RTT: Celebrity Watch

• So, Dancing With the Stars, in my nutshell world:  The Hoff?  Major disappointment.  I had hopes.  They were dashed.  ~*~  Breakout?  Kyle Massey, who my boys recognize from The Disney Channel, and who I now officially Adore-with-a-capital-A.  ~*~  Cringeworthy?  Margaret Cho, who had a beautiful beginning and fouled it up with slapstick.  (Margaret, some advice: Don’t try to be Cloris.  Cloris couldn’t dance and HAD to slapstick it up.  You have real dancing potential.  I know you’re being funny to overcome your discomfort with your own beauty and grace, but you have both beauty and grace, so OWN IT, GIRL!  Louis, some advice: Do NOT let her convince you to go that route again, or Len may come across the judges’ table and strangle you.  Should that happen, I will cheer him on.)  ~*~  Cringeworthy, part II?  Florence Henderson.  Ouch, but LOVED when she flashed the world her sports bra.  ~*~  Simply gorgeous on the dance floor?  Tie: Brandy, Jennifer Grey and Rick Fox.  The season has definite potential.
• What?  I should get a life of my own?  Sure.  I met with my personal trainer for the first time yesterday.  I like him.  He is very nice, but he is going to push me.  Hard.  I’m sore, and the only thing we did yesterday was some stretching.
• I made these meatballs last week.  I was concerned they might be sub-par, given that I was working with ground turkey, but I needn’t have worried.  We all agreed they were the best meatballs we’d ever had.  The best meatballs we’d ever had…made with ground turkey!  Doesn’t seem possible, does it?  Try them.  You may not agree with us, but you’ll probably at least like them.
• Book recommendation: Middlesex.  May not be everyone’s cuppa, but I found it riveting and moving.
• Game recommendation: Dominion.  When it comes to games, this is an easy one:  If it’s won the Spiel des Jahres, we want to own it, because the games that win it are GOOD.  Dominion won last year.  Ooh, I just noticed that Scotland Yard, one of my sister’s and my favorites from way back when, won in 1983.  Cool.
• Randomizing is fun!  Find more of it here at Keely’s.

RTT: Hellooooo, School Year!

• So, you all know I jump from hobby to hobby like a toddler on a sugar high, right?  Only without so much energy.  Or any energy, actually.  Get this:  I’ve been hobby-free all summer.  Sure, I’ve knitted a bit here and there on the baby blanket I started last spring.  (The child WILL get it before she goes to preschool.  I promise.)  And I knitted a hat/scarflette combo for myself.  But that’s it.  Really.  It’s like this summer was a giant hobby black hole.  I can’t say it’s going to pick up anytime soon, either.
• I saw this video on Dooce’s site today.  I could have written her post about it, right down to the goosebumps.  I canNOT dance.  I really wish I could.  I so enjoy watching people with true dancing talent.

• Okay, summer, you’ve made your point.  I’ve interrupted writing this post three times already to put out fires (i.e., tell the kids to STOP ALREADY) or remind them that We Have To Leave To Go To the Chiropractor in TEN Minutes, So Get Your Shoes On.  ~*~  Whoever invented summer break was genius.  Make it just long enough that the crazies hit the kids a week or two before it’s over, completely obliterating any parental sentimentality that might make us wish for a longer summer break.  Brilliantly played, summer break inventor person.
• Is anyone else really curious and really excited to see Jennifer Grey on the new season of Dancing With the Stars?  Is anyone else going to get misty when she’s not dancing with Patrick Swayze?  Am I a hormonal nutcase?  (Hint: the answer to that last question is likely a yes.)
• And, c’mon…David Hasselhoff?  Awesome.
• Speaking of, the boys have discovered the original Knight Rider on Neftlix.  It does an 80’s girl’s heart good to see her boys enjoying a bit of Kitt and Michael Knight time.

RTT: Peanut Butter, Pools, & Plus-Sized Commercials

• Can I say how much I’m loving reading with Kalen’s classmates each week?  The kids are all so freaking cute.  Every last one of them.
• Yes, I participated in Boobquake yesterday.  No, I am not posting pictures.  Yes, I think the whole thing is kind of silly.  No, I don’t think it’s offensive to women.  Yes, I changed before volunteering at the kids’ school in the afternoon.
• Every day for the past week+, Kalen has asked for peanut butter toast for breakfast or a peanut butter sandwich for lunch.  Every morning I tell him we’re out of peanut butter.  I keep forgetting to buy it.  Today, he completely lost patience with me and wrote out a grocery list before sitting down to breakfast.
• The first thing Kalen’s teacher said when I saw her this morning — “So, did you buy peanut butter?”  Apparently, he’s been regaling every adult who will listen to him for more than two seconds with the drawn-out news that I have forgotten to buy peanut butter, for like, the LONGEST time.  Tomorrow, when he shows up with a peanut butter sandwich, I expect I’ll hear the cheer all the way here at the house.
• I went to Costco this afternoon and bought two GIANT jars of peanut butter.
• We’re about to head out to swim lessons.  I am so impressed with these lessons.  And with the boys.  Lots of improvement in a very short amount of time.  1:4 ratio of instructors to kids, and they move up to the next class as soon as their skills dictate it.  No waiting around for the next “round” of classes to start.  I expect we’ll be having a pretty good time at the pool this summer.
• Oh yeah.  I need to find a pool to join.  Add it to the list.
• I’m behind the times, apparently, and just now really paying attention to the controversy surrounding the Lane Bryant intimates commercial ABC and FOX refused to air in the same time slots during which it regularly airs Playtex bra and Victoria’s Secret ads.  Really??  REALLY??  During Dancing With the Stars?  Have they SEEN what those dancers wear?  Are they really denying a voluptuous, plus-sized model the same half-naked time on screen that skinny girls get?
• On a similar note: I adore Niecy Nash.  I don’t love the way she plays to the stereotype that every plus-sized woman must be a food hound, but I’m willing to overlook that.  Cuz she’s just so darned HER.