me a somewhat hairy eyeball but accepted my gesture of love.

Speaking of hairy eyeballs, I'm getting one now, which tells me I've apparently overstayed my time on the computer. More to come...

Book Whore 2007 (or, Roe's Weekend at BookExpo)

I am a shameless book hussy. Those covers give me that sly wink, a subtle nod, and I'm all over them, caution flung to the wind. So you can imagine what it's like for me at BookExpo, when I'm in a place like the Jacob Javits Center - packed to the seams with books for the taking (for the most part).

I worked BookExpo this time around; normally I'm merely a visitor. Booth duty can be long and tough, but when you get a chance to wander every now and then, it makes it all worthwhile. Seeing so many of my friends was great, too. It's been a while for some of my Bookspan friends so it was a little like a reunion. And Nancy was there on Friday, so that was fun, chasing each other via voicemail to meet up somewhere (eventually, we met up - on the ride home that she and her parents were kind enough to extend to me!).

So where to begin? I brought home about 60 books and assorted other stuff. I got some great autographs and met some very cool people. Nancy got a crazy amount of autographs, I'm jealous. ;-) I did get Will a signed copy of Wizardology, which he was most excited to receive. I was Mom of the Year for like, five whole minutes or something. Wow.


I totally missed the Sabuda signings - he did like two or three - but I was determined to get this one. It is quite cool, and I'm sure we'll be curling up on the couch and reading this one after I get through Thor's Wedding Day, which I borrowed from Nancy eons ago...

The DC booth was rocking with grade-A freebies. Not only did I score tons of bookmarks for the kids, and buttons of Green Lantern, Flash and Superman, but I got hardcover copies of Justice (rocking the Alex Ross cover) and Identity Crisis, and a trade paperback of Watchmen . I also got two issues of Mad Kids magazine and an issue of Mad Magazine for Will.

Continuing in my "I'm a good Mom" vein, I scored more for Will and Alex:

- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TPB of Out of the Shadows from the Titan Books table. (They're also doing a Stargate: Atlantis companion, which I scored a copy of for Mike - I'm a good wife, too). And Supernatural fans, wait - they're doing companions for that show, too (which I'm probably going to have to get Will). Back to TMNT - it's penned by Peter David, so I may have to read it myself...

- signed copy of What Stinks? by Marilyn Singer for Alex. Come on, with a name like that, I was supposed to pass it up?

- F&Gs (folded & gathered signatures, kind of a version of a galley for picture books) for Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity by Mo Willems (Nancy got a signed copy... garrrr!), The Longest Christmas List Ever by Gregg & Evan Spiridellis (they're the brothers who did the hilarious This Land animation with Bush and Kerry; check it out on JibJab.com); and Do Unto Otters: A Book on Manners by Laurie Keller (complete with sheet of stickers!).

- Two more Hot Dog & Bob adventures, to go with the first two I picked up for Will last year.

- Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See? and Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? by Eric Carle and Bill Martin, Jr. I was psyched not only to get copies of these books, but to find out that Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See? will be coming out in August. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? is one of Alex's fave books, so I was happy to bring him this news. He was even happier to get the poster.

Okay, I've got a lot more to describe but I'll pick this up tomorrow. I'm still exhausted. Later.

My Baby's Eight!!

Will, even as a baby, would ponder the mysteries of the universe...

So my baby turned 8 this week. I'm still not sure how exactly that happened. I feel like I just blinked and about 20 years of my life went on fast-forward. I have a son who is finishing second grade; who has developed a love of skulls, fantasy, history (we're currently debating the merits of the ancient Celts versus the Mongols), and video games. He plays in Little League, loves to ninja-attack his favorite uncles (hint - none of whom are related to him by blood), and at the same time, still crawls into my lap and hands me a book. Even if that means his legs are going from the edges of my lap and hanging over the couch legs, he still does it.

Happy Birthday, Baby. Mommy loves you.

Hey - It Was the 80s...

Little-known fact - Annie and I were up for replacing Vivian Campbell and Adrian VanDenburg in Whitesnake...

Hey, don't blame me - there is no product in this hair. Hormones caused this, and my well-known disdain for a hair dryer (I have better things to do with my time than spend an hour blowing my hair out straight, and it's dry enough, for Pete's sake) didn't help. But go ahead, suppress your giggles - or don't - and enjoy this little trip back to the late '80s.

Family Project...

So I've decided, after cleaning out my closet (see the post on Domestic Goddesses here), I've of course let my tangential mind wander again. I've decided that my copious photo albums - I'm not exaggerating here, I've got a lot - are in danger somehow of falling victim to some sort of natural disaster, so I'm scanning the photos and burning them to disc. (Yes, I know the discs can fall prey to a natural disaster or unnatural disaster too, but at least I'm doubly covered.) Of course, this will probably take me until the rest of my natural life, but hey - I need things to do, right?

Aside from alternately marveling and being mortified at some of my own hair and fashion choices (not to mention some of my family's), it's becoming a nice trip down memory lane. I haven't looked through many of these photos in a long time, and it's nice to see my Nana and my Aunt Do again. I miss them a lot. My Nana is probably laughing herself silly every time I ask my mom for advice on sewing a straight seam or show her proudly my latest knitting adventure. Nana tried to teach my mom all of this stuff years ago, only to have my mom stare blankly at her, then burst into giggles. So at least somehow, the gene got passed on. Kinda.

Seeing pictures of my cousin Tim still ache. He died way too young; I was newly pregnant with Alex when he died, so I pressed down a lot of the grief and anger because keeping my body healthy for my baby was the most important thing. It's been four years, and I notice it's starting to leak out in dribs and drabs every now and then. For some reason, I can't let myself just let go and grieve. Maybe I'm not done being angry yet. Maybe I'm just used to shoving something down until it doesn't show. Maybe it's a lot of things, an amalgamation of everything. But I find myself scanning through pictures with me and Timmy a lot more quickly than I do any other ones.

Love Office Fans...

Anyone counting unicorns or leprechauns? ;-)

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...and Goofball #2!

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Goofball #1 at Johnny Rockets...

To My Fellow Office-Fans Out There...

Gotta give a shout-out to the Snarkwife on this one. You know I immediately Googled "SchruteBuck" this morning, and her site came up. You ROCK, my friend. Now, if someone would just create a Stanley Nickel, I'd be thrilled.

It's gotten bad... just foraged and snarfed down some M&Ms left over from Valentine's Day. Anyone who knows me knows that unless they're peanut M&Ms, I don't bother. But I bothered. Grocery shopping this weekend, and I can finally get some healthy snacks back in the house. Gar!

I'm cleaning out closets today. Bleah. Gotta start getting rid of so much, I haven't done a proper spring cleaning in too long. Maybe if I feel better about dumping all the 'baggage', literally and figuratively, I'll get the reboot that I need.

I need to get back on track and get back to feeling good and taking care of myself. I'm tired of vacillating between self-destruct and barely maintaining. I've made such a major decision and it's taken so much crap off my shoulders, I guess I thought everything else would magically fall into place. But nothing really does that magically, does it? You have to work for everything you want. So now I just have to start working. Even if it's slow progress, it's progress.

And I really have to stop this mindset of eating all the crap in the house assures it won't be there to tempt me. Don't know how I fell into that trap, but it's got me. Yeesh.

Argh... Self Control, Please...

Mike, bless his heart, bought me three - count 'em, three - different bars of Lindt chocolate for Mother's Day. The first two - pistachio and toffee nut crunch - I was fairly judicious in my consumption of. But the third, Stracciatella - basically, cookies 'n' cream in a chocolate bar - well, I just sat down to work at my computer (I'm pulling together MQP's booth for Book Expo, baby! Whoo hoo!!) and now there aren't even crumbs to show this bar once existed. Wow.

I needs me some self-control. I was doing so well, too! Okay, no guilt. Back to square one. Ish.

At least there are no more Lindt bars in the house to tempt me, right?

Next Up... Lost

Tomorrow's the season finale, right? Something tells me there will be rage... on my part, that is. Last episode was so good - the past few episodes have really been very good, thankfully - so the fact that another season is coming to a close makes me nuts.

They've been wrapping up a lot of little things here and there, too, which is nice; it's like the first season and beginning of the second, where they would give answers to some things while presenting other things to think about. Hallelujah!

But one thing I haven't seen them get back to much is the numbers. Are they ever going to throw us that bone and tell us how the heck the numbers come into play? I need to know what the numbers mean, and how some guy in a mental institution knew what they were (remember, that's how Hurley got them).

And weren't we supposed to get more Libby flashbacks (I'm guessing via Desmond)? Hmm.

The big question, naturally, is what the heck happens to Locke. This is going to be soooo good...

Heroes Tonight!!

I am SO psyched. Every episode has been better than the one before.

BTW, I've started posting on Domestic Goddesses again, so click on over and read about my newest manic decision to redo my kitchen. Har, har, har...

The Best Part of Being a Mom

I was on CafeMom yesterday, and one of the questions posed was "What's the best part of being a mom?" As usual, I couldn't pick just one thing, so here's my response.

What's the best part about being a mom? Oh, that's easy. It's all about the hugs. You know which ones I'm talking about, those full body (literally - when they wrap their arms around your neck and their legs around your waist), squeeze you 'til you're both of out breath, giggly hugs. Or the sleepy hugs, the ones where they just sling an arm around your neck when you come in to kiss them goodnight just one more time. Usually accompanied with a crooked, sleepy smile and a murmured, "Love you, Mommmmm....zzzz..."

Or is it the gummy smiles of a new baby? Those are really good, too. Those first smiles, when you just roll your eyes at everyone who tries to burst your motherhood bubble by telling you that it's "just gas" and think, "What do you know about my kid? I just carried him/her inside my body for nine months, I think I know a real smile when I see it, thanks very much." I particularly love the ones that start out slowly, just like sunrise. A little smirk, slowly parting into a half-moon of lips, and ending with a full-on, toothless expression of pure joy just because you're standing there. That's the best part.

Or is it when you and your kids love the same things? When I sit next to my all-too-rapidly-approaching-8-year-old son, who wants me to sit with him and watch Star Wars: Episode 3 with him again because he knows that's the only one I consider even worth my time outside of the original Star Wars trilogy; the ones George Lucas originally conceived before a plethora of money apparently made him insane (Will disagrees, but what does he know? He's been tainted by CGI technology...) Or when we love the same parts of Lord of the Rings, and we scream at Gandalf together to watch out, that Balrog isn't really dead... Yeah, that's it. That rocks.

Oh, but wait... how about when your preschooler comes to you with a book, curls up in your lap, presents you with your favorite - Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus - and says, "Reading time is cuddle time, Mommy!" And proceeds to sit back in your lap like an easy chair, waiting for you to begin in your best Pigeon voice, and tell him the story about the Pigeon's meltdown. That's the best.

Um... but then there's when you're helping out at your kid's school book fair on your birthday, and he has his entire class wish you "Happy Birthday, William's Mommy," as they pass by the library on their way down to lunch. That's a tough one to beat...

Okay, just give me a while to think this through... I'll come up with the one thing, honest. Just give me a sec...