Word Association for February 18th

Welcome to this week's word association.

1. Threshold :: Door
2. Jason :: Cooper
3. Suspicion :: of Guilt
4. Tender :: Hurt
5. Tempted :: Sin
6. Crimson :: Red
7. Repulsive :: Yuck!
8. Bulldog :: Argh!
9. Garage :: Car
10. Racket :: Noise

Thursday Threesome for February 15th

Welcome to this week's edition brought to us by high tea and the Back Porch.

Onesome: Cups-- and quarts? Can you remember the conversions for cooking or do you have to look them up? ...or do you just use the old "this much plus a little" method?
Look them up? I can't remember the last time I needed to convert anything. In my cooking, I haven't found a reason to convert. I just follow the recipe.

Twosome: and-- how did Valentine's Day go? Do you have a chocolate hangover today ?
Nothing special unless you count the decorations at dinner last in the caferteria. Something about being single.

Threesome: Saucers-- of milk for the kittens? A pint of ice cream for you? Who gets the last snack of the night at your place?
My roommate. I don't tend to eat after dinner but he'll eat some nuts or cookies.

Relaxing Taxing

So, this weekend, I had nothing planned.

Wait, I'm not complaining. I'm bragging.

It was nice to come home Friday night and know I had nothing to do (except church) for the next two days.

Of course, that's not to say that I didn't have things I wanted to do. For example, I'm trying to get through several movies to prepare for the summer releases of the third in the series. So I watched Shrek this weekend. And, six months ago, I recorded Scooby-Doo: The Movie. I finally watched that as well. Plus, I reviewed them both. I had other reviews I wanted to write, two books and one movie to be exact, but that didn't happen.

See, I also did my taxes this weekend. The last several years, I've made it my goal to do my taxes early. Like as soon as I have everything. That finally happened this year. And I'm very happy with the refund I'm getting. Between the two, I'm paying for half my lap top. That makes me extremely happy.

Sunday also brought a sad announcement I've been expecting for a while. Next week will be the series finale of Reba. That's the only sit com I watch these days, and I'm really going to miss it. Even after six years, I still find it funny.

But I think my biggest disappointment is that I never made it to a taping. I tried about three years ago with Jeff, but we didn't make it in. I never have gotten around to trying again. Now, I'll never have the chance. Hopefully, I can find something else I like to watch that I can go to a taping of.

Actually, I might not be watching the CW much in the near future. Looks like Veronica Mars won't make it beyond this season either. Oh well, more time for other things.

Now, if I could just find a way to catch up on Smallville cheaply. I think I'd really enjoy that show.

Word Association for February 11th

I'm doing two of these in a row. What are the odds?

1. The best thing :: 's in life are free (Where did I get that?)
2. Hold :: On
3. Rapture :: Revelation
4. Cover :: Book
5. Restrictive :: Rule
6. Baker :: Me!
7. Author :: Autograph
8. Pill :: Medicine
9. Months :: Years
10. Valentine’s Day :: Hearts

Famous for Being Famous

Anna Nicole Smith died yesterday.

I first learned the news from an Epinions message board I'm on, but then saw it again at a Trixie site. My first response was shock. I thought she was younger then she was, but even so, 39 is very young. Just ask this 31 year old.

Personally, I was ambivolant about the woman. I don't read Playboy, thought the previews for her reality show looked dumb, and didn't care one way or the other about her court battles. Frankly, at times, I just wanted to go some place where I didn't have to hear about her any more.

Not that I wanted her to die. Let's make that perfectly clear. I just didn't want to hear about the parentage of her baby any more.

Then I got home last night, turned on the TV, and saw more coverage of her death. In fact, TV Guide channel was nothing but people talking about her and her legacy. That's when it hit me.

She was famous for being famous and nothing else.

This is a phrase they use all the time on Fox News Watch, a show I regularly watch on weekends that analyzes the news. And she's not the only "celebrity" that they've used it on. In fact, they use it on many a celebrity. But it certainly applies here.

Not that I'm saying she wasn't a very smart woman. She took an award for Playmate of the Year and turned it into a lifetime of fame. I bet many people wouldn't be able to name the other winners of the title, yet almost everyone knew who she was. That's saying something.

But now I'm going to sound like the panel on News Watch. There are lots of important events going on in the world today. Do we really need coverage on the nightly news of this woman's death? Was she that important? Does it effect our lives? No. There are a million more important things happening in our world today.

Not that I'm going to claim innocence here. I want to hear the results of the autopsy, too.

And I'm only going to let TV Guide partially off the hook. No, I don't expect them to cover serious news. But wall to wall coverage?

We've had a lot of celebrities dies in recent years. Most of the time, it's announced briefly and we move on. It's not the headline, however. And we don't get weeks of coverage from all news sources, something I expect this time around.

Yes, I was saddened to hear of Anna Nicole Smith's death. I feel for her family and especially her daughter.

But it also caused me to think. We as a culture are amusing ourselves to death. And this is just another sign of it. I hope in all the coverage we will get the next few days (or weeks or month) that it will make you stop and think as well.

Thursday Threesome for February 8th

Got do this quick.

Onesome: Pitch-- What is your singing range? ...and do you sing at all?
I'm really not sure what my range is, but I do sing all the time. Which is a very good thing on nights like this when I am leading worship.

Twosome: Yaw--'ll ken that one? Do you have any 'dialect words' that you use as a matter of course? "Ken", meaning "to understand" (Scottish and other derivations) in this case...
I sure don't think so. I'm a boring California American with no dialete and no accent, either.

Threesome: and Roll-- on down the road? Hey, if the roads were as icy as they've been in the Midwest and East would driving to work even be a consideration for you?
Probably not. I don't drive on icy roads normally, so I'm not used to it and won't way to try.

Pieing Friends

For the second Saturday in a row, I had friends over. This time, it turned out to be a bigger group. 10 of us in all, including Kurt and Kellie and several mutual friends. I hadn't seen many of them since before Christmas, so it was great to catch up. We played Taboo and Apples to Apples. And I made key lime pie.

Yes, after having the title recipe for Joanne Fluke's next book for several months, I finally got a chance to make it. And it turned out great. Not that that's any surprise given the great (and easy to follow) recipes that Joanne always creates. She was quite the topic of discussion for a while between the desserts (I also made a peach cobbler) and the posters I have in the living room. And I impressed everyone with my baking ability.

But boy, those key limes are tiny. I could easily fit 6 of them in my hand at once. And it took 19 of them to get the half a cup needed for the recipe.

Sunday, of course, Paul and I "watched" the super bowl. Or I should say he watched and I played around on the computer. I created one of my things for the Jixaversary next month. Now I need to get working and see if the other idea I want to persue will work or not. I did lots of other stuff as well. As a result, I missed most of the commercials and the play, usually looking up only when Paul indicated the game was going great.

And I forgot to mention a major disappointment Debbie and I discovered last weekend. Glendale Centre Theater was supposed to be doing Fiddler on the Roof this month. In stead, it's been changed at the last minute to My Fair Lady. Don't know if we're going to go see it or not since neither one of us are fans.

Paul is actually out of town most of this week at a conference for work. So what have I been doing with the place to myself? Nothing I wouldn't have been doing anyway. Watching a little of my Friends DVD set and working on reviews. I've let myself get behind again and am trying to catch up. Of course, catching up on reviews seems to only last for a day or two anyway. Not that I mind too much. Gives me a hobby to keep me busy at night.

However, I'm about to be busy with something else. Lost returns in 8 minutes, so I think I'm going to go.

Word Association for Super Bowl Sunday

Yes, I do have the game on. But I'm doing things like this as well.

1. Plaster :: Cast
2. Cabbage :: Yuck!
3. Jazz :: Sax
4. Darts :: Bullseye
5. Poke :: Stomach
6. Bribe :: Money
7. Whale :: Tale
8. Receipt :: Charge
9. Answer :: Question
10. Dentist :: Drill

I Feel Like I Should Blog

I'm just as a loss as to what to blog about.

Life has been rather quiet. Not much outside of work and youth group at the moment. I've been staying up too late for my own good, making it hard to get up in the morning.

In my last post, did I mention that they finished fixing the ceiling in my kitchen? A year and two months later, and it's all taken care of.

The news of excitement was a visit from Debbie last weekend. She came over and we hung out and watched Spider-man. It was absolutely fabulous to catch up with her.

In other blatant self-promotion news, I've posted my top 10 movies of 2006, so if you care, follow the link. As here's the review of Guilty Conscience I promised last time, too. And yes, I made 900 reviews at Amazon before January ended.

Everyone else is gone for the weekend, so I think I'm going to close down the credit card batch and hit the road myself. Have a good weekend all.

Thursday Threesome for February 1st

Can you believe one month of 2007 is gone already?

Anyway, this week's edition is brought to us by chopping sprees and The Back Porch.

Onesome: Slicing-- your way through the fairways of life? Terrible metaphor, -eh? Do you have metaphor or simile that just drives you bonkers when you hear it?
Not that I can think of off hand, but I'm sure I drive others crazy with cliches I use.

Twosome: and-- on and on and on. What's the duration of your 'long' phone calls? You know, the ones where you just chat and chat and chat? Guys, you may be able to pull an exemption on this one...
I usually spend an hour talking to my parents and my brother and sister in law on the phone on Sundays.

Threesome: dicing-- up anything for the game this weekend? ...or are you taking advantage of the sales? ...or is it a case of "what game?"
Nothing exciting for the game Sunday for me. I'll have it on, but who knows how much attention I'll pay it.