Explanation

I realized that when I posted the video I was in that I never really gave much explanation. And surprisingly no one really asked any questions. Also somewhat surprisingly all the feedback was positive. Cool.

For any of you who don't know what the heck I'm talking about, here is the video.



I met Myles and his brother when I was 15. Since high school he hasn't been living close by for much of the time. He joined an art collective group for a while and made movies. But now he's living here again. We have been hanging out. And he writes music. And then we started singing together sometimes. And then we liked a song so much we decided to make a video to go with it. The End.

The best part is that the entire video was filmed in my living room with a blue screen behind us. And Myles magically put us in the subway, at an ATM and me – in jail. Awesome!

Anyway, thanks to those of you who have left nice comments. I'm not sure if there will be any more videos or not. It depends if anything else we do is that good again.

Winning Can Be So Sweet

I am happy to announce that long time client, first time winner Jen K is our Say WHAT? winner for this week. The quote certainly was from 'Weird Science'.


(Nice Picture Jen!)

I don't have a lot to say about this movie. I think it appeals more to the type of guys who essentially were the two main characters in the film when they were teenagers. Hormonally charged geeks. Since I have a weakness for geeks, it works for me.

Here's the trailer I found.

WARNING: There is a quick flash of a picture of a womans breasts. Just so that I don't surprise and thus offend any of you.

Say WHAT?

It's Friday again and that means it's time for Say WHAT? The AMAZING 80's quote trivia game. In case you haven't played before, here is the down low – At the bottom of this post you will find a quote from an 80's movie. If you choose to play you must, without using the internet as a resource, guess which 80's movie the quote has been taken from. But here is where the rules have changed. If by Sunday we still don't have a winner anyone may go ahead and Google away. The first person to give the correct movie wins! Fun, huh? Leave your guesses in the comments section and if you are the first to correctly identify the quote, you win! I announce the winner on Sunday and that winner receives acknowledgment, linkage and if they have a profile picture I post that also. I recap the winner every Friday and include all of the aforementioned information. And hey, even if you don't know the answer just give me a shout out. I like to know who's stopped by!

Jenn won last week by Googling the quote from 'Class'. Seriously people. Two Brat Packers. This one SHOULD be easy. (It's so easy for me to be smug when I don't have to guess...)



Time for today's quote. Don't forget to come back on Sunday (or maybe Monday if I'm lazy) to see if you are a winner. Have fun and good luck!

“We need more input. We gotta fill this thing up with data. We gotta make her as real as possible, Wyatt. I want her to live. I want her to breathe. I want her to aerobicize.”

YouTubesday

It's funny on these days I seem to gravitate towards music videos... Interesting.

The first time I saw this video (1994) I fell in complete and utter love with Blur. They are all stinkin' cute, even the drummer although he's last on the list. And I still remember all of their names. I especially loved Alex's hair swaying back and forth as he rocked the bass guitar. From that moment on I have been a devoted Blur fan. Watching it again, I realize I had forgotten about the strange kissing bald people...



And now there is The Good, The Bad and The Queen. I saw an interview with Damon Albarn on The Hour. It was a really good interview but I couldn't help obsessing over the state of Damon's teeth. They are looking frighteningly similar to Shane McGowan's.



It's such a shame because he's such a freakin' cutie and rotten teeth are such a turn off. Maybe he's doing it on purpose. Maybe he's tired of being so darn handsome. Perhaps he thinks his good looks are preventing people from taking his music seriously. Maybe he's rejecting society's idea of what is attractive. But me? I like a pretty smile, so it upsets me. Anyway here is a video of theirs as well.

The Blur

Now that the warmer weather has finally arrived we have been trying to get out more. We have started taking Miss A to various playgrounds which are close to our house. On Sunday evening the three of us went for a stroll and had a play on this fabulous structure. As you can see there are plenty of things on which our little monkey can hone her climbing skilz. Her Grandma would have had about five heart attacks if she had been there with us. “Watch out! She's going to fall. Don't let her do that. Please make her get down.”






I had to set our camera to the sports setting and still I often was only able to catch her blurry body running by.




I think her expression in this photo pretty much captures the level of excitement that she has for this activity.



The only downside to doing this sort of thing with her is convincing her that it is time to go home. Her Dada usually has to haul her away kicking and screaming. Poor little psycho.

I am looking forward to setting up her little inflatable pool in the back yard. (A couple of months from now, it's still WAY too cold for that yet) I think it's going to be a blast. Who knows I may even get a tiny bit of a tan. That would be astounding.

I'm a Rapper, Yo

Here it is. My Rap video debut. 'ATM is a Robot' written by Myles. Performed by Myles and Mama D. Video by Myles.

And yes, the camera does add ten pounds. At least.

Hair

There are some new developments with hair around here. Mine, first of all. It's been a long time coming. I made a valiant return to 'The Bob'. As you can see looking way back to October 2005 that is the haircut I was sporting.



And then it grew. And grew. And grew. Until it ended up looking like this.



Which wasn't so bad. I could braid it. And put it up. Wear it wavy or straight. But most of the time I just put it in a pony tail. And I was getting less and less creative when it came to doing something interesting with it for work. Because I'm a hair stylist this can be problematic. So one day a couple of weeks ago I was driving to work and as my hair was sticking to my neck I thought “This hair is too hot (and not in the Paris Hilton way), it's got to go.” So the next day I let my boss cut it off.

This picture was taken on Peter's birthday. Rockin' the new hair. You can see it in action tomorrow when I post the Rap video I am in.




And then there is Miss A. Yesterday I gave her her very first pony tail. (Not counting bathtub ponies) It was special for church. She kept touching it when I first put it in and then she forgot about it. I could only fit the mullet part of her hair into the pony and everything else just looked short. I thought it was cute anyway. I long for the days when she'll have luxurious hair that we can actually do stuff with. I know, I know by then she likely won't let me come near her head with a ten foot pole. Let me have my dream...

Stumpers

Jenn finally Googled the quote. It's from "Class". I can't believe I stumped you all so badly two weeks in a row. I guess I'll pick something easy next week. I didn't really think this one was so hard. It's got both Rob Lowe AND Andrew McCarthy in it. Wasn't that reason enough to see a movie back then?



I couldn't find a trailer or a clip that was strictly from "Class' so this one has scenes from both 'Pretty in Pink' and 'Mannequin' in it. Any true Andy fan will be able to tell which is which. Personally, I think he looks the cutest in 'Class'. But I am an absolute sucker for a baby face. Which I'm pretty sure was the reason for his success. Because the acting? Looking back now, leaves a little to be desired.

Jenn asked me to tell you what I liked about this film or whether or not I'd recommend seeing it and I have to confess that I don't remember seeing it myself. I wouldn't be surprised if I did in fact see it though. Peter was the one who suggested it because honestly... sometimes I can't come up with anything. I'm pretty sure that I'm going to start cycling through movies I've used already, just picking different quotes.

Anyway, here is the video.

Say WHAT?

It's Friday again and that means it's time for Say WHAT? The AMAZING 80's quote trivia game. In case you haven't played before, here is the down low – At the bottom of this post you will find a quote from an 80's movie. If you choose to play you must, without using the internet as a resource, guess which 80's movie the quote has been taken from. But here is where the rules have changed. If by Sunday we still don't have a winner anyone may go ahead and Google away. The first person to give the correct movie wins! Fun, huh? Leave your guesses in the comments section and if you are the first to correctly identify the quote, you win! I announce the winner on Sunday and that winner receives acknowledgment, linkage and if they have a profile picture I post that also. I recap the winner every Friday and include all of the aforementioned information. And hey, even if you don't know the answer just give me a shout out. I like to know who's stopped by!

Alas, I have no one to link this week. No one won last week by identifying "Dangerous Liaisons". Just in case that ever happens again. That I don't actually tell you to Google. When it's Sunday, all bets are off. Go ahead. Just somebody win already!

Time for today's quote. Don't forget to come back on Sunday (or maybe Monday if I'm lazy) to see if you are a winner. Have fun and good luck!



"One thing I don't need right now is the world according to Skippy here. Do us both a favour, huh? Just shut up."

YouTubesday

I got on the 'Buffy' train late. I resisted because it was so popular. But then Peter downloaded the first season a few years back. I reluctantly agreed to watch the first episode. Then the second, and the third. Next thing you know we had watched three seasons in one month and made up code language such as "Want to watch 'Buffy'?" Translation: "Wanna go to The Bronze?" (For non fans out there 'The Bronze' is the club they hung out at all the time as well as a place where much vampire shenanigans and slaying occurred.)

We finally caught up during the last season and had to wait to watch episodes week by week. It was torture. I was sad to see it end. It had been a fun obsession. One day I'm sure we'll watch all the episodes over again. It's fun to watch her style evolve from the late 90's to 2003.

Anyway, this is from the musical episode. (How cool is that?) Even if you aren't a Buffy fan you can probably appreciate this song or at the very least Anthony Head's singing. (Giles) Makes me a bit weak in the knees, it does.

"What can't we face if we're together?" Sounds like a good family motto to me.

Mama D's Journal (yawn...)

I'm not sure what's wrong with me. I don't really have anything to say. Well... nothing very interesting anyway. Yet I feel compelled to write SOMETHING, anything. So here goes.

Friday April 13th – Surprise party for Peter at our friends place. We had a BBQ and a DQ cake. Visited and played American Idol Karaoke Revolution. I was disappointed in my overall performance. I didn't dominate the way I did the last time we played. It was just okay for me, dog.

Saturday April 14th – After I finished work we finished the rest of our packing and headed to Winnipeg to stay with Peter's brother and family. Miss A periodically screamed for the last ½ hour of the drive nearly causing me to have an accident or purposely drive into oncoming traffic (just kidding). By the time we got there our nerves were frazzled but she wasn't finished screaming. We felt like terrible parents because we had zero patience left. Peter took A outside to play and all was well. We had a great supper and a really nice visit. Miss A refused to miss anything and wouldn't go to bed. She was very angry about being left in her playpen and wouldn't have anything to do with it. At 1 am I finally lay down with her in our bed and she fell asleep. I then snuck her back into the playpen where she slept the rest of the night.

Sunday April 15th – I went to the ABA while Peter and A stayed with the family. The hair show was pretty good. I was able to sit and listen to some really talented people and see some really cool hair. Miss A apparently had a really rough day because she was so dang tired. When Peter came to pick me up at the show she was already hardcore passed out in her car seat and proceeded to sleep the rest of the way home!

Monday April 16th – Peter's actual birthday. I arranged a babysitter and we went out for supper (gift certificate, YEAH!) and to 'Blades of Glory'. Yes, it was funny. We had a nice time. It was so great to have some time together.

Tuesday April 17th – Watched a friend's two kids in the morning, filmed a rap video with a friend in the afternoon. Yes, you read that right. I'm a bit scared, but knowing him it will turn out awesome. I will link the video when it is finished. Played volleyball in the evening and the other team killed us. At least I got to slide across the gym floor on my kneepads a few times.

That pretty much catches you all up. Looking back I guess I haven't had a lot of time to write either. Wake up! It's over.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Today is my dear sweet husband's birthday.

Happy Birthday, my love. You are my best friend, a wonderful father and the hunkiest man I know.

A video from the Karaoke Revolution surprise party extravaganza soon to follow!

No Winner?

I was away at a hair show today and I didn't remind you all to Google this quote.

It is from 'Dangerous Liaisons' set in the 1700's but an eighties film none the less. I find John Malkovich irresistible in this movie which is exactly the point I suppose. The hair, costumes and makeup are lovely and although it's a terribly depressing film it is also hopeful in a way.

Anyhow. Since it would seem that most of you haven't seen it, I suggest that you do. Here is a small taste.

Say WHAT?

It's Friday again and that means it's time for Say WHAT? The AMAZING 80's quote trivia game. In case you haven't played before, here is the down low – At the bottom of this post you will find a quote from an 80's movie. If you choose to play you must, without using the internet as a resource, guess which 80's movie the quote has been taken from. But here is where the rules have changed. If by Sunday we still don't have a winner anyone may go ahead and Google away. The first person to give the correct movie wins! Fun, huh? Leave your guesses in the comments section and if you are the first to correctly identify the quote, you win! I announce the winner on Sunday and that winner receives acknowledgment, linkage and if they have a profile picture I post that also. I recap the winner every Friday and include all of the aforementioned information. And hey, even if you don't know the answer just give me a shout out. I like to know who's stopped by!

The Big Fugr made a big comeback with his knowledge of Tom Cruise movies. Good job!



Time for today's quote. Don't forget to come back on Sunday (or maybe Monday if I'm lazy) to see if you are a winner. Have fun and good luck!




"Well I had no choice, did I? I'm a woman. Women are obliged to be far more skillful than men. You can ruin our reputation and our life with a few well-chosen words. So of course I had to invent not only myself but ways of escape no one has ever thought of before. And I've succeeded because I've always known I was born to dominate your sex and avenge my own."

YouTubesday

I know Plantain is not a big John Mayer fan but I keep trying to change her mind. Maybe this video can do it. It has to be my favorite song by him. Come on. How can you help yourself? The way he plays his guitar, both gently and rough. It's perfection.

And don't even get me started about his hair. Delicious.

Ah crap, I have to link it. Embedding is disabled. Go there. Watch it. Love it.

Why I Blog

I'm still trying to catch my breath after Easter. You would THINK that I would be rested because I took Saturday off which meant I had five, that's right FIVE days off in a row. But you see we traveled on Friday to see my mother in law and traveled back Sunday only to quickly unpack and head to my mothers for Easter supper. We were lucky enough to have Peter home on Monday as well but the day seemed to fly by with yet more food at my moms and my first class back at TaeKwon Do. (YAY!) And today wasn't much better. The A-ster and I were running all day. So needless to say I'm not feeling very rested. Sigh...

I do have a story for you all to enjoy. A story that will make the majority of my readers breathe sighs of relief that their children have never done such a thing.

The story takes place at Grandma D's house. Once we were settled in after the two hour drive most of which A spent sleeping the four of us were enjoying a bit of television together. Miss A often goes up to the television to point out something to everyone. Not a big deal. But for some reason she suddenly decided that it would be a good idea for her to try to climb the television. She placed one hand then the other on the top of the TV. We all sat there watching, yet seemingly paralyzed.

And then it happened. The TV began to fall. There was nothing any of us could do. And just like in an action movie Miss A somehow dodged out of the way of the falling television set. And stood there in shock as it sat screen down on the floor. I yelled her name out of instinct immediately causing her to begin crying. Peter set the TV back on the entertainment center only to find that the color was all messed up like the way a calculator screen goes all crazy when you push on it. Luckily we had a spare TV to use because, for goodness sakes what would we do without TV?

Grandma was very gracious and not at all angry. She was just so relieved that A wasn't hurt as were Peter and I but once those feelings wore off we were just blown away by the fact that our offspring had just destroyed something so expensive. She now holds the record in both our families for the most expensive thing wrecked by a grandchild.

I can't help but be embarrassed. I feel negligent. What if she had gotten hurt? Then I guess I'd just feel worse. Seriously, I didn't order such a busy, rambunctious, monkey of a child. I ordered a well behaved, calm, relaxed one. Who messed up my order?

We offered to buy Grandma a new television. Of course she declined. She 'needed' a bigger one anyway. Not to worry. Yeah. Thanks Grandma. We promise to keep her away from all of your expensive appliances from now on. Or bring a medium sized cage to keep her in when we visit.

My only consolation when stuff like this happens is that I can blog about it. Imagining the shocked looks, the “Oh No!”'s, the hands held up to you mouths when you read that A almost pulled a television set down on top of herself, makes it all worth while. Knowing that someone can feel comforted by the fact that while their child may be mischievous and get into their fair share of trouble they have never broken a television. That friends, brings me comfort and it is the reason I blog.

Ashamed to Win

The Big Fugr won although he was ashamed he knew the quote. When Peter threw 'Cocktail' out as a suggestion I had to look it up to see that it was indeed an 80's movie. Sure enough it was made in 1988. I always thought of it as more of a crappy 90's film. That made it seem like a good pick. I thought it might be more of a challenge.

I'm not a huge fan of Tom either frankly but if I had to pick a decade that I liked him most it would have to be the 80's. Back in the day before braces, jumping on couches and trying to give people advice on treating depression. Come on now. That's just silly.

But I have to say that 'Vanilla Sky' is one of my favorite movies. For so many reasons.

Anyway here is an infamous drink mixing scene for ya'll to enjoy. And also to remind you not to bother watching it again.

Say WHAT?

Happy Easter everyone! I'll be posting the winner on Monday. Have fun!

It's Friday again and that means it's time for Say WHAT? The AMAZING 80's quote trivia game. In case you haven't played before, here is the down low – At the bottom of this post you will find a quote from an 80's movie. If you choose to play you must, without using the internet as a resource, guess which 80's movie the quote has been taken from. But here is where the rules have changed. If by Sunday we still don't have a winner anyone may go ahead and Google away. The first person to give the correct movie wins! Fun, huh? Leave your guesses in the comments section and if you are the first to correctly identify the quote, you win! I announce the winner on Sunday and that winner receives acknowledgment, linkage and if they have a profile picture I post that also. I recap the winner every Friday and include all of the aforementioned information. And hey, even if you don't know the answer just give me a shout out. I like to know who's stopped by!

Omar is really getting into the swing of this game, pulling out another win last week. If he keeps this up he'll be setting records soon.

Time for today's quote. Don't forget to come back on Sunday (or maybe Monday if I'm lazy) to see if you are a winner. Have fun and good luck!



“I don't care how liberated this world becomes - a man will always be judged by the amount of alcohol he can consume - and a woman will be impressed, whether she likes it or not.”

YouTubesday

This song was performed at the Junos (Canadian Music Awards) last Sunday. I'd never heard of DJ Champion before. Wow. He is amazing. I love how he jumps around and pumps his arms excitedly. And I think Beatrice Bonifassi sounds amazing. Her voice is really incredible and unique.

Anyway, I had to share it with you all. It makes me want to dance. But then again, it doesn't take much...

Something for the Scrapbook

Due to the graphic nature of this post (mentioning pee and poo which I refuse to call anything other than those names) viewer discretion is advised.

Okay. Something really weird happened yesterday. As Miss A was finishing her lunch she started getting what I like to call the “doin' her business” face. And let me say now if I haven't mentioned it before that we've had the potty set up in our bathroom for a while now. You know just for her to get used to the idea. She's sat on it many times (mostly with her clothes on) and wiped her (clothed) bum with toilet paper. So she had the idea. Also my mother had been hassling me lately, telling me that she was so obvious when filling her diaper that she'd be 'easy' to potty train. Ha! I thought.

But today when I saw that face I thought, what the heck. So I explained that 'we' were going to sit on the potty. We took off her diaper and down she sat. I read her a book a few times in a row as she sat there and wiggled around a bit. I honestly didn't think she was doing anything at all until I smelled a little something. I assumed that she may have left a tiny poo behind which I would celebrate with her anyway. Then we looked through a home decorating magazine after which she seemed to want to get off the potty.

When she did I was shocked and surprised to see that there was a tiny amount of pee and a very nearly adult sized poo sitting in the potty. Quickly I started clapping my hands (as I've been told you should celebrate and congratulate the child) and saying 'Yay! Good girl! You went on the potty!' She clapped her hands also but seemed a bit confused and also shocked about what was in there.

I had to take a picture (I know what you're thinking but I'm comfortable with the fact that I'm a sicko) and I immediately emailed it to Peter at work with little explanation. He promptly called me back for further details. I can hardly wait to scrapbook this poo photo using decorative brown and yellow paper and stenciling 'Miss A's first Poo on the Potty!' JUST KIDDING!!! But it will make a great bribery photo when she's a teenager. “By all means A, go ahead and disobey me. Just expect to see that photo of your first poo in the newspaper next week.”

Now before anyone gets all “I can't believe you potty trained your child at 18 months!” let me be clear. I haven't! In fact now I'm feeling all this pressure to start potty training. When I put her on the potty I didn't actually think she'd do anything! I started getting all stressed about it after it happened like, so does this mean I have to start potty training or what? But she can't really tell me that she needs to go. How are we going to do this? I don't know what I'm doing... AhhhhH! Then I took some deep breaths and realized that I can take things slowly and gradually. And that is what we are doing. Today we haven't used the potty at all. Maybe after her nap. Maybe not.

But it's still exciting. The prospect of not having to buy diapers anymore is exciting. I know I have the accidents, bum wiping and so forth to look forward to but still... exciting. And although the poo photo exists and I'm tempted to post it because I am sick like that I'll simply post a shot of the infamous potty...

Tantrum Update 2007

Thanks to all of you who gave me any advice on toddler tantrums. Especially to my friend KT who actually contacted her sister-in-law (Early Childhood Educator) on my behalf. I've been taking it all in and applying advice as necessary. Upon re reading my post I realized that I made myself sound completely incompetent which, although that's how I may feel, is not exactly accurate. I will give myself some credit and say that after reading more about how to correctly deal with tantrums I have found I'm doing a lot of those things already.

I do find that the majority of things I read or am told apply more to slightly older children. She's really too young yet to understand if I try to explain stuff to her for instance “We are running late so I'm going to carry you instead of letting you walk down the stairs yourself because it'll take forever!” or “You can't run around on that wet floor because you're going to fall and crack your head open!” or “You can't have that pen because you are going to scribble all over the door (again) or yourself.”

But I am learning what is likely to set her off and so I can try to avoid it. Except for those times when it's just something random or a tantrum has resulted in pure fatigue, which is sometimes unavoidable. I don't know if it's getting better or if I'm getting better at dealing with them. Or just getting used to them. Except that eardrum piercing scream. I could never get used to that.

If nothing else I have a lot of great ideas that are going to be awesome as she gets just a bit older. Such as setting a timer for when it's time to get out of the bath. That one will be awesome. Right now it would be all - Ding! “Hey, that was a cool noise! Let me have that thing so I can bring it into the tub with me, I won't break it. What do you mean I can't? But I want it... I need it! Give it to me!! WAAAAHHHH!!!”

Um. Yeah. That's pretty much how it would go down.

But I do try to explain things to her. Even if I think she won't understand, because really, she's pretty smart. And she'll catch on eventually. Just look at me. Once I was just a girl with a new baby. Now I'm a Mama.

Does This Mean I'm Famous Now?

Have you noticed anything different about my blog lately? Anything? I'll give you a hint it's on my sidebar. The thing on the right. Scroll down. Way down. Past the Links and just above my sitemeter. It's a little shopping link. It's small, it's baby related and I GET $25 DOLLARS A MONTH TO HAVE IT ON MY SIDEBAR!!! Isn't that CRAZY?!

I mean I knew that you could get advertising to put on your blog and you could get paid for it and I always thought “How annoying.” Not the getting paid part but the big, ugly, flashing ads on your website. It would ruin the look of my pretty pink and brown page. But then the Crazy Hip Blog Mamas contacted me and made me an offer I couldn't refuse. I could put this itty bitty, unobtrusive link on my sidebar and get paid for it. Well alrighty then.

So now that I'm getting paid to blog (sort of) I figure this means I can call myself a professional blogger. And soon I'll be famous. And then you can say “I knew her before she was famous.”

Won't that be cool?

Boys and War Movies

I had a feeling either Omar or The Big Fugr were going to get my quote this week but I was ready to be surprised and impressed that one of my female readers would know a war movie quote. But I found my suspicions were correct once I saw that Omar recognized the character 'Animal Mother' from 'Full Metal Jacket'.

This movie is one of Peter's favorites. I love Matthew Modine and don't mind a good war movie every now and then. Vincent D'Onofrio is amazing in this movie. Why that man has never won an Academy Award I don't understand, honestly.

I can't seem to stomach anything with much violence since having A so I don't know if I'll be able to watch these sort of movies anymore. Not such a bad thing I suppose. The last movie I saw was wonderfully fluffy and made me laugh out loud several times. I guess I'll stick with those kinds of films at least until my actual life is a bit less tense.