Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Winter TV ~ New and Returning

The winter TV season is starting up soon... so here's what I'm looking forward to this year.

New

Episodes - Jan 9 (Showtime) A British couple brings their hit show to America... Matt LeBlanc plays a version of himself. Looks funny in a meta kind of way.

The Cape - Jan 9 (NBC) Superhero! Summer Glau! Need I say more?

Off The Map - Jan 12 (ABC) Shondra Rhimes (Grey's Anatomy creator) brings young sexy doctors to remote jungle-place. Caroline Dhavernas (Wonderfalls) is in it! Yay! Doctors fighting malaria! Double yay!

Being Human - Jan 17 (Syfy) While I generally loathe american remakes of british shows, I tried watching the british version of Being Human and I think I could like the american version.
A vampire, a werewolf and a ghost are roommates.

Returning

Pretty Little Liars - Jan 3 (ABCFamily) Big hit of last summer, it's back with the last half of the season. Dirty secrets, guilty pleasure.

Parks and Recreation - Jan 20 (NBC) I just started watching this show, but it's pretty funny. Kind of like The Office, but less annoying characters.

Royal Pains - Jan 20 (USA) - One of several USA shows I watch... mostly summer-type fare.

Well, I guess that's it. I won't be hurting for shows to watch, because most of the fall shows aren't taking super-long breaks this year. (Except Sanctuary - April - APRIL!)
Anyway, happy TV watching!

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Fall TV ~ What I'm Watching

The leaves are turning colours (already) and even though we haven't had much of a summer, fall is indeed upon us. I actually really like fall, despite the fact that winter follows shortly after. I like boots and cozy sweaters (and school supplies - I know I'm a little strange), but mostly I like fall because of the new fall tv season! And oh boy, what a season! I am not going to have enough time to watch everything right away, but there are a few shows I think I'll be watching as soon as they finish on my computer. So, here's the daily breakdown of what I'm going to try to watch this year, and how excited I am for each show.

Monday
Chuck - 'must-see'
How I Met Your Mother - wait until I'm bored (does that ever happen anymore?)
Gossip Girl - middle of the pack
Mike & Molly - new show with some promise
Lone Star - new show as well - has had good reviews
Castle - 'must-see'

Tuesday
Glee - 'must-see'
No Ordinary Family - I've watched the pilot - liked it a lot - will watch quickly
Life Unexpected - middle of the pack
The Good Wife - middle of the pack
Sanctuary - 'must-see'

Wednesday
Cougar Town - 'must-see' (it's a good show, ok - don't judge me)
Hellcats - middle of the pack, but it's already airing, so I'll probably watch it right away at first because nothing else is on
Terriers - same as Hellcats

Thursday (holy moly Thursday is busy)
The Vampire Diaries - 'must-see' Soooo good
The Big Bang Theory - 'must-see'
Community - 'must-see'
Bones - 'must-see'
30 Rock - middle of the pack
Grey's Anatomy - middle of the pack
Nikita - good new show - still middle of the pack
The Mentalist - middle of the pack
Private Practice - middle of the pack
Burn Notice - 'must-see', at least until I see how the cliffhanger resolves (but doesn't start back up until Nov)

Friday
Smallville - middle of the pack (probably should watch the season finale)
Human Target - middle of the pack
Medium - middle of the pack
Supernatural - 'must-see'

Sunday
Desperate Housewives - is this still going? Oh yeah, Brian Austin Green - still middle of the pack
Boardwalk Empire - should be good - probably still middle of the pack
Walking Dead - starts Oct 31, probably watch the first one right away

Also, if anyone was wondering about the SyFy movie Red with Felicia Day it's airing Oct 30.

S0 that's my breakdown of the new season. The official start of the fall season is September 20. Happy tv watching!

Monday, September 6, 2010

Grandma

Today we said goodbye to a special person in my family... It was a sad day, but also a time to reflect on the many ways she shaped our lives. I believe that she is at peace now, after struggling these past couple months.

I have so many fond memories of my Grandma. I spent a lot of time at her house when I was a kid. When we lived in Dunleath, I would go over there sometimes before and after school while my parents were at work. And after we moved to Medicine Hat I spent several summers at their house, before they moved to the Hat too. Those summers were the most fun... my cousins would come out and we would go camping, bottle picking, or maybe go to town to the mall. But before the boys came, I mostly hung out with Grandma. We'd play games, or do puzzles, make donuts... or even burn garbage. She could make anything fun. One time we tried to make paper like I saw on tv... it didn't work, but it was still fun. I have such vivid memories of those times, and I'm so thankful for that.

Grandma... I hope you knew how much I loved you and how much you meant to so many people. You're with the angels now... rest in peace.

Love, your granddaughter. @-}-

Friday, August 6, 2010

Great Shows That Aren't On Network TV

Summer is here and that means the big networks (NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX and to a lesser extent The CW) are flooding the airwaves with re-runs and reality shows. In recent years, the cable channels have stepped up to fill the gap of quality scripted programs. And now some of my favourite shows air on channels like Lifetime. Here are some of the shows that I'm watching now.

HBO - The bigshot of the cable channels, they pretty much started the push for off-network programming. Past shows include Sex and the City, Deadwood, Rome, etc
Current show: True Blood (a fav of mine for over-the-top blood and sex campiness)

AMC - doing well with big hit Mad Men. New show Rubicon, which I haven't watched, appears to be a snore

ABC Family - an offshoot of ABC, target audience appears to be teenage girls Past shows include Kyle XY
Current shows: Huge (about teenagers at fat camp), Pretty Little Liars (the breakout hit of the summer - kind of like The Vampire Diaries without vampires, but with creepy stalker texts)

Showtime - Weeds (hope it's better than last season) Upcoming: The Big C looks good too.

FX - Rescue Me (although I haven't watched in a few years) and Justified (Timothy Olyphant knows how to wear a cowboy hat... yum... oh and he is a federal marshall)

Syfy - stupid rebranding aside, I generally watch everything on this channel. Next year, looking forward to movie reimagining of Little Red Riding Hood called Red, starring my fav Felicia Day.
Shows include: Warehouse 13, Eureka, Haven
A fall show that I'm looking forward to (and was a summer show last year) is Sanctuary.

TNT - One of my favourite shows is Leverage, in it's 3rd season.

Lifetime - Great fluff show Drop Dead Diva.

USA - new show Covert Affairs seems pretty decent so far.
Also, I watched 4 seasons of Psych in a couple of weeks.. I really enjoyed that. And I'm just starting Burn Notice... not sure how I feel about that one yet. Other shows I have yet to see on that channel that I might get around to: White Collar and Royal Pains

On a side note, we recently cancelled our satellite service, but since I was already downloading all of my shows, it doesn't really matter anyway. :)

Happy TV watching!

Friday, July 23, 2010

Why Baby #2 is easier than Baby #1...

I vaguely remember the early days with Isaac. Sleep-deprived, with crazy bloodshot eyes, covered in... (well let's not elaborate) - I was a mess. He was always crying, or pooping, or eating. He demanded to be held all the time. Everything took ten times longer to do. Going to the store was an outing that required preparation and planning. Is it during a feeding time or a nap time? Will he cry if I need to try on clothes? Can I take him into the bathroom with me? I thought caring for a baby was the one of the hardest jobs in the world (and it is).

Having left that phase gladly then jumping back in 3 years later, let me tell you why I think baby #2 is easier...
- you are already working on no sleep, and probably have been for a couple of years
- everything that is valuable or breakable has already been packed away, put on the highest possible shelf or already been broken
- you now know all the songs from the kids shows and can sing them to your fussy baby - no more trying to remember the words to 'Mama's gonna buy you a mockingbird' - babies love to hear the opening songs of shows such as Miss Spider, Backyardigans, Wow Wow Wubbzy and Gerald McBoing Boing ;P Also, apparently Lady Gaga.
- you've tried pretty much everything to stop the first one from crying, and can try them all again on this one (but this time you can try the things that worked for #1 first)
- you've given up any hope of having "me time" a long time ago, so it's not such a shock this time
- the first time at the hospital I thought "You're giving me this precious thing to take care of - and I have no idea what to do with it!!" This time I couldn't get out of there fast enough... just let me go home and get on with it.
- you already have the necessities like a crib and whatnot. And even if the second child is a different sex, you can still use some of the clothes. And you might have awesome friends and relatives that have kids that lend you clothes and other good things. (Thanks so much!)
- and for me, having family nearby this time is amazingly helpful! Thanks to the grandparents that are willing to take a hyper almost three year old off my hands!

So I guess the biggest thing I gained between then and now was confidence. I've seen pretty much everything a baby can do and I know I can handle it when life throws me a curveball. Oh yeah, she's pretty darn cute too, which helps.

Next time... why having a toddler/preschooler is more difficult than a baby and why having both at the same time is TEN TIMES HARDER!

PS Also, typing with one hand is hard.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

First Post!

So here I am, trying my hand at this new-fangled blogging thing. I'm hoping to write about all kinds of things, ranging from baby and toddler stuff to tv to just random thoughts. They say to write what you know... and I know some random things. ;P
I hope this will be interesting to at least a couple of people, but I'm mostly doing this for myself. It's hard to have a proper conversation with an almost 3 year old, especially about the tv shows I like to watch. So here's my attempt at a conversation with anyone that will listen... about whatever pops into my head.
More later!