“Downton Abbey” Halloween Costumes for Kids

Move over sexy Frozen costumes, there's a new king in town. Or, should I say, Earl, as in Chasing Fireflies' totally awesome Downton Abbey Earl of Grantham costume for kids. That's right, amigos, they have store-bought Downton Abbey Halloween costumes for kids and they are freaking adorable!

Currently, there are four Downton Abbey costumes available for the wee ones: Servent Jimmy, Lady's Maid Anna, The Earl of Grantham and Lady Grantham herself, the Countess of Grantham. And lest the kids have all the fun Chasing Firelies also offers adult versions of the costumes as well. And with a dedicated line of Downton Abbey accessories — including white servent gloves, jewelry and an adorable teddy bear decked out in Lady Grantham's signature white and black ensemlble — how can you lose?

The only downside to this amazingly geeky venture is the price tag. Chasing Fireflies' Downton Abbey children's costumes range in price from $64.50 to $89.50, and the adult versions top out at a whopping $119.50. I'm not saying that these beautifully-tailored costumes aren't worth it, but, man, at that price I'd hope they throw in a fancy Dowager Countess wig or something to boot. Yikes!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Emma Watson on Feminism

By now you’ve all probably seen this clip a hundred times on Facebook and Twitter, but, Emma Watson’s impassioned speech to the UN General Assembly this week on feminism is too cool not to share again here with you guys.

I won’t bore you with the details as nothing I could possibly write here would even begin to compare with the awesomeness espoused by Watson in her speech. Poised, heartfelt, powerful and deeply moving, Watson nails the heart of the issue in one bold stroke. To paraphrase another trailblazing UN Goodwill Ambassador, Geri “Ginger Spice” Halliwell: “Girl Power 4eva!”

Rock on, Hermione!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Library Store on Wheels in the news!

Hot on the heels of being named one of Wuztwhat's Seven Havens for Booklovers in Los Angeles, The Library Store made the news again this week when the store's mobile truck (and Mrs. Yeti herself!) appeared on Thursday's 6:00PM news on KNBC 4.

Featured in a segment on a proposed bill to streamline and simplify the permit process for mobile vendors and retail trucks, The Library Store on Wheels was just one of three trucks in the piece, but, they definitely got the most screen time. I think they have the coolest-looking truck too, but, perhaps I'm a bit biased.

Either way, kudos to Mrs. Yeti and everyone on her rocking Library Store team on yet another awesome TV appearance. Keep on mobile trucking, guys!

Posted with Blogsy

“It’s oh so nice to go traveling…”

One of the best things about taking a nice, long road trip every summer to Grants Pass, Oregon (by way of Santa Cruz, CA) is that being away from Los Angeles for any extended period of time always reminds me of just why I love L.A. so much in the first place. Yes, I admit it, I love L.A., probably more than anyplace I've ever lived.

In fact, having been down here for over twenty-two years now, Mrs. Yeti and I have officially lived in L.A./Burbank longer than we've ever lived anywhere else. And though we love to get away, something about this crazy, sprawling urban jungle just makes us feel excited and alive. Maybe it's because we were both born down here, who knows? But for us, L.A. is home, and as we drove over the Grapevine on Sunday night and caught our first glimpse of the shimmering lights of the San Fernando Valley in the distance, I'm not embarrassed to admit that we both got more than a little choked up.

I'm not sure if that was because we were relieved that some of the more dramatic episodes from our trip were behind us, or the simple fact that we were just happy to be home. But for whatever reason, we practically kissed the ground when we arrived!

And today, as Greta and I grabbed lunch at a totally 80's Taco Bell on Ventura Boulevard — which is one of my two favorite thoroughfares in L.A., BTW, Wilshire Boulevard being the other — I spotted a dude with the long grey hair and tight, studded jeans of a faded rock star enjoying a Meximelt while a crazy-eyed trannie demanded the key to the restroom at the register, and I just smiled from ear to ear. Oh, L.A., how I've missed you. It really is good to be home!

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Facebook’s 10th Birthday Videos

Have been having kind of a crappy week so far, so, when I saw what Facebook was doing to celebrate their tenth birthday (I know…ten years! Crazy, huh?!)  it really made my day. All you have to do is click on the link floating around Facebook today and the FB team instantly creates a little personalized video celebration of your time on Facebook. It’s super easy and most of the resulting videos I watched are pretty damn cool. Emphasis on the word most.

I joined Facebook in 2009 right after Greta was born, so, my video starts with a picture of Mrs. Yeti and myself cradling our newborn daughter in the hospital. Oy, I get a little verklempt just thinking about it. Anyway, if we’re FB friends, check out my clip there and then make one for yourself, and if you’re really shy and don’t want the whole world watching your FB video, you don’t have to share it with anyone and can simply enjoy your memories alone. Cool, huh?

But whatever you do with your clip and however you chose to celebrate the social network’s first decade in existence this week…happy 10th birthday, Facebook!

Star Trek: “The Wreath of Kahn”

So, just as I was getting ready to go to bed and stop blogging about Christmas trees and crafting one’s own Middle-Earth entirely from LEGOS, I came across this amazing, one-of-a-kind Christmas wreath and just had to share it with you guys.

I heard about this nerdtastic ode to Christmas and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn from a friend’s status update on Facebook, but, apparently the Wreath of Kahn –has been taking the internet by storm for a few days now. It might not be the first Wreath of Kahn out there, but, it is pretty damn cool. According go her twitter feed, the wreath was designed by NYC-based Annie Shapiro. I don’t know her personally, but, in the spirit of the season, I love her already.

Kudos to you @apianoshrine for sharing your awesomeness with the world, may you and yours “live long and prosper” for many Christmas’ to come!

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Date Night TV: “Big Brother 15”

OK, even if I wasn’t currently working for an aviation-themed magazine, I would still think the new “have not” bedroom on Big Brother 15 is freaking ingenious. Yes, we watch Big Brother, like, religiously. It’s one of the only shows that made the cut when Greta was born, and even if we have to stay up way after she’s gone to bed to catch up on some not safe for kids episodes (especially this season, which is already off to a homophobic, racially-charged start!) we’ll do it.

For those of you not familiar with the show, randomly selected contestants called houseguests are picked to live in a house where their every move is taped all day for the entire summer. Their only contact with the outside world is with the lovely Julie Chen — who fans affectionately refer to as “The Chenbot” for her alluringly robotic demeanor — who appears on the show once a week for a live elimination episode.

Aside from arguing, drinking and running around half-naked in the backyard, each week contestants compete for all sorts of insane food prizes and something called “Head of Household”, which means they get to sleep in a fancy private bedroom upstairs and nominate two houseguests for eviction during their reign. Meanwhile, the rest of the houseguests compete to see which of them will be “haves” and eat normal food for the week, and which will be “have nots” and eat something called slop (which looks like really grey oatmeal) for the week.

Another awful thing the “have not” houseguests must endure during their week is a stay in the “have not” bedroom. In past seasons, “have nots” have slept on cots or even the floor, but, this year, the BB producers have outdone themselves with an aviation-themed “have not” bedroom that utilizes actual airplane seats for beds. Ha!

The room also features stacked suitcases in lieu of dressers and airplane-style overhead storage bins for anything else the “have nots” might want to stow during their stay. Hilarious! Luckily, it looks like the armrests on the chairs do fold up, so, at least there’s that.

But if you’re like me and the concept of sleeping on airplane seats for a couple of hours makes your back hurt. Just imagine how jacked up you’d be after an entire week of fetal position side sleeping. Urgh…I’ll take the floor, thank you.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Burbank, CA

BlogPress App for iPad

Hey again. See, I told you you’d get sick of me pretty quick. Anyway, just wanted to write about this super cool new App I bought tonight. See, another big reason I haven’t been blogging is that it’s really, really hard to do it on an iPad Mini or even a regular iPad for that matter. I don’t know why it is, but, there are just certain things that you can’t do easily when blogging on an iPad, which, to me is totally lame, because, that’s part of the fun of having this shiny little bauble in your pocket in the first place. Yes, my iPad Mini fits in my jacket pocket. Cool, huh? But, I’m always worried I’m gonna forget it’s there and sit down on it or something, so, I usually keep it in my backpack with the baby wipes, bandaids, extra panties and all the other craziness I carry around all day.

Anyway, we were talking about blogging on an iPad. Like I said, it’s hard and time consuming, so, I usually just give up and don’t blog. But, that started to annoy me, so, after a terrible night of blogging (last night) on my laptop (which has problems of it’s own that I won’t bore you with now) I tried blogging again on my iPad using the official WordPress App and guess what happened? I lost my entire blog post. TWICE! I actually had to retype (retype!!) the entire post in Word on my laptop and then paste it into the WordPress program that way. So f-ing annoying!

So, today, while Greta made me a lovely imaginary breakfast of strawberry tea and eggs with some kind of frosting on them, I did a little research and discovered, BlogPress, the lovely blogging App that I am currently using to write this with. So far, so good. I can upload pics and videos in a flash, I can type my posts much, much faster than I could on the WordPress App and best of all, BlogPress links up with your blog automatically, so, you don’t have to know shit about computers. Hooray!

Anyway, just wanted to give them a shout out. Thanks, BlogPress, you are worth every cent of the $2.99 sale price I paid for you at the iTunes App Store! Oh, and just for the record, the extra panties in my backpack are not for me. Thanks.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Los Angeles

Festival de Cannes Poster (2013)

OK, it’s official. I am so busy these days that this year I actually missed all of the coverage of my favorite film festival on earth, Cannes! Urgh, I actually forgot it was May. Crazy, huh? I guess that’s what happens to old SAHD’s who are trying to raise a toddler and freelance a bit on the side…there is just no more time for extracurricular nerdiness. Hell, I didn’t even see this beautiful poster — featuring a gorgeous shot of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward from the little-seen 1963 film, A New Kind of Love — until tonight. Sacrilege!

But any regrets I had at missing the 66th Annual Festival de Cannes in its entirety this year are more than up for by the sheer raditude of this poster. I mean, wow, if you ask me, love never looked cooler or newer. A more than worthy addition to the library of groovy Cannes posters! Que viva la Cannes!