Friday Favorites, vol. 62, a day late

1. babies in sunnies







2. school supplies





I wish I loved organizing as much as I love school supplies.
This year, my goal is for my desk drawer to look like this:


3. happy hours







4. marathons
(You probably know that I'm not talking about this kind of marathon.) Living without cable is pretty great. Between Netflix, iTunes and the good old-fashioned library, we watch the shows we want instead of mindless noise.








5. board games
Sometimes I force my friends and family to play board games. Is that bad?

All the Single Ladies Trifecta

1. Thom Yorke



2. Baby Cory



3. Glee



Which is your favorite?

Friday Favorites, vol. 46

1. sidewalk cafes





2. rolling bookshelf ladders





3. trapeze dresses or Twiggy, 2.0





4. long strings of pearls





5. Downton Abbey





You guys probably know that I'm a total tellie junkie. But this show.... well. You just have to see it. It's fabulously-written, beautiful, surprising and full of heart. And if you have Netflix Watch Instantly, you can watch it as soon as you'd like. Oh, and it has Maggie Smith. What's not to love?

Brett, you got it goin' on.

Rhetorical question:
How much do you love Flight of the Conchords?

Follow-up rhetorical question:
Can you believe they only made two seasons?

So sorry that I've been out the last few days, lovely friends.

But I have a really, really good excuse.
I helped Nathan second shoot this weekend in Iowa, and everything came off without a hitch*. I'd describe this feeling as a happiness hangover.

Going back to work tomorrow isn't even that bad, because it's the last day of school before summer break.

What are you up to this summer?

I intend to:
1. work on my writing

(This isn't me. My hair is shorter, I use my Macbook Pro instead of writing by hand, and in summer, I normally sit inside in the air conditioning at coffeeshops when I write. But cute dress, huh?)

2. work out every day**


3. turn off our cable***


4. take a photography class


5. go see old movies at the Paramount



*other than one small episode that included taking some detail shots inside a tent where the air was rather humid, causing the Nikon 17-55 lens to fog up, when time the groom's brother-in-law suggested (ever so brilliantly) that we put said fogged-up lens into a hot car to bake out the moisture. It totally worked, and he totally saved the day.

** or as often as I can (excluding sick days or days I'm too busy writing, a.k.a. writing more than four hours a day)

*** not to worry, because we already have our TV hooked up to our internet, which means we can keep up with most shows we care about and in the meantime, watch lots of great things on iTunes and Netflix Watch Instantly. Goodbye, Cable! No hard feelings.

I feel better.

How can I tell? Well, I'm back to loving coffee more than tea.
Reunited and it feels so goooood.



and right now I'm sipping an ice cold Paulaner Hefeweizen with my leftover Freebirds while we watch Season 2 of The Wire.



And to think, all I needed to do was look at my beverages to see that I'm back to normal! (Next task at hand= getting Nathan back to normal. He's about one or two days behind me, so ought to be back to better just in time for Kathryn and Rami's spectacular Iowa farm wedding this weekend. I can hear myself in the near future saying, "Whew, that was a close one.")

P.S. When I looked up The Wire just now on IMDB, I saw that it has an average of 9.7 stars. That's insane. That's ridiculous. That's totally accurate, but heads and shoulders above the highest rated movies on IMDB, including but not limited to
The Godfather (9.2 stars),
Pulp Fiction (8.9 stars),
Schindler's List (also 8.9)
and freakin Casablanca (8.8 stars).

Jeez, the Wire, I knew I loved you. I just didn't realize everyone else did. Nice work. Now where's my boy Omar?

Lazy Sunday

Yes, we've done a little bit of work today. But not much. Mostly, we were really lazy.
Just like Parnell and Samberg. Only instead of watching The Chronicles of Narnia, we're watching Arachnophobia on Scifi.



Now all we need are some cupcakes. Mmmmm. Cupcakes...

Kidcasters: Because you know you need some cute Tuesday goodness

This morning I did something unusual. I turned on the news. Why, you ask? Because I knew that some of my favorite locals, the Casserole Queens were going to be on the tellie.



The Casserole Queens are just as fabulous as you might imagine. They make delicious potpies and casseroles and deliver them to your door wearing dresses from the 1950s. Add that to the Reasons We Love Austin list.

While I was waiting for the queens' segment, I got to see a ridiculously cute weather forecast by an eight-year-old boy named Malcolm, and I had to share. I dare you not to smile.



You guys! The Kidcaster segment happens every Tuesday morning. I may become a morning news watcher after all.

Sickies, SWF, and my theory on why some scary movies are really scary

Nathan is sick-- and so tonight we got right down to business with a Single White Female marathon, thanks to Netflix Watch Instantly.
First, the classic that started it all.


Second, the even trashier, more poorly acted and poorly scripted (if you can believe it) sequel,
bursting with gems like: "It's just so humiliating when you fall in love with someone who sleeps with your roommate."


Up next, the much-anticipated (which neither one of us has seen) Single Black Female.


Yes, all three of these cinema masterpieces can be found on Netflix Watch Instantly.
You're welcome.

In the meantime, I was thinking about how scary movies with a psychopathic killer are really much scarier than slashers or movies with ghosts, zombies or any of the like.
I think it's because we've all met someone in real life who is just unbalanced enough that you get that whole "yep, they could snap at any moment and take us all out with a double barrel shotgun" vibe.
So, I give you some of the true cinema horror classics, all with maniacal killers in the lead roles:


Where we learn that hotelsitting in the blizzard season is a bad idea.



Where we learn that stealing a suitcase full of money is a bad idea.



Where we learn that being rescued in a blizzard by your "Number One Fan" is a bad idea.



Where we learn that stealing an envelope full of money and then hiding out in a run-down, vacant motel is a bad idea.



Where we learn that one psychopathic killer can help you find another psychopathic killer.



Where we learn that you should always be sure to check on the children.


So many of these lessons are related to hotels, stealing money and blizzards. Interesting.
Mmmm. Blizzards.


Something tells me that Nathan would probably go for a Blizzard.
Him being sick and all.