Category Archives: Media/TV

White House Correspondents’ Dinner

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**TRIGGER WARNING!!!! POSITIVELY-SPUN OBAMA CONTENT AHEAD!!!!**

Every so often, I like to irritate the staunch Republicans and Libertarians who read this blog and post Obama stuff. Tonight (well.. technically last night because it’s now Sunday) was the 2013 White House Correspondents’ Dinner and the President was his usual witty self.

And then there’s this… which has to be the BEST. PERFORMANCE. AT. THIS. EVENT. EVER!!!! (Not from this year unfortunately.)

div style=”text-align:center;margin-top:15px;margin-bottom:15px;”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxcuVlCuX9Y

7 Quick Takes: Baseball, British TV Shows, and How Not To Talk To Kitties

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

North Korean propaganda. I don’t know how real this particular video is but it both amuses and scares me.

I’m guessing the footage of the United States was taken after Superstorm Nemo? In any case, I wonder if it’s too close to bedtime for another cup of snow coffee.

— 2 —

Easter. Easter was quiet for us. We had church in the morning and stayed home in the afternoon. I sort of wish that we could have gone to see family or something but after two busy weekends, Holy Week with a lot going on, and Daniel being on Spring Break, it was good to have a quiet Sunday. Jon needed the naptime as did Daniel.

— 3 —

Take me out to the ballgame. Baseball season has officially started. My Giants took the series with Jon’s Dodgers 2-1. In the last game, my boys got their first two home runs of the season. Our Panda hit a 2-run homer in the 3rd and Hunter Pence shot one off in the 6th. They open against the Cardinals in San Francisco on Friday and I’ll be gone so I’ll unfortunately miss it. The World Series ring ceremony is on the 7th and I’ll unfortunately miss that one as well.

— 4 —

The doctor is in. My mom introduced me to the British series “Doc Martin” while I was in San Jose for my anniversary a few weekends ago. It’s addictive — Jon and I watched the rest of the first season the next day. If I hadn’t had a little boy on Spring Break, I probably would have finished the series that week! He’s the British version of “House” and the recurring characters are wonderful. His receptionist is the picture of apathy and the people in Port Wenn (his small town) are lovely. It kind of makes me want to catch up on “Hart of Dixie”.

— 5 —

Talking to kitties. Catfoodbreath, one of my favorite Twitter kitties, has a useful blog post on how not to talk to a kitty. I’m not guilty of #1 on that list… per se. When I talk to my demon spawn cat Freya, I have a tendency to say things like “CAT! CAT CAT CAT CAT CAT CAT CAT!” (She was fostered with Rottweilers so I sometimes have to remind her that she is a cat.)

— 6 —

Forty to Forever. Forty Days to Forever is done and we raised $10,000! Woohooooo!!!! Brett had a little over $100 added to his adoption grant so that’s some success there. He still needs a mama so go click on his picture to find out more about him.

Brett

— 7 —

Querying the Hive Mind. My church is doing a craft fair after Thanksgiving. Could you go to my Pinterest page for crocheted stuff and tell me what you think I should make? Please and thank you!

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.

7 Quick Takes: Little Bear’s Recovery, Lent Madness, and Things Not Related to Good Friday

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7 Quick Takes

It’s Good Friday so Jen Fulwiler is taking the week off of hosting Quick Takes. I need something for blog fodder so I’m still going to post mine. If you also post yours and want me (or others) to read them, leave a comment with the link to them.

— 1 —

Reece’s Rainbow. This is Kaia and this is Brett.

Miss KaiaMr. Brett

Kaia has a family coming for her but they need to raise the money to do so. Brett needs a family and that family will likely need help raising the funds. Click on their pictures to see more.

— 2 —

Lent Madness. My pick, Luke, made it into the final match but was thwarted by Frances Perkins, who served as FDR’s Labor secretary. Curses! Oh well… there is next year. It was definitely a fun thing to do during Lent and I thank the Episcopal clergy peeps who put it together.

— 3 —

Update on Little Bear. Little Bear made it through his surgery and is home recovering. He is wanting to lick his cast off which is not amusing his mama. His buddy, Luna, is wanting to guard him and misses playing with her little buddy. I should probably explain… Luna is a gigantic German Shepherd and adores this little black kitten. I’m glad LB has a good buddy in her and it has been fun to watch the videos of the two of them in LB’s community. I’m sure his mama would appreciate continued prayers that his healing goes well. Oh yes, please also vote for him in the AmazeCats contest.

— 4 —

Polling the Hive Mind. Metanoia (my parish) might be having a craft bazaar after Thanksgiving to raise money for the parish. Would you mind going to my Yarn Goodness board on Pinterest and tell me what you think you would buy? The link to the Pinterest board will open in a new tab/window so you don’t have to surf back and forth.

— 5 —

Meeting the parents. My sister-in-law Jeanette graduated with her B.S. in Criminal Justice from ITT-Tech last night and I carpooled with my parents to downtown Sacramento to meet up with my evil twin and Jeanette’s parents for dinner beforehand. I hadn’t met them before and had heard stories so I thought dinner would be interesting. It did not disappoint. Her mom is a lot like my mom… and our dads were apparently separated at birth. They’re alike other than being 180 degrees apart politically so I had a great time listening to all the hunting and gun stories from Jeanette’s dad. Having spent the first 6 years of Jon’s ministry in the rural Midwest, I could hold my own pretty well. 🙂 Seriously, he’s really a lovely person and gives my brother as much hell as my grief as my brother gives him.

— 6 —

Dealing with C & E Christians. Simcha Fisher has some interesting advice on how to deal with “C & E Christians”. I never thought I’d be thankful to be part of a small church — we don’t really have parking problems and the twice-a-year people who come know better than to play on their phones during the service. I’m usually on my feet but that’s because I have a toddler who insists on opening and closing the sanctuary doors and trying to escape out the narthex doors, causing a couple people to give me the evil eye.

— 7 —

NCIS this week. How many people enjoyed McGee’s dad on NCIS this week? It was good to see Gibbs and a few others standing up for McGee when his dad would criticize him. It was also good seeing a McGee-centric episode.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen next week at ConversionDiary.Com or (hopefully) check my comments.

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: March 19, 2013

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Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY March 19, 2013

Outside my window… cloudy with a chance of meatballs.

I am thinking… I have to stop biting my tongue.

I am thankful… that Daniel’s IEP went well yesterday. He has made progress and now that he can imitate, his learning can kick into warp drive.

In the kitchen… too many dishes to do.

I am wearing… purple shirt and Left Behind shorts.

I am creating… nothing at the moment.

I am going… to hopefully get adequate sleep tonight.

I am wondering… how I’m going to get the house clean for company next week if we’re going to be gone this weekend.

I am reading… The Alpine Uproar by Mary Daheim and Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter.

I am hoping… tonight’s episode of NCIS is good.

I am looking forward to… quiet when Daniel goes to sleep tonight. He didn’t take his nap so I didn’t get my necessary introvert quiet time.

I am pondering… various things.

A favorite quote for today… ??I can’t imagine a man really enjoying a book and reading it only once.?? ? C.S. Lewis

One of my favorite things… Cool Lime Refreshers from $tarbux.

A few plans for the rest of the week: WIC appointment on Thursday, this weekend TBA.

Hosted by The Simple Woman’s Daybook

7 Quick Takes: Fundraising, Sergio Romo, and the Lions of Rome

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

GoFundMe. I’ve seen a couple GoFundMe sites among my blog reads this week. In the interest of helping everyone out, here are the ones for people I know or follow.

[=] Help the CDC team go to NYC! (OK… this is actually IndieGoGo but I’ll lump them into this category for the moment.)
[=] Help Little Bear have surgery to fix his paws. Little Bear is an adorable little house panther who was born with deformed legs. He won a contest to be on the cover of Modern Cat magazine and his mommy is trying to raise the money to get his paws fixed.
[=] Help to pay for Anna’s transplant meds. Anna got a new liver last fall and the co-pay on her anti-rejection meds jumped up to $300. She doesn’t get a choice on whether she takes the meds and her mom started the GoFundMe to raise some funds so that they can pay for them.
[=] Save Aquinas and More. Aquinas and More is an online store where you can get a number of Catholic things. Two things that make them special (and extra cool in my eyes) are the registries for seminarians and the fact that they will not sell anything made in China. If everyone who liked them on Facebook contributed maybe $10-20, they could re-open and do so better than before.

— 2 —

Forty Days to Forever. Brett will be the guest of honor on the blog at Forty Days to Forever on March 13th. Please share this if you have a blog. Thanks!

— 3 —

Kaia’s Kindergarten Fund. I’m doing a fundraiser for Kaia over on her blog called Kaia’s Kindergarten Fund. It’s super easy — all you have to do is save your spare change in a jar or bottle and when it’s full, take it to the bank to count it. I have all the information you’ll likely need over at Saving Kaia.

My collection bottle

— 4 —

He only looks illegal. Sergio Romo, one of my favorite players on the Giants, is playing for Team Mexico in the World Baseball Classic which is taking place in Arizona. What else goes on in Arizona? SB 1070 which lets police pull people over to check their citizenship. This is happening to Team Mexico during this tournament. Guys: read his shirt. He only looks illegal. 🙂

— 5 —

You mean allergies aren’t made up? I have a weird egg allergy that Daniel also shares — shots don’t do anything bad to us but we break out in a rash if we eat scrambled eggs. As a result, I can’t eat most breakfast items and I’ve managed to piss off at least one person because I can’t eat whatever they brought to church. (I barely resisted asking them if they’d like to pay for my Epi-Pens when they complained.) For that reason, this cracks me up. True, I don’t like eggs — they give me rashes that require Benadryl.

— 6 —

The Big Bang Theory. How completely awkward was the part of tonight’s episode where Sheldon, Leonard, and Howard were speaking to the middle school girls about science? I think I probably would have run screaming from the classroom and refused to do anything but be an English major. Then again, I did end up in the humanities…

— 7 —

Lent Madness. We’ve reached the Saintly Sixteen. Today was Janani Luwum vs. Jonathan Daniels. I’m kind of looking forward to the day that Ignatius of Antioch faces Hilda of Whitby so that the Lions of Rome will appear again in my Twitter.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.

6 Quick Takes: Things I Hadn’t Realized I Had Given Up for Lent

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7 Quick Takes

Daniel came home from school grumpy and coughing on Tuesday… and had a febrile seizure in my lap at 12:45 p.m. on Wednesday. I found myself making a 2 a.m. ER run this morning (Thursday) and sobbing all the way up because I was feeling so alone in dealing with Daniel’s illness. (His fever had spiked and gone down by the time we got to the ER thanks to the Tylenol/Ibuprofen combo the on-call doctor told me to give him.) He’s doing fine now but I’m exhausted and having blogger’s block. For this reason, you’re going to get a light-hearted set of Quick Takes this week.

Don’t forget to go love on Brett and Kaia.

— 1 —

Sleep. I’m a night owl by nature but the last week has been harsher than usual in terms of insomnia. I’m having sore joints, headaches, and neck pain because I’m so tired but none of it is helping me sleep better. I need my NP to call in some Trazadone for me or something. Then again, I might sleep well tonight given how long I was up yesterday.

— 2 —

Coffee. OK… so technically I haven’t quite given this one up. I’m having to cut down on it because I can only drink it with milk and I keep forgetting that I’m lactose-intolerant. This doesn’t work well for my stomach. I can also only drink my lattés cold because the hot milk actually does worse things to my stomach that lactase pills don’t even cover.

— 3 —

Having unscratched arms. The house panther likes to lie across my chest and rest her front paws on my left arm. The only problem: it had been a while since her last mani-pedi. She got one on Monday night so all the scratches on my arms are healing and largely scabbed over. (Yeah, I know you love that picture.)

— 4 —

Patience with stupid people. OK… I actually never had this but fasting makes me crankier and less inclined to put up with stupid remarks. No… it would not be good if the next pope is from Africa so you can call their critics “racists”. No, Benedict XVI is not retiring to avoid arrest on child rape charges stemming from the sex abuse scandals all over the world. No, the meteor in Russia was not a result of Americans trying to prove global warming. [sarcasm] Why yes, the supermajority in California was a direct result of vote tampering. How did you know? [/sarcasm]

— 5 —

My ability to come up with Quick Takes. Writing these is like pulling teeth. It might be the extreme sleep deprivation, the lack of a life I’ve had this week, or the current phase of the moon. In any case, it’s irritating.

— 6 —

The show Hart of Dixie. I’m woefully behind (it competes with two other shows I watch) and yet I haven’t made an effort to catch up on episodes since December. It might be that I’m irritated that Zoe is settling for Wade or something else — I’m not entirely sure.

OK… there is no seventh Quick Take. I need sleep.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.

7 Quick Takes: Sybil’s Death, Pre-Gaming, and Go Niners!

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Forty Days to Forever. Brett is part of this fundraiser.

Forty Days to Forever

This weekend we’re pre-gaming a bit on behalf of two families who didn’t quite make it onto the list of the forty families being featured during Lent. Go check out the site tomorrow (Friday) to find out more! **UPDATE: Introducing the Fund Bowl!**

Meanwhile, go love up Brett!

Brett

— 2 —

Sybil’s death. Not sure if anyone *hasn’t* seen last Sunday’s episode of Downton Abbey but Sybil dies of eclampsia. Mi amiga Kate sent me this article talking about her death and how realistic/un-realistic it was. I learned that magnesium sulfate has been in use since 1907 for eclamptic seizures which was interesting to me. As a preeclampsia/HELLP Syndrome survivor, I had a few people warn me about the episode because they thought it might be triggering for me. (It’s a distinct possibility.) I do remember the night Daniel was born, they refused to let me be alone in my hospital room at both Marias Medical Center and Benefis East because they were afraid of me seizing. I was blessed to have a doctor who caught it in time and got me transferred to Benefis where I had a capable perinatalogist who did an emergency c-section to save both me and Daniel. I recommend the article — it’s interesting and everyone needs to know the warning signs for preeclampsia.

— 3 —

Kaia. This beautiful little girl needs a mama.

Miss Kaia

Do you know someone who might be her mama? Go check out her profile and show her some love.

— 4 —

Oh. Em. Gee. NCIS!!! Anyone else reduced to tears at the end of this week’s NCIS episode? It was interesting to see what drives Abby to do what she does and I loved the little girl who played Abby as a child. Seeing that Gibbs kept the fortune from the first day he met her was also endearing. I loved the message that the good you do now has ripples for the future. Abby is (of course) my favorite NCIS character and Pauley Perette (the actress who plays her) is an AMAZING person off-screen. I’ve supported her in AIDS Walk Los Angeles for two years now and she writes the names of all her sponsors on her shirt.

— 5 —

Why are we surprised? Apparently, cats are killers. Apparently, they account for 33 of the modern bird, mammal, and reptile extinctions. Wow. I had no idea there were that many species of mice, lizards, and birds that my cats were eating. Well… not my clowder — they’re an indoor bunch.

— 6 —

Proverbs 31 Project. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be featuring guest posts and my own meditations on Proverbs 31:10-31 which talks about “a virtuous woman” or a “woman of valor”. My friend Rebecca made the graphic and we’ll be starting it tomorrow.

— 7 —

Ahem. GO NINERS!!!! I had the blessing of growing up in the Bay Area during the glory years of the 80’s and early 90’s with Jerry Rice, Joe Montana, and Steve Young. So proud of my homeboys regardless of what happens on Sunday.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.