Birthday Week

This is the week of birthdays in our house. Taylor's is on Saturday and mine is next Sunday (Aug. 10). Of course, Taylor's is much more exciting. I love planning the girls' parties, and honestly I'm a little bummed this year. Taylor will be eight this year and I guess theme parties are not as cool as they used to be to her. When she was four she wanted to have a flamingo party. I wasn't sure what to do at a flamingo party, but it was my first year to be in charge of her party, so I was determined it was going to be the greatest flamingo party ever! We had a flamingo cake, flamingo games, I took the flamingo as far as it could possibly go! When she turned five we had a Chef Party. This was probably my favorite party so far. We made big white chef hats, painted little moustaches on the kids, and taught them how to say "Bon Appetit!" All the kids made their own pizzas and decorated their own cupcakes. Again, I went all out. Did I mention that I love kids' parties? The following year, I must admit, I fell short. I was eight months pregnant, it was hot and my party planning skills were not up to par. So, we had a swimming party with a horse theme. Basically, every birthday, Taylor picks a different animal and says she wants that to be the theme. I usually try to steer her in a different direction, but that year I was too hot, tired, and fat to care. So, the kids swam, we had cake with horses on it, and the kids wore cowboy hats while they ate. Last year was super fun. We had a dress up/makeover party. All the girls got their hair, makeup and nails done. Then we had a fashion show. It was a lot of fun. So, this year, we are heading back to the pool for a beach themed party. Honestly, I have not gone all out like I had originally planned. I'll blame it on being pregnant again! It should be fun though! Happy Birthday Tay Tay!!!

My mom

Ok, so I realize that I have possibly painted my mom in a negative light. (See previous blogs) My mother is a beautiful, stylish, wonderful person. She has amazingly impecable taste. However, I realize that I may have tarnished her image a bit with a few of my comments. Let's start with the hair blog. I'm dismissing the bad perms to the fact that it was the 80's. Did anyone not have a perm in the 80's? And let me say that my mom has done a wonderful job of keeping with the trends as far as hairstyles go. She is very current with her hairstyle. So let's get to the squirrel overalls. The question that seems to be on everyone's mind is not why she dressed me in the squirrel overalls, but why she ever bought them in the first place. This is a question that I do not have an answer to. No decade can excuse this fashion tragedy. I have no explanation for this. I can say that she has moved on however. I can not recall any other crimes of fashion in her past. At least, none that I know of.

Ok, the cooking. My mom is a great cook, she just chooses not to do it that often. So, when she does cook, it's great. She has overcome any and all weird phases that I can recall, and I very much enjoy her cooking!

Mom, if you're reading this, I love you. I strive to reach your status of fashion greatness someday!

Date Night

I had the most interesting experience last night. My husband and I went on a date. We went to go see Get Smart. I realize it has been out for a while, but we don't get out much. I also realize that the new Batman came out yesterday, but we avoided the crowds and went for Get Smart. I'm glad we did, it was a really funny movie. The interesting part started when a couple came in a few minutes before the movie started and they sat right next to us. I got a bit concerned during the previews. The guy was a laugher. He laughed at everything. Some of the laughs had merit, but mostly he was just overly laughing at things that weren't really funny. Then the comments started. He was that guy who talks back to the screen and points at the things that he's laughing very heartily at. This is all just during the previews! He never let up. The entire movie he laughed and commented and repeated lines from the movie just in case we didn't hear them the first time. It became a bit comical after a while, when it wasn't extremely annoying. Then his wife got in on the action. She was laughing at the same non-funny things he was laughing at, but not as loud. But I guess he inspired her. At one point in the movie, there is a symphony playing Ode to Joy. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed something waving around and so I casually look over. The woman is DIRECTING the orchestra with her hand. She was actually waving her hand like a conductor. If she had a baton handy I'm sure she would have used it. Alan and I were just trying not to laugh. So, to the couple who thoroughly enjoyed Get Smart last night you might try keeping it down a bit next time. And the leave conducting to the actor in the film!

Letters to Food Network

Dear Food Network,

I am a faithful, devoted viewer of many of your shows. I have no formal culinary training, but I feel that all of the many hours I have spent watching your fine network has made me a better cook. I'll start with a little of my food background. You see, I was raised by a wonderful mom, however, she was not a lover of cooking. I recall many random meals. Weinies cut down the middle with cheese in them. Many nights of "breakfast" food for dinner (still one of my favorites). And I'll never forget the day I opened my lunch at school to find a cheese and mayonaise sandwich. I guess we were out of lunch meat that day? There was also a weird "jerky" phase. That's what we called it. Everything my mom cooked for a period of time turned out really tough and jerky. We had beef jerky, chicken jerky, turkey jerky. A nice idea, except it wasn't on purpose. Her internal cooking clock was just a little bit off, I suppose. She also went through this health food co-op phase. We ate peanut butter that was almost black and stuck to the roof of your mouth for days. And we ate blue corn chips before they were cool. 3rd graders just don't understand the importance of eating healthy, so I was labeled "Alien Food Girl." I have recovered from all of this, but it took a while. Now, I love my mom. She is a woman of more talents than most dream of having in six lifetimes, so her lack of cooking is really no big deal. She more than made up for it in many other ways.


So, naturally I feel very lucky to have found Food Network a few years ago. I'll never forget the day I stumbled upon a bubbly brunette cooking up a yum-o pasta dinner in half an hour. I was hooked. Rachel Ray's 30 Minute Meals are right up my alley. I'm not a very patient person, so I can handle 30 minutes. So, I am sending you this letter to share my views and opinions on many of your fine shows and perhaps some valuable constructive criticism. Thanks for reading.

Food Network Challenges- I love these challenges!! My favorites so far have been the cartoon cake challenges. I actually watched a marathon of these one day. Three hours of Disney cakes! First it was the princess cakes, followed by the villains, and then the Pixar movie cakes. And it was all at Disney World. The judging in front of Cinderella's castle was a nice touch. I did feel bad for the guy that made "Scar" from The Lion King. When his head fell off (the cake head, not the baker's) it was just kind of sad. He worked for eight hours on that cake. Tragic. Ok, keep the challenges coming. I like them.

Semi- Homemade with Sandra Lee- I just have one comment about Sandra's "tablescapes." The last episode I saw, Sandra was throwing a Fairy Princess Party and her tablescape totally freaked me out! There were giant porcelain fairy dolls all over the table. They were incredibly creepy looking. I have an eight year old daughter, and she would have run screaming from that table. And one more thing, not everything in each episode has to be the same color. For example, I'll go back to the Fairy Princess Party. It was a world of Pepto Bismol. The food, the drinks, the table cloth, even the curtains in her fake kitchen window....pink! I once saw a beach themed episode and it was all blue. I can't take this monochromatic show anymore. Spice it up. Throw in a coordinating color.

Ace of Cakes- Duff Goldman is fabulous. He and his staff make the greatest cakes. So far my favorite has been Duff's meatball birthday cake. The little gum paste Duff on top with the fork was just pure genius. The bacon roses were my favorite though. It's all about the details! Keep it coming Charm City Cakes.

The Next Food Network Star- Ok this one I'm particularly hooked on right now. It's down to the final three. But all I can seem to think about is, where is last year's winner's show? It is making it hard for me to invest in these finalists, because I am not guaranteed that the winner will in fact become the next Food Network star. The last chick that won still doesn't have a show. There's something fishy going on. Pun intended.

Iron Chef America- I have no idea what any of these people ever make. I'm doing good just to know the mystery ingredient sometimes. And the judges are all so snooty. I still like to watch though. I'm a food junkie, what can I say!!!

Ok, I know it sounds like I do nothing but watch Food Network all day, but I do have some what of a life. Occassionally I actually get in the kitchen and cook myself. I do always watch Food Network in the kitchen though. It makes me feel like my Hamburger Helper is really something fabulous! Keep up the good work Food Network. And remember, a great meal is never more than 30 minutes away!

Sincerely,

Leslie Rich

Hold on, wait a minute, put a little blog in it!

So here goes! I've started blogging more on myspace, and I feel it would be more official to have a "real" blog on blogger. It just seems more grown up. And I am, after all, a real grown up. By the way, my 27th birthday is in a few weeks! WooHoo!! Wow, I'm getting old. Ok, back to the blogging.

It has been a good week. I am about 24 weeks pregnant and I feel great! We have had VBS at church this week, so I've been taking half the neighborhood every morning, which has been kind of nice to have time to do some things around the house in the mornings. Important things such as:
1. sleeping some more after I get back home.
2. catching up on my shows on the DVR
3. watching past seasons of The Office on DVD (because I could watch each episode 1,000 times and never get tired of it)
4. spending entirely too much time on myspace and facebook

You get the idea. I have occasionally done some other meaningless tasks around the house. I've done a total of two loads of laundry in the past four days. I'm not really concerned about the piles of dirty clothes and stinky rags that are overtaking my laundry room. Project Runway started this week, and I've only watched the new episode three times so far, so lay off!!! I'll get to laundry when I get to it!

I did actually clean out my closet Monday. And I'm talking major cleaning (well, sort of). I've finally come to terms with the reality that I am not and perhaps may never again be a size "small/medium." It's just not in the cards for me. If by some rare chance and parasite takes over my body and eats away about 1/3 of my current size, maybe we will revisit the idea of shopping for smalls. But at this point, hanging on to these sizes are just a waste of perfectly good hanging space. Looks like someone needs to go shopping!!!

So, that has basically been my week so far. Don't worry, if something funny or blog-worthy happens, I shall return and update my new, grown up blog! Happy Reading!