REALLY?!?!

From USmagazine.com:

A Dunkin Donuts ad featuring Rachael Ray was pulled after conservative commentators argued the talk show host's scarf implied support of Muslim extremism. The online ad was taken down this weekend because of "the possibility of misperception detracted from its original intention to promote our iced coffee," the company said in a statement.

Conservatives like Michelle Malkin contended Ray's black-and-white scarf looked like the traditional Arab headdress called a kaffiyeh.

They said the scarf appeared to show support for terrorism.
Malkin wrote that the kaffiyeh "has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad."
The company responded: "Absolutely no symbolism was intended."

Come on people, really.....get over yourself! Rachael Ray fan or not, this is just flat out dumb.

I Love....

Keebler Town House Flipsides (click here).

These are part pretzel part cracker. One word – Genius!

These things are fantastically yummy! They pretty much still taste like a buttery cracker but are a bit crispier like a pretzel! (I also saw they had them in Cheddar flavor – oh my goodness…glad they didn’t have those at the store when I was there!) I will warn you, at first they almost look like burnt crackers – but they taste delicious!

I brought some in to work today and I have garlic and chive cheese spread – I am so pumped for lunch!

Oh No She Didn’t….

(please hear me out entirely, I am not trying to be a hater)

So please help me understand why The New Kids on the Block are back?! I know I may touch some nerves here and my opinion is not going to be the popular one, but I keep hearing their new single Summertime and I just have to laugh.

These men (not kids) are nearing 40 years old, no? And I think one may even be 40 years old. And though this isn't old when I listen to their new single I can’t help to think of the song coming from a bunch of frat boys who are just trying to get laid and decide to sing to a bunch of young drunk college girls. Just seeing them singing and knowing how old they are and then actually hearing this song, it seems to be a bit of a contradiction in my mind and totally creeps me out. I mean 20 years ago when they were 20 years younger – sure…but now, not so much. And when I saw them on Youtube on the Today Show I totally laughed. First, they kinda of sucked (but it is early and they haven’t been together for awhile so I will look past that, sort of) but I lost it at the “dancing” …LOST IT! Come on guys, really, really!

Now I guess I am ok if they just did a one time reunion tour with their old stuff – could be fun, possibly, maybe, not at all. But they are putting out a new album and I if I have to hear it come accross my radio I would just like to hear more mature songs coming from them and not so overly young pop stuff. I don’t want to pre-judge, maybe the rest of their CD will be fun but a bit more mature and I would be MORE THAN HAPPY at that point to say I was wrong. But if this single is any notion of what is to come then I have to admit it creeps me out a bit. And you know what, I am sure their tour is going to be a success. And I am sure they could attract a new generation of tweens and teens to listen to their music, while people my age are also at the concert screaming and yelling. But this is just not my cup of tea.

Maybe it was because when I thought I wanted to be with the in crowd and be a NKOTB fan I only got to listen to a copy of a cassette from the library (yeah, cool huh) and at the same time I was listening to music like Was Not Was, Little Feat, The Beatles, John Hiatt, Eric Clapton…etc Yeah, I was like the only person in my class to know who these people were and actually LIKED them! Feel free to insert *DORK* right now.

Overall, I just never got into the NKOTB and maybe that is why I am unable to fully understand and appreciate them and their style of music. Sometimes I do think though that some things from our childhood (especially pop type music) may have seemed much more cooler then it really was and that things like that sometimes should just stay in the past and in our memory.

So I just have to ask, do you like their new single? Why do you like seeing them back? Is it nostalgia? Aren’t you afraid that seeing them now may ruin how much you like them b/c that was so long ago and we were all young? Aren’t some things just better left in the past?

I am not making fun if you like them, to each there own. Just curious.

Talk To Me....

So do you keep a fully stocked pantry?

Why do I say this, well maybe because I haven't gone to the grocery store in at least a week and a half and so we have nothing in our house to eat except some random things like cans of veggies & beans, cans of cream of something or another, some noodles, random stuff like that...but not a full meal. Which is fine for me, but my husband likes a complete meal...not a hodge podge of random things.

I am tired of going to the grocery store because I usually go a couple times a week since we don't plan things out and I just feel like I am always there (and I will not send Terry as I know he will easily spend $100 with at least half of that on junk food). Then what happens is like this week, we had some left overs from this weekend one day and ate out/ordered in the other three days this week. I would like to wake up in the morning and know that we have chicken in the freezer for dinner, or pasta and sauce in the pantry, or the basics for a full meal ready to go in the house at any given time. We just don't. (I know this should be an easy concept, it just isn't for me)

And where do you begin, what items are good to have? How much stuff do you have in your house at any given time? How frequently do you try keeping your kitchen stocked...twice a month, once a month, longer? Any tips? Do any of you do this, or do you just go shopping when you need things? I would imagine it is more cost effective to keep things stocked, rather than shopping as needed and most definitely cheaper then eating out all the time.

Click here for a list of things you are suppose to have in your kitchen. It is too long for me.

I Love....

That there is a Hobby Lobby opening in June in Bowling Green!!! And even better is that Hobby Lobby will be a mere half a mile or so from our house!! YAY!

I love crafts, and I love that there will be a craft store within walking distance from our house! Terry may not be too excited about this b/c of the amount of crafts that will soon emerge around the house. I have a tendency to start a bunch of crafts at one time and finish only a couple while the rest go in my "I will finish it later" craft box(es). Oh well.

Look out Hobby Lobby; I am about to become your favorite customer!

Some of You May Enjoy This Site…

So my friend April decided to add me to her friends list on a social book review/cataloging type website. I signed up, but lets be honest. If you know me, you know reading is not one of my favorite things to do. I read the Harry Potter series, I have read some of the classic books you read in school, and I am currently reading High Fidelity…I pick it up for about 20 minutes every few weeks. (I should have it done by the end of the year.) You get my point, this site isn’t necessarily my cup of tea…but I still joined b/c maybe, just maybe something will spark my interest and I would like to get to the point where I enjoy picking up a book and reading just for fun.

So anyways, here is the site Goodreads.com, I know there are many of you who love to read, and this might be a site that interests you!! The site allows you to:
1. See what your friends are reading?
2. Keep track of what you've read and what you'd like to read?
3. Get great book recommendations from people you know?

Let me know if you join…I will add you to my friends list – hehe!

Iris - Another Funny Vanity Plate!

Yesterday when Terry was going to work he saw this license plate:

NARNIA 1

Along with his picture message it said - "DORK!!!" hahaha

The funniest thing is that this is coming from the same man who a week ago wanted to get a vanity plate that read: T4RD15....which if you squint will read TARDIS which is a Dr. Who reference. (anyone get it, anyone) Yeah, apparently THAT isn't dorky, but NARNIA 1 is TOTALLY dorky!! (Just another reason why I love him!)

To Clean or Not To Clean...I'll Take the Latter.

So Terry had part of this weekend off so we both decided that we were going to spend a big chunk of the weekend spring-cleaning. We had intentions of purging a lot of our junk, wash everything in sight, bring out the carpet scrubber, do all the little projects from the past year that we have been waiting for warmer weather to do. We were determined to stop putting these projects off any longer. We have let cleaning go for far too long and thought this would be a great weekend. We told people this is what we were going to do and chances are we won’t see you…I guess as a form of motivation. We were as pumped as one can be to know their entire weekend was going to be used cleaning, but were excited to see the end result.

So did we get our cleaning accomplished…I’ll let you decide.

* Got out of bed at 12:30pm on Saturday
* We cleaned out the refrigerator & brought the clothes from the basement to the bedroom (though the clothes didn’t make it to the dresser, they are still in baskets)
* I did the dishes; Terry put a new shower curtain up.
* We took showers
* Decided we would “clean later” and instead wanted to go get lunch & see the Chronicles of Narnia at the theater. So we did.
* Played a competitive game of putt-putt after.
* Spent an hour at Wal-Mart
* Got home around 10pm, watched TV
* Got up around 10am on Sunday (T went to work for a few hours)
* I watched the movie Timeline, then watched the last half of Merlin, and started watching the Indian Jones marathon.
*T. came home around 3pm, we made lunch and watched the movie The Core (I don’t know what it was this weekend about wanting to watch random movies that were on TV, I think that shows how much we DIDN'T want to clean?!)
* We invited our friends over Sunday evening. We hung out and watched TV.

Yep, I think it was a good start on the cleaning, made some progress. ;) Baby steps I say! At this rate we will have our house completely cleaned just in time for us to do it again and procrastinate again next year. I am sure next weekend we will clean., yep NEXT weekend!

Does anyone else have a hard time starting their big spring cleaning?!?!

I Love....

Dolci Frutta (Hard Chocolate Shell for Fruit)


This weekend our friends brought over this amazingly delicious creation. You microwave this chocolate for just about 2 minutes, dip your strawberries (or food of choice) into the melted chocolate goodness, put in the refrigerator, and about 5-10 minutes later you have perfectly dipped chocolate covered strawberries - YUM!!! It was SO easy and there was no clean-up after...oh yeah and they tasted fantastic!

Click here for their website.

Dolci Frutta Math:
One container of Dolci Frutta chocolate
(+)
Two pints of strawberries
(+)
Four eager friends
(=)
Four very satisfied people and not a leftover strawberry in sight!

The Yoga Face

So one of the things I ordered from Amazon recently was a book called The Yoga Face. I saw it on Rachael Ray and decided to give it a try. Why, because I am a sucker.

The book claims to “Eliminate Wrinkles with the Ultimate Natural Facelift”. It is a series of facial exercises that you are suppose to do to workout the muscles in your face, thus tightening & firming the skin and reducing the appearance of fine lines. Sounds good!

There are about 23 different poses/exercises for the face with focus on different areas, i.e. neck, forehead, mouth, cheeks, eyes, etc. However, the book also contains other things that may be useful. (Taken from the book) “It has full-body routines and posses that promote circulation and detoxify the skin; massage, breathing, and meditation techniques to help you relax and let your skin grow naturally; and tips on nutrition and natural beauty products.” It also seems to have advice on voice exercises, traditional yoga poses, and natural beauty products and supplements.

The book was $10 on Amazon. I did them for a few days and my face did feel like I had used the muscles there. Not necessarily sore, just like I spent the entire day at cedar point screaming, talking and laughing. Or like how my face felt after our wedding from all that smiling and talking.

Overall I think the yoga face poses are good, though maybe should be explained a bit more clearly and the book in general contains a lot of basic tips which are good for people who may have no knowledge or little knowledge when it comes to the things described above. I have not read the book all the way through, and if I do read it all the way through (which is a big step as I don’t enjoying reading) it will be scattered reading based on what I am interested in. So I really can not give a review on the entire book as a whole in regards to content. I will also let you know maybe in a month or so if I notice any difference. I am sure there are other facial exercise books that just focus purely on face exercises (I have seen one after I bought this one called facercise that gets good reviews...I may actually buy this one as well to try) but this book does have some really good health information. I also think she tried to put tons of info in a book and give general information about everything for all around health, not just for the face (a bit misleading at first). The actual facial exercise chapters do not even make up half of the book. However, this seems ideal for someone like me who really has little or no knowledge on anything in this book, not just the yoga face part.

For $10, I do think it is something fun to have in your collection if you are interested in this stuff, which the older I get the more I am. I was actually really interested in the massage techniques chapter! I will read that one to Terry before he goes to sleep at night!

I will also be posting a couple of the yoga face poses later today, just in case you want to give it a try at home!

Making Progress.

Here is an article I came across. Not necessarily to spark a debate, though I welcome your thoughts and opinions on the topic! I just thought it was interesting as we were talking about some of this stuff on Nadja’s Blog a couple weeks back. (See links below)

……ARTICLE…..
The Pope's chief astronomer says that life on Mars cannot be ruled out. Writing in the Vatican newspaper, the astronomer, Father Gabriel Funes, said intelligent beings created by God could exist in outer space. Father Funes, director of the Vatican Observatory near Rome, is a respected scientist who collaborates with universities around the world. “The search for forms of extraterrestrial life”, he says, “does not contradict belief in God”.

"How can we rule out that life may have developed elsewhere?" Funes said. "Just as we consider earthly creatures as 'a brother,' and 'sister,' why should we not talk about an 'extraterrestrial brother'? It would still be part of creation." He also went on to say it "doesn't contradict our faith" because aliens would still be God's creatures. Ruling out the existence of aliens would be like "putting limits" on God's creative freedom.

Funes said science, especially astronomy, does not contradict religion, touching on a theme of Pope Benedict XVI, who has made exploring the relationship between faith and reason a key aspect of his papacy.

The Bible "is not a science book," Funes said, adding that he believes the Big Bang theory is the most "reasonable" explanation for the creation of the universe. The theory says the universe began billions of years ago in the explosion of a single, super-dense point that contained all matter. But he said he continues to believe that "God is the creator of the universe and that we are not the result of chance."

"The church has somehow recognized its mistakes," he said. "Maybe it could have done it better, but now it's time to heal those wounds and this can be done through calm dialogue and collaboration. "

………
Click here for one of the articles.

I appreciate the fact that at least the attempt to bring science and religion together is being made. It has only taken the Catholic church how long?!?! Of course first I think it is funny they use the word "reason" instead of science and second I do think it is a bit annoying that we have to get the green light to believe in something “new”.

It's Like....Ok, you may now believe in the possibility that God created life outside of our planet. Yes…we say you can believe that so believe it.

Whatever. I have faith but I also believe that there is no denying how remarkable God is, how vast this universe is, and the possibilities that other life forms could exist should not be ruled out entirely. I also believe that God created a world in a scientific way that would lead us to reach out and explore countless possibilities and just not accept things as they are. He wanted us to become thinkers while also maintaining our faith and beliefs. My favorite quote from the article "God is the creator of the universe and that we are not the result of chance." I agree.


A lot of this stuff was talked about on Athena’s Bees Blogs. Visit “Things to Ponder”, “The God Particle”, and “I promise I will stop soon” to see some of our talks on this subject and other subjects related to religion, the Universe, creation, & God…. :)

SERIOUSLY.

I just found out that CBS cancelled the show Moonlight after just one season. grrrr If you didn't have a chance to see this show, too bad because I thought it was good. It was about a vampire who was a private investigator. (don't laugh it was good) It also brought a fresh and newer take on vampires and how they would be living today. And of course I always loves me vampire shows/movies!! (I have a thing)

Was it the best show out there, maybe not but it was good, really good and I thought well done and defiantly getting better and more exciting. I thought it was a good balance between a more light hearted crime drama and a sci-fi show. If you don't like sci-fi I still think you could like this show. I am seriously annoyed to see this show go. I really don't understand why sci-fi shows like this don't last. (anyone remember Firefly) It is entertaining and a break from all the dumb reality TV crap that is out. I mean the Bachelor, Survivor, and other reality shows like that have been on forever but a good show like Moonlight that has dedicated fans doesn't last.

Yep, I am pissed about this.

Um, This TOTALLY Makes Up For Yesterday…And Then Some!!!

Today one of our clients brought in a few of his grand children. They chilled out in our office while he was in a meeting. I gave them some highlighters, crayons, paper, pencils and other office supplies. A little while later they came back and gave me this adorable card!!

Folks, THIS. MADE. MY. DAY. I loved it!

In case you cannot read it clearly the front says “Thank you so much” and the inside says “You Rock”, “P.S. Your So Sweet” and “ Thank you pretty lady (I would write your name if I new it.)” Hehehe….I think I prefer pretty lady instead of my name!!

Seriously, this is beyond precious and so thoughtful!! (this is so being hung up in my cubicle!)

I Think People are Just Trying To Piss Me Off Today.

So it is only noon and I have already been bombarded with many annoyances this morning. Today is infact a Monday. I am going to have to find something positive to post about to get me out of this funk, but first I must vent my frustrations.

Annoyance #1:
So there was this guy in the office today and he must have used EVERY cliché phrase out there. And he used them multiple times. I actually had to turn my music up louder to block out the pure ridiculousness of what he was saying.

Some of my “favorite” phrases I heard before I turned up my music: (and yes, he was referring to his work)

- I am already using my parachute; I don’t want to pull my emergency chute just yet.
- I want to be prepared before I get into bed with someone I don’t know.
- You can’t just jump into bed with anyone. You need to know their intentions and trust them. It has to be a good relationship first.
- I need to talk to my #1 guy before I go get married to a situation I am not ready for.
- We really need to get this over the plate and throw a strike if we want this to work.

Why do people talk like this?! What is he even saying?! Who has a #1 guy?!

#2:
Someone called the office and I answered the phone. All I heard on the other end was said person eating…loudly. I did my long phone introduction again, but apparently he couldn’t hear me over his excessively loud eating. grrrr

#3
New Guy has bad cologne on. He gave me some files and was in my office over an hour ago and I STILL can smell his horrible cologne. I seriously want to vomit.

#4
The lady beside me is chomping….I mean CHOMPING on her chips. I think she is putting 10 in her mouth and then chomping down as hard as she can. I am ready to throw my highlighter at her.

I think some may have forgotten the office rules. I may have to post them later today…If I haven’t passed out from the horrific smell that is just lingering in the air.

Relieved

So last night I went into the episode of Scrubs thinking it was the Series Finale, not just the season finale. I know that before the writers strike and what not that they said this (the 7th season) would be the last. I hadn’t really heard much so I just thought this was going to be it and I was going to be sad….I LOVE Scrubs. So last night T&I watched the episode and I said, there is NO WAY this could be it.

So I did a little research this morning and there will in fact be an 8th season! (I guess yay for the writers strike) Click here for some answers on what is going on with Scrubs. You can also check out some blog posts on Zach Braff’s website. They are currently filming 18 episodes for the 8th season, but what they do not know yet and can not talk about is WHERE these shows will be? NBC would be stupid to get rid of this show, I hope they just mean moving it to another day….though I am a big fan of the Thursday line-up…sans ER.

So anyways I am very pumped and relieved that Scrubs WILL be back with a bunch more episodes for the 2008-2009 season! YAY!!!

So here is a fun clip from the Scrubs musical episode: A Little Friday Guy Love…hehehe

I Love.....

So this weekend T & I tried a fantastic new chip.

Pringles Select Crisps! YUM!!

We tried both the Sun-Dried Tomato & the Parmesan Garlic – Delicious!

They also have Cinnamon Sweet Potato Crisp and Szechuan Barbecue Rice Crisps. (not sure about these?!)

I highly recommend!!

The only thing is that they come in a bag and the bag does not reseal or anything. I like when bags have those little reseal stickers on them.

Good-bye Old(s), Hello New(er)

So this weekend we finally did it…we got my husband a MUCH NEEDED new car. Well, new to him! He LOVES his new car…he tells me like every 5 minutes, hehe… and it is only 10 years old, compared to his last car, an Oldsmobile (something or other) aka a BOAT which was like 25+ years old! The best thing for us, we are not going to have to pay more each month in gas for HIS car, which he ONLY drives in town compared to my car which I drive from BG to Perrysburg everyday. Not cost affective in the least.

I know Terry had many wonderful memories in this car, and I will admit this car really just made you think of him (if you have known him then you know this car was made for him), but now it is time to move on, as this car is neither reliable nor practical anymore.

I think both the car and my husband are ready to move on. I would love to keep it for memory sake, but sometimes you have to let go.

So here is to a car that somehow made it to Savannah twice, could fit more people in it then a mini-van, makes a very loud screeching sound when Terry turns it on thus waking everyone up in a mile radius, can only be driven by Terry b/c it has more idiosyncrasies than you could imagine, has holes and duct tape in/on it, barely fits in our garage, has awesome brown interior that isn’t pretty but is really comfortable…kind of like a couch, has fake wood like interior - classy, is seen and heard coming from far away, still rocks out the cassette tapes, and through all its problems was really just a fun car for my husband these past 10 or so years.


Here are a few pics of his car!




Yep, that is the Taco Bell Dog :)

Where Have You Been All My LIfe?!

So this weekend before we went and saw the freak’n awesome movie Iron Man, click here for my sister’s thoughts on the movie, we went to a Mexican restaurant in Perrysburg. The restaurant itself was good but I don’t think is anything extremely special, but what I did find there is my new favorite food! Fish tacos!

Oh yum!

I had never had fish tacos. Don’t know why, but it has just never been high on my list of things I want to try. But the thing is I LOVE fish and I LOVE Mexican so why I waited this long to enjoy them together, I will never know!

I ordered grilled tilapia with just butter and lime juice and then filled my taco with pico de gallo, lettuce and guacamole. HEAVEN!!!!

This is totally my new favorite dish at the moment! I am going to be making these at home a bunch this summer!

THANK YOU YAHOO!!!

So since I started my new job over 6 months ago I have had to work without any music.

blech

You can use headphones but no music throughout the office. Well I have been unable to listen to XM online, most likely b/c my work computer is old and crappy. I would listen for a bit then it would freeze...and adios unsaved work.

So my sister (ah thank you k.) told me that if you sign up for a yahoo messenger account you can listen to the radio through that. And so I did, and I am happy to report I have had a few hours of music with no computer problems! yesssss!

Side note: I am a rock girl. Not really a fan of overly sappy pop music. But while I work I sometimes like softer music. So the very first song I listened today on my new yahoo radio - Richard Marx, Now and Forever! *sigh* I love him, adore him. I use to play his CD's all the time....there is just something about him. It is turning out to be a good day!

Reason #78 why I love Amazon…..

They like to surprise me!

So about a month ago I placed an order for some pre-order items on Amazon.com. We ordered 4 different items that all had four different release dates. Since we got free shipping and handling on everything we ordered we decided to be patient and take the option where you ship everything together, instead of the option where you ship things as they become available but pay S&H on each order.

Our entire order was suppose to ship on May 13 but to my surprise about a week ago I got an email saying that one of my items was available and they were going to ship it for no extra charge! YAY!! Then today I got an email that said another one of our items was available and they wanted to ship THAT one as well to us free of charge – double bonus!!


Oh Amazon, you just keep on surprising me even after all these years!