Happy New Year

Good job Gophers on the win. I only got to watch half the game b/c of working at Pottery Barn. Did not want to be there and then there was a bus fiasco so it took me more than an hour to get home. Annoying. But now Alicia are I are going to hang out and grab food so that'll be fun.

Last night, we had some martinis and then went to Tom English's. After some drinks and cribbage, we ended up going with the bartender (who was white and Alicia wanted to make out with - strangely enough) to a bar that served till 2:30 and having one more beer. Oh - and 2 boys our age or a little younger took out their dad for drinks and he was super super super drunk and when introduced to Alicia, without a filter, blurted out "Your tits are fantastic" in a super heavy Boston accent (think the Mayor Quimby on the Simpsons). It was very funny.

Hasta la vista.

End of the year

I'm excited that Alicia is coming to visit for New Years this year - not on purpose but she's out here for work this week so she's staying a few extra days. We don't have firm plans but I'm sure we'll find something fun to do. I'm all about playing backgammon, HP Trivia, and watching Netflix but I'm sure we'll leave the house, too.

Congrats to NWA for doing it again. I can't decide if this is worse than the fiasco of keeping on the plane for hours at Detroit in the late 90s - the whole customs things was less in NWA's control this time, but still it seems silly that they couldn't let people off the plane and quarentine them in the airport or something... 2 people were on the Today show this morning for an interview and were explaining that there were 2 medical emergencies where they sent medics on the plane, but they weren't empowered to take the passenger off the plane for treatment because of customs issues. It took lots of debate before the passengers were taken to the hospital...

I must say I'm annoyed by the fact that Blogger doesn't have spell check - that'd be helpful. Also annoyed I can't post pictures on my blog because I can't get the Picasso program to work. Maybe in 05 :)

East STL

East St. Louis Rated 'Number One City In America By Poverty Magazine
EAST ST. LOUIS, IL—The December issue of Poverty magazine, featuring its annual "Top American Cities" poll, hit newsstands Monday, and for the second year in a row, East St. Louis topped the list. "East St. Louis dominated our poll yet again in 2004, topping such categories as unemployment, hubcap availability, and liquor-stores-per-capita," Poverty editor Felicia Banks said. "The city's educational system also rated high, boasting a student-gun ratio of 1:1." Rounding out the top five, in descending order, were Flint, MI; Newark, NJ; Compton, CA; and Gary, IN.

Ironically, this is from The Onion and is fake news. Surpsingly, ironically, whatever you want to call it, it seems true. And I may note that during roadtrips with Mary, we drove through the other 4 cities and I can confirm that they all suck. A lot. I personally think Gary is the worst but who am I to judge. PS Is it strange that I've been to all of these cities? Considering I've never been to such jewels as Rome or Barcelona, it seems kinda sad I've been to this top 5 list.

Thanks for asking, my birthday turned out well. John's gift that he needed the last 4 of my SS# was adding HBO to our cable package for the next 4 month - the cable is set up in my name so he had to access the account. Mystery solved. I also got flowers from Chrissy (thanks) and an espresso maker I'm stoked to try out. And from today forward, all my "wish list" items are racked up for next Dec 25 and 27 :)

Any entrepreneurs out there?

I have a great idea for any entrepreneur looking for a business idea - too bad I don't keep in touch with ex-roommate Tom anymore b/c he could use this one, it's good. John and I have been shopping for a new bedspread/duvet cover since April. So more than 6 months and many, many stores of shopping with no luck. Keep in mind, I'm in malls all day long every day so I've looked at pretty much all retail locations, plus we've visiting Bed Bath and Beyond, Linens and Things, etc. with no luck at all. I don't understand how there aren't more options for young couples looking for bedroom linens - I'm pretty sure John and I are not the only people under 30 living together looking for something that's nice and appropriate (that doesn't offend either of us). All we've found are florals, ugly prints and scary fabrics aside from cute pink ones that John doesn't want. Any advice / suggestions would be very welcome.

This is a nice list from IMDb - I like Netflix lists but this is a nice change - I like the explaination of their system at the bottom, too. John was telling me about this movie, SLC Punk!, yesterday. Has anyone heard of it? I feel like I may like it considered my position on Utahians...

Check out this site for cool tips on Minneapolis' scene. It's fun :)

Joe V

I IMed with Mr. Joe Vanhooser tonite - I'm just telling you all because I know you'll be jealous. Since he sucks at keeping in touch, I'll tell you all to write him letters (let me know if you want his address) and add him to your MSN IM joevanhooser@hotmail.com list because he's been on a few times lately. He's doing well, on a ship most of the time, and had a huge c*** compared to the rest of the inhabitants of Japan. That's most of the news I got from him...

Second try

So I'm redoing my blog - during yesterday's writing I my computer spontaneously restarted thus my blog was not saved. I'll do my best to redo it just as well this time :)

Right now, I'm watching She's All That and reminiscing about the endless hours that Heather sucked me into watching this genre of movies. By the way, am I wrong in saying that this is exactly the same movie as 10 Things I Hate About You and they must've come out within a year or two of each other? I'm now going to link the movie to the sites but haven't yet looked at the dates - but I'm betting a dollar they're within 2 years. This one may get the edge because of Usher though :)

Thank you to Christina and Michael for turning me onto Daily Candy - I like it a lot :) And the fact that the Nokia fashion line of phones is advertising on the site (I'm using the 7610 right now). The newsletter showed me this card designer - super fun. I like the World Champions set.

I hope everyone had a good Christmas - for the first time in my 25 Christmases, I didn't celebrate with my family. But John and I had a good time. We went to Big P**** Matt's family's house on Christmas Eve in Worcester. On Christmas Day, we opened stockings, made breakfast, opened presents, and the played with our presents (My top present - a very nice Kenneth Cole largish handbag - thank you John) until about 2pm when we left to go skiing. We went to Wachusett near Worcester which wasn't huge but good enough for a girl who got new skiis for Christmas. And with $8 discount/ticket with our AAA cards we were happy campers :)

On run #1, John and I went to the Blue runs which was a big mistake. I went the wrong way, went way way way too fast, and crashed a couple of times before making it to the bottom about 10 minutes after John. He was scared I died but I didn't - I was just very flustered. So we headed to the little green runs where I did very good :) Not kidding, I wasn't horrible. We ended the night with the blue runs, this time I made it :) Yeah, I'm turning into a skiier.

Side note - the crowd was half families, half Asian people trying to ski. A weird mix until John reminded me that the only restaurants open on Christmas Day are the Chinese ones (remember from the You'll Shoot Your Eye out movie) so it makes since that Asian people that don't own restaurants are not working and not celebrating Christmas so why not ski. With this theory, it seemed like there should have been an overflow of Jews skiing as well but this was not the case. Discuss among yourselves.

Unfortunately, I haven't seen any movies this Christmas season - but I saw Meet the Fockers topped the box office. Who saw what and what was good? Anybody heard anything about Hotel Rwanda? This article was interesting, written by the author. I feel like Michael will know something about it? yes?

The Amazing Internet, again

I listened to a program on NPR today and meant to write down a website mentioned but didn't. I got home tonite and was able to go the public radio website, find the program, find the segment, and listen to the show. How cool is that? I was once again incredibly impressed with the internet. Good work NPR. Here's the segment I re-listened to - about vodka marketing, fun.

The website referred to was Fark.com which is sort of a news-of-the-weird site I guess? I liked this article I found there. Please note the comment that "Jesus would have done the same thing". Yeah...

The NPR discussion involved a caller that shared the news that running cheap ass plastic bottle through a Brita filter several times will make it "indistinguishable" from top shelf. Finding this idea to be a good one if true, I googled it and found out that apparently I didn't get the memo on this one (or about the TPS report) but lots of people have been testing this theory. Not sure if I trust their research or if I need to conduct my own or at least have a testamonial from someone I know who tests this - any volunteers?

Finally, I'm blogging while watching Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I'm finding it as unenjoyable as Adaptation, the last movie I quit watching half-way through. I'm disappointed because I had a couple of people told me this was good but I'm not feeling it. Lo siento.

WI

You may have seen this article - the thing I noticed was the fact that cigs and beer were buried with him. Gotta love classy Wisconsin. Wow...

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

I'm sure you're excited about the announcement that JK Rowling has finished book 6 and sent it to the publisher. Yeah! Rumors are it will be released in July 05. There are lot and lots of fun rumors / confirmed facts about book 6 here. I don't have a lot of ideas about who the half-blood prince is - maybe a new character? Please comment with your ideas. My thoughts are the Ron and Hermione hook up, and that Ginny and Harry hook up.

Also let me reiterate that my friends like Harry Potter, don't drink white wine at busy bars, and like to receive postcards. If you're don't fall within these guidelines, you'd better think about changing :) BTW, I have a bad feeling Michael doesn't ready HP - can you confirm/deny this, Michael?

The Pill

So not unlike the Walmart documentary that I enjoyed on CNBC last month, I tonite enjoyed a PSB documentary on The Pill. A lot of the research for the pill was in MA (go MA) which is surprising because any form of contraception in the 50s was illegal, mostly b/c MA is so Catholic. It then segwayed (sp?) into the Pill empowering women - which I'd heard before but it talked specifically about women being able to be doctors and lawyers post-pill since women wouldn't get pregnant during residency or mid-trial. Also that when the pill first started it was super super strong and thus had lots of side effects so women started lobbying Congress to have more research done - which then got women involved in politics. Two "empowering women with the pill" stories I hadn't heard before. Just thought I'd share this all w/ you. The show was fun - check your local schedule. Here's the website.

The only other thing to comment on tonite is the fact that is is currently 7 degrees in Boston. Which is super big news for Boston - I think it got below 32 for only 4 or 5 days last winter. But it will warm up for Christmas, yeah.

Hodge Podge

First of all, congrats to Alicia on her new blog. It's sweet.

I got a new coffee table today - yeah! Plus I know a mover who brought it up to my house and unwrapped it :) Thank goodness for the hefty PB discount.

Book recommendation - my book club book this month - Seduction of Water. I like it quite a bit and it gets good reviews.

As I've consistently stated, warranties from retailers are a big fat rip-off. Here's the proof.

And last but certainly not least, as some of you were notifed via urgent texting, John Pohl has been found. After graduation, he played for the Worcester Ice Cats AHL league, then last year he played 1 game for the St. Louis Blues but was not to be found after that one game last October. This year, as posted earlier on the blog, he was still missing but I found his brother :) I now tracked him down with the help of Sid Hartman (and my dad notifying me of Sid's article) and he's come back to me in Mass. Woo who. I'm planning on attending a game sooner than later and wearing my Minnesota sweatshirt and having us fall in love and live happily ever after. Oh wait, I already have a John :)

That's all for now - except for the countdown to my birthday which now stands at 7 days, 2 hours. Car rentals here I come.

Liquor ads and the Amish

I've noticed a lot of hard liquor advertisements on TV in the last few weeks - I'm sure with the holiday season that's the reason. And this got me thinking about if there had been a rule about hard liqour ads and this was what I found. Interesting... PS The facts are only from an anti-drinking advocacy group b/c I couldn't find that info anywhere else. I also couldn't find past years spending vs. this year but I think it's gone up a lot, my laymen point of view.

By the way, I really want liquor to be spelled liqour but it's not. Just thought you'd like to know.

And on a (non)related note, just in case you have an Amish wedding in your future - here are some tips on dressing and gift-giving. Don't ask how I found this but I find it ironic that a website gives such specific instructions on these things considering that most Amish wedding participants and attendees would also be Amish and thus don't use the internet. Or do they? I don't think it's allowed.

By the way www.ehow.com is fun - lots of funny step-by-step directions. I like this one.

Collards

As I have, I'm sure you've debated what collard greens are. Are collards a specific type of greens, or can you "collard" any greens. Turns out collard greens are a loose definition for a group of greens - most people cook them before serving. Check this for more info... Now you can sleep soundly knowing this information. Obviously very important, crucial information for day-to-day life.

Let me know your opinion - are this site and this site sketchy or legit? I'm undecided...

Scary supreme justice rumors

This sounds scary - a method to get Bush's boys into the Supreme Court when the time comes.

And fun trivia:

Last week, President Bush nominated Jim Nicholson to succeed Anthony J. Principi as Secretary of Veterans Affairs. In what year was the Department of Veterans Affairs established as a Cabinet department?
1930
1946
1971
1989

Correct Answer
The Department of Veterans Affairs was established on March 15, 1989, following legislation passed and signed by President Reagan. The department replaced the prior Veterans Administration that was created by an Executive Order signed by President Hoover in 1930.

I thought for sure it would be 1946. But it was not '46 or '20 both of which I thought they'd probably be...

Regis

Any guesses on how old Regis Philbin is? We started discussing this at book club last night, because he is getting forgetful and misspeaks on Live all the time. More than usual as of late, I've noticed.

Oh, that could be because he is 73. That is old. No surprise that he called cashmere socks argyle socks on the show the other day. Not that they're at all the same but makes since cause he's wicked old. Just an FYI for you.

Secondly, as I explained to Alicia today, I developed a crush via the phone today. I called Cingular's customer service re: voicemail issues and ended up talking to this boy for 20 minutes. He had a cute, not dumb-sounding accent, so I asked and found out he was from Oklahoma City. I told him he had a very nice accent. I then realized I was coming on to the call center rep. Oops. He was nice and we chatted for a while. I'm pretty sure he's a cowboy and looks like Luke Perry is 8 Seconds. In a good way. It was fun.

Lo siento

Lo siento for my absence. I haven't got much but this is fun - trivia + chance to win money = good

Check it

http://clients-00.eprize.net/bestwestern/highspeed/

Better than Febreeze?

Could this be better than Febreeze? Doubtful but possible. Someone try and let me know :)

And this reminds me of Bejota - golf + computer geek = Bejota
Golfer's gag gift
When your golf buddy is a tad better than you, you need the competitive advantage of Goof Balls ($10, Gander Mountain stores). The easily lost camouflage-colored balls add strokes to a scratch player's game. Hackers everywhere smile.

Dreams do come true

Ohmigod! My dreams would all come true if only they would build a modern, build-crappy-in-3-months-apartment-building right next to this and I could live there- MOA + waterpark + my house right next to each other = complete bliss.

Work begins on water park near Mall of America
December 16, 2004
Star Tribune
Bloomington is the home of the nation's largest shopping mall and soon it will boast the nation's largest indoor water park, with an adjacent hotel.
Two cranes were moved into place Wednesday as construction on the Water Park of America began on the site of the former Decathlon Club at 1700 E. 79th St., near the Mall of America.
When it opens in the spring of 2006, the $100 million recreation-hotel complex built by Wirth Companies of Minneapolis will eclipse the Wisconsin Dells' Kalahari Resort as the nation's largest. It will have an estimated 125,000 square feet of space.
Sporting a North Shore of Lake Superior theme, the Bloomington park will have the highest indoor slides in the nation (10 stories), a surf rider simulating kayaking and wake-boarding and a wave pool. It also will have a climbing wall, video arcade and food court.

Oh wait...