My Diatribe About Gilmore Girls Part 1

Just a fair warning. If you have never seen Gilmore Girls you are probably not going to care one tiny bit about this post. If you are curious about the show at all I would come back tomorrow for my list of 18 can't miss episodes.

Oh dear. Gilmore Girls is going to be on Netflix starting October 1. This is fine by me. Now I don't have to pack the DVDs for the hospital during labor as long as I have a computer.

But now all of sudden Gilmore is going to be super popular again. I partly enjoy seeing everyone on social media getting all excited about the show again. But really, I have all 7 seasons on DVD already, and we actually have Season 4 twice because the most important disc of all started skipping and that was no good. So on some level all this resurgence of fandom is odd because I could always watch all the Gilmore I wanted, whenever I wanted.

And BTW Netflix, you could really make me happy by bringing on Bunheads too. Let's just make it the Amy Sherman-Palladino day and release all of her everything.

Then there are articles like this.

And really. Good grief. Have they seen Gilmore? Do they understand Gilmore at all? The answer is no. Clearly. Because as Ms. Weingus can only commit to watching 18 of the 154 episodes and then is seriously wrong on which 18 episodes.

First and foremost: there are THREE episodes on the list from Season 7. Just no. Most of us would like to forget that Season 7 happened. So featuring more episodes of Season 7 than Season 4 is just wrong.

Second major issue: Ms. Weingus and her obsession with Jess. Jess was important I grant you. But featuring him over all of the others is pushing it for the real extent of their relationship. And "The Real Paul Anka" is a good episode. But Jess is better portrayed, and a bigger catalyst for change in Rory's life in "Let Me Hear Your Balalaikas Ringing Out." If it wasn't for Jess and his success Rory may have continued down her crazy Yale-less path. Visiting Jess (and kissing him which is I am sure what the Jess-shippers are really getting at) is not all that important. We can all agree, that love or hate Jess, he pretty much does nothing for Rory in Season 3 except make out with her and disappoint her. Where he succeeds as a character is helping her get back on track in Season 6. 

Now, bringing into focus Ms. Weingus' premise that Jess is the be-all-end-all it becomes very clear what is going on with the fact that Season 2 has three episodes on the list and Season 3 has four. Combined with Season 1 and it's 4 episodes on the list and that's 11 episodes that are apparently "Incredibly Important" between sophomore and senior year of high school. In a show that goes from 10th grade to college graduation I think it is safe to say that in fact this list is skewed.

Would you like to know how I would change this list to actually give a fair and decent overview of Gilmore Girls? Well tune in tomorrow when I share the actual most important shows of Gilmore. 

7 QT: Randoms as Always

1. Prenatal Massage

So my doula is a massage doula and with her services you get a prenatal and postnatal massage. Then a discount on other massages if you'd like.

I had my prenatal massage last night. There was something very comforting about a massage table set up in my living room, with the smell of fresh clean laundry (my favorite smell) wafting up from the basement. And my very own Spa Pandora station playing.

Plus then, the massage. I feel like I could run a marathon. All of my lower back pain is gone. The only part of me that is tender today is my neck and shoulders and I honestly had no idea how tense they were until we got going.

I know I have only like (OH MY GOSH TODAY IS SEPTEMBER 12!! THE DUE/GUESS DATE IS OCTOBER 12!) 30 days left but I am so scheduling a discounted version because I feel amazing.

2. Sleeping Pillows

This may also have to do with the fact that I have come up with a new solution to supporting my entire body while I sleep. And oh, it was mighty fine indeed last night.

3. Fall Weather

Is finally and miraculously here. Dear Lord in Heaven have I needed some cooler weather. Amazing. Truth be told I do wish it would be sunny and crisp but I'll take what I can get!!

4. Toddler Imagination

It's kind of crazy how one day they're black and white and the next day it's just imagination city. Yesterday he was playing with a lacing string and decided it was a kite. After a long time of playing with just the string he wanted to add an actual kite to the string, so we fashioned a sort of kite together and that has proved to be endlessly fun.

I really enjoy the new discoveries of parenting.

5. Planning Ahead

So with this little tike coming sooner than later in the grand scheme of things I have been getting ready for the holidays. Yes. Really. Halloween is dealt with. C's costume has already arrived and I am nearly ready to pull the trigger on Little Girl's. We do still have to buy the candy but that shouldn't be too difficult.

And I made a secret Amazon wish list with Christmas things so I can buy those a little at a time. We have already declared this the year of easy. We are doing the "Something you want, something you need, something to wear and something to read." gifting this year for us. I can figure out 12 presents no problem. Just trying to stay ahead before I feel overwhelmed.

6. A Day to Myself

Tomorrow I have the day to myself. And I have big plans. I am going to sleep in. Go out to lunch and perhaps see a movie with a friend. Then lollygag the rest of the day home by myself watching sappy movies in my pajamas. I am pretty excited about this.

7. The Kindergarten Teacher in Florida

Have you heard of this teacher? She decided to not throw away 6 whole weeks of instruction time for her 5 year olds. Husband and I had a discussion about the whole testing thing and how ridiculously out of hand it's getting. We have a few more years to figure out schooling and we are leaning towards our Parish school. But even though I don't actually feel called to homeschool if the testing thing gets crazy here I just might anyway.

WWRW and Five Favorites Mashup

It's a Mash Up Week. Because I can.

My 5 Favorite Things About Today, Wednesday September 10.

1. C picked up a green bean at lunch that had split open at the top. It looked like an uppercase "Y." He looked at it, showed it to me and said "Y" then told me the sound the Y makes. He proceeded to throw the green bean on the floor in a show of true toddlerhood.

2. I am currently basking in the post hosting/pre-disaster area glow. You know what I mean right? There's just not really anything to clean. Okay the lunch dishes could be done but I am looking past that. And fine, I have a load of laundry in the washer. But besides that, I don't have to dust, sweep, mop or clean a toilet because they're all freshly clean. That is a marvelous place to be.

3. In our pre-preschool curriculum here at Murray's House of Learnin'

Our School Crest

We took sort of a back seat for the summer and did a lot of free play and self-guided study. But now that we're back in the swing of things for the *ahem* school year we are making sure to be a little more focused. For Literacy we have been, shockingly enough, working on the alphabet. The two popular alphabet books over in this neck of the woods are: 

Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks from A to Z. This is a tiny little book that is shaped like Lowly's Apple Car. It covers all the letters and all the fun vehicles of Scarry's world. We like this not only because cars and trucks are the best ever but because there's letters and 100 other things to point to and identify. 

LMNO peas by Keith Baker. It's simple. There are peas doing things with each letter. C likes it. We read it a lot. I have no idea if it is helping his little mind grow but since it is letters it can't really hurt right? We like to alternate between this and "Boom Boom Tree" as our requested letter book of the day. But Chicka Chicka Boom Boom can only be read so many times before you want to cry a little so it's on hiatus. 

4. In other areas of study at Murray's House of Learnin' we played with dried spaghetti noodles for science/art time. We broke them into little pieces and said "noodles" and "Oh gosh" a lot. It was very educational. 

5. Mid-Day Bathtime. Lunch wasn't even a messy one but sometimes you just need to do a bath in the middle of the day to switch it up a bit. So we did. It was a success until we wanted to take our Frog Loofa with us for nap. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted. And kinda funny the tears over a wet loofa. 

And that's all folks. My 5 favorite things about today and what we've been reading. Linking up with the places that do the linking. Jessica and Mary today.

Cleaning and Blogging

So I am swept into the paradox of productivity meets futility.

I am hosting book club this evening and I am trying to walk the fine line between the toddler tornado and trying to get the house clean.

And I am also battling the nesting urges. I initially had a short list of things to do... it has exponentially grown. I find myself unwilling to lower my standards even though these women would not care one bit nor would they probably notice if say, the window wells have all been cleaned out.

In somewhat related in my head news but probably not a logical leap for most; I am getting a little bit panicky about the state of the world of blogs. Most of the blogs that I read have slowly started not posting with any frequency. Or are on hiatus. At first I thought it was because the school year was winding down. Then perhaps summertime was really busy. More recently I decided it was because the start of the school year is stressful. Then Grace mentioned how people are blogging less and now that I know it's not just in my head I worry that maybe the blog really is dead.

And since the blog is my outlet, both the reading others and writing my own I will be quite sad if the blog is dead. I for one, would not be sad to see the book of face go. Yet all the blogs have a subsequent account. And to post a short little 2 sentence update or photo seems to be the way things are going. Which is the secondary fight between productivity and futility. The book of face is definitely faster than writing out a blog, but we lose the deeper connection of true thoughts.

I for one, do not follow blogs on the book of face. I do not need a reason to spend more time on that soul sucker. I find myself becoming increasingly more negative and unhappy when I spend time there. I do not have it on my phone. I unfollow even people I really like when their posts make me feel spiteful, angry or annoyed. I really try to limit my time there. I do not "like" companies. I do not "like" much of anything. I need to delete it all together but I haven't been able to. What I am saying is that the face book is not a substitute for the blog!

So this is me, begging you to come back to your blog home and leave the face book alone. I want to hear your thoughts on world events and what your family is up to. I want to see your pictures and hear the funny things your kids say. I love hearing about what you're reading and why Handwriting Without Tears is so great. Please don't stop blogging. Please come back from hiatus. Please invite us into your lives more than once a week!

Making Walrus Cupcakes

Just in case, anyone else in the world has a toddler/child/cousin/neighbor who is interested in walrus cupcakes I am here to guide you through my process.

The Cupcakes
We used the doctored cake mix cupcake recipe from Hello Cupcake!

• Box of Cake Mix
• amount of oil called for on box
• 4 eggs (replacing the eggs called for on box)
• 1 Cup Buttermilk (replacing the water called for on box) 

Fill paper liners 2/3 full and bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes. 

These make a denser cupcake that holds up to decorating. 

We used plain old store bought frosting because it's cheap, easy and sticky enough to hold all the stuff on. 

The Walrus Faces

You'll Need:

• White Melting Chocolate
• Nutterbutter Cookies
• Mini Oreo Cookies
• M & Ms 

For the tusks, melt the melting chocolate and put into a small ziploc with a corner cut. Pipe onto wax paper. You can freehand the tusks or put a stencil under the wax paper to follow. I would make more than you need and remember, 2 tusks per cupcake. Let harden. 

Prep your nutterbutters by gently opening them and using a knife to remove peanut butter filling. 

Prep your Mini Oreos by gently opening trying to keep the creme on one cookie only. This will take many tries until you are satisfied with how the cookies look. This is not a problem, you may eat all the discarded pieces as a matter of not wasting anything. (2 creme-on-cookies per cupcake.) 

Sort your M&Ms. If you buy a big big bag you can choose any eye color you want. We opted for blue and green eyes. Also you will need a brown M&M for the nose. But we just bought a small bag so that made our choice for us. 

To build the walrus face: 

1. Place you eye M&Ms on the Mini Oreo pressing it into the creme a little to bond it. 
2. We placed the eyes on the cupcake first, because it let us space out the cupcake best, but you go ahead and do it in whatever order you want. 
3. We then placed the nutterbutter snout. 
4. Stick the M&M nose in, we opted to prop ours up half in the frosting, half onto the snout but again, if you have an idea of how the nose should look, go for it! 
5. We placed the tusks on making sure to stick them slightly under the nutterbutter. 
6. The cupcakes are done and you may eat them. 

The one thing I can say about these cupcakes is that all the ingredients are tasty. Sometimes with the fanciest fancy cupcake decorations flavors don't go well together or something is less than tasty, but that is not really the case here. Happy Eating! 

An Appeal to Common Sense

Dear Adult Airline Passengers,

Don't pretend you're living in a bubble. You've heard about the THREE flights that have been diverted because someone reclined their seat. Three flights because adults cannot seem to act like adults.

First of all, especially on a domestic flight, it just isn't going to take you that long to get there. One or both of you can easily, easily handle being slightly uncomfortable. Because you're adults.

Next let's talk about the word compassion. I know that someone reclining back on you sucks. The last flights I've been on were budget flights, there wasn't leg room to start with. My point is I've been there. But you know what I'd really do if faced with that situation? I would ask myself if it was worth it. I wouldn't know if they were pregnant, or had a back ache or a reason for reclining. Even if they're just being selfish and want to try sleeping slightly more comfortably I can stand to be compassionate.

If you have an actual, physical reason that someone reclining onto you would cause undue suffering for the few hours of flight try something like this: "Excuse me fellow passenger, you are most certainly entitled to recline your seat backwards. However I very recently had knee surgery and it would be best for my recovery if I could move my knee regularly which is harder to do when you recline."

This is polite because it isn't not specifically asking them to give up their reclining, rather just appealing to their sense of good nature by explaining your specific reason for discomfort.

Now conversely, I don't recline my seat either. Because I am also trying to be considerate to the people behind me. I can handle a little discomfort in order to just get to my destination on time! Diverting a flight puts a major cramp in my style and prevents every other single person on the plane from getting to where they're going as fast as possible. Airplanes are not buses. They are not supposed to make extra stops whenever someone gets a whim to demand to get off.

So here's what we're going to say: don't recline unless you have to, and if someone reclines onto you, just pray for them and yourself. The end.

7 QT: Bags, Tomatoes, Potatoes, Fall Things and a Book

1. Utter Disbelief and Joy

I got a package in the mail yesterday. A package that made me loudly proclaim "No way." A package that ensued the whisper screaming happy dance.

Which was then mocked by C. The little scamp apparently thought my happy dance with whisper scream was hilarious. In all honesty, it probably is. I don't know. Sometimes when you're strangely, ridiculously happy you just want to do the happy dance and you don't care what it looks like.

I was not anticipating something quite so wonderful. My mom had told me one last present was coming this week. And again, sign of my new found grown up self, I didn't really dwell on it. I didn't dream about what it could be. I didn't stalk the mailman or UPS. I just went along with life.

Maybe you come here often. Maybe you don't at all. But once upon a time in February I fell in love with a diaper bag.  Since then I have entered every single contest, giveaway to win a Lily Jade. Any Lily Jade. Beggars cannot be choosers and all that. But again, let's reiterate that my name is Madeline and red is already my color. So in June-ish they had a whole new line roll out. And they came out with a budget friendlier version of Madeline in Red. It is canvas. 

And now it is mine. Like it is sitting right next to me. I am dying a little bit. And I am thoroughly excited to leave my house and try it out. Says the person who hasn't summoned the energy for leaving the house all week. 

2. Tomatoes

I had one goal this year. Grow a tomato. Yes, one, singular tomato. I aim low. Because I kill plants, trees and flowers. But I also love the taste of fresh from the vine tomatoes. Just so darn tasty.

And look what we have here:

All told I got 4 tomatoes. (There may be two more ripening but I'm not counting chickens.) Best BLT of my life. But it was a lot of panic/effort/ for a sandwich and the farmers market tomatoes taste pretty darn good so maybe there won't be a repeat performance in subsequent years. 

3. Fall Weather

We're supposedly getting a cool down today. I am rejoicing in that. I am officially at the stage of pregnancy where I am just hot all the time. 

4. Fall Sports: Football 

I am just such a big football fan. (Not really.) I have decided however that at some point I would like to go to a game, but only if it's at a stadium that isn't open air in freezing cold weather. I don't have near enough interest in football for that. This is a long term goal though, maybe I'll try out the new Viking Stadium when it's not really new anymore. 

Last nights game was my very favorite kind. There was a safety. (I love it when football players make a safety!) AND (Marie just close your eyes for a minute okay?) the Packers lost. 

5. Mr. Potato Head

We got one of these for C for his birthday at the end of May. I don't know what it is about Mr. Potato Head but in the simplistic fun it has been one of the best toys ever. Not only has it been good for the fine motor skills (putting the pieces in) but also good for body part naming, pretend play and working on clean up skills. And he's like $8. Phenomenal. 

6. Sanditon 

 

I have book club on Tuesday. It's even at my house. (Helping out a pal without a lot of room in her apartment for hosting.) I cannot get into this book. I know we are all supposed to love Jane. And I have read her major works so no worries. But I am not the biggest Jane fan. And this is sloppy unfinished Jane that "Another Lady" finished. (I haven't even gotten to her part yet.) This may be the first time in 4 years I will be at book club without having read the book. 

7. Fall Fruit: Apple Season 

Is nearly here. I am excited. I think my boys are going up next weekend to pick and bring me back a boatload of tasty! I am partial to early season apples, Honeycrisp and Cortland. The perk of a family orchard is not one I take for granted. 

Happy Friday! Linking up with Miss I have a radio show now at Conversion Diary.