goosey spot

Welcome to Alabama

2009-11-11T07:17:00.000-08:00

Pretty sure we've driven by this establishment en route to the beach. And you thought Arkansas was bad. Thanks J.

Rocket Man

2009-11-09T16:37:00.000-08:00

OMG. Thank you Fug Girls

Cheel Frip

2009-11-05T08:32:00.000-08:00

My girl A is going on a Cheel Frip today. That's a Field Trip in adult-speak. Have fun, sweet baby!

Can you say AWKWARD?

2009-11-02T06:57:00.000-08:00

JB and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary on Friday night, even though the actual date was October 21. The original plan was to grill steaks out and take the girls to Grammy and Grandad's house. But I was too lazy to cook, so we went out.

I selected our restaurant, an Italian place that got a recent positive review in the local paper. What happened next was rather disastrous. After waiting for 30 minutes or so for a table, we waited for every subsequent step of our dinner. The server disappeared for 20 minutes at a time - completely gone from the dining room. This would have been made a shade better if the food was incredible. But JB's chicken Parmesean was merely passable, and my Chicken Marsala tasted like soy sauce, not marsala.

There was a table across the dining room from us - 12-15 folks, including some babies. They were there when we arrived, and over an hour later, were still waiting for their food. One member of their party had some unpleasant words with the waitress. What happened after that can only be described as AWKWARD. A lady in a chef's smock appeared at the table, and yelled at them about how there was no need for cussing, and they needed to change their attitude. Um, lady, who I think might have been cook and owner? Those poor folks had been waiting for hours, with babies, for their food, their bill, their drinks. I think a couple of profanities were warranted.

After that, we counted out some cash to cover the cost of our food and left without telling the server. We had been waiting for our bill for 30 minutes at that point.

So, we decided to grab a cappucino @ a little spot in our neighborhood. Just to take the edge off. There was a charming vocalist on-stage - Kristy Kruger. Kind of Billy-Holliday-ish. Front-and-center was a table full of drunk people who also happened to be, um, swingers. I had to duck into the bathroom right quick, and that's when another fan jumped up on stage in between sweet little Kristy's songs and preached a sermon to the drunk swingers about being polite, and if you can't listen, drunk swingers, you need to just leave. Which the drunk swingers promptly did.

Kristy told the self-righteous fan, who was wearing a kangol backwards, "That's the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me."

AWKWARD.

This is why you're fat

2009-10-30T08:28:00.000-07:00

Most entertaining. Food blogs are so great.

This is why you're fat.

Man, I loved Soul Train

2009-10-29T10:47:00.000-07:00

Cool spots we visited on Sunday

2009-10-28T07:54:00.000-07:00

Pylones. S got a robot that is a pencil sharpener. A got a bubble shaped as a princess, filled with soap. I got a sumo wrestler key chain. Lots and lots of fun.

Mercadito Grove. Good Mexican. Tiny and way too expensive (seriously. I couldn't raise a family in NY. We like to eat out way too much. $71 for a meal that included one entree split between 2 children?!) But enough venting. We didn't have any delicious food in the city except for this meal. And they have a great sidewalk dining area, which was perfect for soaking up that warm sun.

Grace Episcopal on Broadway. This is obviously a gorgeous 200 year old church with lots of cool history. But what made it lovely yesterday was this: the boys' choir was practicing when we ducked into the sanctuary. How could 8-10 pre-adolescent little boys make such a beautiful noise? I've never heard anything but annoying noises from the ones I'm acquainted with. Truly serendipitous.

And, we're back.

2009-10-26T07:18:00.000-07:00

Wow. What a nice wedding my brother-in-law had. Held @ a pretty 100-year old country club in suburban New Jersey. It was a medium sized wedding. The minister, while a bit new-agey for my taste, was a pro, and the wedding went off hitch-free. (well, almost. A had to go down the aisle twice because she forgot to toss the rose petals in the aisle the first time. Also, the bride's ring was briefly lost when the ribbon that attached it to the stem of a rose untied. Also, the hairdresser and the florist were no-shows, so the flowers were still being assembled 30 minutes before the wedding was to start.)

But the DJ was great, there was just enough champagne. And it was a romantic, sweet wedding filled with Italians. And lots of dancing.

Then yesterday was a gorgeous fall day in NYC. We spent it in the village, just hanging out and getting a little wet @ the fountain at Washington Square, then walked up to Union Square, then walked up again to my favorite park in New York, Madison Square park. I've always wanted to go to the Shake Shack, but the line is re-donk-u-lous.

It's funny how different the environment is in New York from Little Rock, but kids are the same everywhere. We played in a couple of playgrounds, and the experience was exactly the same in a city of 5 million as in our city of (not even) 500,000. Well, save for the 1000s of taxis blaring their horns just a few feet from the swingset.

So, we had a LATE night last night, as our flight didn't even leave Newark til after 8:00 EST. And we have some tired little girls today. Last night on the plane, A kicked the back of the seat of a surly business man just long enough to push him into asking me "Are these your children?" (sorry, surly man. I've been there, feeling just and tired and surly as you did last night on your sunday night business trip. But you also annoyed me by yelling "FUCK" at your smartphone more than once. Plenty loud enough for little ears to hear. And before the kicking of your seat back began.)

My children crumpled into a heap of sleeping little girls after successfully annoying their seat mates. But first, the pilot came on to make his unintelligible announcements about flying conditions, delays, etc. So when A asked S: "What did he just say?!" S replied with authority: "Whaz-chash-eblah-shcazd." Just like the grown-ups say on the Peanuts.

NYC - day 2

2009-10-23T14:53:00.000-07:00

So, this morning, we were rudely awakened by dear old A, who threw open the curtains to "check to see if it was sunny". The morning kinda went downhill from there - our children do not do well with being present in small contained spaces like hotel rooms. Every 3 minutes devolved into some kind of crying jag or screaming match. And every discussion resulted in an argument - you would never think that pressing the elevator button was such a CRUCIAL activity.

So, around 11, we took the bus to the city, then walked the 7-8 blocks over to the Circle Line. I made an erroneous decision that we should eat before boarding the boat, since the cruise would be 2 or 3 hours. So we ate a slice at some crappy diner and moved on. But the Circle Line was lots of fun I'm happy to say.

Then back to Times Square because A has been asking every 10 minutes for the past 24 hours if she can please have some M&M's. So we went to the damned M&M Store. I spent $19.52 on what amounted to less than 1 lb of M&M's. This same quantity would cost, oh, less than $5 @ Wal-Mart? Swear to god.

Now, we're resting up and absorbing as much HBO as possible (we don't have it @ home) before joining JB's family for dinner.

New York - today

2009-10-22T17:21:00.000-07:00

1. LR National by 6 am. Everybody up and at 'em by 5:15. Remarkable.
2. Flight which involved a new card game that S taught me. Game name: BS. I think I should be disturbed by that, but the game was damn fun.
3. Arrival @ Newark, where A told us we were going to take a "texi-cab". And we did.
4. Chipotle by our hotel (we are obsessed with this restaurant Totally chowed down. Can those guys PLEASE open a shop in Little Rock?! Our hotel is nice, but could be ANYWHERE - Dallas, Little Rock, Whatevs. Free internet, but it's damn slow. Nice, clean, big room though)
5. Bus into the city.
6. Walk thru Times Square, then to Rockefeller Center.
7. 30 Rock Observatory. Fantastic. Way better than the Empire State Bldg.
8. Meet up with my sweet bro-in-law, after just a speck of shopping @ jcrew for this adorable jacket.
9. Beer and Shirley Temples, along with a giant cookie and french fries @ a place called Maxies near Times Square (on a side note: I hate Times Square. Seriously).
10. Bus back to our hotel, now movies (for the girls) and wine (for me) in Secaucus NJ

My baby girls hung tough today, despite the massive crowds. We're going to try and ride the Circle Line tomorrow. If we a) have a great time and b) come home safely without the flu and c) get the bro in law married happily, I'll feel like we had an incredible trip.

Happy Anniversary, baby

2009-10-21T07:36:00.000-07:00

14 years of married bliss, with some occasional agony thrown in for good measure. 14 years ago today, JB and I tied the knot in Las Vegas @ the chapel in the Flamingo Hilton. It was a great time - friends and family along for the ride.

Before we finally got married, we lived together for 5 years. Which means I've been with my sweet, sweet husband for almost my entire adult life.

Today, we'll celebrate by packing up the family's bags so we can get ourselves to NY (NJ, actually) to watch my bro-in-law marry this weekend. I guess that's kind of the circle of life, no?

God help us, here's to 40 more years of marriage. By then you won't be able to tell us apart.

Fall in Arkansas

2009-10-20T07:28:00.000-07:00

Fall is perfection in Arkansas. The air gets crisp, the shadows get long as the sun goes lower in the sky....and of course, the leaves.

A couple of weeks ago, the girls and I went apple-picking. It wasn't quite cool at that time, but we're still eating those delish ozark blacks. They taste like fall feels.

Food fails, gross-outs, and more

2009-10-19T00:39:00.000-07:00

Isn't it strange how things come together sometimes?

Earlier today, my friend J sent me this site. Gross, mesmerizing and ingenious all at once....Why is that fast food grosser when it's dismantled and reassembled into something that resembles gourmet food?

Then a friend facebook-ed a NYT article, touting this hilarious cake site. Just read it. You'll crack up.

Soccer

2009-10-16T01:45:00.000-07:00

S has played soccer since she was 5 (well, we actually had a brief foray into soccer when she was 3, but it was kind of a disaster.)

JB has coached her team for the past few years, and it's had its ups and downs. All children of a certain age have ADHD apparently, so no one listens to what he says. When they were younger, they just did cartwheels and pretended to be fairies. Now, they chit chat about how gross boys are or whatever. There have been some annoying parents over the years (thankfully, most have been on other teams). And occassionally, there's a child who doesn't respect authority....

So a couple weeks ago, we had a game where the refs didn't show up. The opposing team was supposed to bring refs from their club, but failed to do so. When their coaches declined to ref the game, JB volunteered to ref, so I had to coach.

The game was very close - tied @ 3 goals apiece, when the opposing coach hollered that it was time to end the game. JB replied that by his watch there were 3 minutes left. Within those 3 minutes, our team scored the winning goal. A most unfortunate set of events.

As JB and the girls exited the field, the opposing team's assistant coach got up in his grill and started hollering that he was a cheater. I didn't notice what was going on - too busy lining our girls up to shake the hands of the other team. So our girls walked by the other team. Some of their girls were crying - others were yelling that there was no way they were shaking our hands. Others were just slapping my girls' hands really hard.

Things got worse from there. The asst coach came up to JB once again, and JB tried to set him straight, seeing as how they had refused to ref the game and JB had volunteered. Also, they were supposed to bring a ref in the first place. They guy continued to yell, over and over: "Don't even talk to me. You're a cheater." I was actually scared this whole thing would come to blows.

This is a deplorable situation - why would an adult set that kind of example for kids? Why did it matter that much? I mean, maybe JB did mistime the game, but it could've just as easily benefitted the opposing team - it's not like he kicked the winning goal in himself.

Parents can be assholes, and sports makes them even bigger assholes.

typewriters

2009-10-15T02:18:00.000-07:00

For years, my girl S has visited my mom at her place of employment and banged on her typewriter. One year for Christmas, I even purchased her a toy typewriter, which she promptly destroyed cause it was a piece of plastic junk.

So I've been meaning to purchase an old typewriter - keeping my eye out for one @ garage sales, etc. I finally bought one of the millions that are listed on ebay. Paid $12.50 for the item, $16.50 for the shipping of such a large, heavy piece of outdated office machinery.

The typewriter arrived on Friday, and both girls typed on it incessantly through the weekend. The first thing that S asked me was "Where's the backspace button?" To which I replied "There's not one baby. Remember that liquid paper you painted your nails with @ Grammy's office that one time? That's what it's ACTUALLY for."

This typewriter doesn't have a correction tape, so truly, we just live with our mistakes. I've found sheets of paper all over the house, with typewritten missives kind of crookedly printed on them. A's are jibberish (she is just now beginning to recognize letters, much less read, much less type). S's are these stream-of-consciousness paragraphs, with some jibberish thrown in for good measure. They're laid out on the page kind of crooked - neither child bothers to get the paper on the spool nice and straight - so they're kind of like ransom notes.

regretsy and wal-mart

2009-10-13T07:11:00.000-07:00

Two very snarky, very funny sites I've recently gotten addicted to:

Regretsy.com: This encapsulates all that is wrong with the usually very-awesome site that is etsy.

People of Wal-Mart: Ever since I started lurking here, I've had a compulsion to whip out my cell phone camera when visiting our local wally world. You can always see something worth submitting to this hilarious site. Though I'm thrilled to report that I've never seen any butt cheeks.

The Capital Hotel

2009-10-11T11:27:00.000-07:00

Ya'll, we live in a very small city with limited amenities. I like it that way, so don't misconstrue this as bitching, but it is the truth. So The Capital Hotel, which was renovated and reopened almost 2 years ago after millions of dollars was poured into the historical building, is way out of our league.

The lobby is opulent. The staff is unobtrusive but perfectly attentive. The elevator is large enough to move a horse in, but still has a chandelier (true story. Apparently the elevator, which is original to the building, was constructed so that civil war generals could take their horses up with them. It's huge).

And the rooms have that comfort that you want, but don't always get in a historical building. I'm telling you - this was a perfect renovation. They kept the charm of an old building and added modern comfort. The bathrooms are sparkling and have everything you'd need. This is a hotel that doesn't belong in Little Rock. We felt like we were in a world class city, paying a LOT more for our room.

And then we had to get up, shower and go to work. What a waste of a perfectly good hotel room!

Happy Birthday to me!

2009-10-09T11:05:00.000-07:00

This year, we did something a little different for my birthday. The girls gave me a fantastic scrabble board, by request.

JB got me a wine dinner at one of the tastiest restaurants I've ever been to: Ashley's in The Capital Hotel. Here's the menu with wines:

*We started in the kitchen with finger food type appetizers and a glass of rose (The vintner who threw the dinner was Australian - somewhere called Turkey Hill). The wine was fine (I don't love rose). Apps included baby octopus, marinated artichoke hearts and mussel shooters in a tasso sauce. All-good, except the octopus. They're not my fave.

*After going to the table, we had a glass of grenache (incredible) and some shaved ham with what was probably parmesan or some other hard cheese. Drizzled with olive oil, served on a little marble slab, which I scraped clean.

*3rd course: smoked duck breast with mole sauce, bananas and some duck egg roll thingy. This. Duck. Was. Incredible. Not salty, but sweet and succulent and oddly complimented by the bananas (who'da thunk). The duck skin was carmelized like a Peking duck skin - no fat at all left in the skin. The meat was beyond fork-tender. AFter the meal, the chef described the method: they salt the ducks overnight, hanging from a rack so the water is extracted. Then they soak them in a sorghum water bath, then roast them @ 500 degrees. Could've done without the egg roll deal, but it was fine. Served with a blend called G.S.M. (which i believe is grenache, shiraz and marbec, though I could be wrong). Second favorite dish and wine of the night.

4th course: veal cutlets with white bean stew and grits. Now, I don't eat veal - I guess it's the only thing i avoid on moral grounds. But we paid a pretty penny for this meal, so I was going to make my morals look the other way and eat the damn veal. After all, how much worse can those veal cows be treated than regular eating cows? This was my favorite dish of the night. The veal was pan fried with the thinnest breading, and the beans were hearty. And you can never go wrong with grits. Wine pairing: a cab that was nearly absent of tannins. My fave dish and wine of the night. Especially after that cab had breathed in the glass for about 10 minutes.

5th course: pork cheeks (which is a butt, not a face-cheek) with roasted pumpkin and kale. This was so rich, and I"m not going to lie. By this point I was so full of wine and food, it was hard to make room. But it was delish. Especially the pumpkin. I think the wine was a shiraz, though I was still drinking my cab.

Dessert: sweet potato souffle with creme anglaise. The souffle had a caramelized top with some nutty bits baked in. You poked a hole in the top and poured that yummy creme anglais in...Perfection. Sherry was served, but I was about to pass out at this point and don't like sherry anyway.

Next post: a bit about the hotel.

Back among the land of the living

2009-10-08T11:00:00.000-07:00

Actually, I've been just fine, thanks for asking. Just went through a bout of depression, then an intense job search, and now I've moved jobs. The new gig is very different from the old. I'm on day 4, so it's wise to withhold any grand proclamations about loving my job just yet. But suffice to say, it's for a good cause. (also, one of my first assignments is to get their website in better shape. It's pretty atrocious.)

I'm recommitting myself to posting. So hope you'll be back soon!

little audrey

2009-07-31T06:10:00.000-07:00

so sweet

2009-07-29T08:10:00.000-07:00

Adorable. Also adorable? My baby A. After finding that 2 big marshmallows were packed in her lunchbox this morning, she told me, "You're my favorite Mommy ever." I could eat that child up.

(side note: JB packed my baby's lunch today. But I took the credit for those marshmallows. Gladly.)

american idol in concert - a recap

2009-07-26T15:09:00.000-07:00

S and I went to the Idol concert last night in Little Rock. This is a big deal for the whole city as Kris Allen is from Conway AR (30 miles outside of Little Rock). The concert was....fine. I mean, the performers are all super-talented, but it's basically a high-production, high-talent cover band. No original sounds here. And our whole family was hatin on Adam Lambert during the season, but he did a really great set last night.

The bigger story for us last night? All the stuff that went wrong before, during and after the concert.

* I parked across the river from the arena, since we were arriving pretty late and I assumed we'd have trouble finding parking, especially for under $10. The plan was to take the trolley for the 1.5 mile or so trek to the arena - it's a $1.50 trip, total for the 2 of us. So we waited for the trolley about 10 minutes. As soon as we boarded the trolley I realized that I had left the damn tickets in the car. So we had to bolt out of the trolley right before it started moving and go back to the car for the tickets. Then, because we were late, we had to hail a cab...5 minutes and $10 later, we were in front of the arena.

* After we got in, we wanted something to drink. I didn't have time to get any $$ from my bank's atm, so I was just going to use the one @ the arena. The person in front of me took forever to get her money and I couldnt figure out why....I requested $50 and the ATM said it gave me the cash, but nothing spit out....so no cash.

* We found a beverage stand that took debit cards. I wanted a beer, but they wouldn't sell me one cause I didn't bring my ID. By the way, i'm 42 years old.

* At intermission, we went back to the snack bar cause S was starving. Little did I know that the window we stood in line for only sold drinks. So we got bottled water which did no good for our hunger. And by the time we bought our water, it was too late to go to the food window. S was so hungry she had trouble enjoying Kris Allen.

* We were tired and starving so we left during the last song (Journey's "Don't Stop Believing") and walked to the trolley stop. It was desolate, so we both assumed they were shut down for the night. Since I had no cash (remember the ATM?) and our taxis don't take plastic, we started walking. Halfway over the river we saw the trolley heading toward its stop. No way to flag down a trolley, so we just groaned in annoyance and kept on walking.

S told me on the way home "Man, that was a bad night". Most of what happened could've been avoided had I been a better planner...bad bad Mommy.

a rough spot

2009-07-23T08:07:00.000-07:00

Going through a rough spot in life right now. Having trouble sleeping, feeling nauseated, anxious all of the time. My job is stressful and it's causing me a feeling of detachment from my children....mommy-guilt is the worst when you're a working parent.

It will all pass eventually. But I'm seriously considering contacting the doctor about an anti-depressant for the short term. Anyone with insight?

the wal-martization of America

2009-07-20T00:06:00.000-07:00

I am really enjoying this article, and really unusual for a blog - the comments are mainly entertaining, articulate and insightful. Won't be my last time reading Mr. Ruhlman's blog. Couple thoughts were sparked by this blog entry:

1. I've really been contemplating the wal-martization of America for some time. Most recently, when we went on our float trip in Mountain View. Seriously, in many small towns and suburbs all over the country, you have to work hard to find anything to eat or do that doesn't involve some kind of generic pizza joint. or a wal-mart. Not to say I'm not part of the problem - I love to shop and eat local, but sometimes I gotta go for the consistency and convenience of a chain option.

2. I love food, but it's hard to tolerate a food snob. And I'm probably guilty of food snobbery from time to time. But this was a very sophisticated, unsnobby, even objective review of a meal at the ubiquitous mall food of Cheesecake Factory.

Weekend cooking

2009-07-18T09:07:00.000-07:00

Gotta make this over the weekend. Even though the fam doesn't like squash. Maybe they'll like this one?