playdate

#10 -- Baileys (with recipes)

Yes, Irish Cream. It's fattening. It's super sweet. And it tastes damn good in just about anything. There is nary a time when someone offers me a shot of Bailey's in my coffee that I can say no.

One of my best Baileys experiences was at The Pottery restaurant at Blue Mountain Inn in Collingwood, Ontario. (I'm telling you because should you find yourself there, you HAVE to try this.) They make a Bailey's cheesecake that is wrapped in Phyllo pastry and has a Jack Daniels caramel sauce on top. You don't understand how good this is!

The TrueMom Show

I've been known to watch some truly inane TV shows while breastfeeding.  Yes, I know you're supposed to look lovingly into your baby's eyes and bond during feedings.  The reality is that both my children completely ignore(d) me while eating and focus(ed) on the boob with a single-minded devotion.  [Like father, like sons I guess...OK, moving on..]  It took me a long time to figure how how to juggle a baby and turn the pages of a book at the same time, and it gets really old staring at a wall.  So, TV became my default. 

Of Picky Eaters And Pancakes

True story:
When I was two years old, I would come downstairs in the morning and announce to my mother that I was not eating dinner that night. And I wouldn’t.

I may well have been the world’s most stubborn eater. That, my friends, is different than picky, and opens a mother up to a whole new world of grief. ‘Picky’ is only agreeing to eat chicken fingers and plain toast for weeks on end. ‘Stubborn’ is deciding that you’re only going to eat one bite of a honey sandwich, and you’re going to eat it only after your mother has pleaded and begged, threatened and negotiated, cried and developed an ulcer.

(I’m sorry to say that is all still part of the true story.)

School Starters

My daughter is starting school. In just a couple of weeks. She's a pretty adaptable kid, if she knows what's coming and what to expect, so I've been doing some preparing with her. In the spring, our school, as most do, had an introduction session where she saw the classroom and met the teacher. She saw the coatroom, the bathroom, the class pets, the puppet stage, and so on. That helped. So did the table of snacks. (Hey, she's four...) We looked around the school. I talked about how the teachers knew that those really big kids could seem a bit intimidating for the first couple of years, so the kindergarten kids would have their own door and playground just for them, and we took a look at them. I talked about how she would still go to daycare and play with her familiar friends, but that she would get to make some new friends here, too. I told her I thought we would be able to take the classroom pet home some weekend when the teacher noted that they would be looking for weekend stays for her. We remind her of these things now and then, when it comes up. So we've talked a lot. She seems ready-ish.

Music for the masses

Radiohead’s revolutionary 'pay what you want' scheme for their album In Rainbows has changed the way that some people think about buying music.

A new website Aralie.com was launched last month. It was founded to give independent artists a free way to get their music to the masses. It is the first site of its kind to allow users to choose how much they pay, including nothing, to download songs. They feel this is the best way to beat music piracy.

#9 -- Joe Fresh

On my recent trip to San Francisco, I was stopped a few times as people commented, "That's a great dress." I didn't dare miss an opportunity to flaunt my skills as a bargainness. "Thanks! I got it for $19 at the grocery store."

If you live in Canada and you have visited a Real Canadian Superstore, Loblaws or some similar food emporium in the Weston family of stores, you have likely come across Joe Fresh. Because what person in their right mind, when given the opportunity to mask clothes hunting as grocery shopping, would turn the other way?

How I Fell in Love with the Bat-Man

I am not a big fan of the action flick.  (SHOCK!  HORRORS!  I know, I know.  I'm such a cliché - a girl who doesn't like action films.  I bet your world is turned upside down.)  It's not the genre itself to which I'm opposed.  I like to watch cars explode and people shoot their guns sideways as much as the next girl.  It's a thrilling escape from the everyday.  No.  It's what people have done to the genre to which I object.  Or, more specifically, not done.  There's no storyline.  There's no depth of character.  Just two hours of back to back explosions.  So, it may surprise you that I have spent the past few months eagerly anticipating the opening of the latest Batman installment, The Dark Knight.

This Post Will Amaize You

Question: What do whiskey, wallpaper, paper plates, margarine, chewing gum, latex paint, penicillin, asbestos and livestock feed all have in common?

Answer: Ron Wood has snorted each of them in an attempt to get high.

I kid, I kid. At least, I have no proof. No grasshopper, the answer we are looking for here is, each of those items list some form of this one common ingredient as an element of the product, or as an element in the processing of the product.

Know what it is? Not yet?

snakes and snails and puppy dog tails

Quick gross stuff

It's been a rainy week - too wet and drippy for the kids to go out, too cold for tball or bikes or hunting imaginary critters. Rather than give in to the creeping insanity that comes over all parents that are stuck in the house with offspring for too (freaking) long, I figured we'd strike at the heart of the problem and entertain the boy.

So we made quicksand. And then we made slime.

'Moo-oom! What are you doing??' *sigh*

'C'mere and help me with this, Cass. Smoosh this together.'

-a minute, then -

'Hey, what is this stuff? This is so neat! Rosey, come see this!'

My style, it is a-changing

Things change.

Once I became a mom and hit my mid-30s I was forced to rethink my personal style rules and tips. Heck, even things I believed to be irrevocable truths about beauty and fashion, just didn't seem like the best ideas any more.

Time has forced my to rewrite the book on what does and what does not work for me. I'm a mom. I'm 38 and holding and here's what I've learned, or in some cases unlearned, about style over the past decade.