My Monday Night Routine

I almost forgot that I had to blog about my night of TV watching! (I did laundry too, but I figured posting about that might get a little creepy and weird, so we'll go with a star studded night of TV!) I did NOT have the time to put the pictures of the weekend on my computer. I wanted to get through The Benchwarmers before Dancing with the Stars came on. In brief, it was silly and stupid, but it had its laugh out loud funny moments. Nice thing is, it was only an hour and 20 minutes long. Sometimes you need a movie without a huge time commitment! Now, let’s get down to business:

Two perfect 30’s of the night, leaving Laila and Maks tied with Kym and Joey at the top of the leader board with 59. Both couples had stellar performances, and I was pretty impressed considering they had to learn two dances instead of just one. The middle group is Apolo and Julianne (who I think got unjustifiably reamed for their Fox Trot) and Ian and Cheryl. Ian FINALLY showed a little passion and less stiffness, which bodes well for him for the rest of the competition. As expected, the bottom two are Billy Ray and Karina and John and Edyta. Edyta has to have the most beautiful body I’ve ever seen, but she was looking really hippy in the dresses she wore last night. So weird.. My prediction (or hope I should say) is that Billy Ray will finally bite the bullet. Either way, it’s going to be another week or so before the competition really heats up between Laila, Apolo, Ian and Joey. I can’t say for sure who I really want to win because all four of them are amazing… but I might have to go with Apolo or Laila.. It’d be nice to see the final girl standing give all the boys a run for their money.

I don’t know what happened, but my f’n DVR cut out before I could see the very end of Heroes and what happens next week. I was LIVID to say the least. Still, it was a great episode heading five years into the future. Things have changed considerably after the apocalyptic blast and many of our favorite heroes aren’t in the picture anymore. Niki/Jessica is now with Peter in Las Vegas, where I admit, he looks kind of sexy with the slicked back hair and scar! Parkman’s a bad guy and Nathan Petrelli is the President. Well, not really.. it’s Sylar posing as Nathan Petrelli and the episode ends with what looks to be an epic battle between Sylar and Peter after Sylar kills Future Hiro, perhaps erasing any hope Hiro and Ando had of going back in time to kill Sylar. Claire was also alive, but Sylar tricks her with his Nathan Petrelli façade and slices her head from behind. There are LOTS of questions to be answered but I liked the episode. Granted, none of those things will probably happen, as there will be so many chances to change fate, but we’ll have to wait and see what they are.

In other TV news, Rescue Me returns to FX on June 12th and My Life on the D-List is back on Bravo on June 5th. The third season of Rescue Me should be out on DVD in June, which would really help me to get back on track. I didn’t have DVR last summer so I missed some episodes.

Finally, this story is kind of unreal. As many of you may know I am not a fan of My Space, but this is just a tad ridiculous, even for me!

Happy May Day!!!!

How the Mighty Have Fallen...

Ok, it might be a bit much to call the O’s “the mighty” but for a while there, they sure were acting like it. Last night was just another one of those games where the pitching wasn’t there. Cabrera threw over 100 pitches and was lacking in control, at one point pegging Gary Sheffield in the back. The benches cleared when Jeremy Bonderman supposedly threw at Miguel Tejada in response to Cabrera’s plunking of Sheffield but it wasn’t necessary. Apparently you don’t want to piss Sheffield off because he retaliated on his own with a 2 run home run, as Cabrera stealthily stared him down on his trot around the bases. Shit’s getting ugly for the O’s, but at least we’re not the Yankees. (Thanks to www.orioles.com for the picture)

The weekend is never long enough...

I haven’t had a chance to do my pictures from this weekend yet… maybe tonight between my busy Dancing with the Stars and Heroes watching schedule. In brief: my rugby reunion was good fun, although I’m glad I only went for a night. I think I’m getting too old for this. It’s getting to the point where the new players are half my age and that just freaks me out. It’s nice to see the few people I don’t see on a regular basis (and still want to see) but other than that, it doesn’t do much for me. That, and the weather usually sucks! If it were nice out, I probably wouldn’t mind sitting outside watching rugby all day. However, it’s almost always chilly and rainy. This year wasn’t bad for the hour or so I was there, but you get my point. I guess we all grow up at some point but like I said, I did have a great time and got some entertaining pictures for sure! Dinner was a bit of a clusterfuck, as we had reservations (which kept growing to more people as the evening went on) but the guys thought it would be OK to just pull up a table and sit with us. I really didn't care, until a few were beligerent and rude to the waitress. They're lucky I was already well into my sixth beer by the time this happened, or it would have been pretty for no one. I didn't end up having to see my friend's baby till the next day and it was on my way out of town, so I only had to do the obligatory "oh your baby's so cute" for a minute or so. I didn't have to lie though.. the baby really was adorable.... and he wasn't in a bar!!!

The bridal shower in Utica was.. well.. interesting. My friend (the groom)’s mom met us at the door wearing her sweater and underwear. Yep, that’s it. I’ve met her once briefly and apparently that was enough for her to not feel like she had to wear pants around me. Anyway, we stayed at her house for dinner (she had enough food for an army and it was tasty) and she told us story after story. Real nice lady, but a bit of an attention whore. Let’s put it this way… she means well! I also met my friend (the bride)’s mother, who is pretty normal and very nice. She was very helpful with the shower and it looked like everyone had a good time. The shower was brief, so Tre and I were able to get on the road by 2:00 to get home, but not after a bit of a debacle with the payment of the bill. The groom’s sister said she spent $270 on favors for the shower. The favors were bath salts in a plastic condiment container with a lid, wrapped up in a ribbon with a butterfly keychain attached. Does that sound like $270 to you? Yeah.. me either. I’m not saying she didn’t spend it, but if she did she got a REALLY raw deal! Anyway, when we figured out the shower would cost each bridesmaid $120, she asked my sister if she was included in that, to which Tre replied “YEAH.” She was under the impression that since she had already spent the money on the favors, that was enough. Tre had spent $100 on the invites, but she still ponied up her share! The groom’s sister did give us the money for her daughter and some extra, but she really didn’t pay her fair share, which pissed me off. I was proud of Tre cause she usually wouldn’t say anything, but she really spoke up about it. The only reason she let her get away with it was because she didn’t want to cause any drama. The sister is cut right out of the mother’s ass and drama is all that would come from it so we’re trying to avoid that. Again, she’s a nice girl, but that put a bad taste in my mouth. I was very happy to head home and sleep in my own bed. J. and I watched 28 Days Later (I knew the sequel was coming out, so I wanted to watch it beforehand). I found it to be an interesting movie. Granted, it’s pretty much the same concept as most other zombie movies, but something about it caught my attention. Parts of it actually reminded me of the Stephen King book “Cell.” After that, we watched Sopranos and Entourage and passed out cold. I usually wake up a few times a night but the first time I woke up was just minutes before his alarm went off. Guess we both had rough weekends!

Like I said, I’ll try to post some pictures later on tonight, although the nice weather might not allow me to stay inside! And for all you singles, there’s still hope (as long as your significant other isn't an only child). Happy Monday!

Heids Hot Dogs

On the way home from my closing in Rochester on Wednesday, I had the pleasure of eating at Heid’s Hot Dogs. It’s this cute hot dog stand/restaurant in Liverpool, New York and it had some of the best dogs I’ve ever had. I had two “coneys,” one white and one red (I liked the red better; the white was a tad too spicy for my taste) and some French fries with cheese and gravy. After such a long day it really hit the spot and if you’re ever in the area, I highly recommend!

Snippets to end your day (well, MY day) since I leave in a few:
Lou Knickerbocker (ex-husband of Tammy, one of the Real Housewives of Orange County) died of a heart attack on Tuesday. He was best known on the show for touting the "OC Angels" energy drink.

Rapper/actress Eve was pinched for DWI after crashing her maserati into the median in Cali. Sean Penn stopped down to try to bust her out, but she declined the offer. There has got to be more of a story there, don't you agree?

In case you're wondering, apparently these are the 100 greatest movie lines of all time. Well, the second edition!

Enjoy your weekend and I'll catch up with you soon.

Soapbox of Insensitivity

This afternoon I leave for my annual college rugby reunion. I’m pretty notorious for planning such things, so I sent out an email earlier this week to some of the girls, trying to get 10 of us together to have dinner at one of the local restaurants, as the magic number is 10 for getting a reservation. So, one of my friends called me Tuesday night to let me know she was in AND to let me know that one of our male friends was coming, with another friend and his wife. Well, she wasn’t really letting me know.. no one was. He just said “yeah, I’ll be at the restaurant for dinner.” Nowhere in that sentence does it say he plans on having dinner with us, nor was he technically invited! No one even knows how he knew about dinner, but whatever. Anyway, come to find out, the “friend” he was bringing is his son, who’s about six months old. Did I know he had a son? Nope… so what I’m saying is, why do I want to spend my dinner fawning over a kid I didn’t know existed, when I could be drinking beers and catching up with my girlfriends that I haven’t seen in a while? Well, this probably started World War III and we’ll find out tonight. I was just really irked by the situation. Not because I don’t like kids and I’m not happy for him… I am.. but the next day is when all the games are played, so why can’t he bring the kid to the games where he’ll get to show the kid off, instead of bringing his baby… to a bar? I don’t know. Maybe it’s insensitive of me, but I don’t want to spend my dinner with the sound of a six month old bawling it’s brains out while I’m trying to have a good time and conversation. Another friend of mine has two kids and I’m sure she’ll enjoy having some time away, instead of listening to someone else’s child at dinner. This is the only time I have to catch up with the girls and I’m just a little peeved by the fact that he thinks he can crash the party, if that’s even the case.. We really don’t know the details so maybe I’m jumping to conclusions. However, I did make the reservations for 10 people and that’s all that I expect to come to dinner. I don’t care if he brings the baby over and visits, but dinner is not on the menu.. at least not with our crew. I really hate it when a plan doesn’t come to fruition, can you tell? My friend Eryn understood where I was coming from, which was nice, but then she spent the day after I told her the situation basically patronizing me about it. I really think I’m getting too old for this shit. Pictures and details to come, as I somehow managed to fit my camera and way too many clothes in my overnight bag.

Sorry kids

I'm juggling a lot of things today and haven't had an opportunity to post a damn thing. Like I said, I apologize, but such is life! Anyway, I got home later than anticipated last night but before I drifted off to sleep I was able to watch enough of Shear Genius to know what was going on. To keep me awake that long, I stumbled upon Cheerleader U.

I don't think I need to say anything more... Crack.. it's like crack.. right there on TV for everyone to consume!!!

Someone has to lose...

The O’s dropped a heartbreaker last night, setting the stage for another come behind win, but to no avail. Brian Roberts hit a homer (his first, if I’m not mistaken) but Miguel Tejada swung at the first pitch with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth to end the game. There was questionable batting and baserunning and the O’s couldn’t pull in together in the end, losing by one run and effectively ending their winning streak. The O’s face the A’s again today at 3:05 (if anyone knows of somewhere online I can stream the game, let me know) with Jeremy Guthrie switching from the bullpen to take over for Jaret Wright, facing Dallas Braden in his first major league start. This could get ugly (hopefully for the A’s).

Dancing with the Stars was simply en fuego last night! I don’t really have the time to give the play by play so I’ll do some bullet points:

Joey and Kym started off the night with a stellar performance and great scores. They are definitely one of the teams to beat. I think John Ratzenberger got a bad rap! He did pretty well during his dance and the judges ripped him a new one. He might be in the bottom two, but I hope he doesn’t go home. I do hope that Heather Mills goes home. Don’t get me wrong, I was on Team Heather from the get-go, but now I’m just bored. She’s really done nothing for me, much like Ian Ziering. He has tons of talent, but doesn’t really know how to use it. If Apolo and Julianne DON’T win this year, I’ll be shocked. He is amazing, especially considering the limited practice time he had in the beginning and the fact that he’s never really danced before! They are such a cute pair and if he were on tour, I would go see him in a heartbeat. Oh, Billy Ray. What can I say? He puts his all into it and has a phenomenal fan base. He and his partner know he can’t dance, so they do what’s best for him. It’s a strategy that will probably keep him around for at least another couple of weeks. I’m still laughing that Laila raised her hand when the choreographer of the swing number asked who the strongest guy was. She’s right.. she threw Apolo around like he was a rag doll! She’ll probably be the only lady left after this week, and she deserves it. She really held her own practicing with all the professionals and I love her attitude. We’ll see who gets booted on tonight’s results show. Hopefully Samantha Harris doesn’t screw that up too..

Heroes has triumphantly returned to my Monday night lineup (although I admit I started watching it after Dancing with the Stars.. Thank GOD for DVR)! Last night was a pretty decent episode. It looked like Peter was going to die at the hands of Sylar, but Claire was there to bring him back to life by pulling a shard of glass from his head, much like she came back to life in an earlier episode. Nathan is trying to send her to Paris until after the election with her grandmother (who also has a power that has not been revealed as of yet) for her safety and his reputation. Isaac has met his demise thanks to Sylar, who has acquired his painting ability, although in a much scarier and sadistic brush strokes. Hiro and Ando are still in the future, trying to figure out how to stop the world from nuclear annihilation, where they run into Future Hiro, who’s none too pleased to see them. Linderman seems to have this idea that the nuclear fallout will bring a safer world, and he’s recruited Micah to help him. Niki/Jessica said no, but Candice took her form and willingly gave him up to Linderman. I watched the whole episode but I’m still unsure of what Linderman’s exact power would be. (Ok.. I’ve read a couple other sites and apparently he can revive the dead… which we learned when he bought some flowers back to life… Apparently my observations skills weren’t so keen last night) Next week’s episode catapults us five years into the future, and looks to be plenty interesting. Heroes.. how I’ve missed you!

I won’t be able to post tomorrow, as I’m headed to Rochester for that closing for work. I wasn’t going to stay at J’s so I wouldn’t wake up his roommate, but the thought of sleeping in an extra half hour definitely made me change my mind. Now I have to get up around 5, instead of 4:30. I know it’s only a half hour but at that time of the morning, it’s a HUGE thing! So.. I’m meeting the attorney in Fonda at 7 am and we’ll be on our way. It’s going to be a very long day and it means crazy overtime for me, although I’ll probably try to cut out early on Friday if I can. So, have a happy hump day and try to deal without me. You’ll have to get your news from elsewhere and I apologize in advance!

Who needs a broom?

The Orioles spent the weekend kicking some major ass by sweeping the Toronto Blue Jays. The team has really come together, pairing stellar defensive plays (like that of Corey Patterson) with offensive punch (thanks for that gamewinning hit Mr. Markakis and to Orioles.com for the picture). The O’s have a tough couple of games coming up, facing the Oakland Athletics tonight and tomorrow, then Boston comes to town for two games on Wednesday. After that, I believe we’re looking at Cleveland. Hopefully the Orioles can continue on their tear and the pitching can be up to par, which come one, isn’t that all and Oriole fan can ask for?

This is a teaser/preview for this week’s episode of The Office. I can’t say much else, as I’m too busy laughing my ass off to bother. I love John Krasinski, and I really hope those rumors about him and Renee Zellweger aren’t true. There’s something about her that makes me think she’s undeserving of his love.

My armpits smell like a tropical island

I guess it could be worse. However, every time I move, all I smell is suntan lotion. I got this new Suave Naturals deodorant and when they say it smells tropical, they aren’t kidding! It’s going to take some getting used to.

What’s also going to take some getting used to is the ridiculously red color of my arms. Yesterday my sister, mother and I went up to SUNY Albany to watch the softball team play the University of Hartford. My sister is friends with the coach and she used to coach one of their players. It was a really great game and I didn’t realize how much sun I was getting! Well, my arms are a bright shade of red and it’s so nice out today, I couldn’t NOT wear long sleeves so everyone has been doing the whole “got a little sun, did ya?” thing.. It’s only slightly irritating. After the game, we went to TGI Fridays for lunch. We had these cinnadunkers for dessert.. Oh my god.. so good! They are little doughnuts coated with cinnamon and sugar and served with a cream cheese dipping sauce. I highly recommend!!!

Other than that, the weekend was pretty mellow. I took every opportunity I could to get outside and enjoy the weather by going to my sister’s softball game, an outdoor family party and I even took a walk/run! Granted, I didn’t make it that far cause I’m insanely out of shape, but luckily my sister was at the bagel shop and she drove me home! Baby steps people.. baby steps..

I finally managed to send out my Ireland pictures, so hopefully everyone that’s been up my ass will stop bugging me! I have to stop giving myself this reputation for getting things done instantaneously. I mean.. it only took me a week!!!

Not too much going on today. The Alec Baldwin tirade on his daughter is still top news and it looks like it will continue to be. Who’dve thunk you could get bad press for calling your 11 year old daughter a pig. Silly Alec!!! I really thought Tony was going to kill Paulie last night on The Sopranos and it still might happen if he doesn’t keep his trap shut. It was pretty much a given that Doc was not meant for this world. No one steals Phil’s food, even if he asked. Was it just me or was Entourage ridiculously short last night? It was a good episode, even if we all saw it coming, but I really thought it ended prematurely!

In TV news… it’s finally here. Heroes returns tonight!!! I can’t wait. Dancing with the Stars AND Heroes? I’ll never leave the house on Mondays ever again!!! Two dances for the stars on tonight’s show… I predict a few crashes on the dance floor and I can’t wait to see it!

Get out there and enjoy what nice weather we have left cause it’s all downhill from here.

Ireland Synopsis - Part I

Oh yeah.. it's a crazy Saturday night here in the HUD, so I figured I would give you the lowdown on the Ireland trip.. at least a little bit of it.

Saturday April 7th - I think we arrived around 8 am... Arklow is about 45 minutes from Dublin so by the time we got our bags and got out of the airport, we were back at Rachael's by around 10. She cooked us a traditional Irish breakfast which included eggs, toast, rashers (bacon, just thicker than ours) black and white pudding (grainy and pretty disugsting) and I can't remember what else it entailed. Anyway, we were starving so we ate up and then basically went to bed, as we hadn't slept on the plane over. I slept for a solid 6 hours (and was called Dracula because of it) and then it was time to hit the time for our first night out in Ireland. It was actually quite mellow, as everyone was saving themselves for Monday's bank holiday. We still managed to have a good time, and stay up until 4 am.

Sunday April 8th - We slept till noonish, but it still wasn't enough! We stopped off at Avoca Handweavers, which was a great touristy place to go. We'll hit it later for some souvenirs. After that, we headed to Glendalough, where there were some castle remnants, lots of great scenery and the first of many long walks. We spent most of our day there and when we got home, it was time to shower and hit the bars again! We made a few new friends and had a great time, although I was more than ready to go to sleep while the Irish guys all partied in the next room.

Monday April 9th - We got up around 9 to make the trek to the Waterford Crystal factory, where we got a guided tour and plenty of time to rummage through the store. I ended up getting a few gifts there, and also plenty of souvenirs. After that we drove another hour and a half (if not more) to Blarney, where they have Blarney Woolen Mills (three floors of traditional Irish souvenirs) and the Blarney Stone. When we looked it up online it said the Stone closed at sundown, which is about 8:00, so we went to the Woolen Mills first. We were in there for quite some time but around 5:00 Rachael and Crystal started trying on sweaters. I couldn't find one that was worth the price for me that I thought I'd get a lot of wear out of, so I passed. Anyway, the girls FINALLY settled on their sweaters and after throwing our stuff in the car, we walked over to the Blarney Stone... as the gate was coming down. We literally missed it by 3 minutes and they were NOT letting us through, no matter what we did. We went to dinner to eat our sorrows away, then hit the road for home. We considered going out when we got home, but luckily everyone realized putting on their jammies and chilling out was a much better idea.

There's the first few days. When I have some more time I'll post about the rest, including a trip to London and a final night on the town. Hope you had a great weekend and got outside to enjoy the gorgeous weather!

Nothing is ever there as long as you need it to be..

The movie theater is pissing me off. Ok.. it’s not really the movie theater’s fault.. my flooded basement is to blame. Tuesday night, J. and I had a date night of sorts, where we were supposed to go to dinner and a movie, all my choice, down by my house. Well, since the basement flooded, we had to do it at his house and we didn’t get to see anything I wanted to see (my initial choice was 300, as I feel it’s one of those movies you HAVE to see in a theater). No big deal at the time. Well, I checked movie times today and not only is 300 no longer playing near me but neither is Grindhouse! I was thinking of going to see it on Sunday afternoon, but now the closest place I can find is Spectrum Theater in Albany. I LOVE the Spectrum, as they use real butter on their popcorn, but do I really want to drive 45 minutes to go to a movie… alone? (Everyone I know has decided they hate Quentin Tarantino so they won’t go see it with me). 300 IS playing at the drive in, but it’s late, so tonight is really the only night I would be able to persuade J. to go, but I have a feeling he plans to get his drink on this evening, much to my chagrin. I really can’t be upset about it. He literally has one night to go out boozing, as he doesn’t drink the night before he works, but Friday is supposed to be date night and with my crazy schedule next week I doubt I’ll see him at all. I subtly hinted to that fact last night, but I don’t know if it got through his sleep deprived skull.

Last night, Sue and I determined the most embarrassing songs on my Ipod. Well, Sue decided what they were… I’m not really all that ashamed of any of them. They all had their day in the sun:

Eddie Murphy: Party All the Time (holy guilty pleasure.. I love this song)
Gerardo: Rico Suave
Sisqo: Thong Song
Color Me Badd: I Wanna Sex You Up

Ok.. I’m slightly embarrassed by Gerardo and I feel dirty whenever Sisqo comes on, but it does make me groove in my office chair, and sometimes that’s completely necessary!

Sandra sent me this today, and it has completely changed my outlook on fruit consumption.

It’s Cabrera v. Burnett tonight at Camden Yards, as the O’s begin a three game set against the Blue Jays. Both teams have identical records, as do their starting pitchers so it’d be nice win a few games and gain some ground, as the Yanks and Red Sox play each other tonight as well.

Stop reading and get outside and enjoy the weather! It’s gorgeous out, and it looks to only be lasting a few days, so take full advantage. Have a great weekend and TGIF!!!

Everyone needs a day off..

It’s an off day for the O’s, but they went into it with a win against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The O’s defeated the Rays 6-4 last night behind a 3-4 performance from Miguel Tejada and a home run from Nick Markakis, both of whom are on the All Star ballot. Do they always do it this early? I mean.. they haven’t even given the guys time enough to do anything during the season and they’re already picking and choosing for the All Star game? It just seems early to me, but anyway, Erik Bedard pitched six innings, but threw 110 pitches in that time, his first start with Castillo. Let’s hope they can keep that pitch count down in the future! Then again, it wasn’t as bad as Rays pitcher Kazmir, who threw 102 pitches in just 4 innings. Yep, these are our aces!

In case you didn’t know, April is Grilled Cheese Month. How do you expect a girl to lose weight when you put Corn Dog Day and Grilled Cheese month so close together? It’s just wrong, I say… Wrong.. Speaking of losing weight, I managed to coerce J. into getting me the money order I so desperately need in order to get my Winsor Pilates DVD’s. I didn’t really have to coerce him as he was going to the bank regardless, but it sounds better when it seems like I really had to work it to get him to do it. I did lie and said I couldn’t get out of the office to get it, when really I just didn’t feel like doing it myself.

As time ticks down on my tenure here at work, everyone has decided to work me to the bone. Ok, not really, but you get my drift. Case in point: next Wednesday there is a closing in Rochester that probably should have closed months ago. It’s still dragging on. Anyway, that’s also our staff appreciation day at work and we’re having a lovely luncheon and they usually get us some gifts too. I had just RSVP’d to the luncheon when the HB (that’s heinous bitch for the newbies) asked me to come see her. Come to find out, she’s no longer going to the closing…. I am, with another attorney. Honestly, I don’t care that much because I’ll make some wicked OT and I won’t be in the office, but we need to be in Rochester (and ready to go) by 10 am. That means I’d have to leave my house at the ass crack of dawn to pick up said attorney and head out to Rochester. I’ll also have to work late the night before to get all the documents situated. So yeah.. I’m thrilled.. however, I could have had to go with the HB and then I would have had to kill myself or something to that effect, so this is definitely better. Plus, I’m headed to Vermont for my rugby reunion (Scorpion Bowl) on Friday, so maybe I can manage to get out earlier than I had anticipated. Silver lining, kids.

Not much time left here today (yay) and I’m off to Sue’s for some much needed gossip before the dance class that never ends. I love to dance, but this is getting rigodamndiculous. I guess it’s just because it’s so late at night and now that it’s so nice out (well, it’s supposed to be) the last thing I want to do is be inside. I say that, but if I didn’t have class I’d probably be at the Moosehead, chowing down on wings. Then again, tonight is Adriana’s last night at the Moosehead so who knows if we’ll even go there anymore.. Oops.. sorry.. lost my train of thought. Anyway, I’ll catch you tomorrow.. I’ll try to post as much as I can but I’m trying to get out early to start my weekend as I have to bowl in a pro-am tomorrow night and I need to be there earlier than usual. Luckily, my bowling ball and shoes survived the flooded basement so all is well. Enjoy your Thursday and TGIF..

Oh, the reality of it all..

What a happy night for the fans of reality TV!!! America finally came to their senses and booted Sanjaya from American Idol AND Jael got the heave-ho from America’s Next Top Model. I’ve been waiting for them to oust her for WEEKS, but she hadn’t underperformed as much as the other girls that did leave. This week, the remaining 6 girls learn they’ll be headed to Australia to finish up their time and are given a challenge just minutes off the plane. They have to learn some Aussie slang and use it in their interviews (I've taken that trip, and you don't want to do much but eat and sleep directly off the plane. Granted, they did it straight from LA, but it still couldn't have been easy to concentrate). Dionne didn’t say anything but “that’s cool” (NOT Aussie slang) but most of the girls at least threw "Yank" (American) in there. I wish they'd used some better slang like "budgie smugglers" (that's a speedo on the men, kids) or "root" (slang for banging... NOT cheering on your favorite team). Anyway, the person that did the best job would win a commentator position on the Tyra show. Personally, I thought Renee did the best at putting different words into her interviews and she seemed at home in front of the camera. Jael was a train wreck and made no sense. Natasha did well, but her accent seems to get in the way. I’d say the same thing about Jaslene (which would make sense if she were from a different country.. but she’s not). Brittany was fine, but it didn’t seem like she tried too hard. Anyway, the girls learn they are not doing a photo shoot, but a Cover Girl commercial. However, they need to do it in an Australian accent. Yikes!!! Renee comes out first and does really well in front of the camera. She sounds like the Crocodile Hunter, but at least she tried! Dionne and Jaslene are ok.. but neither sound anything close to Australian. Jael kind of sucks (probably because she has to put together sentences.. with real words..) Natasha does well, especially considering English is her second language, but I’m not sure what kind of accent she’s doing. Then again, it can’t be easy to have a Russian accent and do an Australian one, so I’ll cut her some slack. Brittany totally lost her shit! Apparently she got hit by a car five years ago and got 8 staples in her head, which affects her short term memory. She really let it affect her and even cue cards didn’t help. She and Jael were in the bottom two and considering it was Brittany’s first trip there, you kind of knew it was time for Jael to go. And oh yeah.. Natasha actually won the commentator position on the Tyra show. Go figure.. The episode is kind of boring without a photo shoot and with Renee trying this new ‘be nice to people” thing. I really hope she gets over that. Down to five..

If you read this blog, you must know that I’m a Bravo reality show whore. Top Chef was ok… Top Design didn’t hold my interest but I have found a new love with Shear Design. It’s like crack! I have always had a love/hate (ok hate/hate) relationship with my own hair, so I adore watching other people turn something into nothing. Well, this show totally takes the cake. It’s probably the closest to Project Runway that I’ve seen and it totally works! The judges are equal parts intelligent and snarky… the contestants all think they’re the best at every aspect of hair, which totally kicks ass when they don’t utilize their talents or time to the best of their ability… and it’s only the second episode!!! If you love Project Runway, or love hair, tune in Wednesdays at 10. They’re all divalicious and need to be destroyed, one by one. What's really sad is that I was on the phone with J. last night and had Shear Genius on mute, yet he knew I was watching it. Although.. I think he called it shear queer or something.. I had to correct him.

More to come later… I have a quick O’s recap and some other things to discuss, so I hope to get to it later on today. Enjoy your Thursday!!!!

Some things are more obvious than others

Clyde “the Glide” Drexler has FINALLY been booted from Dancing with the Stars. His nickname did NOT translate into his dancing ability because he was awful. I wasn’t surprised that he left (it really was his time to go) but I was surprised to see Heather Mills in the bottom two. I don’t think she’ll go too much further, mainly because she doesn’t have the fan base and I’m sure the Beatles fans loved noting more than seeing her fall on her ass. Next week the contestants have to learn TWO dances, and they’ll be doing one of them (at least) on the floor at the same time. I can see the train wreck now. Tune in kids!!!

Last night was a well deserved “date night” for J. and I (and it was his idea, which gives him a million more brownie points). Anyway, we went out to dinner and then went to the movies. We were supposed to do this down by my house so we could see 300, but with the wet basement mishap, we had to move the location. I was ok with seeing either The Reaping or Blades of Glory. He didn’t want to see Blades of Glory (apparently he’s sick of Will Ferrell) so it was The Reaping. When we got to the theater we found out that it wasn’t playing as there was a leak in the theater. There wasn’t much left to see but he had expressed interest in seeing some movie called Pathfinder, and I relented. I didn’t know what it was about, so I plead ignorance. Anyway, it was the legend of a Viking child left on Native American territory for dead and how he grew up with the Native Americans and defeated the Vikings that came to harm them. I’ll never tell him this, but it wasn’t a terrible movie. It just isn’t MY kind of movie. The violence was pretty grotesque but the story was kind of interesting. I can’t complain.. I didn’t pay for it and I got a big tub of popcorn. I’m not going to recommend the movie either way…

I can’t find anyone to change my fucking Euros.. I went to Key Bank and Bank of America this morning and they wouldn’t do it. I know my bank doesn’t do it (or I’d be shocked to find out they did) and I REALLY don’t want to go all the way to the airport to change 20 f’n Euros. That’s ALL I have.. but it’s over $25 and that’s kind of a big deal (much like Ron Burgundy!) I also need to get a money order/cashier’s check because I won an Ebay auction for three Winsor Pilates DVD’s. A few of my friends have used them and swear that they’re the best. I really need to tone up and they have a 20 minute one I could do before work and then do cardio later. Yep, I’ve got it all figured out.. I just need a money order that i don’t have to pay $10 to get. It’s unreal!!!

I’m sure most of you have seen this, but I just saw it for the first time this morning and I laughed my ass off. It’s a good way to spend a few minutes of your hump day.

On a final note, O’s lost last night to Tampa Bay, 6-4. Steve Trachsel was the losing pitcher and was doing well, until he hit a wall in the fourth and allowed all six runs in one inning. The O’s battled back, but it wasn’t enough. They are now tied with the Yankees in the standings, behind Toronto by 1.5 games and Boston by .5. I know it’s too early to look at the standings, but I kind of like that we’re not fourth or fifth, even if it’s only thanks to the alphabet.

A train wreck at its finest

I couldn't force myself to watch more than a few minutes of the VH1 show "I Love New York" for many reasons. Being from New York, I feel she gives us gals a bad name. That, and I can't fathom why people are attracted to and go crazy for Flavor Flav (in a romantic/sexual way). However, I read this recap of the reunion episode for this show and I so wish I had watched. Granted, it'll be re-run about a million times so I'm sure I'll catch it, but if only I had seen it before reading about it. It sounds like Springer at it's finest. Get New York a subscription to Match.com and call it a day.

On a side note: I wanted to express my condolences to anyone who lost a family member or friend in the heinous shooting yesterday at Virginia Tech. I really don't watch the news so I'm not up to date on all the details, but it was the largest school shooting ever, coming almost exactly on the 8 year anniversary of the Columbine shootings. It seems no one knows why the shooter did it, or if he was the only shooter. I remember watching Columbine unfold my senior year in college and I can't even fathom what it would have been like to be that close to it. Apparently, it wasn't an important enough story to interrupt prime time programming until about 10:00 at night, when NBC was running "My Name is Earl reruns." I'm not sure what that says about our country or culture, but it can't be good! (says the girl who blogs about reality tv.. hypocrite much?)

I told you so

I know I’m pretty late with this news, but Larry Birkhead has been confirmed as the daddy of Dannielynn Hope. Take that Howard K. Stern. I don’t think anyone was really surprised (even Howard) and Larry has always seemed to take a genuine interest in the child and I think he’ll be the best person to take her out of the spotlight and treat her like a real child, not a cash cow. But we’ll see.

Keith Olbermann has been tapped to co-host Football Night In America, the pre-game show that airs at 7 pm on Sunday nights before the NFL game that NBC telecasts. He will still host “Countdown” his show that airs on MSNBC. I’m not a HUGE football fan, but I’d watch anything sports related that he hosts. The loss of him and Dan Patrick on Sportscenter was monumental and has never been the same since. I miss their snarky banter, which might explain my love for the long cancelled show “Sports Night.”(Netflix the hell out of that show. I promise you’ll laugh your ass off and see a pre-television success Peter Krause and Felicity Huffman). Anyway, welcome back Keith.. How we’ve missed you!!

The O’s are on a TEAR!! They came back from a six run deficit last night to beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 9-7. Aubrey Huff had a home run against his former team who didn’t treat him very nicely during his plate appearances. It didn’t help that he booted the ball and managed to make two errors on one play. It was looking pretty bad for the O’s but their fielding evened out and their hitting has really come into its own, much like management had anticipated. It was a great game to listen to!! And to think, they don’t even have their real “starting lineup” yet! Corey Patterson is on bereavement leave after the death of his grandmother while we have yet to see what Jay Payton and Ramon Hernandez can bring to the team. Hopefully by the end of this week they’ll be able to come back to the team and start producing. The O’s are on a four game winning streak and hopefully they can keep it going. Hell, we’re not in the standings cellar!! What more could a girl ask for?

All I can say about Dancing with the Stars is that Apolo and Juliane were simply en fuego last night (come on.. I had to give a Sportscenter nod after my Keith Olbermann love)!! They killed their samba and got the first perfect score of the season. I really like them and hope they win. It’s time for Clyde to go as he basically let Elena dance around him. I’m also pretty sick of Karina doing the same thing to Billy Ray. No, he’s not good either, but she’s just a little too full of herself for my taste. Bottom two will probably be John Ratzenberger and Clyde, but you never know. Fan bases can keep you in way longer than normal (hello Sanjaya!). I think they’re giving Heather way too much credit at this point int eh competition. She fell on her ass and they still gave her decent scores. I was a campaigner for her in the beginning, but she’s bored me lately. Laila and Max were back to their sultry selves and did really well. Joey was impressive as always and Ian managed to shake his money maker, but not into the Judge’s hearts. They think he’s become mediocre. Guess everyone needs to step it up as they’re doing two dances from now on. We’ll see who goes home tonight!

It's really official

After listening to/reading about me bitching about my job, I’ve done something about it. I gave my three weeks notice today. I’ll be working for an attorney who shall remain nameless on this blog, right next door to where I used to work in Valatie. I did my paralegal internship through her and she offered me the opportunity to work for her and be closer to home. I’m very excited about it. It’s been in the works for quite some time and only came to fruition the day I was leaving for Ireland. It was a great way to go off on my trip! Anyway, I’m extremely excited and really looking forward to this venture. I promise to be a much happier person, that’s for damn sure! I will not have as much free time to blog, so I hope you’ll take pity on me in the beginning. I’ll try to make any time that I can but since I care about this job, it won’t be at the expense of work to be done!

I’ll try to post some more later. It’s been slightly hectic here, as our basement is flooded and I need to do laundry and find my way to J’s with some clean work clothes. Monday night IS wrestling night, but I’m going to J’s anyway as I have no place to sleep that has hot water or heat. Hopefully the basement will dry up (thanks to a new sump pump and the fire department) so that NIMO (oops.. National Grid) can make sure the furnace is workable tomorrow.

Back on American Soil

Well.. I'm back. Did you miss me!? I'm still trying to recover from my trip so this is just a quickie to say hi and post a few pictures. I can't post them all (I think I took 124) but this is a step in the right direction. Stay tuned... I think it's going to be a good week..

Beautiful views... Funny street signs...
and a shrine to Cal Ripken in an Arklow, Ireland bar. What more could a girl ask for?

I think it's a very good thing I'm leaving the country tomorrow...

The O’s have started the season by getting swept by Minnesota, a very auspicious beginning for the team everyone (well… Peter Angelos) thought was greatly improved over the off season. Can’t blame Cabrera. He had a stellar outing on Wednesday. The rest of the pitching: Not so good. Jaret Wright was downright miserable and Erik Bedard pitched himself out of the game in many instances. The bullpen… the bane of my existence last year, hasn’t had too much of a chance to prove itself so we’ll reserve judgment for a few more days. The O’s head to Yankee Stadium this weekend, hence the title of this post. I hope to come home from Ireland (on Friday the 13th no less) to see the O’s have at least ONE in the win column and to see the celebration in the picture I've posted actually happen (courtesy of the O's)!!!! What can I say? Baby steps..

The Whitney Houston-Bobby Brown divorce is final, and will be considered such on April 24th. Whitney retains sole custody of their daughter, Bobbi Kristina and wept openly as the decision was read. She’s going to miss the man who burst her dookie bubble. That’s sweet. Bob Clark, the director of “A Christmas Story” and the “Porky’s” movies died yesterday in a car crash. His 22 year old son also died, both a victim of a drunk driver.

I didn’t get to watch the episode in full, but Sarah was booted from America’s Next Top Model. She and Whitney (again) were in the bottom two and the plus-size model was given a second chance. Sarah, a 20 year old photographer, was probably best known for being a bit of a “know-it-all” in the house. I didn’t see this week’s pictures, but she really must have bit the big one. She was one of my favorites so I was disappointed to see her go. 8 girls remain… you know how it goes.

Your final two in Top Design are Matt and Carisa. Um.. what? I don’t think ANYONE saw that coming! I see Carisa as the Marcel of Top Design, therefore I don’t know whether to root for her or for good guy Matt. Then again, I like Matt as a person a ton more than I liked Ilan so I guess I would root for him. He’s been steady throughout the whole competition and seems like a decent guy.

To celebrate that I’m going on vacation after 4:30 this evening and won’t have to set foot into my office for over a week, let’s check out the email I received today, and my responses to it, shall we? (My initial email was to ask about something I was supposed to do and whether she needed one set or two sets of them): So I'm doing separate ones for each.. one for the 147f and one for the 859a? So there will be two public hearing notices for each (one for the renovation and one for the construction)?

This was her response: Did you look at what I gave you? All of the notices are drafted. You just need to do the letters to taxing entities, the affidavits, the letters to the newspaper and the letters to ______.

And my response to that: Yes, I looked at it and I just looked at the Morrisville information and realized that it seems to be one set for the 147(f) and one set for the 859. I am only here until 4:30 and wanted to not have to do everything twice so I wanted to ask to be completely sure.

Come to find out.. she needed four sets, which she called to tell me after I did the initial set. I felt like I had adequately asked (a million times) what she wanted and then for it to be wrong after asking and making myself feel stupid, well.. let’s just say I wasn’t pleased. When she called to tell me the correct way (again, if she had done this in the first place all this drama could have been avoided) she ended it with “Do you understand?” My answer was “YES.” Not just “yes” but yes in the nastiest and most obviously bitchy tone I have. I’m sure she didn’t get the point, but such is life. 2 and a half hours left!!!

Anyway, this will be my last post for quite some time. I’ll be back from Ireland on April 13th, but I doubt I’ll have the time and/or energy to post. I promise to get my pictures out that weekend and at least post a few on the site so you can see how the trip was, although I know it’ll be insane and wonderful!!!! Hope everyone enjoys their Easter and try not to miss me!!!

PS - Don't forget.. brand new, supersized episode of The Office is on tonight. We finally find out what Roy does to Jim after hearing about his tryst with Pam!!!

Things Hollywood SHOULD remake..

Yesterday, I was perusing my friend Sandra’s blog and she posted about that stellar late 80’s competition “American Gladiators” and particularly about a gladiator named Malibu. He looks like Fabio and talks like Keanu Reeves in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. I know this because she also posted a link to him on YouTube that made me practically pee my pants. I really enjoyed American Gladiators back in the day, and I have caught it randomly on ESPN Classic. Apparently it’s playing at 7 pm weeknights and as I was flipping through channels when “A Bronx Tale” was on commercials, I came across none other than Malibu. I almost died. I had to call J. into the room and seconds later J’s brother called to tell him it was on. The funniest thing was that one of the contestants (and episode winner) was Billy Wirth. The show was from 1989 and he was in The Lost Boys in 1987 so you would have to wonder if his career ever really took off. Well, I checked out his page on IMDB.com and it seems he IS still working… as is Malibu. As a matter of fact, he and “Zap” are working on the same movie. Gotta love Hollywood!

Last night was pretty uneventful. J. made dinner.. we watched American Gladiators and NCIS… He fell asleep and I watched a pretty good episode of Law and Order: SVU. I haven’t watched the show in a while (it was on hiatus, but I’ve also been in bed early lately) and this one revolved around underage drinking and ramifications of doing so. I thought it was a pretty interesting show and I learned some things I didn’t know. Definitely check it out on reruns if you can.

I’m pretty sure I called it, but the bottom two on Dancing with the Stars were Leeza Gibbons and Shandi Finnessy, with Shandi being the second casualty of the show. Like I said, her fan base just wasn’t there, regardless of how well she performed. What I found funny was that on E! News, the contestants were asked what they thought of Ian Ziering’s strip tease training. Shandi’s partner Brian basically said it wasn’t his cup of tea. Um… I’m sorry, but he has got to be the gayest looking guy I’ve ever seen and apparently “it’s not my cup of tea” means “god I want to jump his bones.” Ok.. maybe he’s not gay, but you could have fooled me! Anyway, Ian has a surprisingly good body. He should have showed more skin! Next week it’s either the paso doble or the waltz. I’ll have to tape it as I won’t be here to enjoy the dancing!

I have no motivation to work. Tomorrow is going to be even worse, without a doubt. At least today I’m headed off to lunch with my friend Sue. That will break up the day for sure. However, it’s POURING outside. I’m really great at picking days that are so inconvenient it’s ridiculous. I wanted to take her to blue82, which is on Pearl Street, but that’s too far to walk in this weather, so we’ll just head over to the Pump Station. She’s never been there and has to go to a rehearsal dinner there in a few months so at least she’ll know where she needs to be!

Oh yeah.. the O's lost... 3-2.. but from the box score it looked like Cabrera didn't have a bad outing. Isn't that really all that matters when you're rebuilding.... for the past 10 years...

Anyway, time for me to finish some things up before I go to lunch. If anything interesting happens, you’ll be the first to know. You know what day it is… hump away!