Monthly Archives: June 2010

Rocco!

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While working in NYC, I ran into Mr. Rocco DiSpirito at dinner last night. I yelled out, “Hey Rocco, I’m Mark Peel’s wife.”
He replied “Yes, you are” which was cute since he’s never met me before.

Feel like I knew him since my husband does and he was on Dancing With The Stars. He was fun to talk to. He said being on DWTS was harder than doing Iron Mans! I showed him pictures of my kids and then we were seated at different tables.

After a little wine I started to feel a little insecure in this big room full of new people so I sought Rocco out. “Hey, you are now my oldest friend here. I think I look good, yeah.”

“Let me see,” he said teasingly. “Yeah you look great…and you’re funny. I knew you’d be funny.”

“How?”

“Because you’re married to Mark and he has a great sense of humor.”

Sure is good to see homefolk.

Wish me luck emceeing Digital Content Newfront today in front of a lot big wigs!

Guest Post: Shh! Mommy’s Reading!

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A Guest Post by Amanda Howells, formerly of Crabmommy

Hello, dear Coolmom readers. It’s been a while since my momblogging days (I’m writing other things now—more on that later). I do miss it, so it’s awfully nice to sit in for CoolMom this week.

Do you read much—as in books (books for grownups)? I know, I know, it’s a damn tall order to crack a book when the tots are wailing for Mama, requiring you to change a diaper/find a glue stick/draw a horse/slice an apple. What is it about children and sliced fruit, btw? My 5-year-old drives me bonkers with this slicing obsession—kids these days can’t bite into a whole piece of fruit…sheesh!

It is indeed incredibly difficult to train a mom-brain onto words on a page when the very act of child-rearing conspires to ensure you will never have another moment of silence again. But don’t let the wee ones colonize every inch of your body and brain, my friends! Protect your reading time, and I’m not talking those How To Be A Better Parent to Your Pain in The Ass Spirited Child -type books either. Read something you actually want to read. Don’t worry, I’m not about to pull a Goopy Gwyneth Paltrow and recommend you fall into bed with a nice cozy copy of Crime and Punishment (like you haven’t dealt with that theme all day as a mom). GMAFB, Gwyn. You read the Spark Notes. Fear not! Unlike Gwynnie, I won’t tell you what to read. I’ll just tell you what’s on my nightstand, just for the fun of sharing.

First off, this doesn’t even qualify as reading since it’s basically a novelty picture book but I had to get a copy of Regretsy: Where DIY meets WTF. Hil.ar.ious. Moving on to fiction, just finished: The Little Stranger – a perfect highbrow ghost story; The Forest of Hands and Teeth (wow, I had no idea zombies could be this compelling).

Gearing up for summer: Am I the only person in the world who doesn’t like Stieg Larsson? I read the first one and found it gratuitously grisly and otherwise overrated. So instead of being all excited for the new one that’s just out—The Girl Who Kicked The Cop in the Crotch or The Girl Who Smacked That Man in the Mouth (or whatever it’s called)—I’m tucking into the far superior Elizabeth George’s new mystery, This Body of Death. Clumsy title aside, I know this Inspector Lynley mystery will be as good as its predecessors. After that, I will complete my mystery/paranormal track with Carrie Ryan’s The Dead-Tossed Waves (this YA paranormal writer is oh-so-much better than You Know Who). Then it’s on to Red Hook Road (because I love everything Ayelet Waldman writes); Flannery: A Life of Flannery O’ Connor (I like to mix some bio in between the fic); and after that, The Summer We Read Gatsby, because it looks witty and fun and perfect for summer.

Speaking of “perfect for summer” [throat clearing here] may I timidly suggest my very own first novel for your reading pleasure? Just out, The Summer of Skinny Dipping is a bittersweet romance— a beach read with substance, if I do say so myself. Kirkus called it “a realistic and satisfying chick-lit debut,” School Library Journal said, “…this novel will live on for more than a summer” and I hope you will feel the same. Available here.

Want to win a copy? Leave a comment telling us what you’re reading/looking forward to reading this summer and a randomly selected winner will receive a copy of The Summer of Skinny Dipping. Yay! Competition closes Friday, June 11, 5pm PST.**

Thanks, Daph, for letting me guest-post and pimp my new book. Happy summer reading, everyone!

xx Amanda Howells

**UPDATE: Congrats to Sara for her comment. I’ll be emailing you to send you your copy of my book. Yay!

Next week

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Okay, peeps, next week I’m off to NYC.  First and foremost to emcee Digital content newfront which brings together online advertisers and content providers (refer to earlier comments about how I need to monetize this site).  I was very pleased to be asked.  And I will be also shooting some stuff for The Fashion Team.  I am going to be covering the Ffany’s.  What? you don’t know what it is? Well, until my gbff Michael told me about it, I didn’t either.  But, it’s the shoe equivilent of fashion week.

It’s going to be action packed and I doubt I will have any social/fun time.  I have to admit that I don’t feel guilty about going. This is a first.  But, I’ve been spending a lot of time with my kids and it’s nice that Vivien is old enough to get the “mommy comes back” idea and I will have that tug when I go to walk out the door.  But, honestly, kind of looking forward to a little break.

While I am gone I’m going to try to thumb out some stuff on my phone, but not sure how well that will work. So, Tuesday I’m going to have Amanda from Crabmommy guest blog for me.  She was my first mom blogger friend.  She used to blog at Cookie magazine (RIP) and I always enjoyed her sassy, no apology voice.

Cute picture of Rex and his young mom, huh? I photo shopped the hell out of my face.  This is how I look in my idealized brain.  Maybe if I had had him at 24.  Which I so didn’t.  Oye.

It’s almost summer! OMG!

ADVERTISEMENT: Snack competition

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Creative snacks?  How about snacks shaped like insects!  Hey, if it works, it works.

You all gave me such good ideas about lunches, what are your creative snacks?  Because when Vivien starts AYSO there is going to be even more pressure. Submit your tip in the comments for a chance to win a lunch care package from General Mills filled with fun and healthy snacks for kids. I’ll be choosing my favorite tip at the end of this month, so keep posting your best suggestions in the comments.

UPDATE: Congratulations to Alexandra for her winning snack tip!

Big Bubblin stars’ contest

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Hey, here is a fun contest Rex and I worked on last month.  It’s a super cute contest where you film your kid in a bubble bath and you can win up to 10 grand.  I did the “here’s how you did it vid” and then Rex performed like a pro in the sample cute kid in bath video.

Check it out on YouTube.

And yes, we got paid and I put it in his 529, toot sweet.  But, you can get even more dough if you win!

Rex is better

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I can see clearly now…the rain, you know, it’s gone.

We had our post op appointment with Rex and all has gone well.  He should be in far less pain now.  The smile is back on his face. These pictures were taken the morning of his surgery and Vivien offered him different toys to see which one would bring him comfort.

Of course, nervous mom forgot all of them.  But, we were there as soon as he woke up from surgery, so I think it was okay.

To celebrate I took him to the park so he could run around.

“Go, Rex go. You’ve been cooped up long enough”.

I really couldn’t think about anything else for this past week unless it was really simple.  Bagel or cereal, cream or half and half.  More than that was a struggle.  And I found it very hard to be funny.  I’m emceeing Digital Content Newfront in NYC next week, a day long affair that brings online content and would be advertisers together.  I was working a funny video with Digitas to run at the event and just couldn’t wrap my head around it.  I finally called a comic friend and just talked about it and then the engine fired up. But, I needed a jump start. I also just needed to talk about something else.

This only reinforces the respect I have for parents who have chronic illnesses, or serious problems.  Geez, it’s all consuming and I’m exhausted. But, so relieved.