Is The Fat Lady Singing? ….I Think So

Well as the old adage goes, it ain’t over til the fat lady sings, and regretfully tonight she was all warmed up and singing her heart out. My daughter is really bummed out, our very own Kourtni Lind was booted off So You Think You Can Dance tonight. Like I told my daughter it just wasn’t time for little old Forest Lake, Minnesota to be famous yet (not til she’s older) and like I told my son, at least dance class prices won’t go up *rolls eyes* okay thats harsh but really if it weren’t for the fact that her mother owns my daughters dance school I really wasn’t that blown away by Kourtni, it wasn’t so much bad dancing as lack of any real personality, she was kind of like wallpaper on the show, just there.

Anyway the real highlight of the show was Robert Muraine, he actually made it to Vegas choreography and then walked off the show. They had him on as part of the entertainment tonight and it was once again mind boggling. The video I found is actually the day he walked off, if you get the chance watch the dance he did on the show it was way better.

Believe…..Well Not In Me

I’m not going to do anything amazing, at least not today, I’m talking about Criss Angel, the magician or illusionist, whatever they call them. He’s joined up with Cique Du Soleil and they are putting on an amazing looking show at the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas starting in September, I am really excited because I was planning on going to a Cirque Du Soleil show in October when we go on our vacation/road trip but now this show just happens to be going on while we will be there, so I will get an even more awesome show!

I have watched Criss Angel on television and he does some just mind blowing stuff, its like magic but more modern and sensational than the old magicians used to do. I think it would be really neat to see in person as I have never been to anything like this. Another great thing is somebody is going to get to go for free, they are having a text message contest where some lucky person can get two free tickets to the show, all you have to do is text Believe to 22122 to be entered to win. (considering the price of the tickets I’m going to try!)

Theres a whole website about the show, it’s really creepy and surreal but it has a ton of information and even some video interviews with Criss Angel and one of the choreographers from So You Think You Can Dance (he’s awesome) does an interview about some of the dances they put together. So if your like me and lucky enough to be in Vegas check out CRISS ANGEL Believe and maybe I will see you there.

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Finally, What About The Movies?

Wow I just took on a new 6 week old baby and I forgot just how time consuming babies can really be, so I have been wanting to write something about the two movies we saw this last weekend and every time I sit down someone needs me. All I wanted to see this last weekend was Get Smart because it was one of my favorite shows as a kid and I looove Steve Carell so I was really looking forward to seeing it. But (theres always a but!) Wall-E came out and my daughter had a free ticket so we saw that and it was great, really a fabulous movie, even if you don’t have kids this is a worthwhile movie.

Then Chad (who’s taste in movies sucks!) asks on Sunday evening while we were all in the pool if we want to go see Love Guru. I checked to see if we could see Get Smart instead but due to playing times wouldn’t make it. Now I am a fan of Mike Myers, I loved him in So I Married An Axe Murderer, and Cat In The Hat, even the first Austin Powers was tolerable, but my God, this was the most horrible piece of crap I have ever had to sit through. It was stupid, boring, and beyond monotonous, I not only wanted to gouge out my eyes, I wanted to stop hearing the repetitive stupidity that would only be considered even slightly entertaining by a group of juvenile 9 year old boys. I am sorry, I am a pretty live and let live kind of gal, if I don’t like it I usually say that and leave it alone because my taste is not everyone else’s, but this movie was an utterly lousy waste of everyone’s time and it was absolutely painful to sit through.

So there ya go, my rant is out of my system, now I’m going to make plans to go see Get Smart.

I Feel Pretty, Oh So Pretty

Well actually I don’t, I used to, I used to be gorgeous at times, but now I just look like a mom. Age and life are definitely taking there toll. I have actually started thinking about a little plastic surgery, just a little lift or maybe a bit of Bot-ox, but then I remember that one movie….uh… it has Tim the Tool man and he gets Bot-ox before a vacation, yep well I don’t want to look like that for even a day!

So I have seen a few commercials lately for this new product, Artefill and it looks pretty amazing they have a website if you haven’t seen it on Television. Well thats not the best part, they are having a contest it began in June and ends on July 31st. They are giving away a makeover, not only the treatments but, hair, clothes, everything non-surgical. It’s open to US women aged 35+ and there is no purchase necessary to win. Just go to Makeover contest and read the rules, you can submit a photo with your under 500 word essay and you to can win a free makeover, it sounds like they have four grand prize winners so that leaves one for me since I already entered *smiling*

I am pretty excited and really hope to win, I have been making a lot of personal changes in my life lately, like a new diet and more exercise, I want to have more energy to hang out and play with my eight year old, and most of all I want her to think her mamma’s pretty. Thats kind of what my essay was about, how she doesn’t think I am pretty or fashionable anymore, and it makes me sad that she is still so little and I am not the pretty woman in her life anymore, I have to compete with Natasha Bedingfield and Hannah Montanna who are way to young and pretty. I just want to make her proud and look in the mirror and not see every passing day imprinted on my face.

Buckethead And The Squirrel

We have a dog, actually it’s supposed to be my daughters dog and it does love her but it also loves Chad, like in a creepy cuddle in bed wanna lick inside his mouth kind of way. Anyway I digress, Katrein loved this dog from day one and no matter what we suggested she named it Chocolate, not sure why, my daughter isn’t a huge fan of chocolate, and the dog being a Springer Spaniel is almost all white, my daughters reasoning, “well theres white chocolate too.” So I get the lovely job of standing on my porch yelling for the dog to come or trying to make it stop barking, picture grown woman on her back porch yelling. “Chocolate…come here Chocolate….come on Chocolate.” or better yet “Chocolate..would you shut-up, Chocolate knock it off and stop barking.” Yeah thanks to my daughter I am the town nut.

Chocolate has many quirks but one that she has had since a pup is playing with buckets, unlike other dogs who chase balls, Frisbees or chew on bones our dog will play only with buckets,

she tosses them up and catches them she will run full speed with one over her face she will growl and tease you with it and jump five feet high to get it from you. So when she was very young she was dubbed Buckethead by Chad and I.

She is also a notorious bird dog and has killed whole nests of birds and chases them out of the yard, last year she cornered a chipmunk on the porch. It was horrible, screaming, chattering thing, Chad had to finally go out and scare it towards the exit by the fence.

Today I went out on my porch, the dog layed in the grass looking at me, at the porch?.. I went into the house (last night a skunk had sprayed right in front of our house so I’m thinking….skunk??) I shut the door and watch the dog, she looks up, at the top of the porch, only a couple feet from where my head had just been.

I always kind of liked squirrels, thought they were kind of furry and cute, but really they are just fluffy rats, at least thats my opinion after watching it for so long. I got the dog in, assuming that would get it down so it would go away, I waited, and watched, and waited. After about two hours I called our local athorities for animal control, only to learn that our local animal control only handles cats and dogs. Thankfully the nice officer offered to come over and scare it for me.

He jaunted out there so fast I barely had time to snap a picture of him poking it with a stick, so I added the arrow so you could see brave mister police man poking my back yard menace.

Here is mister police man again, now he is done poking evil porch squirrel, he said it went away but I swear he looked up as he was finishing poking, so I am terrified to go outside now because there is a pissed off, poked, evil porch squirrel just waiting for me to come out so it can dive onto my head and grab at my eyeballs with those wicked long claws…eeeewww

I Love Gordon Ramsay

Not in the romantic, love with kind of way, but the I can’t get enough of his shows way. I mean if he wasn’t married with like four kids sure he’s a sexy guy but really I just love watching him.

Tonight is the second to last episode of Hell’s Kitchen, which is sad because it seems as though it just started, and the second season of the American version of Kitchen Nightmares doesn’t start until Fall and I have watched and re-watched the British version on the BBC so much I swear they only had half a dozen episodes and I have seen them all.

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As for next weeks finale I don’t really care who wins, I truly don’t think it will be Cory, I just don’t think she has what it takes. I really have started to like Petrozza so I’m kind of rooting for him but this year I don’t really care as long as it wasn’t Matt or Jen, yuck!!

I really don’t know what we are going to watch on Tuesdays now, all the good shows are disappearing!

New ‘WE’ Video, This One’s Great

I don’t know about you but I joined the WE campaign a while back because I want to do what I can to help the environment and solve the climate crisis. One promise I made was to help spread the word as a blogger, so here is the latest video, it’s my favorite because I am a huge fan of Billy Crystal.

The Things I Used To Do

When I was young

My mother has a pig collection, none are alive just fake pigs and although I did a lot of drawing and wood burning and carving over the years my mother is one of the only people to still have some work of mine, most every thing else has been sold at art shows or fairs over time I have only a few things left. The pigs above I drew when I was very young, probably in my teens.

American Gothic Pigs

One year in my twenties I was pretty strapped for cash at the holidays so I decided to paint rugs for some family members, (why rugs?) I did one for each my dad and brother with huge largemouth Bass and there name and knowing my mother really liked the painting American Gothic I decided to make it on a rug with tubes of fabric paint and of course keep with the piggy theme. My mother has been a huge inspiration to me, I even carved her a pig ashtray out of alabaster that I will have to take a picture of next time I’m there.

Steve

I have decided that I miss doing my art even if I am to busy I don’t want to wake up dead some day and realize I wasted an amazing talent by never using it or failing to enjoy it. So the sketch above is what I have been fiddling with lately, just a few minutes here and there but it makes me happy again.

Shop Shield, Even The Names Kind Of Cool

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I do worry about using my credit cards online though, I mean I may live like a rock star but I don’t have that much disposable income. I always get that uneasy feeling when I order from a new or unknown vendor if it’s really going to be a safe and secure transaction. Well thats where shop shield comes into play, Shop Shield will protect your Credit Card numbers, Bank accounts, billing address, e-mail address and login information. This is a free, new, unique, complete, and cutting edge privacy solution to protect peoples identity when shopping online.

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Once My Favorite, Now It’s Hers

We did the big Valleyfair weekend, we always get a hotel because it’s about a two hour drive for us so after a full day of baking in the sun and walking all those miles you are so exhausted its hard to just feed yourself and pass out, I could never make that long drive back. I don’t know how my parents did it all those years they took my brother and I. Speaking of that I have been going to Valleyfair since I was my daughters age (eight) and it was the most exciting favorite little vacation we ever went to when I was a child. Back then they didn’t have the huge rides they have now, the High Roller was the big roller coaster and the Flume was the latest and greatest, you ride in a log go up a big hill and come flying down only to get soaked at the bottom. They did have the Looping Star Ship, which we always call the pirate ship, I finally went on it last year, I don’t really like it, makes my head hurt to hang upside down.

My daughter has now become the new dare devil in our family, always looking for the bigger better ride, she has been able to go on all but three the last two years, her favorite so far is the Wild Thing, an insane roller coaster that we rode two times together then later she went for a third.

This year she finally hit the 52″ tall mark so she was able to ride the Steel Venom, (no thanks)
It’s this horrible suspended coaster thing, but you can’t even call it a coaster because the track is just a U, so it goes flying up one straight end of the U then backwards down then up the other side, back and forth just screamin fast.

She absolutely loved it, so next year maybe she will get me on it. But one place this amusement park has that we can both agree is our favorite is the Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream Shop. I behaved myself this year and got the delicious frozen yogurt, Katrein on the other hand ordered a huge cone with Chocolate Therapy, Chocolate Browne Chunk and Chocolate, it was about a quart of ice cream, when she started to eat it I told her she could share some with Chad when he got there, she looked at me over the humongous cone and raised her eyebrow and said “Thats okay, I got it covered.”

I was so proud *smiles*







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