Who would Spellcheck vote for?

Spellcheck thinks Huckabee is Chickadee and that Obama is Osama.

Hey Now, You're An All-Star!

Yes, its been a while since Mr. Watts posted in this space....I try and let Jen describe the more day-to-day events in our lives, which leaves me to deal with more random stories or special events...and this past weekend was a special event for me, because it was my annual trip with my father to the NHL All-Star Game.

As many friends and family know, my Dad and I have made this a regular trip since I got into the media business and was able to secure us credentials for each game...we've been to every game since 2000 (minus the 2003 game in Miami) which has given us the chance to eat free food and take in some fun hockey in cities like Toronto, Denver, LA, St. Paul and Dallas...

This year, the game was in Atlanta, and we had a blast, though there were some things that we were decidedly "thumbs down" about...so lets turn this whole post into a Siskel & Ebert recap of the weekend:

Right out of the gate, THUMBS DOWN to both my father and I for each forgetting our digital cameras. I left mine at home as I rushed out the door at 4am Friday to catch my flight at JFK. We had it in my hand, and then I left it, thinking "oh Dad will have his, and his is smaller and easier to lug around." So I meet Dad at baggage claim in Atlanta and what's the first thing he said to me?? "I forgot the camera"

So please excuse the pictures in this post for their low quality and overall shoddy feel...they are from my cell phone, and they're not the best, but hopefully they'll add a little spice to the post.

THUMBS UP to the irish pub just outside our hotel. We stayed at the Marriott Marquis in downtown Atlanta (which was the media hotel for the NHL) and had a few restaurants around the area, but we spent time Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday night at the place, where the beer was good and the mozzerella sticks were awesome...mmm..fried cheese....

I'm probably coming back as a homeless person in my next life because of this next one, but THUMBS WAYYYY DOWN to the homeless beggars outside the hotel, who seemingly popped up out of nowhere even when we only had to walk a block or two. The problem with downtown Atlanta is that all the major hotels are within a two block radius of each other, so the folks looking for handouts have decided that this area is their best bet to hit up tourists and visitors for coins.

And its not like I mind giving some homeless dude some cash every now and then. Lord knows I've been hit up more than a few times in NYC....but here's the difference between NYC homeless people and Atlanta homeless people...in NYC, you might get someone to ask for some cash, but if you tell them you don't have anything for them, they stop talking and leave you alone...Atlanta homeless people aren't put off that easily....first they come up to you and ask you where you're headed, then walk step-by-step with you as you try to get away, trying to make conversation with you, before finally, FINALLY saying something like "look I don't mean to bug you, but...."

REALLY?!?! You don't mean to bug me?!?! Well, you're doing a fine job so far, you annoying prick!!

As much as I'd like to have said that (or a few other choice things), I didn't...because you never know when a homeless guy might whip out a switch and cut ya or something, but still,

So I'd say, "hey, Man...I've got nothing for you."

And then you get harassed! They always say something smart or obnoxious, usually punctuated with the F-word or something...I'm telling you, homeless people around Atlanta have attitudes...and again, I know the previous few paragraphs is probably putting me on the fast-track to hell, but seriously!! I'll take my homeless people a little less obnoxious, please...

In fact, THUMBS DOWN to most Atlantans for having the same bad attitude...some of the staff at the hotel were cranky, the servers at the pub were surly, only the shuttle bus drivers seemed to be genuinely happy with themselves...everyone else seems to suffer from at eternal bad attitude, like they've figured out "Crap, I live in Atlanta...this town sucks...what am I doing here??"

THUMBS UP to getting to see the NHL guys up close and personal during the media availabilities....thats always fun...you learn pretty quickly that NHL players are usually fairly short, almost always personable, and overall genuinely good guys...guys you would want your daughter to date...in fact, when I have a daughter, we're making sure she gets together with a hockey player...of course, at this rate, I'll be 47 before we have a child, boy or girl...just kidding, sweetie...don't kill me... (seriously, don't kill me) =)

Anyways, here are some pictures from that day...none of them rival the picture of me interviewing Eric Lindros one-on-one while Bob Dylan looks on, but still pretty cool...

Ilya Kovalchuk

Scott Gomez

Evgeni Malkin

Henrik Sedin

By the way, the Watts-Lindros-Dylan picture does exist...just not digitally...which is unfortunate.

THUMBS UP for the unintentional comedy inspired by some of the people asking questions at Media Day...for instance, there was some black dude there from a hip-hop channel trying to ask edgy questions to the players...or at least trying to relate to them....which wasn't happening on any level....here's an example of one exchange:

Black interviewer: "Yo, dawg! You excited to be here and throw down for the fans??"

Vincent Lecavailer: "Uh, you know its just a great honor to be chosen to play in the game..."

Black interviewer (now hurriedly looking at his list of possible questions, because he's ALREADY out of ideas): "I feel you, I feel you, well tell the folks in the ATL that you're ready to put on a show!!"

Lecavalier (looking deadpan into the camera): "See you Atlanta folks at the game."

Highest of high comedy...good times....I love media time.

THUMBS WAYYY UP for a comedic moment infinitely more funny than the black guy at Media Day...so the Marriott Marquis was hosting a number of groups this weekend...along with the NHL, they had the International Poultry Expo (for what, chickens from Spain? turkeys from Turkey?), some sort of youth soccer convention, and the Battle of the Bands....which was taking place over at the Georgia Dome Saturday night (picture "Drumline")...so most of Saturday you had all these young kids running around the hotel...

So after the Skills competition Saturday night, we headed back to the hotel, dropped some stuff off in the room, and headed out to get a drink...so we're riding the elevator down from the 16th floor and we stop at the 11th floor and about six black guys between the ages of 16 and 18 jump on...being kinda loud, but no big deal...but they're all hip-hopped out, ghettoed to the max...

STILL no big deal for us (remember, I live in NYC now, I've seen it all and am scared of NOTHING anymore) and we're actually kinda chatting with the kids, asking how the battle went, and such...when the elevator stops on the 4th floors, the door opens, and there waiting to get on is a little white kid, probably about 12 years old....

Well, I've never seen a kid's eyes get wider...he took a step in, looked up, saw who was in the elevator....

got a look of panic in his face, and stepped back and walked away...terrified...meanwhile, one of the kids sees this and hollers back at him, "Hey, what you afraid of?!"....

I swear, Dad and I laughed about that the rest of the way down the elevator with the kids, then pretty much the rest of the night...the look was priceless...that kid probably figured he'd ended up in an elevator from Harlem or something...

THUMBS DOWN to the NHL for letting All-Star weekend get overshadowed by something called a "Jonas Brothers" during Saturday morning's practices....

First off, if anyone knows what a "Jonas Brothers" is, I'd love to know...please inform me...though I did find a picture on the Internet...

So, are they like Menudo for the new generation? Do they sing songs about getting rides on dates from their Mom?? And which one is the secretly gay one? (there's always one..if we learned nothing from N'Sync, we learned that...thanks Lance!)

...I'm brimming with questions...

anyways, so we show up for the morning skate Saturday and media availability and as we're watching the practices, I notice a fair amount of young teen girls in the crowd with signs like "I love you Nick!!" and "Jordan makes me hot!" and I'm scanning the rosters...not a Jordan in sight, and I'm pretty sure they're not talking about Nick Lidstrom...so we come to find out they'd hired these "Jonas Brothers" to perform after practice....

So after the practices we're down in the media room for awhile, and then we head up to leave, but we can hear all this screaming coming from the arena...so we walk up into the arena, only to find these Jonas Brothers performing, and all these tween girls screaming, and crying and shouting and WHAT THE HELL?!?!?

I guarantee about 75 percent of the people at the practice were those girls that didn't care about the hockey, but were willing to wait through it to see the boy band....oy vey....

Anyways, here's a blurry picture of some of their "fans"

THUMBS UP to the NHL for hosting their pre-game party at the Georgia Aquarium (just down the street from the arena). Every year the league hosts some sort of VIP party for the media and various people, where free food and free booze are in abundance, and its usually a good time...many times, they've just trucked us to some warehouse thats been converted to party central, but this time, they closed the Aquarium to everyone but us, and it was really cool....my father had recently been to the Monterey Bay Aquarium with Mom a couple of weeks ago, so he wasn't as enthused, but for me, I always love wandering around aquariums and zoos...as a few people know, when I was very young, I wanted to be a zoo-keeper when I grew up...(Christ, imagine that now)...but the Georgia Aquarium did have some stuff I hadn't seen before or hadn't seen in awhile...I guess they're the only aquarium in the USA to house whale sharks (which are gi-normous) and they had some beluga whales as well...the rest was pretty standard fare, but was fun to wander around and kill a couple of hours while having a beer...

THUMBS DOWN to Kathleen Edwards for singing part of the Canadian anthem in French...I can't begin to tell you how much I hate, HATE it when anthem singers do that...I know, I know, Quebec and the french-speakers probably love it, but it drives me crazy...sorry Gabe...I need my Canadian anthem in English please...the rest of you frogs can f-off...I can't even talk about it now without getting annoyed....lets just move on...

Finally, THUMBS UP for another fun trip overall...the All-Star game was fun, filled with spectactular plays and moments to remember...the weekend in itself was great, and it was cool to be able to spend another All-Star weekend with Dad...especially since I hadn't seen him since we moved to NYC....

All in all, a great trip...and I look forward to next year's All-Star game in Montreal!

Wait.....

That means the homeless people will be bugging me in French...

@%#^%!!!

I may kill someone...

Mike

Uggly Cold, Cupcakes, and News10 Friends.

The High today is 24 degrees. The low is 14. And with the wind chill (or windshield for some) its actually 4 degrees. FOUR! That sucks. It's cold. Very cold. AND there is not even snow to make it pretty. It's cold, everything is brown and the sky is grey..... California dreaming. That song now means something to me.

It was so cold today that I wore 2 hats, a thermal shirt with a wool turtleneck sweater over it and my ankle length down jacket, a scarf and mittens.





It was even cold on the subway.. I only took off one of my hats for the ride




It was SOOOO cold that even Mike wore a hat, a scarf and a jacket - he forgot his gloves though and he was cold. Yes, even Mr. I have Canadian blood- was cold.

Anyhow,I have been wanting to get Uggs for awhile now. I kept going back and forth between a few different styles and colors so I had put the purchase off. Well, yesterday I realized that I don't care what color, what style, or anything like that-I just want my calves to be warm. I had been wearing knee high socks with wool leg warmers over the socks beneath my jeans. And I was still cold. I used to think that Uggs were only meant for college kids to be trendy and sport with mini skirts in So Cal when the temperatures dropped in to the chilly '60's.

Screw you all- it's 20 degrees and I'm frickin cold and I NEED Uggs.

For our male readers- Uggs are super warm sheep skin boots. Shown to your left here.

So Yesterday afternoon after our visitors left (which I will blog about after my cold rant) Mike and I went to midtown to go get my Uggs. Store after store- Sorry, we're sold out. Sorry we only have a size 5 or 12 left. 12- who they heck where's a 12 women's? Maybe that's why that was left. We're then at Lord & Taylor (It's like a Nordstorm only on the East Coast)- They have a size 10 (too big) and a size 8 (too small) - Damn it! So close. Still cold.

We go home and I start calling every department store that I know of. Sold Out! Then I start trying to buy on line everyone is sold out in my size or else they only have them in the short boot which just keeps your ankles warm.
I need full warmth over my whole leg. Frankly if they could go to my knee that would be ideal- I'm cold. My delicate California skin can't handle it- and it's supposed to get progressively colder throughout the week.

It's cold and I have no Uggs.

I do google searches and craigslist entries come in- people are trying to sell of their uggs for $100 over the asking price. They advertise - sold out all over the city.


I find out that Ugg has a flag ship store in Soho. I call them about 20 times to see if they have what I NEED in stock. No answer. Just voicemail with their hours and location. SO- guess how Mike and I spent our Sunday? Trekking down to Soho. Which was super cute by the way. Just to give you an idea of how posh Soho is- a studio flat goes for about $600,000 there- and yes I did say STUDIO, not even a one bedroom.

We get there. The Ugg flagship store. It was like the sun broke through the dark sky and shined a bright spotlight on it. I think even church music played- and I wasn't even listening to my Ipod and I'm a Jew- we don't hallelujah.

Then I see 5 signs on the window front- Sorry we're sold out of Ugg Boots in short, tall, super tall in all sizes. I see the sign... I read the sign... but I don't believe the sign.

We go inside and all the employees appear to be pissed off and grumpy. I ask Do you have anything in a 9- He points to the knit boot- yep knit. Not sheepskin... not warm. Then they say in a broken record tone of voice- "We're sold out of all sizes. We get shipments Tuesday and Wednesday. There is no waiting list. We will not call you. Just come by and check." They wouldn't even tell us when their shipments arrive. I now understand why they seemed pissed off. They have cold agitated people like me that they have had to turn away all day.

So, I step outside and call my mom in So Cal. Tell her I have an emergency- I'm cold! I ask her to check the stores in so cal. After all, people there can't be nearly as cold as me. My mom calls Bloomies first- sold out- all sizes. She then calls Nordies. All they have left is a size 9, classic tall in chestnut brown (same as pictured above, but a darker shade). She overnighted them. I'm going to be warm. Yay for super mom. I'm going to be happy and warm come Tuesday. Is it Tuesday yet???



Anyhow, after the whole uggly ordeal (hehehe- get it? Ugly- uggs- hah!) Mike and I walked to Magnolia Bakery over in the Village. Magnolia is like this legendary bake shop- known for their cupcakes. They've been profiled in nearly every magazine and every TV show that is based in NY. We hadn't yet tried them, but had been wanting to since we moved here. Afterall, what else can cheer you up when it's cold outside and you ugg-less. So we headed to Bleecker Street for cupcakes and coco. We get there and there is a line out the building and around the corner. All of these cold New Yorkers were looking for cupcake comfort too. We get in line and stare through the glass watching them frost cupcakes and make amazing mixtures. At one point we saw a lady making banana pudding- she was using an industrial sized Kitchen Aid Mixer (I miss mine so much- I wish it was here with me and not in storage- boo!) mixing 'Nilla wafers and fresh cut bananas into vanilla pudding- Seriously! Doesn't that sound dreamy?



Anyhow, after waiting in line for about 30 minutes we are granted entry. I felt like I was in college waiting in line to get into Rileys on buck night. We go and walk to the left and wait in another line. Cupcakes are self serve. We get our cupcakes and then go get in another line, order our hot chocolates and pay. 2 hot chocolates, 8 cupcakes- Total- $23... Brightness to your day when it's cold- priceless. But we used a Visa check card, not a mastercard to pay.



This is not the cold talking- I swear, but this hot chocolate was the best hot chocolate that I have had in my entire life. It was milk steamed with a espresso steamer and chocolate chunks melted in. It was amazing. So fabulous. We had the first of our cupcakes once we got home after dinner. Amazingly good. So, good I felt warm and fuzzy. Just what you need when it's 4 degrees outside.



Anyhow, early in this blog I had mentioned visitors. Well, on Wednesday night we had dinner with Michelle Hofland who happened to be in town. I used to babysit for Michelle when I was 16 and she used to report for Fox 40- may first TV job was there. She now lives in St. Louis and works for NBC.



And on Friday Night Jodie Mitchell Moreno was in town with her hubby Juan. They stayed with us. We went out to dinner with the other east coast News 10ers- Chris Spitzer and his girlfriend Shirley and Janelle who used to date one of our old coworkers at News 10 and now lives just a few blocks away from us. Yay for Sactown friends. Dinner was fun. I'll put up a group picture as soon as Shirley sends me one- she was they one smart enough to bring her camera! :)



After dinner- we had cupcakes at the Butter cup bakeshop- Good- but not as good as Magnolia. Chris and Shirley headed back to Staten Island and the rest of us headed up to our neighborhood. Jodie and Juan needed to bring their luggage up and Cooper needed a pottie break.

After everyone took care of their business we went to our local bar the Pipers Kilt. This is where we play trivia. The bartenders are our friends now and the drinks are very well priced. We shut the place down after singing all the cheesiest juke box songs -including Aqua and Lisa Loeb- at the the top of our lungs. We left at 3am and went across the street to McDonalds- where I in my finest asked the 18 year old behind the counter to put extra salt on the frizzles.

Anyhow, it was a fun visit. I'm glad the were able to stay with us and it was great to reconnect with Janelle who lives so close to us.

Miss everyone- when your enjoying the nice whether you may be experiencing in whichever city you live in -remember me - a cold ugg-less girl trying to get extra salt on some frizzles.


With love,

A Jen Post- I'm sure that was hard to guess- right?

Miss you all.

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Our laptop is back!!!

Cheers to the Geek Squad.

Our laptop is back and better then before!!

Anyhow, I wanted to share the good news with you all. Stay tuned for some exciting new posts as we update how the start of 2008 has been.

Jen

PS- For those of you who have been worried about Cooper The Great- Don't be. He's happy and healthy. After taking antibiotics for a week and enjoying freshly prepared rice and chicken every day for 8 days- He's been given a clean bill of health. He's back to his spunky self. Thank you to everyone for who expressed concern over the past few weeks

My California Drivers License Arrived

And they put my NY address on it!

Isn't that awesome!


PS- Our laptop is supposed to be fixed today. Although they have told us that everyday this week.

Say a little prayer.


Love to all of you!

Jen

Sweatin' to ABC News

Richard Simmons was in our newsroom today! He starting running around the newsroom asking how everyone was doing. I smiled at him and he came over and asked what was up w/ Hillary Clinton. He told me that he's worried about her and hopes that people don't think she is weak.

He then did a live interview on the news set right next to my desk. Afterwards he shot a little promo.... singing we're all sweatin to ABC News.

It was awesome, in like that late night info-mercial kinda way!

Still Waiting

We are still without internet access at home, as the laptop REMAINS in the shop...many apologies to our loyal blog readers...trust me, we're going crazy without it...

The update is we don't have a hard drive problem at all...we took the laptop to the Geek Squad at Best Buy for diagnostics, and they told us that the hard drive checked out fine, but that we have a TON of adware issues, which has basically brought the computer to a screeching halt...so they are in the process of cleaning it up for us...

When I told them that Dell had told us we needed a new hard drive...the Best Buy guys just laughed...so in other words, Dell = SNEAKY BASTARDS!!!

Hopefully, we'll be back online from the comfort of our own home tonight or tomorrow...keep your fingers crossed...