We were invited to Nickelodeon Storytime Live at Radio City Music Hall this week. Almost immediately, we had a Kelsey Grammer sighting on 48th street which the girls strangely were not that jazzed about. It was hard to even explain the significance of Kelsey Grammer and his success as Frasier Crane to a 5 and 3 year-old because Summer kept whining, “I don’t want to see the show.” In all fairness to Dora and all her Nickelodeon friends, Summer says this before every single show and she always loves it.

This time was no different. The girls were enthralled with The Wonder Pets, The Backyardigans and Ni Hao, Kai-lan. And of course, Dora the Explorer is always a rock star. If your kids are Nickelodeon lovers, this is a great show for them. And if you’re more of a Kelsey Grammer fan, you can watch reruns of “Cheers” and “Frasier” when you get home.

Storytime Live is playing at Radio City Music Hall through April 4th.  For discount tickets (30% off) in NYC, click here and use the code DORASM.  Then Dora and her pals take their show on the road to other cities. Click here for tickets all over the country.

A while back, I wrote about my father-in-law (known as “Zaydie” to my children) and many of you made it clear that you thought he was uh.. well.. let me remind you.

“Zaydie is hot!” (Portia)

“Zaydie is cute!  Single?  ” (Becky)

“And Zaydie…not only is he a brave chaperone, but a quite handsome one too.” (Auds at Barking Mad)

“Handsome Zadie” (Chris)

Well, Zaydie has made a life change. As he put it, he decided to come out of the closet. No, not that closet. I think we need some photos to explain.

Here is Zaydie before his life altering change….

And here is Zaydie after….

That’s right. After many many years, my father-in-law has decided to stop wearing his toupee.  I guess he felt it was time.  He was tired of having to maintain it.

I don’t know what you do with a toupee once you’ve retired it. Maybe you keep it a drawer for sentimental value. Or maybe you sell it on Craig’s List. Or maybe you use it as a center piece for large dinner parties. Although I didn’t see it at my husband’s family’s passover seder.

Well, wherever the toupee is now resting, I think Zaydie looks pretty damn good.

When I moved to the suburbs I worried about certain things…

The quiet. And yes, sometimes I really do still miss the drunk bachelorettes outside of Tortilla Flats, the screaming, fighting couples at 3 am and the honking of impatient cabbies. I know it sounds insane if you’re not a city person but I take comfort in a place that keeps going long after I go to bed.

Limited delivery options. Basically, I had to find my own personal delivery guy. His name is Rick. Last night, he brought me a tasty dish from Little Thai Kitchen.  He didn’t even charge me. He’s awesome like that.

Life without a doorman. I open my own door now, which is actually not that difficult.

Intruders. So far no one has tried to break in. I really wish they would because I could use another hand around here to fold some laundry.

Having no friends. There are great gals here in Westchester. Well, not that I’ve met them. But I follow them around from a distance and they seem way cool. In all seriousness, I actually know some people now who are funny and nice and awesome. Thank goodness.

But when we decided to move to the suburbs, the one thing I apparently forgot to worry about was trying to physically get into my car…

That’s my car on the right. How the hell am I, a pregnant woman, supposed to open my car door and get into my vehicle when someone parks this close? In fact, I’ve noticed that this is a consistent problem in the SUV crazed suburbs where all the cars seem way too bloated for all the narrow parking spots.

In this case, I actually had to crawl through the passenger side to get in.

But in all fairness, I sort of parked too close to the line.

Ok maybe a little bit over the line.

You know what I need to make sure this problem gets completely out of control? I should trade in my Toyota Highlander Hybrid for an even bigger car.

To be continued in another post…

Not long ago, I told you about my dad’s plans for retirement – to jump on the Cape Cod recreational senior ice hockey circuit. In fact, he just bought a brand new pair of skates to kick off this endeavor.

I was a little concerned about this plan because as I wrote, my dad is 67. Except then my father clarified that he is only 66. So now an ice hockey hobby seems totally doable.

Except one little snag.

He decided to take up sledding first.

See here he is sledding in Denver this weekend.

And here he is icing his fractured rib afterward…

According to my sources, the sled careened out of control and was headed directly for my cousin Betsy’s daughter. So my cousin Tommy attempted to kick the sled out of the way which worked except he actually kicked my dad in the ribs by accident.

Sledding in Colorado sounds really dangerous.

The doctor says it will take about 6 to 8 weeks to heal. And in the meantime, my father should try to avoid laughing, coughing, sneezing, burping, jumping jacks, cartwheels, pogo sticks, and trampolines.

Sounds like ice hockey is still on the table.

P.S. I can’t write a whole post on my father’s injury without an update on my mother’s accident. She has made fantastic improvement. Her broken neck, the vertebrae in her back and her leg have all healed enormously well. She is now at home and with the help of a caretaker can definitely get around quite a bit.

P.P.S. I am going to work on not breaking any bones.

mama bird notes:

Have you seen the Blogher 2010 agenda?  Wendi, Marinka, Aunt Becky and I have been invited to host a Room of our Own called “Dear Abby 2.0: Giving Advice in the Blogosphere.” We are so EXCITED. Thank you to BlogHer and everyone who voted for us!! We are so grateful and can’t wait to see you there.

Because my husband and I can’t banter about health care reform 24 hours a day, sometimes one of us brings up a different topic. Like the Oscars and its aftermath.

For starters, I still can’t believe that Jesse James cheated on Oscar winner Sandra Bullock with an anti-Semitic, tattoo covered stripper. He’s married to SANDRA BULLOCK. Did he realize that? I can only imagine that he forgot during some kind of tat-crazed inebriated state.

I guess it’s dangerous to marry a guy who was formerly wed to a porn star. Thankfully, I don’t have that problem with Rick. Mostly because I’m his first wife. And for the record, I don’t do a lot of porn films.

While mulling over Jesse James’ lack of judgment, it finally dawned on me that Farrah Fawcett was not honored at the Academy Awards. Despite making age defining, inspiring movies like “Logan’s Run,” “Extremities” and “Dr. T and the Women.”  Well, you know. The point is – she made some movies.

And she was famous. Really famous. Because my husband is such an movie brainiac, I knew I could commiserate with him.

“Rick, can you believe that Farrah Fawcett was left out of the “In Memoriam” at the Oscars?”

“Yes, I’ve read that some people are upset about that. I, however, am not one of them.”

“Why not? She… she… she… had such great hair.”

“Yes, but she was only in a few movies. She’s a TV actress. Let her be in the Emmy’s dead people thing.”

“I can imagine those words would really comfort her family.”

What is wrong with that guy?

Due to Rick’s lack of sensitivity on very important matters, I’m not even going to broach the subject of the most pressing and troubling issue on “Gossip Girl”… that watching Dan and Vanessa hook up is like watching those brother/sister Olympic ice dancing pairs. Something about it is just so disturbing. I beg the CW to please make it stop.