Thursday, March 26, 2009

For the Record

I know I've said some grumpy things about Billy in the past. When your team is losing, at some point the Porter jokes get old and you have to blame someone else, and sometimes that person is the coach. I'm disappointed that the season turned out as it did, but I still believe in Billy's excellence as a coach and that he could do great things for our program. I'm also not excited about any of his potential replacements and in the long run, I think losing Billy will be a mistake. We're on our way to being one of the top teams again, I do believe that. (Note: I ALWAYS think we're the top team in the world, regardless what polls, records and statistics say. It's just really great when the polls, records, and statistics agree with you.) I fear that changing coaches again will just be another step back and I fear that there will be a coaching change tomorrow.

Just to state for the record, I support Billy Clyde.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Drama Drama Drama

Do I have some kind of drama addiction? First, it was The Bachelor, now I'm caught up in all this UK coaching bighotmess. Here's a little diddy for those of us who miss the glory days.




In case you hadn't noticed how my indecisiveness spills over into my blog layout regularly, thoughts on the new design? Is it too bright? When I look at it on my massive work monitor I'm just kind of like Whoa!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Recent Reviews

I've seen some movies, read a book, and bought a new cell phone. Now I feel the need to share my thoughts on all this.

Rushmore was a hysterical movie! I don't always like Wes Anderson movies but this and The Royal Tenenbaums are the exception. The plays that Max put on were laugh-out-loud funny. Well, I laughed out loud, not so much at the plays themselves, but at the great theatrical detail Max put into them: the train, the explosions, the swarming helicopters. I knew that the woman playing Rosemary looked familiar and it's because she played Jane Austen in Miss Austen Regrets. Awesome.

The House Bunny was disappointing. I was hoping for something on the same quality level as Legally Blonde but it was no where near that good. Boo. Once again, I couldn't remember what else I had seen Shelley in, and turns out she was Erica on FRIENDS.

The Selected Poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay was very good. I don't always like reading poetry. I like poems individually, but sitting down and reading a whole book's worth doesn't always appeal to me, but I loved this! The rhythms and rhymes are intoxicating! Kind of like Sarah Arvio, in addition to being excellent poems content-wise, they're just so much fun to read sound-wise.

Samsung Propel is excellent. I'm still getting to use to the sliding but I like it's full QWERTY keyboard. Has a horrible ringtone selection but I can fix that.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Decorating Style Extravaganza!!

Thanks to one of my new favorite blogs, I discovered a variety of online quizzes regarding my decorating style. These quizzes are much better than the lame ones on Facebook so I encourage this as a top-notch means of procrastination.

Sproost says I'm 33% Traditional Country, 33% Nantucket Style and 34% Wine Country.

Ikea says I'm Country Antique, which breaks down to 60% Country, 40% Scandinavian and 0% Modern.

MyDeco says I'm Funky Modern. Kind of contradicts the previous two, but oh well.

I do think it's kind of funny how I like "country" styles yet I actually do not like the country at all. (Other than a weakness for ducks and the British countryside. In Britain, the country makes me think of Jane. In America, it just makes me think of ticks.) I'm a city girl, with a weakness for whicker.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Hypochondria Alert!

OMG! I'm not Asian, but I do feel like I blush when I drink. I mean, I think I do. I remember one time I was eating dinner with Lee and his family and had a glass of wine, and I don't know why this one glass bothered me more than usual, but I felt very red and hot and was feeling like I was acting very tipsy, but Lee assured me on the drive home that I did not do anything stupid or act like a total light weight.

Maybe I should read the article again. Maybe it's more like "if you're Asian AND blush when you drink" as opposed to "just blushing, but more likely if you're Asian."

I might have to have some beer tonight and have Lee watch me closely.

Dear Friends, next time I drink you with, please monitor the color of my face so we can decide if I need to seek treatment. Thanks.

You can also keep your comments to yourself about the other [mental] things I need to seek treatment for. ; )

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Good News/Bad News

Good Death penalty repealed in New Mexico! I've always somehow suspected that killing people is not a good way to deal with people who kill people. It's also cheaper to just lock them up for the rest of their lives.

Bad It was really sad to watch Liam Neeson mourn his wife in Love Actually. Even sadder, is knowing that now he's doing it in real life.

Good UK is getting closer to having someone for real be point guard next year.

Bad All of the Billy-hating. Yes it's been a crappy season, but I still heart a coach who has no life outside the court and who cries when Ramon Harris goes down in a nasty-scary fall. If Mitch Barnhart reads this (about as likely as UofL losing to Morehead tonight, but not as awesome), please let Billy have one more year to work his magic!

Good A co-worker brought me some of her chives today. My herb garden has officially started!!

Bad I love spring and summer much more than fall and winter except for one thing: bugs. I have already been reminded of this by the creepy bug carcass at the bottom of the steps to my apartment. Boo.

Good Back to basketball, after all it is March: The President and a computer agree that UofL will not win the tournament. Although I'm about equally opposed to UNC winning the tournament too. Go Pitt!!!

And for extra basketball good because clearly I've got the March Madness...

Monday, March 16, 2009

I Still Believe in Blue

It's been a pretty disappointing UK Basketball season. It does not help that my least favorite teams are all top seeds either, including the beloved team of my husband. I'm trying to move forward though and not stay too bitter. I will still cheer my boys on in the NIT and try to keep my mouth shut about my anti-UofL feelings around Lee, although we have discussed that my pick is Pitt. He said this was acceptable.

I enjoyed this morning's piece on Kentucky Sports Radio about the different kinds of UK fans. I'm probably:

B. The Birth-rite Fan

Outlook: This guy thinks that it is UK’s destiny and God-given birth-rite to dominate college basketball. The fans are the best, the arena is the best, the recruits are the best, Adolph Rupp is the best, Tom Leach is the best, and Lexington is the greatest college basketball town in the world. This person likely is lacking a real sense of reality. For instance, he probably still thinks UK will make the NCAA Tournament this year. Why? For one simple reason: because this is Kentucky. What makes this unique in Kentucky though, is that this mindset is passed on from father to son and so on and so on.

Reality: Kentucky is the greatest basketball program in history. It has been relevant for almost 70 years, with very few blips along the way. But, it wasn’t fate that brought this success. It was hard work, and a fortunate set of coaches that have graced the sidelines. UK has 7 national titles from 4 different coaches. Duke, Indiana, and UCLA have all used 2 or less coaches to win their titles, and UNC and Kansas used 3 coaches. Kentucky has also benefited from having a state that has produced some great players. Kentucky has earned their success, it wasn’t given to them.

Percentage of Fanbase: 5%

Friday, March 13, 2009

Crafty Ambitions

I recently started taking sewing lessons from my great aunt-in-law. She says that I'm doing very well and making great progress, which is what all teachers say to their students but she's also not one to sugar-coat so I have confidence that I am actually awesome. In fact, my certainty of my own awesomeness and general excitement over learning to sew has given me some pretty big ambitions for what I'll soon be able to make. Just to share, here are some anticipated upcoming projects:

dog sweaters!

adorable purse, clutch and checkbook cover

clothes I might actually wear

awesome Halloween costumes

And, the project that started it all, my Jane Austen dress!

My thoughts have also been turned to how I want to design my sewing room, you know, once we have that second bedroom.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

A Tech-Free Night

I mentioned earlier that I was doing the Fast-Pray-Give Lenten Challenge at Busted Halo. Yesterday's challenge was to give up 50% of your technology use. Considering I spend about nine hours a day at work staring at my computer, 50% was a bit much, but I avoided Facebook all day and avoided technology once I got home. It actually turned out to be pretty great evening.

I went for a run. Cooked dinner for Lee and I (English muffin mini-pizzas). We watched The Big Bang Theory, which I know is TV but it's about the only thing on TV that Lee and I enjoy together so it's really more of a bonding experience. I called a friend who I hadn't talked to in months, which again was technology, but a bonding experience and great chance to catch up and something I wouldn't have done had I not been avoiding the TV. Then I spent the rest of the night reading which is something I don't do nearly enough! I read some sewing basics from a book my mom passed on to me, read this month's Real Simple and almost finished the book of Edna St. Vincent Millay poetry I'm reading.

It was a great evening. I'm thinking I might have to have tech-free nights more often. Often it seems like people view Lent as a wretched time of miserable sacrifice (And every morning as I wait for today's challenge to open, I do hope it's an easy one, generally unrelated to food and beverage consumption.), which can sometimes be the case, but sometimes in the sacrifice new joys are found.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Feeling Old

I feel old.

First it was my neck. A couple weeks ago my neck really started to bother me. I would wake up okay, but by mid-afternoon it hurt to turn my head to the point I was miserable. I would go home and pop some Advil and spend the evening with a heat pack avoiding movement. After several days of this I went to a chiropractor and learned that it's only taken 2+ years of a desk job to make my neck/shoulders out of wack. Awesome. I knew that ultimately sitting at a desk and staring at a computer would take some toll on me physically, but I was hoping it could at least wait until my 30s. Oh well.

Today it's my left knee. I was actually really good about going running this weekend. I went Friday after work, again on Saturday morning, and last night I did some crunches and girl push-ups. I still plan on doing something after work, but I might just speed walk. My knee doesn't really bother me that much, I'm just mildly aware of it. It's something I would run through, if I were running, but it bothers me that it's been bothering me all day when I've done nothing. I'm probably over thinking it. We'll see how it goes.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Domestic Disasters and Trying to Re-Board the Wagon

Last week I decided that I would take an exciting new idea I found in the land of home blogs to try to cut down on my grocery bill: shop for the month. Plan a monthly menu and shop for that in one trip. You'll need to run in again for milk and produce of course, but get everything else. It sounded like a good idea, and I plan on trying it again, or at least maybe trying to cut it down to twice a month, but this month did not go well.

First off, if I plan dinners, I plan nice dinners. Normally in a month, despite the best ideas, I might pull out one new recipe. The rest of the time it's cheese tortellini with olive oil, parm and spices or frozen pizza. I say I'm going to plan a weekly menu, but just wind up going to the store to pick up foods for lunch and some generic spaghetti dinners. When I pull out all my cookbooks and try a new Giada recipe once a week, it's a bit more expensive. I need to find some cheaper recipes.

Secondly, that one grocery trip wass hell. I was frustrated when they were out of something (Purina One Adult Dog Lamb and Rice) because this was my "one trip." After an hour and a half, our cart was full, we were exhausted and depressed by how much was still on the list. We gave up and checked out. This lead to an additional problem of me wrongly assuming that I had everything for the lasagna I had planned to cook that evening. Who knew lasagna needed eggs? I didn't until I had already started making some special Giada sauce. We ate frozen pizza instead.

I regrouped and adjusted our menu for the rest of the month with what I had managed to buy. I'll try again for next month, but maybe just shopping for two weeks at a time.

So on a slightly different topic but I'm actually going to tie it all together today (Gasp!), I've fallen off the exercise wagon. I fell off several weeks ago. I'm hoping that the longer days and warmer weather will help, and I'm trying to devise a new workout plan. I'm also trying to remind myself that it's better to do something than nothing, because I often wimp out because I know I don't have a full 30 minutes or I think this is the only day I'll have time this week so why bother. I need to start bothering. Maybe I need to try to find a 5K or something so I have a goal. I'll look into that. But yesterday, as I was eating Doritos (I try to eat healthy more often than not but I can never give up my bad food! I rely on exercise because dieting kills my soul.) I had an idea. What if I bought junk food for the month and that's it! This would be a way to curb excessive junk food eating, perhaps, by buying so much and then having to spread it out over the month. So I can have a monthly bag of Doritos, but if I eat it all in the first week, then it's gone and I can't get anymore. I don't really eat that much junk food, Girl Scout cookies excluded which is really more of a special season that one must savor while it lasts, but this might be a good way to keep from overdoing it.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Atleast Two of You Care

How am I doing today? Well, I'm not going to lie, it's been tough. I might have sat alone in the dark and cried a little last night. There might be a rant coming soon. I'll make it brief. So some say the problem is that UK isn't aggressive enough, the players aren't "competitive" enough, well WHO THE HELL COMES TO PLAY AT UK THAT ISN'T COMPETITIVE??!?!??!?!?!?!??!?! WE ARE THE FREAKING GREATEST COLLEGE BASKETBALL PROGRAM EVER!!!!!!!!!! YOU'RE IN IT TO WIN IT OR GO HOME!!!!!!!!! DO THEY REALIZE WHAT JERSEY THEY'RE WEARING?!?!??!?! DO THEY REALIZE THAT THEY GET TO CALL THE MOST SACRED PLACE IN AMERICAN SPORTS "HOME"??!?!?!?!?! DO THEY KNOW THAT WE GET TEARS IN OUR EYES JUST SITTING IN RUPP AND LOOKING AT OUR SEVEN BEAUTIFUL BANNERS?!?!?!??!?!?!? DO THEY EVEN CARE?!?!??!?!?!?!?!??

Moving on to things less depressing...

I have friends (approximately two of them) who like my Bachelor updates! It saves them the trouble of being quite so absorbed by the crazy while still being in the know. So if you go to Ellen's website you can see a clip from her interview with Melissa today where Melissa kind of confirms what I said yesterday, and what others have been saying all along. Melissa said that Jason started pulling away shortly after the finale, perhaps because she wasn't his first choice? Apparently, they broke up shortly after and so she knew that they weren't together when going to the After the Rose but she kept asking Jason if she was going to get blindsided by anything and he said no. She had also repeatedly asked him if he had talked to Molly because she had that feeling you get when your significant other might be cheating on you, and he said no. Although Melissa knows he contacted Molly once to "check up on her." Also, Melissa said that the e-mails that have been going around, that I linked to the other day are real. Hmm...very interesting! Jason and Molly are going to be on Ellen tomorrow so I'm looking forward to that.

I'm feeling very high-tech because I'm going to get my hair trimmed tonight and instead of printing out pictures I sent them to my phone via bluetooth. I don't know why but that makes me feel cool. Hopefully the new 'do will make me feel cool too!

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Here We Go Again!

I've mentioned before that I've been quite a fan of The Bachelor this season and gotten caught up in all the spoilers, mostly reading Reality Steve and observing the crazies on the show's official discussion board. Last weekish Reality Steve announced all the information he had from his sources and I believe him. I think. I hope there's more and to it and I hope maybe he's twisting it just a little the wrong way. Despite what I knew I watched the finale and train wreck After the Final Rose(s). I know it's a reality show and I know I should keep my expectations for human decency low, and I feel like a naive idiot when I say this, but I'm disappointed.

Everything Reality Steve has said that we would be shown was correct. Jason picks Melissa. Breaks up with her for Molly. Molly and Jason happy. Chris gives them the tent. Jill's the next Bachelorette. All of this I can understand. I can sympathize with everyone involved in this. What a bittersweet ending. I'm glad Jason found a nice girl and even though she wasn't my first pick, Molly's seems like a great person.

According to Reality Steve though, there's more to the story than that. It will never be "official," but he has it on good authority from people who wouldn't lie to him and why would he lie to us. (I feel the need to reiterate that when I read my own words I do realize how ridiculously caught up in this I am and how lame it all really is.) He's been blogging about reality shows for seven years. Mostly just recaps and jokes about the season. Why should he start publishing lies now and not just continue on comparing the breasts of the contestants and making fun of the criers? So I'm going to guess that he's right when he says that Jason wanted Molly from about half-way through the taping. ABC wanted a good story so they told him to pick Melissa (who was his #2) and then dump her. Just Jason and the producers knew about this when the finale was taped. Apparently Molly was notified shortly after filming wrapped not to hate Jason too much because he wanted to be with her. Melissa was pretty much left in the dark about this whole thing until she was dumped on national TV. There have also been some e-mails released that someone hacked from Melissa and Jason's accounts that suggest that Melissa knew nothing, or close to nothing. I mean, she knew he was talking to Molly (which he keeps denying) and that their relationship wasn't going great, but was not expecting to be dumped.

I like to think that the producers somehow forced Jason to do this, although I don't know how they could have. Apparently he does get paid for the show, maybe they threw in a douche-bag-bonus to secure Ty's college fund? Clearly if you go on a reality dating show (twice!) you probably have some issues, I mean Mother Theresa wouldn't have chosen this path, but I liked to think that he was a generally decent person. And I would hope that ABC wouldn't stoop so low for ratings. I feel like that's all really naive to say, but did they have to make him dump Melissa on TV? Couldn't they have just announced it at the start of the show and brought them on to talk about it? They could have had Melissa and Molly talk it out! That could've been...amusing? But to make Melissa the fool in all this?

On the other hand, I guess the contestants know what they're setting themselves them up for. Molly got her heart broken on national TV so why should Melissa be spared? I know they do lots of "clever" editing to create characters and a story, I know it's not really really real, but I would hope that they wouldn't be that shady with how it ended this season.

And Jill's going to be The Bachelorette. And I'll probably watch. It's the summer anyway, when nothing else is on TV. And Reality Steve already has some exciting tidbits on it and it doesn't start filming for another two weeks! Here we go again!

By the way, Jason's most recent Jimmy Kimmel interview was priceless!