Thank God It's Frid---yeah, yeah, whatever.

It's Friday. Another week has come and gone. Whoop-dee-do. Don't get me wrong, I love the weekend - I enjoy sleeping in and going shopping and watching TV for hours on end. What I don't enjoy are my Friday's being incredibly busy every week. Monday and Tuesday are always slow. I think in order for me to be more productive at work, this should switch. After a great, relaxing weekend, the last thing I need is to come in to work and have nothing to do except wish I was sleeping in. And likewise, at the end of the week, I don't need to be running around meeting deadlines for so long that I can't even send a couple personal emails! Gah!

Really, this got me to thinking about TGIFridays, the restaurant. I don't care for it. I've eaten there 2 or 3 times and I've never been impressed. The few casual dining places that I've been to that I would look forward to going back to include: Applebee's, CPK, Chili's, Red Robin and Ruby Tuesday. I had to look up a list of casual dining restaurants. In doing this I saw that there are some crazy restaurant names out there. Houlihan's is probably my favorite. I've never been to one. But I'm curious as to what restaurants you all like and what restaurants you don't.

I'm obviously not busy enough to skip blogging for the day. Duh.

The Devil's Eggs

Here's a little something that chaps my hide: when people don't share recipes. At my cousin's recent baby shower, we were treated to some delicious deviled eggs. My aunt told us that Viv made them (my cousin's good friend... unfortunate name) and it was a secret recipe. We laughed it off and eventually asked Viv for the recipe. She said "Oh I don't know. I made it up." One of my aunts, who happened to be wearing her new t-shirt emblazoned with I'm in my own little world (love her!), asked Viv if she just threw things together and wasn't sure of the recipe. Viv giggled, said "I know it, I'm just not sharing," gave a cutesy little shrug and walked out. My mom almost threw a deviled egg at her. She hates secret recipes a bit more than myself!

I make a mean spinach dip. I think we all know that it's incredible. And the only reason I feel okay about bragging about it is because it's so easy to make and I give the recipe to anyone who asks for it. Then they can make it and get compliments and brag about it. I'm a giver.

One of my college roommates never gave me recipe for this incredible chocolate pie she made. We're not friends anymore.

Will's Blog is Awesome...

He's got something to say about everything! I'll most likely be checking back on his blog daily. His disdain for Fergie is the bond that ties us all together with him.

Facebook vs. MySpace

It seems like nearly everyone is using at least one of the two online social communities. What I want to know is, which one is better?

Personally, I prefer Facebook. It's cleaner, it's got a better photo sharing system and there is WAAAY less spam from it. Every time I log on to MySpace to check my page, it seems like I'm just deleting spammy emails and ignoring friend requests from people I may or may not know.

With Facebook, it's totally different. I am excited to get new friend requests because then I can check out what that person has been up to via photos or a link to a blog or whatever else. And yes, I have friended people mainly so I can look at their photos. So what? I'm a curious person. And if people don't want me looking at their photos, then they probably shouldn't accept my friend request in the first place. But besides photos, the front page of Facebook is the deciding factor. It's a little news feed about what people I know are up to. If someone adds photos, I can check them out. Someone gets engaged, I see it right on my homepage. It's sorta stalkerish, and when the News Feed section first came out people were not big on it at all, but I like it. It's like a CNN ticker for things that I find interesting.

I know Kari is now a Facebook convert, but what do you prefer? Brittnee has been rebelling against both for some time now and I'm hoping that this post makes her want to join us out there on the interweb. And friend me if you do, cuz I can't wait to see your photos!

I think I'll BeDazzle me a shirt...

I've got to be honest...I feel an odd since of coolness now that Andrew is such a superstar football player. I even love the thought of people saying, "Oh look there is Andrew. He's such a good football player. He's hot too, but I think he's married. Bummer."

This conversation may or may not have ever happened, but the thing is I am glad I know no conversation has ever gone like this:

"Oh look there is Andrew. He's such a good football player. He's hot too, but did you see his girlfriend's homemade bedazzled shirt? Lame. Who feels the need to make shirts with their boyfriends name and football number on it? Double Lame."

While this will never be a conversation to be had about me, I gotta tell you guys, had you been at the scrimmage on Saturday, this would be very similar to the conversation we would have had about Casey Dick's girlfriend. Except we probably would not have commented on his football talent because we would have been so taken aback by his girlfriend's homemade bedazzled billboard shirt.

I've also gotta be honest. I have never once in my entire life thought, "I want a new shirt...I think I'll pull out my bedazzler and make myself one."

I will try to get a picture to show you all the horror that was her homemade bedazzled Dick #11 shirt. I am sure she will either wear it again or make another one...Sister should at least know that bedazzling is so 1994...This is 2007, the year of the iron-ons! Get with the times.

Where is Marissa?

So, there was a sneak peak of the new "Real Orange County." Newport Harbor really has a lot to live up to. I mean the kids at Laguna will be hard to replace, but the kids of the "Fake Orange County...Newport Harbor" will be even harder to replace.
From what I saw, we will pretty much watch a bunch of bleach-blonde teenie-boppers fight over boys for the whole season.
Unless you have a Gold-Diggin' mom who marries for money, an ex-con bad boy who loves you and a drug habit (Marissa Cooper) I don't want to watch you live your over-privilaged life in the "Real OC."
I live in the "Real Washington County" but I don't see any video cameras following me...even though I'd make a great show.
Anyway, the show stunk...but honestly, I'll probably continue to watch it.Because, sadly enough, I don't have anything better to do.

Cat fight!

Lauren has a new roommate, new boss (Whitney!) and a former best friend who is spreading rumors about her faster than you can say "implants!" I read that the feud between Lauren and Heidi comes to a head tonight at Les Deux and it's supposed to be GOOD! Other than that, I'll be tuning in (tonight at 10/9 Central) to see the same ol' thing there always is - Teen Vogue's Lisa Love, Lauren's horrible taste in dudes, and the great traffic shots of LA. I also read that in the promo shots for this season Heidi came at a different time and that she has been photoshopped in. I could see that.

Because Pictures are F-U-N!

I don't have anything too special to blog about, but I did get some pictures off our camera last night and thought I would share. First, the great purse search that I've been boring you two with is not over, but it's come to a stop for now. I bought this purse yesterday at Target. I think it's pretty cute for the Fall. The straps are not leather (obvs.. the purse was $19), but they don't look quite as fake as other purses I've seen. Since my cost-per-wear (thanks Brittnee) will be just pennies, I can buy another purse if I happen upon the perfect one.

And this is the fabric that I told you both about. Brant helped me recover this bench in the sunroom and I really like it. It's further proof to Brittnee that birds aren't always scary. On a side note, we found a dead bird in the sun room a few weeks ago. Grodie.

This a Will playing the Wii. As you can see from the blur that is his left arm, it's a pretty intense gaming system. Brittnee, you and Andrew should really consider getting one of these. As you well know, it's fun. I don't think I'll ever forget the image of you "boxing" when we played at your house. And both of you can just let me know when you top 71 in the dodgeball challenge.

I bought this little metal bistro table at World Market last weekend. It was on sale for $32, down from $129!! It's a nice little table, very sturdy and the color is more exciting than this picture shows. However, only an idiot would pay $129 for it. It actually took a little pep talk to myself to even pay $32.

And finally, I can't post five pictures and not have at least one of my dogs in them! Gulley hates the camera, so I think she was trying to burn it with her eyes.

Have a great weekend!

Cuteness level pretty high

Now, I know that we all gave her parents some crap. It was a crazy time. Tom is one of the crazier people in Hollyweird and Katie is, well, Katie Holmes! They don't match! But I'll tell ya what...their kid? Cute. Take a look for yourself!


That's really all I have to say about it. Her parents are still crazy.

Success!

"The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will."

Vincent T. Lombardi

Clearly, we had the will and now we can enjoy our success. Do yourself a favor and compose a DUH song! We did, after all, bring the word back! Duh.

http://hyundaiusa.thebigduhsale.com/index.html

"We'll call it MAN Band, because we're MEN now!"

Vh1 has perhaps the most insane programming schedule right now that I've ever seen. Every washed-up has-been there ever was now has a reality show on the network, ranging from "get a date with so-and-so," to "watch so-and-so go through a mid-life crisis," to "two so-and-so's with the SAME NAME get together and talk about their past!" And music videos? I'm pretty sure they're on from 3am-8am, you know, normal viewing hours? But I digress...

Get ready for the new edition to the network. They call it Man Band! 4 members of old BOY bands get together and try and create a NEW band - of MEN! Get it!?! Oh, it's so perfect. I bet you're dying to hear who was chosen. Remember all the guys who didn't sing a lot and had the least amount of fans and sort of seemed out of place? Meet your new MAN BAND! Chris from ‘N Sync, Jeff from 98 Degrees, Rich from LFO, and Bryan Abrams from Color Me Badd. OK, maybe the guy from 98 degrees wasn't the worst - it was that other guy with the deep voice who was like 30 - but still. And Color Me Badd was a boy band? I don't think sooo. Sure, they were guys, but they were popular in the early 90's, right? I would have gone with someone from O-Town, for sure. Ashley Parker Angel wasn't available? How about that guy with the dreads? Still, the guys have been chosen and now...the mission!

They will live together in Chris' house and try to make it as a new band - named Sureshot. They'll be writing new songs, coming up with a new stage show and trying to get J-Timb to return their calls. Here's the thing - they might succeed. All of those boy bands had a HUGE following and those ladies are still out there somewhere. I checked out their myspace page and they have over 3,000 friends, as well as comments from women who are literally counting down the minutes until the premiere of the show tonight. Which reminds me, it's on at 10PM (eastern), so tune in if you can. Man Band thanks you, I'm sure.

What a Girl Wants

I want a donut. Or should I say doughnut? The search for doughnut produced this mouth-watering picture. And seriously, my mouth is watering right now.

And since we're on the subject, let's run down my favorite donut shops. Well, there's really only one and it's Shipley's in Little Rock. I grew up eating these and to this day, would prefer a Shipley's plain glazed donut to anything Krispy Kreme might try to throw at me. Not that I make a habit of turning down donuts... that would just be silly. Anyway, donuts are good. Always have been and always will be. I go for plain glazed and sometimes chocolate iced. Anything with a filling, especially if it's fruit (and particularly if it's lemon, because lemon and sugar should only mix when alcohol is involved, ie on the rim of a lemon drop martini), makes me sick. So don't go buying me any of those. Thanks.

Ocean of Fear: Sharks are SO Misunderstood!

It's Shark Week on the Discovery Channel. I usually wouldn't really care about this, given that I'm not especially fond of sharks, but the promos for Shark Week are everywhere...all the time. And especially the show, Ocean of Fear, about a real-life ship wreck and the shark-infested waters that followed. For weeks now they've been billing this special as a document of the "worst shark attack in history" in which several hundred men were killed. I was blowing it off until Entertainment Weekly called it the "Must Watch" of the week, and that's when I knew I had to tune in. It was a 2 hour special and it aired this past Sunday and Eric and I watched it. And, well, I feel mislead.


Since I didn't pay THAT close attention, all I can give you are some vagaries about the real-life incident. A US ship was on it's way back from delivering the first A-bomb to some US port, but on its way back home it was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. Close to 1,200 men were on board and only 900 men made it off the boat. And this is when the shark stuff comes into play. Most of the footage from the show consisted of underwater shots of sharks circling several rafts with men inside. However, most of the time, they just circled, they didn't attack. What the sharks did attack were men who had already died from other causes - most often lack of water. In fact, I think that there were less than 5 attacks on men who were still alive. Over a 5 day period, only 300+ men survived. It was sad to watch, but I got the feeling about 3/4 of the way through that sharks weren't the enemy on this occasion. 5 attacks? 900 men? You do the math. It was primarily a special on what NOT to do when you get lost at sea. And the answer to that, my friends, is don't drink salt water! You'll go down faster than you would have without it.

The attack is still on record as the worst in history, but that's mainly because of the number of people and sharks in one place at one time. I was expecting some serious shark brutality and what I saw was that sharks are not so bad. Maybe they're misunderstood...and maybe I don't care because they're freakin' scary!

Oh no they didn't...

For those of you that don't know, House Hunters is a neat little show on HGTV that I frequently enjoy. You get to see three houses for a person to choose from and it makes buying a home seem just that easy. Part of me would like to say that I only watch it because it's the summer and there's nothing else on TV, but that's simply not true. I enjoy the show. And I've gotten damn good at choosing the house the people end up choosing.

I settled in last night to watch a new episode and imagine my disgust when the infamous Star Jones Reynolds popped up on the screen. I think I actually said aloud "What the hell?" and then somehow kept from throwing a pillow at the TV (I didn't want to frighten the dogs). There is nothing wrong with Suzanne Whang (the normal host) and there is nothing right about Star. Nothing.

From what I've read online, this is a guest stint as host. I certainly hope that's true. I'm not sure if I can truly enjoy House Hunters with SJR as the host.

P.S. SJR was "intentionally evasive" about gastric bypass surgery. As if we didn't know!

McCopyright Infringement?

There are a few places that Eric and I really miss up here in Michigan. Sonic, Shake's and Chik-Fil-A are just a few of them. It's toughest with Sonic, because they run commercials for delicious drinks all the time, and yet, there are no Sonics in sight. Chick-Fil-A gets us, too. Their chick-n-biscuits are one of the best breakfast treats I can think of. Plus, the chicken sandwhiches, with a simple treatment of just pickles, are some of the best around.

So good, in fact, that McDonald's has decided to straight up copy them. They introduced the Southern Style Chicken Sandwhich recently and it's basically the exact same thing as the Chick-Fil-A sandwhich. Eric and I were then faced with a dilemma. Stay true to Chick-Fil-A, the original? Or go to McDonald's as quick as we possibly could and order 2 of them - to go! I doubt I have to tell you what we did.

The knock-offs were tasty, I will admit. And we've had a hankerin' for another one since then. I feel so guilty betraying dear Chick-Fil-A...but I love me some chicken, so what're ya gonna do?

Like a cow in a rainstorm...

This is pretty much how I felt yesterday. Except without the rock hard abs. And I was wearing a shirt. And I'm not a man. Okay, truth be told, I couldn't find a cool picture of a woman running in the rain. So this is what you get. Anyhooha, I went for a little run yesterday and halfway through it, there was a downpour. I mean, it was raining hard. I was pretty far from my house so I decided to embrace the rain and finish up my run.

When I finally reached the end of my street, I sprinted towards my house. I imagined myself looking about like this guy (except again, no abs, with a shirt and as a woman), and as I stood on my porch drenched and drained, I felt great. Now I realize that I probably looked more like a cold, wet calf (baby cows strike me as awkward) running through a rainstorm, but whatever.

Why was I running at all, you ask? And that's a great question considering my apathy towards excercise. But, I'm thinking about running a half-marathon. Don't even ask what makes me think this is a good idea, because I have no good answer. But I'm in my initial training and the first two weeks have been good. I enjoy my runs, even in the rain, except of course when I see lighting strike about 3 feet away from me. I'll decide in September whether or not to sign up for the half-marathon. And I'll keep you ladies posted. For now though, just call me Running Rudy.

It's like changing purses for different seasons

I had to change the blog again. Blame it on boredom. Blame it on my love of changing desktop backgrounds. But I think it's a lot like when a girl changes her winter purse for a summer tote. It just makes sense to change every once and a while. Beyonce knows.

Oh, and I added a poll section. This first poll is just a tester. If it works out, then we can do more!

Are you kidding me?

Lohan. The name doesn't really conjure up the image of the sweet, talented young actress of yore, does it? Not anymore. Now it comes with loads of baggage. Alcohol problems, drug addiction, ex-boyfriends, crazy parents, and more. And that's just her personal life. Apparently she's rarely on time and sort of a diva on set. Surprised? No. Not when everyone caters to her and the other young women of Hollywood. It's really ridiculous when Lohan is covered on CNN - and it's BREAKING NEWS! I saw a video clip of an anchorman (bless him) who tried to refuse to read the story about Lohan during a live broadcast! It went something like this, "And Lindsay Lohan was arrested...I'm not going to read this..." SILENCE "They're telling me I have to read this." And while it was kind of embarrassing, he made his point. It's not REAL news! I miss the days when CNN was a legitimate new source. Or, rather, I miss the days when famous people were sort of normal, or secretly crazy. I do kind of blame paparazzi for this. But c'mon. There are a TON of celebs that stay below the radar and are probably straight crazy. How hard is it to stay inside one night a week? Maybe even not drink when you're wearing an alcohol-monitoring bracelet? Leave the coke at home? Just a few tips that might have served Lohan well jsut a few days ago.

Drew Carey as Bob Barker?

So this is what it takes to get the blog back up and running... Drew Carey. Now, I generally find Drew Carey pretty funny. He seems like a nice guy. I can picture him as one of my dad's friends or something. But I simply cannot endorse the decision to make him the new host of "The Price Is Right." I just can't do it. And to be quite honest, I don't have any reasons why. It's not that my reasons aren't good, it's that I really don't have any.

Does anyone agree and if so, do you have a reason why?

Countdown: 19 days!

In just under 3 weeks Eric and I will be gettin' hitched! It's pretty exciting and I'm really enjoying all the final preparations - updating the guest list, getting presents!, seeing our engagement pics and more! In fact, our engagement announcement will be in this Sunday's paper and this is the pic we chose to accompany the write up.



This is the pic that came in second. We both liked it but thought the shadows would look weird in the BW version for the paper.



I might put a link up to some bridal shots of me later in the week. It has to be secretive since Eric can't see the dress!

PS. I'm assuming both your sets of parents are coming? They have not yet RSVP'd. You can just let me know whether or not they can come via email if you want.