Edgy Mama

In just a few days, this ad set off thousands of Twitter comments and hundreds of blogging moms, causing Motrin to pull it off the air.

It is condescending as hell. Only I can say I look tired and crazy carrying a baby around, right?

What do y’all think?

In this week’s column for Mountain Xpress, I express relief–and write a bit about some of the kids who have lived in the White House over the past 150 years.

Happy Monday!

My favorite local seasonal of the year–Highland’s Cold Mountain Ale–is being bottled this week and should be on local store shelves next Monday or Tuesday. Hurrah!

In celebration, I pulled out a bottle of last year’s nectar and refrigerated it to help me through the next several days of single parenting. Even though I’m trying to diet, which means cutting out beer and sugar. Sugar’s easy to cut out. Beer? Not so much.

Which is easier for you to go without and why?

Does anyone else feel like going to bed at 7:30? I love the brighter mornings after the fall time change, but damn, nights are difficult. My kids have been passing out at 7:30, and I’ve been tempted to follow soon after. They’ve also been “starving” at 5:15. We’re all off-kilter. And it’s pitch-dark at 5:30. I sent them outside tonight to play, then realized, when I heard the screeching, that they’d run into the hickory tree. It was that dark!

This week my column’s about getting the family vaccinated against the flu. Not very funny, but informative, I hope.

Also, I forgot to share this fun article I wrote last week on “Cooking with Tea.” Turns out you can use tea leaves to impart a unique flavor to whatever you’re cooking. Who knew?

Still feeling extremely relieved that last week turned out the way it did. And that it’s over. You?

This was my “get-up” for the HATCH party last night. I decided that since I don’t have cool, artsy clothes, I’d camp it up as a 1950s housewife. I, or Edgy Mama, to be specific, was the featured journalist at the party. The theme of the party was “Dissecting the Creative Process,” and it was a bit unnerving to have my dorky Reporter’s notebooks and scribbled notes posted on a bulletin board for all to see. The experience was gratifying as well–once I’d downed a couple beers.

Thanks to Ananda Hair Studio for the Priscilla Presley up-do, and to the guys at Mountain Xpress for throwing together a rocking video and printing out my logo. As always, thanks to InsideDesign for the blog love. And thanks to Meredith and all the HATCH folks who pulled it off. Also, thanks to Cat and Keith for making me feel like a rock star.

I’ll post some reactions and the video a bit later.

If you don’t yet have plans, come to this artsy, creative party where I’m the featured journalist.

HATCH: Hatching Creative Minds

Friday, November 7

Echo Mountain Studio

8 to 11 p.m.

Food by Flying Frog

Tickets are $25 in advance, $40 at the door, and include food and drinks.

Buy tickets here.

Hope to see you there.

How are you feeling today?

I’ve heard predictions that up to 75 percent of registered voters are expected to vote in this election. That sounds a bit high to me, but let’s try to beat this:
“The rate to beat in modern times is the 64 percent who voted in 1960. But the real record was set a century ago, when 66 percent voted in a race that no doubt warms the heart of Mr. McCain: 1908 was the year that William Howard Taft, the Republican, defeated the golden-tongued Democrat, William Jennings Bryan (and a real Socialist, Eugene V. Debs).” –From The New York Times

I voted. Have you?