Good Cause

My step-mom is doing a MS walk this weekend. If you feel like donating some money to a good cause, because perhaps you feel guilty about something you might have said to someone with MS *ahem* or just because you want to feel like a good person today, I've included some information about the event and how you can donate. :)

Every hour of every day, someone is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). That's why Michelle registered for the Wisconsin, Madison - Walk MS 2008, and why I'm asking you to support her fund raising efforts with a tax-deductible donation.

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society - Wisconsin Chapter is dedicated to ending the devastating effects of MS, but they can't do it without our help. It's faster and easier than ever to support this cause that's so important to me. Simply click on the link at the bottom of this message. If you prefer, you can send your contribution to the address listed below.

Any amount, great or small, helps to make a difference in the lives of people with MS. I appreciate your support and look forward to letting you know how she does.

P.S. If you would like more information about the National Multiple Sclerosis Society - Wisconsin Chapter, how proceeds from the Walk MS are used, or the other ways you can get involved in the fight against MS, please visit http://www.wisms.org/.

Click here to visit my personal page.If the text above does not appear as a clickable link, you can visit the web address:http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Walk/WIGWalkEvents?px=4923564&pg=personal&fr_id=8260&s_tafId=69780

Idol's Kitchen

American Idol
What a weird show.
It felt really fast and hurried. I think Ryan Seacrest's head was about to explode trying to keep the show on track.

Paula is, literally I think, on crack.
She thought Jason Castro sang twice after the first round of songs? She was pre-reviewing his song?
Okay, whatever you say, lady.

Jason was solid, if (as Simon says) a little forgettable.
David Cook was just okay in the first song, but totally kicked the second songs ass. Loved it, loved it. Might download it... we'll see.
Brooke saved herself with the second song. I was cringing a little bit during the first one, almost hoping that she would get kicked off just so I wouldn't have to feel her pain next week. But the second song totally reminded me of why I like Brooke in the first place. Yay!
David A... listen I love this kid, but I don't think that this was his week. The thing is that he sang two very recognizable Neil Diamond songs, and he sang them pretty much the same way. With most other artists I wouldn't be able to say this, but I just didn't feel the richness in David's voice that I hear in Neil Diamond's. It just wasn't that great for me.
Syesha. Does anyone think that she is as great as she thinks she is? She has decent vocals, but is SO boring!

Hell's Kitchen

Roseann's dream is to ride in a helicopter? Dream big, sweetie! Seriously, there hasn't been an opportunity to ride in a helicopter in all your 33 years before now? That makes me sad... for you. Just for a moment though. I'm done now.
Plus, her tap-tap-tap-a-roo made me laugh. Ramsay is ruthless sometimes.

I was pretty neutral towards Ben in the beginning of the season, but methinks he is kind of a jackass.

The men are just kind of a mess.... ooh but so are the women.
I can't believe the women put up my girl Christina up for elimination! Bitches!
Every time I think the women are going to be able to pull it together and just whoop up on the men, they pull these moments of absolute bitchery.
She is not the worst cook in the women's kitchen, by a long shot.
I can't believe Jen is such a back-stabber. She is now officially on my list of women who suck on Hell's Kitchen... along with Cory (the annoying) and Rosanne (the whiny).

HK better hope that Christina doesn't go home soon, she's the only one I would go so far as to say I like thus far.

Charles in Charge

New boy in the neighborhood
Lives downstairs and it is understood.
He’s there just to take good care of me,
Like he’s one of the family.
Charles in Charge
Of our days and our nights
Charles in Charge
Of our wrongs and our rights
And I sing, I want,
I want Charge in Charge of me.

Anybody besides me remember this show?
They have it on Netflix watch instantly. That's both awesome and sad.

Success

Sometimes you worry about something for nothing.
I appear to have grown somewhat, at least in terms of expectations about my body, since I was 18.
I found a swim suit and as it turns out it wasn't really that big of a deal.
The husband was safe for the most part.

Does that mean that I didn't freak out at all today?
No, I did, but it was unrelated to body image.

I was trying on swim suits at Macy's and I took off my rings because they were almost falling off and then I accidentally left them there. The husband and I were all the way over at the Boston Store at West Towne when I remembered. We hauled ass back to Macy's and luckily they were still in the dressing room! I feel so bad for the poor woman who was trying on clothes when I knocked on the door! She was extremely nice, but still....
Needless to say, my rings stayed firmly on my fingers for the rest of the day! I was SO relieved.

Also, I managed to find a pair of workout pants that fit! Yay! Those stupid cropped pants are all the rage, so it's hard to find a regular pair. But, since I look stupid in cropped pants (like my normal pants just shrunk up an inch or two), I had to find a regular pair that weren't too long/short or too big/small... like Goldilocks and the three bears I finally found a pair that were just right!

Sigh. It was a good shopping day for me. :)

Anxiety

I'm going shopping for bathing suits for Hawaii tonight. I'm a little anxious about how that's going to go.

The last time I remember shopping for one, I was 18 and it stands out as one of the most depressing shopping trips of my life.

In general, I'm not that concerned about my body image. I mean, I'm fine with how I look and if you don't like it, well fuck you.

But really, swim suits are a whole other game. In the long run, every thing is going to be fine. I'm just not the type of person to care about this stuff for too long. In the short run, however, you might want to feel sympathy for poor husband who's going shopping with me.
Hopefully, he survives the night.

Setting the Bar

I went to the gym last night and I ran on the treadmill. I was feeling pretty good, in spite of a gut full of mashed potatoes (that's right, the husband brought home 2 servings of potatoes!), so I ran the first 1/2 of my workout at .5 miles faster than usual. (So, at 6.5 mph, rather than 6) Then, I ran the rest of my workout at the normal pace. It felt a lot easier to run the second half than it normally does. I'm not sure if that's because I'm getting better or because it felt easier than the faster pace.

I'm not sorry that I stepped it up a little bit last night. But, that sort of brings up another problem. Once you raise the bar, it's hard to feel good about meeting the old bar. Because now the bar has been raised, you are now below bar. Boo. Running faster during every workout is a scary thought, because it feels fast already. So, now if I do what I have been struggling to do so far (run 28 min at 6 mph), I have fallen behind. Sigh. It's exhausting just to think about it.

Also, I have decided that speed is somewhat relative. My mom told me this week that my aunt can walk (that's right walk) 3 miles in 30 minutes. Which for those math-y types out there, that means shes walking at 6 mph. There is no way I could walk at that pace. My mom says that Janet (auntie) is really tall, so she can take really long strides. Well that makes a certain amount of sense. That is also such a pain in the ass. Because I'm not tall. I top out at 5'2". So, I'm probably taking 3 steps per Janet's 1. That's sad. Oh well, if I can get a better workout at a slower speed because of my short legs, then I guess that's just fine with me. Getting the workout is the thing, right?

The Way to my Heart...

Today is my four year wedding anniversary. (Yay us!)

Some women are romanced by flowers and jewelry.

My husband is much wiser than that.
He brought me home Glarner Strube mashed potatoes.
He's no dummy. He knows that the way to my heart is paved with those mashed potatoes.
What a yummy surprise!

He also got me a gift certificate for a manicure and pedicure to a spa, so the potatoes weren't some sort of cop out. They were a bonus!

Hopefully, I won't be cursing his name in another half hour when I jump on the elliptical at the gym! :)

Ouch

Well, I was never really a fan of Carly.
I'm not sure why.
But for some reason she rubbed me the wrong way and I never took to her.
In spite of that, I kind of felt bad for her when she was eliminated last night.
She definitely wasn't the worst performer on Tuesday.

If it went by performance alone, Jason Castro and Brooke should have been in the bottom two.
I think people just felt sorry for Brooke.
Maybe Jason has a larger fan base than I thought, because he really wasn't that great this week.
He's been middle-of-the-road for me in most weeks, but not enough to call myself a fan.
And yet, neither Jason, nor Brooke was in the bottom two.

It came down to Syesha and Carly.
Which I was initially happy about, because ideally I'd like to see the both of them go.
But, ideally, I'd like to see them both go on nights when they are boringly competent, but the others really had performances that let them shine.
Not on a night when they have clearly done better than some of the other performers.

Oh well, what are you going to do? As Seacrest loves to say, "America has spoken."
Bye Carly. I wasn't a fan, but if it makes you feel better I recognize that this week at least, you totally got the shaft.
Too bad.
Try not to hurt yourself.

Improv

Hey! I know that guy! Johnny Iuzzini!
I saw him on an episode of Paula Dean... is that her name?
The ONLY episode of hers I've ever seen.
She was... okay.
He was... freaking ADORABLE!
Seriously, cute!
Does it get better than a hot pastry chef?

I hate it when the chefs get whiny.
So, when they get all "I'm not a pastry chef" during the Quickfire Challenge, I say shut it.
(Yes, I'm talking to you Antonia)
Which is why I like Dale and Richard.
They just suck it up and deal with the situation in front of them.
Dale with a "whatever"
And Richard with a certain dorky-finesse.
His inner dork endears him to me.
So, I was glad when the two of them finished at the top of the Quickfire.
Spike you can tell yourself whatever you like but, a loss is a loss.
The fact that Johnny gave you props for doing a crappy souffle doesn't mean he has faith in you.
But, you keep telling yourself that kiddo.
I doubt you need me to reassure you though, I think you think highly enough of yourself for all of us.

So, Spike finally got his soup. It was actually good (according to the judges... and who am I to tell Johnny he's wrong?), which is okay in that it means Andrew will be around another week. Bad in that it means Spike and his stupid hats will also be around another week.

Dale and Richard come out on top again. Stupid Spike comments that he will "never understand Richard's food". I think that is less a reflection on Richard's food and more a reflection on you.
But, since I like Dale and Richard, I was happy with the win, especially since it meant Spike didn't win.

Shut up Antonia! Shut up Lisa!
You two have the biggest bitch faces that I have ever seen on this show.
And let me clear something up for you Antonia.
When comedians improv, it doesn't mean that they take suggestions from the audience and then just do whatever the fuck they want to do anyway. They work within the confines of the suggestions and make it funny... or in a chef's case they should have made it taste good.
Maybe it's just the Wisconsin girl in me, but beer brats are a pretty big deal around here, so if they're going to snot all over it, then nuts to them.

My girl Stephanie was in the bottom two. She always seems to be in the top or the bottom. Hopefully she'll bounce back next week.

Jen, Jen, Jen. What will I do without you?
Who will "do it for Zoi"?
Who will be Richard's doppelganger?
In spite of your crazy Zoi love, which you never once ceased to remind us of, I liked you.
I'm sad to see you go, especially since I think you actually made a joke in this episode.
Ah, what fun you could have been the further you got away from Zoi's poisonous influence.
You could have gained some confidence and won a challenge for yourself. You might have made another joke.

You know there is a joke to be made about the lesbian Jen falling because of some phallic bread and asparagus, but I think I may be a bit too PC to make it.

Grrrr

Is that yogurt on your pants or are you just happy to see me?

No, sir. That is actually yogurt on my pants.
I've managed to drop a spoonful of yogurt on my pants, not once, but twice today.
Argh! That is so annoying!
You would think that at 27 I could finally learn to manage the whole spoon to mouth action.
Turns out, not so much.
You would also think that after dropping yogurt on my pants once, that I might be a little more careful.
But, I swear, next spoonful and *plop*
Maybe my id is protesting that I'm even eating yogurt (which is kind of a weird food stuff) and thus is possessing my hand to nefarious ends.

It's possible. Sounds like something I'd do.
Well, she (meaning my id) had better watch herself or I'm going to have my ego stand out of the way and I'll let my superego go all Chuck Norris on her ass.
That's right you heard me.
So, you better shape up sweetheart! NO more of this dumping yogurt on me business.

Ha! Well I guess I just told myself!

Should I be worried that I felt the need to reprimand my id in print? Or is that fairly standard practice?

Meeting your goals

Meeting your goals is a good thing, even if it's hella exhausting.

I managed to meet my goal for running again tonight.
My heart, lungs and legs are standing up better and better, yet I have to do battle with my own mind the same as ever. Every freaking minute is a battle.
It's hard to convince myself that I really want to keep running, when it would really be so much easier to stop... or at least stop running so fast.

I got lucky tonight, at minute 20 the view at the gym drastically improved and I had something to distract me from wanting to stop. Although I shamefully acknowledge that I was holding on to the bar at the front of the treadmill far too much. I try not to rely on it at all, so it annoys me that I kept grabbing for it tonight.

Plus, the gym is too fucking hot here lately. Jeff likes to correct me that, no, in fact it's "warm."
I say, shut it Jeff. It's too fucking hot.
It's roasting upstairs at the gym.
We're in the in between phase. It's chilly enough out that the air conditioner isn't needed, but it gets so warm at the gym now. I've been sweating like crazy lately, which is yucky.
I think I gave myself "brain freeze" tonight trying to swallow the entire drinking fountain after I got off the treadmill.
Next time, I'll have to slow down a bit. :)

Think of me...

American Idol

Syesha - Who? I refuse to acknowledge that she exists.
Jason - After reading Ash's blog before I watched I thought he would be horrible. Maybe it's because I don't know the song he sang, but I didn't hate it. I didn't love it by any means, but it wasn't that horrible. Also, I'm inclined to give him a break because Andrew Lloyd Webber is clearly not his genre.
Brooke - Poor, poor Brooke. Our little bundle of sunshine may not be long for this show, which is too bad. Watching her get voted off is like sending away an orphan child's beloved puppy... sad, sad, sad.
David A. - Not bad, but mostly just made me want to listen to the real version of Think of Me, which is one of my fave Phantom songs.
Carly - My heart clutched when Carly "threatened" to sing All I Ask of You... I'd say one of my fave Phantom sings, but really they are all my faves. I love Phantom. I've seen it twice and it's truly beautiful music.... Thank the Lord, she passed on to Jesus Christ Superstar, a song I don't like that much anyway. Butcher away Carly, butcher away.
David C - I love you. He didn't even try to rock it out, he just flat out sang it. I love it that my boy proved that he can just straight up sing, not just rock, but anything.

Get ready folks, I think it's going to come down to David v. David.
Booyah!


Hell's Kitchen

Cory is lame.
I'm going to let her in on a little secret.
Tattling doesn't mean the girls are threatened by you.
It means that they are annoyed that you acted like a selfish ho bag and went to bed before the cleaning was done. So, shut it already.

Family Night at Hell's Kitchen... what a bad idea.
I love, love Gordon Ramsay, but dude has a potty mouth!
Potty mouth + kids = Awkward
Normally I love his bleeping mouth, but I just kept hoping that the kids couldn't hear him.

Yay, the ladies won! Even if that means Cory is going to be sticking around for another week

I loved the elimination part.
Ben promises to give 100% if he stays.
Matt promises to give 125% if he stays. Way to one up him... well you sold me.
Craig says "I don't know percentages, but I'll give you over that."
Um... okay, so you can't just pick a number greater than 125?
Ha, funny dude.

Bye, Craig.
You were incompetent, so I can't really feel bad for you.
You can't break down a chicken or cook pasta or "know percentages"... *sigh* this is going to be a long list, maybe it would be easier if you tell us what you can do. Plus, you were kind of a whiny, defensive bitch, so see ya.

My Mistake

You know what hurts?
Biting your lip.

You know what hurts even worse?
Your lip swelling a little bit because you bit it and then causing you to accidentally bite it repeatedly.

Stupid lip!
Booooooo!

What a let down

I got home a little early from work today.
I ran upstairs and opened the door, expecting Milo to do his usual happy, crazy, jumping dance I was home.
No such luck.
He just sat on the end of the bed and looked at me. All lazy like, "oh your home are you? oh well"
What is the world coming to if you can't count on your dog to be excited that you're home.
What a let down!
Little bugger better be excited to see me tomorrow or....
C'mon we all know "or" nothing.
Or... I'll be annoyed he wasn't happy to see me two days in a row.
Boo!
:(

The Way of the Future

Just got done watching the Aviator with Jeff, in all its 3 hour long glory.

Recap of the movie - Howard Hughes descends into madness and the movie ends with him repeating "It's the way of the future" over and over again, as it seems he's a little OCD.

For those of you who know my husband's OCD-ish tendencies, should I be concerned he's been wandering around the house muttering "it's the way of the future" since the movie ended?

Videos

At work, they show us funny videos when we're in class to break things up. They showed us these videos and I thought they were hilarious, so I thought I'd share them with you.

This is a woman on Wheel of Fortune who clearly isn't the brightest crayon in the box:



These two men on Family Feud... I guess counting isn't their thing



Next, I think you have to have a heart of stone if these videos don't make you smile!
Adorable, adorable, adorable!

Ripping paper



Playing Wii with Dad



Enjoy!

Totally 80s

Broth-A's play "Back to the 80s... a Totally Awesome Musical" was on Friday.

It was much better than last year (Into the Woods). The songs were fairly entertaining.
The choreography was (unintentionally) hilarious.
I did enjoy it though.

Some of the songs they sang:
Total Eclipse of the Heart
Man in the Mirror
I Had the Time of My Life
Mickey
Girls Just Want to Have Fun
Centerfold
And of course, Never Going to Give you Up

Some of the girls were pretty good singers, which was a nice surprise.
The guys weren't on average as good as the girls. Maybe I'm biased, but I thought baby brother was the best of the guys. I thought he did a really good job.
There was no cow kissing this year, but there was some goony dancing, so I came out ahead on that one.

The only part I found disturbing was the "sexy dance" that the girl playing the teacher did during "Centerfold" Yuck. I don't particularly want to watch girls "of age" dancing like that, that goes double for girls under age.

There were some good lines from the play I tried to remember:
"Do you know why you're such a jerk? So you can suck it!"
"The only difference between you and a bucket of crap is the bucket."

I wish that the plays didn't start at 8. We didn't get home until 1AM... Boo!

Also, it reminded me that I actually like my little brother, which is sad for me since I never get to see him anymore. Oh well, hopefully he'll come back from the dark teenage abyss into which he has fallen someday.

Here's the video I took of bro's performance.

I think the dancing is my favorite part! :)

Love it.

Puree this

Top Chef

Full of Top Chef-y goodness this week.
I must say I'm glad to finally see an individual challenge instead of all this team junk.
Stephanie is in the top AGAIN. Seriously, I think this girl is someone to be reckoned with.
I can't recall anyone in the past being quite so dominate over a series of challenges.
Plus, she doesn't seem like a jerk.

The quickfire was fun, pairing the beer with the food.
Spike is stupid. Seriously, you think all beer tastes the same?
Maybe it's because I come from Wisconsin, but even though I am a lightweight, I know there is a huge difference between beers.
Especially the hoppy ones.
Be careful, they bite back.

And we got to see dear Jen, "doing it for her girl"
Oh vomit.
Jen, your girl was kind of a dick when she was on the show, so I can't really feel that bad for you.
And especially since you won the Quickfire. It only proves my point that she was holding you back.
You did the Quickfire for her. You made the Greek tailgating food as a tribute to her. You want to win it for her.
Do you ever do anything for yourself? Or did that manipulative, whiny, selfish ho beat that out of you?
I'm still in your corner, this week, but keep up this Zoi moping junk and you are officially on the list of tedious, annoying people I don't care if they go home.

Turnip puree, parsnip puree, pecorino cheese.
I swear one of the above, usually more than one, has been in every episode this season so far.
Show some creativity people!
Nikki especially seems to love the pecorino.
But, I think she's not long for this show as thus far she has managed to escape elimination by managing to suck a hair's breath less than the person voted off.

I've liked Mark so far this year, but when Tom talked about his dirty workstation it turned my stomach. Stephanie said something about it earlier in the episode, but I thought she was just being a little uptight. Even thinking about it now makes me a little queasy.
I blame Spike.
Someone once told me that you really need to take a shower to get clean, because when you take a bath you're just sitting in dirty water.
I think that was Mark's problem.
He took that bubble bath with Spike and all Spike's grossness wore off on him.
Maybe if he'd bothered ironing his apron with Dale he would have been better off.

And Ryan got sent home this week. Is that any surprise?
I re-watched the first episode a few days ago where Ryan brags about getting other employees fired because he was working so hard at 11.
How sad for him to have peaked at 11.
He certainly didn't cook much on Top Chef that can be bragged about.
Has he never watched this show before? I can't tell you the number of times I have seen some one taken to task because they didn't think about their audience or where they would be serving their food.
Sigh.
It's too bad that Ryan isn't better looking, then I could feel better about him being so dumb.

When I started this blog about Top Chef, I thought it would be kind of short because I thought this week was a little boring, but I guess I have a lot to say about it after all... what do you know?

80s Extravaganza

Getting ready to make the trek out to Beaver Dam for Broth-A's play tonight.
It's some "musical" based on 80s music.
I don't think there is even really a plot.
Broth-A has a solo and is going to be singing "Never Going to Give You Up" by Rick Astley.
Awesome!
Hopefully it will be entertaining.
Heaven knows, anything would be better than last year.
Last year was "Into the Woods"
I don't think it's possible to die of boredom and general suckiness of the thing you are watching, because if it were I would be dead already from that last year. (Sorry Broth-A)
But, in spite of last year, I'm still making the effort to see the play.
God, I'm a good sister!
What?
I am.
Just because I'm honest about the fact that his play sucked last year doesn't mean I don't rock for sitting through it. And he knew it stunk, so don't feel sorry for him.
Seriously, I may potentially be a sucky friend, a half-assed wife, who knows even a piss-poor mother, but one thing people will not be able to say about me at the end of my life is that I was a bad sister.
So, I got that going for me which is nice.

Disease

It's been kind of a crappy day. My mom called to tell me that my grandfather has colon cancer.
She assured me that they found it super early, so although he's going to have to have surgery it's non-invasive and if it hasn't spread then he won't even need to have chemotherapy. The prognosis looks good, and I took it fine when she told me. But, as the evening wears on I feel worse and worse about it.

I wish I could do something for him. I wish that I could make this better in some way. I wish I could see him. When Pa started getting sick, I didn't really worry, I just kept believing that he would always get better. And he always did, until he finally didn't and I didn't get a chance to say good-bye. Hopefully, this situation won't be that serious, but being this far away it's hard to reassure myself of that.

I bought him a card. A fucking card will probably make him feel better about having cancer, right?

My sister maybe has MS. I don't know how to help her either.

Sorry... seems like a stupid thing to say.
Whatever you need... is an empty promise, since what could I really provide them anything they need.
I'm here for you... is true, but can really only make me feel better.

There is nothing I can say to make things better for them.
There is nothing I can do to make things better for them.
There is nothing I can do. Period.

All I can do is just stand around while they struggle.
I hate feeling helpless.

So, I guess instead of wishing for things I can't have, I'll have to deal with reality.
I'll hurt that they hurt and I'll shut the fuck up about it.
Because really, self-absorbed though I can be, I'm not enough of an asshole to make their illnesses about me.
The plan with Pop is to send him cards every week until he's through recovering from surgery.
A pathetic, lame plan at best, but it's the best I can do.
The plan with Sist-A is to treat her normally, until she says otherwise.
Also, a pathetic, lame plan, but also the best I figure out to do.

Milestones

Today is a milestone for me. I have officially lost over 65 lbs. Yay for me! I try not to focus on the weight loss so much as the health stuff, but still it's hard not to have at least a mini-celebration for each increment of five that you pass.
I also managed to run at 6.0 mph for the entire 28 minutes on the treadmill. Double-triple-quadruple yay for me on that! The best part is that my lungs and legs still felt really good at the end of the run, which is a first. I got home late tonight because I was out buying a shower present for Alexis, so I didn't eat dinner before I went to the gym. I may have to do that more often. I had a snack before I went to the gym, but not a meal. It was still hard; it's always hard, but I felt really good about it.

American Idol - I knew that David Cook and David A were safe from the start. I watch American Idol on TiVO after I get home from the gym on Tuesdays, so by the time I cast my "votes" it's a good hour/hour and a half after the broadcast. I got a busy signal for both David's when I called.
Can't say I'm sorry to see KLC go, it was long over due. Ironically, I liked her best this week out of any week though. If I would have had my own personal preference, it would have been Syesha or Carly. Oh well... what are you going to do?

Ding-dong the pig is gone

American Idol

Before I get to this week, a moment about last week. Michael Johns getting kicked off the show was complete bullshit. He is a far better singer than many of those still left on the show (Carly, Syesha, Kristi Lee Cook, even Jason Castro and maybe Brooke, I'm looking at you!) Hopefully he goes on to bigger things because he was way better than 8th. It's really sad to think that he'll always have to live with the fact he was kicked off before Kristi Lee Cook. Sigh. Poor Michael Johns. I'd at least consider buying your album, Buddy. And Ryan Seacrest, try not to be such a dick next time you kick some one off. You were just mean!

Tonight was Mariah Carey night. Not a big fan of hers, but it wasn't too bad a night considering.
David A - was good. He's always good. But he didn't kill me. I didn't want to run out and buy it or anything. But still, he IS cute as a button.

Carly and Syesha back to back? Yuck!
Carly didn't hit the big notes at all. She was singing, but she wasn't really giving it her all. I don't like her anyway though. The judges liked Syesha, but frankly, she felt a little scream-y to me.

Surprisingly, I actually dug Kristi Lee Cook's performance tonight. Not enough to make me a fan, but I liked it better than the judges did.

Brooke, Brooke, Brooke... I love her. She's a little package of happiness, but I didn't really like this performance that much. I even like the song Hero. Maybe that's why I didn't like this performance. I liked the way she did it, but I didn't think the vocals were good enough.

David Cook is my favorite. I honestly think he would make the best American Idol, if the American Idol should be the one who is most likely to make it as a singer. I can see myself buying a David Cook album. In fact, I probably will buy a David Cook album. I love David A, too. But, I'm not sure what kind of album he would make and I would really have to like it to buy it. He's ten ways of adorable, but I'm not sure about the album he would make.

On a side note about David C, his brother who has brain cancer was in the audience tonight. When David C teared up, I can admit it got to me a little. You had me at brain cancer...

Don't really remember Jason Castro's performance. I remember thinking it was mildly pleasant at the time. Definitely liked it better than Carly, Syesha or KLC. Meh.


Hell's Kitchen!!!!

Have I mentioned that I love Gordon Ramsay? Cause I do.
Moving up on my list of people? Christina. I love it that she actually nominated the weakest link instead of Corey. It was a grown-up decision. If Corey want to play in the dirt on the playground, let her. Christina is better than that.

Ah, the chicken challenge. If they had actually killed those chickens I would have had to become a vegetarian. That would suck, so I'm really glad they didn't.

The challenge they had made me laugh though.
I kept thinking if Hung were on Hell's Kitchen he would have kicked all these amateurs asses. Five minutes to butcher a chicken? Hung would have broken down that chicken... perfectly I might add... in about 30 seconds.
I think in a head to head competition, Top Chef would kick Hell's Kitchen's ass. Not Gordon Ramsay's mind you, but Hung would be out cooking all these suckers like nobody's business.

Now, I've saved the best for last. The pig is gone. I was ready to throw things at the television every time that stupid, sexist, tub of lard opened his mouth. I was so sick of hearing all his junk. Buh-bye loser! Man, I didn't even realize dudes like that still existed. I mean I knew, but I thought they were smart enough to not come on national television with their men are far superior than women crap. And just so we're all clear, it is a bunch of crap!
Yay! I am so glad he's gone! It makes me so much happier to watch Hell's Kitchen next week!
All Gordon Ramsay, no sexist pig to detract from my mad Ramsay love! :)

Trivia Recap

Trivia was long, but fun this year. I say 'was', but actually it's still going on.
It turned out so much better this time than last time. I'm tired, but not sick. That's a definite plus.

I think we actually did pretty well for our first year. Some of those questions are hard!

Here's a recap of random thoughts from throughout the weekend:

1. There is NO 2000 Chrysler Aspen
2. Mr. Blume is mean
2a. Mr. and Mrs. Blume keep their bowls up too high
3. 11 adults + 4 dogs + 3 children = Chaos!!!
Not in a mean way, but it was kind of suffocating me at one point. Escaping for a walk with the dogs helped though.
4. Snoop has mad Internet searching skills. I bow down to his Internet searching skills. I don't know how he found some of that stuff... I'm in awe
5. Mrs. Blume is a great hostess. I can't believe they had us all over and weren't just aching to kick us all out. (Mr. Blume isn't a bad host, but see #2)
6. Ate a lot of delicious foods that are very, very bad for me. (Toppers, cheeseburger, Belts) I won't say I feel guilty about it, but I will feel better once I've been back to the gym again.
7. I'm going to concede a point to the boys. Mustaches can be funny. I wanted to giggle every time I saw a certain mustache this weekend.

(Side note: when spell checking this blog mustachio came up for mustache, which I guess you know I can't spell. Apparently, although mustachio is not Spanish for mustache it is Italian for mustache. According to dictionary.com mustachio: A mustache, especially a luxuriant one. :) Ha ha!)

8. The husband likes to claim that he "didn't go to bed" during trivia. Well, technically, that's true. Instead, he just slept on the couch for hours and hours. Just like at home! Actually right now, he's downstairs sleeping in a darkened basement (for about 1.5 hours now). I asked him if he wanted to go to bed. He said no, because he just wanted to rest for a minute. I bet he'll come to bed around 2 - 3AM.
9. There is an insane amount of information on the internet. I can't imagine why anyone would ever want to find this information if they weren't involved in the world's largest trivia contest.
My favorite example: http://www.comicbookreligion.com/ a listing of all comic book characters by religious affiliation. Awesome!!!!
10. Sometimes a best guess is as good as a real answer.

I researched so many trivia question answers I even started to dream about them. Hopefully, my dreams will be normal tonight. I hate task-based dreaming.

Sleep Deprived

Up until 2AM last night.
Then, Milo was up shaking and whining until 3 when I dumped him on the husband to watch.
Who promptly dumped Milo back on me as soon as I had fallen asleep.

So, so tired.
But, you can't abandon ship when you're on the verge of cracking the top 100.

Trivia - Part II

Trivia is HARD!

British Invasion

Today, my first day on vacation (yay!), is also the first day of Trivia.
Trivia goes from 6 pm tonight to midnight on Sunday.

This isn't my first time playing trivia. We did it once before. All I really remember from it is being sick as a dog on Sunday. We turned off the computer, the tv, the radio, everything and pretty much just laid on the couch in silence.

I'm hoping this will be fun and significantly less painful.

There will be more people, so hopefully there will be more sleep involved this year.

Managed to get a work out in this morning before we leave for Point, so at least if I don't get to do anything this weekend, I'll already be taken care of.

Go Loons!

Hey hey hey, Good-bye!

Watched Top Chef last night and what a weird ending!

I was so happy Zoi was going home!
She was whiny. She made excuses for herself, BOTH pre- and post-failure.
She even had the audacity to bitch about her girlfriend doing better than she did in the Quickfire challenge!
Jen has never said anything, but what a great, talented, amazing, blah, blah, blah Zoi is and she returns the favor by being pissed that Jen did better than she did?
For Jen's sake I hope one of two things is true:
1. Zoi is phe-nominal in bed
OR
2. Zoi is not such a complete and utter waste of a person in real life.

On the bright side, Jen officially gets moved up to "chef I am rooting for" now that she lost that anchor around her neck.
I don't think she's going to be around that long though. She hasn't done anything amazing yet, just middle-of-the-pack so far.

Stephanie must be one amazing cook. I think she has been in the top teams every week, but one so far. I think she, Dale and Richard may be the one's to beat.
Kind of funny since all of those remind me of past favorites.
Stephanie = If Harold was a girl
Richard = Marcel
Dale = Hung

I was sweating it a little for Richard last night, I didn't want him to go home in spite of his scaly slip-up. Andrew better cool it with the tapioca caviar though; seen it.

Ha! The "confrontation" between Dale and Lisa (is that her name?) was hilarious. It was so random. You could just tell that Dale was just itching for a chance to bitch at her. It all happened so fast and I deleted it from TiVO already, so I don't even know how they got involved. It was arguing between Spike, Antonia and Jen and then somehow Dale and Lisa were arguing too.

Not sure that Lisa did anything wrong, but Dale is right she is annoying with her constant negativity. She's like this big, black pit of nothingness. I swear the tv goes blank when she's on. She's officially been downgraded to "chef I refuse to acknowledge exists." Makes it hard when she wins, like she did today. But we'll see how it goes for her once she isn't partnered with Stephanie anymore.

One last thing and then I'm done with this too long blog on Top Chef.
Antonia is more and more annoying every week.
I'm no fan of Spike, but he was right. Antonia had immunity. She should have shut the fuck up and taken a back-seat on this one. I wouldn't mind if she just shut the fuck up in general.

Genocide

My 401K company sent me some junk that I was supposed to vote on this week.

One of the questions, (apprx) would you like us to refrain from investing in companies that have significantly contributed to genocide.

Hmm... let me think about it. On the one hand, we have potential MONEY to help ME. On the other, we have GENOCIDE.
I may be a selfish person, but genocide? Really?
The total destruction of a society and I'm supposed to be okay with this?

In fact, my investment company advised me to vote AGAINST the measure.
Ugh.

So, I (obviously) voted for the measure.

Better to lose a little money not contributing to genocide than allowing my soul to become some black, bottomless pit where genocide is A-Ok.

Decompression

American Idol
Tonight was inspiration night on American Idol, but it was only okay for me.
David A was amazing as always. I have to admit, I'm not as in love with him as I used to be. I still love him, don't get me wrong. Tonight was another great performance. But, I'm okay with him being on the show, as opposed to keeping him in my pocket so I can pull him out to sing for me whenever I need a dose of adorable.
I thought Michael Johns was better than they gave him credit for.
I love that version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow and I enjoyed Jason Castro's performance. Sorry Ash, but I dig him.
David Cook was a disappointment this week, but I still love him. He's the only one who's inspired me to buy his songs off of iTunes. Yep, that's right I bought Eleanor Rigby, Billie Jean and Hello. Michael Johns inspired me to buy songs, too, but I just bought the original versions instead of his versions (Bohemian Rhapsody and Dream On).
Syesha, Carly and Kristy Lee Cook can just go away now. They are boring. In a way, I feel sorry for Carly. She has a decent voice, if she didn't just reek of desperation (and hadn't sang the wrong words to Come Together) I might have liked her, but probably not.

Hell's Kitchen

I hate Jason. He's a sexist pig.
I love Gordon Ramsay, but if that sexist pig wins this show I'm going to have to stop watching. Maybe.
I may love Gordon Ramsay more than I hate "sous-chef" Jason.
Who am I kidding? I definitely love Gordon Ramsay more than I hate Jason.
Gordon Ramsay is right up there for me with puppies, Christmas and chocolate.

What was with Petrozza? "I'm done. I'm done." Whatever. Shut up. You didn't know how hard this would be? Where did you think you were going? Have you not seen Hell's Kitchen before? Dumbass.
Nice job stepping up, Four-star General Bobby. That's the first thing you've done on this show that makes me think you are not completely worthless.

Ha! Way to fuck yourself over Corey.
I had hope, after last week, that the women could come out and kick the tar out of the men (especially Jason.... have I mentioned I hate him?)
But after that display of complete and total bitchery, my team loyalty may depend on how long Jason sticks around. Although I like Christina so far, so I'm still leaning towards the women.

Bending the Universe

Stupid rain!
I wanted to take Cash out on a walk this evening, since I'm ditching the poor fellow for the weekend.
Before you protest, Joe is on the DL until her injured hindquarters heals, so it has to be Cash. But, it's been so nice out recently, I really wanted to get out for a walk with one of the dogs. But, I'm not going out in this disgusting cold rain!

I guess I'm still not able to bend the universe to my will.
Rats!

In Response...

I wanted to write a comment on my sister's blog, but as she doesn't have comments enabled, I cannot. Since I think she reads my blog, I'm going to respond here instead. (Hopefully, she won't mind)

In her blog she wrote, "...and she [Natalie] said how she admired me for being a fighter through all of this. It boosted my self-esteem, but at the same time I think she's giving me a little too much credit. I have plenty of self pity time..."

What I have to say about it is this:
Bravery isn't the absence of fear. It's continuing on and doing what you have to do in spite of the fear.

I don't think you are a fighter because you never get down or never have moments of self-pity. Then you wouldn't be a fighter, you would be some sort of alien, super-hero.
Rocky didn't win all his battles, and you won't either.
But he kept coming back to the ring, determined to fight as long and as hard as he could.
You're still in school. You're still following your dreams. You're still doing what you need to do to live your life in a meaningful way. You have hope for the future.
Maybe you have to work a little harder for them than most people, and that sucks, but the point is that you keep going.

I AM proud of you, my little brave chica.

Don't forget - you don't have to fight the good fight alone, I've always got your back.

In the Refrigerator?

I went to get my lunch from the refrigerator today. By the time, I get there it's usually pretty empty as I don't eat lunch until 1 / 1:30 if I can help it.
There sitting in the middle of the top shelf was a "Maple Brown Sugar" granola bar.
Why would you refrigerate a granola bar?
Is granola better cold?
Have I been f*-ing it up all these years eating it at room temperature?
It just doesn't seem like the kind of food that would benefit from being cold.

Don't be offended if you love cold granola.
To each their own.
Just explain it to me. The why part, I get the what and the how.

A Swing and a Miss

Before I get to the subject of this blog...
Oh my goodness, what a beautiful day!
It was so gorgeous out! It felt wonderful to be outside.
Cash and I went for a long walk this afternoon... and I was wearing a t-shirt. It was awesome!
I love, love, love this weather (finally)!!!

I tried to make sweet-n-sour shrimp tonight and it did not go well.
The smell of the cooking shrimp made me sick to my stomach (and I love shrimp!).
The sweet & sour sauce... just didn't quite taste right.
Jeff actually ate some of it. He said he liked the rice.
I couldn't stomach it. I ate some of the veg and had to quit.
Yuck, yuck, yuck!
We might try to make it again, only with chicken instead of shrimp and a different kind of sauce. The only problem is that shrimp is more calorie economic at 76 cals/serving versus 110 cals/serving for chicken.
Not sure how I'll solve that problem. Maybe less rice, but how much less is the question.
Boo. It makes me sick just to think about it.
Oh well, back to the drawing board on that one.

On a completely unrelated note, I was watching the Simpsons tonight and the Max Power song came on:
Max Power,
He's the man who's name you'd love to touch,
But, you mustn't touch!
His name sounds good in your ear,
But when you say it, you mustn't fear!
'Cause his name can be said by anyone!

Ha! That is the best song ever! I love it when Homer sings that song.
In fact, I love it when Homer sings any song. He sang "Mellow Yellow" in the next episode, which was awesome as well.

Me, Myself and Three Crazy Dogs

Well, it's Friday night and I'm flying solo.
The husband ditched me to hang out with his work people. They are always having these team building events. Those people can't get enough of each other.
So, anyway, I wasn't sure what the hell to do with myself for an evening alone, so I actually went to the gym tonight. I never usually go to the gym on Friday nights.
It's usually date night.
But since, my darling love is missing and I bought some new shoes (another pair... what? they were on sale buy one get one 1/2 off) and I wanted to see how these would do on the treadmill since the other pair caused some soreness in my shins. I do NOT want shin splints. (I think the other pair will work better when I'm on the elliptical)
This pair worked MUCH better on the treadmill. I was finally able to stay at 6 mph for the entire 28 minutes I ran.
Shut up! I know that's not really that fast, but it's fast for me. I am a s l o w runner. I have some short term speed, but I'm not usually much for stamina. This was my first goal. It was painful and I had to talk myself into every minute after 14. Oh I'll slow down once I hit 17 minutes... this isn't so bad, I'll just slow down at 18 minutes... and so on. It was not easy for me, but I finally managed to do it! I'm exhausted now though.
Let's see if I can do this the next time I try the treadmill though (goal #2, not sure what goal #3 will be when I can do this consistently)... you have to take the highs with the lows.
Now, I'm just chilling at home with the pooches. It sure is fun to take care of 3 crazy dogs by myself.
Ha! Don't buy this self pity act...much! The dogs are crazy for about the first 15 minutes, then they settle down. Right now all the dogs are just laying down. They are so sweet once they've got that first burst of energy out of the way.
Still not sure what to do for the rest of the night. I've got Doctor Who on Netflix and the husband usually just sleeps during episodes of that anyway, so maybe I'll go down stairs and watch some of that.

Shut Up, Spike!

I've been watching Top Chef - Season 4 for a couple of weeks now and I was growing a bit concerned because I didn't really care about anybody yet, for or against. They were all kind of the same for me.

Well, that worry is now over.

Favorites:
Richard - He seems slightly awkward, but brilliant. I like him in spite of the faux-hawk.
Dale - I loved Hung last year, so why not Hung v 2.0?
Stephanie - She hasn't shown much personality, but she seems to have cooking chops
Andrew - Dude loves to curse. He's so over the top it makes me happy.
Mark - Loves To Kill a Mockingbird and Mad Max, nuff said.

Least Favorites:
Spike - Shut up! You don't know junk about good food, and you've been in the bottom the last 2 weeks at least, so quit bashing Richard, Dale and Andrew! P.S. I'm not impressed by your sub-par sabotage. Bah!
Ryan - Your favorite movie is "Dumb and Dumber"? You don't know what Chicken Piccata is? You've never heard of To Kill a Mockingbird? Shut up Ryan!
Antonia - She threw her teammate under the bus a couple of weeks ago, when she hadn't even tasted her food. Shut up Antonia!

On the bubble:
Jennifer - Actually I was a fan of her and Zoi, until this week. But, Zoi's whining affected Jen's popularity as well. Plus, she doesn't seem to be that great of a chef.
Nikki - You failed to make your "signature dish" of mac and cheese correctly last week... Seriously your signature dish is mac and cheese? And let's not forget the craptacular extravaganza that was blueberry mushrooms a couple of weeks ago.
Lisa - I barely remembered you exist.
Zoi - Stop your whining. You are clearly not the "amazing" chef you believe yourself to be if you can't make pasta salad. 2 weeks in a row on the chopping block. Quit the whining or you're going to Team Shut Up next week.

Formerly a Hater

I used to hate reality tv. I still do in a way. I won't watch Survivor or Big Brother.
I've made an exception for food related reality programs (Top Chef, Hell's Kitchen) and there was nothing better on this year, so we've been watching American Idol. (Totally a stretch, but I still have my principals here, people!)

American Idol
Mostly a boring evening, I wasn't even that impressed with the best performances. I probably won't buy any of this weeks performances on iTunes.
I totally called Syesha butchering "I Will Always Love You"
It's an awesome, awesome song, but when you sing it you will be compared to Dolly and Whitney. That's just a given, and that is almost never going to be a flattering comparison.
I totally LOVE Dolly Parton though.
If Nonnie (my grandmother) had been a country star, she would have been a lot like Dolly Parton.
She just has that wonderful Southern way about her.
There were the real compliments (David A)
There were the Southern-not-really-a-compliments (Kristy Lee Cook) ("Well, she made it her own" ha... so not a compliment)
Ha! She was awesome!

Hell's Kitchen
I love Gordon Ramsay.
I love watching him run around and yell at everything in sight.
He even threw chicken tonight! HA!
One of the guys is a total jerk he said apprx "I'm not going to lose to the women. The only thing I might lose to a woman is an ironing contest."
One of the guys is totally delusional "He may be the captain, but I'm a four-star general. To me, he's just a private"
Um... okay, crack baby, whatever you say!
Jeff and I were giggling like crazy through the entire episode.
It's funny. We watch Top Chef together too and it doesn't affect us like this, but we can't help but laugh during HK.


On a personal note...
The treadmill totally kicked my ass tonight. All things in balance I guess. I finished it, so I guess I have that going for me, but Thursday had better go better than tonight did. I don't want to embarrass myself in front of Tats again! :0)

Crankiness, A Gateway Drug

I often find that when a little crankiness finds its way into my life, more is to follow.

Yesterday, someone at work took a document I own (along with 2 others) and edited it. It doesn't annoy me that he edited it, but that he didn't ask or tell us about it. Now, I'm trying to sort through what was changed and it's very irritating. I exercised a certain amount of will power to not say anything to him about it... I think he thought he was being helpful. It's not nice to chastise people for attempting to be helpful.

Today, I was talking to a girl I'm friends with and we were talking about a variety of things, one of those things was a particular person that we both know. Although I believe that he is a nice person, he can be very annoying and do things that are sort of unintentionally offensive. He has made some questionable choices lately, especially in relation to my friend. Everything we said was true and none of it was said in a malicious way, more of just a venting, and underneath it all we don't really mind him after we've vented. I still feel a little karmically bad about it, but in my defense I'm always very nice to this person, which is about the most you could ask in this situation.

Now, the Accounting dept of my company is bugging me about something I find a little irritating. To sum, they covered a particular expense before and changed the policy without letting anyone know. I had to erase the email I was writing about 4 times.

I read this article about will power, how each time you use it, it becomes progressively weaker. I think it comes to the same thing with controlling my temper. Each of the situations above, annoyed me progressively a little more. I don't get mad that often, but I can have a wicked temper, if it actually comes up. It burns hot, but short and I usually feel bad about it. So, I try not to put myself in situations where I can lose my temper.

I'm glad I'm going to the gym tonight. I need to burn off some of this stress and negative energy. Hmmm.... maybe I need to say some nice things about people in order to balance myself out. Right the ship, so I can continue on with out all this negativity.

Here are some nice things about people I know:

1. The husband is a really hard-worker. He is so dedicated and is always under appreciated by everyone, including me. He loves me so well. He deserves everything good in the world.
2. My dad has a really generous spirit. I strive to be more like him in this aspect. He does things for people just because he wants to make them smile, without expectations of what he might get in return.
3. My mom is a really great listener. She listens and advises, without judgement. She just lets me talk out whatever is on my mind. I wish I were as good a listener as my mom.
4. Sis-C is strong. She isn't afraid to admit to her mistakes and try to make them better. She is always striving to be a better person. She inspires me to try a little harder as well.
5. Mr. Blume is brave. He is putting his ideas and weight out there for everyone to read and judge. I wasn't nearly that brave when I started to try to change. I admire his ability to be so forthright.
6. Sist-A is a fighter. She has had a hard couple of years. I don't know how she has managed to deal with everything that has been on her plate. A lot of people would take advantage or feel sorry for themselves, but while Ash may get down occasionally, she isn't out. I don't know if I could do as well as she has with everything. She inspires me not to feel sorry for myself.
7. Mrs. Blume is resilient. She knows why. I don't think I would handle a similar situation with as much strength as she did. I admire that.
8. Khaki Republican is a nice guy. I sent him a message of condolence recently and he actually took the time to write me back. He puts up with my sister (I love you Ash!). He puts up with our family. I have a sneaking suspicion he may be a decent human being. None of which means that if push came to shove, I wouldn't beat him up for Ash. :)
9. The Saint is a great co-worker. We can talk shop and personal stuff seamlessly weaving between the two. I enjoy talking to her about non-work stuff, but she's been the greatest boon to my job since I started at Epic. She has taught me so much stuff that is difficult to figure out and she is a great sounding board when you need to talk out the solution to a problem.
10. Poppie (my grandfather) is a sweetheart. He is the nicest man I know. It warms my heart every time he calls one of his granddaughters 'sugar'. Ever since my grandmother died, I've tried to send him notes or postcards every couple of weeks or so. Occasionally, he writes me back. His cards are the sweetest thing. He is such a gentle soul. I smile for days after I hear from him.

I'm not sure I believe in karma, but writing all this had really made me feel better. I had sort of a heavy, negative feeling when I came home from work, but now I'm feeling much more positive and happy.

Have a great day and may your karma be good!