The Mighty Ducks

When I was a kid, I never watched hockey.  I had literally never seen a game, or even a portion of a game when I watched the Mighty Ducks movies.  In fact, the first time I ever saw even a bit of hockey besides those movies was at age 20, when I saw the local minor league team in the city I'd moved to. Guys, if you've been in that situation, you know that the movies offer nothing by way of education about the rules, which are actually really complicated.  As I discovered.

Anyway, those movies were for sure my favorites of the 90s.  The best of the three is number two, and since I lived in a city with a $1 movie theater, I saw it on the big screen about ten times.  True story.  Now I have them all on DVD, but they've been all over the world with me and they're all scratched up and they skip and I think one of them doesn't even work anymore and MY LIFE IS SO HARD!!!

***Edit*** When I took them to get signed my Brandon Adams I remembered that about five years ago my husband had bought me new copies and they all work beautifully.  Thank goodness I didn't have to haul out the garbage ones to get signed!

Sorry.  Please accept this picture of my in my Goldberg jersey at approx. 15 months pregnant.

I know you're expecting this from me, because it's kind of a theme, so here's the list of my crushes from those movies: Mike Vitar (more on The Sandlot later), Brandon Adams (probably a whole POST on him later), Aaron Lohr (the bigger Bash Brother), Justin Wong (Wu Wu Wu Kenny Wuuuuuuuu!) and Emilio Estevez (of course).  This proves conclusively that I have NEVER had a 'type'.

So here's the story.  There's this real unethical jerk of a lawyer who gets a DUI and has to take a leave of absence from work and do community service.  He's assigned the job of coaching peewee hockey, since he was this big peewee star as a kid, but when he gets to practice, he finds the biggest hockey nightmare ever.  He takes over, makes them champs, and then continues to coach them into two more movies.  And he does you-know-what with the star player's mom.  Like ya do.  Spoilers, but these movies are almost 25 years old so... you should've seen them by now, to be honest.  If you haven't, get on it.  Now.

Saturday Spotlight: Stupid Game Show Answers

Short post today, but a good one!  There's a channel on YouTube called Stupid Game Show Answers and I LOVE IT!!! It's all these montages of the worst and funniest answers given by contestants on game shows.  Here are my two favorites:

Q: Name something at the grocery store that you squeeze before you buy it.

A: Peanut Butter.

Q: In what month of pregnancy does a woman begin to look pregnant?

A: September.

Okay, maybe it's not as funny in writing, but I swear the videos are hilarious!  Click here to watch!

The Cosby Show

First off, I know.  You don't need to argue with me because I already agree with you.  I'm not here to tell you how I feel about the show now, I'm here to tell you how I felt about it 30 years ago.  So, you know.  Consider me disclaimed.

Alright, where to start?  I'm mixed.  My dad's black and my mom's white, so I'm mixed, see?  Well, when I was about six, my parents split up and I moved from living with my dad's side of the family to living with my mom's side in a tiny, wretched little town where there were basically no other black people (see the horrific ghost town here).  While I lived there, until the era of In Living Color, the only black people on TV that I knew of were the Huxtables.  I'm right between the ages of Vanessa and Rudy, so I fit comfortably into their family and I loved to hang out with them.  I wanted to be Denise so badly, and wouldn't you know it... she turned out to be the rebellious one.  I also know that a lot of people had crushes on Theo, but I never understood that.  Well, not until years later when I saw Malcolm Jamal Warner all grown up.

Okay, now I get it.

My favorite thing about watching The Cosby Show was seeing how rich people lived.  It seemed like they were all intelligent, healthy and well-adjusted which you don't get a lot of in small towns.  It was totally fascinating.  I miss watching it and I miss the warm fuzzies it used to give me.

Side note: Phylicia Rashad and Keshia Knight Pulliam were in a movie called Polly together, which I will undoubtedly write about at some point.  Check back often to see.  Or better yet, click the subscribe button and never miss a post.  And comment to let me know if you'd rather see that one sooner rather than later.

Haven

One of the shows I've gotten into lately is Haven.  Funny story about that.  The show is loosely based on a Stephen King story called The Colorado Kid.  I got all the way into the third season of Haven wondering when they were going to reference the book before I finally looked it up online.  Turns out I haven't actually read that story.  I was thinking of Blockade Billy THE WHOLE TIME.  If you're familiar with those two stories, you're definitely cackling at me right now. 

So, the show is not about a minor league baseball team.  It's about a town near Derry, Maine where tragic supernatural things happen.  The things are called 'the troubles' and the people who make them happen (usually unintentionally) are 'troubled' people.  I'm not finished with the series yet but it seems that there's only one person who can fix everything but she doesn't know how to, or even who she is.  That's quite the obstacle, as you can imagine.  It's originally a Syfy show but I watch it on Netflix, as I mentioned here.  Check it out.

What To Expect/Your Best Birth

When I was expecting my first baby, The Bookworm, I did what everyone does; I read What to Expect When You're Expecting.  It turns out there's a website, a mobile app, more than one verified Twitter account, a Facebook Page and a whole series of books.  If you're pregnant and enjoying the book, let me recommend that you go over to Facebook and like Heidi Murkoff's Page. She actually goes online a lot and interacts with everyone.  The most impressive thing (maybe in the world) is how much she remembers about people individually.  I mentioned once that I would like her to speak at the Air Force Base near me and months later when I commented on a completely unrelated post, she mentioned it again.  She seems to remember names and faces and stories and entire families that she's never even met, or only met once at an event full of hundreds of people.  I'm telling you, I don't know her but I love her to death.

More important, though, if you're nervous about labor or birth is a book called Your Best Birth by Rikki Lake and Abby Epstein.  You probably recognize Rikki Lake's name from TV and movies.  Yep, that's her.  In fact, there's a movie version.  It's a documentary called The Business of Being Born and it's on Netflix.  The book outlines all of your options, which is fabulous for us Americans because all they tell us is to either schedule a C-section or order the epidural before you even pee on the stick.  This book made me feel empowered (as much as that word's overuse makes me roll my eyes) and it took my nerves away.

If you go the hippie route, I suggest you check out every book Ina May Gaskin wrote.  My favorites are Spiritual Midwifery and Ina May's Guide to Breastfeeding.  

For parenting advice, check out one of my older posts, here.

Me, with a month still left to go baking The Villain

 
What to Expect on Twitter:

What To Expect- https://twitter.com/WhatToExpect
WTE Pregnancy- https://twitter.com/PregnancyWTE
WTE Baby- https://twitter.com/BabyWTE
WTE Toddler- https://twitter.com/ToddlerWTE

ABBA

When I was pregnant with The Bookworm, I read somewhere that if you play a song to your tummy a zillion times, then that song will become your baby's soothing night-night song.  I have this little "Quiet Moment" song that I used to sing with my class when I taught kindergarten that's only about four lines long, and during both of my pregnancies I sang or hummed that song most of the time when I was alone, sometimes under my breath and sometimes just as loud as I could.  Thing is, when I get a new CD, that's all I want to listen to for a good long while, and when I got ABBA Gold I listened to it all through my pregnancy.

Here's the album cover.  I grabbed it from Wiki.

Then one day when The Bookworm was a few weeks old and Mama Mia came on TV, he stopped fussing and actually listened to the songs.  He also hated the car, but when I played ABBA he'd drop right off to sleep.  Even after he was a toddler, if he fought naptime all it took was about half of Dancing Queen and he was down for the count.  I simply cannot tell you how many times those Swedes saved my sanity! Now, because my kids are less than two years apart, The Villain obviously heard a lot of ABBA in utero also.  I didn't even think anything of it, but when I tried my Quiet Moment song, it once again did absolutely nothing.  ABBA once again saved the day.  I tried lots of things, too!  My guys are both named after musicians and I tried the music they were named for to no avail.  I have a list of beloved favorites, and so does my husband but those didn't work either.  It was always, only ABBA.  And I'm not talking about, "He's fussy and now he's calm."  It was instant sleep every time!  Of course, they're older now and it doesn't work anymore, but for a good three years or more, I owed a huge debt of gratitude to those four, and it's about time I finally got around to sending them a nice thank-you note!

Click here to watch my favorite ABBA song on YouTube!

Nikki Bazan (Major Superstar)

It's my sister's birthday.  She's obviously a major superstar and I can hear what you're all thinking: "What kind of movies does Nikki like?  You know her, you've GOT to tell us!"  Alright, calm down, I'll tell you.  Books and TV shows, too.  But you've got to be patient.  First, here she is relaxing at home. 

Wait, I think that's a TMZ photo...

As you can see, she likes to joke around, but please don't testify in court that I posted this picture or the judge will let her off scot free.

Anyway, back to what you wanted to know.  What does she read?  What does she watch?  Basically... not the same things as me.  She likes to read Nicholas Sparks, which is NOT my style, but I can't really say much.  I've never actually read one of his books and they might be wonderful.  I have seen The Notebook, although I never thought I'd ever mention it on this blog.  I like to keep this blog only to things that I like, and The Notebook is my #1 least favorite movie of all time.  I've given it a lot of thought, and that's what it is.  The Notebook.  So... yeah.

Nikki likes some TV shows that I dig, though.  Like, she recommended Supernatural to me and I'm totally loving it!  I actually started Merlin, then got distracted by Supernatural... then got distracted by Haven.  But someday I'll finish one of them.  Probably.

When I asked her what her favorite movie was, she said October Sky but listen, I grew up with her.  I can tell you her exact progression of favorite movies.  You know how kids get obsessed with one movie at a time and just watch that every day, as many times as you'll let them?  Here's the evolution of my sister's childhood:

101 Dalmatians (She wanted a Dalmatian Plantation)

The Jungle Book (She scaled back to just the Bear Necessities)

Drop Dead Fred (That's not how the pigeons do it!)

And finally... Andre.

Oh, holy crap.  Would you like to know how many times she watched Andre?  So many times that eventually it wouldn't come out of the VCR... and we barely noticed!  We just kept watching it over and over again until the tape inside the cassette finally snapped.  This is all true.  As is the fact that when she was in first grade she wrote 'I love Ryan Beeson' on a bathroom wall.  Also, if I ever go missing, she definitely did it.  But seriously, Nikki.  Don't be mad, I didn't even mention the bean! 

Love ya, Nik.  Don't kill me.

An actual non-Snapchat picture of her.  She's hilarious and gorgeous and I lover her!

Happy Birthday!