Ode to Back-up Alarms.

I almost missed today’s big events.

Really.

My husband had a work event that I was invited to — celebrating the recent acquisition of the company he’s a CTO at– it was far away so we stayed over at a hotel. It was nice not to have to drive home late, and also nice because he had to leave at 5 AM to go on a business trip for said company.

I got to sleep in.

Until 7 AM.

I know, I know, the sheer luxury of it all! Considering I usually have to deal with my toes being tugged at 6 AM by a thirsty three year old or telling my eldest son that Wii came into the house by the grace of me, it’s also going to go by the grace of me, if HE KEEPS PLAYING IT AT THIS LEVEL AGAIN.

So relatively uninterrupted sleep until 7 AM is super-fantastic happy hour fabulous by my standards.

But I had to get up by 7 AM. No later.

Quick ring to the Hotel’s front desk to set a wake-up call.

Ready.

Not.

If I hadn’t gotten a wrong number at 6:45 AM, I would have never woken up.

They never called. Not at 7 AM, not at 7:30 AM.

I had to meet the trainer at the gym and I had a long drive through Boston’s morning rush-hour traffic, had I not woken up and missed my apt I would have been pissed.

When I was doing finanical PR and we had a deal being announced, I often set the alarm, ringed for a wake-up call AND had breakfast delivered. I never  was late and I was never rushed.

Back-up alarms are important. Not only do they mean you have confidence that you’ll be on time, and you sleep better if your really nervous, it also means you’re never going to feel rushed if you properly backed out your time schedule.

Seems pretty trivial and obvious, but back-ups are key.

The more important it is, the more back-ups you need. And want.

Most important meeting of your life? Back-ups galore.

Nuclear power plant? Oh hell yes, there BETTER be a bucketful o’back-ups.

This morning only confirms it. Don’t leave it to chance.

Make sure you have your back-ups alarms in place.

Kick-Ass Corn Salsa of the Gods…

Thanks to Come For Coffee Blog for the swell picture.

I love salsa. But you already knew that from previous posts.  This past weekend, at a party, I tasted the most amazing corn salsa.

I can imagine this would be great made with grilled corn on the cob. I’d also (from that previous post) even throw in some basil, but this, by itself is amazing. Make it for yourself, your next party or just because. It is that good. (Updated note: per the comment below don’t mix cilantro and basil, use in lieu of.)

So here it is….

Corn and Bean Salsa

1 c. black beans, rinsed and drained
8 oz. cooked corn
1 large tomato, diced
1 avocado medium, diced
1/2 purple onion, chopped
1/2 c. cilantro, chopped
1-2 T lime juice
1 T olive oil
1 T red wine vinegar
S&P to taste

Mix together.  Allow time for flavors to combine, about 30 mins.

[But don't make ahead much more than that because of the avocado.]

LocalBetsy! Fun This Weekend: Grand Opening Hingham Shipyard

This is about some local fun happening in Boston’s South Shore.

Some people think I’m a Mommy blogger, some think I’m a local blogger, some a lifestyle blogger, a business, a gadget girl, and so on – but I blog about things I like, am doing, am into. I just happen to be into a lot.

So I guess that makes me a lot of blogger. Today I blog about FUN.

Today I just wanted to give my South Shore brethren a heads up on some fun happening down at the new Hingham Shipyard this weekend.

Both Saturday and Sunday. You can read about it all HERE.

The Grand Opening of the Launch at the Hingham Shipyard is this Saturday, June 26th.

From 10 Am- 4pm there’s going to be clowns, inflatables, magicians, pony rides, face painting, including an 11am “Pilates in the Park” class with Modern Pilates’ Lisa Johnson. Noon to 4pm Boston Harbor islands and the DCR park rangers will be doing demonstrations and giveaways. And 4pm there’s a free concert from the acappella group NoTA. Food Demos at Fresh Market, Kayaks  rentals at Eastern Mountain Sports and Supercuts is even having doing Fun temporary hair color on kids.

Sunday has more fun starting at 10am. There’s story telling, and more concerts to come.

If you haven’t been down to the shipyard you should go. They’ve done a really nice job setting the place up. Some amazing new restaurants, shops and promenade along the water. Last I saw the finishing touches on the carousel and mini-golf (even  a dog park! ) were just about done.

I’ve also heard the new restaurant Alma Nove is quite good, and I know more than a few guys looking forward to the opening of the Beer Works (ok, it’s called the Hingham Beer Works but it’s the same people.)

So check it out. Take the kids. Enjoy the weather and hang by the water.

Not a bad way to pass a Saturday. Or a Sunday.

Highly Entertaining “Wax On, F*ck Off”

16, Tiger Beat…oh they were the good days…

Poor Ralph Macchio, the eternal teenager.

Well those crazy peeps from FunnyOrDie come up with a brillant send-up the faux documentary “Wax On, F*ck Off.” Good news is that Ralph is in on the joke. So’s Molly Ringwald, Kevin Connelly and an unbelievably funny Michael Lerner.

Watch it. It’s genius.

Mommy Bloggers.

Photo courtesy of SEO.com

I was thinking about this piece, documenting all the varieties of Mommy Lies for Scary Mommy, I realized that the current Mommy bloggers  (and sometimes I consider myself one but I’d also consider myself a tech-business-media-design-pop culture commentator) are really documentarians, documenting, often hysterically (hello, Scary Mommy?) our era of child-rearing.

If you’re a Mommyblogger, consider yourself  the neighborhood’s Margaret Mead– except without the restless natives, Yellow Fever, and wildly interesting food — you’re just one with access to abundant clean water, mojitos and Old Navy. At some point (most likely now) there’s a very nerdy grad student pouring over all these blogs and writing their dissertation drawing all sorts of earth-shattering conclusions, maybe even a book deal, perhaps even a modern-day Feminine Mystique?

Whoa, watch out Betty Friedan!

(Hey, if you are the grad student and happen on this snazzy post, call me- INMHO we’re getting gipped. Those Mystique ladies, whom Friedan theorized were sold a bill of goods in the 50s-60′s, at least could smoke, drink and pop Valium at will. I can’t even get away with Friday afternoon Margaritas in the cul de’sac, let alone toke on medicinal marijuana. AND… we have to deal with car-seats….Jeez. )

Cake and Punishment

Busted. (pix courtesy of www.rtc.pdx.edu)

I’m in trouble.

I ate cake that was verbotten.

My kids are punishing me.

And I made them do it.

Here’s the story morning glories: The twins just had seperate birthdays (one horse themed, other was Star Wars, so you can see how this is a good thing.) Seperate birthdays means… seperate cakes. My son a vanilla Star Wars cake with its’ white frosting airbrushed (?) colors, my daughter’s a vanilla/chocolate ice cream cake from a fabulous purveyour of iced fatty delights known as Nona’s Ice Cream in Hingham, MA. We’re talking heavenly stuff here my friends.

Nona's. Can you blame me?

So all the copious extras were cut-up, and frozen for treats later.

But not much later.

All I can say was they were winking at me. I thawed out some cake for my family, but snacked on it until … it was almost gone. Whoops.

And off I went my merry way.

So back from yoga I bounded into my sweet family eating dinner… and was totally and completely busted. By my husband. My daughter. My son(s).

J’accuse!

“Mom YOU ate the cake!”

I was caught dead to rights. I ‘fessed up.

Then I told them I, having broken the rules, that I should be punished.

(Now the looks on their faces at this were priceless, but I had done wrong and why should I be above following family rules? You lead by example in both good and bad I say. You do the crime, you do the time.)

My son’s first idea “No computer for a week!”

Umm, that’s going to happen kid. Try again.

So I was dealt with a firm sentence- no gossip sites for a whole week. No Prez Hilton. No CrazyDaysandNights. No Pinkisthenewblog. No TMZ. No People.com.

I can do Drudge, news, my Google reader (oh, Prez Hilton on RSS? Ahh no) but no straight-up gossip.

It was fair, and I’m handling it. Gossip is the yin to my more tech/cerebral yang- I use it as a mental palate cleanser. So as my natural instinct says, check out FT.com…. then hit Cocoprez.com I have to skip the last and go read up on Brian Solis’ PR 2.0 or Springwise.

All I can say is Thank goodness TheCoolHunter is still not off-limits.

My sentence ends Friday.*

*As in week, I’m thinking work week, not 7 days. That’d be just cruel.

Going to the dogs… Breakfast at Ginger’s

This is my Ginger.

Some of you might know my canine-kimosabe, Ginger.

Ginger-girl is a Golden Retriever of the finest caliber. Affectionate, loyal, she’s the reason why there are bumper stickers that say “Be the person your dog thinks you are.”

Picked up at the breeder when I was pregnant (by days) with the twins, Ginger was my prego-partner and exercise coach, because if it’s 32F out and the dog is due for a walk, you walk! Never mind that you’re 6 mos pregnant with twins and every time you cough you pee.

True story- during the era known as “Bennifer,” I, sick with a cold, had a coughing fit at the church near our Brookline, MA condo during a funeral. Surrounded by black-clothed mourners, myself included but of the horrendous maternity variety, I coughed so hard I totally peed.  In front of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez.  Thank god black hides everything, and I was wearing a long coat. I guess Ben’s great-uncle had died and Bennifer made it to the funeral. Of course, armed with a really cute puppy, everyone wanted to pet Ginger, who is a total harlot for attention. I think we even made it into Star Magazine: Beniffer, Ginger and… me, having wet my pants. Good times.

So Ginger is famous. Not only to the supermarket-tabloids, but also with every job my hubby could take a dog to. She thinks she’s a person –and a very sociable one at that–  so she’ll visit every single person in the office. All must pet. All must love. All must adore. You’ll get nudged if you don’t.

Today, to my delight, was a YouTube video of Ginger’s doppelganger- doing “Breakfast at Ginger’s.” What is a responsible, dog-loving owner of a Ginger to do?

Post it.

Warning- I think it’s canned laughter, while it’s cute, it isn’t THAT funny. Also, for full-disclosure, I would never subject my dog to something like this, but I’m not above capitalizing on others that do…

AND I do like the “I’d rather be Blitzing” mug. Nice touch.

Connecting

(image courtesy of GovGab- the US Gov't blog. I kid you not.)

UPDATED: I just got a sweet new email address. Hooray. So you can now connect with me at betsy {at} theliquidbetsy {dot} com.

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So I’ve been working to make TheLiquidBetsy more… well.. connectible.

Not everyone does an RSS feed.

Not everyone wants to enter in “http://theliquidbetsy.com” or Google or bookmark.

I’m trying to be accommodating, so all the nice people that read TLB (or those that don’t even know they want to read it but can be turned into rabid fans) can get it with the least amount of effort.

See …I knew you’d like that.

Lazy-ass efficiency. I live for it.

I’ve set up a Facebook fanpage HERE.

I’ve also set up a feed from Networkedblogs on Facebook HERE.

Now I’ve made FB my bitch, (or rather the other way around) I wanted make myself available.

I love new things, researching, trying, writing and reviewing. That’s my shtick. So if you have interesting things you think I would like or should know about send them my way. Many thanks to those who already have been sending their fab finds.

The address is: betsy {at} theliquidbetsy {dot} com.

And, as always you can reach me on Twitter.

Cheers.

TheBetsy

It’s Betty White, Bitch. (The Music)

I love me some Betty White.

Always have.

Ever since she played that skank, Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

My sister and I would watch secret-forbidden-after-school TV and our preferred digital smack was Mary, The Bob Newhart Show (yeah, the one before Newhart… funnier too.) and the occasional Elvis movie.

So I am thoroughly enjoying the resurgence of TheBetty. Thoroughly.

Totally underused in a McRole in Golden Girls. We are glad to see TheBetty flexing her comic fabulousness. The Proposal. Super Bowl Snickers Ad. SNL.

Especially the Viral YouTube video TheBetty did with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Ryenolds for The Proposal. Love that.

So obviously I’m not the only one whose feeling Betty While these days as The St. Olaf Glee Club does fan-tabulous take on Grandmaster Melle Mel’s “White Lines” — so without further ado, enjoy.

“Betty White Lines.”

(A special thanks to Perez Hilton the original source. Total confession- I read the Queen of All Media pretty much every day. Chalk it up to my Questionable TV/Media addiction.)

The Return of the Complaint Letter- Powerpoint Version.

I seemed to have touch a nerve last week.

A LiquidBetsy reader sent me this gem. You got to ask- what ticks a person off so much they’d spend hours putting together a seamless, storyboarded F.U. to the company.

Well that’d be Mike, night clerk at The DoubleTree Club Hotel in Houston.

The result? “Yours is a very bad hotel.”

And a gem.