I haven’t seen a rated R movie since 1999. That’s right, I don’t watch rated R movies. In those nine years a lot of rated R movies have come out that I’ve wanted to see. And by “a lot” I guess I mean there are a few that I’ve wanted to see. Like “Garden State”. And “Knocked Up”. And maybe “40 Year Old Virgin”.

One particular movie I was bummed about missing recently was “Sex and the City”. Like most women I was a huge fan of the television series. But unlike most women I never watched SATC on HBO. Instead I waited until the show had ended, was edited, and was shown on TBS. It was a happy day at my house when TBS started to play the entire series, EDITED. Sure I was a few years behind the rest of you. I was drooling over Carrie Bradshaw’s outfits long after all of you had tried to incorporate her style into your own wardrobe.

Oh yes, I had missed the boat on SATC. But I didn’t care. I eventually got to watch it. I finally found out who Mr. Big and Aiden were. I knew who people were talking about when they mentioned The Russian. I understood what people meant when they said “I’m a Charlotte.” Or “she’s totally a Samantha!”

(For the record, I never quite was able to decide which “Sex and the City” character I was more like. I often felt like I was most like Charlotte. Except that I wasn’t as dreamy about love as she was. I also felt like I was a little like Miranda. Not in the career-driven way, more in the black-hearted way.)

(And also, for the record, I was always more a fan of Aidan. I know nobody else was. But I was. He was just such a good guy. I guess he didn’t have the town cars and the clout that Big had. Even if Aidan didn’t win Carrie’s heart, he won mine.)

So yeah, when the SATC movie came out this year my heart broke a little. While I knew I wouldn’t be seeing it in the movie theater, I knew I would see it eventually. I was just going to have to wait a few years until it was edited and shown on TV. I knew this; I had accepted it and my wait began.

I read your blogs about going and seeing the movie and about how awesome it was. I was jealous that I wouldn’t be seeing it with any girlfriends. (I’m not even sure any of my real-life girlfriends watched SATC.) Whatever. I was over it.

And then I boarded my plan from Seattle to London last month and saw that “Sex and the City” was one of my choices for the in-flight movies. I thought I had heard that movies on planes are edited. I wasn’t sure where I had heard that, but I was 65% sure it was true. As soon as the flight had taken off and we had reached cruising altitude, I turned my little personal TV screen in front of me on. I breezed through the menu until I found “Sex and the City” and put my headphones on.

I figured I’d known if it was edited about two minutes into the movie. If it wasn’t edited, I would turn it off and watch something like “Indiana Jones”. But dude, if it was edited, I was going to get to see “Sex and the City”. On the plane! What a great way to start my European vacation.

I think I was about thirty minutes into the movie before I realized that I was thirty minutes into it and I hadn’t heard one little swear or seen a single boobie.

IT WAS EDITED!

So yeah, I watched it. I finally know if Carrie and Big end up together. I know if Miranda and Steve are still married. I know if Samantha is now a one-man-woman. I know.

And I got all of this without having to hear the F word or see Samantha naked.

Next on my list I need to convince Zach Braff to edit “Garden State” and put it on TBS. Because dude, I’m still dying to see that movie.

So tell me, were you happy with the way the SATC movie played out the rest of the story about Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha? Was there anything you thought should have happened? What was your favorite outfit? What about your least favorite outfit?

(Because I know y’all saw it, right?!)

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In keeping with today’s Sarah Jessica Parker blog theme, my latest New Thing is all about trying out SJP’s “Bitten” clothing line.

I know we’re not the only people currently obsessing over the Olympics. Some of our friends, who are very, very anti-television signed up for cable recently. Just so they can watch the Olympics. They’ll cancel their subscription once they’re over and go back to living in a cave not watching TV.

We’re a little late to the game here. We missed the Opening Ceremonies. Which I hear were amazing. (Thanks for rubbing it in.) Have no fear, we’ve been getting the most out of our new TV and it’s awesome HD qualifications this week.

The funny thing about this whole Olympics obsession currently sweeping the globe is that my two year old is also obsessed. So obsessed that it’s the first thing he asks for in the morning and the last thing before we put him in his crib. Except instead of calling it “the Olympics” he refers to them as “jumping downs”. Which, to be fair, there is a lot of jumping going on. And they are usually jumping down.

Babboo really only wants to watch the ladies compete. He prefers to watch the lady gymnasts. (His favorite being Nastia. He asks for Nastia a lot.) If gymnastics isn’t on he’ll settle for diving. Which he refers to as “jumping downs. In water.” Again, he’s spot on in his naming of the Olympic events.

If the lady gymnasts aren’t on and there aren’t any swimming events, Babboo will not settle for watching anything that has “the guys”. He only wants “the girls”. Unfortunately some of those tiny little Asian girls are confusing him and he isn’t quite sure if they are the guys or the girls. He was especially confused by the Chinese divers with the short hair.

Poor Babboo and his gender identifying issues.

We’ve taken to TiVo’ing the Olympics so that Babboo can watch them at his leisure. For instance, while he’s eating his breakfast this morning.

Of course we won’t let him watch until he’s used the potty and changed out of his pajamas. And shaved.

The kid loves to shave. Anything to be more like daddy.

So tell me, what has been your favorite part of the Olympics thus far? I’m thinking my fave has been watching the men’s swimming relay. Dude, I felt like I was the one competing.

I was too young to remember, but my parents often told the story about the time our family television exploded, right in the middle of Mork & Mindy. They decided, right then and there, that they didn’t want to bother getting a new TV.

And so they didn’t.

We were the only family I had ever heard of that didn’t have a TV in the house. My parents weren’t necessarily opposed to TV in general (we were totally allowed to watch TV at friend’s houses), they just weren’t that into TV.

When I was in middle school we finally got a TV. I don’t know where this TV came from since I know my parents weren’t too thrilled about having it. I’m thinking one of my uncles gave it to us. Each of us kids were only allowed to watch seven hours a week. One hour a day. On Sunday we had to submit our Weekly TV Watching Schedule to my mom, for her approval. This plan worked for a while. And then, for whatever reason, we got rid of the TV again.

While I was in high school, I’m pretty sure we had a TV. But it was teeny tiny and didn’t have a remote. We also didn’t have cable. But dude, we could have cared less. I was busy reading books, doing homework, and um, making out with my hot high school boyfriend. In college, again, I had a TV but could have cared less.

During this time I missed out on the greatness of “My So-Called Life” and the first bit of “Friends”. I was busy in class, or studying in the library. What TV I did watch during my college wears was only on MTV. (You know, back when they played awesome videos.)

After college I moved back in with my folks and worked at a convenient store*. I began dating every boy that lived in my small town, so my nights were spent out with friends and on dates. No time for TV. I never even gave TV a single thought.

Never, ever.

While working at the convenient store I spent a lot of time with my co-worker, Gretel, and her family. I remember going over to her house after work and hanging out in her bedroom, or changing our clothes there before going out. Her parents were always there, sitting on the couch in the front room, watching TV. Every time I saw them doing this I found it to be so odd. It was something I had never seen. Never ever did I come home to find both of my parents watching TV. Usually I would find my mom at the kitchen table reading a book. My dad would be out in the yard, feeding his horses or checking on the flower bed.

I remember thinking how odd my friend’s parents were. I truly felt like they were pathetic. I didn’t know what I expected them to do every night, but I knew they were wasting their time, sitting on that couch watching “Blossom” reruns.

When I was married to my first husband, I worked during the day and he worked evenings. That meant I was all alone after I got home from work at 3:30. Which meant I had a lot of time to fill. Which meant I started watching a lot of TV. I discovered “That 70’s Show”, “Seinfeld”, “Will & Grace” and my love for “Friends” grew deeper by the second. I also found “Absolutely Fabulous” and “Keeping Up Appearances” and fell madly in love with anyone that spoke with an accent and referred to cigarettes “fags”.

After my divorce, I packed up all my things from our house and moved into my old bedroom at my parents house. I took my small TV and placed it on the top of my chest of drawers.

And there it stayed.

I started my day with Matt Lauer in the background and finished my day curled up in my little bed, clutching the remote and thanking my lucky stars that my TV had a sleep timer.

At this point in my life my love affair with TV was well into the “I would die without you stage” and was climbing higher by the second.

The King and I got married, and had nothing else to do in our tiny studio apartment besides watch TV in the evenings after working building our first house. Then we got a satellite and millions of channels and then TiVo came out and dude, life truly began for us.

Now that The King is gone every night building the new house, Babboo and I sit at home alone. I usually don’t watch TV when it’s just Babboo and me. Instead we cook dinner, read books, look at pictures and play with his toys. After The King comes home and we put Babboo down for the night, the TV comes on.

Our minds shut off, and life begins again.

I love TV.

I love the shows I watch. I love the characters. I love the stories. I love how they make me think. Or how they don’t make me think. I love how I can sit on the couch, next to my husband, and relax. In between funny dialogue and travel shows we pause the TV and recap our day at work, at the house, and with Babboo.

But I also hate that I love TV so much. I hate that so much time is spent on the topic of TV. Although I don’t hate it enough to change it. And really, truly if I did decide to throw the TV out the window, like my parents did, I am not in a place in my life where I could fill that time.

My point to this post?

I guess it’s that my parents are clearly better at filling their free time then The King and I. And while that’s good for them, I feel bad that they have no idea who Sayid or Barney are.

And really, how can they live without having seen Jack standing on the beach?

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*I’m getting a lot of slack for referring to the gas station I worked at a convenient store and not a convenience store. But dude, where I’m from I swear it was called a convenient store. So I’m sticking by that…whether it’s right, or not.

It was raining so hard yesterday afternoon that instead of walking a couple of blocks to pick up Babboo from school, I drove. That’s right people, I drove a few blocks to his daycare.

Cut me some slack, it was really pouring down rain out there.

(Apparently it wasn’t raining enough for the City of Seattle to turn off their water feature. Doh!)

You know the rain stopped as soon as I pulled out of my parking garage, just like my coworkers predicted. Life loves to kick me in my proverbial balls.

I am trying really hard to not write an entire post about how nervous I am about the upcoming winter months. I’m nervous about how my emotions will be able to handle the dark months and the rain. I don’t want to bore you with my talk of rain and more rain and walking home in the rain and being soaked by the time I get home and rain, rain, rain, please go just go the hell away.

No, that much talk of rain is too boring.

Instead of talking about the damn rain, I present you with this picture of my Sweet Babboo.

Poor kid. This was taken early this morning while waiting to board the elevator for our morning walk to school. I am taking no chances. My kid will be dry as a bone when he arrives at school because he is covered from head to toe in plastic. So while he may stay dry, he may also suffocate.

This stroller cover is crazy. Thankfully he wasn’t too upset by all the rain gear, he was too busy eating his banana, waffle and milk to worry about a little rain.

Me, on the other hand, got soaked as usual.

When will I learn that I shouldn’t bother with washing and blow drying my hair every day?

And totally off topic, which is good because nobody should blog about the weather, did you watch Pushing Daisies last night? Holy cow, I did, and I loved it. And then I blogged about it.

Friday night, before heading out to have dinner with friends, Babboo and I stopped over at our new house to check on the latest going-ons.

Behold, we have a concrete driveway:

While this may seem rather boring and not really blog worthy, it is, in fact, very exciting. Of course it doesn’t mean we’ll be moving into the house anytime soon. But it does mean that when we do move in we’ll be able to park in our garage.

And that, my friends, is what we call progress. And progress is good.

I’m constantly getting asked, “when do you think the new house will be finished?” To which I reply, “I’m not sure. The King is working as fast as he can.” It’s true, he is. The poor man could not work any harder or faster then he is. The next question is “what do you left to finish?” My reply? “The drywall is completely done and one bathroom has been painted (deep, deep purple). What’s left is everything else in the entire house; flooring, cabinets, appliances. Everything.”

Today we signed a new lease on our one-bedroom apartment. We’ve got five more months before we have to resign another lease, and pay an ever higher rent, or move into our new house.

Come the first of the year it looks like there will be a lot of new things for my little family. Screw the Holidays, we’ll be moving. Now that’s something to look forward to.

Even though we’re not looking to rent moving vans quite yet, Janet is. I will live vicariously through her and her awesome new house in DC with it’s beautiful colors and big plans.

Enough house talk, let’s talk about what a fun weekend we had.

As I mentioned at the start of this post, we met some friends for dinner on Friday night. We took them to the restaurant where The King and I had our first date. It had been quite a few months since we’d been there, but the food was just as good as we’d remembered and the parking was even worse.

(Note to The King: next time, let’s take the bus.)

We almost got beat up by the couple sitting next to us in the restaurant. Apparently they wanted to enjoy a lovely evening out and not have rice thrown at them by Babboo. While he may be cute, he’s not cute enough to get away with rice throwing in a restaurant.

Thanks to Vesper for giving us the heads up on (FREE!) Museum Day on Saturday. Babboo and I took advantage of not having to pay to hang out in a museum that we’ve already been to. We even took the bus, and you can read all about that over at my other blog.

Babboo liked the museum enough. He thought it was fun to pretend to fly the planes and helicopters. He didn’t think having older (and bigger) kids bully him out of his turn on the helicopter was much fun. I swear every picture I have our of trip looks like this one, Babboo just sitting there while some other kid has a grand time.

And since I haven’t given you enough links with this post, here is one more link for you to click on. Remember how Carrisa and I had that little blog about our love for Veronica Mars and then it got canceled and we didn’t know what to do with the little blog?

Um yeah, we figured out what to do with it.

We’ve all benefited from the digital camera The King gave me for my birthday this year. I’ve been able to prove to the interweb that I see crazy things in downtown Seattle. Things like naked bike riders, out of place cowboys, and just plain crazies. This last week I’ve started to keep my camera, not just in my purse, but in my hand and ready to snap a picture of something. Anything.

For weeks, maybe months, I’ve been driving by a certain billboard. Every time I race past it I think; at some point you’d better get a picture of that.

Finally I remembered to have my camera poised and ready as we drove by it recently.

I know you are looking at this billboard and wondering why I would want a picture of an ad about traffic. And not only are you asking why would I want to take this picture, but why would I want the interweb to see it?

Good thing I took a close up shot. I’m very giving.

And not only did I take a close up of it, but I also used my mad photoshop skillz in case any of you might have missed the crucial part.

It’s a squirrel. And he’s dealing poker. And not just dealing poker, but doing it while wearing a little bow tie. Dude, it doesn’t get any funnier then this.

(Expect maybe this picture, taken at the Central Park Zoo a few weeks ago.)

While making a run to Lowe’s* last week, Babboo and I were stuck in the car at a red light. I looked up and noticed the bridge in front of us was covered by a big blue tarp. This wasn’t a bunch of smaller tarps made into one big tarp. This was a huge piece of material. Seriously, it was crazy huge.

I initially wondered if it was some sort of Christo installation project, ala The Gates. Alas, The King said it was covered because they were painting it. Good to know, because it freaked my shiz out. Seriously, so huge and freaky.

Last weekend I saw this marquee and took a picture while I was driving, you know, before I had to make a turn.

I got excited about The Melvins coming. But only because I was thinking that Carrisa was a huge fan. Apparently this was all in my head. When I told her they were coming to town she was all who in the hell are The Melvins? Oopsie, my bad.

Then last night on the walk home I saw this:

Awesome, a stinky dumpster. That’s not all. Look closer.

It’s a sweet boombox. While pausing to take this picture, I had to think for a second if I wanted to pick it up and take it home. Dude, I’ve got a lot of cassettes that I could use on it. And check out the cord. Is that connected to a microphone or some sort of speaker? This might have been an ever bigger motherlode.

So tell me, seen anything crazy lately in the town you’re from? And if not, what TV show are you most looking forward to this season? And did you see “Kid Nation” last night? What did you think? We liked it. We’re also super sad that Jimmy went home. He was cute.
*We are usually very loyal to Home Depot. But Lowe’s had an awesome sale on garage door opener installation. We couldn’t pass it up. We also now have a garage door opener. Which means we are getting closer and closer to a move in date. Who needs toilets when you can open your garage door with a press of a button?