….MSNBC, for this winner today:

“Is Nature Out of Control?”

(ANSWER: why yes, MSNBC, yes she is…)

EDIT: Post removed after someone (not sure who yet. We’ll discuss it later if child feels like it) actively upset my child regarding the contents of the post. Thus, my child called me from school just now and asked me to delete it.

Now that my children are old enough to read what I write (and have friends and friends’ parents who read what I write) they always get the final say on what gets blogged about and what doesn’t. So whatever the reasons or circumstances, if one of the children is uncomfortable for any reason with something I’ve written on my blog, it goes away with no further discussion. They’re the boss(es) in that regard.

And that’s what’s happened here.

(But I’m still laughing about our conversation this morning.)

Katie

This is what NC looks like when her mama tells her “no.”

Check out this cute video from my friend John Cave Osborne. He made it a week or two ago to chronicle an evening he spent solo parenting his toddler TRIPLETS while his wife had a much-needed “I need to get out of this house and away from three babies before I stick my head in the oven” night out.

The video is very funny (and he’s an awesome, attached, hands-on, sweet, wonderful father), but perhaps the best part of the story is that after John uploaded it to his You Tube channel, Ashton Kutcher somehow found it – John still has no idea how – and posted it to his own @aplusk Twitter feed (read: several million followers), after which Alyssa Milano picked it up and tweeted it.

So today the video is going viral online, including here at my blog, where I hope you will find it as entertaining as Ashton and Alyssa did.

I don’t consider myself particularly photogenic, but I have to admit that I was rather shocked – and not in a good way – when I happened to run across a certain photo that someone had taken at the recent Knoxville Twestival fundraiser.

This is, without question, THE WORST PHOTO EVER TAKEN OF ME.

Yes, from a certain angle, I sometimes pick up just the merest hint of a double chin in photos. I know that. I’ve accepted it. But what’s the deal here with the ENORMOUS ARM that I seem to have acquired just before this photo was taken? My arm in this photo is literally bigger than my head. It looks like my arm ate several other partygoers and was storing them up for the long winter ahead.

At first, I was horrified by the photo. But I began to see the humor in it as I observed other people’s reactions. My husband laughed so hard when he first saw it that I thought he might levitate with glee. Same for my sister. So yeah, now I think it’s pretty funny, this horrifying, giant arm/pinhead photo.

(But not so amusing that I don’t find myself compelled to post a second photo of my arm, the same arm, in its natural state. Not because I am sensitive about the Big Arm Photo’s continuing existence on Flickr, but just – you know – for the sake of comparison…)

NOTE: Someone just told me who took the Big Arm Photo, and as it happens, this person is actually very talented, and this was obviously just an unfortunate, one-off shot that is not reflective at all of the great photos he usually takes. Also, the GUY in that photo with me is my friend Alex Lavidge, who ALSO got the shaft in this particular picture, as Alex is actually an exceptionally attractive (and incredibly interesting) fella!

I still haven’t set up BadGoogleVoice.com (soon! soon!), but I just had to share the one I got a little while ago:

You have a new voicemail from :
11:10 AM

“Voicemail elbow sour cream. Sasquatch and other things, delicious. I like to talk with best never, strawberry.”

Heh

Here’s a pitch I got today that I find unintentionally hilarious.

And no, I did not make this up for your amusement.

These folks are apparently marketing a manual to aspiring parenting writers.

Read it for yourself

Hi Katie,

I bet many of your blog readers have read an article in a parenting magazine and thought, “Hey, I could have written that!” I, along with fellow freelance writers and , agree: Many parents can write for regional and national parenting publications once they’ve mastered a few tricks of the trade.

That’s why we wrote Cash in on Your Kids: Parenting Queries that Worked (available here: http://cashinonyourkids.wordpress.com/). This how-to e-book explains how one goes about selling stories to regional and national parenting magazines. For a limited time, we’re offering the book at $14.95. That’s half the original cost! In addition to providing insider tips about writing for parenting publications, the book is chock full of actual writers’ queries that landed assignments in top national magazines.

If you agree that this is something your blog readers would like to know more about, I would like to offer you:

If any (or all!) of these options appeal to you, please let me know.

Etc, etc, etc….

CASH IN ON YOUR KIDS?!?!!

It’s like the title of a FunnyOrDie skit about parenting bloggers or something

ADDENDUM: I checked out their site, and the authors list some very credible freelancing credentials (published in major magazines, etc). But I gotta tell you that I still find “Cash In On Your Kids” to be perhaps the worst book title ever, particularly for a book on how to write for parenting magazines…for parents.  It’s just awful…but in a funny-awful way.

J to me: “Why do you look stressed, mom?”

Me to J: “Well, there’s this client I’d really like to land, and I’m not sure how my pitch to them went.”

J to Me: “Just play hard to get, Mom. It works every time!”

(Maybe she should write a pop-business book with the “advice from a teenage girl” angle. She could call it: “Okay, So, Like, Who Moved My Lip Gloss, Right?!”)

J to me: “Mom! I had the WORST dream last night! I dreamed that The Real Housewives of New Jersey were my AUNTS!”