Tiger Watch

How can I not comment on Tiger Woods??? I don't find all his cheating unbelievable, but what does puzzle me is how it was kept secret for so long! These days with the internet, gossip blogs, paparazzi, text messaging, email and camera phones, how did this not come out sooner??? I feel badly for his wife and I'm really hoping she leaves him to show that men with power and money cannot buy whatever they want. I'm tired of hearing about rich powerful men cheating and their wives staying. Clearly there is something wrong with Tiger's marriage. At least he hasn't paraded her in front of the media a la Kobe Bryant when his wife sat next to him at a press conference regarding him being accused of rape. My prediction is that Tiger is going to announce he has some kind of addiction...sex, prescription pain pills, or alcohol and then go to "rehab" to try to save his image. My bet is on sex addiction. The other thing about infidelity that I don't understand is why the wife gets mad at the other women? These other women, although not the classiest of ladies, owe nothing to Mrs. Woods. It is her husband she should take it out on...and clearly she did just that on Thanksgiving.

Thursday Thirteen - Holiday Songs

Here are some of my favorite holiday songs. I have also included a link for each on YouTube in case you want to listen to any of them. What are your favorite holiday songs?

1. A Great Big Sled - The Killers

2. Christmas Wrapping - The Waitresses

3. Mele Kalikimaka - Jimmy Buffet

4. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - U2

5. Last Christmas - Wham!

6. Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonite) - The Ramones

7. All I Want for Christmas is You - Mariah Carey

8. Christmas in Hollis - Run DMC

9. The Chanukah Song - Adam Sandler

10. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer - The Temptations

11. Christmas Don't Be Late - The Chipmunks

12. Feliz Navidad - Jose Feliciano

13. Tie between the Jingle Dogs and the Jingle Cats

Wordless Wednesday - Ditto

Glitterbug Ballerina

Anyone looking for a holiday present for the little girl in their life should check out Glitterbug Ballerina who makes custom tutus, t-shirts, leotards and accessories. I got entire outfits for my nieces last year and they loved them! Friends of mine own and operate Glitterbug and I can tell you that the tulle is extremely soft and high quality. Adult sizes are available too. They are located in the Northern Virginia area, but can also ship all over the US.

Here are a couple examples and there are many others to choose from as well.

Surprise!

Not one of my kitties...but so cute I had to post.

Gut Check

Have you ever thought you really wanted some kind of big change...then when it becomes a real possibility, you're not sure??? I'm going thru something like that now. I've had a range of emotions over the last two days from excited to nervous to just plain unsure about what I want. One thing I've learned in life is to trust my gut, so that's what I'm going to do once I know if it is really a possibility or not.

Maybe Next Year

I've decided not to write a holiday letter this year. Given the year I have had, I didn't want to write about it and also didn't want to lie and pretend it was a fabulous year. I did get out my cards though and I think they are really nice so I'm happy about that. Maybe next year will be better and I'll have happier news to write about. I have been feeling relatively good the last couple days so I'm hopeful.

The Real Recession of Orange County

The Real Housewives of Orange County are back for another season. The recession has hit Orange County and the housewives have not been immune. My last trip to out there was this past June and I could definitely feel it there...mostly from the large vacant stores and empty car dealerships.

Tamara's house is currently on the market as a short sale. She fired a nanny and maid and now is seen cleaning her own house (the horror!). She made statement about how they should have saved money. Uh, yeah...and tell your husband to go back to work and give up his tequila business.

Jeana received notices of default on all four of her properties, but was able to modify the loans to avoid foreclosure. I wonder if she went into default to qualify for a program though or if she was really in trouble? She even asked Vicki for a loan...and Vicki said no.

Gretchen had a garage sale with Slade (ugh...Slade), who gossip blogs say owes close to $80K in back child support for his son...who has a brain tumor! Slade lost his house to a foreclosure last year. Rumor has it that Jeff left Gretchen about $1.5M...don't know if it's true or not. She is only 31 years old though and $1.5M isn't going to last her forever.

Lynne cannot even afford her house rental which her family was evicted from, but she is shown getting a face lift for herself and a nose job for her daughter. Nice priorities!

They do get paid a decent amount of money for doing the show...rumored to be around $30K per episode, but clearly they either need more income or need to downsize their lifestyles. Vicki excluded for now since she works hard and is still able to finance her lifestyle.

Unhappy Anniversary

One year ago today my life changed. I was in a seemingly minor car accident...and have been in pain ever since. It's been a year of frustration and many many medical appointments. I have written about this a little bit, but I mostly hide my pain. I try to suck it up when I'm around other people and only my husband really sees me suffer. I had been doing quite a bit better but took an unexpected turn for the worse last week...but nobody around me will really know it. I know there are things in life a lot worse than this so I try to keep positive.

No Smoking

Smoking is no longer allowed in restaurants in Virginia! There are a few exceptions, such as it is allowed in outdoor areas or if there is a separate room entirely enclosed with a separate ventilation system, but I doubt many restaurants will go to the expense to allow this. What about bars you ask??? Virginia does not have any stand alone bars! This is all quite shocking to me given Virginia's history in the tobacco industry. I was in college when California enacted the same ban so to move here and have smokers in restaurants was quite disgusting to me. Only a few that I go to actually allow smoking at all, but it really does drift throughout the restaurant. I'm all for people doing whatever they want as long as it doesn't hurt other people...but smoking in public DOES hurt other people, so just do it by yourself or only around other smokers. Thank you.