Recently I had a lot of free time on my hands. You would think unemployment would have meant a lot of posts from me, but you would have been very wrong. Instead of writing, I did a lot of watching. I found the full value in my Netflix account. I used much of my time to discover shows I hadn’t had a chance to watch yet.

In a matter of days, I watched the first five seasons of Showtime’s Weeds. I told Pete I would write up each season, but that didn’t happen. I’m not one to write about TV really. So I decided to put it together and based on the premiere of season six, let you know whether you should be watching Weeds or not. Read more of this article »

As you probably DON’T know. Lady Gaga is performing on the Today show, today. Actually right now. It’s a record turn out for the Today Show Toyota Concert Series. Nearly 20,000 people at their last count. People slept on the street for this event. Of course, with my sleepless night, I was up in time, so I have coverage.   Read more of this article »

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!  Enjoy your time off!  Before you go though, I have one quick thing to show you!  How awesome are these Star Wars Cookies?

There is a set of four at Williams Sonoma (the fourth is Boba Fett).  They also have all sorts of decorating supplies, but I wasn’t brave enough to decorate them myself.  And I ate them all before I had a chance to have help.  These cookies aren’t just for eating.  They are clearly for playing with too!  Oh!  And they have pancake molds, but I have never had much luck with my Halloween pancake molds, so I will stick with cookies.

The way we watch television has changed so much.  Technology is crazy.  Now we DVR it, watch it on Demand, download it through iTunes, or rent the DVDs.  There are so many ways to avoid watching tv in the traditional way.

There is something that makes me so happy about being able to watch an entire season of a television series from start to finish in one day.  Such a sense of completion.  Half season shows make this even better (easier). Since HBO and Showtime follow different season schedules than most network shows, these have been the easiest shows to do this with.  DVD releases have helped to build premium channels to a whole new level.  HBO released the first season of True Blood on DVD before the second season had started.  The people who had heard about the show from their friends were hooked in time to order HBO before the next season began.

My latest favorite way is Netflix Instant.  Better than DVD’s since usually I can’t get the entire season in one Netflix shipment.  Better than onDemand because I don’t have to listen to loud obnoxious stuff in between episodes as I re-navigate through all the ridiculous of the menus.  Netflix Instant lets me have multiple shows lined up and rate them, maybe to discover a new show that I would think is amazing.  So far, unfortunately, I haven’t thought any of their suggestions are awesome.  To be fair though, I watch A LOT of TV to begin with, so there isn’t much left to suggest.

So!  With my new found free time, I will be making my way through some television.  I am starting with Weeds.  A show I tried to watch once, but clearly couldn’t jump into the middle of.  Expect season by season reviews coming soon.  Also on the schedule is Mad Men.  Any other suggestions are more than welcome.  Especially if they are available through Netflix Instant.

This is another article about the iPad.  If you don’t like awesome stuff, stop reading.  If you refuse to use Apple products, you probably already stopped reading, but anyway… If you refuse to use Apple products you won’t get to enjoy this awesomeness, so you might as well not get your hopes up and move along.

Pete and I know we want an iPad.  We also know we don’t need one.  But maybe we DO need one.  I mean, it would almost be wrong for us to not buy the next greatest Apple product since Apple is responsible for our future baby-making.  Back on track – we know we want an iPad.  So we went to check it out.  See if it was really as awesome as they say.  We ended up playing games on it the entire time we were in the store.  My game of choice was Plants Vs. Zombies by PopCap.  I wouldn’t leave the store until I completed a level.  And since it was a version made for the iPad, it was AWESOME.

Knowing that we will eventually get an iPad, I was stubborn and said I would not download the app for my iPhone because it was a waste of money since I will need to re-buy it for the iPad.  (Look Mom, I am concerned about spending $3!)  Sorry, that didn’t last too long.  By 11pm that night I was in bed downloading the game to my iPhone.  I had to have it.

I just need to tell you that the game is super addictive and super awesome.  It is completely worth the $3.  There is definite strategy involved, and with “Achievements” there is absolute replay value after completing Adventure Mode successfully.  Replay value on a $3 game is clearly important.  Just like my first adventures into Gossip Girl, this game has kept me up far past exhaustion, because I just have to know what’s next!  And it isn’t just me, Pete beat adventure mode like a day after I downloaded it.  If you want to actually know anything about the game, let’s just say, the plants keep the zombies out of your house, and bacon is involved.

I feel this way about almost all PopCap games though.  Peggle on the xBox could have a whole separate post…. I never thought I would get into using my iPhone for games.  After one visit to the Apple Store, I KNOW I would be using the iPad for mostly gaming.  Games, and I think it would be ultra-handy for recipes in the kitchen.

So, like I said…this was really a post about the iPad.