A new show that I like!

ITEM!: Tonight's entertainment viewing included The Good Wife, the new CBS legal drama starring Julianna Margulies as a scorned politician's wife who needs to go back to work to pay the bills. Of course, she was an attorney before she married her guy, and is therefore thrown back into the legal world now that she's among the workforce again. I like the idea behind this, and I love Margulies, as well as the actors Josh Charles, Christine Baranski, Chris Noth and Matt Czuchry. And color me pleasantly surprised, but I liked the actual show and episode, too.
ITEM!: My trash pick-up was this morning, so I finally was able to cut up the dead oleander bush carcass in my front yard and use it to fill up the trash can (again) tonight. This means, regretfully, that I will have to leave the trash can in the front yard all week, and that my household trash bags will be piling up in the garage where the can receptacle usually sits. Next Monday night though, the trash can itself will be emptied again, and I'll try to be sneaky and put my household garbage bags in someone else's can. * tiptoe, tiptoe through the neighborhood ...* But I was able to shove the can into the corner of my yard, so ideally, the homeowners' association won't see it and cite me, and it won't be too offensive to my own eye every time I drive into my garage.
ITEM!: I think, since it's supposed to be cool tomorrow morning, Sydney and I will visit the zoo.

My DWTS voting (8 votes allowed):
Kelly Osbourne, singer ~ 2 votes. I was incredibly pleased and surprised to see how well Osbourne did, and I am certainly glad that the audience seemed to like her, too.
Mya, singer, entertainer ~ 2 votes. I think she'll make it to the finals.
Debi Mazar, actress ~ 1 vote. Any friend of Maks' is a friend of mine. Anything that keeps him from getting voted off the show is a good thing.
Joanna Krupa, model ~ 1 vote. Frankly, I was surprised to find myself liking this girl. I'm not usually a huge fan of the blonde, perfect models (I suspect model envy), but her personality has done a good job of changing my mind ... for now.
Melissa Joan Hart, actress ~ 1 vote. Did you know Melissa Joan Hart was in Britney Spears' video to the song, "Crazy"?
Natalie Coughlin, Olympic swimmer ~ 1 vote. It looks like we may have our first gold medal-winner who doesn't win the mirrorball trophy.
Macy Gray, singer; and Kathy Ireland, model and CEO ~ 0 votes. Gray is just way too out of her element, and Ireland looks incredibly uncomfortable on the dance floor.

Time to get the voting started

Tonight is it! The first night of season nine of Dancing with the Stars began this very evening. Truthfully, I watched the entire show on fast forward, since Sydney didn't feel like falling asleep until 8:45 p.m. I would be lying if I told you that I didn't kind of enjoy passing by a majority of the comments, inane conversation, and assorted filler. Since there are 16 (no kidding, 16!) contestants this season, the premiere is a three-night affair. Tonight, the men competed. My votes and comments are below.
Tomorrow is the girls' night.

My DWTS voting (8 votes allowed):
Aaron Carter, singer, entertainer ~ 3 votes. I think I like this kid. He actually does have the potential. His brother, Nick, from Backstreet Boys, was in the audience this evening, as were the rest of the Boys.
Mark Dacascos, martial artist, actor ~ 3 votes. I'm making my front-runner preference common knowledge this moment. I am digging this guy on this show. He can take it all the way to the finals.
Donny Osmond, singer, entertainer, Marie's brother ~ 2 votes. Just because. Is it me, or ha he TOTALLY had a facelift or two?
Michael Irvin, retired football player; Ashley Hamilton, George's son, "actor;" Chuck Liddell, mixed martial artist and Ultimate Fighter; Louie Vito, snowboarder; and Tom DeLay, politician ~ 0 votes. I don't mean to be harsh on the first night, but it's early still, and I wanted to be sure that the only people I have any regard for so far, based entirely and solely on this night, get some love.

Pink pears in Massachusetts

Sunday afternoon, sitting on my sofa, is clearly the time of indecisiveness. I can't decide which of these two photos I would rather like to lead off today's blog post. If you're reading this online right now, which, of course, you are, you will have noticed which photo I decided to use up top. Shall I go with the beautiful picture of fall foliage in Massachusetts? Or the pretty and fantastic Buddha-shaped pears grown in China?
What I do know for sure is that this FarmVille thing on Facebook is so frickin' cool, and I love, love, love it. I've moved up to Level 19 today, which means that, once my soybeans and peppers are ready to be harvested, I can plant grapes. Yay grapes! I was so excited to show off my farm to Brian yesterday when he finally acquiesced to see it. And I bought more land last night, as well. All I need now is about 15,000 more "coins" so I can buy a cottage for the property. That way, I can live there, too. I think that is the last of my random wants for the land. Anyway, I'm eager to build up the rest of that capital so I can get my new house. A pink one, if you please.
We visited The Home Depot this morning. I found mushrooms, actual mushrooms, in one of my house plants this morning. How is that for a random botanical issue? We got some fungicide, as I have other plants that have some mold or something growing on their soil, and I'm eager to dig into that tomorrow. Also, we bought a better tree branch and twig cutter for the plants out front. Brian did an excellent job of cutting down the big oleander in front of my window. The other fence-lining oleander will have to wait until next weekend, I think. I've got a big pile of oleander bits in the middle of my front yard right now, and I can't wait to get rid of it all.
I'm missing the Emmys tonight, and I'm pretty bummed about that, but my lovely niece, Katy, and I have super fun plans tonight instead of my staying home to watch television. Oh yeah, tickets to see Pink! I'll have more about that tomorrow, too!

They are awful, awful plants

I am such a lightweight lately! I had, like, two margaritas at a birthday party this afternoon, and then, when I got home, had to lay down and sleep it off for 90 minutes. That ... is pathetic. It's embarrassing. And I'm disappointed in myself. Two drinks? Really? The headache is still floating around within though. At least I didn't get all crazy buzzed or nauseous from them, so that's something.
What did get taken care of this early evening was another one of my bizarre little household irritations. Explanation: As I've been driving through the neighborhood lately, or when Sydney and I take the dogs for their walk, I've noticed how nicely trimmed my neighbors' front yards are looking. Mine, on the other hand, has four big, overgrown white oleanders (which I HATE), and, what we just discovered yesterday, is a large lime tree. The whole thing looks a mess, and every time I drive up to the house over the last 10 days, I hate it. Those oleanders are just hanging out and taking up the entire front yard!! Ugly!
Anyway, I got Brian outside with the big pruning shears, and he trimmed down one of the oleanders. (The one right next to the front gate.) It's looking much cleaner out there already. The plant has been trimmed down to the same height as the front wall, which is about three feet tall. By the time he finished with that one, the trash can was full, so we'll have to wait until after Tuesday's trash pickup to take care of another one. But that other huge oleander in front of the big window in front of the house needs to be pulled out entirely. I think I'd like to put a big bougainvillea in that space instead. I can't see out my front windows because of these wretched plants, and it's driving me crazy. It's weird: Big, ugly, poisonous plants tend to bother me a lot.

Finding some new books to fall into

One of my treats to myself for finishing off the "Summer Reading List 2009" was an unfiltered, unconstrained, unchaperoned trip to Barnes & Noble for a new "to-be-read" pile. I had two gift cards for this most hallowed of hallowed halls, one ... sadly only for $1, but the second was for $60. Huzzah! I had about 75 minutes to spend in the store before picking Sydney up from school, so was excited to dig into the fiction/literature, mystery and romance stacks.
My first 45 minutes was a little slow in decisiveness, and I walked around with only one book in my arms. BOO! It must have been quite some time since I've been allowed to just wander through a bookstore on my own, and for myself, because I was, clearly, out of practice in finding and picking up some new tomes.
But then, all of a sudden, with only 30 minutes left in my bookstore time allotment, I was (metaphorically) hit with a tidal wave of covers that intrigued me. I couldn't stop picking up books. Everything interesting just started jumping off the shelves and into my arms. It was like a kind of divine experience! Books, books and another book! YAY!
Now, I'm flush with reading material. I've got so many stories to dive into, and so many characters to like and not like it's crazy! ... And the life of an avid book reader begins anew.
So you want to know what I selected? Check out my new "To-be-read pile" list over there on the left.

Best plumbers' shoes ever

I've been renting places to live in for a long time now. The benefit of renting, as any renter will tell you, is that when something in the place of residence breaks, leaks or just behaves improperly, all you have to do is call the property manager. From there, a magical maintenance person shows up in a timely manner (ideally) and fixes the problem.
In my house here, we all of a sudden have a toilet with running water, a tweaked out toilet seat, a slow-flowing tub drain, and a seemingly ever-increasing number of bugs invading the building. So, as a renter, I did what I'm supposed to do: I faxed a maintenance request with the problems to the property manager.
The response? An e-mail stating that the maintenance technician costs the owner more than $65 an hour, and he'd send him out for the slow drain, but could I please try to fix the toilet issues myself? (I paraphrase the text, but that was exactly what it told me.) It went on to helpfully suggest maybe unscrewing and re-screwing the toilet seat to fix it, and then to maybe shorten or mess with the chain in the tank to make the toilet water stop running. Mmm. Um ... okay. So, I'm on my own? Whatev. I can do anything, bitches!
The seat was an easy fix. In fact, it did just need unscrewing and then a careful, slow and precise re-screwing to ensure that the seat would sit straight on the tank. (With a toddler practicing on that seat daily, it simply had to sit properly. The last thing Syd needs is an unstable perching place.) Time: 10 minutes. Effort: Medium.
The running toilet water though, was more involved. I had to dig into the tank itself, get my hands all wet, and investigate the issue. The bulb rod needed to be tightened (easy peasy), but the main issue was the warped and unsealing flapper at the bottom of the tank. The fix: I wandered over to Home Depot, bought the new flapper, and this afternoon, replaced it, thereby making the toilet better and no longer running. All. By. Myself. Time (including drive and Home Depot): 45 minutes. Effort: High, but not major.
So I sent an e-mail back to the property manager tonight telling him that yes, I did fix the toilet issues myself, and that I told Brian they should pay ME for my new-found plumbing abilities. I asked that yes, he do send the maintenance man to take care of the drain. And I said that fine, the bugs would be our responsibility (an entirely different bitching point for another day).
So that's done. And right now, I care so little about their opinion on my having a gate installed along the side yard without their prior approval.

"Oh, Jay," she says with a heavy sigh

For those of you out there who think that maybe there isn't a single thing that my mom and I disagree on, I offer this post to you.
In two words: Jay Leno. She enjoys. I do not.
I'll admit that I've never been a huge fan of network late-night television. It's not must-see for me. I don't care for David Letterman or Conan O'Brien really either. I wish I could remember that Craig Ferguson existed nightly, but I can't. And Jimmy Fallon looks funny from what I've seen online, but I forget about him, too. (My love is, of course, Jon Stewart.)
My dislike of Jay Leno is kinda weird. I've been mostly ambivalent since he started on The Tonight Show, but over the last few years, he's just bugged me to new heights. Lame jokes. Uninspired monologues. That headlines thing makes me gag simply because so many times they're just not that funny (and yes, it picks on my profession). "Jay-walking" makes me afraid that there are people out there who act that stupid just to get on television, or really are just that stupid.
So several months ago, when faced with not having to deal with Jay anymore, I was pretty okay with it. I can handle an unintentional viewing of Conan a lot more than Jay on any day of the week. But then, there's this nonsense about Jay having a "variety" show on every weeknight at 9 p.m. (that's 10 p.m. for those of you with normal, non-Arizona time zone television). Um, huh? Why? Well, for Mom, of course. She was pretty pleased to hear about it, and she does not like Conan.
Because I forgot, I missed The Jay Leno Show last night, but I read up on it this morning. I have not read or heard good reviews about it (including, surprisingly, Mom, who said that the whole thing just looked uncomfortable). Despite that, I will be sure to tune in tonight. I have to at least see it. I'm one of those people that needs to, at the very least, know what she's not liking while she's not liking it.

It's a good day for birthdays

A couple things about September 11:
1.) It's Howie's birthday. He would have been 73 today. And last night, as I watched the clock tick towards midnight, I remembered the night of September 10, 1996. That evening, it was amusing to Mom and I that, at a few minutes to midnight, Howie was still awake and watching television. We asked him why he was still awake. His response: "I'm enjoying the last minutes of my 50s." Awesome. I wish I could have wished him a happy day today. I mean, I did wish it, but it would have been nice to say happy birthday in person.
1b.) He HATED it that his birthday had become a national day of mourning. Why must his birthday now be associated with something so sad?, he would ask. That bugged him so much.
2.) It's Andrea's birthday, too. She is 36 today. And FINALLY, the same age as the rest of us. And we'll all be the same age for about three months, until Kerry's birthday in December. Then the cycle of Turning 37 begins. UGH!
3.) MSNBC ran the footage of The Today Show from the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 this morning, and again tonight. Brian and I watched parts of it earlier, and watching that still makes my heart sink.
4.) I posted this picture of Howie and I at my wedding on my Facebook page this morning. It made me smile so much throughout the day that I decided to post it here, too.

"Every time I look at it, I'll think of you."

I burned my arm on the oven door yesterday as I removed my baked-to-perfection blueberry muffins. The temperature of the oven itself was 400 degrees. (HOT!) I reacted as any human would when accidentally touching something so toasty: I quickly pulled my arm away. (HOT!) But I'm pretty amazed at how fast the damage was done to my arm. I've never burned myself like this before, so it's become quite the little experiment-fascination for me.
Tonight's observations: It's not sore anymore. It doesn't feel like it's still burning anymore. It's taken on a darker purple hue, which is interesting. It also looks like it's thinking about blistering, but deciding that blistering is too much effort. So there's nothing raised, just kinda scorched.
Brian tells me that it's going to scar, but I'm fighting against that. I'm putting the ointments and stuff on it, so let's hope they're stronger than the burn. But, if it does scar, I guess there are worse things than being permanently marked while engaging in an activity that makes your little girl so happy, right?

And we bought more lemonade cupcakes

I think one of my favorite things is cuddling with Oliver while I watch television. In fact, tonight's post will topic on my favorite things about today.
* Waking up at 7 a.m. instead of at an hour with a "6" in the time.
* Hearing Brian and Sydney playing castle before going to school and work.
* Knowing that, even though Sydney cried when I left, she would enjoy her day.
* Looking out my window and seeing blue skies, green palm trees swaying in the breeze, and a blooming red bougainvillea.
* This is cheesy, but Facebooking and improving my farm!
* Eating a few of the dreaded and diabolical french fries.
* Sydney hugging me and kissing me when I picked her up from school.
* No accidents.
* Daisy resting her head on my shoulder while I checked my e-mail this afternoon.
* Getting all angry and indignant on my hubby's behalf. I wish I had someone to whom I could leave a message on voice mail.
* Katy being a rock star and agreeing to hang out with the kid tomorrow night.
* Sydney telling me how the stars on her ceiling are "anywhere." It always make me giggle, and she says it only to make me giggle.
* And again, cuddling with Oliver while watching television.

Preparing for tomorrow's launch

The weekend plans have come together, but I still haven't finished packing for them. Sydney's the only family member who is ready, as her stuff is always the most fun to prepare, and I've still got Brian, myself, Oliver and Daisy for whom I need to get stuff in bags. Quick, easy weekends away are always a good time! And hopefully, my hubby and I will get a couple movies out of it, too!

I'm a farmer now

The last thing in the world that I needed was a new obsession online. There's an application on Facebook called FarmVille, in which the user is a farmer tasked with plowing and planting field plots, growing crops, caring for animals, and, of course, trying to make money on it. The money is all cute, little clinking coins, and not worth much of anything. For me, it's the growing, planting and harvesting. I'm totally digging it. I've grown soybeans, pumpkins and strawberries. Each crop has its own money amount to be made, amount of time for growth, and experience gained by farming it. Honestly, I'm loving it. I've planted pumpkins for the night, because they take eight hours to mature, so they'll be ready when I get up tomorrow morning. I learned that strawberries are not an effective nighttime crop because they mature inf our hours. Make them sit too long and the wither and die. Then it costs twice as much to remove the dead plants, till the earth, and then plant new crops. See? This is awesome!! I've got cows, chickens, a duck, and a black sheep named Josh.

Write her name next to Beyonce's

It's weird how, when something is bugging you, you really kinda don't notice how much this something is bugging you, until you see this something one day, and think, "My god, that is BUGGING me."
The other day, or a couple weeks ago (you choose), I noticed how very much Katherine Heigl, the actress, bugs me. I used to really like her. So many people probably don't remember, but she played the character "Isabel," on one of my favorite shows ever, Roswell. Ever since then, I've been a casual fan, enjoying bits and pieces of her work here and there. When I learned she was to be on Grey's Anatomy, I mentally congratulated her, as it had been some time since I had seen her in anything commercially viable. And then, there was the fantastic 27 Dresses.
Tonight though, I sit here with her photo on my desktop, and an article about her in another window in my browser, and she is the topic of a post in which I state that now, she's bugging me. How did this happen?
Well, I mean, doesn't anyone else think that she's been a bit ... whiny ... lately? Not enough money, not good enough story lines, not fabulous enough characters, not smart enough projects. Sure, a mention here and there in regards to her issues with her job is fine and understandable, but really, her complaints have gotten a lot more tired, frequent, and irritating. The latest article talks about a hiatus she's taking from Grey's, which is, well, whatever, I don't care.
The point, is that even before I read the article, which was about nothing (as so much tabloid entertainment journalism is), I was bugged by what I knee-jerk suspected would be a complaint-filled, whiny interview from the star. That it wasn't is refreshing. And that is what bugs me about her lately. For her to NOT complain is refreshing!! How is that right?

p.s. I can not though, stay away from her movies. I'm forever watching parts of 27 Dresses. I can do without Knocked Up though. But I MUST see that one with her and Gerard Butler as soon as it's on DVD.

Happy Birthday, Aunt Bette!!

And a special HAPPY BIRTHDAY shout-out to one of my most devoted readers here on the blog: Aunt Bette! She is one of the most wonderful, enthusiastic, lovely, and engaging people any of you could ever meet, and I count myself among the lucky that she loves me, my mom and my kid!
I hope you have a great day today, dearest Aunt Bette!
Enjoy your rice pudding! Love you!!

Yay September!

It's no secret that Brian is a huge fan of the video games. He loves them! And there are several out there that I thoroughly enjoy watching him play. Yes, I actually sit on the sofa with him and comment on things that I think I see, and actions that I approve/disapprove of; and make random suggestions or laughable observations. One of my favorites is the "Splinter Cell" series of games. (Except when you have to shoot a dog to make it quiet. That BUGS me!) They're the first-person, spy and black-ops character action/adventure games created under Tom Clancy's brand. They're really super cool. Anyway, I was flipping through the avatars last night and came across this beauty of an ensemble, which is almost exactly what the guy in the game wears. Even down to the night-vision goggles. Awesome! I think it makes me look pretty bad-ass, even if I do have a flower in my hair.