Genealogy for dummies

So we have a new favorite show in this house. Well, I have a new favorite show and everyone else kind of likes it. It's NBC's Who Do You Think You Are? which is sort of a reality genealogy show. I know, right? How dorky, except it's kind of cool. So the premise is you get these "celebrities" and they work with professions to track down their family history.

We've done a fair bit of research in our family so I am familiar with the process and the search. My only real complaint is they make it seem so easy sometimes. Sure, it's a piece of cake when Rosie O'Donnell walks into the Canadian library and the researcher has her information and pulls it up like that. In the real world, you spend eight hours going blind trying to read cursive handwriting on microfiche until you finally find something, anything useful. Still, it's cool to watch. My sisters, mother and I are all into it.

Praise thee oh heavenly television

It didn't happen overnight, but I am pleased to report that Meg finally likes to watch television. It's shocking to believe a child of mine didn't climb out of the nursery demanding her episode of Sister Wives, but it's true. Sure, there was a passing five minutes here or there, but never anything where I could let her watch Little Einsteins while I took a shower and know that she'd more or less be there when I was done in 10 minutes. Rather, before this she preferred to watch for five seconds and then follow me into the shower and stand outside and cry while I tried to shave my legs.

But now? Well, she's in love with Quincy and wants to be Annie. She will even tolerate an episode of Phineas and Ferb, much to Andy's delight. She seems to have skipped over the whole Jack's Big Music Show stage, which is a shame because I really liked that show. I find her tastes are in the Disney family at the moment -- Little Einsteins mostly, followed by Mickey Mouse Clubhouse with a little Phineas and Ferb mixed in. Sure, she'll tolerate a little DJ Lance Rock on Yo Gabba Gabba (a show that I find totally overrated by the way), but mostly it's her boy Quincy.

I do find that it makes life so much easier if I can find something safe that doesn't involve her pulling knives from the kitchen drawers or climbing out the window on to the roof just so I am able to get dinner started or shave my legs.

I heart television

So after I wrote this long post about TV shows I like, I realized, "Wow. I sure watch a lot of television." Later, I also realized, "Dang. Not only do I watch a lot of TV, but I left off a bunch of shows I watch." So, herewith to you my loyal fans, all both of you, I give you my real updated list.

Back in action that I love:
1) 30 Rock
2) Modern Family
3) How I Met Your Mother
4) CougarTown
5) The Office
6) Glee
7) 90210*
8) Parenthood
9) Saturday Night Live**
10) Parks and Recreation
11) Friday Night Lights
12) Mad Men

*This is a guilty pleasure that I watch about half of each week just to keep up with the girls in the office. They make me!
** I usually only watch the first couple of skits and Weekend Update.

Recorded but relegated to the B list (i.e. if I have time although if they go about three or four episodes without me touching it, I usually stop recording)
1) Desperate Housewives
2) Brothers and Sisters
3) Big Bang Theory
4) Pardon the Interruption

Here are some new shows I've recorded and am trying to get into, but haven't really decided on yet:
1) Lone Star (bummer, it's filmed here in Southlake and apparently just got cancelled).
2) Raising Hope
3) Running Wilde
4) Hawaii Five-O
5) Sister Wives.

Since I wrote this post last week, I've now realized that with my Tivo able to record two things at once, I have waaay more stuff than I can watch at the moment. So here are the shows that I'm now no longer watching unless desperate.

1) Lone Star (cancelled, that was easy)
2) Running Wilde (not funny, also easy)
3) Hawaii Five-O (recorded, never actually watched)
4) Brothers and Sisters (it's been boring for two years now)
5) Friday Night Lights (I was watching Season 1 on ABC Family, but now that I've seen it, I'm done. Course, when the final season starts again in 2011, I will so definitely watch it. I heart me some Tim Riggins and Tami Taylor.)
6) Big Bang Theory (I like it, a lot despite Leonard's hoodies, but inexplicably when I watch it, something bad seems to happen, like a kid starts throwing up so that makes it hard to watch and even harder to want to watch when everyone is healthy.

Fall TV preview

They're back! The TV shows, I mean. Thank heavens, too. I was really getting to the dregs of my Tivo what with my Real Housewives of New Jersey as the only thing that I could tolerate on there to watch. Hey, it's good. Stop that.

Ahem, so here's what's on my Tivo right now. (And I do say TivoTM there and not that crappy Verizon Fios DVR that makes my 1985 discman seem like an iPod.)

Back in action that I love:
1) 30 Rock
2) Modern Family
3) How I Met Your Mother
4) CougarTown
5) The Office
6) Glee
7) 90210*
8) Parenthood
9) Saturday Night Live**
10) Parks and Recreation
11) Friday Night Lights

*This is a guilty pleasure that I watch about half of each week just to keep up with the girls in the office. They make me!
** I usually only watch the first couple of skits and Weekend Update.

Recorded but relegated to the B list (i.e. if I have time although if they go about three or four episodes without me touching it, I usually stop recording)
1) Desperate Housewives
2) Brothers and Sisters
3) Big Bang Theory
4) Pardon the Interruption

Here are some new shows I've recorded and am trying to get into, but haven't really decided on yet:
1) Lone Star (bummer, it's filmed here in Southlake and apparently just got cancelled).
2) Raising Hope
3) Running Wilde
4) Hawaii Five-O

I haven't had a chance to really watch these yet so they're collecting dust at the moment. I will admit the premiere of Running Wilde left me sort of cold.

My other favorite these days is Season 1 of Friday Night Lights on ABC Family. I have watched the later seasons, but missed this first one. Damn, that's one good show, too. It makes me cry just about every time and makes me wish I was cool enough to be a television writer. Some of those folks put together some amazing stuff.

This picture has nothing to do with the earlier post. I just took it today and it makes me smile.

Awesome

Tina Fey = Awesome.

Edited to say damn NBC went and yanked this off YouTube. Try this instead.

Yo Gabba Gabba Blah

I'll admit it. I have a weakness for pop culture -- television, movies, celebrity trivia. I subscribe to the awesome Entertainment Weekly. I started that subscription back after visiting my friend Armando when he was in graduate school. At the time, I was working nights so by the time I arrived in Phoenix, I think I'd been up for 36 hours. I took a long weird nap and proceeded to be up most of the night, reading his roommate's back issues of EW. It was awesome. Lots of snarky entertainment analyses, which were new back in 1996. I have subscribed off and on since then.

Unfortunately, I have an issue with my beloved magazine. They had an article this week singing the praises of the kids show Yo Gabba Gabba. They raved about the music and the show saying it was a rare show that was good for adults and kids so I thought it was worth a try. The show was fine, but the music was not really that interesting or clever and the story was incredibly boring. The music was more punk and the story was incredibly basic -- not much interesting dialogue, actually, no interetsing dialogue. Was it better than the all time worsts, like Dora the Explorer and her trolls? Yeah, maybe. But there are a dozen shows better than it. And there are two -- Jack's Big Music Show and Phineas and Ferb that are really good. I actually can listen to the Phineas and Ferb soundtrack without the kids with me. And sometimes, I might watch a show by myself.

Lost?

Okay, so I know my focus here is mostly on my kids, but who here watches Lost? I am all about confused after last night's season premiere. Even reading the recap on Television Without Pity didn't help much. Someone in my office begged not to be spoiled by any talk, but I assured her that I couldn't spoil it since I couldn't explain it and out of context, it would mean nothing. Oh sure, I'll still watch and all, but damn that's some confusing stuff.

On the television front, I have two new favorites from this season -- Modern Family and Cougartown. Well done, ABC. Well done.

I have just gotten back from a work trip and have more work to tackle than I can keep my head around. At least I don't have to worry about being bored, that's for sure. I'm also learning a lot, which is always a good thing. Next week I get to prepare someone for a congressional hearing. Well, I get to hire someone to do that dirty work. Before we can get to next week though, we have to get through the weekend. They have issued a winter storm "watch" for the weekend calling for a foot to two FEET of snow. Seriously? That's heaven for me.

Obsession

Andy has a new obsession -- the Magic School Bus. It's a kids show narrated by Lily Tomlin and the kids go on all these adventures and learn about stuff, like the Earth, molecules, computer processors. It's fairly well done and not as annoying as some shows (although not as clever as our favorite Phineas and Ferb). Andy wakes up and wants to watch the Magic School Bus. He wants to watch it in the car on the DVD player (assuming the library has one he wants to watch), he wants to watch it after bath and he wants to read the books that go with it. When I asked him about what we should write to Santa about, he said he wanted Magic School Bus DVDs. That was all, no bike, no scooter (which I want to get him), not markers, just more Magic School Bus.

Adorableness

My kids are, gasp, actually playing with each other a little these days. It's sort of amazing. It's been 21 months getting here (well, 30 if you count the whole pregnancy thing), but them having each other to play with and entertain each other is pretty damn awesome. And awesome to watch. Granted, now that they can play together they can fight together. There is lots of, "Mine! Mine!" shouted out around our house. Usually from her. Sometimes because he stole something from her. Used to, he could take what he wanted and she didn't mind. Not so much these days. Now she shouts "Mine!" when he's holding something she'd like to play with.

Unrelated, I have been totally obsessed with Mad Men. I discovered it on Netflix first. Now my sister told me about FiOS on demand so I've been watching episodes there, too. Sure, I have work to do, in fact, a lot since this time next week I'll be out of town for work and have a lot to do professionally and personally before then, but damn, that Don Draper is pretty addictive.

Ninja Warria

Bjorn is obsessed with the Japanese game show Ninja Warrior, on the totally random channel G4. It involves contestants going through a series of obstacle courses in a fixed amount of time and if they don't, they usually fall into the water along the course. The show is on for roughly six hours a day.

Andy loves watching it with Bjorn. And while I appreciate that it's not the insipid kids' show LazyTown or the exceptionally boring Kipper, it gets old watching these folks fall into the water although I do admire the really random translations from the Japanese. Now Andy wants to run around the house to be a Ninja Warrior. What's funny is he doesn't say warrior, he says warr-ya, the way the host does.

He has so many little things right now that he doesn't pronounce quite right, like pan-papes for pancakes. He seems to lose another one every day so I'm trying to enjoy them while I can.

She smiles

I'm still trying to catch a perfect smile on camera. Unfortunately, it's still a coordinated effort, trying to get her to smile with one hand while hold the camera and get the picture off before she stops. She's really a smiley little kid (Andy likes to say, "Hey Smiley!" at her, for example), but catching it on film? Yeah, not quite so easy. So I finally got her smiling and in the frame. But is it centered? Damn. You get the gist though.

It's a million degrees here and 1,000 percent humidity (okay, just 98 with a heat index of 110) in Washington right now so Andy and I have been spending time at the pool. He's still not keen on putting his head under water, but he's definitely more comfortable than last year. We are trying to get him some private lessons with some lifeguards at the pool so we can start him getting more comfortable learning to blow bubbles and that kind of stuff. He won't do any of that with me so I'm hoping a strapping young "big boy" lifeguard is able work with him better than I can. It doesn't hurt that Scott the lifeguard looks a lot like Joe from Blue's Clues. Is it bad if have a little Pacey Witter kind of crush on Joe?

Welcome Tivo 2.0

Sure, with a new kid on a way we have lots of reasonable things to be spending money on, like baby clothes and supplies. Heck, maybe some bedding and decor. Perhaps a stroller than can accommodate two. But rather than do any of that, Bjorn so kindly bought me a new Tivo. He is clearly a sweet, kind man who will be honored now and in the afterlife. Sure, he bought it partly to make up for all the hours and hours he's spending reffing youth football. And sure, it turns out my love and forgiveness can be bought (although sad that the price tag is so low).

In any event, I wanted one that we could use upstairs. Andy loves watching Thomas and Friends that we have Tivoed downstairs since it comes on during the day. Letting him watch one Thomas before bed is easy since they're only five minutes, but afterwards, he pitches a fit about having to go to bed and I'm getting too big and he's getting too heavy to carry all the way upstairs. This also means I can record the programs that Bjorn would mock me for recording on our communal Tivo (namely anything on SoapNet).

The new system installed like a charm although my cheap Trutech TV from Target won't work with the Tivo remote so I have to use two remotes, one for Tivo and another for power and volume. I was also surprised to realize that we have to pay separately (on two bills, oddly) for each Tivo in the house. The new deal is only $6.95 a month, but still...it's irritating after already sending them $12 a month. I do love it though.

Suit up

The big boys went out tonight for a steak dinner in honor of Mark's 18th birthday. Eighteen. Seriously? Mark's big present was a brand new (expensive) suit so he can now hit the important milestones this year in style. Bjorn's mom came over to wish Mark a happy birthday and see the boys dressed up. Andy - never one to miss a photo op - even insited on smiling as I tried to take their picture. I included him in a couple of frames because it was so funny. He just walked over and inserted himself into the picture because of course if the camera was out, he would need to be in front of it.

In disturbing news, guess who has figured out how to turn on the TV with the remote control? Between the DirecTV box and the TV itself, I know several adults (cough, Mom, cough) who can't turn it on successfully, but an almost two year old can. He is fascinated with "babies" which is what he calls cartoons. To lure him into the bath, I turned off the TV and put the remotes out of the way only to turn around and see that he's this close to being able to reach up and turn it on manually. I can't really fault the kid - I lurve me some TV, too.

Jack's Big Music Show

Good stuff - I just heard that new episodes of the Noggin program Jack's Big Music Show are starting January 6. We're huge fans of Jack here, in fact, I think Bjorn might like it almost as much as Andy. I'm afraid Laurie Berkner gets on my nerves a bit, a shame since kids really seem to like her stuff. I prefer some of the other artists better and they never fail to have some cool musical guest star. Bjorn loves the Schwartzman Quartet best, but I think Mel is my favorite.

Only four days until Christmas. I can't wait!