I was a complete Mr. Men and Little Miss fan when I was growing up. How complete you may ask? I had most, if not all of the books available, T-shirts with the characters and my fondest memories of learning to write include writing my name backwards in yellow crayon on the inside cover. Yes, I wrote Yralih.

After Morgan was born, I dug out my books. We’ve read Little Miss Trouble, Little Miss Stubborn, Little Miss Chatterbox, Little Miss Busy, Mr. Bump, Mr. Noisy and her all time favorite, Mr. Worry.

When the Little Miss shirts debuted a few seasons back, I got Little Miss Trouble for myself, Little Miss Naughty for one friend, and Little Miss Queen for a friend whose maiden name is Queen.

And now, drumroll please. . . Cartoon Network will be the home of The Mr. Men Show, a new animated sketch comedy series, which will launch in January 2008. According to Reuters.com,

"NEW YORK--(Business Wire)--What do Ellen DeGeneres, Larry David, Kelly Ripa and Simon Cowell
all have in common? Besides being some of the biggest names in
television, they are also among 12 celebrities who have been
recognized with a 2007 "Mr. Men Show" Award.

"The Mr. Men Show," Cartoon Network's new daily animated sketch
comedy series for kids premiering February 4 at 9:00 am, is based on
the best-selling Mr. Men and Little Miss books first created in the
1970's by Roger Hargreaves. The series is produced by Chorion, which
owns the "Mr. Men" franchise worldwide.

Just like in real life, each character in "The Mr. Men Show" has a
distinct personality that comes into conflict with others. Whether
it's a birthday, day at the beach or a trip to the farm, the Mr. Men
and Little Misses react to and cope (or don't cope!) with each funny
but challenging situation - and each other.

Each "Mr. Men Show" Award winner was selected for his or her
ability to best exemplify the key personality traits and unique
attributes of a particular "Mr. Men Show" character.


I gotta go; I gotta delete some Backyardigans episodes from the DVR to make room.

There is this video on YouTube (where else, right?) of the Cat in the Hat and I kid you not, the Cat’s voice sounds like he just left Paulie Walnuts and Sal at the Bing to go show Sally and her brother how to have some good fun that is funny. (Ayyy, ohhhh, I’m walkin’ here!).

My given name has spawn a whole host of nicknames; some are worse than and some are better than others. The one I can’t stand, the one that will guarantee that we will fight “to the pain” over is “Hil”. Yeah, try that out and see how far that gets you.

I’d say about 50% of the time, I am called and answer to Hilary. The remaining 25% is reserved for Mommy, and another 5% is for various pet names from Craig that are none of your business 🙂 The remaining 20% is what I will or will not answer to depending the amount of DNA that we share. Feel free to laugh and or contribute to the list

Hilaria
Hilarious
Hickory Dickory
Hilla Dilla
Hilla-tree
Hil-o-ry
Dillweed
Dill
Dixon

As a result of all of these name substitutions, I’ve started Morgan on a path of multiple names as well. For Morgan, we have Morgs, Morga, Morgus, Morgan Schmoo,Schmoo,
Schmoo Poo, Schmoops, Poo-poo-da-roo, Poodah Pie, Rutabaga, and Miss Mess. Coever, whose real name is Catherine, hasn’t been left of off of this bus either. She goes by Coever, Coever Girl, Wingus, Wingy, Wingy-woo, Wingy-woo-woo, Wingy-ninja, Gus, Gustavus, Goose, Stink Bottom and Little Miss Wet Butt. I think we’re going to make a shirt for her with that on it.

And Craig? Well, he’s just Craig, unless you are from New England (hello Dad and Grandma), then he’s Craaaaaaaaag, as in crags and other out-croppings of rocks suitable for climbing. Hmmm, maybe we can call him Rocky. My guess is he won’t answer to that one. He’ll be too busy fighting us all “to the pain”.

There was this article on CNN today about how today, Monday, January 21, is the most depressing day of the year. We all know that Garfield hates Mondays, but has it really gotten to the point where we can actually pinpoint a specific date on the calendar to which we can attribute our crank-tastic and pouty-mouthed gloom? Evidently, there is.

CNN say, “the theory set forth by Dr. Cliff Arnall, a researcher from Cardiff University, that the third Monday of the month (Jan. 21, this year) — a day he calls Blue Monday — will be our most depressing day of the year. Arnall bases his yearly prediction on a formula he developed, which factors in the weather, consumer debt from holiday spending and failed New Year’s resolutions and arrives at that conclusion that we’ll hit rock bottom on Monday the 21st.”

Yikes! But let’s look at these factors that Arnall has examined.

1. Weather — I don’t know where you are, but in Norfolk, it’s balmy 32 degrees (compared to the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field and Foxboro Stadium
. These last couple of weeks, the weather has been up and down more than Oprah’s weight. Fluctuating weight, fluctuating weather, both mean one thing — what the deuce am I going to wear today? That’s enough to make your lip poke out.

2. Consumer debt from holiday spending — Ahhh, the best laid plans of mice and men. . . I had every intention of sticking to our holiday budget of spending $50 on Craig, and no more than $100 on each of the girls. Yeah, that didn’t happen. I can’t be a Scrooge when it comes to my family. I won’t go as far as to say I plunged us into a hemmoraging debt, the likes of which have me typing this from a public library, sitting next to Larry, Stinky Pete and his dog, Jingles, who just came in to use the facilities to wash up. Gifts are nice. Money is nice. Having more more money then debt is even nicer. I rate it right up there next to oxygen.

3. Failed New Year’s Resolutions — Well, my resolution was (again) to floss. I didn’t set a specific frequency, but I will say that I have been doing it a lot more than I thought I would. Yay, me! High Five and chest bump on the mirror!

As with many things, I take all theories with a grain of salt. Sure, I can get moody from about Halloween through mid to late January, but who doesn’t. It’s a non-stop family-fun-filled-food-fest. There’s bound to be a post-she-bang-a-bang let down. I mean, when the egg nog leaves the shelves until the next holiday season? That’s enough to make anyone feel like crap on toast!

This Souljah Boy thing has gone way to far when you have people doing it with their mothers! I mean, it is funny, though!

Of course, if I could get Bunny doing the Souljah Boy, that would be something! Hmmm. . . .

I’ve never considered myself to be very political. I can hold an intelligent conversation on the primary candidates that are vying for their respective parties nomination, but only if I’ve perused cnn.com or msnbc.com about 30 minutes prior. Craig very well versed and breaks it down in layman’s terms about who is in favor or against what and what it all means for us as tax payers. Still, there are times when I feel like I’m back in Pre-Calculus, just trying to understand how we got to the bottom-line. I mean I see what you are saying, but how did we get here?

Thankfully, there are a number of websites that can help. I now know what the hot button issues are and even better, can recall them with some degree of accuracy. I’ve learned that my views skew more in line with someone from the Republican party (hello!) and that I’ve got the makings of a Conservative Libertarian (who knew?!).

When I should have been sleeping (see my previous post on why I’m so tired in the mornings), I went to the Select a Candidate quiz, which is more like a quizzlet. I went to a site that boasts of a quiz to help you pick choose the best 2008 candidate for president. I even went to a site that calls itself the World’s Smallest Political Quiz, and seriously, it is only 10 questions broken down into two 5 question blocks. Nice!

Are you an elephant or a donkey? Who cares! The better question is, which candidate is more in keeping with what is most important to you ? Take the quizzes I listed above and see. The answer may surprise you.