Archives for June 2011

It’s Sort Of Like Having One Of Those 26.2 Stickers On Your Car. Only Not.

15 June 2011 by

I totally remember the first TV show marathon I ever watched.

It was “The Real World.” Season 1. Eric and Julie flirted a lot. The whole cast was pretty much cute as a button, and with the exception of a few lively arguments, everybody behaved.

I quit watching “The Real World” somewhere around the second New York season (oh, it got REAL real about that time), but I never lost my love for the TV marathon. Give me back-to-back episodes of a TV show in which I am even remotely interested, and I will fire up the DVR lickety-split. Maybe it’s because I tend to err on the side of impatient, but I adore the option of watching episodes of a show one right after the other. IT MAKES ME SO HAPPY.

When D and I were first married, I was always on the look-out for a Law & Order marathon. Or a Road Rules marathon (remember Road Rules? I LOVED IT). There was even one time when the Biography Channel or A&E or somebody had a Columbo marathon, and I was ALL OVER IT. Nothing like a detective show from the 1970s to make a weekend extra special, you know?

After we bought our first house, I loved the home improvement shows on BBC America, and a marathon of Changing Rooms and/or Ground Force was always a treat. Then I discovered the joy of a House Hunters marathon – back in the days when they didn’t show the prices and the people looking for a house always picked the third one.

(That reminds me: I miss Suzanne Whang.)

(I also miss Michael Payne, the man who used to host Designing for the Sexes. I mean, do y’all remember how INCREDIBLY THRILLED he would be about ABSOLUTELY NOTHING? He was a delight.)

Our TV marathon habits haven’t changed much over the last few years. We’ve plowed through all the seasons of Friday Night Lights thanks to Netflix, and when we discovered the first season of Veronica Mars a few years ago, we would watch three or four episodes a night on DVD.

And listen. If I happen to catch a marathon of a cooking show? Like Top Chef or Chopped or The Next Food Network Star? Oh my word. THIS WORLD CANNOT CONTAIN MY JOY.

So all that to say: we love us a good TV show marathon in this house. And when I got home from Louisville and saw that I had fourteen (FOURTEEN!) episodes of Say Yes To The Dress on the DVR, I wanted to dance a little jig in a fitting room at Kleinfeld’s. Now granted, D isn’t the least bit interested in a TV show about wedding dresses, so I’m running this particular marathon alone. I’m not even halfway through all the episodes, but I’ve had the best time trying to pinpoint what kind of dress each bride is going to pick and being shocked by how much they’re willing to spend and seeing the expressions on their faces when they finally find “the one.”

It’s no Friday Night Lights, mind you, but it’ll do in a pinch.

So what about you? Any shows you’d recommend for a good marathon? Any shows you wouldn’t? Anything you’re hoping to catch sometime soon?

I’m all ears. Or eyes. Or ears and eyes. Or whatever is necessary in order to solidify some TV-watching goals.

Filed Under: TV Is My Friend

Even Yet More Deeply Still Than Before – Again

14 June 2011 by

So this past weekend in Louisville? At Deeper Still?

It was just the sweetest time.

I was going to write about it Sunday afternoon when I got home, but apparently I needed many uninterrupted hours to watch the Bulldogs in their final super regional baseball game and also nap. Then my two fellas returned from a little father-son weekend trip, and I had a fun time catching up with them and hearing all about their adventures. Today I just wanted to hang out at home and catch up on a few errands, but I haven’t really been in writing mode. However, I’ve definitely been in “Say Yes To The Dress” mode.

So there’s that.

We really did have big fun in Louisville, and I’ll have you know that Melanie and I completely avoided bad Mexican food on this particular trip. I’d like to think that it’s because we’re growing in wisdom about our dining choices, but mainly it’s because we were at Freedom Hall most of the time and the options were fairly limited. And let’s face it: if there had been a sign over a concession stand that said, “Below Average Mexican Food Served Here,” we’d have pulled out our wallets, forked over some cash and enjoyed some astonishingly subpar beef-type product wrapped up in something pretending to be a tortilla and covered with an orange-y substance that was posing as cheese.

WE ARE POWERLESS TO RESIST IT.

Friday morning we both worked at the arena (we were there to do bloggy stuff and also to help with the event). I had high hopes that since Louisville is farther north than Birmingham it would be somewhat cooler, but unfortunately that was not the case at all. It was approximately 155 degrees early Friday afternoon, though certainly I could be overestimating. I’m sure it was much cooler in the shade – a breezy 132 degrees, perhaps. I do know for sure that when they opened the doors for Deeper Still late Friday afternoon, the place where I was standing in the concourse felt like someone had opened the doors of a hundred 400 degree ovens at the same time. It was warm.

Two big Friday night highlights were 1) getting to catch up with some bloggy friends before the event started and 2) getting to hear a new worship song that Travis has written with a friend of his. It’s called “The Word of God Has Spoken,” and I am of the opinion that it is absolutely incredible. I haven’t been able to get it out of my head since we sang it Friday night, and that is fine by me because I kind of like having it in my head all the time. You can hear it if you watch the Deeper Still video re-cap, and I think you’ll love it.

My third favorite thing about Friday night (and obviously I’m dealing with personal stuff here; Melanie and I will be dealing with the actual messages over the next week or so at AllAccess ) was that Angie and her friend Kelsey came up to our room about 10:30 Friday night, and y’all, I really can’t remember the last time I laughed that much. There was one point when everybody was laughing so hard that no one was making a sound, and IT MADE ME SO HAPPY. One of my favorite memories ever.

Saturday was chock-full-o-Deeper-Still-goodness. Beth Moore and Priscilla Shirer spoke Saturday (both were excellent, as always), and I would just like to say that the toned state of Priscilla’s arms is an inspiration to women everywhere (if you were there you TOTALLY know what I’m talking about). She has such a great sense of style and always looks so effortlessly beautiful, but I am here to tell you that her arms are a revelation. Clearly she has the Lord’s favor because 1) she’s a gifted, articulate teacher and 2) THOSE ARMS. Sweet mercy.

Saturday night Melanie and I had dinner with a bunch of sweet friends, and afterwards our buddy Paige and her friend Kristin came up to our room for LO, EVEN MORE LAUGHS. It was good times all the way around.

So now I’m home, and it’s exactly where I want and need to be. We have a wide open week in front of us – no VBS, no camps, no anything, really – and I’m tickled to pieces about that. I’m hoping to get some writing done for Ye Olde E-book this week, so I may be a little scarce around here. Or I may be here an obnoxious amount. There’s just not a bit of telling.

Hope y’all had a great weekend!

Filed Under: Faith

The Big Boo Cast, Episode 19

9 June 2011 by

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Well, Melanie has a new modem, and that means we’re feeling a little giddy with podcast power right now. Because we can talk without being disconnected! And without error messages popping up on our computers! And without becoming so frustrated that we vow and declare that we will NEVER USE THE INTERNET AGAIN, EVER, AND WE MEAN IT.

This week we talk about our inability to use our soft voices, The Bachelorette (oh, we are not pleased), our real and imagined ailments, our trip to Louisville, Friday Night Lights, Melanie’s quest to find an aqua shirt and many other DEEPLY RIVETING topics. Like, for instance, THE HEAT.

And by the way, there was a section about mid-way through where we got sidetracked and I had to cut it out, but then I couldn’t figure out a good way to transition between the two sections, so I did what any media professional would do and simply inserted three very loud growling sounds. That’s a sure sign that you’re dealing with some quality production values, my friends. We like to keep it HIGH TECH around here.

You can click here to listen. Or here. Or you can subscribe on iTunes if you’re feeling particularly fancy.

Have a great Thursday, y’all!

Filed Under: Big Boo Cast

Attention, People Of The Internet

8 June 2011 by

– If you’d like to enter to win a $100 Best Buy gift card, click on over to my newest giveaway post.

– I am loving – LOVING – the lyrics to this new song by Shaun Groves. And the banjo, too. :-)

– One of my favorite bloggers ever is Veronica Mitchell. I adore her writing. It sings. And this post? Is beautiful.

– If love Friday Night Lights and aren’t reading Alan Sepinwall’s recaps of each episode, you are missing a treasure. So, so good – and so fun to read what he had to say about the older episodes, too.

– Melanie and I are headed to Louisville, KY tomorrow for Deeper Still. Are any of y’all planning to be there?

Filed Under: Daily Awesome, Rambling

Samsung Power Foam Sweepstakes

8 June 2011 by

Keep reading & enter the giveaway for a $100 Best Buy gift card

Filed Under: BlogHer Reviews

Perhaps It’s Time To Re-evaluate My Skin Care Routine

7 June 2011 by

Over the weekend I saw a really cute dress on the clearance rack at Steinmart. It immediately struck me as something that would be great with flip flops and super comfortable on a hot summer day, and I was intrigued. I didn’t buy it, though, because I’d gone in Steinmart looking for t-shirts, and I hated to abandon my original shopping objective for the first ruffle-y collared dress that caught my eye.

Besides, I wasn’t really in the mood to buy a cute dress considering that I spent most of the weekend feeling pretty preoccupied with my ongoing tooth drama. The temporary crown popped off Friday morning, and since my dentist doesn’t work on Fridays, I didn’t know what to do next. Was I supposed to put it back on? Find another dentist? Call the number for “dental emergencies” that they mention on my dentist’s voice mail?

In the end I left my dentist a long, rambling message (IMAGINE THAT), and then Twitter came to my rescue because one of my Twitter friends happens to be A REAL-LIVE DENTIST. She assured me that everything was going to be fine, and I felt like I could hang tight until Monday, never you mind that I was a wee bit scared that my fancy new root canal was going to be RURNT, ALL RURNT thanks to the malfunction of the temporary crown.

And yes. It has come to this. I have become a person WHO TALKS ABOUT MY TEETH ON THE INTERNET.

I don’t even know who I am anymore.

The dentist’s office returned my call early yesterday morning, and after a lengthy discussion regarding, well, YOU KNOW, we set up an appointment for today. The sweet dental hygienist then told me to make sure that I didn’t chew on my left side – and to put the temporary crown in a safe place so that I wouldn’t lose it.

So that’s why there’s now a plastic tooth-like object resting comfortably in a Ziploc bag on my kitchen counter. IT’S LIKE ALL MY DREAMS HAVE COME TRUE!

Anyway, once some of the tooth-related concerns were settled, I moved through the rest of yesterday morning pretty quickly. I drove Alex and a couple of his buddies to VBS, I worked on an article, I answered some emails – and about an hour before it was time for VBS pick-up, I decided that I’d swing by Steinmart and see if that dress was still there. I’d thought about it several times since I walked away from it Saturday, and the more I thought about what we have going on this summer, the more I decided that I was going to invite it to make its permanent home in my closet.

I found the dress on the same rack where I left it, and since I wasn’t looking for anything else, I made a beeline for the cash register. I expected that there would be a wait to check out since it was Senior Citizens’ Discount Day, but I was the first in line. I recognized the lady who was working at the register, so we made a little small talk, and as she was getting ready to scan the price tag of my dress, I asked her if I could still use the 20% off coupon from this past weekend.

“Well,” she replied, “I’ll have to see. Let me take a look at it.”

I fumbled around in my purse, found my phone and pulled up the coupon in my email. I zoomed in on it so that the print wouldn’t be quite as small, and I handed her my phone so that she could check it out.

“This coupon says ‘Good through 6/5,'” she said. “It’s 6/6.”

“Oh, okay,” I answered. “I just thought maybe it would still work since it says ‘Through Monday’ at the top of it.”

She paused for a second and said, “I’m sorry, but it says 6/5, so I can’t give you the discount. Unless…”

I leaned forward a little bit, eager to hear what the loophole might be.

“…are you a senior?”

“Ma’am?”

“Are you a senior?”

I didn’t understand for a few seconds, and then it dawned on me: she was asking if I was a SENIOR CITIZEN.

No kidding: it was one of those “LUUUUUUUUKE, IIIIIII AMMMMMMMM YOURRRRRR FAAAAAAAAATHERRRRRRR” moments. The whole world slowed down to a crawl while I tried to process what had happened. I knew that I needed to respond, WHAT WITH HER ASSUMPTION THAT I WAS 65 AND ALL, so I just shook my head, smiled, and said, “No ma’am.”

However, you may rest assured that it was also one of those moments where I definitely did not say what I wanted to say. Because what I wanted to say was, “Ma’am, I am 41 years old. And I recognize that I am tired, not wearing make-up and in moderate-to-severe need of some fresh highlights. But I have spent the last three days feeling a little bit discouraged because it is HOT and I HAD A ROOT CANAL and MY FAKE TOOTH FELL OUT and DID I MENTION THAT IT IS VERY HOT. So while I anticipate that there will be a point in my life when I will embrace my status as a senior citizen and all the blessings that accompany that season of life, you must trust me when I tell you that NOW IS NOT THAT TIME.”

And then I would’ve smiled real big so that she could clearly see the gap in my teeth where the temporary crown should be.

By the time I finished with my inner diatribe, the cashier announced my total and said, “Wow! Look! The dress was actually discounted an additional 25%, so you still got a great deal.”

You’d better believe that it took everything in me not to pretend like I was turning up my hearing aid while I screamed, “WHAT DID YOU SAY, HONEY?”

When I picked up the young’un from VBS I was feeling better about the whole situation (I really do know that the cashier didn’t mean any harm; she was just looking for another way that I might be able to get 20% off), and when I talked to Melanie a little bit later, I told her the whole story. She was just as sympathetic as she could be, and then she offered some perspective.

“Listen,” she said. “I am going to tell you something. I have seen you at your absolute worst – when you’ve been in pajamas for two days and haven’t fixed your hair and haven’t had nearly enough sleep. And I am here to tell you that there has never been a point, even when you were at your absolute worst, when I thought for even one second that you looked like you were eligible for some sort of senior citizen discount.”

Then we laughed until we cried.

And I couldn’t help but laugh all over again when I flipped through yesterday’s mail – because the previous owner of our house got a postcard that was TOTALLY PERFECT considering the day’s events.

So if you’ll excuse me, I need to go now. It’s time for my dentist appointment, and afterwards I’m going to stock up on Metamucil and test drive some Hoverounds. It’s sure to be a big day!

Love,
Mamaw

Filed Under: Rambling
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