October 28, 2009

folding is totally overrated

We have a very nice leather armchair in our living room; it’s a lovely place to sit and read or have a cocktail or just relax.

Unfortunately, you can’t do any of those things there right now because I have piled four loads of laundry on the chair. Clean laundry, sure, but unfolded.

Tonight, as I tossed load number four on the pile, I announced, “I’m giving up folding. You all can just pull your clean clothes out of the pile. Good luck.”

Wade laughed but the kids stared at me like I had lost my mind. Which I might have.

(Before I could take a picture of the Gigantic Pile of Clean Laundry, Wade folded it all. I think he was afraid it would fall over and bury one of the children. Permanently.)

Instead, I will show you my fabulous Statement Necklace. Ooh pretty!

At the very end of dinner, as we were negotiating about dessert, Charlie said, “Mama, your necklace is broken.” And he was right — I was missing one bead, over on on the left (your left, my right). Can you see it there? Charlie said, “I noticed it when we were doing homework, but I forgot to tell you.” Sigh.

The necklace is new; it’s J. Crew, via eBay, and I love it, both because it’s dramatic and cool and also because I paid a third of the original retail price for it. I’ve been wearing it everywhere, which meant that the odds of finding that one lost bead were slim to none. And really, I would have taken slim, but I assumed I was looking at none.

I was already grumpy — it’s been a long week, and the week isn’t over yet. I woke up worried about one thing and spent the day being alternately annoyed and frustrated by a whole series of other (unrelated) things. I put on my cool necklace this morning thinking that wearing something pretty might make up for being tired and stressed, and it sort of worked, a little bit. Until somewhere along the line, I lost a bead.

I tried to think back — where could I have lost that bead? If Charlie noticed it after school, maybe I lost it in the car on the way to get the boys, or in the house during the day. I hadn’t really gone anywhere else, and I was certain I had all the pieces when I got dressed this morning …Or was I?

I looked at the pictures I took this morning, for The Working Closet Flickr pool, and realized that I never had the bead at all. And I knew where it was.

I’ve been storing the necklace in a jewelry bag; when I dumped out the bag, the bead and the wee gold piece that goes with it were right there. I got out some pliers and fixed the necklace and all was well.

Aside from the fact that I’m still too frustrated and stressed to fold the laundry. Good thing I didn’t lose my necklace in that pile. I would never see it again.

October 27, 2009

grace in small things: forty nine

Charlie is home sick, for the second day in a row; he has an ear infection and a disgusting cough. He’s too sick to go to school but not sick enough to fall asleep, which means we’re camped out on the sofa watching a lot of television. Specifically, we’re watching “Catch That Kid,” for the second time in two days.

Spoiler: OMG this is a horrible movie. Unless you’re a seven-year-old boy with a hacking cough, in which case it’s a pretty good movie. Good enough to watch twice.

Oh Kristen Stewart. Seriously.

(I would recommend “Stormbreaker” if you’re looking for kid-friendly action movies. James Bond for tweens. With Alicia Silverstone as the quirky housekeeper.)

So I’m sitting here thinking about movies I really could watch two days in a row, and realizing that it’s a pretty short list. Five, in fact. How’s that for coincidental?

1. Pride and Prejudice. The Colin Firth version, of course.

2. Persuasion. I’m a sucker for Jane Austen.

3. Clueless. Based on Austen’s “Emma.” So there.

4. School of Rock. See, not all highbrow!

5.  Sweet Home Alabama. “Look at you, you have a baby… In a bar.”

Your turn: What movies could you watch over and over? Say, if you were trapped at home with a sick child? Or if that sick child coughed on you and possibly got you sick, too? Because you know that’s what will happen.

To you, not to me. God I hope not.

Photo: BBC.co.uk

October 26, 2009

in case you didn’t already love Tim Gunn

Mo Racca quizzes Tim Gunn on the future of fashion. Perfect.

(Would you wear the spray-on t-shirt? I’m pretty sure Tim would not.)

Watch CBS News Videos Online

October 24, 2009

stuffing should be stuffed inside the turkey*

This week, I went back to Butterball Turkey Talk-Line headquarters for a refresher course in All Things Turkey. I was honestly surprised by how much I remembered.

And then we took a food safety quiz and I was horrified by how much I had forgotten. Yikes.

Last year, the idea of prepping a turkey in front of the Talk-Line experts scared the bejesus out of me. This year, I was more laid back — so laid back, in fact, that I stuffed a raw turkey with my bare hands. (OK that was really because the other girls took all the latex gloves, but still, go me! And yes, I had washed before I stuck my hand in the bird. And yes, I washed again afterward. Promise.)

It was funny to sit through the cooking class this year and think, “Hey, I know that!” When Marty asked if anyone had ever used a convection oven to cook a turkey, I was able to raise my hand. And when she asked if anyone had ever fried a turkey, I said yes to that too. Although she did have some brand new tips on getting the netting off the turkey breast. (Loosen it before you put the breast in the oven, and then, when it comes out, wrap it in foil for ten minutes to steam the string off — brilliant! And so much more effective than our method, which is to hack at the breast until it falls apart. Presentation FAIL.)

I’ll be going back to Chicago on Thanksgiving day, and I’m really excited — there’s something so cool about being at the Talk-Line when the phones are ringing and the experts are really fielding calls. I’m sure I’ll spend the entire morning wandering around saying, “I’m not saying that’s necessarily a deal breaker.”

Kind of makes you want to call 1-800-BUTTERBALL, doesn’t it? (Although I will not be answering phones — I get to talk to the media, not the consumers, which is still a risky proposition, I think.)

The best part of being at Butterball headquarters, though (ok aside from the turkey which was OMG so delicious) is this little tingle of excitement about the holidays that has replaced the underlying bad mood I’ve been nursing for, oh, six months. It’s impossible to be around women who have been answering turkey questions for years (ten or fifteen or twenty or MORE!) and who are still enthusiastic and excited about turkeys and Thanksgiving and Butterball and not get a little geeked out about the holidays.

Bring on the turkey. I’m ready. Are you?

*Jed Bartlet FTW!