Weekend!!

So, Memorial Day weekend has come and gone, the BBQ coals have been doused, and we're all ready to head back to Weight Watchers to do penance. Hope you all had a great weekend. We headed upstate to the Catskills to visit Mike's grandmother, who is doing astonishingly well considering she just had major surgery at 88 years old. As you can see, Will and Alex thoroughly enjoyed their weekend, too.

Saw X-Men 3 at the drive-in. I have issues. No, seriously, aside from the normal ones, I have got HUGE issues with the movie. I won't go into detail here in case anyone who hasn't seen the movie happens upon my rant, but - WTF?!?! There were some great standalone scenes, and Magneto is just such a great character (as is Sir Ian McKellen, who I would see if he were at the opening of an envelope), but there were quite a few things they did with the characters that threw me for a loop. And yes, pissed me off. Grrr.

God, I love being up in the country. It's peaceful, relaxing... and yet, I would give a lung for good Chinese takeout. I'm such a creature of convenience, yet I never realize how much I've become so dependent on it until I'm upstate. But I do wonder if I could toss it all to live up there. Sometimes I think, no way; sometimes I think, yeah, I think I could.

Could I live a 45-minute minimum drive from the nearest Barnes & Noble or Borders?

I'm thinking like this again because 'the house', the house that I've been in love with for over a year, is STILL on the market. The 6-8 bedroom Victorian on 3 acres of land that needs tons of work? That's dropped $20K over the past year? That I can't conceivably think of because the mortgage would equal my rent, and lord knows I can't afford two rents, nor can I afford to move that far upstate where there are no jobs I would be interested in taking? Yeah, that house.

To quote Homer Simpson, "Shut up brain, before I stab you with a Q-Tip."

Pictures to come, Blogger is being very cranky today.

LOST

So I finally watched the season finale last night and gotta admit, yes - I was angry again. Not at the show, but at the fact that I now have to wait until the FALL to find out what the heck is happening to Sawyer, Jack and Kate! Someone needs to firebomb Michael's boat, btw. Asshat.

Now excuse me, I have to go wander around the Hanso Foundation boards for another hour to see what new information I can geek out on...

The DaVinci Ho

No, it's not the porn version of the Dan Brown book, but a self-description because of my love of all things DaVinci Code lately. At BEA, DaVinci was on everyone's brains, lips, and book tables - a combination of the overwhelming success and controversy the book's received, the trial that's just been completed, and the movie's opening on BEA weekend. Every publisher in the world is trying to cash in on DaVinci (and I'm no exception - I am a shameless marketer, after all. I've got Cosimo's Secret Societies books front and center on our website) and I was there to check it out.

Fodor's was giving away their Guide to the DaVinci Code: On the Trail of the Bestselling Novel, and of course they were, being owned by Random, the publisher of The DaVinci Code. The book is a tour guide to the novel, allowing you to follow the paths the characters took in the book, providing photography and info on the artwork and locations Brown mentions, and all that fun stuff. Right into my overstuffed tote bag, that baby went, along with two other tour guides on Ireland and Costa Rica, both of which I'm hoping to get back to. I may actually give the Costa Rica one to Karen if she ends up booking her honeymoon there like she's been saying she wants to. I'll hyperlink the tour titles once I remember whose they are...

Frommer's was giving away their Washington DC guides, so I picked one up, on the outside chance I'd be awake enough to enjoy some nightlife after BEA and before my 5 a.m. journey began the next morning. I ended up looking up a restaurant for Michelle actually, so it wasn't in vain.

Anyway, I also ended up snagging myself a hilarious DaVinci parody, The DaVinci Mole, by a pseudonymous author, Dr. Ian Browne. Apparently, this is a pseudonym for a well-known figure who must remain anonymous for "reasons of security." There's actually a contest if you can figure out who it is - you'll know the minute you read the description, and the introduction by "Dr. Browne" is pretty hilarious. I read it on the plane back from DC and thought it was very funny and well done.

So while I wouldn't spend any more money on DaVinci or his code, yeah - I'm a DaVinci Ho. What can I say, I like books that make me think.

More BEA later.

Whatta Day!


I know I promised to blog more about the BEA booty I scored, but Will's birthday was yesterday, so I have to, of course, stop everything in recognition and tribute to that.

Yesterday was one of those days, kind of like the day Ray Liotta's character in GoodFellas finally gets brought down. You know how he's narrating about all the crazy errands he has to run that day? That was my day.

I get up, work out, get Will up and moving. We're walking to school, talking about his birthday party he's going to have in class at 1:45 and he asks me if I've got the goody bags done. Being the slick mother I am, I smoothly reassure him that yes, of course, the goody bags are all ready to go.

There are no goody bags. Oh, crap. I'll have 28 first graders after me with pitchforks.

Drop Will off at school, run to Dunkin' Donuts to get a box of munchkins for Will's party. He doesn't eat cake, but loves himself some munchkins. And it's easier to clean up, too, so the teacher should love me. Right? Right. I have to get the munchkins early, because if I go there around lunchtime, there will be none. And then I'll have 28 first graders after with me with pitchforks. Or one very pissed-off first grader because I'd have to buy a birthday cake and he's just not having that.

Go home, attempt to work for a few hours.

At noon, I run to the party store in Forest Hills to pick up Hulk party gear - cups, napkins, plates, and yes, GOODY BAGS. I find a "pinata party bag" - two pounds of assorted candy and toys to stuff into a pinata and figure, perfect. Two pounds should take care of 28 kids, right? (Wrong.) Pay for everything, run down to the train station where I stuff goody bags as I await my train. Anyone who is not a parent is staring at me like I'm clearly insane. Which I am - I'm a parent.

I get off at the stop by Will's school only to realize that two pounds of candy and toys are not enough for 28 first graders. I run upstairs into Rite Aid, buy three small bags of candy and two bottles of apple juice. Run into the school office and ask the staff to allow me to stuff goody bags. I sit there on a bench outside the principal's office, sorting goody bags.

Twenty dollars doesn't buy a lot in the way of candy anymore.

Drop the stuff off upstairs, I think the teacher thought I was just dropping stuff off because she thanked me and I kind of got the feeling I was supposed to leave. So I was a little bemused, but split. And yes, I did have to explain why I wasn't there to Will, who was not very happy. But everyone had goody bags, there were enough munchkins and juice to go around, so at least my reputation as Mom Extraordinaire is secure.

Had about an hour to kill, so went to Dunkin' Donuts again for a nice, large iced coffee. Wandered into Old Navy, but didn't see much. Headed back to pick Will up from school, and rushed him off to the train station to get him to religion class. Getting there early, he asked for Tasty D-Lite. Ate his usual 5 bites before pronouncing himself full, so I pretended to eat it and offer him bites all the way to school. He finished it.

Will's under the impression that I am keeping a big birthday surprise for him. I told Mike not to hand him three video games in a Best Buy bag on the way to his party, dammit. I drop him off at religion, run upstairs to the library to register him for next year (two sacraments, cha-ching), run down to treat myself to a brow threading, and run to get Will a surprise. First it's back to the party store to get him a Spongebob lollipop I saw earlier, then to Barnes & Noble because the comic book store had squat I'd buy for him. Yes, my son needs more books like I do, but cut me a break here. Got him two X-Men tie-in books and a Pirates of the Caribbean one, then rushed back to get him from school.

Got him home, helped him with homework, and got the laundry together. Mike picked us up a little after six, and then we were off to pick up Alex and catch a showing of Over the Hedge in College Point.

Got home after 9. And no, I haven't watched Lost yet - I am not visiting anyone's blog until I do, either. I'll watch it tonight, because last night, a visit from Sawyer himself probably couldn't have kept my eyes open long enough.

I am mother. I am frickin' exhausted. But my baby boy is 7 years old (when did that happen?) and happy, and that's all that matters to me.

BEA Continued... Oh, the Books I Will Read (One of these Days...)

So, people continue to accuse me of having a bit of an obsession with books. I say, what? Madness.

What books did I get at BEA? Please, not enough, in my personal opinion. Especially after looking through last week's issue of Publisher's Weekly and seeing how many things I missed. (Maybe I should take a page from Linda and rename this blog Book Whore.) I need to work out harder so I can carry more next year. A couple of days of tenderness and severe bruising? But I get free books for my pains? Bring it, baby.

Aside from John, Paul, George & Ben by the awesome Lane Smith, there were books a-plenty to be had. I've got most of them at home right now, but let's see how what I can remember.

I got to meet chick-lit writers Sarah Mlynowski and Farrin Jacobs and get a signed copy of See Jane Write: A Girl's Guide to Writing Chick Lit to feed my inner Helen Fielding. Quirk Books, the publisher, has such a fun title list and their booth reflected that fun. I'm such a sucker for fun books, which is why I love Workman, Chronicle and MQ and haunted their booths at BEA.

Speaking of MQ, I got a copy of Fearless Gourmet from their booth which looks like an Anthony Bourdain meets Zagats type of book. I also picked up a copy of The United States of Arugula: How America Became a Gourmet Nation from the Broadway/Random booth, further illustrating how obsessed my Food Network viewing has become. (Ham on the Street cookbook - anyone hear me out there?!)

That's about all for now - I should start working on following up some of the contacts I made... more to come later, when I have the rest of the books around me. Children's books and more to come!

Cuteness Overdose!

How cute is Lauren's niece?

Ah, BookExpo...

BookExpo rocks. It's a huge industry conference with tons of freebies - and this year, I actually got work done, too. Met lots of interesting folks and talked Cosimo up like crazy, so let's hope something comes from it. Got to see a Google BookSearch demo, which is intriguing. Got Lane Smith's autograph on his new book, John, Paul, George and Ben, for Will and was pleased to discover that he's a really nice guy - when I mentioned that Will's birthday was coming up and that he was a huge fan, he drew George Washington holding a birthday cake and wrote, "Happy Birthday, William!" on the book. All in all, a great time. And I'm still suffering zombie-like tendencies from the weekend.

It started at 5 a.m. on Friday morning, when I dragged myself into the shower. Got to LGA for 5:45, was on a plane by 7 a.m., in D.C. by 8:15. Got to the hotel by 9, only to be told by the hotel staff that my boss had not in fact dropped my BEA pass off at the front desk. After an hour of borderline hysterical phone calls, my boss finally got in touch with me, swearing up and down he left the pass at the hotel the night before. After a terse discussion with the incredibly unhelpful staff at the Doubletree, they managed to 'find' the envelope - clearly marked with my name and Michelle's name, whose room I was sharing. It was in clear sight the entire time, so I have no idea how they managed to tell me it wasn't there. No apologies offered, I grabbed my badge and took off to the convention center.

Made the 10 a.m. blogging seminar, which had an interesting enough panel but the Q&A was kind of rudimentary. I ducked out and went on my search for books.

Met Michelle for lunch, only to be told that the cafeteria had run out of food. Go ahead, read that line again, I'll wait. Yes, they ran out of food. We ended up eating at the hotel l0unge later on.

Hit the bed by 9 but didn't sleep well - I think I was just really distrustful that the alarm and/or the wakeup call would work because if I missed my plane, Will would never speak to me again. Got up at 5 a.m. again, down in the cab by 5:45, ate a very tasty bagel from the Chesapeake Bay Bagel kiosk by my gate (their coffee was awful, though - basically water with a coffee-flavored accent), was back in the air by 7:35. At LaGuardia picking up my bags by 8:45, and at Will's birthday party at the Nathan's on Old Country Road in Westbury by 10:30, drinking another coffee (love that New York water).

I am woman. I am tired.

More to come!

Last One Before I Go...

"It's a boot... yet not..."

A little sumthin'-sumthin' from our enlightening trip to DSW last week. Ah, the selection that awaited us.

Picture Assault, Continued

Would you buy a bridge from these women?

Finally, a picture of Helene and I, since I finally got the pictures off my camera. This time, it wasn't me just deciding to let them languish on the camera but me taking two weeks to remember that my MP3 was plugged into the port I normally keep my digital camera in that made the pictures not load on my computer. I never said I was technologically advanced.

Leaving soon to spend Mother's Day Eve in Jersey, so I'll cut this one short. Happy Mother's Day to all my mommy friends!

It's Finally Friday!

Behold the wormhole!

I know I haven't posted many new pics in a while, so prepare for an assault.

It's a Lost Kinda Day

"I think Lost, more than anything else on TV to date, provides a forum for philosophical and critical discussion," says Amy Bauer, an assistant professor of music at the University of California-Irvine who moderates a peer-reviewed online journal, The Society for the Study of Lost (www.loststudies.com).

Folks, there is a Society for the Study of Lost. And, seeing that it's not headed up by myself, Stacey, Lauren, or Linda, I think it's fair to say for once and for all, there are bigger geeks than us out there. Which is a huge relief to me.

Lost

Another Hanso commercial last night... have to hit the URL later, www.sublymonal.com

Spoilers ahead - if you haven't see the episode, don't read any further!

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So, Lost left me intrigued and enraged as usual last night. Anyone have any thoughts? I can't believe they killed Libby off! We didn't get the rest of her story! AUGH!

Digging the new Pearl hatch and video. I felt so bad for Locke; he just felt like he was duped yet again in life. But then again, if I were Locke, I'd just be excited that I still have a working pair of legs.

Not enough Sawyer, but what there was, was good quality. ;-)

Why is the earth salted into the form of a question mark??

So many questions... and so few new episodes left for this season. I know I'm going to be at Best Buy (okay, Mike's going to be at Best Buy) the day Season 2 comes out, lock ourselves in, and watch the entire season.

Sometimes, I REALLY love the Internet...

Hoff Invaders on Transbuddha

Gets weirder...

Called the Hanso hotline again, tried to get Alvar Hanso. Music, Geronimo Jackson, and then a recording asking what I've done with Hanso. Huh? Then I was kicked back to the main menu. I'm trying the other prompts now. One guy is "out of the office for the next three weeks"; another is out for 2, but asked if I was interested Korean offshore project. The third guy, the Chief Legal Officer, grabs the phone away from his secretary as she's leaving his voice mail message - what exec does this?

Then one guy's voicemail starts to access the messages. One of which is a woman saying, "Sri Lanka... just isn't right." Hmmm... anyone charting where this plane could have gone down?

I'm really devoting too much energy to this, aren't I?

Hanso Foundation Phone Number

1-877-HANSORG. Who's calling?

They Learn So Young...

Mike takes Alex into Dunkin' Donuts this weekend, where Alex announces, "I need coffee for my mommy."

Sleepy Friday

It's finally a true Spring-verging-on-Summer kind of day, and I just want to curl up and take a nap.

Only two weeks 'til Book Expo, and I've got to draw up my wandering plan. I've got to do some work, so I've got to find a way to fit that in amidst the freebie-ing.

Today is definitely one of those days where I would have been better off at home, in bed. Sleeping.

Swedish Invasion

So today is Helene's last day, which is bumming me out. But I did get to spend some time with her, which was so great. Last night, we hit Pancho Villa (my favorite Mexican restaurant) and then wandered off to the Virgin Megastore for a while. Apparently, they now sell used t-shirts from the 80s for really crazy-assed prices. A used Duran Duran shirt (albeit, the famous 1982 black and white clothing shoot which made me lose my heart to John Taylor) for $125? Are you insane?

Don't even get me started on the $100 Stryper t-shirt. Seriously.

Random tangent: I think I need to scan my Duran Duran pictures. I've got a box of them.

So I have to say farewell (for now) to Helene. Having her in town for a little while has been so great. Now I get to plan a trip to Stockholm.

Pictures from our trip to DSW to come...

We Love Our Shoes!


Ah, we bridesmaids and our shoes... and I still think Lauren had the cutest shoes, even if they did hurt her feet that day.

Pictures!


Stacey gave out the wedding photos the other night. I have to say it, albeit grudgingly, that the running down the hill in slow motion shot came out great. You can even see me screaming that my heels are sinking. The true amusement of this shot comes from Adam, who's managed to get that Mentos commercial look on his face frozen in time for all eternity.

I don't know if you can see the picture so clearly, since this is but a small shot cribbed from Stacey's Snapfish folder, but use your imagination. You'll feel warm and fuzzy for it.

Now I have to shop for more frames. Because I love frames. And Mike will sigh and shake his head and say, "At least it's not another book..." But he'll be wrong, because I'll get a book, too. There's always another book, my friend. Muah hah hah hah hah...

Dominic Monaghan Lets One Slip?

From FemaleFirst.co.uk:

Meanwhile, Dominic - who is romancing 'Lost' co-star Evangeline Lilly - also revealed he's bracing himself to be killed off in the show.

He said in a British magazine interview: "Yeah, I think my character could die. It's the nature of the show, isn't it? But I think you have to try to be philosophical about the whole thing.

Hmmmm... WTF? They went from having Charlie be a great character, someone who's worked through all the issues he's worked through, then turned him into a jerk and now possibly kill him off????

What the hell is J.J. Abrams doing to me?