What I saw tonight was enough to make me break my blogging silence with a big scream of OHMYGOD!!!!!!!
Donny has been hanging in there on DWTS. It’s down to five couples now and one of them will go home Tuesday night. I love Donny Osmond and I love watching his dancing. He’s just got fabulous talent as an entertainer, even if he makes mistakes with the steps. Tonight everyone had to do two dances… one ballroom and one latin. Additionally, the latin dances had a theme of a decade: 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and future. Donny drew 80s and danced the Paso Doble. Oh. My. God. He dressed as Adam Ant for the dance, complete with Prince Charming costume and face paint. Does it get any better than this for me?? The answer is no. No, it does not. I think he got a score of 23 from the judges, but I was sure to get online with my votes this week and a friend of mine even went to vote because it was just too much awesome to ignore. I know Adam is honored to have been represented in the 80s themed dance. Now if we can just get him to be one of the celebrities on the show, that would be my ultimate wish.
I haven’t been able to get any video or even still shots yet, but when I do, I’ll edit this post so that everyone can share in the wonder!
I can’t believe I haven’t posted this recipe yet. It’s so simple and so GOOD!!
Two bags frozen corn
One stick margarine
8 ounce block of cream cheese
3 tablespoons chopped jalapenos (more or less according to taste)
Put the corn into a slow cooker. Cut the margarine and cream cheese into smaller chunks and add to corn. Add chopped jalapenos and some of the juice from the jar, if desired. Stir it all up and let heat on high heat for 2 to 3 hours until hot and melted. Stir occasionally.
A couple of days ago, I got a phone call from my Honda Dealer. They want to buy my Civic and sell me a new car. It was a sales gimmick, but I’ll consider it. Heh. He said they need more used cars on the lot because they mostly got cleaned out during the Cash for Clunkers program. Other stuff, too, like it’s worth more now than six months ago, 2009 closeout is going on with good deals, etc.
Remember back in April I wanted to get a Honda Fit? Maybe I should talk to them again and see what happens. I don’t think we’ve paid down our current car loans enough and we surely can’t give any cash down payment. But shoot, what would it hurt to go talk to the guy. I’m sort of impressed that he actually picked up the phone to talk to me directly about it. At least it wasn’t just a bulk mail card.
My hairdresser died yesterday. That probably doesn’t sound like much, but Debbie was special. I met her for the first time in 1977 when I was 17. She gave me a Farrah cut. It was the beginning of a lasting friendship. Until Debbie got sick with cancer almost three years ago, she was the only one who had ever touched my hair. For almost 30 years! While she was first having her cancer treatments, another of the ladies did my hair. But then Debbie was back for quite awhile. It’s only in the last few weeks that she stopped working.
The reason Debbie was so special to me is because she was almost the only constant factor in my life during those decades. Husbands, friends, jobs, houses… even family… would come and go. But there was always Debbie. I knew all about her life and she knew all about mine. Any time I walked into her shop, it was like being home with a good friend.
I’m very sad that she’s gone and I’m going to miss her dreadfully. But the cancer was an enormous battle for her to fight and I’m glad it’s over for her.
Season 9 of Dancing with the Stars premiered tonight and I managed not to forget about it. Only the men danced tonight, with the women dancing tomorrow night. I don’t even know who the women are yet, but I did see Derek Hough and Mark Ballas, which is a good thing. But… I imagine this season will be all about Donny Osmond.
I had high expectations for Donny and he absolutely came through! It’s going to be so much fun watching him this season. I really do believe he’s got a shot to go all the way to the finals. The critique from the judges tonight was that he needs to tone down the performance side and focus on the dance itself. His scores for the foxtrot were 7, 6, and 7. Solid scores for the first dance. Then he did the salsa in what they called a “relay” where four couples danced one after the other to the same song and the judges ranked them from highest to lowest. In Donny’s group, he ranked first in the relay and it was awesomeness!
Let’s watch Donny and Kym dance. (I found a better one.)
Squeeeeee!!!! Donny Osmond will be on this season of Dancing With The Stars! Woo hoo!!! It just doesn’t get better than this. Well, if Adam Ant would come on the show, that might be better, but anything else wouldn’t be worthy.
Y’all had to endure my weekly postings about Gilles Marini and now you will have to endure them about Donny Osmond. I love Donny, and I’ve always loved Donny. He’s an entertainer and he can dance. So, I’ve got high hopes for him to make it at least to the semi-finals.
I think most of my favorite professional dancers aren’t coming back this season. Like Julianne and Derek Hough and Mark Ballas. I haven’t seen anything about them being on the show this time. I’ll miss them. But hey! Maks will be back and he’s always fun to watch.
The season starts next Monday, September 21, 2009. Probably at 7:00 p.m. for three nights for the season premier. You MUST watch!!
I want to express my sorrow on the loss of Patrick Swayze today. He lost his battle with pancreatic cancer and died peacefully. My favorite character played by Patrick is Johnny Castle in Dirty Dancing. If you haven’t seen that movie, please watch it. It’s one of my all time favorite movies. Naturally, all of the Dirty Dancing videos on YouTube have embedding disabled, so I’ll have to make do with just a photo.
You know how sometimes things just spin downward into a cycle of doom? Yeah, that’s what’s happening with my stupid glasses. From the beginning:
I got my eyes checked and got new prescriptions for everyday glasses and a pair of computer glasses. The optical shop at my eye doctor’s office made the everyday glasses, which have progressive lenses. That’s where you’ve got distance, mid-range, and reading vision all in one high-tech cool lens. I also ordered them as Transitions so that they will darken when I’m outside and don’t have my sunglass clips. Brown tint, thank you.
The new glasses arrive and there’s a problem with my reading vision. I can’t see to read very well, nor can I see to do my counted cross stitch. Back to the doctor and the optical shop for a recheck. Turns out both the doctor and the lab made mistakes. Doctor rewrites the prescription, changes the reading distance, and the lab makes new lenses.
Second set of lenses arrive and are inserted into my frames. *sigh* The placement of the mid-range vision is too high and interferes with my driving. I have to tip my head down in order to see distance and that’s all wrong. Shouldn’t have to do that. Plus, the Transitions tint is gray instead of brown. Gah! Back to the optical shop and the doctor. Optical shop says it’s their fault (the lab anyway) and they will fix it. I don’t have to see the doctor.
Third set of lenses arrives. Surely this is about to be over. I can immediately tell that the right lens is completely wonky. The reading part is on the wrong side and everything looks slanted and off-kilter to me. The technician makes some notes and says they’ll have the lab make the lens again and sends me on my way. While I’m running errands, I notice that the left lens is tinted brown and the right lens is tinted gray. I shit you not. I called the optical shop to tell them about it and turns out the guy making some notes was screwed up because they have to measure my eyes again to have the lens made again. So, I turn around and go back to the optical shop for the second time that day. They put the old right lens back in because the new one is just too wonky. Stupid technician boy is gone to lunch and they can’t find the old left lens, so I again have one brown lens and one gray lens. They promise that all will be well on the FOURTH set of lenses, which have been put on a rush so I’ll get them maybe by the end of the month.
FOUR sets of lenses on this one pair of glasses. FOUR!!! Really, are you people KIDDING ME????
I still use stamps to mail a couple of bills every month. Mostly because of my chronic nostalgia, but whatever. And good grief. Every time I try to buy stamps on the post office’s website, it gets all screwed up. Either it won’t let me log in (because they always want wonky passwords and I always forget about that) and I have to get my password reset, or it won’t accept my Visa debit card because it doesn’t have a mailing address or some crap, or the website is simply down. I’m trying to buy stamps right this moment and so far I’ve hit the login wall. I’ve just gotten the new password, logged in with it, and changed to my new password. Let’s see what happens.
*pause while transaction is attempted*
After updating my password, I was taken to the login screen again. Attempted login using new password. Failed. Attempted login again with new password. Received error message:”The Postal Store is currently experiencing problems. Please try again later.”
*pause while new page is opened and login is attempted again*
Oh wow. I’m logged in. Ok, moving forward for stamp purchase. Going for two books this time so I don’t have to use the USPS website again for a long time.
*pause while transaction is attempted*
I put in a quantity of 2 and somehow there’s an extra line item in my cart for another book of stamps when I update. How did that happen when it wouldn’t allow me to login earlier? Fine. I’ll just delete the one I don’t want.
*pause while transaction is finalized*
Well, I’ll be! It worked. It actually accepted my Visa debit card time time… probably because it’s a brand new card that I just got because of some fraud thing that my bank found. Alrighty then. Stamps are on the way. Wooty tooty!
Sorry about being so terribly lame lately. Things in the real world sometimes get a little wonky. Plus, I have almost no creativity and run out of things to say. Tis true.
My lack of creativity and imagination has really kicked me in the butt with The Sims 3. One of the things you can do in the game is design and build houses. There are some very clever people out there who are building really awesome things and letting the rest of us share them. I am totally not one of the clever ones. I can’t even build a plain square house. Seriously. I tried and I just couldn’t do it. As a result, I’m generally fascinated by people who have artistic or musical talent. They make it look so easy, but for me it’s completely impossible. I can follow directions quite well, which has allowed me to do some craft work in my life and it’s been mistaken for creativity. Trust me, it’s not. I’m just following a pattern and doing exactly what it says.
I was afraid that my days away from the blog would tank the readership and I was very pleasantly suprised to find that there are still a good deal of people who are interested in the Altima rims and baby parakeets. And the Batman post got some hits, too.
Rachel left a funny little comment pointing out that I haven’t posted anything in 5 days and I must be in my Sims 3 world. Yes, I confess. I’m really enjoying the game and, frankly, there’s nothing good to write about here anyway. It’s just too damn hot and I’ll be glad to see summer end, like always. I got to see the new Harry Potter movie yesterday and I enjoyed that, too. I read some comments on YouTube and apparently a lot of people didn’t like it. I thought it was good. *shrug*
Good grief. I discovered The Sims 3 a couple of weeks ago. Now I own the game and I can’t stop playing it. It’s so bad that I’ve started a whole new blog just for that story. Although it’s crazy fascinating to me, I realize that it will probably bore most of you to tears. It could be worse, though. Hubby has to live with me. Hehe.
I’m from the Old School method of typing education: two spaces after sentence-ending punctuation. Always. I took many typing and business classes in the 1970s and the proper spacing for punctuation was branded into my brain. Branded, I say!
All writers on the JIG website recently got an email from Jay asking us to use only one space after periods. He said it is the current correct protocol, it was updated from two spaces awhile back, and it’s best for the site to use one space because the second space gets stripped off and they pile up in archives and eat up band width. Excuse me?? Oh, a battle ensued, believe me. There are apparently many of us who just cannot fathom spacing only once at the end of a sentence. And it’s physically impossible to stop our thumbs from hitting the space bar that second time. It just feels so wrong.
I did a little research, and sure enough, we no longer should use two spaces. It’s outdated and unnecessary. Even my college professor sister confirmed this horrifying change in typing etiquette. But I just don’t know if I can do it. It feels like the fabric of the universe will come unraveled if I don’t put that second space in after my sentences. They probably get stripped off in my blog just like they do with JIG, but still. I obey Jay’s rules about using one space when I’m working on JIG, but nowhere else so far. I try, but it just feels so dirty and wrong.
I guess I’ll have to try harder because I’ve always tried to be correct in these areas. But if you see that sweet second space in my writing, don’t judge. Heh.
I went to Walgreens tonight to pick up a prescription and get some toiletry items. Let me say here that I love Walgreens and we’ve been going steady ever since I broke up with Eckerd’s many years ago. I almost never have a bad experience at Walgreens.
Tonight’s experience wasn’t bad. It was more funny than anything. I had gotten my items except for the prescription, some Breathe Right strips, and replacement heads for my electric toothbrush. Of course the prescription will be behind the counter, but the other two items surprised me. The toothbrush heads were on the shelf, but they were under lock and key! No easy brush heads for you!! And the Breathe Right strips had been removed from the shelf and there was a note in their place that said to ask for assistance. Do what?
I caught an employee who was walking down the aisle and asked what I should do. He directed me to the big green manager button, which I then pushed. I immediately heard the PA system say that a manager is needed in dental. Heh. She arrived quickly and unlocked the toothbrush heads for me, no problem. Then I asked her about the Breathe Right strips. She said they were locked up in the back because they are a high theft item. *snicker* What? Yeah, people swipe them from the shelves and then sell them at Trader’s Village (a local flea market). *more snickering* What? Yeah, so their new Loss Prevention guy locks them up in the back. They leave out the store brand strips because they suck and don’t work and I guess there’s no black market business for them. *snorfle* And why don’t they steal every other item on Walgreens’ shelves? Why just the Breathe Right strips? Oh, and I guess the toothbrush heads. At that point, I wasn’t about to ask about them.
She also clarified that, while some over-the-counter medications have been moved to behind-the-counter because of State regulations because kids buy this stuff and make other drugs, this is not the case with the Breathe Right strips. It’s purely a theft/black market issue. Bwaaaahaaaahaaaa!!!
Coming soon to a black market near you!!
Heaven help me. You can buy these things in bulk on Amazon.com. Hahahahahahaha!!!! *wheeze*
