31 Days Done

Well, I did it. I wrote an entry every day this month. They weren't all gems. Quite a few of them were a little stinky but at least I did it. The obvious last entry for October is how we spent our Halloween.

Grace went as a Scary Pumpkin and Declan was Captain Rex from Star Wars.
Halloween is changing as they get older. Obviously, they have their own opinions about what they should be wearing. No getting them into the little lion or lady bug costumes anymore. Grace also had a friend from school come along with us. We have the perfect neighborhood for trick or treating-lots of houses to pick from. At what age am I supposed to let her go off on her own? I'm leaning towards 18.
Declan had a different method for checking out his candy haul. He sorted everything out by type. He could hardly believe how much he got. He had to come home halfway through and empty his pumpkin because it was getting to heavy to hold.

Now, if you will excuse me, I think I am going to take a few days off from my blog. I'm just going to sit back and steal some candy from the kids.

1970's Television

The kids watch shows that I think are just horrible. ICarly and The Suite Life of Zach and Cody are awful and they are not allowed to watch Hannah Montana. But when I think back to what I used to watch, I think I shouldn't be so judgemental. At least the production values have improved.

The Birdhouse Factory

Tonight was a school night but I kept the kids out late anyway. One of the perks of my job(It's possibly the only perk) is that we get a lot of free tickets to plays and shows at Merrill Auditorium. I usually can't go due to our backwards schedules but tickets came up for The Birdhouse Factory so I scooped some up. I had no idea who they were but I had the urge to sit in the dark and watch something that wasn't a TV. At the last minute, Tim couldn't come with us but I decided to be brave and take the kids out in public at night by myself. The show is fantastic. It's like the acrobats at the circus broke off and made their own show. At first I was worried that it would be like Cirque du Soleil because those people freak me right out. Instead it was funny and crazy and the kids really liked it.

Poor Peter

Peter the cat had to take a trip to the vet this morning. He was so excited about it as he always is! He has had this black lump on his lip for months now but we noticed a couple days ago that it seemed to have swelled up and burst open. I don't want to get too graphic here but it was gross. Plus, he wasn't really eating because of the huge open wound on his face. Tim had to take him in because I had to go to work. About once every 5 years they let me leave the building to go help on stories. Today, I had to spend the morning down at the courthouse trying to help the photographers catch people with suspended licenses who show up for their court date and then drive away afterwards. This meant I was out of cell phone contact because judges don't like you when your phone goes off during court. I was sort of convinced all morning that the vet told Tim it was time to let Peter go and he had no way to contact me. Thankfully, when I finally was able to talk to him, Peter was still with us. The vet said he was 90% sure it was an ulcer and not a tumor. I had never even considered cancer so now I have a new thing to worry about. This will still be a problem because it is hard for pets with diabetes to heal. For now, we just have to watch and wait. Peter is oblivious to all of this. He just wants to sleep in his bed that I sprinkle with catnip. I figure if we just keep him high, he won't notice how his life sort of sucks.

More Boxes...

More boxes arrived today. Now, I just need that time to myself and I'll be able to fill you in on what I am doing. Hopefully that will happen sooner rather than later.

Kids Do The Darndest Things

The kids like to use the photo booth feature on our Mac laptop. I have no interest in anything that takes your picture so I don't really know how it works. The kids, of course, are wiz's at it and have figured out all of the features. Sometimes I let them take the laptop and play with it. Don't tell Tim. It's funny to discover all their "works". Here are some of their latest.

A Miracle In Freeport

We had to take a trip up to L.L. Bean this afternoon. Freeport usually drives me crazy with all the cars and tourists but I thought we were pretty safe on a Sunday afternoon in October. We still had to park a million miles away from the store but it wasn't too bad. I had to exchange some pants and had the very important task of buying some ice grippers for my parent's shoes. My father is not allowed this year to fall on the ice and spend 2 months in the hospital.

I don't know what Bean's policy is on using cameras inside the store but I didn't care and took some anyway. Their newish fish tank has a bubble top inside it so kids can pop their heads up inside. We always have to make a stop there. One day, I am going to try it.
I'm glad I had the camera because a small miracle happened. Grace walked up a rock path they had and demanded I take her picture. She even made me move in front of her so the picture would be better. Let's hope this attitude lasts.
Now what kid in Maine hasn't stood next to the big boot? Declan wants to climb to the top of it but I don't think that's such a good idea.

Pumpkin Spice Cookies

Now, I never buy packaged cookie mix. I do buy packaged cake mix but cookies I usually make from scratch unless that frozen roll of chocolate chip cookie dough catches my eye. Anyway, I walked past this in the store the other day and it looked good so I grabbed it. It poured all day long today so it seemed like good cookie making weather.

The ingredients are very simple. Almost too simple-I had to really mix it to get it to form dough. Not a good sign. Actually it's a sign that I need to win one of those Kitchen-Aid mixers that the Pioneer Woman is always giving away but that is a different story.
The kids were only interested in the final result so I had no help from them. Owen showed up to help though. He finds himself at a loss on rainy days because he has to spend it in the house and he doesn't know what to do with himself.
We were almost attacked by Captain Rex from Star Wars: The Clone Wars but we battled him back to the living room with our light saber.
The mix was very pumpkiny. Usually that's a good smell but I didn't like this.
They turned out okay and I'm sure they will get eaten up but I think I'll go back to my old ways and make my next cookies from scratch. Maybe I just wanted pumpkin pie?

My New Favorite Things

Since my last favorite things posting, I have bought all new stuff I don't need but really wanted. Tim loves it when I buy stuff like that. This usually happens after a trip to The Christmas Tree Shop.

This candle actually smells like falling leaves. I love the smell but want nothing to do with the actual falling leaves outside my house so I just light this instead.
3 unrelated pictures but I can hang them together because I used the same black frame. The top one is an old photo of Rangeley I bought off eBay. The middle one is a photo of spools of thread that I bought at a craft fair last year. The bottom is an old black and white postcard of the Rangeley country club where we had our wedding reception. The basket holds a bunch of cross stitch projects that I never do.
I love these 3 mugs and am always kicking myself that I didn't buy more of them because now I can't find them. They are bigger that normal cups but not outrageously so. I also love that the colors are on the inside.
These are Grace and Declans school pictures this year. We finally got one where Declan is smiling normally because he usually sucks in his lips and then smiles. Grace's picture shows her developing sassy attitude.
I don't like how pink this is but what can you do. It's one of those neck wrap things full of rice or something that you heat up in the microwave. It's supposed to be for aches and pains but lately I have been using it just to warm up. The other night I ordered this same thing in a neck pillow and and an eye wrap-in green this time.
This is my new obsession. I can't stop ordering from her because everything smells so good. I thought the Maine Woodland Berry was my favorite scent and then I got Cupcake and Maine Wildflower and now I just can't make up my mind. I love the hand lotion and the sugar foot scrub. I also can't stop buying the little pots of lip balm just because they are so cute.

I'm A Reality Star

This week, I began appearing in a reality show on Facebook. I am not the star of it. My appearances are more like a game of Where's Waldo? Here is the deal. Our news director went off to a news director's conference and came back all worked up and full of new ideas. He decided we were going to start using Facebook like crazy. We start our day in the newsroom by having a meeting to discuss all the possible story ideas out there and then we decide which ones we are doing. This takes about 45 minutes because we just can't stay on task, Now, we are recording these meetings and putting them up on our Facebook page every day. I would put up the link to take you directly to it but I don't want my blog linked to my work at all. So you're going to have to do some steps on your own. Go to Facebook and then search for the WGME fan page. Then, scroll down a little and you will see the video from our morning meetings. We can only fit the first 10 minutes onto Facebook and I usually go last so you hardly see or hear from me. If you look closely though, you can see me sitting behind the assignment desk. You can see my work though. I have to fill out the huge white erase board with all the possible ideas. It's strange to watch them because it looks a little scripted or staged and it's not at all. This is what our normal meeting looks like-we just find ourselves watching our language more. I don't know how long this "idea" is going to last but we seem to be a hit. I have said for years that people would like to see behind the scenes stuff but who listens to me?

Leave The Gun. Take The Cannoli.

I had a bad food day. In my defense, I started the day with an organic yogurt-just remember that. Things went downhill with my lunch. I wanted a sandwich so I headed over to the supermarket where I picked up a not so very good chicken salad. Mid-day at the supermarket drives me crazy because it's all old ladies shopping. Nothing against them, but I'm in a hurry and they are very slow and they are all writing checks or digging for exact change. Anyway, I ended up in the bakery where I saw these cannoli and I had to have them. They weren't just regular cannoli. They were coated in chocolate too. Again, in my defense, they are mini and the walnuts on them are healthy. Just saying.

So I bought them but never got a change to eat them until tonight. The trouble was, I had to go back to the store after work to do a little real shopping. Basically, I was going shopping hungry which you are never supposed to do.
I managed to walk past most of the cookie aisle and I was almost out of it but then I saw the white chocolate chip cookies. So, these came home with me.
Then, right next to those, were these. Grasshoppers are a good substitute for Girl Scout Thin Mints. They are not as good but they will do. They are especially good frozen. These came home with me too.
I then passed the pop tarts. The box says 7 vitamins and minerals. It just doesn't mention all the sugar. These came home with me too.
The ice cream was on sale. You hardly ever find cherry ice cream so I had to buy it plus it was on sale. This came home with me.
I can't even come up with an excuse for why I bought these let alone four of them. Sometimes I just have a salt craving and want to pretend I'm back in college. I still feel weird cooking ramen on a stove. In college, we always had to make it in a coffee pot and I don't own a coffee pot now. So, lesson learned. I don't like that I went to the store hungry but I'm glad we have snacks now.

He'll Make You Smile

I got nothing tonight. Seriously, there is no way I could find anything interesting to write tonight. Instead, enjoy my boyfriend Craig Ferguson singing. He will always make you smile.

What Could It Be?

See these two packages? Well, I'm not going to tell you what is in them... yet. I'll just say that I have finally decided to get off my butt and do something I have always said I would do. My threatened 10% pay cut had a lot to do with it. I am still waiting for a few more packages and some time to myself and I will reveal all. In the meantime, ponder why this photograph is reversed? I have no answer to that.

Extreme Home Makeover

Want to know how boring our rainy Sunday was? The most I could come up to write about was my refrigerator makeover. I just got sick of looking at the clutter.

Here it is before. To begin with , I freely admit I have too many magnets which is not helping things. Also, the kids papers have covered things up. The two paintings at the bottom were done last winter.
Here is the after. We'll see how long this lasts. It took about 10 minutes but what a huge improvement. Declan is working on some dried leaf pictures and you can see one at the bottom. There is still another to come. Unfortunately I still have the inside of the refrigerator to tackle but I am not doing that today.

I'm Willy Wonka

I had to make a quick trip to A.C. Moore which turned into a much longer trip because I didn't go alone. The candy making supplies were on sale so, of course, I had to buy 2 bags. The kids informed me they did not like white chocolate so I made sure to get some for myself. That way, they won't eat all the candy.

Basically all you need to make this candy is a microwave. You melt the wafers and mix them up until they're smooth.
Then, you just pour it into the mold's and tap them against the counter a few times to even them out. I overfilled some of them but it's all chocolate so who cares?
I have another mold that makes lollipops so I made those for the kids. These will not last the weekend. I snuck in a white chocolate one for me. I'll probably have to make some more tomorrow.

An hour in the refrigerator and you have a whole plate of candy. Except now, Declan says he likes white chocolate. He wanted to try one and I didn't want him to waste one. He said to me, "Don't worry. Even if I don't like it, I won't spit it out because it's chocolate. Who spits out chocolate?" It was logic I couldn't argue with so I let him have it.

News Speak

There is a whole different language spoken in a newsroom. Most of it is technical terms. Some of it isn't and it's not very nice so be prepared. If a group tour is going through the newsroom then we need to be warned ahead of time.We don;t want to teach some little kid their first swear word. When your job involves so much death and stupidity then you have to let some of the niceties go. It's actually sort of refreshing to work in a place that isn't so politically correct. Anyway, I'll hold back on some of our more colorful terms.

Here are some tech terms:

*vo-This is just straight video that the anchor talks over

*vo/sot-This is video the anchor talks over with a soundbite attached.

*package-This is a 1-2 minute long story voiced by a reporter.

*sat feed-This is a satellite feed coming into the station from somewhere else. For example, we use them to interview our Senators from the Senate recording studio inside the US Capital.

*rundown-Every show takes hours for the producers to write and the rundown is the skeleton of the show the producer fills in every day. It shows every script in the order it will go as well as the length of the scripts because all shows must be exactly timed. Directors then add their cameras directions to it so the camera people and anchors know which cameras they are on.

*Uplink-This is when another station or CBS or CNN want some of our video. They book satellite time and we feed it out to them.

*phoner-the reporter has to call into the show on their cell usually because we can't get live from wherever they are.

*In a truck-This means a crew has to take a live truck with them so we can be live from the scene.

OK, here are some other terms we use:

*pigfuck-This is when something goes wrong in a show and the whole thing goes down in flames. One of our producers has a whole collection of little pigs over his desk.

*cop shop-This is just the police station-don't know why we call it that.

*POHOP-This is The Portland House of Pizza. It's in our parking lot and it's very important.

Chocolate Cake

I am exhausted today and I am blaming these chocolate cakes. Last night, I was in a minor rage after reading my union email and, after a while, a chocolate craving took a hold of me. I specifically wanted chocolate cake or brownies and I didn't have either. I was starting to get a little panicky. Then I remembered that, weeks ago, I bought the ingredients for The Pioneer Woman's Molten Chocolate Lava Cake. So I found myself making these at 11pm last night and as a result of all that chocolate, I was awake until about 2:30am. I actually like staying up that late and I always have but I still have to be at work by 8am. On the bright side, I did get some of my reading done. Tonight, I also wanted some chocolate but these cakes were long gone. Instead, I made some hot chocolate but I also took some Tylenol PM.

I'm Overpaid

See this letter below? It is an update sent out by our union about our contract negotiations. Going in to talks, the company was looking for an across the board 10% pay cut for all employees. According to this, they have changed their minds and only assignment editors and operating techs will get the 10% cut. I'm an assignment editor. Suddenly I feel like doing 10% less at work from now on. Actually, I mostly feel like quitting.

October 14, 2009 – WGME-TV Member Update

Your Union Negotiating Committee and the Company met to continue negotiations on Tuesday, October 13 and Wednesday, October 14. IBEW 2nd District Representative Ed Collins joined us again at the bargaining table. Federal Mediator Elayne Tempel also participated in our talks.

Earlier this afternoon, the Company presented us with what they termed their “last and final offer.” But we still have not had an opportunity to fully evaluate their proposal and we expect to continue working to improve it in the coming weeks. We will be developing a list of questions and information needs in order to make that evaluation.

The Company has continued their call for a company-wide wage freeze with future increases to be offered to our members at the same rate that they unilaterally decide to give non-bargaining unit people at WGME-TV. In addition, they modified their wage concession demand as follows:

· 10% wage decrease for Operating Technicians and Assignment Editors
· 5% wage decrease for Producer/Directors, Photographers, News Producers, and Creative Producer
· No change in wages for News Editors or Maintenance Engineers

The Union withdrew our proposals on flexibility in response to member concerns about job security issues, but the Company responded with their proposal that maintained many of the flexibility provisions they’ve been demanding. Those proposals would allow them to assign work outside of a member’s primary classification. They also continue to demand that an unlimited number of non-bargaining unit employees be allowed to perform bargaining unit work.

The Union proposed a performance review process with a far greater level of objectivity than the Company’s current method of evaluating employees. It would also provide our members with an opportunity to have real input on their own assessments. The Company accepted this proposal.

We’re glad to report that the Company has dropped their demand to ignore seniority during the assignment of shifts. However, they continue to insist on other troublesome proposals, including one that people who call out sick during a week in which they worked more than 40 hours should not be paid for their overtime at the higher rate. With widespread concerns about the seasonal flu and H1N1, we think that giving sick people a disincentive to stay home flies in the face of the best current scientific advice, and we told them so.

Please note: We are planning to schedule afternoon and evening membership meetings in the coming weeks to review the current proposals and solicit your feedback. As soon as we’ve finalized the date and location, we will be in touch.

In solidarity,
Your Negotiating Committee

Jack Amrock
Steve Schrader
Matt Beck
Cynthia Phinney

Kath & Kim

A few years ago, I started watching this show from Australia called Kath and Kim. It ran on some obscure cable channel that shut down and then it was on the Sundance Channel for a while. Being from Australia, it was understandably hard to find. You can order the DVDs from Amazon but they don't run on our DVD players because they have a different system down there. Don't even get me started on why that shouldn't be allowed-All DVDs should be equal. NBC made an American version of this show last season, but, it was the worst show I think I have ever seen. Anyway, I was bored the other night and Googled them thinking someone might have posted some episodes somewhere. I was beyond excited to find all 4 seasons legally posted online along with their TV movie. Needless to say, it has taken up a lot of my weekends. If you like Absolutely Fabulous, then do yourself a favor and watch this. It is one of my favorite TV shows ever and now I just have to figure out how to copy them onto DVD but that is more of a project for Tim.

Watch K&K-s1e1.avi in Comedy | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Apple Cake

Today was a very slow day at work thanks to Mr. Columbus. For me, that just meant extra time to Google apple recipes. I am very tired of peeling apples with our broken peeler but I need to make my bag of apples disappear. I printed out recipes for apple bread, apple cookies, crock pot applesauce, baked apples and apple cake. I figured the apple cake was the easiest to start with because I actually had all the ingredients.

When we were out picking, the kids liked all the tiny baby apples so I am starting with those first. Some are no bigger than a plum and they are a pain in the butt to peel.

These are two of my favorite things to use when baking. I love my red bowl from Stonewall Kitchen. It is outrageously priced but they sell it at LL Bean so I got it for 40% off with Tim's discount and didn't feel so guilty. The other is my mothers old metal measuring cups. They are from when I was little and they are very banged up. She was throwing them out and I grabbed them. Isn't it so strange the stuff we take from our parent's house that they want to get rid of but we have to have? I wonder what Grace and Declan will want later?
I don't have a Cuisinart. I think that's one of those things you usually get from your wedding registry and I didn't have one of those. Tim bought this little chopper for his Thanksgiving dinner a few years ago and it works pretty well. The apple cake recipe called for finely chopped up apples and I didn't want to do it by hand.
Here is the final product. It smelled great because the recipe called for lots of cinnamon and vanilla. The apples give it sort of a chunky appearance that I don't really like. If I make it again I'll probably puree them more. So... on to apple cookies.

Storyland Pictures

We took our yearly trip to Storyland today. It's the poor man's version of Disney but I think that almost every kid in New England goes there at least once. Luckily, I always get us free tickets through work so that's a $100 savings right there. It's an almost 2 hour trip so we got going very early this morning. We fit the trip in just in time because they close for the season on Monday. It was a very brisk Fall day as you can see by the leaves up on the mountains.

Grace told me outright that I couldn't take her picture so any that make it in here were snuck in.
On the other hand, Declan was a willing participant. I wonder how much longer that will last?
We took a train ride around the park and got off in time for an early lunch.
Tim and I were starving so we had the whole lunch pavilion to ourselves. When we passed it an hour later, it was packed.
Declan was very excited to drive his own tractor. Tim and I hitched a ride in the backseat.
This year, Grace was finally tall enough to go on the rides by herself so she took advantage of that as much as possible.
Towards the end of the day she finally posed for a picture for me.
Then we baked Declan inside of a pie and called it a day.

The Tired Mom's Apple Pie

So, a week has gone by and I haven't done much with the big bag of handpicked apples from last weekend. I knew I had to get going on making something before I wasted them all. The problem is, I'm tired. I'm like, up all night, swine flu tired. I decided I was going to make a pie but I was going to cheat. I usually always make my own pie crust because it's just flour and water and shortening and it's not hard at all. Instead, I went to the store and bought some fake pie crust. It comes all rolled up in a perfect circle. It doesn't taste as good but I'm not exactly Julia Child so who cares?

While I was at the store, I also bought an apple corer. I have never really wanted one because I had a bad experience with one when I was younger. I figured the technology has improved since them so I bought myself one.
It is a miracle machine. I cut up all 8 apples in less than 5 minutes flat. It would take at least twice that long with the steak knife I usually use to cut things up. Come to think of it, I could probably use a new set of knives if I;m using steak knives to cut things up.
Between the fake crust and the easy cutting, the pie was ready in no time. In all my pie recipe Googling, I kept seeing ones with caramels added so I threw a few of those in too. We'll see how that turns out.
One hour later, I had my Tired Mom's Pie. Unfortunately I have barely made a dent in the bag of apples I have left.