What's Not on TV: This Story

Good things rarely happen on TV news. If you learned about the world from TV news you would think people spend their days raping, murdering and driving drunk. Buses fall off cliffs, trains crash and planes fly into homes.

Breaking Bad with Chicken Wings: Yeah!

Tonight was the Final Season Premiere of Breaking Bad on AMC. If you haven't seen this show, start watching it on Netflix. It is awesome.

Our older son, now nearly 17,  started watching the show about a year ago on his own.  I  disapproved, even though I'd never seen it. "Isn't that about meth? Don't they glamorize drugs?" Yes. And no. Not. At. All.

He said: "Why don't you watch the show first before you condemn it?" 

Father's Day, A Missing Remote and an Angry Old Cat

One of the problems with getting to know someone via facebook and blogs is we really have no idea what he or she is like in real life. Take me, for example. Checking out the last three posts on this blog, you might get the impression I am a depressive who seeks out drama. That is not entirely true. 

Sure, posts about: the death of the priest who married us; the closing of the parochial school my brother's children attend; and the turmoil in Ankara are not exactly a gallon of giggles. But truly, there are plenty of hijinks at our home. Consider the Search for the Remote on Father's Day and its Successful Discovery the morning after. 

This tale involves an elderly cat we recently adopted named Venus as well as a huge rip in the back of the sofa that nobody will take credit for. Generally we cover the rip up with an Americana quilt commissioned by a family friend's ex-father-in-law,  a man who spent time in the federal penitentiary, convicted of financial shenanigans. But I digress.

He-Man Has Nothing on Christ

One of our pastors, Father Jeff Calia, C.O., grew up in the 1980s and remembers He-Man. Do you?

How to Build a Tardis Cake (Or, What Happened Before the Whovians Showed Up)

I am not much of a baker; the other day my banana bread was so overcooked, my sons thought I had put walnuts in it. So when our 12-year-old said he wanted to have a Tardis cake for his Dr. Who Season 7 Premiere party, I enlisted the help of two friends, one of whom is a wonderful baker, the other who knows how to decorate just about anything. Trips to Party City,  googling Tardis cakes and this masterpiece emerged from our kitchen Saturday, with no help whatsoever from me, except for a quick run to the supermarket to pick up extra frosting and white chocolate....

Even TV and a Lazy Mom Can't Dismantle a Castle in the Clouds

Imagine my delight this morning when I found this drawing right next to my son's spot for TV watching on the sofa. I don't understand it. (See post script below for tonight's explanation) Where ever it came from -  a book,  a dream, a conversation or a TV show - it made its home in his imagination. I  consider the imagination a necessary, human and sacred place, the doors to which even the laziest mom on the hottest week cannot close.


I read other mom blogs. I know what I'm up against. I read about women raising large numbers of children. They grow their own food, rewire their home's electrical systems, shear sheep, breastfeed while publishing cookbooks, and teach their well-scrubbed little ones the Liturgy of the Hours. I am in no way exaggerating. I have a husband, two sons, a dog and a cat. I've never grown anything I could eat. I sometimes knit, but the wool is not from my own sheep. Yes, I breastfed, but that was nearly a decade ago.

Looking for Justice From TV Shows

I’m a crime-show addict. You name it, I’ll watch it: Criminal Minds, Law and Order, NCIS, Bones, CSI Miami, The Closer, The Killing, Without a Trace, In Plain Sight. What is it about my heart makes me seek out such creepiness?  I think it has to do with a longing for justice.