ZimWex Family Blog

Right Now

I am...

Helping Ella make her costume for today's Egyptian tomb presentation at school.  There are robes, belts, chokers, and lots of eyeliner...

Nagging Jerry to finish working on his tabloid newspaper about The Red Scare and the Crucible.

Amazed at what he can do on the computer, graphics wise.  My children's knowledge of how to make things look professional on the computer FAR surpasses my own....

Cuddling  up on the couch with Ella to watch American Idol, which we have long since embraced.

Rooting for Jessica Sanchez.*

Wondering how she made such a spectacularly bad song choice this week.

Wishing I had a wardrobe (and body) like J Lo's.

Planning our trip to Mexico Sunday. Back to the Mayan Riviera!

Worrying that somehow Ella's passport will not be rush renewed tomorrow.

Chastising myself for finding myself in this position yet again. How many times do I have to miss the expiration of my kid's passports before I learn the lesson?

Marvelling that this is the TENTH time I have applied for a passport for one of my children.

Unwrapping  a honey lemon Ricola cough drop for the cold I appear to be getting.

Staring at the three parking tickets I got this week and thinking about paying them.

Delivering Girl Scout Cookies. Forever.

Smiling as I finished Reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets to Ruby tonight. 

Certain that my Harry Potter accents are better than ever.

Reconsidering my afternoon cappucino. Could I do without it?

Awaiting Tanya's return home from London after a week.

Accepting that I am unlikely to get a pedicure prior to my trip.

What are you all up to right now?

AZ

*And Erika Van Pelt..that girl has a cool voice!

 

 

 

Museum of the Moving Image

I spent last Sunday at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria. It was closing day for a cool Jim Henson exhibit, so we checked it out and also watched two episodes of the Muppet Show on the big screen...Starring...Julie Andrews and Gene Kelly!*

The Museum has been redone this year, and is a great place for a family outing. We combined it with lunch at 5 Napkin Burger across the street, and were happy and stuffed!

Check it out and bring your families....

AZ

*Gene Kelly, like most Muppet Show hosts, was well past his prime, but the Pigs in Space segment did not disappoint!

Right now I am...

Wondering who Jane Fonda's plastic surgeon is. Wow. 

Thinking that the mermaid dress as an awards trend has really got to end.

Planning to watch more television.  All those shows look good....

Enjoying beginning Downton Abbey

Recognizing that I was not particularly fast on that trend!

Nursing three semi-sick children, sometimes with patience, and others with irritation...

Regretting that irritation.

Enjoying very much the cappucinos, lattes, and of course the cupcakes from Molly's Cupcakes. 

Mixing pomegranate seeds into yogurt in the mornings.

Wishing Tanya didn't have to be away this week.

Trying to get more sleep.

Listening to Violet practice "On the Good Ship Lollipop" over and over again.

Choosing the Adele station on Pandora almost every day.

Shivering as I walk Snoopy around the block...and not much further, unless I really have to!

Laughing both times this week (!) that we watched the Wanda Sykes special on HBO, bringing our lifetime total of watching to at least 45 times...

Realizing that Violet's Sixth (!!) birthday is approaching.  

Needing a plan for that birthday.

Hoping to attend a yoga class this week. 

Collecting money.  Jerry and Ella have raised almost $1000 each for a fundraiser for school, and Ruby has sold more than 250 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies. 

Enjoying that we have had three very quiet weekends in a row.

Forgetting to give her kids allowance.  Each and every week. What makes this particular task so difficult to remember?

Negotiating about computer time. Always...

Writing.

AZ

 

It's Time to Play the Music....

 

It's time to light the lights, It's time to get things started on the Muppet Show tonight.

Ah, the Muppet Show.  The soundtrack of a happy 70s childhood.

Thus far, I have never had quite as much success getting my kids to perceive the brilliance of the Muppet Show as I might want to.  In the world of unending children's TV programming, on at all times of day or night, and on demand, and DVDs that they can watch in endless loops, the Muppet Show seems, well, kind of quaint!

They have watched a few old episodes but would nearly always pick something else out over it.

However,  via high-priced marketing tie-ins, we have found our way in....

On a recent grandmother visit to town, a certain grandmother known for spoiling her grandchildren rotten decided that she would take the kids to the new Make Your Own Muppet Workshop  at FAO Schwarz.  The kids proceeded to have a blast making muppets that channeled the inner them. *

 

They had a great time, and the little ones particularly loved the COLORFORM type sets they were each given to design their muppets.  It's not cheap; each Muppet costs $130.  So....its sort of in the American Girl category of things and designed specifically and only for grandmothers who like to come into town and spoil the kids rotten.  If, however, you have one of those in your life, I fully recommend the experience!

Best of all, we spent the rest of the week watching the Muppet Show, and that classic piece of 70s Cinema, The Muppet Movie.  You'll never guess who loves Animal....

AZ

  *pictures to follow.  At this moment they have not yet been taken and Mommy is way too lazy to get off her butt, find a camera, line them up, and photograph them.  Until I have some caffeine, we will all have to use our imaginations.

Inside and outside.

On Snow Day #2 , we were content to cuddle up inside:

 

 

And watch a little bit of this:

 

And a whole lot of this:

And sure we played in the snow, too.  And made cookies.  

Of course the next day the snow looked like this:

   

Which is just life in the city!

AZ
 
 

Chesbians?

At bedtime tonight, Ella was searching for a word that meant "the children of lesbians".*

We came up with chesbians, chays, cogs (children of the gays), and cols.

Any other ideas out there?

AZ

*This after both she and Ruby had trouble digesting how Ellen (DeGeneres)** could have a girlfriend.  We were like "uh...guys...um who do you live with?"

**yes we are watching American Idol  again, and boy is it time consuming!

What I'm thankful for today.

1.  The ocean.

2.  The free on-demand children's networks.

3. The fact that I am not at an amusement park today.

4. My beautiful, funny, talented, generous wife.*

5.  The soundtrack of [title of show]  which I listened to no less than four times on the plane ride from JFK-LAX.

6. The breathing time I have acquired this year while Violet is at school in the mornings.

7.  No visits to the emergency room all year.**

8.  The Yellowtail Sashimi with Jalapeno that my mother-in-law treated us to last night at NOBU.

9.  Wireless internet.

10.  The fact that none of my children's fingers have been amputated by any of the Maclarens  we have owned over the past ten years.

11.  The widespread introduction of Greek yogurt into American Grocery Stores/Starbuckses.

12.  Living just two blocks from Li-Lac Chocolates and being able to get those dark chocolate covered apricots at least once a day every once in a while.

13.  Time to read books like the beautiful Olive Kitteridge .

14. These folks.

So, what are you all thankful for?

AZ    

*Mushy, mushy, mushy,

**This is where T would say I am jinxing things. But the year is over, and I am thankful that we escaped this particular pitfall for at least 12 months.

A few things I am enjoying.

1.  The Bruschetta at Dell'anima  on 8th Avenue and Jane Street, particularly the ricotta one.

2. Violet's joy at finding letter "v"s on any printed material.

3.  Coffee from La Colombe   after sitting in the ballet studio all afternoon.

4.  Having Tanya in town with me for more than one week.

5.  Mad Men .

6.  Olive Kitteridge .  This book will stay with me for a long time.  A gorgeous book of short stories based around a not-so-always appealing math teacher in Maine.  I was definitely moved to tears a few times while reading this book.*

7.  The pork buns from Fatty Crab .  Now delivering to my house.

8. The soundtrack of Next to Normal , which has been in the CD player in the room with the elliptical and hence I hear frequently when I work out.**

9.  Reading Pippi Longstocking  to the kids.  Inspired by the trip to Sweden, I am rediscovering what a fun book this is.  Jerry and Ella are definitely both intrigued by Pippi...

10.  Dark chocolate covered apricots from  Li-Lac Chocolates .

Life is good.

AZ

*Though I was on an airplane, where I have also cried at "Cheaper by the Dozen 2".  Just sayin'.

**because changing the CD requires an energy i just don't have after working out.  

Sorry, but I don't have time to blog.

Because I have been packing up the whole summer?

Not really.

Because I am getting ready for the first days of school?

Nah. Thats easy.

No, because we are obsessively watching episode after episode of Mad Men.  I don't know if its the smoking, the drinking, the infidelity, the sexism, or the generally depressing depiction of marriage and relationships...but we love it!

If any of you out there are looking for something to take up all of your free time, we highly recommend it...

Now, back to the show....

AZ

first, the good news.

We went to a taping of the Colbert Report tonight.  We bought tickets at last year's nursery school auction*.  It was a great date night for T and I, mostly because it was unlike anything else that we usually do.Looks like you can get tickets here  if you don't happen to be going to any nursery school auctions anytime soon.  Whole experience was lots of fun.  Warm-up comic, Q & A with Colbert OUT of character, lots of instructions to laugh and clap VERY loudly**, and then a pretty funny show with Tom Brokaw as one guest, and the editor of the New Republic as the other guest.  We were thoroughly entertained.

And for the bad news?

In my enthusiasm to get a photograph for this very blog (before the show began, as there were no photographs after that), I whipped out my camera a little too quickly and dropped it with gusto*** onto the floor.  Lets be honest, this is not the first time that this has happened. Or even the tenth or the twentieth.  So far I have felt that the cell phone gods have been looking out for me because they don't want me to have to suffer the wrath of an irate wife convinced of her superiority in all technological matters to have to navigate the Genius Bar at the apple store.  Today however, perhaps I had it too good, being at the Colbert Report and all.  So I picked up the phone and it was all white with some weird blue stripes all over it.  I would have taken a picture of it, but.....

So you win some, you lose some.

Wouldn't be the end of the world for me to go a day or two without the iphone. ****

AZ

*a subject which certainly warrants a future posting.

**T at a distinct advantage here.

***first use of word gusto in the Zimwex Family Blog.  But almost certainly not the last.  

****it possibly could be. I don't know. I've never tried it.  By  never I mean since my first iphone purchase last summer.  My memories of life before that day are somewhat hazy.