Archives for August 2007

Coming Soon To A, Um, Pod Near You

24 August 2007 by

Last night Big Mama and I recorded our first podcast.

Yep. You read correctly. A podcast.

And if you’re wondering, “BooMama, why in the world did you and Big Mama record a podcast?” – well, the only answer I can offer is “Because we thought it might be fun?”

And it was fun. At least for us. Though the rest of you may beg to differ after you hear it. We tried to be all organized and have a list of things we wanted to discuss, but we still ended up talking about shoes, make-up, Britney Spears and our hair.

So we pretty much covered lots of deep philosophical issues.

Anyway, now I have to get D to help me edit it, then upload it – and Big Mama and I will each put a link on our blogs sometime this weekend
For whatever reason, before we recorded it I worried that it might be difficult for listeners – and I may be jumping the gun to assume that the plural form of that word is necessary – to distinguish Big Mama’s voice from my voice. Because IN MY HEAD we sound a lot alike.

But oh. No. No ma’am. After listening to what we recorded last night, I’ve realized that we do not in fact sound a lot alike. Not at all. Big Mama sounds like Texas. And I sound like Alabama. And apparently I have never acquainted myself with the suffix “-inG.” I stop at “-in’.” Every stinkIN’ time.

So if you’re bored this weekend, you’ll be able to find the podcast at either of our blogs. You can listen from the blogs themselves or you can download the file and listen on your iPod / mp3 player.

And because we agreed early on that there was no way we could refer to each other as “Big Mama” and “BooMama” in a recorded conversation and hold on to even the tiniest shred of our dignity, we use our real names in the podcast. I do hope that’s not terribly disconcerting.

Finally: while we were recording the podcast, we both had to wear headphones.

And for some reason that makes me giggle.

Filed Under: The Interweb

The Email, It Is A-Changin’

23 August 2007 by

I am happy to announce that after eight months of fighting with cable internet service that is super-duper fast as long as no one else in our neighborhood happens to be using it at the same time, which, let’s face it, NEVER HAPPENS, we finally have DSL again.

And as a result of our return to steady, reliable connection speeds, my email address has changed.

I’ll change it in the sidebar just as soon as I post this, but for those of you who don’t email me using the link in the sidebar, you may want to make a note in your address book or contacts folder or on a random slip of paper that also contains a partial grocery list, a recipe for roasted chicken, and the time and date of your next dental appointment.

It’s boomama205ATbellsouthDOTnet.

I would not recommend spelling out “at” and “dot” if you use the email address. Because then it won’t work.

In which case we will not be able to communicate very effectively.

Filed Under: Rambling

The Rest Of The Sausage Story

22 August 2007 by

There was actually a secondary plot line that unfolded during our recent trip to McDonald’s, but I didn’t write about it at the time because I believe deep down in my soul that a sausage patty should always receive blogging priority.

I mean, wouldn’t you agree that fried pork trumps, well, everything?

So D, Alex and I were enjoying our Saturday morning breakfast when a guy walked in McD’s with his two young sons who looked to be about five and three. The sweet daddy had his hands full, no doubt about it, and I say that because at one point he had to abandon ordering their food so that he could chase down the older boy who apparently had sensed a window of opportunity and made a break for the playground.

Meanwhile, there was a woman sitting a couple of tables away from us, and it only took us a few minutes to figure out that She Meant Business in regards to her McDonald’s visit. She had her purse, keys and cell phone lined up on one side of the table and a stack of newspapers on the other. She sipped coffee as she worked not one but two crossword puzzles, and every time there was the slightest unexpected noise – like a fryer beeping or a door slamming – she looked up from her crossword puzzle and glowered in the direction of the interruption.

As the man with the two boys made his way back to the counter after physically removing his older child from the playground doorframe, he started trying to place his order again, but something – who knows what – sent his younger child into an absolute tantrum. The child was wailing at the top of his lungs, and I really wasn’t paying much attention because if motherhood has given me anything, it’s the ability to almost completely block out high-pitched screaming. I did notice the father trying to calm down his son, but the boy would have nothing to do with calm. It was a full-on breakdown.

After about thirty seconds of listening to the little boy’s screaming, the woman with the crossword puzzles slammed down her pencil, turned her head in the direction of the outburst and said, in a surprisingly harsh tone, “NOW THAT! IS JUST! COMPLETELY! UNCALLED FOR!”

And then she looked at D and me like she wanted us to second the motion.

Little did she know that, as someone who has watched her child SLAP A COMPLETE STRANGER in the paper plate aisle of Party City, I’m not really in a position to cast temper-tantrum stones. Sometimes kids have meltdowns. And my heart was with that daddy who was trying to convince his three year-old to pull it together.

After about a minute, the little boy finally regained his composure, and the daddy took both boys outside to enjoy their breakfast on the playground. He probably thought he’d be a little safer from Crossword Lady’s glares if they had a wall between them. Can’t say that I blamed him.

Because I can’t help but think if that lady was looking for a serene place where she could work her crossword puzzles on a balmy summer morning, McDonald’s might not be her best bet. Odds are that an eating establishment with lots of young children and stacks of pancakes with syrup and a large assortment of sugar-laden beverages is not really an ideal location for some quiet puzzle-solving time.

Maybe it’s just me, but I have a little theory that the next time Crossword Lady really wants to concentrate on the solution to 45 across, she might want to find her a table at, oh, THE LIBRARY.

I hear it’s super quiet there.

Perhaps this is because they do not serve Coke from a fountain, nor do they have milkshakes.

And also: they do not have a playground.

Filed Under: Rambling

Freeing Up Some Short Term Memory

22 August 2007 by

– Y’all know that I love me some Nichole Nordeman because, well, she’s been my pretend-BFF for about seven years now. We’ve been through a LOT together, even if she doesn’t know about, well, any of it.

A few weeks ago someone told me about an article Nichole Nordeman wrote, but I only recently got around to reading it. It’s a really insightful look at the role image plays in the Christian music business, and I thought you internets might enjoy it. There’s a neat story from Chris Tomlin in there, too.

– Is anyone else watching “Design Star” on HGTV? And if so, have you been as disappointed in it as I have been? I mean, I know it’s just a reality show, but I feel like they’re eliminating people right and left, speeding up the process to the point where I don’t have a sense of who any of the contestants are.

ATTENTION, HGTV: SOME OF YOUR VIEWERS ARE RELATIONAL.

Like, for instance, me.

And, um, hello? They haven’t done any projects that I’ve thought were terribly attractive (with the exception of what they did with the loft’s dining room on episode one). On the whole, it’s just been a pretty eh television experience.

This saddens me.

– Monk & Neagle are in Nashville tonight with Bebo Norman and Shane & Shane – then in Atlanta this Sunday night (and in South Carolina in between).

Just a friendly reminder because I care about you and your musical well-being.

And by the way, Shane and Shane have the koolest website evir. Unless you’re on dial-up, in which case their website will become your sworn interweb enemy. But it’s all new, and it’s well worth a visit to hear clips of their new songs. Oh-so-good.

I can already tell that my favorite song off their new CD is going to be “Beg.” In case you were wondering.

– All righty. I believe that’s all. I just needed for y’all to know these things. Rightthissecond.

I can only imagine how much your day will be improved by my completely unnecessary sense of information urgency.

Happy Wednesday, everybody.

Filed Under: Bloggity Fun

When A Pronoun Antecedent Makes A World Of Difference

21 August 2007 by

Alex’s teacher this year is Mrs. Cook, only I should probably confess right now that Mrs. Cook is not her real name. And of course this is where the relational side of me wants to say, “Hey, y’all. Her name is actually Mrs. So-And-So. She teaches at Such-And-Such School – do you know her?”

But I realize that might be a bit foolish and somewhat counterproductive in terms of protecting the boy’s privacy. Plus, the whole creating-an-alias-for-the-teacher thing is kind of fun. In fact, it makes me feel a little bit like Sidney Bristow. Except without the hot pink wig and the killer kah-rah-tay kicks.

And, you know, the rock-solid abs.

Mrs. Cook is an absolutely wonderful teacher, so much so that other parents whose children have been in her class get TEARS IN THEIR EYES when they talk about her. Even more remarkable is what someone told me the other day: Mrs. Cook has been teaching for over twenty-five years and has never raised her voice in the classroom.

We should probably pause at this juncture to give the Lord a holy handclap of praise for His goodness in providing an authority figure who just might have a calming influence on our child. Because, quite frankly, his daddy and I have proven to be of no use at all when it comes to convincing Alex to dial down his level of enthusiasm over, say, NOODLES.

Anyway.

Last night Alex and I were saying prayers before his bedtime, and all of the sudden he sat straight up and said, “Mama! Oh, Mama! I have a GOOD WORD for us, Mama!”

Thinking that he’d learned a new word at school, I patted his leg and said, “Okay, baby – and I want you to tell me ALL about it just as soon as we finish praying.”

I started to pray again, and after about five seconds the little man piped up again, only louder: “BUT MAMA! I HAVE A GOOD WORD TO SHARE!”

Something about the way he said it let me know that he wasn’t talking about vocabulary words, so I said, “All right, then – tell me your good word.”

And he bowed his head again, clasped his little hands together, and in the sweetest voice you’ve ever heard, he said, “Do not be afraid, for I am with you.”

Oh, internets.

My heart, it was full.

And I could pretend like I didn’t cry but that would be a lie.

After we finished with prayers and goodnight kisses, I walked to the den to let D know that Alex wanted to tell him goodnight, too. As D started down the hall, I choked back the sobs and said, “Be sure to ask him about his good word.”

A few minutes later D came out of Alex’s room, and as I continued to wipe the tears from my eyes I said, “So – did he tell you his good word?”

“He did,” D answered. “And I think I have a little perspective to add to that.”

“What is it?” I asked, thinking that our sweet boy had probably recited even more of that particular verse for his daddy.

D said, “Well, he said the verse, and I told him how proud I was, and then I asked him WHO is with him.”

“Uh-huh. What did he say?”

“He said, ‘MRS. COOK is with me, Daddy!'”

So.

Alex may still be just a smidge foggy in terms of his theology.

We’ll try to work on that.

But in the meantime, y’all can be encouraged to know that you don’t have to be afraid because Mrs. Cook is with you always.

And she’ll stay calm regardless.

And she’ll teach you stuff, too.

Filed Under: Chatty McTalky, Oh Howard

For The Fours Of You Who Haven’t Been There Yet

20 August 2007 by

My sweet friend Shannon launched another fab blog a couple of weeks ago. The new blog is called Bloggy Giveaways, and it’s dedicated to sharing great products with the internets. There’s a new giveaway every few days, and all you have to do to win is follow some simple commenting instructions.

What I love the most is that the giveaways come from companies of all sizes. It’s a great concept for everyone involved: readers get a chance to win free stuff, and businesses get a chance to promote their products in a fun environment.

So while I’m working on churning out yay, even more mediocre content for your reading ambivalence, be sure to check out Bloggy Giveaways. There’s all kinds of bloggity goodness over there.

Filed Under: Bloggity Fun
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