What-What?! Week of February 7th

So the past couple of weeks have been exciting.  The husband's last day at his job was Friday, and I'll be starting my new job on Wednesday.  With us parents switching roles, things will be very exciting, at least for a while.

So, uh... I dunno if I'll be posting next week or not.  Might just be a short blurb, because I don't know if I'll have the time or energy to do anything other than go to work and commute.  My expectations at this point are pretty low. :P

TV Shows:  Mad Style

No one cares about Mad Men anymore, because they've all seen it already.  Except I haven't, because I don't want to watch anything that depressing right now (I assume everyone dies at the end, like a Greek tragedy.  So I keep watching Top Gear instead).

But the fashion is fricken' awesome.  I love it.  I love each character's fashions, how they change through the seasons while maintaining their own individual styles, the silly hats, the dainty gloves, the three-piece suits, all of it.

So when I found this series of articles that looks at each character's fashions, I was quite excited.  There are a million of them (five pages worth!), so I have yet to read them all.  But believe me, I will.  Right now, my favorites are the articles on Trudy Campbell, as she's a character who I don't always like, but I feel like I understand her more than other characters.

Cooking: Roasted Garlic

I had been wanting to try this out for forever, and just never got around to it until recently.  Roasted garlic is the simplest recipe, but so transformational.  Roasting removes any hint of bitterness and brings out a lovely nutty flavor in the garlic.  I've used my roasted garlic to make garlic bread, and it was to die for.  I look forward to making it again, possibly doing several at a time and freezing them for convenience.

Ingredients:

• Head(s) of garlic
• Oil -- olive, vegetable, peanut, whatever you have.
• Aluminum foil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Cut off the top of the garlic, maybe an inch or so down -- you want to expose the tops of each clove.  Don't worry about the paper or how you're going to get the cloves out.  Place the garlic on a sheet of foil that's large enough to wrap the whole thing.   Drizzle the garlic with oil, then wrap it up.  Bake for about 45minutes to an hour, then let cool.  To get the cloves out, simply squeeze from the bottom of the garlic, and they will pop out.  Use however you would regular garlic.

I like to make mine while I have something else going in the oven, because that's efficient.

What-What?! Week of May 11th

Happy Mother's Day!  To all you fellow mommies out there. :)

This past week, I did post a new article, and I also realized that I failed to mention the one I'd written the week prior.  This week, I wrote about tracking customer feedback, and the previous week, I wrote about the three defining aspects of a successful farmers' market.

Otherwise, this week was quite long.  None of my fourth graders had any homework all week, so that was an extra five hours of activities I had to unexpectedly plan for.  This next part takes the cake, though: Tuesday, two of my students decided to walk to the store, rather than come to the YMCA.  We wound up with the police searching for them.  I don’t think I’ve ever been more worried or anxious about anything work-related than that day.  What made it more worrisome was that these two children never walk home, or anywhere, by themselves.  Luckily, they were found after three hours, and are now safe with their families.  It was scary waiting around to see if they were found, because we didn’t know if they’d been taken by someone, walked off by themselves, or what.  I was happy when that day ended.

Mad Men:  Jumped the Shark?

Recently, I finished watching season six of Mad Men on Netflix.  After binge-watching all the seasons, I found myself wondering why Mad Men is still so popular; the show is populated with depressed, unhappy characters who make the same mistakes time and again.  Don can’t seem to stop sleeping with random women, nor can he seem to control his alcohol use.  Peggy is constantly stuck between a rock and a hard place with her work and personal life.  Betty can't seem to get anything right.

The last season especially feels like the show has jumped the shark.  CGC and SCDP merging felt like a desperate attempt to revitalize a show that has done all it can with its current cast of unchanging characters.  Though I enjoy the juxtaposition between Ted and Don, their sparring and disconnects didn’t do much to help the show.  Now that Ted is on his way to California, I’m going to assume that their relationship isn’t likely to continue in this way.  It might be better that way, since “two tigers cannot share the same mountain” – having both characters in that position felt like they were vying for who was the main character in an ensemble show.

For season six, I’m hoping that the producers and writers do more to grow the characters, as it seems like they’ve been stuck in a rut.

(img via vanityfair.com)