Whatever, Martha!

Has anyone else watched this show? I saw it for the first time last night and almost wet myself. The entire premise is that Martha's daughter, Alexis, and the daughter of the Chairman of Martha Stewart Omnimedia watch old episodes of Martha Stewart and mock them mercilessly. It's great!

Read the great New York times article, Show Skewers Martha, With Her Blessing.

Local food...mmmm

In my attempts to be a better friend, I've started a semi-regular trip to the Takoma Park Farmer's Market with KayTe. I vow to keep this up, not just for the sake of friendship but also for local eating.

You see, I just finished the book Plenty, which is written by the creators of the 100 Mile Diet. While I'm totally on board with the concept of supporting local agriculture I'm not sure I'll be making my own saurkraut anytime soon.

It's all fun and games

So there appears to be an underground gaming community that we knew nothing about. At Stef's recent game night we found a new gaggle of people who share a love of really well-made games. This is just a sampling...more to come!

Ticket to Ride
A fantastic game that has become know as "Trains." Yes, grown adults are playing trains. Ticket to Ride is a cross-country train adventure in which players collect and play matching train cards to claim railway routes connecting cities throughout North America. The longer the routes, the more points you earn.


Settlers of Catan
Players are recent immigrants to the newly populated island of Catan. Expand your colony through the building of settlements, roads, and villages by harvesting commodities from the land around you. Trade sheep, lumber, bricks and grain for a settlement, bricks and wood for a road, or try to complete other combinations for more advanced buildings, services and specials.

Trade with other players, or at local seaports to get resources you might lack. The first player to achieve 10 points from a combination of roads, settlements, and special cards wins.

Lifetime movies in our vacation spot

I was channel surfing the other night and caught a moment of Custody, a sappy, Lifetime flick about blah, blah, blah.

The interesting part comes in when we discover that the birth dad's "house in Maine" is actually the resort at which Charlie and I vacationed this summer.

The Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello is a gorgeous, river-side resort halfway between Montreal and Ottawa. We spent just three nights there but absolutely fell in love. Are you surprised? They had a list of board games to borrow right at the check-in desk!

A box with a vent

A co-worker told me a funny story

Back story...her oldest son is moving into his first college off-campus housing. It's the very awesome, non-air conditioned house that stood as last year's party headquarters - and they were lucky enough to snag it. As my coworker is trying to take a step back and let him "be an adult," he and his roommates are responsible for outfitting this groovy pad.

As he was driving down to school this week, he met up with one of the roommates along the way. It was at this point that my co-worker got a phone call that went something like this...

"Hey mom, Jeff has this cool box in his car with a vent in it. You put it in your window and it makes the room cooler. Can I get one of those?"

"Honey, do you mean an air conditioner?"

"Yeah, that's it. So how about it?"

So I know mine's not great or anything...

...but who doesn't love the title of this book?


No One Cares What you Had for Lunch - 100 Ideas for Your Blog

How to Get Others on the "Green" Wagon

We have a wonderful housekeeper come over every other week and we couldn't live without her (at least not without horrible indoor allergies). She is kind and never judgemental - we can be kind of messy. She loves our dog and makes our bed. I wouldn't trade her for the world.

That said, I can't seem to get her to embrace "green" cleaning methods. I've tried not purchasing typical "chemical" cleaners, but she brings them herself. I've tried leaving notes but I think the language barrier may be getting in the way.

What's the next step?

Any thoughts on how I can get my husband to "get it," too?