I was just reading this week’s EW and they often post the top 25 rated shows on TV (network shows, that is), but I usually skim over that section because I don’t care too much. This week I had a look and I was pretty surprised at what I found there. has quizzed me on this in the past and I usually get the top 10 about right — but the rest of the top 25 is interesting, to say the least.

I’ll let y’all hazard your own guesses, and I’ll post the list in the jump.

1. CSI (CBS)
2. Desperate Housewives (ABC)
3. Without a Trace (CBS)
4. Survivor: Guatemala (CBS)
5. CSI: Miami (CBS)
6. Grey’s Anatomy (ABC)
7. Lost (ABC)
8. Monday Night Football (ABC)
9. NCIS (CBS)
10. Cold Case (CBS)
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (ABC) (tie)
12. Two and a Half Men (BCS)
13. 60 Minutes (CBS)
14. CSI:NY (CBS)
Law and Order: SVU (NBC) (tie)
16. Commander in Chief (ABC)
17. Criminal Minds (CBS)
ER (NBC) (tie)
19. House (Fox)
20. My Name Is Earl (NBC)
21. Out of Practice (CBS)
22. Crossing Jordan (NBC)
23. Law and Order: Criminal Intent (NBC)
24. Las Vegas (NBC)
Medium (NBC) (tie)

Like I said, I usually can name the top 10 but I was pretty surprised to find NCIS up there — who watched that? And Crossing Jordan — who knew that it was still on the air? Also surprising — that the two Law and Order spin-offs do better than the original. And I find it terribly sad that all three CSIs (the bittermaker!) made the top 15. Crap.

The best news though, is that House, my new total obsession, is in the top 20. Yay! I’m so used to fighting for Veronica Mars that it’s nice to watch a hit show for a change.

I’ve been dieting for about six weeks now and I’ve been a little discouraged, but over the past couple of days I finally noticed my pants starting to feel a little loose. So today, since we were going to a party, I looked in my closet to see if I had any smaller pants from my days when I only had extra weight from one baby, instead of two. And there, hanging innocently on my rack of pants-that-are-way-too-tight, were a nice medium-sized pair of stretchy jeans that fit me perfectly. My butt has never looked so good! I feel fashionable, trendy, and actually thin! And plus, with the stretch factor, chasing after my kids is not a problem! They are the epitome of comfort!

I think I may never remove these pants.

I can’t believe they were just there in my closet and I had no idea. They appear to be brand new — I must have bought them between pregnancies but not had a chance to wear them. I could so kick some ass in these pants. While showing off my own hot ass. I rock!

It’s like I went to the mall, and searched every store, and finally found the perfect pair of jeans, but instead, I got to avoid all the crazy crowds and the commissioned salespeople with their, “Can I help you find anything today?” and the parching parching heat and the glare of flurescent lighting. This could be the best day ever!

What the hell is wrong with the health system in Ontario, that it is so impossible to find a family doctor? When I first moved to Ottawa, it took me several years to find one that was taking new patients. I finally found one and snapped her up. Even though I thought she did a so-so job as my own doctor, she turned out to be rockin’ awesome with the kids, and we felt really lucky to have a real family doctor, even if she was a bit of a commute away.

In August she suddenly moved to Sudbury (her husband got a new job), leaving us in the lurch. The office where she worked hired an interim doctor (who we knew, because she’d covered FamilyDoc’s practice a couple of years ago while she was on maternity leave) and tried to find a replacement. For the past few months we’ve been seeing TempDoc and waiting to see if we like the replacement. But today I had Gal Smiley in for a checkup and found out that a) it was TempDoc’s last day, and b) they could not find a replacement, and c) no other doctors at the clinic are accepting new patients, so d) we are cut loose and on our own.

The clinic gave me a list of doctors in the area who they thought might take on new patients, and TempDoc gave me a personal referral. So as soon as I was back out in my car I immediately called them all, and of course, they aren’t taking new patients. I actually cried, because I remember how hard it was to find the first family doctor and it’s such an ordeal, and now is such a bad time for us not to have a doctor due to ongoing health problems with the kids.

Luckily I later found a pediatrician who will take on the kids in the new year. Of course, this leaves us adults with no ongoing care. Crap!

I just made pancakes for dinner and forgot to put on my new apron, so my clothes are completely covered from shoulders to hips in flour.

But on the plus side, the apron remains in pristine condition. Whew!

I just got back from the craft show and bought the most fabulous apron. Seriously! It is made by two super cool chicks and their company is called Domistyle. If you go to the home page right now you’ll see the one I bought on the right hand side — the brown one with the pink circles — only mine has “will cook for shoes” embroidered in pretty pink type across the top of it.

I love it so much I am really sorry I rushed out to the mall last night to do my Christmas shopping, because one of these would so rock for my sister SocialButterfly, who I have in the gift draw this year. If I get her next year, this is definitely what she is getting. In fact, from now on, any time I need a gift for any woman, this is what she is getting.

If you still have shopping to do…go Domistyle!

Senator update. The other night I was out picking up pizza, so I drove past the Senator house (a house nearby with a giant statue of a Roman Senator in the front yard) to check it out. Not only does the Senator sit unadorned, but the entire house had no lights or any noticeable signs of Christmas decorations. Scrooges! I have half a mind to get that Santa hat for the statue, but I’d have to be pretty drunk to scale a 6 foot iron fence with a ladder. Our new camera does take pretty good video, though. Maybe I can talk Sir Monkeypants into making the attempt while I film.

It’s just embarrassing how much I know about children’s TV now. I remember back in the days before I had kids, I swore I’d never use the TV as a babysitter, and now, I’m blogging while the Captain watches a show. It’s a slippery slope, people! Lately I’ve been thinking about how much I would kick ass at a trivia game based around kids TV. What’s Big Bird’s teddy bear’s name? What are the names of the other bunny scouts in Ruby’s bunny scout troup, on Max and Ruby? What are the names of three stations on the Island of Sodor? What are the words to the Elmo’s World theme song? All covered, my friend. Sadly, however, the only people who are interested in a game like this would be other moms, all of whom are too embarrassed to admit they have such encyclopediatric knowledge of children’s TV, so it’d be a bust for sure if I bothered to invent it.

Last year around this time, Captain Jelly Belly was heavily into two shows — Hi-5, featuring five 20-somethings who sing cute pop songs about colours and animals, and Peep And The Big Wide World, which uses an animated chicken and duck to introduce basic science concepts. After seeing every single episode of both shows many, many times, I knew a shameful amount about both. I could quote extensively, sing both theme songs, tell you who wrote most episodes, critique the outfits on Hi-5. Eventually CJB got tired of both shows because he’d seen them too often, and I was pretty sad to have to give them up. Thomas The Tank Engine and Dora The Explorer just aren’t the same for me.

Gal Smiley is getting to be about the same age CJB was when he found Hi-5, so this week I taped a couple of Hi-5’s and a couple of Peep’s for her to check out. And to my total shock, there are new episodes of each. This is major news in our household!! I can’t wait to collect them all! I must say that the new Hi-5 costume designer just doesn’t have the flair of old. What’s with all the shiny belts? Is this 1985? If only I had some other mommys with secret TV habits to dish with!

Heinz baby foods has a rewards program. You collect labels from their baby food and when you hit a certain level, you can send in the labels and claim a toy. When Captain Jelly Belly was a baby I didn’t participate because he was always eating President’s Choice baby food so I figured I’d never collect the 100 labels needed to get the smallest toy. But this past summer, there was a recall on PC baby food so I was forced to buy the Heinz stuff, so I figured, what the hey, I’d collect the labels and see what happened.

You had to send in your labels by November 30, so I put all my labels, together with labels from my friend Krista, who kindly donated to the cause, in one envelope in the last week of November. In total I had just over 300 labels. You can get a pretty big toy for 300 labels but sad to say, we didn’t really have room or need for the bigger stuff, so I ended up requesting two smaller toys.

In the end though, I’m not sure it was even worth it. Mailing in the labels cost me $9.50, because it was such a big package. Plus, you had to pay “shipping and handling” charges, which totalled $9.50 for the toys we selected. So not including the price of the food, I put in $19, to get back $30 worth of toys (suggested retail price, not covering the fact that Toys R Us routinely puts both products on sale). I guess that’s still coming out ahead, but I have to admit I really thought that I’d never actually see the fruit of my labours.

But today one of the two toys we selected actually arrived! If the other one gets here I can definitely say that saving all those smelly labels for a year was almost worth it :).

I just saw a commercial on Treehouse that has me uber excited. Not only are they re-showing Barbie And The Magic Of Pegasus today (commercial free for an hour and a half!), but they are also showing FIVE OTHER BARBIE SPECIALS this week! Every day at 6pm!

Monday — Barbie and The Magic Of Pegasus (speaking of which, you can buy the whole set of action figures from this movie, including Shiver the Snow Bear, and the castle in the clouds — I know what I’m putting on my Christmas list!)

Tuesday — Barbie as Rapunzel

Wednesay — Barbie of Swan Lake

Thursday — Barbie Fairytopia (Best. Title. Ever.)

Friday — Barbie in The Princess And The Pauper

Saturday — Barbie Nutcracker — a must watch!

Last night I watched the best movie ever, Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus. You can tell that a bunch of execs sat in a room and thought, “What do little girls want to see in a movie?” And then, they put everything they could in this one. It was so over the top that I laughed through most of it, but it was also thrilling and delightful in the sincere way it embraced its girliness.

Let’s run through the checklist.

Barbie is a princess who lives in a castle. Um, check. Duh.

Barbie changes her clothes many times, including several party outfits. Definitely, and extra points as the first party outfit comes within the first five minutes.

Barbie has flowing blonde hair that she wears in many different styles. Well, not too many styles, but she does get some fancy party hairdos, and naturally, big check on the flowing blonde locks.

Barbie is a champion ice skater. Definite extra points to the creators for pinpointing this common, but often ignored, young girls’ fantasy.

Barbie has a cute furry friend. In this case, a baby polar bear that has lost its family, named Shiver. Extremely popular with the Turtlehead focus group.

Barbie has a horse. Did you know that there is a whole series of XBox games called “Barbie Horse Adventures”? I dream of collecting the whole set someday. This movie does them one better by providing Barbie with a pink Pegasus called Brietta, who naturally, wears a tiara. She takes Barbie to a castle in the sky where the Sky Queen and baby fairies fly around on pegasi of various pastel colours. Then Brietta turns out to be her long-lost sister, changed into a horse with wings by a bad guy, who Barbie must foil using a pink wand an a lovely diamond that will someday make a very pretty crown.

Barbie meets a guy. Duh again. This time he is literally a knight in shining armour. Although, they did try to make Barbie nice and feisty, and have her save the day without relying on the dude too much.

Everything ends happily with a big, fancy wedding. They did disappoint me here, as we never get to see Barbie in a pouffy white dress. However, they more than made up for it with a closing montage of Barbie and her new man ice skating together in the clouds, like an Olympic pairs team — because most princesses and knights you meet are also ice champions. At least Barbie got to wear yet another cute skating outfit, and the polar bear was nearby.

And as if all this dreamy girly-girl stuff wasn’t enough…I found out that the original movie is in 3D! We are so buying this video and some 3D glasses.