Chez Liz

More Politics, Some of it Funny and/or Good News

mlleelizabeth@aol.com — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 05:37:10 GMT

Talking with grlnamedlucifer about the VP debate craziness reminded me I need to try to keep track of the many ways Senator McCain is proving my crackpot theory right. So, here's my current list of ...

John McCain's continuing efforts to throw the 2008 Presidential Race:

- Asking Sarah Palin to be his Veep
- Confusing the SEC and the FEC
- Threatening to fire the Head of the SEC, when he can't do that
- Annoying (and possibly infuriating) Spain
- Claiming the economy is fundamentally sound in the middle of a huge economic meltdown
- Admitting his running mate is unable to debate and arranging special rules for her
- Phil Gramm
- Claiming he's not for bank regulation, when he has been for forever
- Claiming he does not want to privatize Social Security, when that has been one of his main goals for years
- This: "Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation."
- Confusing the National Guard with the Army
- Forgetting how many houses he owns
- Lying (so many times I can't list them all)
- Running attack ads that were so vile even Karl Rove called him out on it
- Publically trashing his major backers over the financial crisis
- Claimed repeatedly last week he intends to reform the fed. Government by throwing out … well, himself.

Am I missing anything?

In other news, on Friday, one of my Republican co-workers insisted to me that a Judge who is refusing to set one of her motions for hearing must be doing it just to be mean and evil because "she is one of the newly elected Democrats." I was like, "Bzuh? She's been on the bench for years!" I was right. The Evil, Mean Judge has been on the bench since 1989. And is a Republican. That's pretty much how things are politically at work. As you can imagine, I feel a little freaked out and frightened by my co-workers these days. Mostly people don't talk about the upcoming election, but there are ugly little notes and newspapers articles left around and when they do talk about it ... oh, boy!

Also, Ahahahahaha! Gotcha, Cheney! He'll probably find some way to wiggle out of it, but it's still nice to see someone in our current government try to uphold the law.

Hurricane Ike/I-ching

mlleelizabeth@aol.com — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 16:00:59 GMT

This is crazy, or even kind of creepy. My I Ching for today was "Creative Power" and this is the image for it:

Friday Five, Project Runway, Top Design

mlleelizabeth@aol.com — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 03:40:28 GMT

thefridayfive:
1. If you were to die today, what would your last words be?
Good bye. Remember I love you all even if I’m not physically here with you. And please vote for Obama.

2. What would you want your epitaph to say?
Liz:
born - 1960; moved on to the next great adventure - 2008.

3. What song would you want played at your funeral?
I would rather my friends have a party and do something fun and adventurous in my honor than have a funeral. However, I understand that funerals are more about the survivors than the deceased, so maybe they could do something funeralish while they are doing something fun and adventurous. I would like the songs to be more comforting to them than anything to do with me. After my grandmother died, I listed to Escape Club’s I’ll be There a lot and it provided me a lot of comfort, so that would probably be my first suggestion.

4. In lieu of flowers, what should loved ones do in your honor?
I wouldn’t object to donations to groups that legitimately promote literacy, especially for minorities or to groups that support equal rights for women. However, I would also be happy if people used the money they’d spend on flowers to do something they haven’t done because they were afraid of trying it.

5. What unfinished business would you wrap up?

If I only have the one day, there’s not a lot I could do. I’d call family members and friends and tell them I love them and pay bills. I’d clean up my home. I’d find a new home for D Kitty. I suspect that would take most of the day. If I had a couple of days, at least, I’d probably either take my dad and go visit my sister or maybe try to get all of us someplace crazy and adventurous in addition to taking care of bills and D Kitty.

Project Runway

My reaction to this episode can pretty much be summed up as: WTF!?!?
That was my reaction to:
- Blayne’s atrocity;
- Keith taking off and napping;
- Kenley’s Mickey Mouse ear dress;
- Kenley interrupting and talking back to Michael Kors;
- Jerrell winning over LeAnne and Korto;
- Suede talking about himself in third person in front of the judges;
- Terri being aufed over Kenley.
I think Blayne’s outfit may be the ugliest thing I have ever seen on this show. And it is in contention for ugliest thing I have seen, ever, as well.

I am still shocked over Kenley’s snotty "I don’t look at collections," remark.

I didn’t really like Terri’s outfit, but I didn’t think it was that awful, either. I also find it ironic that when she strayed away from her usual pants, BOOM! She was aufed!

Top Design

Andrea, if you want to make a name for yourself independently of your somewhat famous husband, perhaps you should shut up about it. Just sayin'

Wisit & Nathan!!! My new Top Design OTP!!! ♥ ♥ ♥

I thought Andrea and Eddie's fallout shelter was nice, but I also think that is mostly due to Eddie.

I didn't dislike Ondine and Preston's shelter and was a little surprised the judges criticized it that much. I do agree that it looked too much like staging and not enough like design.

Jennifer and Robert, on the other hand, deserved the criticism. They didn't follow the instructions. And that divider made the room cramped and small. The idea of each doing their own thing might have sort of worked if their own things had blended better. I figured Robert wouldn't be around long, anyway, just from looking at his portfolio and hearing a bit from him. He seems to be really into detail work, and these competition shows usually feature pretty short time limits that penalize the detail folks. I'm not complaining about that. It's just something people who work slowly and/or meticulously should keep in mind before trying out for one of these shows.

Politics/News

mlleelizabeth@aol.com — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 15:03:22 GMT

I am currently a member of NPR affiliate station KERA. KERA wakes me up every morning and keeps me company throughout the day and I not only enjoy your programming, I have often learned from you and been inspired by you. My respect for NPR makes me feel deeply saddened that I have to send you this email.

Unfortunately, I am beginning to regret my decision to join my local station. The source of my regret is the political bias in your Morning Edition show, especially on the part of Renee Montagne. For the past two weeks, your morning show has been virtually dedicated to covering only the Republican presidential candidates. If Barack Obama and Joe Biden are mentioned at all, it is only briefly and as an afterthought. A brief look at KERA’s main news page shows the incredible degree of bias quite clearly:

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kera/news.newsmain?action=section&SECTION_ID=517

While there are admittedly a few stories regarding Barack Obama on that page, they have been pushed to the bottom and both the station’s and NPR’s extreme right-wing bias are very obvious.

Ms. Montagne has presented several slavering, partisan stories on Sarah Palin during the last two weeks. I have reached the point that I turn my radio off when I hear her voice so that I won’t be subjected to Republican propaganda. She’s been quoting heavily biased polls (the “likely voter” polls, which are basically manipulated statistics and not at all accurate) and breathlessly following that with an enthusiastic lead-in to yet another clip from one of Ms. Palin’s speeches. Listening to this makes my physically ill.

I have continued listening in the mornings only for Mr. Inskeep’s actual reporting of news, Carl Kasell’s news briefs and of course Morning Market Report. I’m afraid I may have to give this up and not only not renew my membership when it comes up, but strongly encourage my friends to do the same, both in person and in my blog.

I’m not asking for biased coverage of the Democratic candidates or of third parties and independents, just that you tone back your pro-Republic stance a bit, cover the Democrats in equal measure and at the very least mention the several third-party and independent candidates occasionally.

I truly hope that you are able to get back on track and resume reporting the news fairly. I have always considered NPR an organization with a great deal of integrity and I would like to continue to do so.

Thank you for your consideration.

cc: KERA

Apologies for the big font, but I'm very excited!

mlleelizabeth@aol.com — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 18:53:29 GMT

The cover article of this week's Parade magazine was written by my sister and has an excerpt of her book!!!!

You can read it online if you don't get the newspaper, but I don't think the online version has the excerpt.

Nightmares, Project Runway, Top Design

mlleelizabeth@aol.com — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:30:08 GMT

I don’t know what happened to NPR, but they’ve gone all Mr. Hyde on me. This morning I had to turn my clock radio off because they kept repeating the most offensive parts of the Palin speech on a continuous loop. Or maybe NPR hasn’t gone as Mr. Hyde as I thought and they’re subversively repeating the worst of it in order to get the sane people who want to help get this country back on its feet all riled up. I know they got me riled up.

After I turned the radio off, I went back to sleep briefly and had a horrible nightmare. In it, there were white fuzzy caterpillars all over my condo ceilings. And one of my bathrooms was completely inoperable. I wanted to spray the caterpillars to kill them, but 1) the bathtub and sink in the inoperable bathroom were overflowing and the shower curtain had fallen down and 2) I was afraid the caterpillars would fall on me and sting me. Then a sudden mutant ladybug infestation started and I woke up abruptly as I was trying to get out of there without touching a caterpillar or ladybug.

What a great challenge!

I find myself wanting to compliment the designers for the fabrics used in almost all the outfits and then stopping when I remember they weren’t responsible for any of them. DVF’s fabrics have always been gorgeous. Actually, I love DVF’s clothes in general and I think the contestants were extremely luck to get to participate in this challenge.

I thought Joe’s was worse than Stella’s, but it was a close call. I think I may have preferred Stella’s because I absolutely hated the hot pink belt part of Joe’s. It seemed to clash with the top. Also, I hated the open back and it looked like it was just thrown together by a beginning sewer. Stella’s had some problems, but the idea behind it really was pretty decent.

Blayne’s out fit, with the knickers and jacket was just ... I don’t know. He doesn’t seem to like long pants in general. And his designs just come off as questionable to me. I think he’s just too out there somehow.

Jerrell is kind of hit or miss for me and this week was a miss. The proportions made his model look frumpy, the hat was just silly and the belt doesn’t really go with the textures or colors of the outfit and just sticks out badly.

I wasn’t as crazy about Kenley’s as the judges were. I didn’t like the fabric she chose as much as the other fabrics used and it just seemed a little blah to me.

I agree with the judge’s on Suede’s. It wasn’t awful, but it didn’t fit the model correctly and the vest had nothing to do with the dress.

I thought Terr’s should have been in the top 3. I loved the pants and coat. The shirt was just okay, but the other two pieces were enough to but it ahead of Kenley’s for me.

I loved Korto’s dress and I thought it was a serious contender for the win. I especially love that she took Tim’s advice and put the yellow in the skirt. I think she is started to get really annoyed with coming in second. I think we may get some drama from her soon.

LeAnne is turning into a serious front-runner. I did love her outfit. I am so happy she won. And I think she has both an innovative style and the technical ability to make her innovative designs look professional and polished.

Overall this was a pretty good episode.

This show may have been the source of part of that nightmare. There was an overflowing sink in it that may have popped up as the overflowing bathtub in my dream.

It’s too early, of course, for me to be sure which designers I like and dislike. From initial impressions, however, I think I adore Wisit and like Eddie, Kerry and Ondine. I’m fairly sure Shazia won’t be around long. She seems to be in way over her head. Andrea stands out a lot and she’s either going to just be very good or be extremely annoying. I’m a bit sorry Serge is gone, as I thought he was a cutie and I think compared to Shazia he was pretty good. He may have mostly concentrated on the floor, but it was installed correctly and you can’t say that everything he attempted got screwed up, which you can say about Shazia.

Wank-Style Politics

mlleelizabeth@aol.com — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 15:44:11 GMT

Does cancelling an interview and refusing to appear on a cable channel because they were Big Meanies count as a flounce? I think it counts as a minor flounce, but not a ~Grand Flounce~.

So far we have had sockpuppeting on Wikipedia , and now this flounce (and a near-miss with Snacky’s Law). I am still on the lookout for claims it was all a social experiment, the appearance of a Super Nanny, fake original artwork, soulbonding or astral plane marriages and accusations of password/identity theft.

Am I leaving anything out?
ETA:
LULZ! The ~~Mean Girls~~Media won’t leave them alone! *Waaaah*

My Most Expensive Bus Ride This Year

mlleelizabeth@aol.com — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:28:58 GMT

This morning was not a good start to the work week.

I slept late - just 2 minutes, but that’s enough to mess up my routine sometimes. By the time I was dressed and in the kitchen, I had just about 1 minute to get my stuff together and leave. So no coffee for me this morning. I ran out the door to the bus stop and the bus was pulling up. As I boarded, I realized I’d left my Monthly Pass for September in its envelope on the shelf by my front door. The bus driver was my usual driver, and he’s a great guy and he knows I always have a pass, plus his money-taker was out of service, so he said, “It’s okay – just go sit.” When I got to Mockingbird Station there was a big crowd at the stop fo the 21 bus, which meant the early bus was late, so I ran over to the ticket machine in hopes of buying a ticket before it pulled up. The machine took my $20 (which was all I had) and then beeped at me, impatiently. The bus pulled up. I finally realized the ticket machine was telling me it had no change. I tried pressing cancel and it didn’t work, so I ended up pushing the “authorize overpayment” button. Then my $20 day pass and I boarded the bus.

Things have been okay since I got here.

*knocks on wood* *crosses fingers and toes*

Political Volunteering

mlleelizabeth@aol.com — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:31:48 GMT

Volunteering didn't go as expected.

In fact, this whole day didn't go as expected. I had a funny I-Ching throw this morning, that didn't make much sense to me. Tonight, looking back on this day, it makes perfect sense. The throw was "Decrease." I couldn't imagine at the beginning of the day what I would lose today, but the most interesting thing is that the source I use for I-Ching interprets Decrease not so much as loss, but as the path to increase. In short, the atmosphere has to absorb water from the lakes and rivers before it can produce rain to replenish them.

So, I left my bag with my MP3 player in it in a friend's car and had to do without it at the gym this morning. That meant I couldn't drift away in my music and instead spent the hour thinking, hard. When I left the gym I forgot to get my key from the front desk. I haven't figured out how I really benefited from this, except in that I had to do a little extra walking to get the key back, so I got some more exercise.

Then when I arrived at the voter registration event, there was no one there. I waited from 1:30 to 2:15 and only met two other volunteers -- no one organizing the event. The other volunteers were pretty cool, though, and there's an anime con going on so I ran into some really great cos players. I gave up at 2:15 and headed home. On the way back at Mockingbird Station I came across a really nice SMU exchange student who lives across the street from me and was completely confused about the bus routes and schedules and the layout of our area. So I drew her a map and explained the bus schedule, and we rode home from the station together.

When I got home I decided not to be upset about the non-event, and instead emailed the person supposedly organizing it and said I'd be glad to help at other events or in any other way I can. She emailed back immediately, explaining that she had attempted to put an ongoing exhortation to folks to go register voters at this particular DART station, not hold an event herself. She also told me about some upcoming organized events and asked if she could pass my information along to my precinct chairman. I said yes. And I've heard back, very quickly. So, not much volunteering today, but lots in the future and having nothing has led to having a lot!

Speaking of voting, my silly poll is still going on. Please vote!

Another Important Update -- My Sister's Book!!!

mlleelizabeth@aol.com — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 15:19:48 GMT

A month and a weekend from now, on September 29, my sister’s book will hit the shelves!

Here’s a link to the website for her book and here is a Wall Street Journal article about it by Jeffrey Trachtenberg. And here is her author facebook page.

I know I have obvious sister bias, but I genuinely think it is a wonderful book. It is not a stale, boring book about accounting or business management, but a fascinating, in-depth look at a man of tremendous influence.

I am so proud of you, A!!!

Something Important for a Change

mlleelizabeth@aol.com — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:15:08 GMT

Move On is hosting/promoting a voter registration drive in Dallas this weekend. I'm going to help out at Union Station, and would love to have anyone local join me, but there are also other places and times where we can help.

I'm sure there are similar events going on in other cities throughout Texas. I hope that, if you are a Texan, you will consider participating. And if you're not a Texan, please pass this info along to any Texans you may have on your flist. And of course, please consider helping out wherever you are.

Texas has long been considered a gimme for the the farthest right of the Neocons. However, the last election we held here, while a local election, went solidly Democrat. I have seen some indications that the Neocons and hatemongers don't consider Texas quite so much of a gimme anymore.

I think that if we work hard enough, we can turn things around in this state. At the very least, we can make the Thugs devote considerable resources in terms of time and money and turn this state into a battleground state. I honestly believe we can do more than that and help elect Obama and many other progressives.

Pass it on!

DNC, Fitness, Activities

mlleelizabeth@aol.com — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:22:27 GMT

Joshua Green of The Atlantic apparently watched a completely different speech by Hillary Clinton last night than the one I saw. I am boggled by this review of her speech. I thought she was marvelous and impassioned.

I did have to laugh over Green’s description of Dennis Kucinich (a man I greatly admire) as a “meth-addled smurf.” He was bouncing around a bit.

After watching Senator Clinton’s speech I left the room my TV is in and went back in my office to goof around on the computer. I could still hear the TV and it sounded like the MSNBC folks were screaming at each other. I distinctly heard a gentleman screeching and shouting about Joe Biden. I’m kind of sorry I missed seeing it, as it sounded like the posturing before a wrestling match.

On an even more humorous note, someone playing Sims 2 Apartment Life has posted on the thesims2 comm about a very funny glitch they’ve had.

Last night my trainer took my measurements for the first time since the end of April. I’m a little disappointed that I’ve only lost 1 /2 inch from my upper arms and maybe 2 inches from my bust. But I’ve lost 3 1 /2 inches off my hips, 2 3/4 off my thighs and 5 off my waist. They got a new scale at the end of July and when I weighed on it my weight was actually up 5 pounds so I was depressed and didn’t weigh again until last night. Fortunately those 5 pounds were gone, but unfortunately that was it in terms of pounds lost. But at least I am moving in the right direction again.

More importantly, my range of motion and ability to move (especially walking) have increased exponentially over the last month. I’m hoping that and that little bit of weight loss mean my metabolism will kick up and I’ll make more progress this fall.

I need to be more active, in general, not just work out more. I’m planning on getting back into gardening this fall. I’d like to plant some rose bushes on my patio and clean up some of the junky stuff that is out there. And I need to do some weeding. But I’m looking for some other non-sedentary activities to take up, as well. I like crafting, but it’s pretty darned sedentary. Reading and movies are, as well. I’ll think of something.

Project Runway

mlleelizabeth@aol.com — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 18:15:50 GMT

Hmmm. No Friday Five so far today.

Project Runway

This episode truly was fabulous. It was great to see Chris March back, in his element and without any human hair-embellished clothing. Tim had some great lines. There were some meh outfits, but there were also some awesome outfits, as well as some awesome models.

I thought Blayne’s turned out better than expected, except for the drooping “wings.” He still annoys me enough that I want to smack him, though. Suede actually interviewed without speaking about himself in the third person! Shocking! Maybe the emotional distress of being called lazy by his model pushed him over the edge. I liked Joe’s outfit quite a lot, but not as much as the judges did. And I attribute most of what was great about it to his model’s suggestions. But it was nice to see him relax and have fun and also exhibit a bit of personal growth. Keith will be gone soon, if he doesn’t do something other than fringe. I hated the green Jerrell used and thought that outfit was not up to his usual interestingness. Kenley’s silver glam number was nicely made, but just didn’t stand out enough. Leanne’s looked better on the runway than it does on rate the runway, but it’s still just passable. If there hadn’t already been a valid bottom 3, I might have put her outfit there. I wouldn’t auf her, but it was kind of borderline ick. I really don’t have much to say about Stella’s outfit. It was kind of middle-of-the-road okay to me. I just don’t care for her leather much, anyway. And then there was Terri’s out fit, which was awesome and amazing, if a little mind-boggling. I just barely rate it second from the top, because it looked more weird-costumey than drag queeny to me. I thought Korto should have won. Her dress was amazing and it made her model very happy. Finally, Daniel was the correct designer to auf in my opinion and I am not at all sad to see him gone. His designs are not good, he’s obnoxious and defensive and his dress for this challenge missed the mark by a mile. What makes that even sadder is that a latin-flamenco drag queen dress could have been truly awesome.

mlleelizabeth@aol.com — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:02:01 GMT

I created a Shelfari account today. Looks like fun, maybe? Anyone else using it?

Weirdness, Workout & Diet Stuff, More (Weather) Weirdness

mlleelizabeth@aol.com — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:26:50 GMT

When I just tried to open www.livejournal.com a few moments ago, I got nothing but someone's icon with a really ugly female Sim and the text, "This is my happy face, bitch." I have no idea what that was about. When I hit refresh, LJ came up.

Happy news: I made it through 5 minutes on the stairmaster tonight. I thought I was going to die at one point, but I did it. Also, I figured out something to make tuna salad work. I was a fan of the kind with mayo (I know, I know, gross!) and I'm okay with a little vinaigrette, but tonight I used tzatziki sauce and it is perfect! I have that and a spinach, arugula and baby greens (plus some microgreens) salad and a little of the spinach & artichoke hummus and spelt flatbread I had yesterday for dinner. Yum! D Kitty's happy cause he got some tuna.

It is raining and 76 degrees in north Texas in mid-August. I haven't seen any pigs go flying by yet, but maybe the cooler temperatures are because Hell froze over???

Oh -- and I got some new pants today that are the exact same favorite pants I took to my sister's wedding in April, only they are 4 sizes smaller. And they fit!

Weekend, Olympics

mlleelizabeth@aol.com — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:26:48 GMT

After Friday’s diversions, I ended up totally wrecking my weekend. I didn’t work out on Saturday at all. Spent the day having a headache and kicking and hating myself, instead. Then I ordered one of those new whole-wheat crust pizzas from Pappa John’s. It was not very good. Actually, it was kind of awful. I also ate a brownie. But at least the brownie was good. Then I stayed up until almost 4:00 a.m. watching two Russian women play for the tennis gold medal. Of course, I slept in on Sunday after that, and then couldn’t get to sleep last night. The only good things I did were going to Central Market for some very healthy groceries and cooking up a bunch of chicken breasts. Now I am exhausted, but determined to be good and treat myself well this week to make up for it. I know one weekend won’t wreck my previous hard work, but I’m still mad at myself, especially since I don’t feel good as a result of what I did and didn’t do.

I did watch a little Olympics besides that tennis match. I saw parts of the women’s marathon, the men’s 100 in track (wowza!) and lots of gymnastics last week. Watching Michael Phelps win his eighth gold was exciting. I was very impressed with the whole team on that relay. They were all incredible. And those new suits have changed the sport of swimming forever. I kind of feel like all the new world and olympic records should have asterisks beside them, because it doesn’t seem right to compare the pre-new-suit records to all of those set this year and onward. However, if I never see another beach volleyball match again in my life, that will be fine with me. It seems like every single time I turn the TV on, there is hours of beach volleyball.

Horoscopes, Fannish 5, Berries/Berry Recipes

mlleelizabeth@aol.com — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 16:54:40 GMT

Is today a bit gray, ELIZABETH? It is very likely. You won't be able to see how you can get out of your current situation. You may have some financial or physical problems at the moment. If this is the case, it is because you don't rely enough on your own abilities and good sense to pull you through. Of course, it is possible that you don't take care of your body as well as you should, but that's easily remediable.

No, astrologer, it is because it is raining.

It's hard to see where your life is leading these days, yet you believe that you would be happier if you knew for sure. Your thoughts are weighted down by responsibilities, so it's difficult to imagine a solution to your current blues. Paradoxically, accepting the truth as it is -- even if it's less than your ideal -- can put an end to your moodiness.

No, other astrologer, not really. I am not blue, or feeling weighted down. But it is raining.

thefridayfive is a set of music questions that I can’t answer, because I don’t really deal with music or relate to it in a way that works with the questions. And that sounds really weird, but I don’t know how else to explain it. It’s just to personal to me to be able to answer questions about it.

Today’s fannish5 is:
Name 5 books with the most compelling first chapters.

I’m just going to put down the 5 books with first paragraphs that I can remember off the top of my head. I don’t think that makes them great, necessarily, but if I can remember them that easily, they must be compelling to me.

1. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
2. The Haunting of Hill House
3. The Bible
4. Pride & Prejudice
5. Macbeth*

*Probably technically cheating since it’s a play, but I read the play before seeing it performed, so I’m counting it.

Since berry season is coming to a close, I’d like to buy extras this weekend and make some things I can store frozen that include them. I’m also considering making a blueberry clafouti. I would like to make a blackberry or blueberry sauce that is not a dessert sauce, but I’m not sure what to serve it on. The first thing that came to mind was venison, but I doubt I’ll have any in the near future. Panna cotta is another idea and I can make it and the sauce with splenda and have a low carb dessert. Any other ideas, flist?

Project Runway, Food Meme

mlleelizabeth@aol.com — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:32:36 GMT

Project Runway

This week’s challenge was almost identical to the Sarah Jessica Parker challenge from last season. I’m not crazy about team challenges, but I do like that the designers had so few guidelines for this challenge. I think that really lets us see what they can do better than some of the more contrived challenges.

I wasn’t crazy about most of the outfits. This is partly because the color palettes used just don’t suit me, personally. I try to keep that in mind when evaluating the designs, but it does color (pun intended!) my point of view most of the time.

I liked Korto’s, Terri’s and Keith’s designs best and I was fine with Keith winning. I can’t remember the other top design. Jerell’s was okay, but I didn’t like it as much as the judges did. I thought it looked a bit sloppy and I would have put both Korto’s and Terri’s ahead of it.

I thought both of the bottom two outfits belonged in the bottom two. I can’t remember Kelli’s previous designs, but I have no problem with her being cut because of that. Of course, she was the team leader and the team leader always takes the fall, and I think the design was atrocious, so she deserved to, but I also think that Daniel did everything in his power to sabotage her. I dislike him so much as a person now that I don’t care at all about his designs. Since I dislike him so much, I expect him to be a finalist. Bah!

Blayne’s was just silly. I don’t think he’s going to take advice and adapt, so maybe he won’t be with us long.

And now – A Food Meme!

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Make recommendations of specific places/products when possible

The VGT Omnivore's Hundred:

In general – I used to eat raw oysters, organ meats and hot peppers (or foods with hot peppers in them). I no longer do so, because they are bad for me, or I just don’t like them anymore, or in the case of raw oysters because I don’t eat animals while they are still alive. I still try to stay fairly open minded when it comes to food.

I had to look several of these up. In the process I discovered a lot of foods I want to try. Fun!!!

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
~~6. Black pudding~~
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush (OMG this sounds delicious! I am going to find or make some this weekend!)
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi (Another thing that sounds delicious and that I’m going to try.) (Desperately need a good recipes for freshly made curry seasoning that’s not really hot!)
~~15. Hot dog from a street cart~~
16. Epoisses (Apparently a really stinky French cheese. I’ll look for it at Central Market.)
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans (Or Cajun variants thereof.)
~~</b>25. Brawn, or head cheese~~</b> (I assume braunschweiger counts here. My mom used to eat that stuff like crazy. I’ve tasted it and ... OMG no! Never again!)
~~26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper~~
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters (I used to eat them raw, but I don’t anymore)
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda (This sounds fabulous! There are some Spanish restaurants nearby, so I’m going to have to try to get some of this.)
~~31. Wasabi peas~~
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi (Sounds very interesting. I probably prefer the sweet to salty, but I’ll try it.)
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat (I’ve had barbecued goat. I don’t think curry was involved, but I’m counting it. It was very good, but fatty.)
~~42. Whole insects~~
~~43. Phaal~~ (Probably too hot for me.)
44. Goat's milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
~~46. Fugu~~ (No, I’m afraid to try this. I don’t want to die from eating a bit of raw fish!)
47. Chicken tikka masala (Sounds yummy - I need a good non-hot curry spice mix recipe).
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear (We call them nopales here)
52. Umeboshi (I’ll try some if I can find it. I do watch my sodium so I can’t eat them on a regular basis.)
53. Abalone
54. Paneer (I’ve had queso blanco, which is similar. I’ll look for this and try it.)
~~55. McDonalds Big Mac Meal~~ (I’ve tried to eat their hamburgers - can’t do it.)
56. Spaetzle (I adore this stuff. So carby and fattening, though!)
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine (I’ve had cheese fries, which is about as bad for you.)
60. Carob chips
61. S'mores
~~62. Sweetbreads~~ (They weren’t bad, but I don’t eat organ meats.)
63. Kaolin (I assume they mean the mushroom, not the clay and I can’t figure out why they’re special.)
~~64. Currywurst~~ (I think they mean this and it has horse in it, so no thank you.)
65. Durian (I want to try this!!!)
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
~~68. Haggis~~
69. Fried plantain
~~70. Chitterlings, or andouillette~~
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe (When I look up “Louche” on Wikipedia, I get this article about emulsion effects of certain types of alcoholic beverages, more specifically Ouzo.</a> I’ve had Ouzo, but I don’t think that’s what they mean.)
74. Gjetost, or brunost (Sounds yummy! I’ll look for some.)
~~75. Roadkill~~
76. Baijiu (Heh... Sounds like Chinese Everclear. I wonder where I can get some ...)
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum (OMG another delicious sounding thing. Maybe a little too hot for my taste but otherwise ... I’ll have to find or make some.)
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant. (I wish! I’ve had some I think came close.))
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash (I want my mom’s Goulash now!)
88. Flowers
~~89. Horse~~
90. Criollo chocolate (I’m fairly certain Valrhona uses Criollo chocolate. I’m willing to suffer through numerous chocolate tastings, though, to be sure.)
~~91. Spam~~
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa (I know what harissa is. It’s a little too hot for me. Not sure how roses get involved or if that’s a brand???)
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

I watched a lot of Olympics over the past 3 days but I’m going to have to post about it later.

Olympics: Opening Ceremonies, Fencing, Beach Volleyball, Men's Gymnastics

mlleelizabeth@aol.com — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 02:00:03 GMT

I think I had better write down a semi-coherent version of my impressions of the Opening Ceremonies before time erodes my memory of them too much, so here goes:

I am really amazed that over 15,000 people performed seemingly flawlessly over a 4 hour period. One of the commentators kept mentioning "scale and details" and both were astounding.

I liked that most of the segments used 2008 people in the performance.

The drums, the artists as paintbrushes, the printing blocks, the girl flying the kite over the human Birds Nest Stadium, and above all the Tai Chi Master performing, perfectly placed in perfect circles without a single mark, and the dancers on the huge globe absolutely blew me away.

The little kid that walked in with Yao Ming at the front of the Chinese delegation totally stole my heart.

(This is out of order, I know.)The torch lighting deserves separate mention. It was the most amazing torch lighting I've ever seen, and I have watched every single Olympics opening ceremony, both summer and winter, since at least 1968. (I can't remember if I watched in 1964 because I was only 4 years old then.) If you haven't seen it yet, it's on youtube here.

There were three things I was not happy with:

- I understand why the man who created that program left out the Cultural Revolution part of Chinese history, but it was revisionist, and it bothered me, and it should be noted. And when they formed a giant dove, I couldn't help thinking about those "little difficulties" the Chinese helped foment in Korea and Southeast Asia, not to mention Darfur and Tibet. It was jarring. I think most Americans are aware of those things, though. At least, I hope they are. I wish the commentators had made a big deal out of it.

- Except when the American athletes were walking in, George W. Bush was either looking horribly bored and annoyed and fidgeting or talking to Vladimir Putin. It was horrible etiquette and I think goes a long way to show exactly what kind of person he is. I cannot say I was disappointed in him, because I already believe he is a horrible person with no morals or ethical values and no empathy whatsoever for anyone and therefore have very low expectations of him, but I was terribly embarrassed to see him doing that on a television show that was being broadcast to the entire world. I do not include Laura Bush in this. She behaved very well, at least when I saw her on my screen.

- The last is a minor thing, and probably no one but another Olympics junkie would really care, but they didn't show the athletes' and judges' oaths. I always like that such a reminder to be good sportsman is usually part of the ceremony, so that was a disappointment. I think NBC just thought it was getting too late and stopped their broadcast, and that did seem like a really long Opening Ceremony, but I still wish they'd shown it.

Okay, that taken care of, let's move on to the ~~FASHION SHOW!!!~~

Parade of Nations

This is what I have the most pages of notes about and I'm going to skip going through it country by country because ... I just don't think I can do it.

I loved the cheerleaders, but OMG they must have been tired by the end of that. They kept going, though.

I also loved that the athletes' footprints became part of the painting.

Some overall impressions:

- There was a lot of tan and light gray. A LOT. More than I remember seeing at past Olympics.

- There were also more polo shirts this time, I think.

- Korto was right that white really "pops." And I think either her or Terri's outfits would have fit in very well.

- I loved the American team's outfit. I liked that the men and women wore the same things. There was a tie at the neck which would have bugged me a bit personally if I were wearing them, but it looked like they could loosen them so they were less bothersome. Overall, though, it was very traditional, very crisp and sharp, and oh so very Ralph Lauren. I would have known it was Ralph Lauren even if I hadn't known that from Project Runway.

- Benin gets the award for best hats.

I picked out several teams of athletes that I'd like to go party with, including Brazil, the Czech Republic, El Salvador, New Zealand and Italy. I noticed that the light-heartedness and partyingness (new word!) of the teams seem to increase substantially as we got closer to the end, regardless of the country's political or religious affiliations.

I noticed that only the eastern Europeans (specifically Croatia, Poland, and Serbia) had sleeveless outfits for the ladies.

No offense to any Danes who may be reading this, but I thought they had the most unfortunate uniforms, although the Hungarians came a very close second and Slovenia was possibly third. The delegation from the Netherlands Antilles gets a special mention in this category for looking like they were attending a funeral.

I do not understand why the Panamanian ladies' uniforms included badges over their nipples.

I was disappointed in the French uniforms. They were okay, but they were not nearly as out-there haute couture as the French uniforms usually are. The wide belt thing is pretty "in" but still, I don't think they would have had the winning design on Project Runway, and I usually expect their uniforms to be the type of thing that would. Also, I didn't see matching handbags, and the French usually have matching handbags.

The Russians did have matching handbags. I think they were the only matching handbags I saw.

I thought Kiribati had the best combination of sportswear and traditional dress, so I think I give them the overall Best Uniform award.

I liked the Swedish ladies' tops, with their nod to Chinese style.

I thought the best overall not-really-athletic look went to the Mexican team, with their white suites with nifty ruffly hemlines. I would wear that to work or a nice dinner and feel very fashionable.

My personal favorite note I wrote about the a specific team is: "The Ecuadorans look like bees."

Fencing

I watched Mariel Zagunis and Sada Jacobson while I was at the gym this morning. Go them! And Becca Ward! That was really exciting!

Beach Volleyball

I watched about a third to half of the U.S. v. Latvia match and I kind of hate to admit this, but the Latvians were such cool underdogs that I was cheering for them. I fell asleep and missed that they won. I kind of think the Americans may be a bit over-rated, especially since the Latvians are seeded 23/24. But boy, do those Latvians have heart!

Men's Gymnastics

It was nice to see the guys do as well as they did and that Alexander Artemev kept himself together. I was sad to see the Hamms have to pull out, but I'm also really glad Raj is there. I think he's the main thing keeping this team together. I'm also just really impressed with him in general.

Back to watching. More later.
Edited to change the wording on the transition from artistic portion of the Opening Ceremonies to the Parade of Nations, because it unfortunately appeared that I considered the artistic portion unpleasant, which is very much untrue. Sorry!

Olympics: Opening Ceremonies, Fencing, Beach Volleyball, Men's Gymnastics

mlleelizabeth@aol.com — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 01:59:33 GMT

OMG! I have *pages* of notes from the Opening Ceremonies. I'll type them up tomorrow. But for now... OMG!

And now, thanks to the wonder that is the Internet, I am watching Dressage online. Joy! I am slightly concerned I may be up all night.

Dressage Part of 3 Day Event

There's a horse named Gandalf competing! And one named Ben Alongtime. LOL

It looks very cloudy in Honk Kong. Also, there are not that many people there. Maybe because it's just a preliminary round.

First team is from New Zealand. Good luck to them! Oh, that's Gandalf and his human, Mark Todd. Yay!

Aha! The commentary to the side explains why the equestrian events are in Hong Kong -- apparently the horse members of the teams would have to have been quarantined too long if they'd held it in mainland China.

I wish I knew more about this sport. Their score was 543.

One good thing is that the online program pops up little notes every now and then and tells you what they are doing.

Okay, I thought Canadians Kyle Carter and Madison Park were having problems - they score 471. Apparently there were bit problems.

The riders and horses look wiped when they come out of the ring. That humidity must be killing them, especially in the outfits they wear for this sport.

I don't understand why the German guy's pocket says "Kentucky" on it.

The Italian team did really well - they are in second place, and I think Rock Model is the best looking horse so far. Not that that has anything to do with anything. But I like pretty horses.]

Now we have an American team - Amy Tryon and Poggio II. I thought they did pretty well, but Ms. Tryon looks disappointed. And she shouldn't be too disappointed - they took the lead with a score of 559!

Now we have Ben Along Time (*g*) and his Australian human, Clayton Fredericks. Wow! Thank you, cameraperson! Great closeups! I think they were great, and they got a huge cheer from the crowd. I was right -- the score was 610.

LOL What I thought was the commentary apparently wasn't. The commentary person just apologized for technical delays and started "commenting." It's like watching someone chat in IM. No punctuation, hardly any capital letters. But I now know that Ireland's Austin O'Connor is 33 years old. Okay, now the commenter is actually explaining what's going on. And also, that these horses are eventers, so this must be Part 1 of the 3 day event, and not the part of the competition that is just dressage. The 3 day event has always sounded really hard to me.

I think there is going to be 3 hours and 42 minutes total of this. Doubt I'll make it to the end. I know I won't keep up the liveblogging of it that long.

The commenter keeps mentioning how fit these horses are and how they are trained for cross-country mainly, which I think explains why it seems to me that the horses in many cases are sort of getting away from the riders. They have too much umph. I think it's incredible that they can manage all 3 events over 3 days.

Oh no. We are taking a break, and it seems Horse Medication Control was called to look at the last horse that performed. The break is so the judges can rest and so they can sand the arena.

The ring is very pretty. I may try to find a pic to post or link to. It has a sort of garden with a red bridge over a pool over water very close to it. And the judges are in gazebos that are placed around the ring.

After the break we'll have Daisy Dick -- yes, you read that right -- from the UK.

Speaking of dicks, ;) I was looking for international foods at the grocery store tonight, to fit in with the Olympics, and I almost bought some canned Spotted Dick. Just to try it. It was Heinz brand. I may go for it next weekend. They also had a canned treacle sponge cake thing, also by Heinz.

The camera pulled away during the break to give us a really nice shot of the Equestrian venue at Shatin stadium in Hong Kong, as well as a bit of Hong Kong itself (big buildings, mountains, water).

I went away for a minute during the break and missed that they have flag dancers performing. They seem to be stationed around the outside perimeter near the stands kind of semi-permanently.

Oh no, how embarrassing. I thought Daisy Dick was the horses name. It's not. The horse is Spring Along. She's actually very cute and her outfit is the nicest I've seen so far. Ms. Dick's outfit, I mean. Not the horse's.

Oh wow! It seems there is a feature that allows me to post the video I'm watching to my LJ or Facebook (or one of several others).

Next horse is Super Rocky! That makes me think of a giant Sly Stallone. Scary!

I have been eating dark (not very sweet) chocolate during this and drinking some wine. I think that may not have been a very good idea. My stomach will make me pay during the night.

Wonder what "jigging in the walk" is.

As much as I am enjoying this, I think I have to call it a night. So good night and happy dreams of gold medals!

Okay - one more thing. I love that on departure from the ring, the riders tip their hats to the two young ladies who are charged with opening and closing the gate.

Friday Five

mlleelizabeth@aol.com — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 20:37:13 GMT

thefridayfive
Memories

1. Smells, and memories. Do you have a scent that when you smell it, brings up a memory? Do share.

Pine/cedar reminds me of camp. So does the smell of a wood fire. That’s a very happy memory for me. Spicy scents remind me of the holidays, of course. If I think really hard I can remember the ocean smell, which I associate mostly with Puerto Vallarta and Acapulco.

2. Songs. Is there a particular song that brings back happy memories? Song title and memory, if you care to share that much.

I have hundreds of them. Most of the music of the late 1970s brings up happy memories for me. A lot of the 1980s music brings up happy memories for me.

I remember almost every song we sung at camp. I still love those songs.

3. How about a song that brings up painful memories? Song title and memory, if you care to share that much.

There probably are a lot I am repressing. But the two I can think of off quickly are Christopher Cross’s Sailing and any of what I’d call “New York Jazz.” (It’s very poppy, lyrical jazz that I associate with New York City. I don’t know why. I also don’t know why it makes me so sad.) Also, the song Lovely makes me want to sob. I often do burst into tears when I hear it. I think it bothers me because it’s basically about capturing/freezing time and I associated it with one particular night/dance from my junior year in high school that I want to freeze in time and can’t.

4. Food. Is there a certain food that conjures up memories?

All of them. It would take me days to answer this. I should probably try it later just for fun.

5. Clothing? Do you have an item of clothing or if you see a certain item, does it make you think of a time/place or person?

Again, clothes from the 1970s and early 1980s do that for me. That was when I was in high school and college and part of me will always be stuck there. We also wore what we called “Mexican dresses” - which were basically very comfortable shapeless sacks with lots of pretty embroidery on them. I remember my sister telling me you could judge the quality of a Mexican dress by the little people embroidered around the neck.

When I was, I think, a junior in high school, we wore overalls to school. But then, we also wore Quiana and Army/Navy Store jeans. Those were in style when I was in middle school.

White shorts and shirts make me think of camp. :) That's what we wore on Sundays.

Thursday is Alphabet Soup Night on TV

mlleelizabeth@aol.com — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 03:10:21 GMT

SYTYCD

YAY JOSHUA!!

I'm a little distressed over Katee coming in third, but very glad they gave her a top girl award and 50K.

I enjoyed most of the dances they repeated and loved the dance with former contestants at the end.

Didn't bother to watch the Jonus Brothers.

Overall, very good episode and result, though I wish Katee had been second or tied with Joshua.

ABDC
WTF?!

How the heck did SoReal beat Super Crew and Fanny Pack?!

I knew Fanny Pack was out the second that happened. The judges have been wetting themselves over Super Crew since the first episode, and even though they've had awful weeks and been in the bottom 2 several times, there was no way the judges would eliminate them.

Bah! It's not right!!! I loved Fanny Pack. Still can't believe that just happened. :(

Fitness Article, SYTYCD, Project Runway

mlleelizabeth@aol.com — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:10:02 GMT

I really like this Get Fit Slowly Guest Colum

SYTYCD

Can I have Katee and Joshua co-winners? Pretty please?

As much as I want the above, I do have to agree with Nigel that Joshua was too exhausted to perform well in either the jive or Mia’s Scottish thing. Still, I love him and I want him to win. I’m actually more rooting for Joshua than Katee for two reasons: 1) He’s from Fort Worth so I have local bias for him (and surprisingly FOX has not subjected us to constant JOSHUA!!! news reports); and 2) Despite the judge’s constant declarations that Joshua is an untrained dancer, he is not. He has training, he just hasn’t been able to afford the kind of training that would make him really successful. His lack of training isn’t because he’s arrogant, a dabbler or lazy and I have no doubt that he’ll use the winnings to get extensive, real classical training. I’d love to see what Joshua could do after a year of steady ballet and/or modern dance classes.

I love Katee, too, but Joshua gets my (metaphorical) vote for the above reasons.

I don’t dislike Twitch, and I enjoy his solos and hope he continues to get training as well, but he’s just not quite as charismatic for me as Joshua or Katee.

As for Courtney ... *sigh* The previous two weeks had me not thinking of her as the Sea Hag for a change. Then *boom* last night during her interview with Cat all the Sea Hagginess came back x 1000 and ugh. I also thought that with Chelsie gone and no other female dancer to compare her to other than Katee, all of her many shortcomings as a dancer were tremendously magnified. I agree completely with Nigel that Courtney doesn’t follow through on her movements. She’s not bad, and she certainly deserves her top 4 spot, but I would be completely disheartened if she won, or even if she came in higher than third.

But, to end on a happy note, I enjoyed all the dances last night. It was a more fun, lighthearted finale for me than last year’s. The Russian dance was very cool and I loved seeing the guys shirtless in kilts. ;)

Project Runway

Olympic junkie that I am, I absolutely loved last night’s theme. LOVED IT! I am so excited for tomorrow night that I can barely contained myself!!! And it made perfect sense as a challenge since Bravo is part of the NBC family and NBC’s broadcasting the Olympics this year. If you look at the Bravo website they’ve got Olympics all over the place. *g* OMG can’t wait!!!

I also loved a lot of the outfits, though some of them had me laughing.

I personally would have kicked Daniel off, because he annoys me and because I love the Olympics and his dress, while pretty, didn’t have anything to do with the challenge. I knew they wouldn’t be aufing Jerrell, because his design was, indeed interesting. It is far better to be awful and interesting than to be good but boring on this show. Which leads me to ... Jennifer.

Oh, Jennifer! I personally adore her style when she does it well. I would have worn her outfit. I’m just as girly and it bugs me that girly and prissy aren’t celebrated enough, so her departure will leave a big hole in the show for me. That said, after Heidi said last week that she wasn’t interested in seeing any more of Jennifer’s designs, the only way Jennifer could have saved herself would have been to do something simultaneously hugely wacko and awesomely beautiful. What she did was just a cute little outfit. And since there is nothing worse on this show than being boring, I understand she had to go. But I will miss her a lot.

As for the winning outfits, I preferred Joe’s design, in general, but it would be better if he had time to fix it a bit, especially the length. However, I also liked Korto’s a lot, thought it and her story was really cool. Terri’s was great except for the scarf. It ruined the “crispness” of her look and was just too much. And again, these folks are standing out in the hot sun for hours during the Opening Ceremonies. I guess they could tuck it into a pocket, but I think most of them would just ditch it. Without the scarf I think we almost have a three-way tie between those outfits.

Kenley has officially entered “Oh god she bugs the heck out of me can we get rid of her now!!!” territory, which means she will probably be a finalist. Her plaid was purple (but I do love the fabric) and her sleeves were way too tight. I do not like the way she does necklines and sleeves, in general. I would wear her skirts, maybe, but never her tops.

Blayne is creepy. His outfit wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t awesome, either. If you look on Rate the Runway, his blue looks more aqua or turquoise than blue.

I adored Keith’s and kind of wish it had been in the top 3, or that there had been a top 4. The floofy little skirt at the bottom made me happy.

Kelli’s looked like a vintage flight attendant uniform.

Leanne’s was cute and had nice sharp contrasts and great lines, but the neckline looked like it would bother people standing around in it for hours.

Stella’s was nicely made but I don’t like her design aesthetic at all and I thought it was especially inappropriate for U.S. Olympic athletes. I would have put her in the bottom 3 instead of Jerrell, frankly.

Suede’s was kind of mediocre. The skirt looked like a dance skirt (possibly even a square dance skirt). It wasn’t hideous, but it wasn’t right either. He comes up with some funny comments, but he’s also annoying.

So, other than maybe substituting Stella for Jerrell, I don’t have any real quibbles with the top and bottom 3s.

I think Joe was baited into making that drama queen remark by production. It also didn’t bother me that much, because I think there’s lots of truth behind it. He was talking about a typical kind of behavior that annoys me, also. However, he needs a little irony slap, because he was the one being a drama queen in that scene.

Overall, this was a great episode in my opinion.

Cornwall Cam, Margarita Ranch, Workout, HGTV Design Star, SYTYTCD, ABDC, From Gs to Gents, PR

mlleelizabeth@aol.com — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:25:35 GMT

Charles Winpenny is back from his holiday in France and has some great pictures up on the Cornwall Cam, including some from his holiday.

Dad, his wife and I went to Margarita Ranch on Sunday and it was very good – nice atmosphere and excellent food and service.

I pulled a muscle while working out on Saturday and it still hurts a lot, especially when I laugh, or breathe, or the cat lies on my stomach and digs his little paw in right where the sore muscle is... Poor D Kitty didn’t get much cuddle time this weekend.

No movies. I think I have all comedies and laughing hurts. Plus I just was not in the mood for them.

The only TV I watched was HGTV Design Star:

I guess I’m not all that surprised that Jennifer won. A little disappointed, yes, but not really surprised. I checked out the boards on the HGTV site after last week’s show and the folks there seem to be massively squeeing over her. I do like some of the things she did this season, especially the Italian room she did, but she painted a lovely wood table and painting is her thing, so I can tell she’s one of those designers who paints everything, whether it needs it or not, and I hate that. So...I probably will give her show a pass. I would much rather have watched Matt figure out creative storage solutions.

I’m a little behind, so I’ll use this post to comment briefly on the other shows I watched this week.

So You Think You Can Dance

I’ve watched the video of Lil Demon about 15 times now. I still can’t get over how incredibly good that kid is. And how adorable he is. I wish he could be this season’s winner.

I also wish Katee and Joshua could become the new Fred & Ginger and dance together forever.

I wasn’t surprised at all by the people who were eliminated.

America’s Best Dance Crew

I’m glad Lil Mama at least apologized to the Boogie Bots for more or less dissing them behind their backs. It was very, very obvious they were getting the boot no matter what they did, though. I am bored by SoReal and even though I love Bboys and Super Crew is great, I’m rooting for Fanny Pack. They were awesome this week.

From Gs to Gents

My prediction for final two: Cee and Kesan.

J. Boogie was the right person to eliminate. He grew up playing golf and has a nice job in a lab?!

My favorites right now are actually Shotta and Creepa. I think. The two guys who were talking to Kesan and convinced him not to leave without talking to FB.

I love that mostly the insincere famewhores are being eliminated first. This show is so much better than Charm School was.

The basketball game was hilarious. I love the etiquette referee. I wish he could go around with me and give the people around me etiquette penalties. That would be comedy gold.

I think Cee’s “breakthrough” was completely insincere. He is definitely one of the insincere famewhores, but he’s amusing and a better actor than they usually are.

Project Runway

This week’s PR results really annoyed me. I don’t mind Kenley, personally, even though I think her personal look’s been done and done and done. It’s a classic, so she can get away with that. But the dress she design for this challenge was well-made awfulness. Terri’s was better and LeeAnne’s was much better. I’m glad the guy who made the dress that looked like toilet paper wasn’t eliminated. It was a crappy dress that seriously needed editing, but he’s not a bad designer, I don’t think. I kind of liked the fumpy clock dress. It needed work, but I got what she was trying to do. Emily’s icky blahness was bad, so I’m semi-okay that she was eliminated, but I honestly think Kenley’s dress was worse.

Pushup Update

mlleelizabeth@aol.com — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 16:43:51 GMT

I did 15 regular pushups today!