Speedy Gavin Smith

Under the spell of the Sisters Mandrell...

...Come on, you know you watched it. Now it's out on DVD. Available TODAY people. It aired from 1980 to 1982 and featured Barbara, Louise and Irlene, often in matching, spangled costumes. There was also usually some kind of skit, sometimes involving puppets.
Barbara played 19 instruments or so, including the saxophone. Louise played the "fiddle," and Irlene played the drums. It was what we people over 30 know as a "variety show."

It got me to thinking, where are they now?

I know Barbara continued on with her singing career. She survived a car crash and Maureen McCormick (Marcia Brady) portrayed her in the TV movie of her life story. Remember, she was country when country wasn't cool. My grandmother went to see her at the Dane County Coliseum once and described her as being really slim and wearing black leather pants and a white blouse. Sadly, her official Web site says she gave her last performance in 1997. The site also notes she is slated to appear in the upcoming spring fashion issue of Harper's Bazaar and on the 700 Club. How's that for opposite ends of the spectrum?

So what about Louise, you ask? Well she's been performing in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee (home of Dollywood, in case you didn't know). She had her own theater, even. Apparently hers was "the most attended show in the Smokies." I am not sure what the competition is, but I bet it's fierce. Her last show was in 2005.

And that brings us to Irlene ... not the most talented of the bunch. She skated by on her looks and ability to pretend to play the drums. She came out in 1983 with "Texercise," the first country-western exercise program, which included "The Thighs of Texas," "The Big Bend," and "The Saddle Bag Stomp." She is now the spokeswoman for a gun manufacturer. At least she shoots for charity now and then, too.

Thanks for reading -- this extremely random post has been knocking around for a few days. It might become an occasional series -- next up "Whatever happened to Dawn after the gig with Tony Orlando was up?"

A belated New Year's wish...

Our (other) New Year's Baby

Keely Smith celebrated her 2nd birthday yesterday by enjoying a peanut butter doggie ice cream treat called "Frosty Paws," stealing some of Gavin's toys and contributing to the general mayhem of our home.

Yummy!

Gavin took advantage of the excitement to make a break for Keely's water dish and splash away (something he's been trying to do ever since he started crawling) ... but he was captured before he could dive in!

Gavin's 1st Christmas!!!

The past few days have been a flood of paper, bows and toys for Gavin and his parents. It was a wonderful first holiday for him and for us as we watched him take it all in and got to spend time with family.

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!







Here's Gavin with his gift from Santa, a little toy car that he likes to push across the floor...




Inspecting the box his gift from Mommy and Daddy came in...








Wrestling with "Bear Bryant," his new Teddy Bear that Tamma (his great-grandmother) sent from Alabama (Don came up with the name)...












Enjoying new bath toys from Mimi and Grandad in Colorado...













And trying out a fancy new bath towel from Grandma and Grandpa Price!

Pre-Christmas Lunch with Friends

Who is this woman?

She was our cheerful waitress at The Weary Traveler, where we gathered on Dec. 23rd to meet Sarah and Matt (en route to the Elberts in Milton), Jackie and Indy (on their way to Glen Haven from Ann Arbor) and Polly and John (who strolled over from Jenifer Street).

We had a great time catching up before everyone headed home for the holidays and throwing out not-so-helpful naming suggestions for expectant moms Sarah and Polly.

Get out your party hats...

...and take this time to celebrate with friends and family. We hope you have a fabulous holiday and look forward to catching up with some of you in the next couple of weeks. Hope Santa makes it down your chimney and you get a little time to relax and spread joy to those around you! Check back here soon for some tales from Gavin's first Christmas...

9 months and 2 weeks

Not your grandma's rolling pin...

Each holiday season, I am involved in the preparation of Danish Kringle. It's a pastry-type dessert with date and nut filling, topped with frosting and more nuts. Yum. We only make it once a year, and I even have made it on my own before, but it's a project best tackled with at least one other person. My mom and I teamed up this year -- as we have since I moved back to Madison in 1999 -- but this year we had extra help in the form of a super-cool rolling pin. Shannon was kind enough to send me this gadget for my birthday. You pour cold water in one end and screw the cap back on and that helps keep the dough from sticking. In the words of Joyce: "Oh, this works great!"

We think this year's batch turned out even better than last year's. Sorry I don't have pics of the final product -- I forgot to charge my camera battery beforehand! It looks quite a bit like this photo I found on Google, if you are wondering what the heck it is.

O Tannenbaum!

Thanks to Nat King Cole and Summer's Tree Farm, we were able to Deck the Halls today for Gavin's first-ever Christmas. We didn't have a tree last year because we went to Mexico. I didn't realize how much I enjoyed having one until we started putting it up. The tree was pre-cut, something we figured made more sense since Gavin was close to nap time when we made it out to the place. It also only cost $12 (!) and as Linus once said, all it needed was a little love (and two strings of lights).

Toss 'er back

Gavin made the most of his one-hour stay at the Famous Footwear holiday party for the children of employees ...

...he hung with the Clauses, opened his first-ever Christmas present (he liked the paper more than the toy inside) and paused for some liquid refreshment.

More of a Dog Yeller than a Dog Whisperer

If we've learned one thing in the last month or so, it's that Gavin loves dogs -- his dog to be specific. He gets a big grin when you either say "Keely" or "doggy." And we also learned the other day at Polly's house (check the link to The Sackmont Blog) that he has a special way with Fozzie the Border Collie.

"Save the cheerleader...

...save the world."

I wasn't planning on adding another TV show to what I consider to be my limited roster (Grey's, Top Model, How I Met Your Mother, The Office and Lost), but over the holiday weekend I ended up joining Don for a "Heroes" marathon and now I am totally hooked. It's billed as "a show about ordinary people discovering extraordinary abilities." I would call it highly entertaining with a dose of "ewww," especially when the cheerleader "regenerates."

Sure, it's a bit cheesy and way far-fetched, but it's definitely an escape, which is one of my top criteria for regular viewing. And it also features my "Alias" and "Felicity" fave Greg Grunberg. He was on Conan recently and when asked what superpower he would like to have he responded: "Super metabolism!" That's something we can all get behind, no?

Rock and or Roll...

Gavin is thankful for...

1) Daddy buying him this cool T-shirt

2) Spending the week with Mimi, Granddad and Aunt Kate

3) Trying lefse for the first time

4) Teething biscuits and Baby Tylenol

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all!!!

Splish Splash!

Team Pam

We'll be TIVO-ing "The Office" tonight and while the hilarious antics of the employees of Dunder Mifflin is reason enough to watch, it's the gripping story of the Pam-Jim-Karen love triangle that really has my attention right now.

I am on board with this blogger's take on the situation:

WHY I'M ON TEAM PAM

Okay, I get it: Karen is cool, and Pam is not. If I had to be friends with one of them, I would probably choose Karen because Pam's low self esteem and inability to make decisions would get on my nerves. It's not that I hate Karen -- that episode where she plays World of Warcraft (update: OR WHATEVER) with Jim and Ed Helms did a lot for her otherwise boring glamour-gal image, and convinced me that I shouldn't have been so quick to dismiss her as one of those girls who owns more handbags than books. BUT, there are good reasons why I know more Office fans on Team Pam than on Team Karen:

Reasons to Root for Pam:
1. Pam is the underdog who needs to be brought out of her shell, while Karen is a sophisticated vixen who, despite admitting to being "into" Jim on last week's episode, would probably lose interest in him as soon as she got him. And, as it's been annoyingly mentioned in every interview with (the awesome) Jenna Fischer, everyone has an "inner Pam" or whatever, and rooting for Pam to unlease her "inner Karen" is much more interesting than watching Karen chew Jim up and spit him out.
2. And most important: JIM. LOVES. PAM.

Go Team Pam!

Want to weigh in? You can even order T-shirts here (wouldn't it be cute if they came in baby sizes?): http://www.zulkey.com/diary_archive_111306.html

Let it Snow!

OK, so I admit the sight of all of this white stuff coming down was a little bit depressing (especially considering we have yet to rake our lawn) but it all went away when Gavin got a good look at our winter wonderland, followed by a snowy walk with Keely bounding through the park like a wild horse on speed.

Not adding this one to my baking arsenal

So I'm on the Williams-Sonoma e-mail list and this beauty popped up in my inbox today: the "Stadium Bundt Cake" pan. I don't know, it kind of seems like they might be running out of ideas for stuff we can actually use, or maybe I need to do more tailgating. My apologies to anyone who has purchased said pan or whose first thought when they saw the picture was "Cool! I could really use one of those!" Oh, and please forget this post when in a few years I somehow end up making this cake for Gavin's birthday.

Just because... we enjoyed a beautiful day in the sunshine at Olbrich Gardens. Thanks for snapping this one, Kari! 

No excuses people, get out there and do it