Thursday, August 28, 2008

Thursday Thirteen - Fall TV Shows








Here are the shows I’m looking forward to watching this fall.

1. Lost

2. America's Next Top Model

3. The Biggest Loser

4. Ugly Betty

5. Gossip Girl

6. 30 Rock

7. Kath & Kim

8. Dancing with the Stars

9. Survivor

10. Hell's Kitchen

11. The Amazing Race

12. 90210? not sure yet

13. USC football - because it makes my husband happy

Monday, August 25, 2008

A New Low

I think I have hit a new low. First of all, I am still watching The Hills. I don't know why...I think it's nonsense and there is not much actual show when you fast forward through the commercials. Then yesterday I read about how much money the "cast" makes. OMG...now I'm really annoyed.

Now today, I am ashamed to admit, I just looked at 11 pictures of Kim Kardashian's cut toe incident. To my credit, there were 13 pictures, but I stopped after 11.

Here are the salaries from The Hills:
Lauren Conrad: $75,000 per episode
Heidi Montag: $65,000 per episode
Spencer Pratt: $65,000 per episode
Audrina Patridge: $35,000 per episode
Whitney Port: $20,000 per episode
Brody Jenner: $10,000 per episode
Lauren “Lo” Bosworth: $10,000 per episode
Stephanie Pratt: $8,000 per episode

Friday, August 22, 2008

Early Fall?

I wonder if we are going to have an early fall? It's only mid August, but I am already seeing the leaves start to change and some have already fallen. I hope not though. I know a lot people like fall with the leaves changing color and all, but it just makes me think that winter is coming.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Thursday Thirteen - Olympic Moments









Here are the most memorable Olympic moments to me. It's easy to tell what my favorite Olympic sport is.

1. Nastia Liukin winning the women's gymnastics all around gold medal. She cried...I cried...it was awesome. It was even better since another American won the silver.

2. The US men's gymnastics team winning the bronze medal. True, they blew it and could have won the silver, but they worked together and did great even though they lost their two best people right before the games started.

3. Trying to guess the real ages of the girls on the Chinese gymnastics team.

4. Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor playing beach volleyball...all their matches.

5. Bella Karoli's reaction to Nastia's final routine in the all around competition.

6. Michael Phelps first gold.

7. Michael Phelps seventh gold that he won by one one-hundredth of a second. I was in a bar when it happened and people were chanting "USA, USA"

8. Shawn Johnson winning the gold on the balance beam. The very last event, and she finally got it.

9. I don't know exactly which swimming event it was, but the men's relay where they came from behind to win.

10. The music played at the beach volleyball matches in between points. My favorites are "American Woman" and "Keeerrrrry".

11. Watching Michael Phelp's mom. She must be so proud.

12. Alicia Sacramone falling off the balance beam then sitting down on the floor event during the gymnastics team finals. I felt so bad for her.

13. Nastia Liukin's "tie" on the uneven bar finals that got her the silver. That sucked.


Wordless Wednesday - Pay Attention to Us!!!





















Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Love the One You're With

I recently finished reading "Love the One You're With" by Emily Giffin. I have read her three prior books ("Something Borrowed", "Something Blue", and "Baby Proof") and enjoyed them so I knew I would like this one as well.

Ellen had been married to her best friend's brother for only three months when she ran into an old flame, Leo, the one that made her heart pound like no other. Her relationship with Leo had been intense and passionate so when she ran into him in the middle of the street in New York, all those feelings flooded back. Leo arranged for them to work together (he is a writer and she is a photographer) because it turns out he never got over her. I won't give it away, but Ellen was tempted by Leo as her own marriage was falling apart. I know my description has made this sound quite shallow, but there are a lot of things going on that make Ellen consider wandering and wondering if she married the right man.

What I like about Giffin's writing is that no character is all good or all bad. They seem like real people who struggle and don't always make the right decisions, but they deal with it and move on with life. What I didn't expect from this book was how emotional it made me since I could relate to two main themes through the book...Ellen lost her mother at a young age and her husband moved her to a new city for his job.

This quote from the book sums it up:
"Love, not as a surge of passion, but as a choice to commit to something, someone, no matter what obstacles or temptations stand in the way. And maybe making that choice, again and again, day in and day out, year after year, says more about love than never having a choice to make at all."

Monday, August 18, 2008

Music Monday - Bleeding Love

Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis has been a favorite song of mine all summer. And..it was the song for one of my favorite dances on So You Think You Can Dance.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Music Monday - Sweet Home Alabama

Sweet home Alabama...where the skies are so blue...
I heard Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd blaring on a car radio today. This song reminds me of my trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras when I was around 23 or 24 years old. We heard this song numerous times on the trip so it still to this day reminds me of Mardi Gras. For some reason I thought the weather would be warm since it was on the Gulf Coast, even though it was February, but it was about 40 degrees and raining the first night. We were wet and cold most of the time, but that didn't stop the fun.



Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Yipppeee!

We had the timed mile this morning at boot camp. We haven't done this in a while because the regular trainer has been out quite a bit, but this this week we are back to our usual routine. My last timed mile was 14 minutes and today I did 11:33! I had hoped for 12 minutes so I was really happy. I only ran part of it, so I should be able to bring that down quite a bit when I run the entire mile.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Music Monday - Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys

My mom loved Willie & Waylon and this was one of her favorite songs. See my post "A Week at a Dude Ranch" to see how my family was introduced to country music.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

A Week at a Dude Ranch

I was seven years old the last time my entire family took a vacation together. We went to a dude ranch somewhere in northern California….which is now called a “guest ranch”. The five of us packed into our wood paneled station wagon and we stopped at a motel on the way to break up the drive into two days. I remember this motel mainly because we got locked out of our room while we were at the pool. Not even the management could get in. I don’t know how we finally got it, but it took a long time. The dude ranch had lots of activities for my two older brothers (Louis was 12 and JP was 10) and me. Looking back, I am sure this made my parents happy to have a break from us. We rode horses twice a day, went on hay rides to camp fires, played softball and it all culminated in a rodeo at the end of the week. I wore jean and boots and my hair in pig tails to play the part. I was the smallest kid there that week and the first horse they gave me (Julie) was small as well. This horse would not ever go though so they put me on a new horse named Shorty. Shorty was one of the bigger horses so it was amusing to people to see the smallest kid on such a big horse. Shorty was a nice gentle horse and it was great fun riding him all week…except for the time I had to gallop without my feet in the stirrups. During the day while my brothers and I were riding horses, my dad went fishing and took pictures and my mom socialized with the other moms. Maybe they did more than this, but that is all I remember. A bell was rung when it was time for dinner and we would all head to the chuck house to eat family style. I was not much of an eater at this point in my life and meat was something I just did not like to eat. One night I was served something I did not like so I just flat out refused to eat it. My parents made me stay at the table until my plate was clean…this was back in the days of the clean plate club. All the families left and then the staff came out to eat, and I was still there. Eventually my parents let me leave because I think they were closing down, and I never ate it. My family had its first exposure to country music on this trip. My brothers and I hated it, but my parents really liked it. At the evening camp fires there were men playing guitars and singing songs. “Mama Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys” was a bit hit. After dinner most people hung out in the bar and game room. There was music, dancing, billiards tables and video games. My brother Louis was quite a hit with the girls here. There was a 16 year old girl he hung out with a lot at night, which seemed like such a scandal at the time. I also learned the hard way that people will use you to get what they want. There were two 10 year old girls that befriended me, which was nice because there were not any girls my own age at the ranch that week. It turned out that they were just using me to get to Louis. There was an awards ceremony at the end of the week where all the kids were given an award based on their week at the ranch. Mine was the “Easy Rider” award since no matter what my Shorty did, the expression on my face rarely changed (except for that one time...). JP won the “B&B Bottom” award since he had some rough rides. Louis won the grand prize for the week called the “Golden Horseshoe” award that was given to the best boy and best girl rider of the week. I have very fond memories of this trip. We were still young enough to want to be together as a family before we all hit the years where everyone is busy with activities and friends and not wanting to be with the family. On the last day, we piled back into the station wagon and listened to Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” as we drove away from the ranch on our way home.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

My Mom

My mom passed away on August 6, 1994. This Wednesday it will be 14 years. I think about her everyday, but with the anniversary coming up, I've been thinking about her all the time. So the next few days worth of posts are dedicated to her.