I’m Still Here

My life hasn’t had too many words as of late but perhaps the pictures can speak for me.

We had a very good Easter:

My mom and my niece in their Easter dresses.

Miss Chandler is missing some front teeth!

Happy Easter from the Macks!

Daddy’s little girl.

It’s spring time in Houston (FINALLY) and Lent is over so it’s time for crawfish!! We went to the Pearland Crawfish Festival this weekend.

Corn, potatoes and bugs..10 pounds worth!

Lots of ducks to win a prize.

The brothers Mack: middle, oldest, youngest.

And of course, everyone loves a Carnival!

 

Hopefully it’s warming up where you are!

Odds And Ends: Hump Day Edition

• I’m thinking about doing a vlog for ya’ll. Do I need to set up a YouTube channel and alla that? Do I have to wear make-up? Where is the best place to film a vlog in your house? As you can see I have questions..lots of them.
• Do you have the Songza app on your phone? This Essential Motown playlist is giving me ALL OF THE LIFE right now!
• I’m eating cake right now at work. Don’t tell Myron.
• I’ve been trying to get the energy up to do some real blogging instead of all these Odds and Ends random ass posts but every time I think of a topic I want to talk about, I forget it.
• Cassandra at Cohab Chronicles links to this blog called Friday 5 for post ideas. I think I’m going to start using some of these prompts. I really want to write, it’s just sometimes the flesh is weak…and then it falls asleep.
• Shit married people do: walk around the house singing the operatic version of “As Long As My B*tches Love Me” by Lil Wayne/Future/Drake. Said lyrics go like this:I’m on that good kush and alcohol/I got some down b*tches I can call
  I don’t know what I would do without y’all/I’mma ball til the day I fall

• Yeah, we’re a bit ratchet and a whole lot of silly. But it was funny though! LMAO!!!
• Are ya’ll watching House of Cards on NetFlix? That shit is crazy good!!!
• We are history nuts so we are looking forward to watching The Bible and Vikings on the History Channel. March 3rd cant get here fast enough.
• March 3rd is also my brother’s birthday. He’ll be 28. I feel really old now.  *sigh*
• I normally look forward to the NBA All-Star games and skill challenges like the 3 Point Shoot Out and Slam Dunk contests. They were absolutely horrible this year. And I didn’t even bother to watch the actual All Star game. I did turn back long enough to see Alicia Keys crash and burn. That was vindication enough.
• How does a grown man slap a toddler on a plane, call the kid a racial slur, and be able to walk off the plane under his own power?? Shouldn’t there be dismemberment involved?
• I have eaten ALL this cake and drunk some punch. I really need a nap now.
• That’s all I got for a Wednesday afternoon. What are ya’ll doing??

Odds And Ends: The Call of Nature Edition

How was your weekend? Mine was great!

•  Friday night, hubs and I went to hang out with Beautifully Complex, her fiance’ and his brother at Fedora Lounge. Little did we know that it turns into the club after 10pm complete with valet parking. In a strip shopping center.  Doing too much you say? We thought so too but a good time was had by all.
• Saturday, we lounged around and had a hearty breakfast, then took a nap and then dragged oourselves from the couch to head to a baby shower for some friends of ours. We went, ate (really good baby shower food), cooed, oohed and ahhed and then made a break for it to go to the main event of the evening: Serious Cigars Customer Appreciation Event. Beautifully Complex’s fiancé is a diehard cigar buff and he invited us to come to this party that his cigar shop has every year. Free food, free open bar with top shelf likka and prize giveaways?? What’s NOT to love!! Here are a couple of pics from the party.




• Sunday, I was lying in the bed resting quietly when Myron came in our bedroom and mentioned that he wanted to check out this restaurant that he’d saw on TV that morning. The place is called Lucille’s and we hit up their brunch. Here are some Instagram shots I took.






• We’re family right? So we can share things with each other right? Good. Because I want to rap a taste about the middle of the night pee. Yes, THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT PEE. The MOTNP is when you are deep in the REM sleep and dreaming about the things you would do to Idris Elba (if you weren’t married) and the urge comes on so STRONG. Yet, you try to suppress the call of nature because you are in that good ass sleep and it’s Idris, yanno?? But the URGE defeats you and you stumble out of bed to the bathroom, in the dark but luckily since you are a girl, you just need to sit (provided that dude you live with has put the seat down) and you don’t need to cut on the light to harm your delicate eyes. So you do your business, stumble back to bed, poke your husband in the butt so he can move back over, lie down and get comfortable. And you can’t get back to sleep. MOTNP – I hate you.
• That’s all I got! What’s going on with you?????

I Have Questions, You Have Answers: Round 9

You know the drill, chat at me in the comments!

• What’s on your Christmas present wish list? If you have kids, what do they want?
• Are you doing anything charitable for the holiday season?
• Been to any holiday parties? How were they?
• What are your plans for Christmas? Are you traveling anywhere?
• What’s on your Christmas dinner menu?
• Do you even celebrate Christmas?
• What are your plans for New Year’s Eve?
• Are you ready for 2013??

Odds And Ends: It’s Monday, Bishes!

• How was your weekend? Mine was pretty good. We laid low on Friday and Myron whipped up a tasty curry chicken dish. Our house was smelling like an Indian restaurant all evening. I’ll have to snag the picture off his FB page to show you guys.
• Saturday was a lot of sleeping. We woke up, ate French toast, fell asleep again, woke up and ran a few errands to pick up some shoes I’d ordered and hubs got an early Christmas present: a new Nexus 7 tablet. I’ve played with it a bit, I’ll try to have a full review up sometime this week.
• Hung out with my BIL and my homegirl @CaliGirlED to watch some football yesterday and my Houston Texans are 11-1, baby! Bulls on Parade! My husband had a GREAT time and is currently at work drinking a LOT of water.
• Got a pedicure yesterday. What’s the big deal you say? Well the fact is that I got BLUE TOE NAIL POLISH!!! LOL! Being that I am risk adverse and resistant to change from my normal pinks, red and oranges..going blue is a walk on the wild side. Hubs liked it too. Now green polish is probably a bit too much for my delicate sensibilities right now.
• I decided I’m going to do some Christmas cards this year. I felt quite trifling after all the nice ones we got last year from folks. Hubs wants to take pictures but it’s December 3rd, I might need to get in where I fit in with these cards.
• Does anyone out there use Amazon Prime? I signed up for it to get free shipping when I ordered a case for Myron’s tablet and you get 30 days free. Is it worth the $80 bucks per year??
• Read this article on the NY Times site this morning and had a lot of say about it on Twitter -

College isn’t for everyone, but EYE cannot in good conscience suggest to a black/brown kid to skip college/trade school/military svc when the majority of our black/brown kids are already undereducated coming out of high school. Per the usual, the NYTimes article is written from a place of privilege and that’s annoying. The playing field for US that encourages entrepreneurship is still not level and the barriers to entry to run your own business for people of color are still very high. Not to say that it cannot be done because it is occurring, but right now if I had a kid, I’d be sending them to college.

That’s all I got this morning..what’s going on random with you?

 

 

At The Movies With The Macks: Skyfall/Lincoln

Hubs and I took in a couple of a flicks over the last few weekends in Skyfall, the 23rd installment of Sir Ian Fleming’s James Bond 007 and Lincoln, Steven Spielberg’s film about our 16th President.

Let’s start with Skyfall. I’ve always been a casual fan of the Bond series and really started to pay attention when Pierce Brosnan stepped into the role because I was a fan of the TV series Remington Steele when I was a kid and always found him to be super Rico Suave, even when he was kicking the ass of some villain. But since Daniel Craig took over the role with 2006′s Casino Royale and became the first blond Bond, I’ve been really paying some attention. Not only because Daniel Craig is sizzling HOT but because he brings a certain grittiness to the role of 007. Dare I say it…James Bond likes to get grimy and me likey quite a bit. At any rate, I looked forward to Skyfall and it did not disappoint.  There was less overall action (but there is a fantastic chase scene to kick off the movie) than Casino Royale or Quantum of Solace but the story line was more nuanced, as it took the viewer into the pasts of both M and 007  and even dared to query if 007 and his spycraft was outdated and passe’. Since this is the 50th anniversary of the Bond film series, the nods to the past were quite appropriate. The movie wraps up at Bond’s abandoned childhood home with a twist you won’t expect and I’ll leave with you that. This is a definite must see. Read a review from the LA Times here.

*********************

I have to admit that Myron wanted to see Lincoln more than I did, being that he is a big history buff in general and is interested in the Civil War specifically. Now don’t get scared and think this is a sprawling, epic (read boring and long) bio-pic about Lincoln’s entire life. It isn’t. Instead, Spielberg smartly chooses the 4 month period between January and April 1865 to frame the movie, when Lincoln, fresh off re-election attempts to get 2 big ticket items accomplished: end the Civil War and get the 13th Amendment passed, which would abolish slavery. Spielberg quite deftly weaves in several story lines such as the relationship between Lincoln and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln who is grieving the loss of their son Willie, the tension between Lincoln and his oldest son Robert, who has been forbidden to join the Union Army, and the back room dealings that the Lincoln cabinet had to undertake to get the necessary votes (these scenes are some of the funniest of the film). Tommy Lee Jones is a straight up scene stealer as Rep. Thaddeus Stevens, an aging abolitionist and has a very interesting back story based on historical fact. Daniel Day-Lewis melts into character as Lincoln, down to the halting deliberate gait that he was known to have.

A comment related to the slavery story line: I noted a bit of discussion on my social media feeds about the lack of screen time given to the treatment of slaves in the movie. There is a notable opening scene where two black Union slaves speak with Lincoln and one dares to question the President about further rights for blacks and there are a few other scenes involving Lincoln’s house servants, who are both free people of color and his interaction with them, but to be fair this was not a movie expressly about slavery. It was first and foremost a film about trying to get the 13th Amendment ratified and the inner workings of Washington DC government at that time period. It’s a political movie that just happens to be tackling a difficult, soul wrenching topic. I think it’s done quite masterfully. This is a definitely a must see (in particular for older children and teens) and needs to be added to your DVD collection as well. Read the NY Times review here.

Are you planning to see Skyfall or Lincoln this holiday season? What other films are on your to be seen list?

Odds And Ends: The Monday Edition

What’s happening?? *in my TI voice*

How was ya’ll’s weekend? Mine was very busy and I am tired so I am happy to be at work, where it is slow and quiet so that I can rest up from it. LOL!

Let’s see, Friday morning I took a few hours off to go an interview for a perm gig. I ended up in the wrong building, hauled ass across the street to the right building, was late to the interview and then got in there and talked for 3 straight hours to 3 different people. That interview was painful and I’m sure I didn’t get that job but I will survive.

Friday evening started off a lot better. Hubs and I went on date to have dinner, see my baby daddy Daniel Craig in Skyfall and to have drinks at Dave and Buster’s with our favorite bartender, my BIL, Tony.

Saturday morning, we got up to run to the bank, run by the store and had lunch at our favorite Indian buffet then came back home to watch nap a little college footbal before our evening activities. As usual, we double booked ourselves for two birthday parties at the opposite ends of Houston. The first one was a 30th birthday party for Myron’s cousin. It was really fun, she had a craps and a blackjack dealer at her house and plenty of food and libations. We also got to see some cousins and their new baby. A time was being had by me but alas, it was time to make a move to the west side (yeyah yeah!) to the other party we’d be invited to. This party was for the birthday of the ghey guy who works at our neighborhood Kroger’s who we have struck up a friendship with. He’s actually a really a cool guy so we had to show our faces or else we’d never live it down. So we stopped by, had some drinks and were entertained by a 49 year old ghey dude in heels getting his boogie on to Whitney Houston. LOL! There’s never a dull moment when you roll with the Macks!

Sunday morning, we were up early (well 10 AM is early for me on Sundays), to get ready to go watch the hometown team, Houston Texans play the Jacksonville Jaguars at noon. We met my BIL at a sports bar and proceeded to see the Texans pull out a squeaker of a win. It shouldn’t have even been that close. After that, we had a fabulous ribeye dinner and got ready for the short work week.

And I still haven’t gotten my ingredients for my dish that I’m bring to my mom’s for Thanksgiving: my dear MIL’s sweet potato crunch. I suck, but I’m going to the store tonight, I promise!

So that was my weekend, how was yours? Big plans for the holiday??

Stuck On Stupid

I was reading over the weekend about the ongoing battle royale between R&B superstar Usher and his ex-wife Tameka Foster Raymond. According to the always on point folks over at TMZ.com, Usher has given Tameka a 60 day notice to vacate the house that she has been living in since 2009, rent free mind you, because he intends to sell it. Woe is her, right? I do feel for Ms. Foster. She recently lost a child in a tragic accident, and to add insult to injury primary custody of her two youngest was awarded to Usher. But for me that’s where the sympathy train runs out of tracks.

I don’t think Usher is a saint by any means, and he didn’t help matters much with that Oprah interview. However, I do think he’s tried to reach some sort of settlement several times with Ms. Foster, which she continually rejected. The couple have been divorced officially since 2009. You read that correctly, 2-0-0-9.  I don’t really know whose fault it was that they could never come to terms on custody but Tameka lost that war in the end. You see, I have a little theory about this case (and also the Siovaughn Wade-Dywane Wade divorce), and my thoughts are this: the longer the mother dragged the father back and forth into court; the more the court saw her as unstable which weakened her status and led to the father being granted custody. I mean think about it. Family court is inherently biased toward placing minor children with their mothers and giving fathers visitation. A mother has to be blind, crippled or crazy to lose custody of her kids. I’m sure the fact that both fathers are tremendously wealthy also factored into the court’s decision.

I’m getting to a larger point here so follow with me: As women, we have to stop being stuck on stupid. Whether a woman is in a marriage that is ending or a committed relationship that’s gone kaput, we have to realize the end game. The end game is, IF the man doesn’t want to be in the relationship, has no intention of trying to working to save the relationship, has moved on and gotten a new woman; then what is the point to continually being evil and bitter about it, especially if there are children involved. Of course, I can sit here and type these words because that is a lot easier said than done. However, I have been lied to and cheated on and held bitterness in my heart for a very long time, while the object of my ire, had moved cross-country with the chick he cheated on me with, living his life like it was golden.

How does that saying go, Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. Well after I realized dude was kicking it strong and was giving me nary a thought; I decided to stop killing myself.

Maybe Tameka Foster Raymond should too.

Open Letter to the NBC Network Cause They Suck

Dear NBC Network:

Like many of my fellow Americans, I am excited about viewing the Summer Olympic games in London. I was ecstatic to be able to watch hours and hours of coverage of those mens in tights out on the track and in those tiny briefs in the pool..sorry I digress..I was proud to be able to watch these elite athletes represent the great United States of America at the highest levels of sport!!!!

However, NBC..your coverage sucks. Donkey balls. Let us bullet point the ways.

• Let’s start with NBCOlympics.com. Don’t advertise that you can watch all events live over the web when you really can’t. If you don’t have a cable subscription, you are shit out of luck. Some people don’t have cable, NBC. That’s foul.
• Let’s move on to the smartphone apps that work when they want to and tend to die at the very moment you are trying to see the end of an event. Special shade is thrown to the cell phone carriers with their jacked up networks.
• Bob Costas. Need I say more?? Dude is just terrible. Overly fake and smarmy.
• The dude who was doing ALL of the gymnastics coverage..I don’t know who that was but he sounded WAY too critical..Let’s not invite him back, k?
• Why is Ryan Seacrest giving us social media updates? All of us are on Twitter and FB? We already know what the people are saying. Better yet, WHY IS RYAN SEACREST PROVIDING COVERAGE AT THE OLYMPICS IN THE FIRST PLACE??
• NBC you really suck majorly for making people like me, who have to go to work in the morning, wait until nearly the break of dawn before showing the men’s 100M dash final. Yes, I know who won already but stop milking shit for ratings and show the damn race so I can go to bed!
• NBC you also suck for not having taste. Showing the ad for the new sitcom that stars a damn monkey in it, right after Gabby Douglas won the gold…no bueno. Who’s running tape back there?
• NBC..swimming is over now. Can we get some interviews of these mens from track and field?? Can Sanya Richards-Ross get some damn shine??
• Lolo Jones is overrated. She’s probably not going to medal. Less chatter about her please.

And a special “you ain’t shit” goes out to the Associated Press for thinking that the financial issues of Gabby Douglas’s mom and Ryan Lochte’s parents is “news”. It’s tacky and classless for one thing and seeks to diminish the triumphs of these fine athletes. However, in the words of that great philosopher, Dave Chappelle, both Gabby and Ryan are about to be able to say: “I’m rich, bitch!!!” and shake all the haters off.

NBC, it is my sincere hope that you don’t take this constructive criticism personally. I’m only trying to build you up, not tear you down. I’m all about the positivity. *big cheesy grin*

With all my love,

TIH

Big Thangs Popping: “The Coalition”

I know some good people, people who are living their dreams, making it happen and got some big thangs popping.

One of those folks is my friend, filmmaker/writer/director Monica Mingo who in collaboration with NFL Defensive Player of The Year Terrell Suggs as executive producer, just debuted their FIRST FEATURE FILM at the American Black Film Festival this past weekend.

*Squeals like a teenage girl*

The film is titled THE COALITION and here’s what you need to know about it:

The bad boys club is really not all that bad. Young,
rich and handsome…the boys know how to have a good time. They love
women, fast cars and doing whatever they want to do. There comes a
time in life, however, when karma is helped along. When it’s done by a
group of scorned women…it can prove to be devastating.

Prime Alexander is a professional athlete living the life most men
dream of.  He has a huge guaranteed contract, beautiful women chasing
him and the best friends a man could want.

He gets what he wants, when he wants it and doesn’t believe in
explaining himself to anyone, especially Autumn, the beautiful woman
he’s been dating for a little over a year.

Autumn Singletary is a wealthy socialite who doesn’t understand the
word no.  Her relationship with Prime has more to do with appearances
than real feelings but that’s of no consequence when Prime decides to
end their relationship by publicly humiliating her in the presence of
his new interest, Skylar.

The bond Prime shares with his boys, Lonzo, Kalif and Dallas has been
nurtured throughout the years as the main constant in their life.
They are always together.  They are always taking care of each other.
They are a true pack and have the secrets and the code to prove it.
1080 for life.

Lonzo, Prime’s very best friend, is an actor on the verge of being the
next big thing.  He’s falling in love with the beautiful Katalina, one
of Autumn’s best girlfriends. He believes he’s at the age where he
needs to think about settling down and look to his parents’ marriage
as inspiration.

Kalif is the youngest of the crew and is seriously addicted to women,
especially his fiance, Shanita.  He’s a hot A&R executive and his
career allows him the flexibility to juggle multiple women.  Kalif and
Shanita have been together since their teenage years and she’s the
love of his life.  He’s messed up a few times and has children by
other women to prove it.  He truly loves Shanita more than anything in
the world and he couldn’t imagine life without her so he takes all of
the steps necessary to make sure she’s happy and doesn’t go looking
for anything.

Dallas is a super arrogant playboy without a care in the world who
prides himself on the chase.  Women are a game for him and he loves
adding to his conquests.  He loves the strategic nature of the hunt
and plays the game a little too well.

A chance encounter gives Autumn the ammunition she needs to create an
unlikely alliance by which to shut Prime and his pack down and she
doesn’t give a damn who gets hurt.  As a woman scorned, she is out for
revenge.  By forming a coalition, Autumn proves she will show no mercy
while getting what she thinks she wants.

Everyone always wants the riches and the fame professional athletes
have.  “The Coalition” shows us that all that glitters is certainly
not ideal and forces us to consider how difficult love is within the
confines of the industry and all that money can buy.

Starring:
ADRIENNE BAILON
JACKEE’ HARRY
J.R. RAMIREZ
DENYCE LAWTON
EDDIE GOINES
NICOLE GARZA
SHANTI LOWRY
NADINE ELLIS
INGRID CLAY
SATU MAKEDA
SANT’E ANDREWS
CHANTA NOEL PATTON
AND INTRODUCING JAMES PHILLIPS

MUSIC BY GEORGE FONTENETTE
VISUAL EFFECTS – NICK GAY

SOUND DESIGN – AARON WOLD

EDITOR – RICH VOLIN AND HILTON CARTER
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY – HILTON CARTER

GAFFER – PRUITT ALLEN

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER – TERRELL SUGGS
PRODUCED BY RICH VOLIN AND MONICA MINGO
WRITTEN BY TERRELL SUGGS AND MONICA MINGO
DIRECTED BY MONICA MINGO

View the trailer:  https://vimeo.com/25867123

 WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/THECOALITIONFILM

WWW.TEAMSIZZLEWORLDWIDE.COM

Monica Mingo, I am so PROUD of you! You wrote it down, you made it happen! Congratulations!!