Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Top Chef returns Wednesday!

Anyone else notice TV sucks lately?

So supposidly the writer's strike is over now, but things won't return to "normal" until next season.

Honestly, it has been good for us. AB gets up and leaves for work by 5:30am, which he reminds me was "really" 4:30am Monday morning post-springing forward. Consequentially he is going to bed by 9pm most every night. He used to stay up much later than me on a daily basis. Now I have four (sometimes five) nights a week where the cat and I are the ones wandering the house togeether while everyone else sleeps.

I get home from work about 5:35pm with both kids. We get everything carried in and I get a Curious George episode started for Leif while I start dinner. AB usually wanders in a few minutes before 6pm. We juggle Skadi back and forth while finishing dinner prep and aim to have dinner for us all on the table by 6:15-6:30pm.

Many days we all have the same thing. There are plenty of other days where neither AB nor I are up for the whining about our choice in food (last night Leif told AB that the filet mignon was "yucky"...) and we put chicken nuggets, carrots or green beans and a pile of ketchup in front of the kids. Skadi thinks it is the coolest thing in the world to have her own chicken nugget. (She ate the filet like a champ though, truth be told there isn't much she won't eat... in fact, I can't think of anything so far. Even the asparagus, she shook her head and made a face with each bite, but kept right on eating.)

Ok, so I started talking about TV now didn't I.

After dinner we have a little time for play. Leif likes to play Cariboo during this time. The problem is Skadi does too. Sometimes we set the train up, or just play with random things in his room. Bathtub for the kids, bedtime for Skadi, snack for Leif, brush Leif's teeth and then his storytime.

One of us does stories while the other starts the evening chores. Clean up the dinner mess, make lunches for the next day, get bottles ready, make our stacks of things that get hauled to the car or carried to the Vanpool tomorrow.

On a good day we are both finished by 8:45pm. Sometimes it is more like 9:15pm.

TV? Many nights a week it doesn't even get turned on. That's not to say that our TV isn't working for us. Our little Tivo box is busy recording stuff ensuring we never need to make a trip to the local Blockbuster.

Right now we have 12 episodes of InTreatment, three episodes of Big Brother, five episodes of Smashlab, two episodes of Mythbusters, and Bernard and Doris (an HBO special movie that looked good to me - not to AB) in addition to many, many episodes of Curious George (you never know which one Leif is going to ask for). The one we always get to watch on Thursday night is Survivor, because you can't come into work without having seen Survivor the night before. The likelihood of it being completely ruined for you is too great.

Turmoil is about to hit our Tivo routine however. Top Chef returns on Wednesday.

AB and I are major Top Chef fans who have watched since the first episode. It is the one thing we both are likely to sneak and watch by ourselves when the other isn't available knowing full well we can't divulge any details and will likely have to watch a second time with the other. AND we are completely fine with that.

AB has given up on InTreatment, so I should be able to start plowing through those making room for Top Chef. He also doesn't succumb to the dregs of TV programming known as Big Brother... it's mine too.

I am anxiously awaiting Big Love which is rumored to be returning later this summer, AB won't admit that he is too, but he is.

However, AB just might be counting the days until Burn Notice returns. I am pretty sure he is.

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