Friday You Tube Clip of the Week

I know the song I am dancing to at my wedding (someday!)

Thanksgiving in Alaska

So while you were all snuggled in your big cities, deep frying your turkeys and getting your cranberry sauce out of a can, ReckenRoll was in the big AK getting a turkey dinner together the old fashioned way:

Without electricity.

Oh yeah - that's right - in my family's grand tradition of something going wrong on a major holiday, this year we had a power outage on the big T-Day thanks to a nasty wind storm and a fallen tree. The power went out around 1 pm and stayed out until about 10.30 pm that night. In this case, it was probably a good thing we were at the cabin.

We had a fire going in the fireplace already, were cooking the bird on the bbq anyway, and there were enough candles and kerosene laterns to keep the place well lit. The stove was gas, so was the oven, and the creek behind the house provided water for the potatoes and the toilet. The boys got to pee outside. They were happy*.

In fact, it may be one of the best Thanksgiving meals we've ever had. The food was awesome (2 kinds of homemade cranberry sauce), the company was good, and not having power meant a nice little intimate atmosphere and plenty of time for conversation. We even caught the forgotten plastic wrap on the already baking veg dish before it was too late.

I may just eat in the dark every year.

The part that struck me as the funniest is that when the power went out, we had been joking about, "What if the power goes out?" and then it did, and when it did, no one even really blinked. It was like, "Oh the power's out. Guess I should get to chopping those onions. Anyone care for a drink?" In Seattle, it would have been the headline on that night's local news "TURKEY DAY TRAUMA 2007!!" Instead, I don't think it even made the paper. God bless Alaskans.

Electricity? We don't need no stinkin electricity!!

Oh and Kadonkadonk, AK says hello :-)


*Why do boys like to pee outside? Seriously? What's the big joy in that?

Just a Mile

Yesterday I ran a mile at the gym. I didn't have time for a long workout but had been in a meeting eating cookies all afternoon and needed to do something to burn off all that damn sugar.

I used to run a 5k on a regular basis and since I am just getting back into this workout thing I was thinking let's warm up with just a little mile. If the mile feels good, maybe I'll do 2 or heck, maybe even all 3.1 miles. Admittedly, it's been a while since I ran so I was just going to take it easy and well, let me just say:

Oh.

My.

God.

I had to PUSH MYSELF so hard to finish that one little baby mile. I wanted to stop at about .35 and give in. ONE THIRD OF A MILE. Instead, I cranked the iTunes to one of my most 'pump it up' work out songs, slowed my pace, and tried to think about being in a swimsuit on the beach in Australia in January.

It helped. I made it...at a pace of just above what I think a normal human walks. BUT I DID IT!!!

And today?

I am so tired. I am so so so so tired. I didn't want to get out of bed. I didn't want to get dressed. I want to take a nap right now. I've had a grande coffee and a diet coke and am now trying sugar. This is so so sadcakes...plus it means I need to keep doing it cause I can't let one mile get me down! I shall rise above!!!

ONE FREAKIN MILE. Ugh.

Happy Birthday Little ReckenRoll

On this day, 29 years ago, I had to relinquish my lead role in the title of, "Only and Most Beloved ReckenRoll Child." When my baby brother arrived on the scene, I got to keep the title of "First Grandchild" as well as "Mostest Smartest" but he got "First Grandson" and "Most Obnoxious."

(I joke)

So today, I wish the best looking brother that a girl could have,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

He taught me that I HAVE to share; that even though I thoroughly and completley believe that MY WAY is best, someone else might have a point; and that somehow I can be fiercely protective of someone who can also drive me crazy.

Because of him, I've watched hours of He-Man, have a guilty love of video games, and am familiar with a bunch of dead Blues men and the music they brought to the world. Because of me, he can recite most of 16 Candles.

I've known him since the day he was born and it's been 29 years of a beautiful friendship.

Happy Birthday Baby Mike!!

What I Learned This Weekend: Thanksgiving in Alaska Edition

It was a long learning weekend...

1. It's possible to cook an entire Thanksgiving meal without electricity. In fact, it might be the preferred way to do things.
2. No one likes the jello mold. Even if you use extra cranberry sauce to make it.
3. Mom is stingy with the leftovers. Dad is not.
4. The Nutcracker only plays for ONE WEEKEND in Anchorage. Just one. You miss it that weekend and you miss it. Oh, and even though the Nutcracker only plays one weekend it still won't sell out on the Friday night performance. (You can bring the culture to the people but you can't make them drink!)
5. Guessing how many minutes until the snow is clear off the highway is only a fun game to play on a long car trip for about a minute. After that, you need new distractions.
6. The Glacier Brewhouse still rates as one of my #1 all time favorite places to eat.
7. The Avenue Bar is the place to be in Anchorage...they even have their own local version of a Backstreet Boy.
8. The "Starbucks Cafe" at Barnes & Noble in Anchorage makes the HANDS DOWN WORST cup of coffee I have ever had. Even after it's been taken back to be remade. Terrible. Undrinkable. Disgusting.
9. Alaska and Seattle are having the EXACT SAME weather right now (thank you Global Warming). It was actually warmer in Anchorage when I left then when I arrived in Seattle.
10. Into the Wild is a good movie.
11. I am a Guitar Hero.
    

Happy Thanskgiving Everyone!!

The ReckenRoll has headed north to Alaska for the holiday weekend. Our regularly scheduled program will return on Monday as she's currently too fat to type from all that turkey...

Who Watches VHS anymore?

Quick side note on yesterday's post: They call to harrass me from the pub and force me to yell things like "ARE YOU GUYS DRUNK?" really loud from my cube and yet, not ONE of them, not even Kate, can be bothered to leave a comment. I even turned off that annoying word verification thing and still...no love.

I SEE HOW YOU ARE LONDON!!!

In other news, I am taking off to Anchorage tomorrow for the annual ReckenRoll family Thanksgiving feast. I called my mom last week to demand discuss the menu and make sure that everyone was catering to my will on the same page. I think we are in a good place now. I am in charge of the pies. I like making pies. I will be making the crust from scratch. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

The ReckenRoll Thanksgiving will be held at Kenai Lake this year. I am taking my entire VHS collection with me to donate to the VCR library. I have like 30 VHS tapes that I bought before DVD took off (yeah, I'm old) and were in storage when I got home from the UK. I can't watch them anymore because I would be the laughingstock of everyone I know if I had a VCR but I also can't sell (who buys VHS?) or throw them away either.

The cabin is the only option left. It's where all ReckenRoll family appliances and household goods go to die. It's fully furnished with grampa's old couch, grampa's old microwave, our old TV, my cousin's old VCR...old pillows and linens that look like they were very hip in the 60s, boardgames that are worn around the edges. You get the picture.

At the cabin, the VCR is a luxury and the movies I am bringing are going to make us the most popular cabin for miles around. Seriously. It's like our own little recycling plant for ancient technologies and household goods. If you're nice to me, maybe some day I'll let you come along and enjoy the tour. If you want to watch 16 Candles on repeat, you move to the top of the list.

Now, if I could just find my snow boots...

A Shout Out to My London Peeps

Some things I learned today:

• THIS BLOG is the #1 blog read in Tower House, Covent Garden.
• I have a demanding and opinionated blog audience, if not a slightly silent one, on the other side of the pond.
• El Jeffe and Kate like to compete for my affections. I enjoy the competition kids, keep it up!
• Sir Ian McKellan frequents The Sun Tavern in Covent Garden. He is not recognizable with his current beard to everyone but Kate can spot a celeb a mile away.
• My London peeps miss me. They really miss me!

Thanks for the drunk dials team!

Friday You Tube Clip of the Week:

A little sumpin sumpin for the weekend.



ReckenRoll out.

Tired of Bending Over for Ticketmaster

Has anyone else noticed that Ticketmaster has become completely ridiculous with their fees lately?

I am going to see Ben Harper tonight (yaay!) and the tickets were $46.50.

• PLUS $9.00 Ticketmaster "Convenience" Charge (cause the Internet is so inconvenient they have to charge me almost $10 for it???)
• PLUS $3.00 Building Fees Charge (correct me if I am wrong, but isn't the whole point of having an artist perform in a venue to help support the costs of the venue in the first place?)
• PLUS $2.50 "Print NOW Convenience Charge" (Because using my own printer, ink and paper is such a huge cost for Ticketmaster? Aren't they SAVING MONEY on overhead when I print my own? And no, there is rarely, if ever, the option to pick them up at Will Call for no charge.)

For a grand total of $60.00.

Now, I like Ben Harper as much as the next guy but $60? Seriously?

If you do the math, that's roughly 1/3 (30%) of the cost of the ticket in additional fees...for Ticketmaster to run my order through an existing software program and for me to print the ticket myself. Do they really have SO MUCH overhead on selling me a ticket to Ben Harper that they can justify $14.50 in additional costs?

To be clear it's costing me FOURTEEN DOLLARS TO PLACE AN ORDER ON THE WEB AND PRINT IT MYSELF.

According to Ticketmaster: "If you don't want to use the Ticketmaster convenience, you could get in your car, take time off from work, drive out to the box office, buy the tickets, drive back to work," he says. "What Ticketmaster affords you is the opportunity to buy tickets off-site via phones, online and ticket outlets -- and there is a cost associated with that."

Um, actually it IS cheaper and easier for me to drive to the Paramount and buy tickets at the box office then pay $14 in "convenience charges"

Eddie Vedder? I'd very much like to sign that petition now.

THIS is why I am single...

It has nothing to do with my commitment issues, it's my oversized brains + ambition. Guess I should start dumbing it down a bit, eh?

According to a study done at Columbia University:

“We found that men did put significantly more weight on their assessment of a partner’s beauty, when choosing, than women did. We also found that women got more dates when they won high marks for looks.”

He continued: “By contrast, intelligence ratings were more than twice as important in predicting women’s choices as men’s. It isn’t exactly that smarts were a complete turnoff for men: They preferred women whom they rated as smarter — but only up to a point ... It turns out that men avoided women whom they perceived to be smarter than themselves. The same held true for measures of career ambition — a woman could be ambitious, just not more ambitious than the man considering her for a date.

“When women were the ones choosing, the more intelligence and ambition the men had, the better. So, yes, the stereotypes appear to be true: We males are a gender of fragile egos in search of a pretty face and are threatened by brains or success that exceeds our own.”

Although my oversized booty is apparently working for me as well but my brilliant daughters will have to go through the same thing...

"Perhaps smart women can take hope — as long as they’re built like Marilyn Monroe. Scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the University of Pittsburgh have released a zany study on the zaftig, positing that men are drawn to hourglass figures not only because they look alluring, but because hips plumped up by omega-3 fatty acids could mean smarter women bearing smarter kids."

Jon & Kate plus 8

Has anyone else been watching this show on TLC and/or Discovery Health? I just discovered it this weekend as part of my weekend regimen of solid 6 hours of TV watching. In between the ANTM marathon on MTV and various classics on Oxygen and TBS, I managed to discover this little jewel of a show, "Jon & Kate plus 8".

For those unfamiliar, Jon and Kate have eight children (hence the title John and Kate + 8) but the trick is that they have a set of twins and a SEXTUPLETS. That's right. They have two girls aged 6 and six kids aged 3 and Oh My God I can't stop watching.

The entire 30 minute show is spent with me on a swinging pendulum: "Wow. I'd love to have a big family. It looks like fun!" to "Wow. I am NEVER EVER having children" (crosses legs).

It's not that the show is revolutionary TV but it's just the sheer fascination of managing 8 kids on a daily basis. It takes them 90 minutes just to get everyone out the door (video here). You should see when they try to have a family outing for the 4th of July. The kids are surprisingly well behaved and it makes me wonder how families with just 1 or 2 kids end up needing SuperNanny... although I guess with 8 kids you kind of have no choice but to let it become your full time job. No chance for the parents to let TV do the parenting and then wonder why their kid doesn't listen.

What say you readers? How many kids is too many kids?

Friday's You Tube Clip of the Week

Ladies and Gentleman, I'd like to announce my retirement from the world of PR flacking. I've found my new passion:




Seriously, I've watched it like 3 times already. Now, if only my apartment didn't have a no pets rule...

Australia Countdown has Begun!

Six weeks from today I will head home to Alaska for Christmas and after that, on 31 December, I will hop on a plane to Melbourne, Australia to spend a month communing with the dingos and the wallabees.

Goonder bought a ticket too and will spend 2 weeks with me. (Yaay!)

The count down to Oz has begun people. All free time will now be spent planning, researching and anticipating.

Please include any and all travel tips and must sees in the comment section.

Ladies of Seattle, we need to have a talk.

It's a serious issue. I've witnessed no less than 4 cases in the last 3 days. It's practically epidemic.

Most of you are doing a serious dis-service to your footwear.

I really don't have a problem with the sloppy jeans and fleece look. I really don't. I am guilty of it myself. Somedays, you just can't be bothered to do more than put on your fave jeans and wrap up in a fleecy warm goodness and sip your latte at your desk.

I get it.

I also fully embrace and support the need to wear cute shoes. I have the credit card debt to prove it. BELIEVE ME, I get the cute shoe thing. I ENCOURAGE the cute shoe thing. A shoe is all powerful. It can make or break your day and definitely make or break the outfit. There is power in the heel.

But the next step is where we part ways because we really need to talk about what happens from the ankles down on the days we fleece it up. There is a rule I'd like to instate moving forward. Ladies, please place your right hand over your heart and repeat after me:

I WILL NOT WEAR HEELS WITH FLEECE.

I WILL NOT WEAR HEELS WITH FLEECE.

I WILL NOT WEAR HEELS WITH FLEECE.

Just so we are all clear on the "why" - this does not, in fact, 'class' up the jeans and fleece. You really aren't fooling anyone. We all see what's happening from the ankles up. We get that it's casual Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday (or in some ladies case, Everyday) but just because you happened to throw on a black wedge or peep toe red heel does not make us suddenly think you are all made up and ready for the meeting.

And no, I am not talking about when you've got the good outfit on underneath the fleece and are just wearing the fleece at your desk to be warm. I am talking about when you got up in the morning and made the conscious desicion that you were going to be dialing in the outfit today. All you're doing by throwing on that cute shoe is making it look like you don't know how to match and making a potentially very cute shoe look very BAD. The heel has power, but it can't conquer a lazy outfit!

And that's just cruelty to footwear.

So please, go invest in some cute Diesel trainers and put the heels to rest. For all of our sake's...

Friday You Tube Clip of the Week

I'm thinking of adding a new feature to the ReckenRoll. Along with Friday's Top 5, we'll do a You Tube clip of the week.

Given that Halloween was on Wednesday and I am still in a Halloween candy coma (seriously, when did the office become the dumping ground for excess Halloween candy?) I give you the pickle girl...and her paralyzing fear of (drum roll!) pickles.

WTF?

You'd swear she was faking but if she is, she's a really good faker. The chick in the middle is afraid of mustard. Seriously. Mustard. The tastiest of all the condiments (next to ketchup) puts her into a mind numbing state of FEAR.

I say, "MORE FOR ME!!"

Friday's Top Five: The Seattle Weekend Edition

It's funny, this is the first weekend in over a month when I am not travelling or having someone travel to see me. I plan to do the usual weekend things:

1. Attend a friend's birthday party
2. Attend another friend's birthday party
3. Get my hair did
4. Go to brunch with the girls
5. Sleep in, go to the grocery store, laundry

I am looking forward to #5 almost as much as #1. Go figure.