I was putting the clean clothes away the other day and needed some hangers. I went to my closet and pulled out the empties - which were scattered on throughout my hanging clothes.
Then I went over to J's closet to get his empties. They were all nicely grouped in the middle of the bar.
Either J had a stroke of Monk going on, or he just reaches into the closet and puts on the first shirt that he sees.
My vote is for the latter. It was just a funny observation.
Well, just as the title suggests, I "tooted" in the car last night - quietly - and thought everything was okay. Then I heard a very grumpy, "Something is stinky!" from M in the back seat.
I rolled down the window quickly and got rid of the stench. Sorry guys!
Kids certainly call 'em like the see 'em!
I just got a quick IM from J. He's always sending me cute tidbits.
Since I recently got back into crocheting, he has demanded that I crochet him something. It changes from day to day.
The picture above is what he wants done now - but adult size for himself.
Sorry, J, but I have a princess costume and an afghan to finish. I wouldn't have the first clue as to how to do something like this.
Nip/Tuck has been a favorite show since the first season. The story is amazing and the writers do a good job of keeping you glued to your seat.
WARNING: SPOILERS
Latest plot: A guy is going around and carving the faces of models (they call him/her The Carver). McNamara/Troy has been fixing the victims for free. The Carver in the previous season went after both Sean & Christian because they were fixing his victims. This season, Christian was arrested for being the Carver. Kit, the investigating police woman, went under cover and has a threesome with Christian and his girlfriend, Kimber. Kimber leaked Christian's arrest to the news media, and the Carver struck again while Christian was locked up. The victim: Kit.
GOAM and I have debated on who we think the Carver is. She thinks it's a woman Kit or Ava. I think it's a man. I've thought initially that it was the new pseudo partner, Quentin. Quentin was a character last season and he has a man crush on Sean.
But I do like Goam's theory about it being Ava. After pontificating on this a little, it could also be Ava's first "husband", played by Alex Baldwin.
I don't know where the Carver got all the evidence to frame Christian. Perhaps Kit was absolutely convinced that Christian was the Carver that she planted the evidence.
Ah. It's fun to just ruminate on trivial stuff! Christian is dreamy! I wouldn't kick him out of my bed for eating cookies. :)
I just had a follow up doctor's appointment today and right across the street is a Dairy Queen. I felt an undeniable pull to go through the drive thru and get a Chocolate Xtreme Blizzard.
For the uninitiated, a Chocolate Xtreme Blizzard is made with the soft serve ice cream, enough chocolate fudge to make the vanilla be chocolate, chunks of fudge brownies, and they drip some of the chocolate that hardens into it, so it has just the right amount of crunch.
Sublime.
I was successful in fighting the urge, but I wonder if alcoholics feel the same pull when they go by a liquor store.
I like the characters. I love the way the writers flash back in time to show their lives before the accident. It really helps to build the characters, and character development in prime time shows is almost non-existent now. I think the reason is because the writing is very good for a prime time show. Yes, we wait too long for the payoffs, but at least they payoff. I just stopped taping Invasion because it just keeps going - and the story isn't very original.
I saw the ring being found by the buried bottle a mile away.
Things that keep me watching Lost:
1. Who are the Others?
We just got a peek at their feet for the first time. They look like they've been stranded on the island too as they're white and some of them are obviously female. I always considered the Others as possibly original inhabitants of the island. I also think there are two different groups - not just one - as I don't think the Others are associated with the guys in the motor boat (or the pirates, as they were dressed as such).
2. Why do they keep on killing off the people?
3. Kate loves Sawyer. I think Sawyer is going to be the one who gets killed in the next episode (which is three weeks away!).
4. Where is Walt?
5. Who is "HE" (Donovan kept asking about)?
6. What happened to the experiment we saw on the training film?
Theory:
The Others are a part of some type of experiment and are still being observed. They've been told that there was a sickness they could catch, but since they've survived, they think they're immune. They are killing off the passengers because they're afraid the passengers will catch the virus and they don't want to get it. I initially thought the Others were killing the passengers and eating them, but when I saw the Others were white and they killed the passenger with a spear (i.e., they didn't get close or eat him) it essentially killed the cannibalism theory.
J hates politics.
I grew up with parents who debated politics on a regular basis and I do enjoy talking about it.
But J hates politics.
So over the years I've dialed back the rhetoric and stopped watching the Sunday news shows.
Well, now almost all of the news shows podcast their shows! Yay! I can listen while I work. It's been great - in a nerdy sort of way.
Okay, this will be dated at some point in time, but this is worth going to look at:
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Trading-Spouses1.wmv
It's a truly disturbing look at a Jesus Freak.
My apologies to folks who stumble on this at a later date. It was really a great video of a Jesus wack job.
This is a toy that my daughter picked up at our local McDonald's. Isn't it hideous? As an overweight person, this just offends and horrifies me. I mean come on, when you press the button on the back, the belly mouth opens and closes. There's even a butt crack and back fat shown on the back.
The fact that it comes from McDonald's isn't lost on me. I'm sure most folks have seen Supersize Me by now. Now McDonald's even has a toy that shows how you'll look if you continue to eat their food!
And of course, M loves this toy and thinks it's very pretty. She likes anything that's pink.
We have a bona fide crazy person who lurks around the neighborhood. He's pretty innocuous, but it's somewhat unsettling to pass him when I drop my kiddo off at school in the morning. He's an older person and walks every where while pulling a toy behind him.
Today he was carrying his pull toy monster truck while wearing a witches hat and carrying a large inflatable hammer. He waved the hammer like he was hammering everyone who passed him by. It was actually pretty funny in a disturbing sort of way.
J joked that some day we'd read in our local paper that the old guy was killed in a hit and run accident, and ironically was killed by the same type of vehicle he was pulling.
Sick, I know, but funny in an inappropriate way. J's always good for an inappropriate joke. :)
The new television season is filled with new sci-fi shows - presumably to try to duplicate the success of Lost.
I don't think any of them are going to really stick.
Surface (NBC - Monday nights)
Invasion (ABC - Wednesday nights)
Threshold (CBS - Friday nights)
Surface, so far, the only one with some promise, but it just doesn't have the charm of Lost. It's almost as though a whole bunch of Godzilla's are going to eat everything in the world up. Where's the mystery? The little lizard-thing eating the shit-bag dog was a nice touch (I am a big dog person - little dogs remind me too much of my grandfather's weird preoccupation with his toy-poodles).
I wanted Invasion to be good, mainly because I have some loyalty to one of my childhood crushes, Shawn Cassidy. The show is written and produced by him. He wrote and produced a great show a while ago that got cancelled (American Gothic). But it's just invasion of the body snatchers - and it's just not all that well done.
Threshold has been a little of a surprise and I definitely stumbled onto this by mistake. First of all, it's shown on Friday nights. That's pretty much a death knell program slot. The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. was doomed when Fox put them on Friday nights, and I have a feeling that Threshold is not long for this world.
It's another alien invasion show - this time the aliens take over humans through audio transmissions.
Ugh, how LAME! And it's another alien invasion show. I just don't particularly care for alien invasion shows ever since the television mini-series V.
I also had high hopes for this one when I saw some of the actors who were in it. There's Data and the angry dwarf guy from Elf/The Station Agent. Plus the plot keeps on repeating itself over, and over. I don't see this one continuing next season, either.
Current favorite Sci-Fi shows:
The 4400 (USA - currently on hiatus)
Lost (ABC - Wednesday nights)
Battlestar Galactica (Sci-Fi - on hiatus)
"Momma, I'm gonna make a Happy Plate!" M crowed proudly.
I asked her who taught her about Happy Plates.
"Miss Kristy," she answered.
Miss Kristy needs to teach her own kids about eating right - she's just as overweight as I am.
I hate hearing M talk about making Happy Plates, but she's just so happy to aspire to do so. I'd rather her make a happy tummy - i.e. just eat until she's full.
I still have the problem of eating everything on my plate - especially if I'm eating out. What's weird is that it's more of an economic choice rather than making myself feel full. It's so expensive to eat out, that I want to make sure that I get my money's worth. And of course, restaurant portions are huge and have gotten larger over the years. Perhaps thats one of the reasons?
Makes you wonder.
Well, crap.
I bought some material for M's costume, and it's too flimsy. I've actually made it RUN (you know, like pantyhose can run).
So, I'll have to make a new trip to the fabric store and get a better material. You know those material suggestions are actually good to follow!
I've crocheted two squares so far. One is just not measuring the right measurements. But the second one is right on.
Surprisingly, I actually like to crochet while watching TV. It makes me feel a little productive - even though all I'm doing is just making 7" x 9" squares of single stitch crochet squares.
Oh, and I've been reading a really terrific book: Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell. Sarah is really great and the book is really entertaining to read. I discovered her on her occasional stories on This American Life and she's also the voice of Violet Parr, from the movie The Incredibles.
I am getting ready to read The Historian. It's been on my local library pull list for literally two months. I just found out that I can go pick it up. Guess my next two weeks are going to be spent reading!
My husband had on some show on one of those learning/discovery channels the other day. It was called, Half Ton Man and talked about this guy who weighed 1,000 pounds.
One thing that was interesting to me was the attitude of the Bariatric Surgeon. He's had RnY and has said that even though someone has lost weight, check them in 10 years time to see if they've kept it off and he'd bet that they didn't.
Not an encouraging statistic.
He also said something regarding feeling full. I remember when I was on Phen Fen, I actually got full and didn't want to eat. It was a new feeling and I finally understood that I'm genetically different. I can easily eat after a meal - especially dessert. I hate that Phen Fen was pulled from the market because it was really a wonder drug for me.
One thing that I know that I've done since I work out of the home is to not pay attention to how other people struggle with their weight. Even people I consider as being healthy really have to work hard at keeping the weight off.
And really it comes down to work. I know I'm obese because I'm lazy - I ate out a lot because I was too tired to cook dinner, or needed to get out of the house. Portion control is much more difficult to do if you're at a restaurant. I know all the tricks about cutting the meal in half and boxing it. . . but when you have already made up your mind that you want to eat the fetuccini alfredo noodles, even halving it doesn't help. It's a bad choice.
I have to get an exercise program going. I was swimming at the same time my kiddo was taking lessons, but the stinking pool changed the lap swim time up by an hour, so I can't fit it into my schedule as easily as I was able to. It was great, too, because my ankles wouldn't get arthritic feeling. I'm hoping they'll go back to the old schedule when swim season is over. The pool is crowded, but they could still allow at least one lane open for public lap swim.
Grrrrr.
It was a crafty weekend.
Since I watch entirely too much television, I decided that I needed to do something with my hands. About two years ago, I tried teaching myself how to knit by reading a book. I did okay, I just don't know how to recover when I drop a stitch. I have a couple of projects that I've started and haven't finished because I screwed them up so much. It's not easy to recover with knitting.
So I thought maybe I ought to learn how to crochet. J & I were at a local craft store last week to buy some pirate gear and I saw a flyer that said that they'd teach you how to crochet or knit for free if you show up on Saturday. It's an effort to Warm Up America. We will make squares that are 7" x 9" and they'll be put together to make afghans. I can make a 7" x 9" square, so I'm trying to contribute to this. I learned how to crochet the basic single stitch and I think I finally understand how to do it. I'm having a little trouble with gage. My first block measures 8.5". I'll get it.
Another thing I did was buy a pattern. I have a great memory about going to the fabric store to look through pattern books to pick out our Halloween costumes. My mom was a really good sewer. She took all the classes and I had t-shirts that actually looked store bought (which was really important in the 70's).
My kiddo picked the pattern and the fabric. She wants to be a pretty pink princess. It's going to be more expensive than if I had just bought her costume, but she can use it for dress up later on - which is something she is having lots of fun with.
Of course my sewing machine isn't working right now. The bobbin threads tension is too loose and I just don't know enough about the machine to know any better. Hopefully I can get it fixed so I will have plenty of time to sew the costume.
I maintained my weight this week - that means I didn't gain or lose weight.
The meeting topic was really good. It was about labels and attitude. What I took home from it was how I've been allowing myself to not stay on the WW plan.
Sandy, the WW leader, told us a story about when she went to Applebee's recently. It was a Tuesday night and their all you can eat rib night. A woman and her husband entered and she said, "Oh, wow! All you can eat ribs! I can be out of control!"
So, this woman planned on being out of control, she set it up by going to Applebee's on that specific day, and she did eat - out of control.
I can't tell you how many times I've done this. Not the eating out of control bit, but the deliberate mental thought process to eat something that I know isn't healthy for me. I actually set it up and it happens.
For so long I've bought into the whole, "I can't keep my weight off" argument. No, I can. I just choose not to - then I don't take ownership of that decision.
Just knowing this won't automatically change my behavior overnight. But recognizing it will help me to at least try to work on it.
Another thing that came up is the fact that if I don't think I'll make my goal weight, then I probably won't. I have so much weight to lose - it get discouraging sometimes to even think about it. But I didn't get here overnight, so it won't get fixed overnight, either.
I just have to keep on plugging. I won't be perfect - but as long as I keep trying and don't give up, I should at least see myself at a healthy weight.
The biggest disappointment of the new television season is the show Bones.
Let me start out with the fact that I really, really wanted to like this show. It has the guy from Angel (who I know is a cheesy actor, but I have a soft spot for him from his Buffy days) and was based on the books written by Kathy Reichs. I love her main character, Temperance Brennan, and have read all of the books in the series.
I hate the TV show Bones. First of all, let me preface this with the fact that I am not a purist. I am one of the rare few who found the movie The Firm to be better written than the book (I'll elaborate in another blog entry).
So I understand when writers have to change things to fit the screen - be it television or movie. But this show is SO bad, I just can't stand it.
I hate that the Angel guy keeps calling Tempe, Bones (shutter). It's demeaning and just irritating. It's like when someone calls you, "hey" all the time. You know they haven't even taken the time to learn your name.
The three students are irritating and smack of FOX Tools trying to make the story more hip for younger viewers. Young viewers don't need people they can identify with - look at X-files as an example - we didn't have three young, hip, students tagging around Scully & Mulder.
One of the young students looks just like Rick Springfield and is playing the part of a nerd. Uh, hello. Rick Springfield WAS A TEENAGE IDOL and handsome as hell. To believe this character isn't getting laid (and yes, the show immediately had a subplot about how the kid couldn't get laid) is just silly. 
The dialogue is bad. The effects are really gory - which from a horror fan side, is actually pretty good.
In the episode I saw, the end, which is what you've been working up to the whole time you've been watching the show, just cuts away after one of the kids asks if she can have a deal if she tells all she knows.
Then cut to commercial.
Resume show by having principal characters telling the mother of the victim that he didn't commit suicide but she should feel good that the two kids who killed her were going to go to jail.
Hello, audience here! There was NO pay off. I actually felt like I totally wasted my hour. I want my hour back, dammit!
I will be pulling this show off my PVR timer list.
Another show I got to see was Everybody Hates Chris. It's cute, but I won't be missing any more Survivor episodes to watch it.
And yes, I still watch Survivor even though the show has gotten somewhat predictable with regard to the stuff they have to do. It's a game show to me, and I watch game shows over and over to see what happens.
I also like The Apprentice, although I don't like the new rule they instituted - mainly that the team gets to vote on whether or not you will get immunity if you, as a project manager, wins. Duh - no one is going to get immunity. If I was a contestant, why the hell would I want someone else get a free ride?
It's just like Survivor when they have the opportunity to give the immunity necklace to someone else. Sorry, but if I was a contestant and someone won the immunity necklace and had the hubris to give away immunity, their name is going on the card.
I haven't really been able to see the Martha version of The Apprentice. But these shows aren't that hard to catch up on.
Crap! My name was still showing on bloglines. I had to change my name under the edit profile setting. Hopefully that will fix it.
On to TV talk:
Lost: Finally saw the second episode. The writers did a good job - they really didn't move the story forward, but enough loose ends from the season premier were explained that I didn't find it too terribly irritating.
New things that are interesting:
Donovan, the guy who's been down in the hole, was obviously waiting for someone ("Are you him?"). Who?
Was the meeting with Jack and Donovan in the past a set up or a coincidence? Is Jack "him" and he doesn't know it yet?
Why is Donovan worried about getting sick? Are the people really susceptible to sickness or was this just a ruse to keep Donovan down in the hole?
The numbers have been given a little bit of an explanation - Donovan has to type them in every 120 hours - who is monitoring the numbers? Why is it important for Donovan to check in? He was obviously panicked to make sure the numbers were typed in.
Who are the others who were chasing Chen at the end? I think they're the passengers from other part of the airplane. Chen washed up on shore, and doesn't speak a lick of English. Makes sense that they'd tie him up if things have been as weird with this group as what has been going on with the other group.
Where's Walt? Why did "they" take him instead of the baby?
Good show.
I'm trying to use this blog as a way to be anonymous. I don't really want some of my clients or people I work with finding this blog. I took my name off the Blogger Template, but when I check to see if bloglines is being fed the updates, there was my name, bright as day.
I changed the settings of my main account to withhold my name. Hopefully this will fix the problem.
So this was a test.
I am addicted to television. It's really terrible, but I am.
I just saw a new show that really appeals to my feminist side: Commander In Chief.
First of all, I like Geena Davis as an actress. I've seen almost everything she's done (even the crap) and I enjoy her stuff. She's really great in this show.
The problem is that it comes on at the same time that My Name Is Earl comes on. So, I have PVR'd the CIC show upstairs and watch it on the sly.
My Name is Earl is actually good, too. It makes me literally laugh out loud, and I've not laughed out loud at a network show for years. I essentially avoid all sit-coms now. I find them predicable and boring.
I also really like Lost. This was a surprise show from last season. I thought it was a fictionalized Survivor clone and didn't watch it at first. It's a good thing that ABC re-ran the first episodes after the buzz got around about how great the show is. And it is.
I love stories. I can probably say that I'm passionate about them. When writers get lazy, I get a little mad. I guess that's why I really like Lost. There's a story and it has me hooked.
Although, I must admit that I was getting a little impatient with them towards the end of last season. The story was stalled and it was pretty obvious that they (the writers) didn't know where to go with it. I'm glad they finally got their crap together and started moving the plot forward.
Enough. I have more to say on television.
