Blonde Mom Blog

Twilight Has Nothing On Scooby-Doo

By Blonde Mom on July 3, 2009

I’ll admit I’m guilty of letting the girls watch a little too much TV on occasion, especially if I am trying to get some work done at home. I’m a realist. Sometimes TV is a lifesaver or, at the very least, a guaranteed half hour of peace and quiet. This is especially great if I am on a conference call or trying to talk to a client and the girls are at home. I’d rather have a little TV background noise then screaming over what princess name to bestow upon a pony.

I will cling to my ideals, dreaming of a day when the TV collects dust and we instead keep ourselves busy doing family crafts and baking bread and planting heirloom tomatoes. In reality, though, I have been known to break out in a sweat if one of the girls’ favorite DVDs is scratched.

Recently the girls have become quite into Scooby-Doo, especially Miss C. This is all fine and dandy because Scooby and Shag take me back to my own childhood, until I realize how scary Scooby-Doo can be with all the ghosts and witches and general occult themes…nice. It doesn’t really seem to phase them much, though, because it is, after all a cartoon. Also don’t get me started on what kind of clandestine activity the kids are engaging in the mystery machine to crave Scooby snacks all the time. Highly suspect in my book.

The other night we stopped at a Red Box rental kiosk to check out the new kids’ DVD releases. I tried to steer the girls toward a movie that I might actually enjoy sitting down and watching, maybe Adam Sandler’s latest flick Bedtime Stories, but they saw Scooby Doo and started jumping up and down and chanting Scooby Scooby Scooby! Never mind that it was a Scooby special on vampires and that I was sweating between my toes and the heat from the blacktop parking lot was starting to set the backs of my calves on fire.

I rented the DVD and the next thing I knew the girls were brainstorming on their killer vampire girl Halloween costumes on a 95-degree summer day and asking me umpteen times “how much longer” until Halloween. Next week we may rent Frosty the Snowman and bake Christmas cookies. Anything to escape the summer heat and anything that keeps them occupied and imaginative at this point is OK because we’re on the downhill slope to the first day of school in August.

Posted in My Girls, Parenting | Tagged kids and tv, scooby-doo, vampires | 1 Response

Do They Make Viagra For Blogs?

By Blonde Mom on July 2, 2009

Both my blogs were down for most of the day today (cue nervous eye twitch!)

One minute I was writing a highly intellectual post about Scooby-Doo and getting ready to take Miss C and a friend to see Ice Age 3 in 3D and the next minute I was closing down WordPress and Firefox when I realized both my blogs were down with some lovely BlueHost error saying my account had been suspended. Shortly thereafter the hubby called me telling me to check my e-mail as Blue Host had e-mailed him to say our account had been shut down due to “Performance Issues”...with ZERO advance warning.

Thanks so much BlueHost!

My WordPress guru Daisy Olsen (@DaisyOlsen on Twitter) was happy to help after I spoke briefly with BlueHost who told me it was a “database” error and gave me the corresponding error code. Daisy responded immediately to my pleas for help via e-mail but we couldn’t even access the dashboard. Finally after 5 today my husband was able to call BlueHost and speak with a customer service rep who was helpful and walked hubby through repairing and rebuilding the database(s). The rep then told him to call BlueHost back and check in with the Abuse department to get the account turned back on. Abuse?! The hubby checked in with BlueHost abuse. The customer service rep asked him if he had done as he was told, somewhat condescendingly, and and also if WordPress was the latest version. When he said he wasn’t sure about WordPress, as that had not been mentioned during the support call, she said she was “going to give him the benefit of the doubt since he hadn’t done all that was required of him.”

As my husband says, “WTH? WE PAY THEM, not the other way around!”

I would have been much more OK with all this had they put up a screen error message that said simply, “Blog/Site is down temporarily due to technical difficulties,” rather than”This Account Is Suspended” which has all kinds of negative nuances. This is the second time we’ve had a screw up with BlueHost and the last time I lost several posts because of human error on their part.

So who do you use to host your blog(s)? Are you happy with them?

Posted in Bad Hair Days, Bloggy Things | Tagged blue host, customer service woes | 9 Responses

If The Hat Fits

By Blonde Mom on July 1, 2009

fathers-day-at-the-loveless

Wearing Papa’s hat on Father’s Day on the porch at the Loveless Cafe. (Yes I am still going through Father’s Day photos! I think I’m about a year and a half behind putting pictures in albums. Sigh…)

Posted in My Girls | Tagged loveless cafe | 5 Responses

Inspired To Buy Some Orange Glow, Feather My Hair, And Moonwalk

By Blonde Mom on June 29, 2009

On the way to Costco yesterday for the first time (hello amazing food samples, neatly folded stacks of Lilly Pulitzer little girl sundresses, and tubs of feta cheese, where have you been all my life?) I was checking out Twitter on my iPhone when I read that infomercial pitch man Billy Mays dying unexpectedly at his Tampa home. I Googled the news and read the story on TMZ, which proved to be a legitimate news source, something I never thought I’d say in all seriousness.

It’s hard not to shake one’s head in disbelief and feel some sadness over all the celebrity deaths that have occurred just in the past week. We don’t usually watch the news with the girls but we watched the first portion of ABC’s special about Michael Jackson. The girls were completely enamored with Jackson as a little boy, singing and dancing his heart out with the Jackson 5. Then I watched most of the special later that night about Farrah Fawcett and couldn’t help but cry during Barbara Walter’s touching interview with Ryan O’Neil. And who can forget Ed McMahon as Johnny Carson’s sidekick on the Tonight Show?

Miss C went through a phase in the winter of 2008 where she would practically run to the TV every time she heard Billy Mays’ amazing voice so I thought I’d repost something I wrote originally in January 2008 in honor of him. I haven’t told Miss C that Mays has also died, but it’s probably just a matter of time before she sees something about it on TV and I’m going to have to explain, yet again, that even famous people on TV die and go to heaven.

And I think I really will buy some Orange Glow, look up a few Charlie’s Angels episodes on YouTube, and dust off my old cassette tapes because Off the Wall was one of the first albums I remember listening to in full and I’ll never forget the middle school angst of performing a dance routine for PE class to Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough in front of my entire school because my teacher was some sort of sadist. That’s another story altogether. Continue reading “Inspired To Buy Some Orange Glow, Feather My Hair, And Moonwalk”

Posted in Celebrity Blather, My Girls, Parenting | Tagged billy mays, ed mcmahon, farrah fawcett, michahel jackson, orange glow | 4 Responses

THIS Close To Meeting The Wiggles

By Blonde Mom on June 27, 2009

I’m very excited to have been selected as one of 15 bloggers named to Sprout TV’s Band of Bloggers. I’ve volunteered for boards in the past but I guarantee this is the only one for which I’ve received cool Born to Blog temporary tattoos. Oh yeah. Check out this fabulous logo the Sprout design team came up with:

The big news from Sprout TV is snagging The Wiggles. That’s right. After years of being on the Disney Channel, the Australian foursome are moving to Sprout in late August, so if you have Wiggles fan at your house, stay tuned. This is big news in children’s TV. Think Sponge Bob switching from boxer shorts to tighty whiteys.

In other Sprout news, they’re hosting a fun contest to meet Chica. If you have a Sproutlet at your house, check it out!

In other blog news, did you know I launched a review blog last year? I’ve written a review about our recent family vacation to St. Augustine, Florida, and I’m hosting a fun giveaway for Little Debbies 100-calorie snack cakes. Typically I post giveaways on Savvy Housewife on Mondays and I’m working on a few more for this summer, including one for Subway and Applied Labels, a mom-based business here in Tennessee, so be sure to subscribe to my review blog’s RSS Feed.

Also I’m in second place right now for best local Nashville blog on Nick’s Parents Connect so I really need your vote!

Have a great weekend!

Posted in Bloggy Things, Links | Tagged savvy housewife, sprout, sprout band of bloggers, st. augustine vacation, the wiggles | 3 Responses