???

Jean, or anyone else who might read this who knows me from some other segment of my life, does this actor remind you of anyone we would know personally? He is Tobias Menzies who plays Brutus on Rome, but Massi and I are going bonkers because we feel like we know him personally from somewhere when we watch the show and we both reached that conclusion independently! I feel like he has to closely resemble someone we knew in college, but I'm at a loss!

Kids TV can be curious...

So I find myself watching "Wonder Pets" with the girl on Nick Jr. this morning while C & C Music Factory's "Things that make you go hmmmm..." streams through the soundtrack in my head.


Her Fussiness this morning wailed "turn that news show OFF" at me (that news show being the Today Show, which can hardly be called news when I hear Meredith Viera say "but first, the nasty custody battle between Britney & K. Fed...") so I flipped to Curious George and I got "NO, I don't want JORGE!" so I flipped to Higglytown Heroes and got "no HEEEEGGLYTOWN!!!!" so I finally landed on the aforementioned Wonder Pets.


This is a new one to me. The wonder pets are apparently a classroom hamster, duckling and turtle who learn in every segment that they can help another animal in need by teamwork!! There's an original feel good concept for you. And they sing their way through their adventures. It's really quite compelling. The segment I caught this morning involved helping a puppy who had to go pee but couldn't get outside because he was alone in the house. After several rounds of "pee pee, tinkle, wee wee...everyone has to go sometime..." the wonder pets discover that the puppy has a doggy door and he just doesn't know how to use it yet. By the time they get puppy's confidence up and teach him how to use the door, our three heroes have decided that all this pee pee talk has made them have to pee as well so the four squat happily in different parts of the yard. Once they've taken care to wash their hands and expressed their relief, Hamster whatshisname says "this calls for celery" and whips a stalk out to share with his friends and Ming Ming the duckling accepts her share and says "mmmmm....celewee's great after a nice pee pee." And it's at this point that I scratch my head and go huh?? Anyway...the girl was mesmerized enough to allow me to get her dressed and ready for school, so it served its purpose I guess!

Good Casting

So this is old news, like months ago old news, but I'm just now catching up to it...just learned that Eric Bana will play Henry in The Time Traveler's Wife opposite Rachel McAdams. I've always thought Bana was a powerful presence back to Black Hawk Down (yes, he was another - at the time - little known star I saw hitting golf balls at the Rabat Hilton back in the day), but watching Munich last year proved that no one can do tortured better than he! TTTW is one of my absolute all time favorite books and I don't think this casting call will prove to be a letdown! And speaking of time travel, I'm becoming pretty intrigued by the frequent trailers for the new fall show "Journeyman." It may just be because I'm spending every spare minute I can on back episodes of Rome and Kevin McKidd is another actor who seems well suited to playing a tortured time traveler. Though my true Rome crush - odd as it is - is on the actor who plays Brutus and he's not classically cute/handsome in the least and not at all how I'd picture Brutus, but there you have it.

So after all my Beckham frivolity at the end of last week, we had a pretty somber weekend. My mother called early Friday morning from the airport to let me know that my grandfather had passed away in the night and that she and my dad were on the way down to Naples, FL. As extremely sad as I am that I won't see Papa again, or hear him call me "Lis-er" in his Southeast Virginian accent over the phone, he truly led a full and miraculous life and he departed in the peace that we all hope for. I hurt for my grandmother of course, who is now without her partner for the first time after 63 years of marriage, and is in failing health herself, but when I sat down Friday night to list some of the many things that will always capture Papa's spirit for me, I began to feel a bit better about my personal loss. I was also lucky to have my cousins and brother to lean on as I shot Email back and forth to them Friday completely worthless at work (5 beers with Carter over the United/Galaxy game the night before hadn't helped on the worthless at work front!) I know that they, as well as I, feel blessed to have had Papa as such an important player in our lives well into our early adulthood. I'm very sorry I never got the chance to introduce him to Leila, but I know her pictures smiled down on him daily.

And speaking of Leila...Before I learned about Papa, I had intended to take advantage of my 1:00 departure Friday to go see either Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Stardust, or Becoming Jane, but with events, I wanted nothing more than to pick Leila up early from day care and spend time with her. And its a good thing that I did, because shortly after I got her home she stood and threw up buckets worth all over me as I sat on the living room floor and played with whatever she'd been instructing me to play with...ahhh...motherhood! (And I find that it is always the mother who is the target for the projectile vomit!) She ran a fever all night into the morning and still wasn't quite herself Saturday, so we wasted a beautiful day lazing around watching Nemo (and it's a good thing I like Nemo, b/c it's been shown 3 times in our house this weekend.) She was a bit spunkier following her afternoon nap, so we did get out for a walk to Old Town and sat around the square blowing bubbles by the fountain.

And lest I not forget...I brought Leila to our bed Friday night because she was roasting in fever and I like to have her close when she's ill. At about 3a.m. she was asking for 'medicina' and more milk and I'd left her Advil downstairs in the kitchen. Care to guess what greeted me as I peeped cautiously around the kitchen door....mouse corpse numero ocho (that would be 8, but ocho's the most fun number to say in Spanish.) Cesar was awakened to deal with it before I stepped any further into the kitchen of course. My neighbor (that would be my neighbor who graduated from UVA a year after Carter and who owns that house that was listed for $589,000 -depressing) stopped to tell me last night that he had gone ahead and preemptively called our pest control and Scott found no signs of mice in their unit, so they're just somehow contained to our little Amityville. Sigh...Carter does say that is within our legal rights to withhold payment of our rent until our home is vermin free, so it's time to get back to the property manager/owner again to insist on removal and hopeful replacement of the antique/gargantuan stove that is serving to hide the critters!

More Becks in the 'hood

And now I read that he was in the Pentagon City Mall yesterday shopping at Abercrombie and picking up coffee at the food court Starbucks!! That is my 'hood y'all. Of course Cesar raised the "what would you do if you saw him" question as I blathered on about his hotness earlier today, and I'd probably do the same thing I did when I saw Kenneth Branaugh in the Georgetown Park mall years ago - walk right past him w/o realizing who I'd walked right past until it was too late to do anything but a fleeting double-take. I have to be pretty darn drunk to actually approach a celeb, as Billy Baldwin witnessed at a Chicago Democratic Convention big donors after-party back in '96: "I jush looove what you do for the democratic party...for the crative colisschion...can I have yer autografff..." Anyway...If I learn that Becks wandered into the Potomac Yard Target to pick up a Mossimo cap or something, I will really fall off my chair!

My Becks-dar clearly requires adjusting!

So if Becks had been dining at the downtown Morton's location last night, I could have forgiven myself, because I flee the city at 5:00. But, but, but... Crystal City!! That is like 1.5 miles or less from our home. And there are all kinds of good restaurants tucked back in there now, but I always forget about them and never go there because it just seemed such a ghost town after working hours for so many years. Wow. Becks in Crystal City in beautiful Alexandria/Arlington, VA. Now if I'd learned he'd been in Old Town, I'd really be kicking myself, because we have no excuse not to engage in a Becks quest there. Well, I'll be in my jersey watching him on the sidelines over beer at Rustico tonight.

From The Reliable Source:

David Beckham, covering more ground off the field than he's likely to see in tonight's game at RFK. The Los Angeles Galaxy superstar, still nursing an injured ankle, joined his teammates Tuesday night at Morton's steakhouse in Crystal City -- the players are regulars at the upscale chain's Burbank restaurant. Beckham (minus glam spouse Posh, apparently still on the West Coast) had a porterhouse steak; sat in the middle of the dining room. Yesterday morning, a "friendly" Becks, two friends, a bodyguard and driver popped into Georgetown's Bean Counter (telling staff, "I hear you have really great coffee") for a mocha frap and a chocolate muffin, posed for pictures and joked around.

More of a Lefty Than I Thought!?

Here's a fun little tool to find out which of the '08 Presidential contenders share your views on the issues. My submissions resulted in Kucinich at the top as most closely sharing my views, followed in order by Gravel, Obama, Clinton, Edwards, Dodd, Richardson....Kucinich and Gravel?! Who knew I was so far out there? I was not surprised to see that I was closer to Obama than Hillary though...Check it out:

http://www.dehp.net/candidate/index.php