Project Chickens before the Eggs – Lesson 58 – Update on Operation Craig’s Chick

Here’s an update on Operation Daniel-Craig-interview-in-exchange-for-naming- a-chicken-after-him (I know it’s a long name, in the future to avoid having to do all that typing I’m just going to call this Operation Craig’s Chick). 

This could be Craig's Chick

It is now official. It is harder to get in touch with Daniel Craig than it is to get in touch with President Barack Obama. Imagine!

I have spent a few hours today trying to find Craig’s contact information. I never found that but this is what I did find:

Apparently for those in the know, there was recently a big PR firm shakeup on the West Coast resulting in many of the A-list clients leaving one firm and going to another. You guessed it; Daniel Craig was one of them.

I’m not entirely sure where he went but he’s not there anymore.

This shakeup was described in very dramatic terms. There was mention of the big one, a seismic shift in California, the power houses have tilted. One news site used a graphic of a glowing fire ball for the story.

And we in New Hampshire who are just trying to keep ourselves warm in this current arctic blast feel so very foolish for not having known sooner.

But then lucky me, I found another PR firm that represents Craig in London. Don’t even bother going to their website, as far as I can tell there is no way to contact a live person by email. They request that all contact to them be by postal mail.

To their credit, they did supply a phone number but I’m just not sure how coherent a request for an interview in exchange for naming a chicken after someone would be. (And please, I’m the one who giggled at hearing an operator say “White House” just how together do you think I could keep it if I heard “Daniel Craig’s agent”?

Project Chickens before the Eggs – Lesson 57 – An Offer, I’m thinking Daniel Craig Can’t Refuse

It seems that I always have to have a challenge. I actually like having something for which to strive. It makes my day a little more exciting. When I accomplish a challenge, I get a surge of energy, a rush of pride, that’s one more thing I get to cross off my list.

Which is why I’m going to announce my next challenge (because of course with statement comes accountability).

First a little background.

I admit it. I adore the actor Daniel Craig as James Bond. I have seen Casino Royale so many times that I can recite most of the lines.

I know when Craig accidentally fell and they quickly cut the scene. I know at what point you can see a safety harness on the back of his pants (we call it his elastic waist Garanimal scene). I know when he broke out of character but they kept filming (oh that one just warms my heart).

A little discussion on Cheap vs. Thrifty

I recently got this comment on a post I did about having a birthday party for my daughter where I spent a total of $3.19. At the party the kids went to a movie, had candy, came home, did crafts, and then had cake and ice cream.

Here is the comment:

Project Chickens before the Eggs – Lesson 56 – Respect the Egg

This morning I was unintentionally asked my first spontaneous egg question.

I was with a group who was having a discussion about the economy and the stimulus with regard to job creation.

Here’s the question:

“Let’s say that you have 4 eggs. Then you go out and buy 6 more. You come home and drop the original 4 on the floor. Are you happy that you’re up 2 eggs or down 4?”

Project Chickens before the Eggs – Lesson 55 – Catch a chicken by the tail

Thank God the entrepreneurial young inventor mind is alive and well at our house.

During a recent school vacation, where snow and cold temperatures kept all but the strongest souled (and warmest dressed) kids in the house. My youngest daughter – Emma decided to “invent” a chicken fishing pole.

Not quite sure why she wanted to make this invention but being the mother of highly creative kids – and especially being the mother of one small Emma who when she gets an idea in that pretty little head of hers, it takes roost amongst those grey cells like a cold hen for the night- I’ve learned to let them go and see what happens.

How Mommy almost got arrested as a terrorist

As you may know, I covered President Obama’s Town Hall yesterday in Nashua New Hampshire.

Everyone who was anyone (or who is even thinking about becoming someone) from New Hampshire was there.

I was in the Press Section with all the other reporters and as I knew I couldn’t stand for a few hours because of orthopedic problems, I parked my butt on the piece of masking tape that said “Reserved for AP”. That’s about as close as I might ever get to being an AP writer but it was good enough for me. I mean, here I am, conversing with the big boys and sitting on AP tape. As a writer, it just doesn’t get much better.

Except that I was almost arrested as a terrorist.

Project Chickens before the Eggs – Lesson 54 – Baby it’s cold out there

Baby, it’s cold out there.

Here in New Hampshire we can catch some mighty cold winds coming to us either from across the mid-west or down from Canada. Sometimes like last week, if you forget to wear your gloves while filling the tank with gas, by the time you get to 36 dollars, your fingers are starting to show signs of frostbite. (Ask me how I know this).

In New England we have some colorful language to describe exactly how cold it is. There is the reference to a witch’s anatomy (influenced no doubt by our good friends south to us in Salem), there is the reference to the underworld freezing over, and of course there is the ever popular colloquial, “it’s wicked cold out there.”

Well here’s a new phrase we can add to the New England verbal melting pot.

“It’s so cold out there a hen’s egg will freeze.”

And that’s how we spent all of our time during the sub-zero temperatures last week. Every hour (on the hour) we had to go out and check for eggs.

Here’s one of those things that you probably hadn’t realized about eggs. They are mostly liquid and when something is mostly liquid that means there’s a lot of water. Water can freeze quickly and if you remember your elementary school science classes, when water freezes it expands.

Egg shells are not very expandable. If we don’t get the eggs in time, the shell cracks from its frozen innards. We still eat those eggs but we (obviously) don’t pass them onto others but if the crack has gotten too big, not even I, the thrifty mom, wants to use them for anything other than compost.

When you have sub and near zero temperatures, those initially warm eggs can become hard frozen entities in very little time.

Uncracked eggs are beautiful eggs

So while I’d rather wrap up in blankets drinking a hot mug of tea, and even though I swore to not set foot outside until the Spring thaw, instead I find myself trudging hourly to the hen house in hopes of rescuing those precious little food balls.

Because as we all know, an egg is a terrible thing to waste.

Yup, I is a credible journalist – sigh

So guess what I’m doing tomorrow?

As a journalist (I really am a professional writer, I just also happen to have chickens and children) I’m going to cover the town hall event with President Obama tomorrow in Nashua NH.

One of the publications I write for covers health care information for NH so I asked them if they wanted me to cover the event. They did. I then started trying to find out how one gets press credentials for an event with the President of the United States.

Today is Candy Cane Friday!

Today is a small holiday in our house.

It’s Candy Cane Friday!

We love the Christmas holiday season and we love our Christmas tree. In fact we love it so much that every year it goes up during Thanksgiving weekend.

One of our favorite decorations is candy canes. Early in the season I scour the stores looking for some of the most unusual flavors out there. Over the years we’ve had blueberry, cinnamon, bubblegum, sour, fruit punch, spearmint, and of course traditional peppermint. They all go up on the tree and early in the season we can have dozens and dozens of brightly colored confectionary canes up there.

Candy canes are a big part of our holiday decorations

Why I don’t even pretend to speak French (even though I sort of can)

I recently ordered my absolute favorite books of all time -The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern’s Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure by William Goldman – in French.

I pretty much have every other version of it in my library. (except for the original hard copy but I’ve got my eyes open for that one). My family has even been instructed to bury me with a copy of it shoved into my cold, grey, hands.