Southpark

Have you ever gotten lost driving through the parking lot at Southpark Meadows?

Yeah... me neither...

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Stuffing Party!!

I went to a stuffing party at the Foundation today. Whee!!

Actually, that's what we call it when we get together and stuff envelopes. It's mindless work, which can be very fun, because you can chat at the same time! There are refreshments, so we can legitimately call it a party.

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Clever, clever...

I wanted to get more info on a game for wine enthusiasts, called Winerd, so I went to the official website. There, it says, "Welcome to Tamara Onwine." (Tamara Leigh Murphy is the game's inventor.)

CUTE!

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eBay and New Merchandise

I am no eBay expert, but I did just learn that you can buy new merchandise on eBay from stores that sell the same item for more money on their own websites. Hmm! The thing I bought was $35 on the store website, and the "buy now" price on the same item was $20 on eBay from the same exact store.

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Brad's Bars

K. So, infamous "Bachelor" Brad Womack and his brothers own the Chugging Monkey, the Dizzy Rooster, the Thirsty Nickel and the Marq... none of which I have heard of. How completely out of it have I become? I just know the tapas places on 4th street at this point. LOL. Someone get me a walker.

Funnier still- DD just exclaimed, "I know the Chugging Monkey! Actually, it's the Chuggin' Monkey."

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TV Survey

I'm on day 4 of a 7-day television diary I have to keep this week. I got sucked into this regional research survey thing. I've already returned my five-pound booklet of info about my shopping and radio-listening habits. Whew.

When I'm at home, my TV is on a lot, just for noise. I have to document any program I watch for five minutes or more, and I've not written much down so far. Tomorrow is wash day, so I bet I'll log some shows then. Plus, I need to catch up on All My Children at least once a week, to stay in the loop!

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JC and Shopping

DH was watching "Ellen" this morning while getting ready for work. When JC Chasez showed up, he notified me post-haste. JC and Joey were sucking at the Singing Bee game. She gave them hard songs though. I wasn't getting them either.

So is his album coming out or what? In the years we've been waiting for that thing, a whole new Menudo has formed. ;)

Yes, I did go to the mall on Sunday. DD had a birthday gift certificate to spend, so we went. It wasn't too crowded after all. This morning I started the real shopping. Here is a convo I heard between a two-year-old and his mother at Kohl's:

"Mama, vamanos."

"No."

"Si."

"No."

"Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!"

Ahahaha! Motherhood. The same in every language.

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Day 2- No Shopping

Okay, we went to the grocery store, but that's it!

One more day and I can hit the stores with a reasonable number of people! Tick tick tick...

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Saturday Six

1. As a general rule, are you more stressed or less stressed during the holiday season?
More stressed.

2. Do you tend to be happier or sad during the holiday season?
Happier.

3. How much shopping did you do on the day after Thanksgiving?
None.

4. Take the quiz: What color is your brain?
Your brain is blue.
Of all the brain types, yours is the most mellow.
You tend to be in a meditative state most of the time. You don't try to think away your troubles.
Your thoughts are realistic, fresh, and honest. You truly see things as how they are.
You tend to spend a lot of time thinking about your friends, your surroundings, and your life.

5. When it comes to Christmas gifts, how organized are you in terms of gift ideas and choosing the right ones for the right recipients?
Very organized. I am sometimes good at picking the absolutely perfect gift for someone, sometimes at a total loss for ideas.

6. What was the most inaccurate part of the answer you received to the brain color quiz?
Of all the brain types, yours is the most mellow.
I wouldn't call my brain type "mellow." Yes, I tend to be introspective and contemplative, but more "actively" so- thinking about what's next and where things are going.

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Beat the Hell Outta t.u.! Whoop!

A&M just beat UT 38-30.

BOO-YAH, baby!

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Post-Thanksgiving Stuff(ing)

Why is Adrian Grenier starring in a movie (Adventures of Power, in post-production) written and directed by a real person named Ari Gold? I must have missed a memo there.

We saw Enchanted yesterday. Awwwwwwwww. So good. It was really funny, too. The audience even applauded at the end. You can't go wrong with James Marsden and McDreamy, can you?

The Thanksgiving food turned out well. It's about the 8th year of the same menu, so I'd better get it right at this point. DD actually did most of the work this year. What. I supervised. I did forget to serve the can-shaped cranberry sauce. We found it when we had leftovers for dinner.

I'm trying to stay out of the mall this weekend. The weather is not cooperating. It's all wintery and gross. Must have willpower.

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The Bachelor

Oh. My. Gosh.

Hated the ending. What a complete let-down. How could he say he was so into both girls that he could picture himself with either of them for the rest of his life, and then dump them both. He didn't even want to see either of them any more. Please. Whatever. (I'm just mad because he fooled me into thinking my favorite bachelorette had won. LOL.)

They shouldn't make the ending about getting married. None of the couples do anyway, which is totally fine. It's silly to think that two people can even know each other at all during the course of that show, but they can surely get a feeling that they want to date a particular person. They should call it "The Single-Guy-Looking-for-a-Girflfriend" and leave it at that. And at the end, he HAS to pick someone.

I won't watch next season. This season was a waste of DVR space.

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Wii

We Wii. Oui!

Super Mario Galaxy is easier than the Super Marios of yore. It's good, since I assumed it would be terribly difficult. I'm sure it gets harder as we go along, but so far it's really easy to learn and lots of fun.

DD has already conquered the Medium level of Guitar Hero. She is intimidated by the Hard level, but she's beat one song already. I could never do it! lol. I'm doing alright on Easy, thank you.

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Duran Duran tix

YES! I have my Duran Duran tickets in hand. They are the first concert at the brand spanking new Austin Music Hall, on December 11. It's General Admission, which bites, but what can you do.

Bangles are coming to La Zona Rosa. I'll go if someone wants to go...

What is up at The Backyard???!! No shows scheduled? My favorite venue. :(

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Party

DD invited 4 boys and 4 girls to her party. Two of the girls are out of town and two had school activities today. So it's DD and the four guys. Why weren't any of my birthdays like that? Haha.

They're all dressed in black for the playoff high school football game today, so they kinda look like a rock band.

Speaking of which, we got DD "Guitar Hero III- Legends of Rock" for Wii, and it's really fun. Super Mario is in the mail. This Thanksgiving will be a video game extravaganza! Wii!

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Happy Birthday DD

(She's gonna kill me for stealing this off her camera. Hee!)

Happy happy birthday to my DD! 14 years old today.

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Crazy Sexy Cancer

I finally watched "Crazy Sexy Cancer," after having it on my DVR for months. It was interesting and good, just wasn't what I thought it was. I was expecting a diary of her treatment and progress, and it's more about alternative adjunct therapies like macrobiotics and yoga. See, her cancer (a rare vascular cancer in her liver and lungs) isn't treatable, so... no treatment!

She did show the treatment paths of a couple of her friends with cancer. She had a realization that one good thing about a non-treatable cancer is you don't have to go through the hell of chemo and radiation.

She's doing well, with tumors neither shrinking nor growing. She married her camera guy- awww.

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Whew!!

I wish I could describe for you the unusual hysterectomy complication I started having about 2 weeks ago, but quite frankly, it's really TMI.

Just when we were about to start scheduling some tests that have to be done under general anesthesia, with possible diagnoses ranging from bad to devastating, my wonderful doctor who has been out of town figured out what is wrong. I have an infection and just need to take a week of antibiotics.

Hallelujah!!

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Game Night- GIRLS

Ah yes, the recap from Friday night...

Once again, the girls defeated the guys at Game Night. We even played Battle of the Sexes, which is a game where guys answer questions that girls would typically know more about (makeup, celeb gossip, cooking...), and vice versa (tools, sports, politics...). It's a very sexist game, actually. lol.

Our biggest challenge was that two of the guys are the cooks in their households!!

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Yeesh

Rosie O'Donnell. I cannot seem to miss her foul rants on TV. This time it's a clip of her saying that Whats-His-Name the Bounty Hunter (I know about the n-word stuff, but I'm not familiar with his show) is obviously a racist because of three things:

1) he's an ex-con
2) he's from a trailer park
3) he has a mullet

Three narrow-minded idiot comments right there.

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Kudos for DD

DD opened and closed the Veteran's Day Assembly at her school on Friday. We are incredibly proud of her! She spoke perfectly, not too fast, just loud enough. She was quite the pro. She's come a very long way from the little girl who wouldn't turn in boxtops for the weekly fund raiser in elementary school, because they might draw her name to win a prize, and she would have to walk up to the front of the cafeteria in front of everyone to collect it.

This weekend was cheer Nationals in Houston. Seniors won their division and got Grand Champion for their level, against some amazing uber-gyms. We are all so thrilled! Throughout the two days, we parents were talking about which of us would be having an aneurysm first, from all the excitement. They were just so good. Video later...

If you ever go to the George R. Brown Convention Center, the Hilton there is beautiful. It is also attached to the building, so less walking, not that we didn't walk a million miles anyway.

DD also made District Band. Wooo! She couldn't try out for Region, due to cheer conflict this weekend.

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Going Green

This week on NBC, the shows are all supposed to have a green theme. I noticed that the only "green" reference on My Name is Earl was Earl saying it would be silly for him to talk about green issues in his Scared Straight skit, because it just didn't have anything to do with that.

Sarcasm anyone? LOL.

Here's my humble opinion, in a nutshell. I believe in Global Warming. I support Green efforts (except for ill-conceived ones which have issues of their own that actually result in a worse effect on the environment). I just don't think the two have anything to do with each other. I'm with the mainstream scientists who say the weather is a normal part of a pattern of warming and cooling, and not only will the planet survive it, but cooler times will follow, as they always have.

In our area, it actually seems as though things are becoming more temperate. Our winters are a little warmer, but our summers are a little cooler. Whatever the weather, we should be trying to keep our environment clean.

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Rolling Stone

We've somehow managed to become subscribed to Rolling Stone as representatives of the Tweeter Center. The Tweeter Center is in New Jersey. I have no clue why we are getting it, but I've started reading it.

This week's issue has interviews with George Clooney and many, many other currently relevant people. Although I agree with some of GC's political views, the man if so far left he's about to topple right off the spectrum. And worse-- the photo isn't great. *giggle*

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Christmas shopping

I have officially started the 2007 Christmas shopping, with the purchase of... something cool... today. I used to always be finished with this process before Thanksgiving. I wish I could manage that enthusiasm of yore. But I've discovered if you hold out until mid-December, there are some pretty good sales, too.

The one thing I usually do is select specific items for everyone before I just go blindly looking for gifts. Then I can organize by store, check prices online, shop sales on those items, etc.

DH and I went to Chipotle last night. (Yikes! I'm a cheap date...) Somehow there is always one single little bite of my "fajita burrito bowl" that is hotter than bloody blazes. I can't ever figure out if it's the guac or the meat. So random. So yummy though.

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Prop 15 passes

The Texas Curing Cancer proposition passed yesterday. Woo! Finally, public money being spent on something that matters to everyone. If you don't get cancer yourself, someone you know will. 1/3 of women and 1/2 of men will get it sometime in their lives, they say. Scary!

Now we can just hope the thing is run without all the sluggishness and financial waste for which government is famous.

In other news, there was an erroneous report of a man dressed in black, carrying a rifle near the state capitol this morning. Only one news station even covered it. The police couldn't find him, and since only one person saw him, they decided it was nothing. So don't wear threatening garb and carry an object resembling a shotgun while walking the streets around these parts.

Meanwhile, there was really a guy with a rifle in a south Austin apartment complex. Maybe it was the same guy... Long walk though...

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Dancing with the Stars

I always have a sentimental favorite or two on Dancing with the Stars, but very quickly I have to turn my attention to the dancers I think are the best. Fickle, I know. I was going for Marie and Cameron when the season started, but after the first episode, it was obvious that Sabrina was amazing. When she got voted off, none of us could believe it, right? (Is she really marrying her partner, or was she joking?)

Now I think that Mel B has stepped right up and become the best dancer. She was awesome in the leather dance last night.... Paso Doble... something.... lol. Go Mel!

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Biodiesel

Have you ever heard the biodiesel folks go on about how their car makes everyone hungry, because it smells like tacos or french fries? Don't believe it. We were stuck on Mopac in traffic for 30 minutes behind and around a biodiesel car. It smelled like old, nasty frying oil. Absolutely disgusting.

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Photo Meme

Go to Google and search in their images section. Then post your favorite image when you enter the following things:

1. The name of the town where you grew up.

(League City) How many bajillions of times I've seen these signs on I-45.

2. The name of the town where you live now.

(Austin) Beautiful, yes?

3. Your name.

(Kathy) Comedienne Kathy Griffin.

4. Your Grandmother’s name.

(Meg) The author of The Princess Diaries series.

5. Your favorite food.

Mmm. Fried chicken.

6. Your favorite drink.

(Margarita) On-the-rocks with salt, please.

7. Your favorite song.

LOL. Currently "Wake Up Call" by Maroon 5.

8. Your favorite smell.

Ahaha. ^^ Even if you don't like coffee, it's a great smell.

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