Friday, February 20, 2015

Turning Twelve...

My all time favorite thing in February is of course Skyler.  There were big happenings for us this week.  Yesterday she, my baby child, turned 12.  And then I became the know-nothing-irritating mother that all teens complain about.  It was almost magical how I transformed overnight.

Knowing she was scheduled to have a half-day of school on her birthday, Skyler asked if I would take her and her bestie to the mall when I got home.   She vehemently did not want her brother to be in the same mall that she was in.  I vetoed that explaining that she would just have to breath the same air and get over it.  We got to the mall, had lunch, she and her friend consulted their magical network of friends and discovered that two other besties were IN THA HOUSE (they probably didn't say that, I'm so old and lame).  I agreed that they could go off together if they agreed to check in.  And just like that poof, they were gone. I'm so glad Zack did come with us because I had someone to hang with.  I wasn't just the pathetic teen-taxi-driver my daughter thought that I was.

You see only a blur they were off that fast.


The last picture is when I said it was time to go, she turned her back to me to consult her friends as though theirs was the final say.  Oy.

We discovered this day, that she is of equal height to me and not even close to done growing.  I'm the short one in the family, further diminishing my weight as an authority.  It's a different experience telling your taller-than-you child that they will do as you say "or else".  We all have this air of "we'll do it because you're Mom, but 'or else' what?"  As though, if they were to challenge me, what would I do?  My primary currency is the iPhone.  Threaten to take that away and they might just offer up a limb in trade.

After the phone call that made mothers all over our city grown with pain at the fact that school was closed again on Friday making this an entire unplanned week of "vacation" Matt spontaneously suggested that Skyler invite her friends to sleep over.  This one and that one?  Yes sure.  And this one and that one?  Yes sure.  He assured me that he was in control, he had this, I need not worry.  He speaks Skyler better than I do these days.   Not a minute after they arrive, Matt was struck sick with stomach pain so fierce he was writhing on the floor.  It's something I might have pulled myself if I had been left in charge of five little eye-rollers but I think he might not have been faking.

As the girls were settling down for a movie marathon, they began with their nightly rituals of tooth brushing and face washing and they all came into my room to show me the special lotion and face wash that H had.  I said "oh yes, I've told you to wash your face every night using..."  "MOM - I want this one.  The same one that H has.  Here take our picture with it."




So, although every teen I've known for the past 30 years has been using Neutrogena and I have suggested it to Skyler before, now that this particular formulation in this particular bottle has been best friend approved, she will wash her face with it nightly.  I'm going to have to start manipulating the friend influence somehow.

The good thing is that my dear thinks-she's-grown-girl has the very best of friends.  I know this because four of them slept on my living room floor last night and just as when they were tiny babes  and we looked over them thinking how adorable they were when they slept, this morning I too looked at these creatures who had given me a thousand eye rolls just yesterday and thought "awww aren't they sweet".


Happy Birthday dear Skyler.  I hope we both make it to the other side of the teen years with our sanity in tact.


yeah that's my kid licking her friend



#favoritethingsfebruary #skyler #twelve #birthday #sleepover #mall

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Walking...and Shame...

Meghan Trainor.  I shouldn't have to say anything else to explain why she's a favorite in February but...I like to hear myself talk.  I'm sure you've heard her song All About That Bass on the radio thingy or iTunes or everywhere, it's everywhere.  I looked up her wiki page and I like that she's a young (21) female entertainer who actually started her career writing songs for other artists before she decided to record her own album.  You go on with your bad self Meghan.

I am LOVING her album titled Title (is that right? I think so).


I particularly like (all the songs but) Walk of Shame.




What?  You're telling me you've never?  Liar!


#favoritethingsfebruary #meghantrainor #mtrain #title

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Stay Weird New Hampshire...

I am NOT doing a lovey dovey Feb 14 post because Hallmark is not a favorite thing of February.

I'm missing home lately (although I wouldn't want to visit at the moment as my mother reports that there is snow right up to her windows). New Hampshire comedy is a favorite thing this month. Winter in New England is accurately described here:


I find the following clip particularly funny (in a dark way) because I happen to come from one of those hardy New England families that have the stubborn kind of drunk that managed to get himself arrested for a DUI TWICE in ONE day.  Lovely huh?  Yeah that was on the front page of the newspaper.  No one recognized the family name <---that all="" e="" got="" nbsp="" ousins.="" p="" right="" s="" sarcasm.="" them="" ve="">


If you're from New England you will heartily appreciate this music video and will likely recognize every single reference:





Crazy New Hampshire,  you're the Florida of the north.





#favoritethingsfriday  #newhampshire #justinmckinney #jayzparody 

Friday, February 13, 2015

Notorious RBG...

I so love this Ruth Bader Ginsburg headline on Jezebel today:

I 'Wasn't 100% Sober' During State of the Union




Ha!  How can you not love her?  My friend Rachael said "SCOTUS, they're just like us" and I couldn't agree more.  RBG rocks all kinds of things including having the balls to say "Hey, I'm 81 and I can't be expected to stay awake after my bedtime and a glass of wine so suck it"

Thanks for fighting the good fight, RGB!  I can't wait to hear all you have to say this spring!


#favoritethingsfebruary #rbg #scotus #ruthbaderginsburg #jezebel #stateoftheunionwine

Thursday, February 12, 2015

This Makes Up for a TINY Fraction of my JS Sadness...

Last year John Oliver, a contributor to The Daily Show, announced that he was leaving to start his own show on HBO called Last Week Tonight.  I immediately thought "you're nuts...good luck buddy" and I was wrong (see Matt I can admit when I'm wrong).  It turns out John Oliver on his own show is funny as shit.

Now I didn't start "borrowing" HBO until recently so I was watching John clips via HBO's YouTube channel and it was an awesome awesome thing.  You know what happens when you have no sponsors or advertisers to worry about?  You say whatever the fuck you want!!! (see what I did there?)



I became like any dad in the 80s with a camera and a slideshow projector; any time someone was captive in my living room I turned on Roku and told them they just HAD to watch this.  One of the best rants John went on aired right before the start of the World Cup, which was, you know, the most important thing in the world to my family last spring.




This past Sunday, Last Week Tonight came back for season two.  John tackled the controversial subject of Big Pharma marketing directly to the doctors that write your scripts.


The quote that almost made soup come out of my nose was:


If you get HBO or are borrowing it from a friend, definitely watch the full show there but if you aren't a slave to cable tv like I am, YouTube will do just fine.  Find the Last Week Tonight YouTube channel here.


#favoritethingsfebruary #lastweektonight #johnoliver #fifa #hbo #hbogo

Favorite Things February Just Got Shitty...

I hate that I'm even writing this post.  GAH!  One of my favorite things in the whole wide world, Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, is going away and I'm in full blown mourning mode.  He hasn't even said when he's leaving and I feel like one of my favorite people in the world just got the diagnosis of a fatal cancer.  I actually cried upon watching this:



If you aren't familiar with Jon Stewart, I question your decisions in life.  Seriously, take this coming weekend and go watch the past fifteen years of awesome.  I'm not kidding.



I was going to post a plethora of my favorite JS quotes but after searching the google and falling down that rabbit hole of awesome, I realized that ALL of JS' quotes are my favorites.  I can't choose just twenty.  At random then...






Will we never meet at Camera Three again?
I really hope this link works

Will there never be another Rally for Reason and to Restore Sanity?

Link above to all my pics from the Rally in 2010

I can't further summarize what Jon Stewart and The Daily Show have meant to me so I'm just going to say that one of my all time favorite things announced it was going away.  I watch it online every morning while I'm updating my boring blah blah spreadsheets. I suppose I'll have to go back and start at the beginning.  Hopefully I can make it last another fifteen years.

Edited:  Jon's response to the internet's reaction to the loss of the great JS



Edit:  Breaking News!  I made a deal with god.




#favoritethingsfebruary #tookabadturn #thedailyshow

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Me & Coke...A Love Affair...



Once again I am attempting to give up one of the true loves of my life, Coca-Cola.  This doesn't mean that it isn't still one of my favorite things in the whole wide world.


I had a coke on December 31st and then went the longest stretch in the ever of not having coke, 31 days.  On January 31st I decided I could have one.  Matt mocked me falling off of the wagon and said that alcoholics can't have "just one".  I chose not to listen.  While out to dinner, I ordered a coke. The waiter thought I was nuts when he brought it to the table and I practically dunked my face in the glass and then let out the most satisfied of sighs.  I had one refill and haven't had another coke in eleven days.  There have been some rough patches but I'm doing it.  Everything in moderation.  I can't tell myself never or I'll lose the whole match.



#favoritethingsfebruary #cokeismybae #coke #cokeaholicsanonymous

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Flula...

Do you watch any YouTube channels?  I have so many that I love.  I'll share a few with you this month.

My current favorite channel is Flula, by Flula Borg.  He says:
My name is Flula Borg, and I am a musician from Erlangen in Germany. Many things Inspire to me, and I show those to you here!

Flula just cracks my shit up.  He's hilarious without meaning to be and has some great colab music videos that he calls Auto Tunes.


I got off on a Flula tangent recently and watched all his videos and then uh listened to all the podcasts he's been on.  I just find him to be a happy part of the day.  Enjoy!

What is your favorite YouTube channel?

Edit: oh looky what came out today! A new trailer for Pitch Perfect 2. Recognize anyone?





#favoritethingsfebruary

Monday, February 09, 2015

Where I Give You Something for Free...GrooveBook

Last month Matt got on a huge Shark Tank binge kick.  The show's described premise is:
  1. "Budding entrepreneurs get the chance to bring their dreams to fruition in this reality show from executive producer Mark Burnett. They present their ideas to the sharks in the tank - five titans of industry, who made their own dreams a reality and turned their ideas into lucrative empires.The contestants try to convince any one of the sharks to invest money in their idea. When more than one of the sharks decide they want a piece of the action, a bidding war can erupt, driving up the price of the investment."
I don't love this show because more often than not the entrepreneur makes an embarrassing display while trying to pitch their product to the investors, but I did happen to be watching one night when the developers of GrooveBook, the Whitemans, presented.



Their idea answers the question of what to do with the thousands of photos on your cell phone.  Their app lets you upload 100 pics per month and they mail you photo print quality pics on perforated pages of a book for $2.99 per month. I immediately loved the idea and wondered where it stood at the time.  So I googled the episode and found that by the time we were watching, the Whitemans and their investors had sold the app to Shutterfly (my favorite photo printing online store) for $14.5 million.  ZOINK!

Shutterfly’s $14.5 million acquisition of GrooveBook is more than 19 times the amount that Kevin O’Leary offered for the whole company. GrooveBook is now the first idea pitched on Shark Tank that has been acquired by a public company.

I immediately downloaded the app and was excited to try it.  Then I read the app reviews on iTunes and wasn't as excited.  So I did some more digging before I tried the product.  I entered #groovebook into Instagram and was immediately shown all the GrooveBook love.  I quickly realized that the poor reviews were mostly before Shutterfly bought the app and that most people were thrilled with what they got for the price.

I uploaded the 100 most recent pics hanging out on my phone and waited.  Now.  I will admit that in terms of immediate satisfaction, they are a slow.  BUT I totally don't care because I was thrilled with what I got for $3.  I'm excited to continue using GrooveBook to have my favorite 100 candid pics printed each month.

Now, here is where I give you something free.  We all love free.  The other cool thing about GrooveBook is that they send first time customers a coupon code to give to all their friends so they can order a book for free.  I do not receive anything for this.  I'm just passing along the awesome.  So get the GrooveBook app at iTunes or GooglePlay and use the coupon code MOLNAR130 for a free book.  There is no obligation to get a second one, you can cancel the monthly subscription any time, and you should just trust me that you want this.

Smooches,

#favoritethingsfebruary
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