Operation Tubetop

Yay! The start of a long weekend! I don't have many plans for the 3 day weekend. My busiest day will be Sunday; I have a meeting with my editor to teach me how to use a camera for the Eurovision Song Contest and then afterwards I will be heading to Yak and Yeti in the 6th for a charity fundraising event for Nepal. I will be there around 4:30-5:00 for a little bit. I wish I could say I have crazy plans for this weekend but I don't and that is a good thing. In a couple of weeks I will be balls to the walls (boobs to the walls?) in Eurovision so I need this downtime with my family. It would actually be even nicer if my stomach could stop hurting. Since yesterday afternoon I have felt like a life-sized pinata but instead of exploding into a colourful array of candy.. well... you get the point. I briefly considered running full speed against a stomach-high doorknob just to end my misery. I don't know what is happening internally but "googling" lead to "cancer

Hola! How are you all doing? It's a little late in the month but here it is: the April Operation Tubetop Giveaway! It is pretty much the same procedure as last time. Share this blog on your Facebook wall and then come back to the Operation Tubetop Facebook page and tell me you posted it. There will be a draw and then I will announce the winner(s). Anybody can participate. Last month I went a little over the top and ended up mailing 8 bracelets and the Husband had to give me a little lecture about "all the monies not growing on trees" and I was like "I'm building a brand! Why can't you let me be me!?!" And that didn't really go over too well. So I have downsized to giving away just two bracelets meaning there will be two winners this month! I have ordered the prizes from Bliss by Iman because I absolutely love their stuff! The first one is this with the string in mint, And the second one is this one in light purple. I wish you all t

The Husband is out tonight and I had planned for a cozy night of writing and wine drinking (those two weeks of planned no drinking are going GREAT, guys!). The Kid is still awake and talking to himself in his own language in his bed and I keep going into his room every couple of minutes to whisper "SCHLAFEN, JETZT!" German, so melodic. I thought I would do a "keyword post" because, why not? Classic summaries: Seems like a lot of you liked the Madame Butterfly summary. I will definitely be doing more of those because irreverence is my middle name. Well, Elizabeth is, but whatever. I had a great time summing up Madame Butterfly except for all the ugly crying I did when thinking about the ending. And then she blindfolds her little boy...and...sob ... If you have any classics you would like me to write a summary about, let me know. I'm easy. The Kid: I just yelled at him again. Sweet Jeebus, Child, why are you not exhausted?!?! UGH! Anyway. He is doing fine

The Kid is home today. He had a slight fever yesterday. He is fine this morning but because there is a Scarlet Fever outbreak in his kindergarten (what is this, Little Women? !?) and he is at high risk for febrile seizures (have a kid they said, it will be fun, they said), we are keeping an eye on him. On Friday night, I had the honour to go and see Madame Butterfly at the Vienna State Opera house. I haven't been to the opera in about 8 years and when I sat down on Friday night I exclaimed "It is GOOD to be back!" and I meant it. The last opera I went to was La Boheme when the Husband still wanted to woo me with culture or was getting sick of hearing "We never do anything fancy!". Now we watch a lot of Judge Judy re-runs. I was lucky enough to grow up in a household that made sure we were exposed to all the classics; ballets, operas, symphonies, Bond films. My first opera was when I was 7 and it is probably my dad's favourite memory of me. He had tickets

Well, there is never a dull moment in Tova-land. I am on day 2 of my diet. Things look bleak. But maybe after my coffee, I will look on the brighter side of life. No beer and no sugar makes Homer .... Anyway. I post all sorts of things and don't always follow up on them so I thought I would take a moment this morning and catch you all up to date on random things - there are like, 3 things. Let's go! Good Housekeeping: Back in January I had an all out war with Hearst Publishing regarding my missing Good Housekeeping issues. And by war, I mean strongly worded letters. Here are copies of the e-mails I sent them: Dear ...., The situation is a little frustrating considering I ordered this subscription back in September. I am a Canadian living in Vienna and sometimes a girl just needs an English language magazine to read so that she doesn't feel like she is stuck in some war film. Seriously, Vienna is great but sometimes.... Did you know that shops are not open on S

You would have seen on Facebook my big news. If you didn't see my big news...well, then... good news that you are here. A couple of months ago, at an editorial meeting (I just love writing that. It makes me sound like a real life writing person.. which I'm not. I just like to pretend I'm Lois Lane/Michelle Pfeiffer from Up Close and Personal /Courtney Cox from Scream (all realistic portrayals of real journalists.. cough.) Little known fact: Christiane Amanpour was inspiration for Drew Barrymore in Never Been Kissed )) And how many closing brackets do I need now?) Anyway, I was at the editorial meeting for Vienna Wuerstelstand (absolutely wonderful online magazine) when the topic of Eurovision Song Contest came up. My arm went up so fast that I practically dislocated my shoulder. Without pause I yelled I'LL COVER IT! I WILL SELL MY SOUL! I WILL DO ANYTHING! Eurovision Song Contest has been around for decades. I remember as a kid, when we lived in Duesseldorf in the

It is 5 in the morning. I am not going to run. Instead I am going to write and oh look, here comes the Kid. Hey there. Take a seat. Anyway, as I was saying, it is 5:05 in the morning and I am not going to run. What? You want milk? Fine. So... it is 5:10 in the morning. I am tired but I have decided to spend this time... Cartoons? You want to watch cartoons. Alright . Ok, it is stupidly early in the morning. The Kid is awake and snuggled up in a blanket beside me with his milk and I am nursing a Coke Zero because I am nothing if not all about health. Yesterday I received a rejection e-mail for something that I had hoped would have happened. It wasn't personal but I was bummed. With a face like mine, I am used to rejection. Gah... Too early for self-deprecating jokes. Anyway, the e-mail news was a real blow and I actually cried which is totally not how I deal with rejection so it wierded me out. Usually when I hear bad news, I put on a kilt and round up the clansmen. I march t