Another Great Blog

Okay, so lots of people have known about this blog for a long time, but I just discovered Give Me My Remote, a terrific site for television fans. I especially like this blog because the author is a huge fan of my favorite TV show, The Office.

This site reminds me of another television site I love, Television Without Pity. Considering I only religously watch a few shows (two of which, Project Runway and American Idol, air at opposite times of the year), I sure do love reading about all kinds of pop culture junk.

Food, Glorious Food, Part 2

Here are a few more items to add to my original list:

11. Hush puppies (also known as corn fritters) from Dean's Restaurant in Hampstead, Maryland. Powdered sugar-coated, greasy, wonderful. (Good call, Nan!)

12. Apple butter and cottage cheese mixed together. I suppose I could make this here if I could find some good apple butter.

13. Snowballs. Not snow cones, but snowballs--crushed, not shaved ice, with chocolate and marshmallow. (Thanks, Kate!)

14. While we're on the subject of frozen food, I must bring up Friendly's--an east-coast ice cream/restaurant chain. Home of the Fribble milkshake, the Jim Dandy sundae, and the Clamboat (fried clam strips on a roll).

15. Another east-coast chain: Rita's. Their italian ices hit the spot. My favorite is a gelati--cherry ice mixed with vanilla frozen custard.

16. In the category of convenience-store food, there's Sheetz. It's like a 7-11 with a real grill. They make sandwiches cooked to order. In the morning, you can get a Shmuffin (like an Egg McMuffin). At night, their cheesesteak subs are hard to beat.

17. A corned beef sandwich from Atman's Deli on Lombard Street in downtown Baltimore. (Thanks again, Kate!)

18. And, finally, Dunkin' Donuts. They used to have stores in L.A., but they are all gone now. Really good french vanilla coffee and yummy donuts.

Food, Glorious (Baltimore) Food

Today, P.C. and I went to our favorite, disgusting burger stand, the Munch Box. It got me thinking about foods particular to Baltimore, my hometown. (Not that greasy burgers are particular to Los Angeles, but I think if I moved away, I'd yearn for a Hickory Burger from the Munch Box.) So, here's my Top 10 list, in no particular order. (By the way, my mom's cooking doesn't count--there's a lot to yearn for there!)

You'll also notice that there are a few places that aren't in the boundaries of Baltimore City. Deal with it... :-)

1. A crab dip-covered soft pretzel from Michael's Cafe.

2. Steamed blue crabs.

3. Berger cookies. The most luscious, stomachache-inducing, fudgy cookies ever.

4. A three-way bagel (a bagel cut into three slices) with nova and whitefish salad from Suburban House. (Okay, so you can buy this in a lot of places, but where else can you get a three-way bagel served with lots of kvetching in the background?)

5. Tastykake Butterscotch Krimpets. You can buy Tastykakes outside of Baltimore, but not in L.A.!

6. Utz potato chips. Favorite flavor: The Crab Chip, sprinkled with Old Bay seasoning.

7. Crab Cakes from Friendly Farm in Upperco, Maryland--north of Baltimore. Small-town eating at its best.

(okay, the spacing is off here and I can't seem to fix it!)

8. Steamed mussels from Bertha's.

9. The Chiapparelli salad from Chiapparelli's Restaurant in Little Italy. There's something about that house dressing ... yum!

10. Pizza from Ledo's in College Park. The rectangular pizza is so wonderful. I have found a close alternative in Los Angeles: Barone's pizza. And not just because it is rectangular.

I notice that four items on the list have something to do with crabs. I am a true Baltimore gal! I've learned by now that if a menu item in L.A. reads, "Maryland Crab Cakes," I need to stay away or I'll be disappointed.

So it looks like I have a few complete meals here. Salad, entrees, desserts ... mmm ... my mouth is watering!

At Least It's Not Rocky V...

A few days ago, we went to see Rocky Balboa, the sixth in the Sylvester Stallone series. We didn't expect much, but P.C. and I both love the series (well, most of it), so we wanted to see the next (last?) one. Rocky V, its predecessor, might be one of the worst movies ever made, and I was hoping that Rocky Balboa wouldn't be on the same level. Well, it was better than Rocky V.

Writer/director Stallone gave himself a couple of really bad speeches, the story relied too much on flashbacks from previous movies, and (BIG SPOILER HERE), Adrian is dead. The love story between Adrian and Rocky, portrayed so beautifully in the original Rocky, has become a bunch of flashbacks and Rocky walking around depressed until he can "fight his demons." Killing off Adrian was a big mistake.

Okay, enough complaining. There were three moments in this film (and in all of these movies, actually), that made the audience cheer:

1. When the title of the movie scrolled across the screen in the beginning, accompanied by trumpet fanfare.

2. When Rocky decided to fight his opponent and began his training (with "Gonna Fly Now" playing).

3. The fight scenes. I'm not a boxing fan, but watching underdog Rocky fight always fires me up.

For the record, here's how I rank the Rocky movies:

1. Rocky. The original. 1976 Oscar winner for Best Picture. An exciting underdog story combined with a beautiful love story.

2. Rocky III. Probably because I saw it many, many times more than the others. Also, Mr. T. as Clubber Lang. ("My prediction? Pain.") Also, I love the friendship between Rocky and Apollo Creed (the last five minutes are especially great).

3. Rocky II. A great movie with a lot of humor, too. Most closely resembles the original.

4. Rocky IV. Rocky fights super-Soviet boxer Ivan "I will break you" Drago. The humor between Apollo and Rocky continues again, although (SPOILER ALERT) it is short-lived when Drago kills Apollo in the ring.

5. Rocky Balboa.

6. Rocky V. Rocky in a street fight against youngster Tommy Gunn? Ugh.

If you've never seen the original Rocky, it is definitely worth seeing, whether you are a fan of boxing or not. Let me know what you think!

So Far, So Good

Numbers came in fine on Monday, so we're still rolling along! I go in on Thursday the 28th for my first ultrasound. So my job between now and then is to keep thinking positively, eat healthfully, and distract myself! ONWARD!

Hope...and More Waiting

On Thursday, we got some wonderful news: I'm pregnant. After the initial excitement--and believe me--there still is a ton of it!--we are ready to move to the next step.

So, tomorrow, I go back to the doctor's, give another vial of blood, and hope that my hormone levels are proceeding at an appropriate rate to make the pregnancy viable. I'm very nervous about it, but feeling surprisingly calm. Of course, I am so relieved to know that I CAN get pregnant--something we weren't sure about--but, dammit, I want to stay pregnant!

I guess all I can do is put my faith in a higher power, keep doing my positive visualizations, and hope for the best.

One strange thing that happened to me last night: I was at a Hanukkah party, and I congratulated my cousin's wife on their recently-announced pregnancy, and she looked at me and said, "Are you pregnant?" She'd had a dream about me being pregnant, which is completely random--we don't know each other well and only see each other at family functions. Wild!

Also, my dog is still enjoying snuggling up next to my belly. So I'm feeling optimistic. We'll know more tomorrow.

Thanks to everyone for their prayers and positive energy. It has definitely made a difference--please keep it up! :-)

Tomorrow...

Tomorrow, I will go to the doctor in the morning and give some blood. Then, in the afternoon, I'll find out if any of those three embryos implanted last week decided to make my body their home for the next nine months.

I'm feeling okay. I don't feel any signs of pregnancy, although I'm told that isn't a big deal. I can't guess, so why bother? If I'm pregnant, I'll be overjoyed but cautious. If I'm not, I'll be sad. It really is that simple.

I've spent the last nine days focusing on positive visualizations, imagining good stuff, and trying to brush aside any negative thoughts. I am in a much better place emotionally for this second cycle than I was for my first six months ago, and that, all by itself, is a good thing. Also, I think I'm reacting better to all the hormones during this cycle. No huge crying fits, no blowups for no apparent reason. The only time I cried was right after I woke up from my egg retrieval--probably just relief, post-anesthesia. For anyone who knows me, this is highly unusual, as it usually takes very little to make me cry.

An interesting thing that has been happening over the last week is that by dog, who normally sleeps next to me, has made it a point to try and snuggle next to my stomach. Maybe she just knows I need a little extra comfort and protection there.

So...here we go...

Did You Grow up in the 1980's?

If so, then you should check out a blog I recently discovered, Lost in the 80's. It contains pretty interesting commentary on different music from that era. Click here to read his thoughts about Stevie Nicks' "new wave" phase.

Currently, it's "Lost Cars Week." That's The Cars, with Ric Ocasek, as opposed to The New Cars, featuring Todd Rundgren, which just seems like a bad idea to me.

The Waiting

"The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you get one more yard
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part"
--Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, The Waiting

Yesterday, P.C. and I were the proud recipients of three beautiful embryos, just waiting to make me their home. I'm feeling good and am on bedrest until Thursday. I feel good physically and mentally. But it sure would be nice to know how all this is going to turn out. I've been working really hard on positive visualizations and good thoughts. Please keep all of us in your thoughts over the next couple of weeks!

On another note, I do have to admit that this bedrest thing is pretty fantastic. I wouldn't necessarily be into doing it for an extended period of time, but for a few days, it sure is nice to be lying around, relaxing and not thinking of anything but good thoughts.

Onward!

Shut Up & Sing

Yesterday I went to see Shut Up & Sing (click here to view the trailer), a documentary based on the country-music group the Dixie Chicks. In 2003, lead singer Natalie Maines started a controversy when, at the height of President Bush's pre-war popularity, she stated at a concert in London: "Just so you know, we're ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas." This comment set off a storm of controversy, resulting in plummeting record sales, anti-Chicks rallies, and a death threat against Maines.

When this controversy happened, I remember thinking that, while Maines had the absolute right to say whatever she wanted to say, it might have been career suicide for her to say it, because the country music world is stereotypically very conservative and people would precieve her statement as unpatriotic.

The focus of the movie surrounds what unraveled in the aftermath of Maines' London comment, along with the Chicks' (successful) attempt to rebuild their career two years later.

I went to see the movie because I really like the Dixie Chicks' music and was impressed by their honesty and bravery. But this movie also showed me something you don't see often in the media--the power of women sticking together no matter what. These women have had a sisterhood that has survived so much--without dessension.

I wrote an email of praise to Cecilia Peck, one of the directors (and an alumna of the school where I work), and she wrote in her e-mail back to me that she and her co-director, Barbara Kopple, were "very inspired by the unbreakable bond of friendship between the three women. There are so many themes; of the effect of the media and the internet hate groups on public opinion, of the cost of speaking out against the government in our post-911 climate of fear, of the state of free speech in our country. But we really tried to stay with the three Dixie Chicks and watch how they matured as women and as artists and as friends during a very challenging time."

A strong story about the bond between women--I highly recommend it.