Scrabble Junior CHEEZ-ITS

I should start by saying that I am not a fan of CHEEZ-ITS. I know, shocking, right? They are comprised of three of my all-time favorite flavors: salty, cheesy, and crackery…but for some reason, CHEEZ-ITS are just not my thing.

So, when my Step Mom Wendy brought some down with her on her last visit, I gotta tell ya, I was a little wary. Then, I looked closer at the box. These were no ordinary CHEEZ-ITS, amigos…these were tiny Scrabble tile Scrabble Junior CHEEZ-ITS. Wendy and I are huge, insanely-competitive Scrabble nerds — don’t even get me started on Lexulous! — so suddenly, this gift from the north made a whole lot more sense.

And for some reason, these CHEEZ-ITS tasted a whole lot better than usual. I don’t know if it was the fact that you could spell fun words with them before you ate them or whatever, but, man alive, these crackers tasted awesome!

Anyway…I have no idea how long the Scrabble Junior promotion will last, so, if you love word games as much as we do, then hurry on down to the store and pick up some of these rocking little CHEEZ-ITS for yourself.

Oh yeah, and just for the record, they do not have blank tile crackers…I checked.

NBC’s “Biggest Loser” hits the road…

OK, normally, I am not the kind of person to gloat when bad things happen to jerky people (even if they totally deserve it!) but when I heard that NBC Universal’s much-maligned entertainment co-chairman, Ben Silverman was fired today, I gotta admit, I kinda cheered!

That’s right, amigos, the man who brought you such immortal classics as “My Own Worst Enemy”, “Kings”, “Crusoe”, “Kath & Kim”, the crazy-expensive (not to mention totally unnecessary!) remakes of “Bionic Woman” and “Knight Rider”, and Survival Sunday cheesefests like “Meteor” and “The Storm”, has finally been shown the door. Hooray!

In his defense, Silverman was a well-regarded producer of such hit shows as “Ugly Betty”, “The Office”, and “30 Days” before taking the reigns at NBC, so, when the network brass hired him to lead NBC out of the crapper in 2007, he seemed like an inspired pick.

But it was soon clear to everyone involved that Silverman was not the “rock star executive” he promised to be. Not only were many of his big ideas just plain lame — hello, “Rosie Live!” anyone? — but by making crass product placement a way of life at the network, greenlighting expensive duds left and right, and calling writers “the nerdiest, ugliest, meanest kids in the high school” during the dark days of the WGA strike, Silverman really was his “Own Worst Enemy”.

My old NBC strike squad actually made up Silverman-specific chants during the strike…of course, I’ve forgotten most of them, but, trust me, they made our Carson Daly chants look friendly!

In fact, at one point, there was talk of staging a Ben Silverman prom in honor of his statement about us “ugly writers” trying to “cancel the prom” when we threatened to bring down NBC’s telecast of that year’s Golden Globes. And though we never held the actual prom, we did get the Globes downgraded to a “news event”, and, as you can see, we crafted some pretty cool paraphernalia in preparation for it…so, suck it Silverman!

But prom or no prom, the good news today is that the cheesy-ass king of all things crappy at NBC is finally gone. Yay! Now, if we could just do something about those annoying “Jay Leno at 10PM” commercials…yikes…

AMtv rocks!

I know it seems like all we watch these days is MTV, but, well, it is kind of our first click on the remote when channel surfing, and we don’t get TCM or Bravo anymore…so, can you really blame us?

And while even the cheesiest of their shows are imminently watchable — “Parental Control” is a drug I cannot resist, and “16 and Pregnant” was downright Emmy-worthy, a seriously fantastic show! — I gotta say, like the rest of you, we’ve been missing the music videos big time.

Well, cheer up, amigos, because MTV has brought back music videos in the form of AMtv. Yep, you heard me, the music has returned to music television! Of course, as the name suggests, AMtv plays said music videos in the middle of the freaking night — from 3:00AM to 9:00AM Monday thru Thursday — so, actually watching them is a whole other issue.

But if you do find yourself awake, say, nursing, changing or bottle-feeding a four-month old, well, AMtv is the show for you, amigos! And lest you think Christine and I are the only crazy people watching music videos till dawn, MTV runs Pampers ads every half hour during the show, so you just know there are legions of other sleep-deprived parents doing the exact same thing.

So, on behalf of the bleary-eyed new parents of America, I want to be the first to say, thank you, MTV. Sure, every other video sucks — yes, Lady Gaga, I’m talking to you — but the fact that you give us scads of other cool current (and retro!) videos to fast-forward through and enjoy in the middle of the night seriously rocks our world. Que viva, la AMtv!

Oh yeah, and, trust me, you do not have to be a bleary-eyed new parent to love this show, so, Tivo away, my friends!

Free Pastry Day at Starbucks

If I haven’t found time to head over to McDonald’s to take advantage of their sweet-ass freebies this past couple of Mondays, then you know I ain’t gonna get up early to get me a free pastry at Starbucks either.

But, just in case some of you early birds are up and about in time mañana, you should know that the beleaguered brewers from Seattle are offering up a free pastry to anyone who orders a drink (including, I think, brewed coffee) between the time that they open in the morning and 10:30AM. Not bad, huh?

I mean, hey, if you’re going to Starbucks anyway, why not partake in a little recession-friendly freebie? So, though Greta and I will probably just be rolling outta bed (and crib/co-sleeper) when this deal expires, here’s hoping some of you get your free scone on big time!

Oh yeah, and I think you might need a coupon, so, make sure and download one here before you head out in the morning. Enjoy!

Greetings from Planet Greta…

After talking about it for months, Christine and I are very pleased to announce that today is the official launch of our first-ever Make.See.Eat.Do spinoff blog, Planet Greta. Hooray!

A photo/video blog dedicated to all things great about our daughter Greta (I know, biased much?), Planet Greta won’t feature traditional blog posts or our usual sparkling wit and wisdom, but it will be so loaded with cute-ass pictures and videos that you’ll hardly notice. Seriously, wading through all the cuteness here will take hours…even if you’re not one of her grandparents!

And best of all, since it is strictly a photo/video blog, Planet Greta will be super easy to update — something that we’ve found to be very important in the last few months! –which means you’ll be getting up-to-the-minute, front row seats to all the Greta action pretty much as it unfolds. Yay!

So, fasten your seatbelts, ready your RSS feeds and bookmarks, and click on over to http://planetgreta.wordpress.com today!

Simon Baker is “Not Forgotten” by Emmy voters!

I know, I know…more shameless self-promotion. But, hey, having the lead actor from your first movie nab an Best Actor Emmy nomination never hurt anyone, and if Simon Baker’s nomination for “The Mentalist” gets even one more person to buy a “Not Forgotten” DVD when it comes out on October 6th, well, then, thank you very much, Emmy voters!

The rest of the nominees — with the exception of the animated “Family Guy” scoring a rare nod in the Best Comedy Series category — were pretty much business as usual. I swear to God, if I hear some of those same old names announced again I think I might just stop watching TV altogether. Yikes…

That said, I was glad to see the very deserving “Big Love” finally score a Drama Series nod, and it was cool to see “Flight of the Conchords” nominations all over the place, who woulda guessed that one? And even though we stopped watching “Breaking Bad” out of solidarity with a friend of ours last season, it was very cool to see the show in the top slot for the first time and even cooler to see Aaron Paul score a nomination for Supporting Actor, Drama. Rock on, Mr. Paul!

We have not seen “Grey Gardens” yet, but, I hear it’s very good and was happy for Drew Barrymore and the rest of the cast for their scads of nominations as well. Oh, and speaking of TV movies, Sigourney Weaver rocked in Lifetime’s “Prayers For Bobby”, so was very pleased to see both her and the film score nominations.

Was mostly pleased with the writing nods as well, especially the nomination for “Lost” scribes Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse for their amazing work on the season finale, “The Incident”. And am always happy to see Michael Emerson nominated for playing creepy-ass Ben, but was very disappointed that more of his “Lost” castmates didn’t make the cut. I mean, hello, Elizabeth Mitchell’s “death” scene in “The Incident” episode was some of the finest acting the show has ever seen…seriously, blondie got robbed!

And though I was sad to see “The American Mall” shut out of the Original Music and Lyrics nominations in favor of two songs from award shows (!) I gotta say, the hilarious “Motherlover” song from “SNL” is sure to take home the gold. That shit was hilarious!

And finally, we were very sad to see “ER” almost totally shut out in it’s last season, County General deserved better, yo. And though Christine and I were both seriously bummed that the totally cinematic “Southland” failed to score a single nod for it’s very deserving writers and cast, we’ll take comfort in the Best Actress nomination for Christina Applegate for “Samantha Who?”.

I know it’s canceled (stupid ABC!) but “Samantha” was one of our favorite shows of late…fantastic writing, hilarious cast, and very sweet to boot! If you haven’t seen this show, you must run out to rent the DVD’s when they come out. Seriously, you will never stop smiling.

Love to hear what shows you guys are rooting for, so, check out the complete list of Emmy nominees here and comment away! Oh yeah, and just for the record, the Chenbot was cruelly snubbed again for Best Reality Show host! Crazy, huh? But Padma Lakshmi did score a nod in the same category for “Top Chef”, so that definitely lessened the blow…

Worst candy ever: Strawberried Peanut Butter M&M’s!

I know what you’re thinking, “Transformer” movie tie-in candy…lame, right? Well, what can I say? I’m a sucker for new spins on old favorites, I love me some Peanut Butter M&M’s and come on, who doesn’t wanna eat something that has been “strawberried”? Yummy!

Man, was I wrong! This is one seriously un-yummy bag of candy, amigos. If I could get my $2.49 back, I totally would. But since I can’t, I figured I’d spread the word about just how bad the idea of “strawberry-ing” anything really is.

Christine was (wisely, it turns out!) repulsed by the name alone, but I thought they might taste kinda like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or something. Wrong again! This stomach-churning misfire tastes like someone spilled a big old can of artificial flavoring on your favorite candies and then let it soak in overnight. Blech…truly disgusting stuff.

And while this just might just be the worst candy I’ve ever tasted, I am still dying to know what the hell Strawberried Peanut Butter M&M’s have to do with “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”? Seriously, if anyone out there has seen the movie and knows, please fill me in!

And in the meantime, I say skip the new-fangled M&M’s and head right on down the aisle for some tried and true Mother’s Cookies!

Free Mocha Mondays @ McDonald’s

Just found out from one of our regular tipsters (thanks, Aunt Debbie!) that McDonald’s is offering free McCafé Mochas between the hours of 7:00AM and 7:00PM every Monday until August 3rd! Cool, huh?

Don’t know if you’ve had the chance to try this new line of fancy coffee drinks at McDonald’s yet, but Christine and I were first in line when they launched them back in May. And though the Caramel latte she had was downright hideous — I don’t know if it was the cheap caramel or what, but that thing SUCKED! — the iced Mocha I had was pretty damn good.

And when some freebie coupons came our way a week or so later, we tried some more of the McCafé drinks and were both very pleasantly surprised by how tasty they were for the price. It’s not Starbucks or anything, but they do pack a wallop in the caffeinated department and they are way cheaper than almost anything else on the market…so, I say try them out at least once.

And with Free Mocha Mondays for the rest of the month, how can you not try these drinks out? I haven’t sampled the hot mocha yet, but I can tell you from personal experience that the two iced mochas I’ve had have been kinda magical. So, I’d go cold on this one, amigos. Or, if you really wanna get your freebie on, go cold for breakfast and then head back later and go hot just before dinner…either way, you gotta try these things!

Oh yeah, and just to give you a heads up, the free version of the Mocha is served in an 8 ounce cup, not the usual 12 ounce. Just wanted to let you know so you don’t bitch out your McBarista when you get a small-ass cup.

Dying to hear what y’all think of the drinks, so, as usual, McComment away!

The Return of Mother’s Cookies!

The cookie circuit was abuzz with rumors that something like this might be happening back in May, but after buying our first bag of frosted circus animal cookies recently, Christine and I can now tell you with all certainty that despite closing their doors back in October, our beloved Mother’s Cookies have returned to grocery store shelves everywhere! Hooray!

Apparently timed to coincide with Mother’s Day 2009, the crumbling cookie dynasty — sorry, I couldn’t resist — was brought back to life by the very cool folks at the century-old Kellogg Company.

In fact, their Senior VP of Marketing and Innovation, U.S. Snacks (what a title!) Doug VanDeVelde had this to say about the triumphant return of Mother’s Cookies: “We’re thrilled to bring back a classic, beloved brand that calls to mind such strong feelings of nostalgia and happy childhood memories that parents want to pass down to their children.”

Damn straight, Doug! That is exactly what we wanted to do with those tasty cookies and now that they’re back, our little girl will get to grow up loving Mother’s Cookies as much as we did. So, welcome back to all of our favorite, crazy-sugary, store-bought friends…we missed you more than you’ll ever know!

Long live Mother’s Cookies!

“Big Brother” starts tonight!

At first, Christine and I were just excited to see the pregnant Chenbot’s, um…Chenbump. But now, after totally nerding out and reading way too much about the show online just now, we are literally counting the hours till the 8:00PM debut of “Big Brother 11” tonight on CBS!

I don’t know about you guys, but, summer in our house is not complete without loads of snarky, half-naked hotties duking it out in a cool house full of cameras! And while this year’s crop of houseguests look pretty much like any other season, there are two key twists that might shake things up a bit.

One: the house will be divided into traditional high school cliques, geeks, brains, jocks, what have you. And two: there will be a 13th mystery houseguest who may (or may not) be recycled from a previous season. Awesome!! And recycling a houseguest is apparently just the beginning this year!

Jumping on the marketing bandwagon, the “BB 11” producers have decided to “go green” this season with loads of eco-friendly touches sprinkled throughout the house. Of course, once the “Big Brother” slop starts flying, who really cares where the power comes from, just keep those cameras rolling, baby!

Either way, kudos to “Big Brother” for rocking some pretty cool eco-friendly decor this year — I love that wall of recycled bottles, cans and cardboard and stuff below — and, as always, all hail the Chenbot!

Greta’s self pics on Photo Booth

OK, I don’t mean to sound like the annoying new Dad bragging about how smart his daughter is or anything, but Greta has been doing something the past couple of days that really blows both Christine and I away. No, she’s not reading yet and her first novel (or screenplay!) is no doubt months away from completion, but what she has been doing since the Fourth of July is taking her own picture on our Macbook’s Photo Booth application.

For the non-Mac users out there, Photo Booth is a pre-installed program that uses the built-in iSight webcam on your Macbook to take pictures and/or video of you like in a real life photo booth. It’s really kinda awesome.

Anyway, I knew kids dug the program because my niece and nephews fire that thing up every time we visit them. What I didn’t know was that babies would love it too. So one day when Greta was getting a little fussy, I flipped open the Macbook and introduced her to Photo Booth.

And from the minute she saw herself on the screen, she was hooked. Like most babies, Greta is totally in love with her own image right now — seriously, mirrors are her new best friend — but unlike most babies she learned that if you press down on the big white bar on the Macbook’s touchpad, you can actually take your own picture.

That’s right, amigos, every picture you see here was taken by a four month old. Man, I can’t even figure out how to take pictures with Christine’s cell phone and Greta is already the Photo Booth master…Crazy, huh?

“It’s on with Alexa Chung”

Other stay-at-home parents might dig “Regis & Kelly”, “Oprah”, “The View” or even the train wreck that is the fourth hour of the “Today Show”, but in this household, we are all about Alexa-freaking-Chung!

Haven’t heard of her? Well, neither had we until her new talk show “It’s on with Alexa Chung” debuted a couple of weeks back on MTV. Apparently Chung is a fairly well-known former model/chat show host in the UK. All I know is that she’s funny, entertaining, and best of all, totally sexy in a goofy, self-deprecating way — which makes her even sexier in my book! — and that Greta and I have become HUGE fans of this show in the past couple of weeks.

Of course I think Greta mostly likes the cool colors on the set and stuff at this point, but, I do know that she downs her bottle much more calmly with Alexa Chung cheekily interviewing celebrities in the background. Maybe it’s the cool UK accent, who knows?

All I know for sure is that if you find yourself home at 11:30AM on a weekday, you gotta check this show out. Chung’s interviews are fresh, lively and often genuinely hilarious, and she goes out of her way to involve the audience in any number of bizarre games and contests throughout the show.

One recent episode had Chung and her cohorts trying to break a few world’s records on the air. She had one dude trying to break the record for making the most peanut butter and jelly — she called it jam, of course, which made me love her even more — sandwiches in a minute while another event had Chung seeing how many purses she could hang on former “Destiny’s Child” star Kelly Rowland. Crazy, huh?

But crazy has never been this fun, so, check out this awesomeness before MTV cancels it. I’m sure my old ass is not even remotely the demographic they are aiming for with this show, which was supposedly designed to be a replacement for the late, great “TRL”, but I think most of you out there will love it.

What worries me the most are the bored, vacant looks of the tweens in the audience. Their lifeless stares when Chung cracks a first-rate joke tell me that unless she seriously rocks the ratings, her show might be in trouble. So, get out there and spread the good word, amigos…Alexa Chung rules!

Last Call Doritos for the King of Pop…

On the eve of what I expect will be a pretty rocking memorial to Michael Jackson, Christine, Greta, Ryan, Laura and I climbed into the Vue to do a little MJ memorial tour of our own. First Laura, Greta and I drove to the Staples Center to see the crowds and sign the massive placards they had set up for fans.

But that line was crazy-long, it was hotter than hell, and, well, we did have a baby with us, so, we opted for pictures and a quick drive-by instead.

Later in the day, Christine and Ryan  joined us for a jaunt past the ever-expanding crowds outside the main gates of Forest Lawn, where Jackson is to be buried. That was cool too and we got some nice action shots from the car, but the highlight of our MJ memorial tour was our trip to the Jackson family compound in nearby Encino. Located just a couple of blocks off of Ventura Blvd., this is the house where Michael and the rest of the kids were raised when the family moved to California from Indiana.

Michael mania being what it has been the past couple of days, we weren’t expecting to get very close to the house or the sea of flowers out front, but, just in case, we came bearing a card for the family and a baggie of “Last Call” Jalapeno Popper-flavored Doritos for the Man in the Mirror to enjoy in the afterlife.

Yes, I said Doritos. See, earlier in the day, Laura and I had seen a friend of Michael’s joking on TV about Jackson’s bizarre eating habits. She said something about him being a hard core vegetarian since he was younger, but joked that that didn’t stop him from loving junk food like Doritos, which he enjoyed regularly.

So, when we were mulling over what gift to bring the King of Pop, the half-eaten bag of “Last Call” Doritos seemed like the perfect fit. Christine, of course, was mortified by the idea, but Ryan and I stuck to our guns, labeled the plastic baggie with a message for the King of Pop and headed off to Encino.

But what came next took us all by surprise. I mean, sure, we thought it would be cool to see all the fans and the messages and artwork they created for Jackson, but I don’t think any of us realized how emotional it would be.

Seriously, amigos, it was like Graceland West. For the first time since all this insanity began, we actually realized the true depth of feeling that the world had for this dude. And I know it sounds corny, but there was a real sense of magic outside the family home.

I don’t know if it was the crowd — who were very quiet, friendly and respectful — or the fact that the setting sun cast a dreamy glow over the place, but the whole aura outside the Jackson family compound was really amazing.

I’m sure there will be many memorable moments from the official funeral and memorial service today, but for us, this was it…a truly moving send-off to the once and future King of Pop.

To see more of the scads of Michael Jackson-themed pics I took over the past couple of days, click here. And in the meantime, here’s hoping MJ digs the Doritos as much as we did…

Greta’s first Fourth of July

Even though we weren’t lucky enough to score any of the coveted tickets to the Michael Jackson memorial (stupid lottery!) Christine, Greta and I did manage to have a pretty awesome Fourth of July weekend down in sunny Dana Point with my Mom and sister, Courtney.

Great food, cold beer, video games, and lots of fresh, beachy air, it was kind of the perfect weekend. And best of all, Greta was totally cool with her first loud fireworks display. Seriously, the look on her face in the pic above is actually a reaction to the camera flash, not the fireworks.

In fact, Greta was so comfortable with the fireworks that she actually fell asleep during the show, so, we had to wait till morning to “stage” the festive pics below. And though they weren’t taken on the fourth I gotta say, she looked pretty cute in the American Baby t-shirt that my Mom and Courtney picked up for her.

Mom and Courtney also gave her some groovy stars and stripes socks, but, Greta’s been grabbing at her feet a lot lately and the socks came off way before I could snap a decent pic. So, you’ll just have to trust me when I tell you that they totally made the outfit.

Happy belated Fourth of July, amigos…hope you had a good one too!